And we're back...

It appears I'm becoming a Tuesday-Thursday blogger, but that's just as well. The past two weeks have been really busy with concerts, communions, and commuters. Well, not really commuters, but I needed one more C for the alliteration. Here's the update: 1st weekend of May, Bruce Springsteen concert (awesome, but more on that later), 2nd weekend, Dennis's first communion (really a beautiful event with a great spread!), 3rd weekend of May, Washington Post Hunt downtown (super fun!). Up next, a weekend in New Jersey where we are looking forward to some great Shore time and pizza from the Sawmill. Here's hoping the weather holds up! :)

Ok, I have so many things to share with you, I think I'll start with just one. Recently, I posted about the hectic-ness of life around here, and despite my cry for quick fix meals, I found myself craving the slow cooked goodness of comfort food. Now, I find this completely ironic, why is it that at our craziest times, we want the food that takes longest to make? For me, comfort foods are the slow cooked Cuban potajes, frijoles negros, and arroz con leche (rice pudding). Well, I gave in to my urge for comfort food. I put my to-do list on hold and set about the task of making a double order of savory frijoles negros (black beans). If I was going to give in, I was at least going to set up some dinners for the future. I have to say, making the black beans was great. Although, I increased my stress level that day, I now have 3 meals in my freezer ready to go whenever the anxiety monster strikes!

Stay tuned for the play by play on the frijoles and a postcard from Greensboro!

Food for thought

I was surfing the web today a bit as my substitute students worked on their classwork and I came across these two stories on MSN.

Does Home-Cooked Mean Healthy? by Karen Collins M.S., R.D, C.D.N. - Collins reviews findings that suggest that cookbook recipes have drastically increased portion sizes, fat content and salt grams as compared to those of yesteryear, raising the title question. It seems that its not just restaurants that tend to over-size portions. However, this next article is a great guide for making your everyday homecooking a little healthier.

Inside a Healthy Pantry by Lisa Drayer R.D. - This is a really great list of staples to have on hand for making healthy meals and snacks anytime. Just looking at the list makes me hungry!

Quick Fix Meals...

Does anyone have any ideas???? May is looking to get hectic, June is heating up and July has guaranteed fireworks! The ideal meal: short ingredient list, yummy, different. Feel free to post a comment or shoot an email!

P.S. I promise proper posts (soon!) despite the madness!

Chorizo and Manchego Stuffed Peppers

In Miami, my family often ate dinner really late to accomodate sports practice, piano lessons, and Dad's work schedule, so we got in the habit of having pre-dinner tapas. We always had some Manchego cheese, chorizo and Spanish olives in the house. Missing our pre-dinner ritual here in Arlington (we eat much earlier!), I decided I could make a tapas inspired dinner. Mom and Dad had brought us a full wheel of Manchego and a log of chorizo from Delicias de Espana, our favorite Spanish place in Miami. So with a little help from Safeway and Harris Teeter, we had tapas for supper. Check it out!

The ingredients: Bread crumbs, olive oil, traffic light peppers (ok, so there isn't a green, but in Miami people often cross intersections during red, yellow, and the ever elusive orange light), garlic, onions, manchego and chorizo.

Cube the chorizo and sautee it with a little olive oil. Then chop the onions and garlic and add them to the chorizo. Preheat the oven to 350.

After the onions and garlic have softened add in the bread crumbs and some more olive oil for flavor and texture.

Stir this all together and take it off of the heat. Then add the cubed manchego and an egg (I actually forgot to add the egg, but it would have helped it all stick together.)

Decapitate the peppers and stuff with the chorizo-manchego mixture. Try to get a few extra cubes of cheese towards the top for browning.

Place in a baking dish. I love my pyrex because it doesn't burn the bottoms and it is so easy to clean. Place into your 350 degree oven and wait for 20-25 minutes.

Once they are golden brown and the peppers have softened you are ready for tapas that eat like a meal. I suggest pairing this dish with a red wine: Rioja from Spain, Pinot Noir because it goes with everything, or even a Malbec from Argentina. A nice light side salad of arugula with lemon vinagrette would be pretty tasty too.

What came first the chicken or the ravioli?

Last week, I had a Rachel Ray inspired idea -- stuffed chicken breasts wrapped in prosciutto. Sure that sounds like the title of a recipe, but the fact of the matter is, I am often too lazy to print out a recipe and follow it straight through. So stuffed chicken breasts it was: ricotta, frozen spinach, a little grated parmesano reggiano, all of RR's usual suspects. Wrap in prosciutto, sear (on both sides), pop in the oven for 20 minutes, then in the micro for 3 more to ease the irrational Cuban fear of juicy chicken (there is still liquid in it, it's raw! You are going to get salmonella and die!) The result, a surprisingly tasty dinner, and a bowl full of left over filling. Not following a recipe often leads to extra ingredients, or too few, however if you read the Easter post, you know that's not likely in this house! After debating our options-- lasagna, more stuffed breasts, the garbage, eating it straight from the bowl-- we settled on ravioli. Semolina flour having been a recent impulse buy, it would be homemade ravioli. Vince channeled his Italian ancestors and I drew on childhood memories and voila! Homemade ravioli. Granted, our techinque needs some tweaking, but if this keeps up we may just have to open up a fusion restaurant specializing in the cuisine of Southern Italy and Northern Cuba. Below is a photo montage of our adventures in Ravioli! Buon Apetito!

The Ingredients: Olive oil, salt, eggs, semolina, water (not pictured)

The Wet and the Dry

OMG! What is the matter with your hands!!!!

Now that's more like it!

Time out.

The rolling...

Ta Dah! The finished product. Abstract ravioli in different sizes and shapes.

Yummy Yummy Zengos

After shopping til we dropped at GNO, we headed over to Zengo's for some sips and bites. I had been to Zengo's once before and left sooooooo huuuungry, we stopped for a Happy Meal on the way home. This time our tummies left perfectly plump and our palates were pleasantly pleased (sorry about the alliteration, couldn't help myself!). Right off of the Chinatown Metro stop, Zengo's is a nice place to grabs some drinks and dinner. Although we didn't go for it, they have a $35 sharing menu that would be enough to satisfy a sumo wrestling team: one appetizer, one entree, one dessert, and one side dish, per person. Drinks not included. Vince got the short ribs, Chris had the lamb chops, and I had the black cod. Everything was fantastically-filling. We also tried the Won Ton Tacos as an app. Very very good. Beside the give and take, Latin-Asian fusion concept, I think Zengo's signature is a smoky grilled taste that they incorporate into almost every dish. It is particularly pleasant (ok, last one I promise!) on the edamame and the asparagus.

Tasting Girly Beers...Yuck!

Thursday was Shecky's Girls Night Out in DC, a fun, silly, girly event that is the equivalent of the Home Show or the Boat Show for girls. DC food, beverage, clothing and accessories purveyors set up shop at the DAR for the two day event. I attended with my friend Kellie from Miami and not only did we get to sample fabulous products, but we managed to snag a seat at the Budweiser beer and food tasting. First of all, let me remind you of the crowd...girly, girly girls... of which I am occasionally one. Second, these beers were directed at that crowd. We were treated to a tasting of four beers: 1. BudLight Raspberry paired with (you guessed it) raspberries, quite terrrible; 2. BudLight Lime paired with Key lime pie, guaranteed hangover; 3. Shock Top Belgian white paired with a ball of goat cheese, finally some sophistication, and 4. A pre-made bottled Chelada (beer and bloody Mary mix) with chips and salsa, no comment. Luckily, I can say my beer tastes have expanded beyond that. There are much better ways of combining fruit and beer, but most times it goes awry. Although I wasn't a huge fan of the Chelada, I have it on good authority (Kellie's!) that when made properly a Chelada is a delicious cure for a hangover, but the canned variety is not my favorite. All in all, the event was fun and we got a commemorative Chelada cup out of it!