Category: Food

two for two going on three for three

Posted on by jplatt27

This week marks our third week of new recipes.

We’re making it a priority to try one new recipe per week.  Cooking is one of our favorite things to do together and this is a fun way to make sure our weeknights don’t get away from us.  (Read this morning’s post for more on the background here.)

So far we’re two for two on choosing good recipes and recreating them well.

The first week we made a recipe I’ve been wanting to make for like 3 years: Rachel Ray’s Greek Beef Tenderloin in Togas.

This was a great, balanced meal and though it looks difficult, it really wasn’t.  It was a little time consuming but so worth it.  And the recipe made 6 servings so we had lunch for two days in addition to this dinner!

I loved that the steak, orzo, and vegetable salad recipes were all listed in one.  It was a complete meal in one recipe–no need to worry about finding multiple recipes to complete a meal.

Last week, our second week, we made Seared Scallops over Wilted Spinach and Parmesan Risotto from SkinnyTaste.

This dish was so satisfying.

Mike’s thoughts:

“one of the best meals we’ve ever made”

“This is restaurant quality.”

I agree. It was delicious. And again, relatively simple. We love risotto so that wasn’t a problem and the scallops and spinach were super easy in a skillet.

Tonight, we’re trying Tyler Florence’s Cheese Fondue recipe! Hoping we go three for three!

what's for dinner? wednesday: 2 for 1

Posted on by jplatt27

Saturday morning I put buffalo chicken in the crock pot. Isn’t making lunch on a weekend such an accomplishment?

After my favorite Saturday morning activities I went to the grocery store to get a few things for lunch and thought “we should go for a picnic!” I ran home, packed up everything for lunch, and called our friends John and Mindy to see if they wanted to meet us. They agreed! Isn’t calling a friend at the last minute and saying “hey-what-are-you-doing, do-you-want-to _____” and having it all work out just the best?

We had a picnic in Lafayette Park across from the White House. The weather was GORGEOUS. We had our buffalo chicken sandwiches, caught up, and then had a frisbee toss.

The next day was the 5k for Girls on the Run. When I got home we used the leftover buffalo chicken and made a pizza! Isn’t using leftovers in a different way so satisfying??

Between the 5k and eating a heavy pizza, I was kind of a zombie after that.  Regardless, the pizza was delicious and the sandwiches the day before were yummy!

Here are the recipes for both. (Do I owe you because it’s been so long since my last what’s for dinner wednesday? post?)

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

Make this buffalo chicken recipe in the crockpot.

When the chicken is finished, put it on some nice big rolls.  Sesame seeds add a nice touch.

Serve with pickles, blue cheese, and maybe some potato chips.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Make this buffalo chicken recipe in the crockpot (or use leftovers from the sandwiches above).

Saute some about half a red onion, chopped.

Make a Pillsbury pizza crust according to package directions. After you pre-cook the crust it a bit, top with blue cheese dressing, onions, buffalo chicken, monterey jack cheese. Cook until the crust is done.

Top with watercress for a pop of freshness. Some chopped celery would add a nice crunch too!

Let’s chat:

What do you usually do for lunch on the weekends?

Have you turned leftovers into something special recently?

To see what we had for dinner tonight, like Things After the Rings on Facebook!

What's for Dinner? Wednesday: BLTs

Posted on by jplatt27

We hosted some friends for a small brunch on Easter Sunday. I think it was the first time we’ve hosted that we were actually ready for the guests when they arrived. We had a minor spat and were super flustered prepping for our Super Bowl party, and when we hosted a Christmas party a few years ago we were rushing to finish homemade spanakopita triangles as the start time drew near. Oh, and we had friends staying with us at the time that witnessed this stress. Nothing like getting frustrated with your spouse in front of a friend.

Though this was a huge victory for us, being ready in time wasn’t the only way we prepped for success. We  invited a great group of friends. We planned a full menu: blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs, bacon, porkroll sandwiches*, homefries, and dessert pizza. We also told our friends exactly what to bring: stuff for mimosas and a fresh fruit platter.

Breakfast turned out great and everyone had a nice time.  I love hosting friends (hence my resolution to host once per month), I love feeding people. It was a good day. [I intended to have pictures taken at brunch so I could post about it.  I delegated this task to Mike.  He didn’t take any pictures and I totally forgot while the brunch was happening. Working on that.]

How does this relate to What’s for Dinner? Wednesday, you wonder. Well, we had about a pound of bacon leftover. So when we made our grocery list and menu for this week, Mike suggested we have BLTs.

A classic American sandwich, the simple BLT has a nice combination of flavors and textures.  You have the crunch of the lettuce and toast, the juicy tomato (must add a touch of salt to truly bring out the flavor), the crisp, salty, meaty bacon, and that special something that mayo adds.  And yes, you must use real mayo. [No, Hellman’s did not sponsor this post.]

Mike gobbled these sandwiches right up.  And then ate a third of my sandwich that I didn’t want. He now has a stomach ache.  I’m not sure if that’s from the 2.33 sandwiches he ate or from the mayo that was “best before Jan. 24, 2012.” Oops.

*Porkroll is a breakfast meat common in SE PA and Southern New Jersey. It’s like ham but much better. When we moved to DC we realized we had friends that had never had porkroll and we wanted to share the goodness. Oh, and this is my specialty.

Talk to me:

What’d you have for dinner?

Have you ever had porkroll? If you came over for breakfast, would you try it?

What's for Dinner? Wednesday: Greek Salad

Posted on by jplatt27

I love Greek salad.  It’s one of my favorite salads and a salad that Mike believes is a meal. Our last apartment had a rooftop deck with a pool and views of the Capitol, the Nationals Stadium, and on clear days the National Cathedral.  It also had two grills. We love Mike loves to grill and I love to eat food off the grill.  I imagine that when we buy a house someday a grill will be one of our first purchases. But back to the deck and Greek salad.  One Sunday afternoon, we made a Greek salad, took it to the roof, grilled some chicken, topped our salad with it, and sat and ate outside, eating right out of the bowl after our first servings. It was so relaxing, the meal was so fresh and just one of those moments that makes you think “life is good.”

Because I almost always cook from a recipe, the first few times we made Greek salad we used a recipe.  This recipe from Pioneer Woman. Now I can whip one up from memory.  Love that feeling.  (Another recipe I know by heart.)

There’s a Greek deli/bakery across the street from my office and when I was in there a few weeks ago they had a beautiful salad in the case that was all veggies.  It looked amazing. And so easy.

Does anyone else ever feel like lettuce gets in the way of the good stuff?  Sometimes I just want to get the salty olives, feta cheese, the juicy tomatoes, and crisp cucumbers.

So while Mike was away I made this Greek salad without lettuce. It’s super easy, quick, and can make as little or as much as you want. It’s vegetarian and could easily be vegan if you held the cheese and honey. Not only is this salad good and good for you (in the words of Rachel Ray) but I believe that this salad is good for your soul.  Chopping vegetables, and ones in a variety of colors, can really wake you up, ground you in the moment, and make you come alive a little bit.  At least it does for me.

This is not an exact recipe. Just eyeball things as you see fit. (If you’re like me and feel a recipe is a must, just relax and have fun with this. It will be good. Trust me and trust yourself. Oh, and taste the dressing before you put it on the salad 😉 Here it is.

In the mix:

cucumber
red bell pepper
green bell pepper
can of chickpeas rinsed and drained
red onion
Kalamata olives
feta cheese (I think it’s better when you buy a brick and crumble off some )
tomato
red wine vinegar
honey
olive oil
spices to taste (optional but I like oregano and garlic)
salt and pepper

Chop veggies so they’re all around the same size. Think big cubes. Put in a big bowl with chickpeas and feta.

In a smaller bowl or liquid measuring cup, combine red wine vinegar, honey, spices and then whisk in olive oil. Taste. When it’s good, pour over veggies and stir to coat.

Enjoy!

(I used 1/2 cucumber, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, can of chickpeas, and red onion. For the tomato I used about 10 grape tomatoes cut in half. This made 2 meal sized portions and two side-sized portions.)

The other meal I made while Mike was away. What I usually eat when Mike is away.

I’d love to know:

What’s your favorite salad?

What do you eat when you’re solo?

 

What's for Dinner? Vegetarian {Giveaway}

Posted on by jplatt27

While Mike was away, I had to fend for myself when it came to meals.  (I realized how much I rely on Mike for things like meal planning, grocery shopping, and laundry. Boy, I am grateful.) Without meaning to I ate vegetarian for Monday through Wednesday lunch.

Instead of eating pancakes for every meal like I usually do when Mike’s out of town, I took this opportunity to make a meal that Mike doesn’t really care for: black bean soup in the crock pot.

This soup is super easy, super cheap, delicious, and filling. It makes a ton and yields leftovers. (Believe me, it’s better than it looks in the picture!)

Enjoy!

—————————–

Crock Pot Black Bean Soup

4 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained

2 14.5 oz cans of vegetable or chicken broth

1 cup of salsa (not pico de gallo)

optional toppings: monterey jack cheese, cilantro, lime

Combine beans, brother, and salsa in crock pot. Cook on high for 2-4 hours or low 4-8 hours. Puree with an immersion blender. Top with cheese, cilantro, lime juice.

——————————

My First Giveaway!

In honor of my vegetarian meals, I’m giving away the cookbook How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.  I’m giving away my copy so it’s slightly used (slightly just because we don’t often cook vegetarian) but it’s in very good condition and is a great resource for people looking to make vegetarian meals on a more regular basis.

There are three ways to enter:

1) leave a comment telling me your favorite vegetarian meal

2) Tweet about the giveaway and leave a comment telling me you did “@thingsafterings is giving away a vegetarian cookbook. I want to cook vege!”

3) like Things After the Rings on Facebook and leave a comment telling me you did

I’ll pick a random winner on Sunday at 6pm.

Game Change

Posted on by jplatt27

Just dropped Mike off at the airport and I’m happy to report that I held it together last night and this morning! Dropping him off and driving home I was a little sad and wanted to cry but the tears didn’t come. And when I remembered I had this cupcake to comfort me at home, that didn’t hurt either. Writing this post also helped me move past my sadness so thanks for reading!

We had a really nice night last night.  Our plan to lay low was a good one.  I ended up getting out of work an hour early yesterday so I met Mike at the gym (he always gets out early on Fridays, lucky). Then we used a Groupon and picked up a pizza from Potomac Pizza. If you live in the NW DC area or Montgomery County, I highly recommend Potomac Pizza.  It’s the closest pizza to the Philly/SE PA pizza we’re used to that we’ve found in the 3 years we’ve been here. We came home, showered, and settled in on the couch with a few slices.

After flipping through the channels a little bit and watching a few segments of both Khloe & Lamar and SVU that’d we seen already, I decided we’d watch Game Change, the new HBO movie about the 2008 McCain/Palin campaign. Mike had already seen it completely through once in addition to bits and pieces randomly throughout the week.  He said he likes it more every time he sees it.  Since I have a hard time making it through a whole movie in one sitting and I didn’t have much interest in it and I didn’t want my separation anxiety to flare up during a long, boring movie, I was skeptical about watching this last night.  But I figured we’d at least start it.  At this point Mike knows we’ll have to view a film in multiple sittings anyway so no trouble if I got bored.

Well let me tell you, I couldn’t stop watching.  It was really good.  It’s all about how the McCain campaign chose Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate and how they prepared her for the campaign trail. It was fascinating! And Julianne Moore played a great Sarah Palin. I kept asking Mike “did this really happen?” and “is this true?” or “do you think she actually did that?” I don’t want to get into a political discussion here because to be honest I’m not super interested in political debate, and that is not what my blog is about. What I am interested in and what the movie focuses on is the behind the scenes of politics: what goes into a political campaign, the many layers of decisions made, and the relationships (or sometimes lack thereof) between the people involved. These things are fascinating to me.  I’d highly recommend Game Change if you haven’t seen it yet. It’s been playing pretty regularly on HBO since it aired on the 10th so I’m sure you can catch it again in the next week or so.

We didn’t make it through the entire movie without taking a break.  We had planned to take a walk and get some ice cream so we did that about an hour and a half in. We popped over to Something Sweet, a small bakery/ice cream shop in our neighborhood that we visit a little too frequently, and took our ice cream on a little stroll and sat on a bench in front of the National Cathedral.

We had a really nice night and I’m glad it was tarnished by my anxiety.  Mike hasn’t mentioned anything, but I’m sure he’s glad too.

I’d love to know:

What’d you do last night?

Have you seen Game Change? What did you think?

What's for Dinner Wednesday: Pistachio Chicken

Posted on by jplatt27

It’s been a while since my last What’s for Dinner Wednesday post. That’s because we haven’t really been eating anything interesting lately.  I was away last week, and the two weeks before that Mike was super busy with work and then recovering for a week.  Needless to say we’ve been off our game a little bit.

But Mike is awesome and planned our meals for the week and went to the grocery store on Saturday (before I got home so we didn’t have to go on Sunday, bonus!). So, What’s for Dinner Wednesday is back!

Last night we had pistachio chicken, one of our favorite Abs Diet recipes.

 

This recipe is easy, filling, serves 4 so yields leftovers for lunch, and delicious.

Enjoy!

Baked pistachio chicken

from The Abs Diet Cookbook, commentary/notes by me

Prep time: 15-20 mins depending on how fast you can shell pistachios and beat some chicken
Cook time: 20 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 cup chopped pistachios (hint: use food processor)
  • 1/2 cup whole grain bread crumbs (I used some italian seasoned ones we had in the cabinet and couldn’t taste the difference)
  • 2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1. Preheat oven to 500°F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Mix the mustard, oil, and honey in a shallow bowl; season with salt and pepper. Mix the pistachios and bread crumbs on a plate.
3. Place the chicken breasts between 2 sheets of wax paper and pound with a meat mallet to 1/2-inch thick. (A hammer or frying pan will work if you don’t have a meat mallet. Trust me, I tried both of these before registering for a meat mallet.)
4. Dip the chicken in the mustard mixture to coat and then in the crumbs. Place the chicken on the baking sheet.
5. Put the baking sheet in the preheated oven. Turn the heat down to 375°F. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the chicken is no longer pink inside.

Serves 4.

I’d love to know:

What recipes have you tried and enjoyed lately? Link up in the comments below! Mike and I love to make risotto and it’s a great meal to catch up over.  Mike found this asparagus risotto recipe and got the ingredients for us to make it on Sunday when I got home. It was delicious.

Weekend in the city

Posted on by jplatt27

Hey there!  Happy Monday! Have a good weekend?  I certainly did! Take a look:

1. Flags blowing outside the Old Post Office Sunday afternoon
2. Scattergories with friends Saturday night
3. Sunday dinner: homemade chili
4. Browsing in Barnes and Noble (so many books I wanted to buy!)
5. Girls on the Run training on Saturday afternoon
6. Grilled veggie and goat cheese sandwich from U Street Cafe
7. Homemade bacon and spinach omelets
8. Window seat and writing at U Street Cafe

not pictured: bagel and cafe au lait at Modern Times Coffeehouse with Mike (finally caught up) and guacamole lunch with Jordan at Oyamel

I’d love to know:

What’d you do this weekend?

Our "first" Valentine's Day

Posted on by jplatt27

Our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple was probably our best yet.  Ok, definitely our best yet.  Considering I asked Mike to brainstorm some past Valentine’s Days for a post on 2/14 and neither of us could remember what we did last year.

This Valentine’s Day, Mike had a sweet idea: to try to replicate the dessert pizza from one of our favorite DC restaurants and have dinner at home.  I’d been wanting to recreate Matchbox‘s dessert pizza since we started making our own pizza months ago so I loved this thoughtful idea.

Mike let me choose what we had for dinner so we made this amazing lasagna. We made this lasagna over a year ago and hadn’t been able to find the recipe since. But with a little searching, Mike was able to find it. (Click here for the recipe.)

I had the sauce for the lasagna working when Mike got home from work. And he quickly got to work on the dough for the pizza. We had the Pandora love songs station going and were totally in our element.

After the lasagna was in, the dough was rising, and we had some dishes done, we sat down at the island for a little appetizer.  (I can get grumpy when I’m hungry so I this was a precautionary measure that turned out sweet.) We had the rest of that delicious bread leftover from dinner on Sunday, dipped in a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and some wine.

I was so happy. We were chatting, reminiscing about past Valentine’s Days, and kissing and I got really emotional and started to cry happy tears.

The lasagna turned out delicious and we ate on the couch while watching an episode of our new show Modern Family. I later thought that it was odd that we ate in front of the TV instead of at the table on Valentine’s Day but we were in the kitchen for so long prepping the meal and washing the dishes that we probably both just wanted to relax on the couch.

Then it was time for the dessert pizza.  We did a little “recon” on Friday night by going to Matchbox and ordering dessert pizza.  OK, we planned to go out to dinner that night to catch up and we hadn’t been to Matchbox in quite a while and chalked it up as “research.” But I’m so glad we did.  Our server was able to shed some light into the icing which we would’ve never gotten close otherwise. We were also able to focus in on some of the flavors to make sure we didn’t forget anything.

Well, the pizza was a success! All the flavors were there: cinnamon, sugar, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, mint, and balsamic reduction.  The dough was very chewy and we’ll probably make some changes to that next time but overall the dessert hit the spot. We were so proud of ourselves. We ate our pizza on the couch while watching another episode of Modern Family.

Honestly, this was a perfect evening. We talked, we laughed, we cooked, we ate delicious food.  We were really connected and really enjoyed each other’s company.  It was different than a normal night because we were technically on a date and neither one of us was expecting to do anything else other than be with each other.

Neither of us wanted the night to end. When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I was bummed that it was all over.  I wanted to stretch the date and stay in our happy, relaxed, connected state. You know, like a long weekend that you just don’t want to end.

Definitely the best Valentine’s Day yet.

Simple delights

Posted on by jplatt27

Happy Valentine’s Day!

My day started off on the right foot after wobbling on the wrong foot momentarily.  Mike had to leave early for work this morning so we set our alarm for 5 am to go to the gym. It went off and Mike decided that he wasn’t going to make it and I was laying there debating about whether to go or not.  I got out of bed to get ready and got kind of annoyed that we set the alarm so early and Mike didn’t even end up going to the gym.  Washing my face I realized that I was still really tired and could use like another half hour of sleep, wishing that we had just set the alarm for 5:25 or 5:30.  Though it’s just a half hour, there is a big difference between 5 am, 5:30 am, and 6 am. I got back in bed and said to Mike “I wish we would’ve set the alarm later, I could use another half hour of sleep” and then turned to see the time was 5:28.  I could still get a half hour of sleep and then get up and go to the gym. So that’s what I did.  And the extra half hour was amazing. I felt very different when I woke up. I love when things like this happen.  I would’ve hated to start my Valentine’s Day (and Mike’s) on the wrong foot.

But that’s actually not why I’m writing this morning.  I’m writing to share some simple, delicious foods I’ve been eating lately.

First, last night’s dinner and this morning’s breakfast.

 While I was making a smoothie yesterday morning, I noticed a recipe on the side of the Chobani container for gorgonzola and yogurt crostini. Gorgonzola is my favorite cheese and we just happened to have some in the fridge from a gorgonzola cream sauce we made a few weeks ago. We also had this delicious loaf of bread I bought at Trader Joe’s to go with dinner on Sunday night. So I thought, yep, this is what I’ll have for dinner tonight. (Mike has class on Monday nights so we do our own thing for dinner.)

I whipped it up pretty quickly: toast some bread, mix yogurt and gorgonzola in a 2:1 ratio in a bowl with a fork and spoon to mash the cheese and spread the yogurt mixture on the toasted bread.  I topped mine with fresh blackberries (BOGO this week and we needed some for tonight’s dessert) and a drizzle of honey.  Delicious!

Another simple, tasty breakfast I’m in love with is this apple cinnamon oatmeal (in the crock pot, no less!) from Cooking with Jax.  My boss shared this recipe and I tried it late last week.  I made a batch on Thursday night, brought it for breakfast on Friday morning and shared with two co-workers, had more Friday afternoon, and finished it up for yesterday’s 10 o’clock snack. Clearly it made a ton, and it stayed perfectly fine in the refrigerator.  I topped mine with some brown sugar.  Mmm, Mmm, Mmm.

And last but not least, my go-to snack this week is chocolate pudding with crunchy peanut butter.  I mentioned this here before but haven’t had it in quite some time. I take a Jello pudding cup, pour the pudding in a larger dish and add about a tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter (for some texture, crunch and protein). So quick, so easy, so delicious.

I have some more delicious food coming my way today and I can’t wait to share our Valentine’s Day date here later this week. Until then, Happy Valentine’s Day!

I’d love to know:

What delicious things are you eating lately?