This dinner makes me think it should be summer

This simple salad was supposed to be dinner last night, but I wasn't in the mood to use my knife very much! So I kinda set things out and got the eggs and potatoes cooking, then ate leftovers instead. It was getting late, and on nights when I need to go to bed early, I try to eat early enough to digest at least somewhat. So Joe* finished preparing the pieces for his salad last night, and talked about how tasty it was as I was getting ready for bed. The nice thing is that the recipe makes enough for four salads, so I was able to put all the pieces together again tonight for my own delicious dinner. I'm predicting this salad will make a few appearances this summer, paired with chilled white wine and a seat on our porch. That sounds like heaven right about now.

*Joe- also known as the best husband ever, who is nice and patient and cheerful when his wife is being totally grumpy.

Nouveau Niçoise Salad
from Eating Well



4 servings, generous 2 cups each

Ingredients
4 eggs
8 ounces green beans, trimmed and halved
8 small red potatoes
1/4 cup minced shallots
1/4 cup red-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 cups mixed salad greens
2 6-ounce cans chunk light tuna, drained (see Note)
12 Nicoise or Kalamata olives


1. Place eggs into a pan and cover with cold water. Bring the water to a boil, and set a timer for one minute. After one minute, turn the heat off, cover the pan, and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 15-20 minutes. Gently remove the eggs from the water, and place in the refrigerator to cool.

2. Add the potatoes to the pot, and add fresh, cold water and another big pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then boil for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are knife-tender. Drain, and let the potatoes cool.

3. Bring water to a boil on last time. Add a big pinch of salt, and the green beans. Cook until just tender and bright green, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain the beans in a colander, rinse under cold water and set aside in a large bowl.

3. Meanwhile, combine shallots, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in oil.

4. Cut the potatoes into quarters or eighths, depending on their size. Add to the bowl with the beans. Add greens, tuna and the dressing. Toss well. Peel the eggs and cut into wedges. Divide the salad among 4 plates. Top with egg wedges and olives. Serve immediately.


Make Ahead Tip: Cook green beans, potatoes and eggs; dry, cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day.
Did you know hard boiled eggs are much easier to peel when the eggs are less fresh? It makes a huge difference!

What did you do last night?

I thought about cooking a nice barley "risotto" for dinner, but decided that wasn't exciting enough. Instead, I thought I'd spend 3 hours in the emergency room. You see, I had my lovely Shun knife sharpened a couple weeks ago, and I was cutting a rather wobbly quarter of an onion... then the knife went straight into my pinkie!

It was bad enough that I thought I needed to go to the emergency room. My friend Henry saved the day and drove me there, and Joe took a cab there from the loop. It was a lot of waiting, some painful cleaning out of the wound, and then three stitches. Much more eventful than the dinner and movie plan I'd initially had!

Now we'll just have to see how stitches in my pinkie finger affect the rest of my life. It doesn't hurt too badly, but having a bunch of gauze wrapped around my finger is pretty inconvenient...

Cooking First: I made steak!

No matter how much time I spend in my kitchen, there is always something new to try. Cooking a steak isn't exactly an intensive technique, but for me it was a huge accomplishment. Really, the milestone was not so much cooking the meat, but cooking and then eating a decent sized piece of red meat.

You see, I swore off red meat when I was 13, thanks to Oprah's episode on the dangers of beef, and my general pickiness about eating meat. I was a pretty average eater as a kid-- I had my aversions, but wasn't overly picky. As I got older, I grew into some of my tastes, learning to appreciate things like fresh summer tomatoes. I became a somewhat adventurous eater, trying things like escargot or frog's legs, and I started to feel like a bit of a fraud for refusing to eat any red meat. How could I be a foodie if I refused to eat a whole category of food that I wasn't even willing to taste! (Although I hate the word foodie, and the obnoxious outcomes of the recent food renaissance!)

Last spring Joe and I became vegetarian for Lent. During that time, I decided that once it was over, I was ready to try red meat again. It's funny how things have worked out, because we eat a vegetarian diet at least 75-85% of the time at this point... but I have learned to appreciate meat so much more when I do eat it. And it was only appropriate that a food and beer expert like Garrett Oliver would cook me my first grown up tastes of lamb and beef.

I've had some burgers since then, and sampled various cuts of beef and lamb with my food related jobs. Last week I suggested to Joe that we actually plan a meal that has meat as its main course, and he suggested steak. I grabbed the bull by the horns, researched steak cooking techniques from Anthony Bourdain and Thomas Keller, and bought some petite sirloin from Whole Foods. I also found a blue cheese compound butter recipe from Ina Garten, which was so indulgent and mind-numbingly delicious.  Roasted Brussels sprouts and boulangere potatoes (similar to this) rounded out the perfect dinner. I ended up only eating half of the steak, but I'd consider that a significant first step!

Also, let's talk about the butter. Four tablespoons of softened butter, 2 ounces of blue cheese, and a heaping tablespoon of minced scallions. You can blend it in your food processor, or if you hate cleaning your food processor, you can just smash it with a spoon until it's blended. Then, roll it into a log using some parchment paper, and toss it in the freezer for an hour or two. Top your steak with a big slice off the log, and be amazed. Then, save the rest of the butter for when you need to elevate a dish to a new level. Delish!

This is what blogging looks like...

This is what blogging looks like when you work 9 days in a row. I have two days I requested off during this week, but I requested off because I'm babysitting all day on Thurs and Fri. So today was day 4, which means I'm almost halfway done. So here I am, putting ice and heat on my sore knees, getting ready for bed... exciting life I lead, huh?!

Slowing Down to Enjoy the Little Things

I didn't have to work on Friday, so I decided to venture down to the loop. 

Stated reason? I needed to get new glasses at Macy's.

Real reason? I wanted to go explore!

I did successfully order the cutest new glasses, which I will show you as soon as I get them. Then, instead of tempting myself with shopping on State Street, I headed east towards the park.

I stumbled upon this lunchtime "Music Without Boarders" concert at the Chicago Cultural Center. It was a French Gypsy jazz group, and the few minutes I heard before they finished were pretty fun. Bad timing, though, and the show ended as soon as I settled in!

 I had to take time to walk around the Cultural Center.

Amazing architecture, and FREE art exhibits.

What more can you ask for?

On to one of my favorite places downtown.

It wasn't too cold out, so I walked around dreaming of warmer weather.

I love

picnics

and

concerts

and

frisbee

and

generally hanging out in Millennium Park pretty much all summer.

Obviously, not quite summer yet. Blah.

I saw a line of restored vintage cars, and thought it was strange but interesting.

Turns out the cars were part of the set for an upcoming NBC show that was filming its pilot.

I did not see any playboy bunnies.

Just actors in 1960's garb.

It was an unexpected little surprise, and a fun way to end my little adventure for the day.

Then I came home and made muffins and stuffed acorn squash.

I cleaned up and did my usual 8:30 bedtime, because that's what happens when you work at 5:00 am.

Not a bad Friday overall. There's something to be said for having days off work when most people are chained to their desk. Although there's also something to say about working weekends and insanely early hours. I'll let you decide what to say!

Have a great weekend!

Reason #537 Why I Love Chicago

We moved to Chicago in May of 2007, and I still regularly stop and think about how glad I am that we made the decision to try life in a big city. It was a big leap of faith to come here, especially since Kansas City was so comfortable for us. But we knew that there was somewhere out there where we would fit in better, somewhere people would think like us. Kansas City was a wonderful experience, and I have many fond memories and good friends from those years, but I had a gut feeling it just wasn't where we were meant to be. A lot of people questioned our decision. "It's expensive there!"... "There's no WalMart!" (Thank GOD!)... "It's so crowded!". It got a little annoying, honestly, but I just told myself that they didn't get it, and that different people want different things. My friend Andrea was a huge supporter of our plan, and I still am grateful to her for seeing how obvious it was that we belonged somewhere other than KC.

Our first weekend here, we discovered that we had more friends in the city than we realized! We went to meet a few of my old college friends at a street festival, and automatically had about 10 friends to hang out with. These Mizzou friends have become some of our closest, and we always have a great time hanging out with them. We've all brought other friends into the group, too, so while it's no longer all MU grads, it's a cool people that I love hanging out with!

(We don't only drink when we hang out... although it is a popular activity for this group!)

 We moved about 500 miles from Kansas City, and about 1000 miles from where I grew up... and I still managed to move close to two of the only friends from high school that I still kept in regular contact with.  Jess and Cathy are the kind of friends I can hang out with wearing sweatpants, and I can tell them anything. We were there for each other during the awkward and confusing years of growing up, and now it's fun to get together and enjoy our settled, normal, mature grown up lives. (Really we're not mature at all, but it sounds good that way!) I love these girls!


Celebrating Jess's birthday a couple years ago





Jess's husband and Joe have become great friends... and are really big dorks, but the fun kind of dorks!





Cathy and I got to take a cooking class one winter after our husbands coordinated on their Christmas gift-giving efforts. So fun!


Add in recent friends from my old jobs, and an incredibly rad group of book club ladies, and I start to get overwhelmed at how many amazing people I know in this city. If I have one complaint, it's that I don't have the time to hang out with all these great people nearly as much as I would like. We're so lucky to know as many smart, thoughtful, adventurous, crazy, and fun people as we do! Every time I reflect on the wonderful friendships I've made in the last four years, it confirms what a great decision it was to move to this great city. Life may not always be this smooth (God, just 6 months ago it wasn't this smooth), and we won't necessarily live here forever, but i know for sure that I'll always look back on these years as some of the best of my life!

Welcome to my Condo: Kitchen Tour

If you know me at all, it's no surprise to hear that I spend hours each day in my kitchen. I cook dinner almost every night, and love making bread, muffins, crackers, and just about anything else you can think of. Our kitchen is far from huge, and not exactly what I would call my 'dream kitchen'... but it has some merit. After a couple small and/or crappy apartments, I love the fact that this kitchen is in a condo that we own, and that I can do anything I want to make it my own. Honestly, there have been very few changes at this point (3 years into home ownership), but at least I know I could change things if I felt like it!

This hanging pot rack is an excellent example of something I couldn't have done before, when we rented an apartment. There are giant screws holding this thing up, and most landlords to not approve of that kind of thing! This rack was a splurge we bought at Crate and Barrel soon after moving in, and I can say we bought it out of necessity. See, our kitchen is small, and has limited storage. Our collection of kitchen equipment is on the larger side, and when we moved in we could only put our pots and pans in the oven. Obviously, this was not a great solution, and after preheating the pans a couple times, I convinced Joe we needed this pot rack. What a good purchase that was!

 

This cabinet is home to a few of my favorite things. First, the pasta roller (1). After assisting with a million pasta making classes at the Chopping Block, I had to have one. Not something I use everyday, but a very important part of my kitchen. Gotta represent my Italian heritage! Next, the plates (2)... not my favorite thing, but they are special because they are so freaking large that they don't fit in normal, above-the-counter cabinets. We mostly just use the top two again and again, because they're also too large for the dishwasher. That's what happens when you get married in a city without Crate and Barrel, and choose goofy (and expensive!) plates from Pottery Barn. Don't say I didn't warn you! The orange Le Creuset buffet/braiser (3) is my favorite kitchen purchase ever, because it's colorful and amazing for cooking almost anything. And my surprise item that is used more than I ever would have predicted... my kitchen scale (4). It's handy for so many kitchen tasks!

The cabinets above the stove and counter are full of all sorts of fun stuff... canning equipment, a meat grinder, sushi making gear, and all your normal baking supplies. Really, not too exciting up this way.

We have 4, yes FOUR, different coffee making devices in our small kitchen. Each has their own purpose. From left to right: The Senseo machine is our weekday go-to, providing coffee at the push of a button. The Bodum french press is great for loose leaf tea or coarsely ground coffee. The Bialetti stove top espresso maker is awesome for a small cup of the good stuff, or for the base of a homemade latte. And the regular coffee maker is a weekend requirement, for when we spent a couple hours bumming around the house, circling back for a second or third cup. We're pretty much constantly caffeinated.

That's pretty much everything. I warned you, this isn't the world's largest kitchen! Now you have a bit of an idea where I spend most of my time. What's your favorite room in your house?