3000 miles 'til dinner.

Original MIL Mission #40: Wild Rice Salad with Mango and Toasted Pecans

I love cooking for this here blog because I often find myself using combination of things I would never ever think to serve. (read: grown-up and/or healthy things)

Here are the grown-up/healthy ingredients…

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

First, I got the rice going in a heavy bottomed pot. I already had half a bag of some wild rice that also had some brown rice mixed in there. I’m always tempted to go out and get the perfect ingredient. And then I think, WWMILD? She would wing the hell outta it and just use the rice she already had! Oops, I said “hell”.

While the rice cooked up, I toasted my pecans.

Then set out my ingredients for the Orange & Champagne Vinaigrette. (I didn’t have champagne vinegar so I just used white wine vinegar)

And I went with the blender this time. I’m crazy like that.

I made two separate batches of dressing for two separate batches of salad because I had a guest coming to dinner who is allergic to vinegar. (so I omitted the vinegar and the mustard)

MIL, any suggestions for a vinegar substitute in the future?

Here are my two batches ready to be mixed.

♥MIL MISSION #40: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

It turned out beautifully. The toasted pecans with the fruit were a very summery combo. The version without vinegar was just barely a little sweeter but they were both delicious.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 30 min.

Difficulty: 1

Deliciousness: 5

Impressed Husband/dinner guests factor: 5 (we had our friends John the chef and Melinda over)

Leftover-friendly: It really is just as good the next day! Would be really good for a picnic, methinks.

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #35: Paneer (unaged farmers cheese)

Wait…one can make delicious cheese? At one’s own house? With one’s own spoiled milk? That’s like learning you can turn un-wanted junk mail into gold. Yes, cheese is like gold. Only melty. 

Two things to make the thing…

♥HOW I MADE IT.♥

I put some milk spoiled milk (MIL insisted it was ok) into the sauce pan. Once it did its thing for a while, I added some lemon juice.

I strained it through a dish towel.

And there were curds! Real cheese curds!

So I bundled them up into a tiny cartoon-hobo bundle and hung it from the faucet as MIL suggested.

♥MIL MISSION #35: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah. So, I followed the instructions with the one little tiny detail about how it was one of the hottest 100+ degree humid summer days in NYC and I live on the 6th floor of a very cute but very old, non-air conditioned building.

I pretty much assume that’s why, in the end, it had the consistency of a very dry, feta cheese.

Yes, I plan on doing a re-do. The cheese shall not stand alone! (defiantly throws fist into air)

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 10 min. (plus 1-too-many hours of straining time)

Difficulty: 0

Deliciousness: n/a

Impressed Husband factor: n/a

Leftover-friendly: Well, it’s still in the fridge. But that’s not saying much.

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #36: Flaming Carrot Cake w/ Cream Cheese Icing

I opted for cupcakes over cake because, however dumb-trendy they may be these days, cupcakes are yummy and make for easier sharing than a cake. Also, since when did confections become too cool for school? Who cares! Let there be cupcakes!

Here are the goods (note: I did realize that the recipe called for Baking Soda and not Powder before it was too late)

♥HERE’S HOW I MADE IT.♥

I mixed my wet ingredients and sugar into my favorite vintage mixing bowl.

Then sifted all the dry ingredients into my other favorite vintage mixing bowl.

At this point, I was feel extremely confident. Flaming Carrot Cupcakes! So easy! And then I read on the recipe that this calls for grated carrots, not shredded. Say wha? Well, I had a couple bags of shredded carrots so I just carried on.

After mixing the wet, dry and carrots together (like Marites, I too skipped the walnuts), I filled half my cupcake tins and then, as a fail safe, decided to make some with chocolate chips like MIL suggested. Because even if the shredded carrots have a weird texture or don’t get cooked all the way, I figured a little chocolate could make up for it. Maybe?

Here are my filled cupcakes, mini cupcakes and even a bread pan because there was a lot of batter to go around.

While my cupcakes were baking, I decided to get fancy in preperation of garnishing and serving my delights. I put a 1/2 cup of sugar with a 1/4 cup of water into a pot and cooked some more shredded carrots until soft-ish (about 10 minutes).

Then I removed the carrots with a slotted spoon and spread them on some wax paper. Finally, I sprinkled some sugar over them for a little sparkle. Voila! Candied carrots! Don’t they look like a thing of dreams?

I took my mini cupcakes out at this point because they took a lot less time to bake, but was still waiting for the rest so I started on my cream cheese frosting.

Wow, buttery, creamy cheesy goodness.

♥MIL MISSION #36: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

My Flaming Carrot Cake Loaf with a sprinkle of nutmeg and a few candied ginger slices.

Lil’ Flamin’ Carrot Cupcakes with sparklin’ carrot garnish.

Medium sized Flaming Carrot Cupcakes with a candied ginger slice and a hit of nutmeg.

And finally, our hero cupcake. The Flaming Carrot!

Apartment Bake Sale?

Having a Lil’ cupcake break.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 1 hour

Difficulty: 2

Deliciousness: 5!!!!!!!!!!!

Impressed Husband factor: 5 quote, “This might be the best Carrot Cake I’ve ever had”. (Mind you, this is his mom’s recipe. But still! Success!)

Leftover-friendly: 5 (I brought the loaf to my worky partner with an extra side of cream cheese frosting and he ate a big slice with coffee every morning this week. Husband took a bunch of cupcakes to work two days in a row and handed them out to co-workers. One co-worker actually used the word “genius”. Aw yeah.)

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #37: 4 Summer Salads with Four Summer Dressings

I was so ready for an easy, light and summery mission and then MIL came through. It’s been a hot summer for months in NYC (sorry, Northwesties) which means firing up the oven in our tiny West Vil apartment is one of the last things I feel like doing. Not to mention that hot weather usually involves cold cocktails outside at restaurants, so a simple salad is very called for (“hey, you. up there. salad. PLEASE.” - my liver)

I decided to try the Butter Lettuce and Radicchio with the Lime and Green Peppercorn Vinaigrette. Here is the all the local produce and other goods…

♥HERE’S HOW I MADE IT.♥

I squeezed 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice using my darling little citrus juicer, gifted by MIL.

Look at my little cabbage patch kid!

Next, into Arthur the Cuisinart goes my shallot, dijon, salt, white balsamic, sugar and green peppercorns. Shout out to Husband who picked up the peppercorns on the way home from the gym. He’s the best.

Next, I added the lime juice and then finally drizzled the olive oil until it looked like this. Salad dressing!

While all this was happening, I had thrown some salmon into the oven for a quick fish en papillote to go with my salad.

I combined the butter lettuce, radicchio, red onion, avocado and blackberries into a bowl and drizzled on the salad dressing to get tossed.

♥MIL MISSION #36: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

Served with the salmon and some Trader Joe’s Naan.

I had a bunch of dressing leftover, so I put it in an empty bottle of Newman’s Own and made is Jessica’s Own. (Also, I’m trying to be googley-eyed on purpose. It just wasn’t enough to be funny. Only enough to be a little sad.)

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 30 min.

Difficulty: .5 (the only hard part was getting the processor down from the top shelf. Ha!)

Deliciousness: 4 (The salmon was just a tad overdone as I was overcompensating for my making it a tad underdone last time. Next time I think the 3 little piggy theory will hold and the salmon will be juuuuuust right).

Impressed Husband factor: 5 (It’s tough to get him to approve any type of salad dressing and he loved it. He went in for seconds!)

Leftover-friendly: 5 (Today for lunch I put a piece of salmon, some avocado, a huge handful of the two types of lettuces and a generous drizzle of the homemade dressing into a low-carb whole wheat wrap. So good and fresh.)

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #28: Soft Ginger Cookies

**SPOILER ALERT**

Let me preface this attempt by saying it’s not going to be my best. The baking went well. The cookies, and I hate to spoil the reveal, but they were awesome. However,  there were some technical difficulties. Oh yes, there were.

♥HERE’S HOW I MADE IT.♥

Here are my ingredients in all their baking glory.

I threw my sugar and ginger into the food processor for some pulsing action.

Then I added my wet ingredients starting with Molasses. And not just ANY molasses, I used Grandma’s molasses. Phew.

And then the eggs.

Here are my wet ingredients and my dry ingredients ready to be folded.

♥MIL MISSION #27: ACCOMPLISHED.♥’

The cookies turned out perfect. Chewy and gingery. So much better than a ginger snap, I loved the texture of the gritty cinnamon and sugar on top. So much in fact, I didn’t notice that the memory card for my camera was in my bag instead of the actual camera.

No memory card, no memory.

So just visualize the most delicious, brown, sparkling with cinnamon and sugar cookies stacked beautifully on my cute blue cake stand and you will know what my entire week of Soft Ginger Cookies was like.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 45 min.

Difficulty: 2.5

Deliciousness: 4.5 (-5 for no chocolate. ha.)

Impressed Husband factor: 4 (he brought a huge bag to his work buddies and they ate ‘em up. Wife win!)

Leftover-friendly: 4 (I probably should have halved the recipe or saved half of the dough in the freezer as we ended up with a handful of uneaten cookies a few days past their chewy expiration.)

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #34: Fresh Spring Lasagna w/ Italian Sausage

♥HERE’S HOW I MADE IT.♥

I started by making a batch of MIL’s Mission #17,  Marinara Sauce. A second and, once again, successful attempt. Here is the garlic (oh, and the rest of the ingredients).

See? Angsty teen vampires beware. (ooh, good opportunity to plug MIL. Did you know she helped with the food styling in the first Twilight movie? That means all of us 3000MTD cook-wannabes are famous by association!)

And the gorgeous spices. And I know using the word “gorgeous” in the kitchen sounds a little ridiculous. But as a new lover-of-cooking, I’ve begun to appreciate the textures, colors and, well, even spices need to hear they look pretty every once in a while.

While the Marinara simmered, I got out my ingredients to make the lasagna. You’ll notice a few non-traditional (and healthy) additions like spinach and sweet potato. Such a smart way to sneak veggies into your dinner. And you’ll also notice I couldn’t resist the “wingin’ it” suggestion of ricotta. Because what’s lasagna without ricotta? It’s like a teen vampire without chiseled cheekbones.

I browned the meat (I opted for regular Italian sausage because my local market didn’t have any turkey that day). Then I ground it up. Browned it and ground it. Catchy.

Layer 1! Meat and sauce.

Layer 2! Noodles. I couldn’t find the completely no-bake lasagna noodles at my market, so I boiled them (just a little) to help them get started. As a result, I had a few broken ones which I just used to fill in some spaces.

Layers 3 and 4! The fresh spinach and basil and then the thin slices of sweet potatoes.

Layer 5! The best part! I mean, c’mon!

Then I repeated one and a half more times (it got a little dicey at the end when I noticed there wasn’t enough pan to repeat the full three times.)

♥MIL MISSION #27: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

So very delicious. Who needs a plate?

The only trubs I ran into (and I think Marites had the same trubs when she attempted this Mission) was that 45 minutes in the oven wasn’t enough. In fact, I had it in for about an hour and still ended up with crunchy sweet potatoes. It could have used at least another 20 minutes, however it was getting late and we had some seriously growling bellies so we just ate it anyway. Not to say that having a little crunch is gross or anything. It was actually kind of delightful. But it would have tasted more decadent if the sweet potatoes and all those sugars had gotten more dissolved into the construct of the lasagna. The flavor was perfect, next time I’ll just start making it a little earlier.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time:  1 hr 30 minutes

Difficulty: 3

Deliciousness: 4 (again, just needed a little more time in the oven)

Impressed Husband factor: 4 (like I said…)

Leftover-friendly: 5 (It’s just the nature of lasagna. I plan on freezing some, too)

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #27: Larb Gai

So, confession. I come from the suburbs. True story. And though I live in one of top food cities in the world, I still have a few rogue suburban favorites. One of these is P.F. Chang’s lettuce wraps. Which I don’t care how fancy or New Yorky you are, they’re delicious and nothing to shake an Olive Garden breadstick at. But I digress.

These Larb Gai are kinda like the lettuce wraps of my sordid suburban past, only much more delicious because you know exactly what goes into them.

Also, I’m happy to see some light and summery missions popping up. And I have some DIL insider information that MIL is going to continue posting easy things that will help us stay cool in the kitchen over the next couple of months. Cool as in temperature and in cook-y reputation, I might add.

Here are the ingredients displayed at P.F. Coulter’s Headquarters.

♥HERE’S HOW I MADE IT.♥

I got my shallots, garlic and jalapenos going in the food processor.

Set those aside and then ground my chicken. And though I totally could have purchased ground chicken at the store, I couldn’t turn down an opportunity to do some DIY grinding. RAW MEAT CAM!

Semi-sincere apologies, vegetarians. Next, I checked on my dry white sticky rice that I had toasting over medium on the stove.

They browned beautifully, however when I took them off the stove I realized that I own neither a coffee grinder or a pestle and mortar. Whoops. I tried to do ye olde baggy-and-a-bottle-of-scotch trick, but it didn’t work. I ended up wingin’ it with some crushed up cashews for crunch. Yum.

Next, into the pan goes some oil and my aforementioned shallot mixture. This is the part where Walter the dog wanders into the kitchen following the trail of savory smells.

And then my ground up chicken.

Finally, I combined the chicken with all the fresh onions, mint, cilantro, fish sauce and other goodness to create the mixture that will go into the lettuce wraps. At this point, I jammed some tin foil on top and hoofed it over to my friend Melinda and John’s house for dinner.

♥MIL MISSION #27: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

So, the neighbors I dined with, John and Melinda, happen to also be John The Chef and Melinda My Boss. It sounds intimidating, but really they’re just good friends. And when they both adored these Larb Gai, it meant even more! I have to say these wraps held up to John’s main course of miso mackerel, greens and rice. It was a West Village feast.

We finished the meal with a tasting of their homemade limoncello.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time:  30 minutes

Difficulty: 2

Deliciousness: 5 (Yum)

Impressed friends factor: 5 (I got many gracious kudos. MIL makin’ me look good!)

Leftover-friendly: 5 (However there wasn’t anything leftover to worry about. Yep, yum.)

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission #32: Savory Turkey Loaf

Loaves made of meat, aka meatloaf, used to be my worst nightmare as a kid next to “Cheeseburger Casserole” (My dad used to say “it has meat and cheese and look! Potato! Just like fries!”) Dad, dude, nothing like a cheeseburger. 

But now that may tastes have matured, I enjoy meatloaf now and again. And unlike Marites, I usually like my meatloaf made of beef. Because I’m old fashioned like that. But as always, I love the opportunity to try something new.

Here are the goods. I halved the recipe because I knew we wouldn’t get through two entire loaves.

♥HERE’S HOW I MADE IT.♥

I got Arthur the Cuisinart down from his cupboard on high and pulsed my onion, parsley and garlic.

Then added that to a bowl with the meat and all the other ingredients. Though it looks like an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink type of meatloaf, it’s nice to know everything that went into it.

And, as my mom taught me many years ago, I got in there with my hands to mix it. It’s the same reason I like gardening: it’s healthy to get your hands dirty every once in a while. 

 Cue the RAW MEAT CAM! 

 Sorry ‘bout that. And then into the oven with the tomato sauce/BBQ combo on top.

♥MIL MISSION #32: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

I had called my mom to ask her what I should serve with MIL’s meatloaf. She started to suggest small roasted potatoes and then her voice got a little quiet and a little frisky when she suggested Mac ‘N Cheese instead. Because though it might not be the healthy choice, it’s definitely the better and more delicious choice. I did include some green beans to class it up just a touch. Sometimes all you need is a little green bean. Remember to stick one in your pocket next time you head to da club.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time:  1 hour 

Difficulty: 2

Deliciousness: 3.5 (I think I made it a little too herb-y. Perhaps I went a little heavy on the parsley? And I could have made the onion pieces smaller.)

Impressed Husband factor: 3.5 (to be honest, I think he was too distracted by my simple and very creamy Mac ‘N Cheese to think about the main course. But he did mention it was a perfect combo.)

Leftover-friendly: 4 (Turkey loaf sandwiches possibly with marinara and provolone! Yes!)

(posted by jessica)

Original Mission FISH en PAPILLOTE

How am I ever going to keep up with 3000MTD Missions when I get cravings for things we’ve already made? For this round of Fish En Papillote, I made salmon. I learned from MIL that salmon doesn’t take as long as some of the other fish, so I took it out a bit earlier. I paired it with some pretty little asparagus spears and a couscous with feta cheese. Ok, ok. Back to your regularly scheduled Missions…

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission HERE.

For a girl who started off thinking she was making the notorious Indian dish of Chicken Tikka Masala, it’s nothing short of astonishing that things worked out so well.

Here are my very non-Indian ingredients. Hint #1 that this was Marsala. Say it with me now, MaRRRRRRsala. Not Masala. Hint #2? The Marsala.

♥HERE’S HOW I MADE IT.♥

For the herbs, I used some dried oregano, dried thyme and then added some fresh sage because I love sage. It’s so savory and possibly wise…

I dredged my chicken (which I figure just meant cover-them-in-flour. There’s no specific dredge technique or, like, a dredge dance I should know about, right?) Then I chopped my mushrooms.

I browned my chicken breasts in the oil and butter, took them out and then put my mushrooms in. After they browned, I took MIL’s timing hint and stopped everything for a couple hours until Husband got home from work.

Once Husband got home, I put my browned chicken back in with the mushrooms and finally cooked off the Masala wine.

Wait. A Second. Time out, y’all! Did you see my fancy new pan? It’s giant and heavy and a beautiful cozy orange color. MIL sent it to us as a random cooking gift. It’s a whole new world of stovetop cookery! Thanks again, MIL.

Here she is again…

♥MIL MISSION #29: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

I must preface this meal by saying that it was a hot, hot, hot day. Like, 90’s. Which made for a very hot night to be cooking. I served my Chicken on top of MIL’s Creamy Polenta and had fully planned on making some Broccoli Rabe to go along with it, but things just got too…hot. I could only muster a few cold slices of watermelon, so that’s what I did. Talk about wingin’ it!

But as weird as it looks, it was so very summery and good.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time:  1 hour 15 min.

Difficulty: 2

Deliciousness: 5

Impressed Husband factor: 5 (he just kept saying how good it was. “It’s just so good. And did I mention it’s really good? The goodness is as good as can be.”)

Leftover-friendly: 5 (Lunch the next day!)

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission HERE.

In our household, we love corn things: corn-on-the-cob, corn bread, corn dogs, corn pops, candy corn. So I was happy to see MIL’s suggestion of this creamy polenta paired with her Fantastic Chicken Marsala.

The ingredients.

♥HERE’S HOW I MADE IT.♥

It’s been a long time since I’ve purchase real milk as we tend to drink rice milk.

So long that I had to have a sample after putting my milk and butter on the stove. Mmmmm, organic amish milk.

After my milk and butter was bubbling, I added the polenta.

And stirred with a wooden spoon as MIL suggested.

At the end, I added the eggs and some aged asiago cheese. It really took the creaminess up a notch.

♥MIL MISSION #30: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

Yeah, it looks a little lonely all by itself on the big white plate. But it will be paired with chicken soon enough! But you could easily eat this polenta on it’s own. So creamy and cheesy and warm and I’m definitely going to have to make this one again soon.

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 30 minutes

Difficulty: 1

Deliciousness: 5

Impressed Husband factor: 5 (I made sure to set some aside for eggs and cheesy polenta for breakfast. It’s his fave.)

Leftover-friendly: 5

(posted by jessica)

Original Mission # 1 here.

A week ago, I ate the last scoop from my first batch of MIL’s House Granola. The recipe makes that much! And because I was planning on leaving town for over a week for work, I wanted to make something that Husband could easily snack on while I’m away.

So, here is my second ever batch of House Granola. This time made with almond slices, dried blueberries, golden raisins and dried strawberries. Delightful! And when I connected with Husband over the phone the other day, all I could hear was crunching.

Original Mission #22 here.

You may remember that I was a ‘lil bitter the first time I made these flakey biscuits. I pressed the dough too thin and as a result, they were a little overdone for my taste. And because Husband loves biscuits so much, I wanted to master these. So when I attempted MIL’s BBQ Chicken, I tried them again. And this time? This time they were biscuit perfection.

Aw yeah, sweet thing.

(posted by jessica)

Original MIL Mission HERE.

Because I recently made the Pulled Pork Banh Mi, I decided to do this one with chicken thighs.

Just two EASY ingredients…

♥HERE’S HOW I MADE IT.♥

I slathered the chicken with the BBQ sauce and put it in the oven.

I used a bottled of “Heffy’s” because I saw it on Fresh Direct (proof I’ve been working a lot) and it looked good.

♥MIL MISSION #24: ACCOMPLISHED.♥

I wasn’t sure how long to put the chicken in (cooking chicken = scary), so I called MIL. She said it would take just about 10 minutes on 400 and another 20 on 350 and that I really couldn’t mess up thighs. Which is a good thing.

And it turned out to be some serious comfort food. Complete with MIL’s Flakey Baking Powder Biscuits and some fresh steamed English peas (purchased because they’re in season!).

♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥

scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)

Cupboard to table time: 45 minutes

Difficulty: 0.5

Deliciousness: 5

Impressed Husband factor: 5 (soul food gets him every time.)

Leftover-friendly: 5

(posted by jessica)