Update!

I am having to put the blog on hold for a few weeks because May is the month of weddings in Michigan for me. I don’t have alot of free time these days to cook or post due to travelling and hanging with family.

Additionally, school is also being pretty rough this month. I have applied to a teaching program at Northwestern, submitted an abstract to Neuroscience, and am completing my last last (no seriously, this really is my last) grad school class this month.

With any luck, I will post again soon. Here is a teaser shot of my next post – Horchata cake:

Marathon Training: week 15/37

Day 3: 05/04 – I got up at 6:30 this morning and ran. I am not a fan of morning runs because I am a) not a morning person and b) not as good at running in the morning. It is as if I feel stiffer when I run right after I wake up. This run was pretty brutal despite only being 3 miles. Just three miles and I walked maybe 3 times for 30s at a time. I just felt heavy and tired. But the race is in the morning so I should get used to morning runs. From my experience today, I should also get used to this:

Day 2: 05/03 – Chris, Linus and I ran for three miles outside! It was a good run but I was a bit sore afterwards. No knee/ankle problems though. Linus is getting better and better at running although he nearly got me when he spotted a squirrel. He hates squirrels.

Day 1: 05/02- Chris and I went on our first lakeshore bike ride. We rode for about 45 minutes and had a blast. I hope we keep this up and maybe get some more Lincoln Square friends included

Carnitas

Recipe at a Glance

3 lbs pork butt
2 tbs kosher salt (more or less depending on how you cut your meat)
1 1/2 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cup water

This time of the year is always a bit crazy. It is the end of the semester for Chris so this means that dishes get washed with less frequency, deep dish pizza gets ordered more often, and there is little time to spend in the kitchen. Just prior to this year’s week of No Chris, he took me out to a date at Xoco, the taquiera-esque installation of the Frontera brand. Here we had the best Churros of our lives. They were  fresh, lightly dusted with cocoa, and served in batches of 3 – creating difficult compromises on a date.

Now that finals week has passed, much time is devoted to having a beer or two in celebration and reconnecting with friends that have been neglected in writing this paper or that. At the first barbecue of the year yesterday, Chris and I shared our recommendation for Xoco. One of Chris’s classmates mentioned that she had no idea what a churro was while another mentioned that she had no idea what horchata was. I immediately wanted to retreat into the safe confines of Homesick Texan where the chili never has beans and the salsa is always spicy.

Upon moving to Chicago, I obsessively searched out the best Tex-Mex and mexican food I could find. I knew the Midwest couldn’t be the flavorless tundra that it was rumored to be. I have since found the best taquiera, the best late-night burrito, the best mole, and now, the best churro to be found next to an elevated train line. I also found out this weekend, that not everyone is quite as enthusiastic as me at garnering that sort of information. And here is where I share a little secret, the first meal we had in Chicago, when our dishes were still in boxes, was at a nearby Taco Bell. (We have since never gone back.)

Today’s recipe is for Carnitas, otherwise know to me as the best easy-to-make, weeklong-lasting way to cook meat out there. Carnitas is braised pork cooked long enough to break down the fat and connective tissue of the pork butt, and then cooked at a slightly higher heat to crisp up the edges just slightly. I have usually seen carnitas served in a taco or sprinkled on nachos. At my house though, it has been served on top of a pizza, as part of a salad, or on a sandwich with BBQ sauce. Today though, we went with the traditional taco.

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Marathon Training: Week 14/37

Wow, these weeks are going by fast.

I just completed 6 weeks of no running due to Achilles tendonitis brought about by me being generally dumb and overtraining before I was ready for it.

Anyways, I started running again last week doing very short interval runs on the treadmill every other day. Only this week have I started back for reals with the training.

I have now modified my training plan to incorporate appropriate mileage goals on the week. I will be using (a slightly modified version of) Hal Higdon’s Novice Supreme schedule.

Day 1, 04/25: 30 minutes of interval running (4 min running at 5.0-5.5 mph with 2 min walks at 4.2 mph) on treadmill

Day 2, 04/26: 2.5 mile run with 0.5 mile brisk walk followed with body weight strength training. Linus came with me!

Day 3, 04/27: rest day. I find it hard to make myself rest now that I can run again. It helps that there was a Paws happy hour today where we could meet the rest of the marathon team. From this one happy hour, I gather that we are 95% female. So if you like puppies, and like women that run, then Paws is the fundraiser for you.

Day 4, 04/28: I ran 2.75 miles straight today. It was pretty rough because I got a cavity filled two hours before I went and ran. Insensitivity to lidocaine makes for a trying dental visit.

Day 5, 04/29: 2 mile run at a slow pace to get focus on my form.

Day 6, 04/30: rest day. Totally restless instead.

Day 7, 05/01: 3 miles and change run today during the heat of the day. In Chicago that isn’t saying much. I am going to have to figure out how to run in the morning when it is cooler or there will be problems this summer.

Over all, a successful week!

How to quick-soak dried beans

The one dish that my mom would make from scratch whenever the opportunity arose was a huge pot of pinto beans. And by opportunity, I mean the one night of the week, no month, when she was actually able to take the time to soak dried beans over night, thrown in a ham hock (I am sure that stores still sell these although I have never seen one), and then cook them all day. They were and still are phenomenal and my favorite dish to have whenever I get home to see my parents. Seeing my parents is an rare occasion despite how my mom’s beans call to me. I mean, she could put the beans on to soak, and have them fully cooked in the time it would take me to get to there. Alas, I must make beans myself.

Far be it for me to fix something that a’int broke, but I usually don’t have the foresight, or the desire to soak beans overnight when I can pop open a can in under thirty seconds. However, dried beans somehow taste infinitely better than canned. So when I read that I could soak beans in my crockpot and have them ready to go in under three hours (…still requiring rare foresight on my part), I knew my time had come.

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Chickpea Olio

Recipe at a Glance:

1 small or medium onion, cut into thin slivers
4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tbs olive oil
2 bunches of Swiss chard, kale, or spinach, stems removed and torn into medium pieces
pinch of kosher salt
1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper (heat to taste, I like lots!)
juice of one lemon
1/4 cup of wine or stock
1 28 oz can of chopped tomatoes*
1 14 oz can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained**

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Utensil/bowl use: Minimal – cutting board, knife, large bowl, large pot, large spoon
Serve for: a hearty, healthy weeknight dinner

While I have my heart set on using this site as a way to “teach” a few of the recipes that pass through my kitchen, this in no way means that I am an expert in it (cue the diaster post of last week). Additionally, I keep no family cookbook or any compendium of recipes that have been passed down over the years. I only know one family recipe by heart and it has the dubious name of “Strawberry Stuff” wherein “Stuff” means a tub of sour cream plus lots of chopped pecans. And because I am also one to try and eat healthily, my memory of this recipe is getting a little rusty and I have my doubts I will be refreshing it any time soon.

So this leaves me trolling the internet for recipes that have an equal mix of ease, health benefits, taste, and last but not least, keep me entertained in the kitchen. Recipes also have to pass Chris’s taste test, which can be difficult considering he met me during a time in his life when he was well into the meat-and-potatoes-make-a-meal camp. Luckily he’s not one to stick his feet in the mud so we have been gradually trying out meals that incorporate greens, beans, and *gasp* no meat.

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Failure, or how I learned to make anything in my kitchen

Here is Linus, deeply concerned about why I am suddenly in tears and naked in the kitchen. After an attempt to prepare what I expected to be a simple dish, I ended up drenched in olive oil, a rolling pin tossed across the room, and a burnt flatbread crisping in my oven. My unfortunate state at this moment was brought about by disastrous series of failures in my kitchen.

It all began when I found myself with a few extra sprigs of rosemary and no plan for them. I did a quick search and found an easy-sounding recipe for rosemary flatbread that looked delicious. The recipe just had a few steps: throw some dough together, roll it out, sprinkle with herbs, and bake in the oven. No fuss, no muss.
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Roasted Rosemary Cashews

Recipe at a Glance

1 pound raw, unsalted cashews
2 tbs fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped (from about 3-4 sprigs)
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tbs light brown sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbs melted butter

Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 8 min
Utensil/bowl use: Minimal – cutting board, knife, measuring spoon, large bowl, small bowl
Serve for: Party food

Before too long, I suspect Supper Before Grace will have a number of party food recipes. I tend to go to a few parties a month and am generally expected to bring some sort of culinary concoction whenever I go. I have since developed an obsessive habit scouring the internet for party food ideas. In particular for the people throwing this week’s party, I have taken on the habit of bringing something with nuts. This habit is simply due to the host’s personal tastes of no meat and no sweets which immediately disqualifies a large number of my already existing party recipes. It also helps that I brought spiced nuts to this host’s first party and have a fondness for keeping with a theme.

When I came across Lottie + Doof’s recipe for Rosemary Cashews, I knew it would be perfect for this party. Internet searches done, I thought nothing more of it until a few moments before the party. I mean, this recipe was going to be great and I had nothing to worry about. I work right by a Trader Joe’s so there was no concern for finding raw cashews, and this recipe could not take anymore than 15 minutes to throw together. So moments before the party, I decide to sample a few and realize that they are fairly salty. Like, so salty that they are perfect with beer and then more beer. This warranted another internet search for Ina Garten’s original take on this recipe and in the process of doing that search, I found The Kitchen Sink’s adaptation as well. Both of these have a bit less salt than the recipe I made and I feel, would have been more to my liking (and it will be the one I am sharing at the end of the post despite taking pictures of the Lottie + Doof recipe). That said, the cashews I brought to the party got me no less than 5 wedding proposals and 3 promises of first born children…all incredibly useful things to me right now. I would have been just as flattered with offers of more beer.
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Baked Beans

This post may be titled Baked Beans but I really intend for this post to bring a Tuesday night tradition of mine to your attention. I do this because I feel like the event is much more special to me than this recipe. Please scroll to the bottom of the post to get the recipe.

First, it begins with a bar:

Any old bar will do. The divey, the better.

Add a bartender named Bob:

This might be harder to do since Bob is the best bartender, you see. He has an over-abundance of generosity and caring for a group of ragtag twenty-somethings, far beyond what we deserve. He particularly likes to feed us and was the instigator of this Tuesday night tradition by serving us Italian Beef, just because. He has since made chicken wings, beef stroganoff, fajitas, pulled pork, and on this particular Tuesday, served his signature, Sloppy Bob’s for these fine folks:

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Steel Cut Oatmeal

Steel Cut Oatmeal

1 cup steel cut oats
3 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup milk (any fat content, optional)
1/8 tsp salt

Suggested flavorings:
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbs brown sugar
1 tbs ground flax seed
dried fruits, nuts, maple syrup

Note: if you wanted savory oatmeal, you could cook the oatmeal with celery, eggs, or add soy sauce or sriracha. Options are endless.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes
Utensil/bowl use: minimal: large pot, spoon, measuring spoon/cup
Serve for: a week of breakfasts!

I am a breakfast person. I look forward to it every day. However, I am not a morning person in the slightest so you can often find me making breakfast for the week ahead on a Sunday night. Things like homemade waffles, homemade yogurt, granola, muffin veggie frittata, and as seen here, steel cut oatmeal. Each and every one of these meals have the added bonus of being easily split into breakfast serving sizes and stored for a few days until they are ready to be eaten. They only require a little bit of heating in the toaster or microwave at most. Absolutely perfect for me, since I hardly ever am in the right mind to cook in the morning.

I happen to prefer steel cut oatmeal to regular because it tends to be crunchier and less gooey than regular oatmeal. I also feel like the flavor of the oats comes through better when prepared this way thus requiring less extra flavoring. And making oatmeal from scratch tastes infinitely better than the individually packaged stuff. Plus, this recipe produces about 5-6 servings, easily holding me over until the next Sunday evening.
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