Carrots and Sunshine

I was preparing some carrots for dinner yesterday and the sun was shining through my kitchen window and I got a few great photos. This was a favorite. So vibrant!

A Chili Night

I wanted great taste and something that would easily stretch to lunch another day...chili!

Get your spices together...this being Cincinnati Chili, we have cocoa and cinnamon in there!

Lightly brown some onions and toast the spices.

Simmer and bubble for an hour until rich and delicious.

Serve on spaghetti. So amazing. This really is my favorite chili...I've had many, but this is my current favorite.

Birthday Buckle

So...
What was I up to at 530 am on Wednesday?

Making a blueberry buckle for a little work celebration. There are two birthdays in one week in my department, so I whipped up this vegan treat, bought some frozen yogurt and headed to work!

It came out beautifully. I sprinkled some sugar, thinking it might add some carmelization or something. Funny thing, it didn't do anything, just sat there looking pretty...which is OK!


We ate a lot of it at work...I brought this back home for a little treat after dinner.

It's pretty dang tasty. Yes, it's vegan, so there is no dairy in there. Yes, there's whole wheat flour, so it can have a certainly 'healthy' taste to it, but it's very satisfying. No one at work is vegan, it just happens to be this recipe is vegan...so we countered that with the frozen yogurt, which makes this a very decadent treat.

Wanna win something FREE

Click over to The Clean Plate Club and enter to win a $50 gift card to Williams - Sonoma!

And ya'll know I love me some W-S...What would I get? New spatulas? More Le Creuset? Cookbooks? Gosh, I don't know...really! Le Creuset I think would win...I'd combine $50 to the gift card I have from the holidays and make a dent in the price of some nice, new, shiny, enameled cast iron.

Crazy

Somethings up at the Eat With Me headquarters...at 530 in the morning...I'm crazy.

3 Perfect Flavor Compliments

1) Leeks!

2) Bacon!!

3) Parm!!!

Mix with some Arborio Rice, Simmer with wine and broth...

Leek & Bacon Risotto.

Words can't describe how sublime this dish was. Creamy and cheesy. Slightly smoky with the chewy nubs of crisp bacon. Imagine Spaghetti Carbonara but with Risotto instead of pasta. So beautiful and decadent. Highlighted with this great wine.

Stay tuned for the recipe later...

OK, two days later...

Cook up 4-6 slices of bacon that have been chopped into small bites. When crispy, remove to a plate with paper towel. Pour off all the fat, reserve. Rinse the pot of browned bits. Place back over medium heat and add 2 TB of bacon fat back to the pan.

Add three leeks that have been sliced and rinsed. Season with a pinch of salt. Saute until they start to become limp and fragrant. Add 1 cup Arborio rice. Stir to coat and cook for about one minute. Stirring frequently. Pour in about 1/2 cup of dry white wine. As the wine is absorbed and reduced, start adding ladles of chicken broth. You should have 6 cups simmering on a back burner. Keep it warm. As each ladle is absorbed, add another, until the rice is tender and creamy.

Stir in 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese and 1 TB of butter. Stir until melted and incorporated. Fold in the bacon bits. Serve immediately.

Risotto is one of those dishes that really benefits from the best possible ingredients. Make sure to have the best Parmigiano Reggiano. Great bacon. And if you can, homemade chicken stock. You will be rewarded for your diligence.

Veltlinger

This is a very yummy wine.
Anton Bauer
An Austrian wine
Dry w/Light mineral tones
Yet Juicy & Bold
Green Fruit
Very drinkable
De-Lish!
I want more

New House, New Dining Table

You get a new house, you need a new dining room table. Right? It's great. I love it. Technically, Ikea says it can seat 4-6. I think I can easily, and comfortably, push that number up to 8. I love the leaf extension. You flip some latches, pull the sides apart and gently lift the leaf out. You don't have to move the legs. You don't have to lift anything heavy. Great. I remember my grandmother's dining room table. Add the extensions was a major job she had to get my uncles and grandfather to help with. The table was heavy, the whole needed to be lifted. She would love this table...and for that I love this table more.

Happy

The kids spent the night with the doctor and both are all healthy and happy again! Thanks dr. b. All the photos and files were recovered. The only thing missing are the bookmarks from firefox. Will have to start fresh...but that's so not an issue at this point!!!

In other news...expect to have a few new recipes this week. The house is mostly set up. We need one more piece of furniture for the kitchen, which I might try to get this week. Then Eat With Me headquarters will be totally operational.

Bonaparte

“In victory you deserve Champagne; in defeat, you need it.”
Napoleon Bonaparte

So what he's saying is there is never a bad time for bubbles!!!

Free The Grapes!

Action Alert!

Thanks to CHVBlog for alerting readers about a hearing before Maryland state legislators this week about the out-dated alcohol laws in The Free State.

If I understand the issue correctly, wholesalers decide what wines are sold in the state, not consumers. This leads to a frustrating environment for oenophiles who are unable to order and have their favorite vino shipped directly to them.

Visit Free The Grapes to send a message to Maryland officials asking them to repeal/abolish these outdated laws limiting free markets!

You surprised...? More bacon!

Dinner...Start with sauteed pork chops!
Make a smothering accompaniment. Onions, Apples, Cider. Stir in crispy bacon bits at the end.

Top the pork chops!

And my new range...it's nice...but I have to watch so I don't hit my head on the hood. And the actual space is a little smaller, than I had, but so far I haven't had much of a problem.

* Start by cutting four bacon slices into small pieces. Fry until crispy. Pour off the fat and reserve. Put two tablespoons of fat back into pan and saute pork chops until browned and delicious.

*Add one medium yellow onion, sliced. Saute for a minute until they begin to become transluscent and start to carmelize. Season with salt and pepper.

*Add 1/2 an apple, cut into slices or small diced. Saute just until they become tart.

*Add 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, a few dashes of Worchestshire sauce and 1 tsp of grainy mustard. Stir to incorporate. Add 1/4 cup hard cider. Simmer until reduced.

*Stir the bacon bits into the onions and apples. Spoon on top of the pork chops. Delish.

Knives can hurt

I made a tasty stir fry tonight. Mmmm, veggies, rice, chicken and sauce. Satisfying. But you know what...don't let the knife land on your finger tip. It can hurt. I had the knife in my right hand and had my hand resting on the counter. In my left hand, I went to take a bit of jalapeno pepper, to see how hot, to measure how spicy they were. Well, the pepper slipped and I went to catch it...with my right hand. Contact! Knife, Finger. Finger, Knife. It's a pleasure to meet you.

Back to the stir fry...1 1/2 chicken breasts, diced. 1/2 green bell pepper, diced. 1/2 red bell pepper, diced. 1/2 jalapeno pepper, diced. 1 onion, diced. 4 carrots, diced. A bunch of basil. Then some sauce (scroll to the end of the linked page.) Yes, it's a jarred sauce, but it's tasty and it was in my fridge. If I see it in the store, I'd buy it again, for purposes like this. Super fast stir fry, after you cut your finger.

First Supper

Well, the first meal. And by meal I mean not from a box, not from the freezer and not from drive-thru! But nothing to fancy. We had sauted pork chops with a rosemary sauce and fried potatoes. I couldn't find my boullion, so I used some beer for the base of the sauce. It worked. But there was a slight bitterness when the beer reduced down. While we were eating I realized I could have used a bottle of hard cider instead of beer and I suspect things would have been better.

Outside of that, we bought more stuff today. We have to stop! But we wanted to finish the bed room...at least as far as we can now. We're going brown/blue for the color of the bedroom! It looks good.

On the Fried Hard Drive front, the hard drive is dead. Done. Over. Finished. Kaput! I have to buy a new one and rebuild. There's a chance we might be able to save some things--keep your fingers cross...there is so much photography gone! Word to the wise...back up your data...somehow...I've not done that and I might be s-c-r-e-w-e-d!

Go Figure

No sooner do we get everything up and running and my computer completely, utterly and all together died! There was some message--beginning memory dump. And now...there is nothing. NADA. Our own personal Geek on Call is coming today to help get new locks on the doors and he will be asked to review the former Eat With Me laptop...pray! Pray Hard that something can be fixed...otherwise we have three years of photo archives (foodie and friends and travel) all down the drain!

The only good news and of course enough to make me panic...I'm on the backup computer--where my iTunes lives...please God don't let this computer die...I can almost deal with all my pictures gone...but my music! NEVER!

Stay tuned for updates when we can...hopefully when thing are reviewed, we can AT LEAST start fresh with the computer...we just bought a house...can't really afford a brand new computer.

web

Yippee! We're home owners! And we finally have internets! We have officially vacated our former apartment and have all of our stuff in one place. In another day or two I expect to be making stuff! We need one more piece of furniture from ikea and the kitchen will be all set up.

Homeowning...it's a good thing!

Interwebs

So we've moved! YEAH! It's great. But the sucky part is the slow timeframe for getting the internet/phone/tv set up...we'll be out for another week.

Home!

WOOT!

It's real and it's NICE! Can't wait for my stuff to arrive so I can christen the kitchen with something Fab-U-Lous!

PS: That's my neighbor's house in the background, not mine. I didn't get the best picture with the camera phone!

Cheese Fondue

Last night's dinner was a bit in line with the Valentine's Day spirit...Cheese Fondue! Super tasty and really easy to make. The recipe is for four, I didn't split the recipe and made the full amount. Pretty much spot on, there was just way to much cheesey, melty goodness for too people. I cheaped out one thing...the wine! Partly I cheaped out, Partly, the selections I had to choose from were slim to none! This recipe requires wine that you would LOVE to drink by the glass. The taste I had before I started cooking was fine...when I sat down with the glass I found it repulsive. So there was an undertone to the fondue that I wasn't fond of; a bitter acidity. It wasn't horrible and we certainly kept eating, but if would have been much better with a higher quality of wine. Also, we served the fondue with large amounts of bread cubes and two medium apples. Plus a little thinnly sliced soppresata on the side!

Cheese Fondue
Makes 4 servings
Source: seriouseats.com

1 1/2 cups grated Gruyère
1 1/2 cups grated Emmental
1/2 cup of grated Appenzeller
2 tablespoons cornstarch or all-purpose flour
1 clove garlic, halved
1 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Splash of kirsch
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
Pinch of nutmeg

1. In a medium-size bowl, combine the three cheeses and toss with the cornstarch or flour.

2. Rub the inside of a fondue pot with the garlic halves. Add the wine and heat over medium heat until hot, but not boiling. Stir in the lemon juice and kirsch.

3. Add a handful of cheese at a time to the wine mixture, and stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, wait for each portion of cheese to melt before adding the next. Continue stirring until the cheese is completely melted, bubbling gently and has the appearance of a light, creamy sauce. Season to taste with pepper and nutmeg.

4. Remove the pot from the heat and place over an alcohol safety burner set on a table. Adjust the burner flame so the fondue continues to bubble gently.

T minus 6

White Gerbil: Hey Guess What?

Brown Gerbil: Nom Nom Nom.

W.G.: Guess What?

B.G.: What!

W.G.: We're going to be home owners in less than a week!

B.G.: Cool.

W.G.: You're not excited?

B.G.: Shut up and finish your carrots.

W.G.: Fine, but I'm still excited I'll start moving in less than a week!