Brussel Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes

Every year I leave beautiful warm Hawaii where the palm trees are decorated with twinkle lights and Santa wears an Aloha shirt to venture home to freezing cold Pittsburgh for Christmas.  As the song says, there's no place like home for the holidays!  I couldn't agree more.  

After the 13+ hour trip back to the Burgh, it's like I've never left!  Christmas Eve includes us running late for mass where we sit in the exact same pew as always, our small house filled with family members from both sides - the temperature quickly rising to an uncomfortable 99 degrees so we prop open the kitchen door to let the frigid outside air in, the kids are dying to know why they can't open their gifts NOW, Dad wants me to grab him a beer from the fridge downstairs, Mom's making a million things in the kitchen including punch with pink sherbet, our stockings are hanging on the railing of the stairs, the (artificial, since Dad is allergic to the real deal) tree is smothered in beautiful red & white ornaments and the cat is hiding underneath, I fill up on veggies and dip, cookies, shrimp cocktail, and wine before dinner has even begun - it's madness and it's fabulous!   

Christmas day is much different.  We spend it with my Mom's side of the family, but the numbers dwindle down.  Half of the kids spend the day with the other half of their relatives, people hang out with significant others and their families, ditch us for the movies, etc.  This creates a relaxed, nice family day and dinner.  We actually all get to sit around the table together and eat from real plates!  My Aunt Linda was making lamb this year so I looked up a veggie to compliment appropriately and stumbled across this Forever Roasted Lamb with Roasted Vegetables recipe.  I, of  course, was only making the veggies.  

Here's the gist of it:

Peel and cut 2 pounds sweet potatoes & chop 1.5 tablespoons fresh sage.

Boil sweet potatoes in salted water, reduce and simmer until tender.

Strain and cool the hot potatoes :)

Aren't my sweet potatoes and sage pretty?

Clean, trim, and halve 1.5 pounds of Brussels sprouts - might I suggest buying extra sprouts?  By the time you clean and trim them you lose a lot of weight!

Boil the sprouts in salted water for 3 minutes.

Strain and cool.

The sweet potatoes and sprouts FINALLY get to meet - in a saute pan over high heat with 1/4 cup olive oil.

Toss them to coat with OO and do not disturb until the bottoms are browned.

Flip & repeat on the other side.

Next - salt and pepper the veggies and and bake in the oven at 425 for 15 minutes.

After they've had 15 minutes of alone time, add the 1.5 tablespoons of fresh, chopped sage and 3 tablespoons of sliced garlic.

Let that party last for 15 - 20 minutes or until the garlic is golden brown.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of orange zest on them and enjoy the delicious orangey/garlicey aroma for a few minutes before you dig in!

This is what mine looked like in Mom's adorable basket weave dish.

This recipe is clearly beautiful and it's just as delicious as it is attractive.  I took it to Aunt Linda's and got many compliments on it.  Similar to the Strawberry Short Cake that was served over the same trip, the kids didn't want to eat the healthful items - oh well!  I'd never made Brussels sprouts before and was pleasantly surprised with the turnout.  To be honest, I can't remember the last time I've even eaten a Brussels sprout.  

My complaint with this recipe is the amount of dishes this recipe dirties!  1 pot for boiling the sweet potatoes, 1 pot for the BS's, 1 saute pan, and 1 dish for baking!  (Plus the cutting board, knives, potato peeler, etc.)  It just seems like a lot of dishes for a side dish, don't you think?  I suppose that's a lot of steps for a recipe, too, although I was in "vacation mode" and had no concept of time :)

Will I make this recipe again?  If someone's making lamb and I have a few hours to cook and clean, then yes!  I'll let you know when that situation pops up again... Can you hear me laughing?!

Strawberry Short-birthday-cake

Currently I'm sitting at the computer in our apartment in Hawaii eating a lousy bowl of Ramen Noodles and thinking back on all the wonderful and delicious food that was consumed over my trip home to Pittsburgh.

While we're on the topic of food, aren't we always, let me tell you that this isn't the first or only thing I've eaten today.  I honestly look forward to the end of football season at this time of year for the sake of my waistline.  On any given weekend I'm up and at the bar by 6 or 7 am on Saturday for a Penn State game or on Sunday for the Steelers.  That's bar food twice a weekend and early in the morning, which never sets a good tone for the day!  Just this weekend I watched the Nittany Lions get beat by the Florida Gators in the Outback Bowl while sharing deep fried cheese curds and biscuits with gravy with Bryce.   Today I scarfed down 3 eggs, bacon, country fries, and toast while the Steelers crushed the Browns.  PSU's season is now over and the Steelers have a bye next week so my arteries may have a chance to breathe again!

Back to this post's purpose :)  My beautiful Goddaughter, Marissa Jo, was born on December 4, 2006.  I first "met" her via a picture message while I was in a lecture class at Penn State and instantly burst into tears!  Yes, I was "that" girl.  Each year of her life, which has been 4 to date, I've thrown her a birthday party in December complete with all the kid birthday essentials - themey-cake, decor, games, and lots and lots of presents.  This year she's into Strawberry Shortcake and wanted her party themed as such.  In years past we've purchased a cake for the party, but since it was SO appropriate for the party this year I decided to make a strawberry short-birthday-cake!  Since my Mom has one of those great trifle bowls I made sure to use it.

I used a recipe from AllRecipes.com for a "Strawberry Trifle" but made variations as I went along, to my liking.

For my Strawberry Short-birthday-cake I used:

2 small packages instant vanilla pudding mix
3 cups cold milk
1 round angel food cake, cut in cubes
4 bananas, sliced
1 lb fresh strawberries, halved

• First, I made the pudding and chilled it in the fridge while I cubed the angel food cake, halved the strawberries, and cut the bananas.  

 

Then I layered the cake, pudding, bananas, and strawberries - twice.  

 

I made sure to save enough cake to put another layer on the top so that Marissa would have a cake-like surface for the birthday candles.  

It was a very easy recipe and good, too!  I got a ton of compliments from the grown ups at the party.  4 year old Cooper said he didn't like bananas.  Morgan, Marissa's 8 year old sister, said she doesn't like strawberries.  I guess that's what I get for making a cake for kids that includes FRUIT!  Overall it was delicious, required no baking, and was decently healthy for a dessert = success!  Happy Birthday Marissa!

Latkes - JESSt for you!

From preschool to my senior year of high school I went to Catholic schools.  First Elizabeth Seton Elementary School (ESES baby!) then Our Lady of the Sacred Heart High School (OLSH).  When I was very young, I thought there were 2 types of religions - Catholic and Public - based on the school systems!  So for 14 years I wore uniforms, tucked my shirt in, tried to wear my skirt shorter than my fingertips, hid my gum chewing, stood up and greeted my teachers with "Good Morning Mister/Miss/Sister ____", took religion classes, went to mass once a week, learned all about Catholic guilt, etc!  It was certainly a great way to grow up, although sometimes those religious fanatics, and their 8 bothers and sisters, can get kind of annoying :) 

Finally, at age 18, I made it to Penn State for college where I was introduced to so many people with varying religious beliefs, lifestyles, etc.  It was a welcome change from the bubble of Catholic school.  One of the funniest memories of that year was when my roommate at the time asked me why people's foreheads were dirty on Ash Wednesday!  Try explaining that one to someone with no religious beliefs without sounding nutso...

One of my dearest friends, Jessica, is Jewish, mazeltov!  We lived together senior year and even threw a "Christmakkuh" party with red cups for Christians and blue cups for Jews, a Christmas tree, a menorah, and dreidel spinning!  We tried to convince our hovering landlord that it wasn't a party, but a religious gathering - HAHA!  

So this year I decided to celebrate Hanukkah in honor of Jess with a traditional Jewish meal, latkes!  Better known as potato pancakes.  I followed a combination of latke recipes so I'll just go over the basic steps.  They were delicious - Happy Hanukkah! 

Prepping for the latkes - taters, grater, water bowl...

Once the potatoes are grated let them soak in the water, then drain them and put them and the chopped onion into a dish towel and SQUEEZE out all the water.

Mix the potatoes and onions with egg in a large bowl, then portion into little pancakes and cook on the stove top.

Flip 'em over!

We had ours with sour cream, but applesauce is kosher, too.  (Pun intended!)

We added broccoli for a side and it was a great little meal!  There were leftovers from dinner.  When I went to gobble up the remaining latkes for breakfast the next day I found only one...  Bryce had gotten to them first for a midnight snack!  

Maybe I'll try something a little more exciting/challenging for the next Jewish holiday!  Jess, just let me know when that is and what I'm supposed to make :)

Christmas Dinner at Chef Mavro

Back in September I found an amazing online coupon offer: a $100 gift certificate to Chef Mavro restaurant for $50!  I bought it immediately with "our Christmas dinner" in mind.  Since Bryce and I don't spend Christmas together we usually go out to a fancy dinner before we part for the holidays.  I didn't know too much about Chef Mavro, although I knew I wanted needed to go there!  

After some research I found out a few things:  

• Chef Mavro is Greek and "Mavro" is short for Mavrothalassitis!  
• The cuisine is French inspired with lots of (Hawaii) local influences and ingredients
• The menu changes quarterly and is prix fixe, beginning with 3 courses
• Finally, $100 won't go very far! 

It was supposed to be a surprise to Bryce, but I couldn't hold in my excitement and told him we were going and that I'd pick up the first $100 if he'd pick up the rest of the tab!  He agreed and for the past few months I've been studying the menu and anticipating this wonderful meal.  This week was our big night!  So we got all dressed up and posed by the tree (pause for AWWWWWWWE moment!)

 

I was a little nervous because the restaurant was so fancy and we were clearly the youngest people there, but once we got settled in I was so excited and happy!  Since the wine pairings would have set us back another $100 and nobody agreed to pay for that we each ordered just one drink - I had chardonnay and Bryce had a rum and coke.

We'd already decided what we wanted to order long before we arrived but we pretended to look at the menu for a while, then told one of our many helpful hands/waiters/men with water refills what we wanted - the 4 course menu, mine as-is and Bryce's with lamb instead of pork.

First came the soup, which I hadn't expected because it's not on the menu, but it was a welcome surprise!  I don't know exactly what was in it, definitely apples, then spiced carrots and almonds on top.  Very good!

Course 1:  FRESH ISLAND SHRIMP dusted with garam masala, sour cream emulsion flavored with espelette chervil, hearts of palm-green apple remoulade.  This was good, but once the shrimp was gone those little squares were hard to get onto your fork in a polite way - damn fancy restaurants!  We didn't eat the gross heads, I don't think you're supposed to, though.  This was very good, but my least favorite of the night :)

Course 2: DAY BOAT CATCH BOURRIDE "MODERNE" medallion (ours was red snapper, although the table next to us got something else with a larger course menu) poached in bourride, leek and onion étuvée, aïoli sabayon sea asparagus tempura.  This was delicious!  The snapper was so moist and flaky I didn't even need to use my knife.  My favorite part was the crispy sea asparagus tempura and the foamy sauce.

Course 3 (for me):  KUROBUTA PORK "A LA SAIGON" loin wrapped with betel nut leaves, green papaya-cucumber-tomato on crispy shank wood ear mushrooms, lemongrass pork jus, lemon oil.  So so yummy!  The flavor was like nothing I've ever tasted before.  The little side dish (on the right) was great, too, those papaya-cucumber-tomatoes gave it such a fresh flavor and the bottom, which I assume was pork too, tasted like bacon!   The sauce was delicious and if I wasn't in a fancy restaurant I'd dip my bread in it and get every last drop :)

Course 3 (for Bryce):  COLORADO LAMB "PISSALADIERE" with charred big wave tomatoes, lamb bacon anchovy, garlic chips, caramelized fennel and onion black olive powder, American parsley oil, lamb jus.  I didn't really care for this dish, and Bryce didn't care for mine, so it worked out perfectly!  He loved the lamb and ate every last bite of it, but thought it could have been cooked for just another minute.  Those little tomatoes were FABULOUS.

To cleanse our palates we had these fancy little honeydew melon and mint gelatin things.  They were so refreshing :)  The best Jell-O you've ever had.

Course 4: LILIKOI MALASADAS guava coulis, pineapple-coconut ice cream.  This was the part I was more excited for and was most definitely the best part of the meal, as dessert usually is.  The ice cream was better than Dole Whip!  The malasadas were so light and delicious and the lilikoi inside of them paired with the guava in the sauce and the pineapple-coconut ice cream brought a perfect amount of fruity flavor to the sugary sweet dessert.  It was perfection.

More dessert?  Tiny macaroons with green tea filling, a super dark chocolate bite (left), and a salted caramel!  Tiny, cute, and so yummy.

I was thrilled to meet and get a photo with Chef Mavro!  I even spoke Greek to him - yassou - which means hello, is the only word I know.  He was excited to hear it and it was a great conversation starter, even though I don't actually speak Greek, but he doesn't either so it was funny!  He was very nice and if we can ever afford to go back to his wonderful establishment we certainly will!

Happy and full after our fantastic dinner, Merry Christmas!

Candy Jackpot

Some work days require candy.  After packing and eating a boring lunch and 1 or more cups of home brewed coffee, sometimes you just need a fun afternoon pick me up.  Since alcohol is out of the question (right?) I turn to candy.  During lunch I ran to the store for a few things and couldn't resist the impulse buy of some sugary treats.  I'm a big fan of gummy candy - Sweedish Fish, gummy bears, worms, peachy rings, etc.  For just 99c I quickly added this bag of fruit slices to my order and hurried back to the office.  Later when I pulled the bag out to snack I realized I had hit the candy jackpot!  In my bag was a majority of red candies, everyone's favorite!  Sometimes it's the little things in life :)