Mmm mmmm good

Well, today I finally got something done...I called my college that I was AWOL at and began the readmission process. A small feeling of relief has come over me. I feel much better, but still have a ways to go before everything is fixed. This morning I made ropa vieja in the crockpot, and I must say, the oven has been relegated to a time-out. It's too fucking hot to cook! The crockpot is my new bff! The ropa vieja turned out awesome with white rice, and on Thursday, I'm making crockpot lasagne.

Getting Ready

Tomorrow is  Cinco de Mayo and I'm very excited.  I have my menu, and most of the ingredients.  Today is a prep day.  I will cut up and season the pork, make the flan and the tomatillo sauce and salsa.  That means tomorrow all I have to do is cook the pork and make the guacamole.  I try to go out to eat Mexican food on Cinco de Mayo, but being as we're so broke this year, I figured I'd do it myself.  We'll have plenty of leftovers.  Last night I made my version of ratatouille (without eggplant) with shrimp and white rice.  By Wednesday, I can use the rice in stuffed peppers with some of the pork and tomato sauce.  Tonight we will have Philly Cheese Steaks with shredded beef from TJ's.  I love food.

Later that same day...

Cheese steaks were super yummilicious!!! I made the salsa verde, the salsa de chile and the flan de coco y canela(with a healthy dose of 151!).  I roasted the tomatillos in the broiler for about 9 minutes and actually followed the recipe.  For the chile salsa I strayed a little bit.  First off, those chiles have been in my pantry since I tried to make mole about 4 years ago.  They were not pliable, I could not score them and devein and seed them.  I did the best I could by cracking them and shaking any loose seeds out, then soaking them in boiling water.  After,  I threw them in the food processor.   I didn't toast them, which may be sacriledge to some, but so would using up old-ass dried out chiles!  The soaking water didn't seem too bitter, so I used it, and I didn't strain it, as I wanted a somewhat chunky sauce, like the one in my favorite Mexican hole in the wall.  I possbly used ancho and pasilla chiles, as I forgot to label them and know I used three chiles in my mole.  My crazy pineapple drink is still hanging out in the bathtub, and I have the guacamole ingredients, save the avocado and tomato chopped up and ready to go.  DH even said he would try the flan!!!  I still have to cut up and season the pernil so it's ready to go tomorrow.  Did I mention I'm excited?!

It's almost Cinco de Mayo!!!

I'm very excited about eating Mexican food this week. No wonder TJ's had the guac kits on display when you first enter the store. I've decided on my favorite: carnitas. I will be braising pork butt in lard. I'm so excited!!!

I'm officially obsessed!!! I had no idea that Cinco de Mayo was this week. (I know it's funny, but it's because I wasn't thinking about it!) I bought refried beans, and blue corn chips and a guacamole kit, but wasn't even aware how soon I would need them!!! Upon further research, I've decided to put together a menu.

Blue Corn Tortilla Chips and Salsa and Guacamole (I ate half the bag, and now will have to hide them from DH)
Carnitas with Salsa Verde

and Chili Sauce
Tepache (Mexican lightly fermented pineapple drink)

Coconut Flan

Well, the tepache is sitting in the bathtub, where it can ferment and bubble and spill out all it wants if it is inclined to do so.  It should be ready by Tuesday night.  I put the piloncillo in the food processor with the grater blade and only used 16 oz, and I used the whole pineapple, including the flesh.  After sampling the dark, rich, piloncillo, all I can say is yes, it's brown sugar, but the flavor is different then your regular Domino brown sugar.  I would make the effort to find it-it's gooooood!

Foodie Survey!!!

1. How do you like your eggs?
Runny yolks all the way!!!! Over easy, poached, soft-boiled, hard-boiled, shirred, baked, omelette, scrambled-but still soft.

2. How do you take your coffee/tea?
Tea with sugar or honey with/without milk or lemon. Herbal, black, green, except I hate white tea and rooibus. Gross. My fave teas are strawberry black tea and rose black tea.

3. Favorite breakfast food:
Chocolate-any way I can.

4. Peanut butter: Smooth or crunchy?
Creamy, with added sugar, no doubt!

5. What kind of dressing on your salad?
Depends on my mood. French, vinaigrette, honey-mustard, blue cheese, I pretty much eat them all.

6. Coke or Pepsi?
Uh, Dr. Pepper.

7. You’re feeling lazy, what do you make?
Pasta with butter, peas and parmesean cheese.

8. You’re feeling really lazy. What kind of pizza do you order?
I hate pizza, but if I must, either buffalo chicken or hawaiian.

9. You feel like cooking. What do you make?
Whatever the voices in my head tell me to...

10. Do any foods bring back good memories?
Tacos are my all time fun food.

11. Do any foods bring back bad memories?
Overcooked steak reminds me of skirt steak cooked in the toaster oven as a child. I remember chewing and chewing and chewing, UGH!

12. Do any foods remind you of someone?
My friend's grandma used to make awesome coconut candy from fresh coconuts and whenever I see it, I think of her making it in the kitchen.

13. Is there a food you refuse to eat?
Anything with eyes or other body parts attached that look like they may walk or swim off my plate.

14. What was your favorite food as a child?
I've blocked out most of my childhood :O I can't remember.

15. Is there a food that you hated as a child but now like?
Lots of foods, mostly strongly flavored ones, like sauerkraut, mustard, pickles, horseradish, wasabi, jalepenos, black pepper.

16. Is there a food that you liked as a child but now hate?
Not really.

17. Favorite fruit and vegetable:
I like most fruits and veggies, but like all berries and I don't have a favorite veggie. I do like brussels sprouts more than most people, though.

18. Favorite junk food:
Nachos.

19. Favorite between meal snack:
Whatever's in arms reach.

20. Do you have any weird food habits?
When I eat pomegranates, I have to carefully peel and take out all the seeds intact, put them in a bowl, clean up the mess and wash my hands before I eat it by the handful.

21. You’re on a diet. What food(s) do you fill up on?
I'm not nor have I ever been on a diet.

22. You’re off your diet. Now what would you like?
See #21

23. How spicy do you order Indian/Thai?
I usually take it however it comes.

24. Can I get you a drink?
Depending on my mood: Fun party-frozen and fruity Classy party-Cosmopolitan Bar-Jack and Coke Cafe-Grapefruit and Campari (it's kinda gross, but you get used to it)

25. Red or White Wine?
Depends. Beaujolais or Reisling. (Have you guessed I need sugar in my life?)

26. Favorite dessert?
Don't usually eat dessert after dinner, but will eat pie for any meal.

27. The perfect nightcap?
My bed.

All Mac'd out

So, we didn't win, but that's OK! We looked good, ate well, and met new people. What more is there? The place was a bit of mayhem, and I never really go to Brooklyn, but the impression I got was the general attitude is everybody has come from somewhere else in the country and now that they are New Yorkers, they're too cool to talk to people. There was a trend of having a blank, forlorn expression when looking out into the crowd. J and I are SO the opposite. We smile, are friendly and like to talk to everyone. We felt like we stuck out like sore thumbs with our corsets and macaroni earrings! I guess pink mohair and green reptile are not in fashion at this time in that section of Williamsburg. To be fair, there were some people who were friendly and commented on J's fabulous macaroni jewelery, and I do have phobia of not looking cool and being an outsider when I go to new places, so some of it may have been in my head, but no matter. It's just not the type of place I'm used to going. Had there been drag queens...

Anyway, there was a ton of great macaroni to eat and some bland macaroni. To be fair, ours wasn't the best. We did like the one that ultimately won, a concoction called "Sweet Cheezus." Our most fav, though, had Gruyere cheese in it. The two main problems I had with our entry were that the color was not as appetizing as it could have been. Next time, I'm reaching for the annatto. The other thing is we were so unsure of how many people would be there that we overestimated the amount of macaroni to use, and because we are broke, underestimated the amount of cheese sauce we would need. To make it clear, our macaroni and cheese was on the dry side, not hot and gooey and bubbly, like I had envisioned it. Everything else worked, though, and it had a nice bite to it from the mustard and the cayenne pepper. We only went through one tray, so we took the other one home, divied it up and will have it for lunch. This is not the last time the s'MACdown will hear from us!

Competition Time!

So...I'm very excited! J and I are going to be in a Mac and Cheese cook off on Wednesday called, get this, the s'MACdown! We are competing with Welsh Rarebit Mac and Cheese. (Note: This is a dish I scarcely heard of, never mind cooked in my years on this earth. I hear people eat it in bars, and found it when I was looking up fondue mac and cheese, another variation I'd be happy to chow down on.) I've been debating what shape pasta is best for mac and cheese, but have come up empty handed. I saw some campanula-shaped pasta (bells) that looked good. I am very picky when it comes to pasta shapes. I absolutely do not like shells, despising the way that they cup each other to become thick, toothy pasta blobs. Bowties are ok, but I don't like the way they lay flat on one another. Elbows are good, but i don't like small pasta for mac and cheese. I feel like they should be bigger. I will be looking for larger elbows and frilly bell thingys. Good luck to me. (I really wanted to find rabbit-shaped pasta so I could call it "Welsh Rabbit" and it would be funny, but it's short notice to find rabbit pasta before Valentine's Day, locally.) They will be cooked tomorrow, and kept in the fridge to cut down on prep time on Wednesday. J is coming over so we can prep everything, so Wednesday, all I have to do is throw it all together and put it in the oven. I know there will be dry mustard and sweet Hungarian paprika, and I never put paprika in anything without a generous dash of cayenne pepper, to spice it up a bit. There will be bacon, too. Not fancy bacon, but crispy crunchy well-done bacon. There will also be beer, however, the jury is out on which kind, though Guinness is probably a no go, since it will affect the color of the dish in a not-so-positive way. Lastly is cheese. Oh the cheese. There are a zillion different cheeses I can go with. My criteria is pretty simple. It must be easy to find, affordable and taste good. Having something to do with the motherland would be nice, too.

As for the cheese part, my greatest fear (when making cheese sauce) is that the cheese will break. There is not much that can break my heart deeper than broken cheese. I can fix cake, improvise, improve, adapt. I can make gravy, roast chicken, barbeque a turkey, but to date, have NEVER been able to make a velvety smooth cheese sauce. Once it breaks, there is not much to fix it. I'd rather break a custard than break a cheese sauce! There is much research to do these next two days...