Chinese New Year= Egg Foo Young

Happy (Chinese) New Year, Miss Wang!! Last night, I pulled out my March 2010 Food Network Magazine and made egg foo young from its weeknight cooking section (no link, the recipe isn't coming up online). The recipe required multiple pans for its mushroom gravy and omelet, but stayed true to its 35 minute time prep estimate. It also came together as easily as the recipe predicted.

But how'd the egg foo young taste? Let me start with a few caveats, when I order Chinese food, I usually get moo shu of some kind not egg foo young. I also pared some the recipe from four servings to a serving or so. That being said, I liked the dish all right...not enough to make it again but not enough to regret making it either. I liked the flavor and bacony taste in the eggs and thought appreciated the technique of the recipe, but thought the dish lacked a certain "je ne sais quoi."

Tomorrow, I'll be fixing up a crustless quiche and a healthier spin-off on spinach-artichoke dip from my December and January/February Food Network issues for the next TND. So, stay tuned!

Bad News: No More Snow Days, Good News: I Made Chocolate Cupcakes

For the third time in my life and the third time this winter, I shoveled out my car today. The whole process took about three hours with minimal breaks and some last minute help from the car crew next to me. I came inside completely spent and hopefully I'll sleep well tonight after all that hard work because tomorrow it's back to work. Sigh.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind watching more Greek and mindless tv on hulu, but admittedly I'm a pretty happy sloth. However, I guess tomorrow I'll have to push myself out of bed and hit up the DASH bus to get to work for the first time since LAST Thursday. CRAZY.

Tomorrow will also be my co-worker Katey's last day and so, as I promised (before all these snow-tastrophes hit), I made her Hersey's perfectly chocolate cupcakes tonight using Green and Black Organic chocolate cocoa powder (WF fancy schmancy) and cocoa mix (because I didn't have enough cocoa powder for the recipe. I also added in Ghiradelli chocolate chips and some butterscotch chips for good measure.


I sampled the goods for quality control and I gotta admit, these are some pretty tasty cupcakes. So, hopefully I can transport them without incident into work tomorrow and hopefully, they can soften the blow of the first day back at work post Snow-valanche.

Update: My co-workers demolished the cupcakes, which I iced once I got to work, and complimented their tastiness. Most importantly, Katey appreciated them. Though she is going to a better place...Maybe (it's the FBI)....She will be missed at NARA.

Penne Ala Vodka for a Snowbound Soul

I thought that when I posted about the blizzard in December that would be the biggest snow of the season. However, it would seem that December's snowstorm was only the tip of the iceberg (an all too true metaphor). On Friday around noon, it began snowing for about the umpteenth time this year and the snow kept going through a large part of Saturday. When I finally ventured out that afternoon, the snow came up to my thighs!! Now granted, Little Rhino has rather short legs, but still, that's pretty unprecedented.

After letting the sidewalks clear (kind of...my street isn't even close to driveable), today I trekked literally through slush, snow, and ice over to the Teet. I came back with a few more supplies and with the desire to try a new recipe. Firmly planted in my apartment once again, I came across a recipe for penne alla vodka using leftover marinara sauce and so that is what I made tonight (using 1% milk).

I liked it pretty well, but I'm not sure if I would make it again. It did feel good to make something new though and with a another storm brewing and promising 10-15"....There may be more new recipes to come!

Beefy Chili TND

Sorry for the delay in posting, though I don't have much to report on the culinary front since the last TND which was Tyler Florence's beef chili. I grew up eating turkey and beef chili made with ground beef, but Tyler's "Ultimate" chili takes the dish up a notch by using cubed beef shoulder. I upped the ante by buying organic beef from Whole Foods. Oh la la.

Though the chili took awhile to prepare, but I didn't find any of the steps overly complicated. Basically, all I had to do was sear off the beef, puree the veggies and chipotle peppers, add it to beef in the pot, add some water to the pot, let it run for a few hours, thicken it with some masa harina (suggestions of other masa harina using recipes would be much appreciated), and I added some beans for good measure. Since I prepped the recipe in advance, I simply plopped the pot on the stove and let it simmer til the guests came on Tuesday.

With Anders' cornbread and a Jessika's coolwhip/pudding concoction, Tuesday night came out deliciously once again. YUM. YUM.