Matt and Erin's Food Blog

to be widowed by video games and football...

so I decided to bake some bread tonight.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread (to be iced tomorrow)

Happened to watch Tyler Florence's "Mother's Day Brunch" special on the Food Network this morning. He was making this awesome looking potato hash with salmon and poached eggs. AND I WANTED IT!! I didn't have any salmon, but honestly, it was the poached egg and hash I was craving anyway. So I fixed this:




What a yummy breakfast!

My pet project for this spring/summer season is to grow 100% organic, heirloom vegetables. This is the extent to which I love food. Gives new meaning to "cooking from scratch."






The seeds you see in this tray are only a small portion of the seeds I bought this year. These are primarily peppers and tomatoes - they need a bit of an indoor head start. I'll be planting the rest of my veggies directly into the soil: varieties of melons I've never even heard of, eggplants, beans, peas, peppers, tomatoes. Some of the varieties I bought specifically because they are on the brink of extinction. Did you know that many of the world's major seed and food suppliers are (have been) genetically engineering their veggies without seeds? The result is that farmers can't save and replant these seeds from year to year. They must buy genetically engineered seeds every year. The heirloom varieties become rarer and rarer.

In essence, in addition to having delicious and unusual fruits and vegetables, I will be helping to keep some plant species alive. :)

I decided to remake the steak dinner from my last photo-less entry so that I could entice you all with delicious, juicy, meat pics. To see how I prepared the steak, see my earlier entry: haus-ouslander.livejournal.com/2008/12/28/


mmmmmm, meaty!



The only difference is that this time I didn't have any red wine to deglaze the pan, so I used balsamic vinegar and reduced it to a thick syrup. I also made some broccoli. I thought it was yummy, but Matt said, "Too salty!" He's probably right. I have an unusual salt threshold; I have to keep this in mind when company comes over. Not everyone loves salt as much as me! Also I love MSG. yum yum yum! 




So there's a close up of the broccoli. I tossed the cooked broccoli in a sauce I made out of butter, brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper, and then sprinkled a few cashews on top. It was the soy sauce that made it a bit too salty (for Matt, anyway). I thought it was pretty yummy. Next time, I will use a bit less sauce (or add more broccoli!)

Backdated Meals!

Bangers n' Mash




Butternut Squash Soup and Chicken Pitas
The soup was from Trader Joe's. And, I have to say, one of the first Trader Joe's disappointments I've found. Not very tasty.




Pierogies




Seared Ahi Tuna on Greens with freshly grated Parmesan (Matt made this one!)

It's been a few months, in fact.

You probably just assumed I'd died of starvation, right? Actually, it's a little known fact that I AM LAZY. yea.

***

Last night I had a steak epiphany.

Honestly, I'd kind of forgotten about this food blog until last night's steak breakthrough. (steak-through?)

It was quite possibly the most amazing steak I'd ever had, let alone prepared myself. the steak that could absolutely KILL all other steaks. Tender enough to eat with a fork, flavorful enough that I actually felt sad when it was gone, easy enough to prepare that it seemed... wrong.

And you're just going to have to believe me because I don't have a picture.

I started out with two really cheapo steaks - I think they were just chuck steaks (like $2.50 each). After seasoning each side with just salt and pepper, I seared them on each side in a very hot, cast-iron skillet. Only a few minutes on each side. These babies were still mooing in the center. I transfered the steaks to a plate to rest while I deglazed the skillet with red wine, making a sauce out of all of those magical steak bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. While this was simmering, I mixed softened butter with a small minced onion, parsley, garlic, chives and pepper. After spooning the yummy pan drippings onto each steak, I added about a teaspoon of this softened herb butter on each steak and served immediately. The herb butter melted all over the hot meat. or was it hawt? Yea, it was pretty sexy.

:P

We had chicken burgers last night. Pretty good. Nothing fancy. I needed to do a quick dinner so that I could concentrate on picture #2



Tonight is “Greek food night,” so I made a baklava. It was fun, but time consuming - I’d never made one before. Kind of like making a lasagne. Also for “Greek night,” I have a leg of lamb in the slow cooker so we can make gyros when we get home! stay tuned!

since this is the first entry, I'm just going to paste up three pictures at the same time - some stuff that's been cooked over the past week. Each picture is a little better than the next, so I think I'm getting the hang of taking a good food picture.

The first is a Trader Joe's pot roast I made in the slow cooker. It was a lot better than it looks in the picture. All the meat was "fall-off-the-bone-yummy," By the way, I'll probably plug Trader Joe's a lot in this blog. They have the most delicious EVERYTHING (except fresh produce...oh well) - and most things are reasonably priced, too. Also, I definitely recommend the Graham Beck Cabernet pictured. I think it's my favorite wine right now.



Picture #2 is a pot pie I made with the leftovers from picture #1. I think it's the best crust I've ever made - it was just right - flaky and buttery and crispy. I think the secret to a good pie crust is not following the recipe too exactly. I always use my grandmother's recipe for pie crust, but I think I follow it too closely.



This last picture is from last night's dinner. It is Gnocchi with Marinara sauce - both from Trader Joe's. I added some olive oil and cheese and fresh basil from my herb garden. Nothing fancy, but I think it's the best picture so far. :)

This is where we'll be posting pictures of all the stuff we cook at home. why?...  why not?