It snowed... a lot

My favorite part is when they call for 'Thundersnow'

This winter, our area has received a ton of snow!  Much more than I can ever remember. To date, we have had two blizzards that have each dropped at least 15" on us- thanks, El Nino!! The first one (December 19th) got us one day off of work, and was a baby storm compared to the blizzard the week of February 8th, which brought almost 2 feet of snow and closed down the federal government for almost an entire week. This lead to a week of sleeping in, relaxing, making yummy food, and playing endless amounts of wii. SWEET! Oh, yeah, and there was shoveling... a lot of shoveling...

Scenes from digging out the car: 

left: 2/6/10; right: 12/20/09; Getting ready to save the car from snow- AGAIN!

2/6/10: We split up the work between sweeping off the car and shoveling a path around the car

12/20/09: "Help me!" I fell down in the snow!!!

  

left: 2/6/10; right: 12/20/09; The cars look like giant bugs with the windshield wipers protruding out of the snow...

Before and After: 

The evening of 2/5/10 and the morning of 2/6/10: before and after the giant snowfall...

  

2/5/10 and 2/6/10: before and after part II- the poor birdie froze!!

Walking around the Winter Wonderland:

 2/6/10: walking around after the storm

It was very beautiful to see the neighborhood covered in snow.  It was also awkward to navigate the unshoveled sidewalks and snow banks on the side of the road, not to mention mildly dangerous if you walked where it was icy, as we found out when we took walks around to view the new snowfall.  By the time we got back home, we had snow all over us and were freezing and ready for dinner!! 

 

2/6/10: the trees were weighted down with the snow, and several lost branches...

The February storm was a very heavy snow that stuck to the trees.  Several trees lost large branches, especially the pine trees. 

12/20/09: Digging out from the blizzard, Part I

12/20/09: venturing out into the storm to measure the snowfall- 15" and counting

Snow Day = Brunch Time

As a result of our epic snowstorm last weekend, we had off work for 4 days (Monday through Thursday). On the typical weekday, or even weekend, our breakfasts aren't usually exciting (toast, cereal, etc), so this was the perfect opportunity for eating brunches! On Tuesday we made french toast and bacon, and on Wednesday, we made waffles and sausage. It was a great way to start our snowy day, and good fuel for all the shoveling that followed!

I used the Pioneer Woman's Perfect Pancake recipe, and it worked really well. The waffle maker is a belgian waffle maker, so our waffles were thick, yet very light and fluffy (probably from the high amount of baking powder in the recipe), and had a light buttery-vanilla taste. The recipe made enough for 5 full-sized waffles, so there were no skimpy servings here. We even had enough left over for another brunch/lunch/dinner serving for one.

The only complicating factor was that the recipe calls for (and strongly suggests/recommends) the use of cake flour. Considering the storm and all, I was not about to venture out to a store (which may or may not be open) to find cake flour, so I googled coversion factors between cake flour and all purpose flour, and found that 1 cup 2 Tbsp cake flour is equivalent to 1 cup AP flour (see Joy of Baking for more info). Alternatively, I could have made my own cake flour by combing 3/4 cup AP flour with 2 tbsp cornstartch to make 1 cup cake flour. The main difference between the two is that cake flour has a lower protein content and is used to make more delicate baked goods. I weighed out my flour to make sure I used the amount called for.

We ate the waffles with Bob Evan's maple syrup flavored sausage. Pan fried, they were juicy and delicious!! We also had some tea: orange pekoe tea with some sweetened condensed milk stirred in- yum!! The maple syrup was the last of the containers we brought back home from our Maine vacation in October, 2009.

Melvin's Waffles

(adapted from: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/perfect-pancakes/)

388.9 grams (approx 2 3/4) cups AP flour

½ tsp Salt
3 Tbsp Baking Powder
2 Tbsp Sugar
2 cups Milk
2 whole Large Eggs
3 tspVanilla
4 Tbsp Butter

Maple Syrup and Powdered sugar for topping

Mix together dry ingredients in large bowl. Add milk, eggs, vanilla and melted butter. Stir gently until just combined.

Place batter in waffle maker and cook according to waffle maker instructions, or until waffles are golden brown. Our belgian waffle maker used ~1 cup batter per round of waffles, and each waffle took about 7-8 minutes to cook fully (but I kept on opening up the waffle maker to check the waffles, as the waffle maker doesn't have a 'done' light or timer). Note that the batter puffs up quite a bit during cooking, so don't overfill the waffle maker, or it will overflow or puff up so that the waffle maker doesn't fully close (the latter happened to us).

Serve with maple syrup, butter and powdered sugar

Roll cake is a glorious confection

Due to the dire warnings of impending blizzard doom (or 'Snowmageddon', as I heard it referenced as on the news multiple times) this past weekend, we did a large grocery shopping trip last Thursday to make sure we wouldn't starve during the storm. One of the stores we went to was the Kam Sam supermarket in Rockville. Our originial purpose in going there was to replenish our stash of pork ribs, but (somewhat predictably), I was purusing the bakery section when I saw the perfect breakfast for the weekend- roll cake! And not just any roll cake, but tiger roll cake!! I have always been a fan of roll cake, which is a sponge cake that is formed into a swiss roll, with a cream filling (commonly buttercream) holding the swiss roll together. It can be either baked or steamed. Both are good, but I prefer baked, as the cake will get a light crust and golden brown coloring on the outside, which is both aesthetically pleasing and tasty. It is light, not too sweet, and delicious in the morning with tea. Sometimes the roll cake is chocolate, or even matcha flavored, but we have always been traditionalists and gone with good old vanilla. That is, until this particular supermarket visit, where I saw a roll cake that had some sort of covering that looked like an egg dough that had been seared or something similar to get the dark 'tiger' pattern on it (I have been unable to find instructions on how to get the tiger roll skin so far online). In truth, the pattern was more leopard than tiger, but that is irrelevant, as it was pure awesome! Inside, the cake wasn't a swiss roll, but a combination of a variety of different sponge cakes, all held together with the ubiquitous and delicious cream filling. This particular tiger cake was made up of vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and orange cakes. I like to pick it apart and eat all the flavors separately, but that's just my preference.

After having this roll cake, I am in love! Why buy a single flavor roll cake, when you can have 4 different flavors in one cake? And because it has more pieces of cake in it, it requires more frosting- it's a win all around! Plus, this cake is slightly larger than the normal roll cake, presumably because so much more cake is crammed into it, but that just means more for us to eat! Yay! I can't say anything for how long this cake will stay good, because it only lasted the weekend (that would be 3 breakfasts for 2 people, or 12 slices, since we each ate two slices per morning), but we stored it in the fridge and it wasn't any worse for wear by Sunday morning. The roll cake was $7, compared to their 'normal' roll cakes, which run at $6. This always seems expensive to me when I buy them, but it is the normal price- I can't find quality roll cakes of similar size much cheaper in the DC area. The best I can get is $5, so really $7 isn't that extravagent.

We also bought two pieces of cake from their bakery- one coffee and one chocolate (not pictured because I smushed them in their baggies on the way home by accident- oops!). The cakes were sponge cake with flavored icings and chocolate shavings on top. They were pretty good, though small. Each cake was $1.50.

Yay for bakeries!

Beef Noodle Stir Fry

If we were marooned on a desert island with only one carb choice, we'd be sitting under a palm tree eating rice for the rest of eternity. Not to say that we don't love noodles (and I have much love for some quality pad see ew), but the only time we eat noodles in a dinner we make at home is probably for wonton noodle soup, or the occasional spaghetti and meatballs. We've tried stir frying noodles before, and we ended up with a gummy ball of noodles that had congealed together and were not easy at all to cook. So as a general rule, we try to leave the whole noodle thing to the pros, and stick with our trusty and reliable rice cooker. However, we saw this recipe posted on the Steamy Kitchen blog, and decided to give stir fried noodles another go.

With our last noodle dish (read: the godzilla sized ball of cemented together noodles with some meat and veggies stuck on the outside), we used dried rice noodles- vermicelli- and had boiled them briefly, then stuck them in the wok to finish cooking. To minimize the chances of this happening again, we used frozen cooked egg noodles this time, which we could just thaw and dump into the wok.

There are a few things we will do differently next time. First, the recipe does not have you chop up the gai lan (chinese broccoli), but rather has you cook it whole. I would prefer to chop up my gai lan into 3" segments (like we do with yu choy), which are easier to pick up, a lot easier and less messy to eat, and also make the dish seem to have more veggie in it. While we did put a full pound of gai lan in this dish, it is only 10 or so stalks, so it is impossible to get portions of veggie in every bite. And each stalk is on the large size, so it is kind of like eating a never ending spaghetti noodle, except 10 times as big and dripping with sauce. Also, it takes longer to have the intact gai lan steam in the wok due to the size of the stalks. All these issues would be eliminated by chopping up the veggie. Second, the sauce did not have much flavor to it- it fell flat. We punched it up by adding some chilli garlic sauce, and that gave it some kick. Third, we felt that this stir fry would benefit from some other additions, like scramble egg, or mushrooms. Perhaps it was from the fact that the gai lan wasn't chopped up, but there were a lot of bites of just noodle, where you wished there was something else in there.

This recipe makes enough for two generous dinner servings. We had enough for a dinner for two, plus a small amount left over for a lunch for one the next day. Overall, we thought this dish was pretty tasty.

Beef Noodle Stir Fry
(adapted from: http://steamykitchen.com/4997-broccoli-beef-noodle-stir-fry.html)



3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1/2 pound beef sirloin, thinly sliced
1 pound fresh noodles
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 large garlic cloves finely chopped
1 1/4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 pound gai lan
Ground black pepper
Chilli Garlic sauce (we used Lee Kum Kee brand) to taste (a few tsp)

In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 tablespoon each soy sauce, oyster sauce and rice wine. Add the sugar and continue to whisk until completely dissolved. Stir in the corn starch and continue stirring until smooth. Add the sesame oil and beef, and mix well. Marinate for 20 minutes. Drain and discard the excess marinade.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil in a skillet or wok over high heat and stir-fry the garlic until fragrant, about 1o seconds. Add the beef and stir-fry until tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil and when hot, add the Chinese broccoli, stir frying so that the oil coats the Chinese broccoli. Pour in the 1/4 cup of the stock, turn the heat to medium-low and cover with a tight fitting lid. Cook the Chinese broccoli until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the Chinese broccoli to the same plate.



Add the remaining cup of stock and the remaining 2 tablespoons each of soy sauce, oyster sauce, and rice wine to the same skillet and bring to a boil overhigh heat.

Add the noodles and cook until the liquid has almost completely evaporated, leaving the noodles lightly moistened,2 to 3 minutes. Return the beef and broccoli to the skillet and toss to mix the ingredients thoroughly. Season with pepper to taste and serve.

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday Dear Rachel,

Happy Birthday to you!

AND MANY MORE!!!

Love, Melvin

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Chicken rice is to regular rice what a Ghiradelli hot chocolate made with cream and milk is to hot cocoa. It takes regular rice to a whole new level of deliciousness! Basically, it is rice that is lightly toasted/fried in a wok and then made with chicken broth instead of water. Why have rice, when you can have CHICKEN RICE! And furthermore, why have chicken rice, when you can have chicken rice with Hainanese chicken and ginger chili dipping sauce? I can't imagine any instance where I would ever turn down this meal. We love chicken rice so much, we took advantage of cooking this meal and made a whopping 6 cups of rice so that we would have enough to eat for dinners the rest of the week. If you steam the rice to reheat it, it tastes just like fresh.

Hainanese chicken rice is a great dish made of a few simple components: poached chicken, sliced cucumbers, ginger chili sauce and chicken rice. It's also an extremely useful dish to make, as it generates a large quantity of divine chicken stock which can be frozen and used for a multitude of other dishes later; such as: wonton noodle soup, egg drop soup, use a little when stir frying veggies, and the impromptu batch of chicken rice. Cooking the chicken and making this stock will fill your apartment with one of the best smells on earth!

I, for one, am a huge devotee of the chili ginger sauce, and have been known, on occasion, to try and scoop as much sauce as I can onto each piece of chicken, and then drain the last of the sauce dish into my rice so not a drop goes to waste. It is spicy, gingery and addictive. Don't say I didn't warn you!

We have made Hainanese chicken rice several times, and we think that this version is the best (from the Steamy Kitchen blog- http://www.steamykitchen.com/- a great site!). It is the addition of the aromatics in the rice that takes it up to the next level.

Hainanese Chicken Rice
adapted from: http://steamykitchen.com/5068-hainanese-chicken-rice.html

1 whole chicken (3.5 lbs)
Salt
4 inch section of fresh ginger, in 1/4 inch slices
2 green onions, cut into 1″ sections (both the green and white parts)
1 teaspoon sesame oil

RICE
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 inch section of ginger, finely minced
6 cups uncooked jasmine rice, rinsed
6 ½ cups reserved chicken poaching broth
½ teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon salt

CHILI SAUCE
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoon reserved chicken poaching broth
2 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoon chili garlic sauce (we used Lee Kum Kee brand)
4 cloves garlic
1 inch
a generous pinch of salt, to taste

1 cucumber, sliced

Directions

1. To clean the chicken, with a small handful of salt, rub the chicken all over, getting rid of any loose skin and dirt. Wash and pat very dry inside and outside. Season generously with salt inside and outside.

2. Stuff the chicken with the ginger slices and the green onion. Place the chicken in a large stockpot and fill with cold water to cover by 1 inch. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then immediately turn the heat to low to keep a simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes more (less if you’re using a smaller chicken). Check for doneness by sticking a chopstick into the flesh under the leg and see if the juices run clear or insert a thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh not touching bone. It should read 170F.

3. When the chicken is cooked through, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner. Immediately transfer the chicken into a bath of ice water to cool. Don’t forget to reserve the poaching broth for your rice and your sauce. The quick cooling will stop the cooking process, keeping the meat soft and tender, and giving the skin a lovely firm texture.

4. To cook the rice: Drain the rice. In a wok or sauce pan (use a medium sauce pan if you plan on cooking the rice on the stove top), heat 3 tablespoons of cooking oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add the ginger and the garlic and fry until your kitchen smells like heaven. Be careful not to burn the aromatics! Add in your drained rice and stir to coat, cook for 2 minutes. Add the sesame oil, mix well. Pour aromatics and rice (after frying) into your rice cooker, add 6 ½ cups of your reserved poaching broth and salt.

5. While your rice is cooking, remove the chicken from the ice bath and rub the outside of the chicken with the sesame oil. Carve the chicken for serving.

6. To make the chili sauce: Mix your chili sauce ingredients in a bowl

Serve the chicken rice with chili sauce and cucumber slices. Sometimes, this dish is served with some of the chicken broth on the side as a soup.

Mamma Mia, that's a tasty pizza!

Making pizza for dinner is an all day process, but the results are well worth it. Plus, pizza is fun- you can eat it with your hands, and who doesn't love that? We hadn't had a pizza in a while (even take-out pizza from Papa Johns or something), so a few weekends ago (January 3rd), we decided it was high time for a pizza weekend.

The recipe we use is originally from allrecipies.com, but it is tweaked a little bit based on our tastes/preferences. This recipe does not require a long rising time for the dough, but in the multiple times we've made it, we've realized that the pizza turns out better if you let the dough rise- it's easier to roll out to a larger size, and the crust is lighter and more airy (note: the end result without the rise time is not bad- the alternative is just better). We have also tried different cooking methods regarding the pizza stone. I know that in 'real' pizza making, you are supposed to heat up the pizza stone first and then put the pizza on the searing hot stone to achieve a really crispy crust, etc, but without a pizza peel, it is extremely difficult (in my opinion/experience) to slide a pizza, complete with toppings, from a baking sheet or other surface onto a hot pizza stone in your low to the ground oven. In the times that I tried, the pizza inevitably had at least one gaping hole torn in it, and the toppings clumped together in different sections of the pizza, ruining my carefully arranged pizza. DRAT! The end result was not bad eating, but was ugly as sin. DRAT DRAT! And I didn't even think that the crust was crispier or better than when I just roll the pizza out and put it and the stone into the preheated oven all at once. The only difference is that perhaps the crust gets a little bit better color on it. Not worth the hassle, in my opinion. Maybe a pizza peel would make it easier, but I can't imagine any scenario where I can take a pizza, weighted down with sauce and toppings, and easily transfer it to the oven without destroying it- there is always at least one part of the dough that insists on sticking to the surface it's resting on.

Pepperoni used to be our go to meat topping, but lately, we've realized that cut up sausage (breakfast style or italian) are also delicious! Green peppers make a regular appearance. What I really like about this pizza are the herbs in the crust itself- it tastes great, and makes it smell even better. The chunks of tomatoes in the sauce, rather than a completely pureed texture sauce, is also a plus in my book. And of course- don't ever skimp on the cheese!!

The sauce recipe makes enough for two pizzas, so we usually make a complete batch, and then freeze half for the next time we make pizza. In a true display of our love for getting our money's worth out of everything, we have also found that you can freeze cheese quite nicely. For instance, we purchase the pre-shredded cheese packages (usually about 2 1/2 cups per package). Our typical pizza (~10 inches), maybe uses 1/3 of this package. Since we're not avid cheese easters, the leftover cheese usually goes to waste- perhaps making it into a toasted cheese sandwich or two. So freezing it really comes in handy! You might also be intrigued to learn that tomato paste also freezes well.

Pizza Crust (adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Quick-and-Easy-Pizza-Crust/Detail.aspx)

Ingredients

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour (don't use AP)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp onion powder (or 1/2 tsp dried minced onion), 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Directions

• In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
• Stir in flour, salt, herbs and oil. Beat until smooth.
• Place in a large bowl, cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place for a few hours (I typically make the dough mid-morning, and bake the pizza around 6pm). Alternatively, you can make the dough and immediately roll into a round and bake, if desired.

Pizza Sauce (adapated from
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pizza-Sauce-and-Dough/Detail.aspx)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1 (14 ounce) can roma tomatoes, with juice
• 1 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 1/2 tablespoon basil
• 1/2 tablespoon parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

• Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions until tender.
• Stir in garlic, and cook for 1 minute. Crush tomatoes into saucepan.
• Add tomato paste, basil, parsley and oregano. Simmer for 10 minutes.

To Make the Pizza:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knead for a few minutes, and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a pizza stone dusted with cornmeal.
• Spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving.