Sunday grilling (17/7): turkey burgers edition.
1. Southwestern Turkey Burgers
2. with Cajun Grilled Onions and Cilantro-Avocado Spread
I used Emeril’s Original Essence to coat the onions before grilling, except I put in half the salt the recipe called for, to avoid having them be inedible. The spread is just mashed avocado with minced cilantro and a bit of salt.
3. Plum Upside-Down Cake
My sister brought home plums from one of her friends’ trees, and they were in need of saving, so I used a Real Simple recipe I’ve had work for me before. This time around, however, I skipped cooking the plums. Last time, this step made the plums completely mushy, so I find it totally unnecessary. The cake turned out sweet in the batter and tart in the plums, just the way it should be!
4. Margaritas
Holy guacamole were these strong! I used the International Bartenders Association standard ratios, which tasted good, but definitely needed to be sipped slowly. Also, if you’re committed to using fresh lime juice, you will need a ton of limes. A ton of limes. You will also spend forever squeezing said limes and your arms will hate you. You’ve been warned.
Standard Margarita
2½ cups tequila
1½ cups triple sec
1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 10-12 limes)
agave syrup to taste (my preference: ¼ cup) (optional)
Stir all ingredients in a pitcher and chill. Serve over ice.
Makes about 5¼ cups (pitcher).
Butter London - Rosie Lee
The formula was a bit of a nightmare—I don’t know if this is indicative of the brand in general, this particular polish, or just this one bottle—and it started peeling in chunks on day 3, but the color is just so damn pretty, I’m willing to forgive it practically everything. However, I was bummed out about it, especially since I completely caved in Nordstrom when I saw that they had a Butter London display, and bought Rosie Lee at full price. Plus tax. Lesson learned: stay out of Nordstrom when you’re in a hurry.
Sunday dinner (10/7): homemade pizza edition.
Option #1: pesto, mozzarella, fennel, caramelized onion, bacon
The pesto was made from leaves I gathered in my backyard basil patch. I also snipped the fennel for these pizzas from the accidental fennel jungle that grew next to our tomatoes.
Option #2: ricotta, mozzarella, oregano, garlic, mushroom, bell pepper, tomato
Minced garlic and fresh oregano were mixed into the ricotta—along with some salt and pepper—before spreading it on the dough. The bell pepper and tomatoes were fresh from our garden.
Dessert: peach-custard pie (Martha Stewart Living, June 2011)
A great and fairly simple pie one could probably make with pears or apples. I wish the peaches I used were a bit more ripe; it would’ve made the pie easier to eat.
Sunday grilling: Fourth of July edition.
1. Greek feta Burgers
I remembered how good this recipe that I used last year was, so decided to go with it instead of overthinking what to make. As always, I replaced ground lamb with beef and blanched my own spinach instead of using frozen. The cucumbers and lettuce for the toppings came from our garden.
2. with Feta Salsa [Spread]
A friend of mine linked me to this recipe, which was quite à propos since I had Kalamata olives and sun dried tomatoes to use up. I eyeballed the quantities and processed it for longer to turn it into a spread for the burgers. It could’ve used less olives, as their taste was quite overpowering.
3. Grilled Tomatoes with Oregano and Lemon (Everyday Food, July/August 2011)
Super simple grilled veggie side! I made the oregano-garlic-lemon oil for the top a few hours ahead to allow it to infuse.
4. Cranberry Upside-Down Cake
Once again, continuing to slowly make my way through my stash of frozen cranberries.
5. Lemon-Mint Ice Tea
Brew the tea with a fistful of mint, and add half a cup of lemon juice. Easypeasy.
Sunday grilling (26/6): July 2011 issue of Bon Appétit edition. Best Sunday dinner eveeer.
1. Tri-tip with Chipotle Rub
I kind of fudged the rub as I didn’t know where to find dried chipotle chilies or pink peppercorns (err?), so I substituted chili powder and regular black pepper. Didn’t seem to hurt the taste any; the meat turned out soft, smoky, and sensational.
2. Little Gem, Feta, and Cumin Salad
Mmm fetaaaa. Instead of Little Gem lettuce, I used lettuce from our backyard, which at that point was starting to turn into a jungle. Since feta is already a salty cheese—and there’s a lot of it here—I wouldn’t include any more salt in this.
3. Cilantro-Scallion Bread
Great little nibbles! Could’ve probably used a little tighter rolling on my part, they don’t look anywhere as neat as the picture in the magazine. >_>
4. Grilled Vegetables
Sections of red bell pepper and cremini mushrooms, brushed with olive oil and slightly salted, then grilled until charred and crisp-tender. I put the mushrooms on some bamboo skewers to make them easier to grill.
5. Strawberry Daiquiri Italian Ices (Martha Stewart Living, June 2011)
These ended up a bit strange, mostly because at the last minute I realized that I didn’t have any lime and substituted lemon juice. They’re also misleading on the alcohol front; since you don’t really taste it much, it’s easy to overdo.
6. Peach-Strawberry Ice Tea
We had a box each of peaches and strawberries, and I was in an experimental mood, so once I made the tea, I decided to put one diced peach and about half a dozen sliced strawberries into it. I left it in the fridge overnight and most of the following day. It turned out absolutely amazing. Next time I decide to do this, I’m going to try first pouring the two cups of hot tea over the fruits and steeping them until cool, before watering it down. Should hopefully bring out the flavor even more!
Sunday grilling (19/6): kebabs two ways edition.
1. Flank Steak Kebabs with Peanut Sauce (Everyday Food, June 2011)
The peanut sauce on these wasn’t my favorite, since it was coconut milk based, and I don’t actually like the taste of coconut. >_> I figured that the peanut butter would take over, and I was mostly right, but there was just enough coconut taste to make the sauce kinda meh for me. The kebabs were pretty standard.
2. Mozzarella-Stuffed Turkey and Tomato Kebabs (Everyday Food, June 2011)
I made a fail substitution on these by using chicken breast instead of turkey. The chicken just wasn’t big enough to wrap the mozzarella completely, which resulted in it melting and leaking out on the grill. :( But it was heavenly in the few pieces it managed to hang onto.
3. Salad
Along with lettuce from our garden, this also included our first cucumbers!
4. Lemon Meringue Frankenpietart
I call this the Frankenpietart because I took three different Joy of Cooking recipes—one for the filling, one for the crust, and another for the topping—that weren’t meant to go together and used them anyway. The filling is for a lemon tart, but the crust is made of graham crackers, instead of the pâte brisée you would normally use in a tart. Basically, this is what happens when you have a giant bag of lemons and leftover boxes of graham crackers from Costco, as well as eggs that need to be used up ASAP. Overall it was fine, but I overbeat the meringue, so it didn’t brown as nicely as it could have.
5. Arnold Palmer
Self explanatory. Half homemade lemonade, half freshly brewed black tea!
Back around Earth Day (aka forever ago), Zoya once again held their nail polish exchange: half price and free shipping on all colors + safe disposal of any old polish you sent back to them, minimum order of 6 bottles. I was only going to order six, but figured a deal like this wouldn’t come around again until probably next year, if ever, so I bumped it up to all nine colors on my wishlist at the time. Trying all the colors I have even once should keep my nails covered through the rest of summer. The first picture above are all of my Zoya polishes, minus Richelle, which I got in another promotion later.
from the Flame Collection (also known as Fire and Ice, winter 2010)
Tiffany can be best described as a peach, metallic dust base, which gives it a foil-like finish, with gold flakes. Crystal is a powder blue, metallic dust base, giving it the same foil-like finish as Tiffany, also with gold flakes. Valerie has a dark, eggplant purple base, with deep magenta metallic dust and gold flakes. Its finish is the standard Zoya “sparkle” polish look. I was slightly disappointed in Valerie, since it was a lot more dimensional, giving off glints of purple, magenta, orange, and gold, in the bottle than on the nail.
from the Sparkle Collection (summer 2010)
I’ve seen Charla described as a mermaid blue before, and the description fits the color completely. It’s a deep aquamarine that glints in light gold, spring green, and teal. It also stains like nothing else. A base coat is definitely a must with this one, unless you want your nails to look like long-lost Smurfs relatives.
from the Mod Mattes Collection (limited edition, summer 2011)
Speaking of Smurfs, Phoebe is a Smurf blue matte, with a super slight shimmer courtesy of silver-colored dust in the formula. The consistency takes some getting used to—this is my first experience with a matte—but once you get the hang of it, it isn’t difficult to work with. My problem with it is that it shows every bump and ridge on my nails. Although you’re not supposed to wear it with a base coat, if visible ridges bother you, I would suggest investing in a bottle of Zoya Get Even Ridge Filling Base Coat. Alternatively, buff your nails very well before painting.
Sunday grilling (12/6): Balinese chicken edition.
1. Balinese Grilled Chicken (Food & Wine, June 2011)
Although I didn’t include the fresh bay leaves—couldn’t find any at the store—and don’t know how that affected the dish, it still tasted great. The chicken was moist, smoky from the grill, and had an Asian flavor courtesy of the ginger and turmeric.
2. Potato Hobo Pack (Martha Stewart Living, June 2011)
This was a bit of a failure. I didn’t include the beer (too weird) and just put some oiled, salted, and peppered baby potatoes in some foil with a couple of garlic cloves. Sadly, we didn’t grill the pack long enough and the potatoes ended up a bit… crunchy.
3. Salad
A simple salad made with the first harvest of lettuce from our backyard!
4. Strawberry-Lemonade Icebox Pie
This was so gooooood. I love lemon and I love strawberry and I love graham cracker crusts—though not necessarily trying to cut them—and this pie had everything! It also had meringue, which meant I had the excuse to bust out my propane torch from Home Depot and go to town toasting it. :D
5. Iced Tea
Self explanatory.
I had a big bag of lemons, a box of strawberries, and extra powdered gelatin lying around, so I decided to experiment and make:
Strawberry Lemonade Gelatin Dessert
2 envelopes (½ oz) gelatin
1½ cups freshly squeezed lemon juice
~1 pound strawberries
½ cup sugar
2 cups water
Wash and hull strawberries, then purée in a food processor or blender. Using a spatula, press purée through a fine mesh sieve—you should have about ½ cup—and combine with lemon juice in a medium bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over the mixture and let stand for a couple minutes, until expanded. Meanwhile, bring water to a boil and add sugar. Stir to dissolve. Add hot water to bowl and stir constantly for about 5 minutes, until gelatin has completely dissolved. Ladle into four or five 8 oz. ramekins. Refrigerate until set, at least two hours, preferably overnight.
Yields four or five servings.
