It's Not Over Yet!

With September (and [gulp] school) right around the corner, it seems everyone has given up on all that is "summer". But NOT ME. You can still call it summer while it's still 90 degrees out (err... although a mention about the hazardous affects/effects of global warming should go here, but we'll save that for another day).

One thing I love about summer is cocktails. Most days, I'm a wine or whiskey girl. Complex flavors, simple pours is my mantra for about 8 months of the year. Summer months, however, is a reason/excuse/celebration to break out the funny twisty straws and my massive blender for a drink made more of fruit and sugar than alcohol.

My favorite cocktail blend so far? The Pink Tequilla via R29. It's a refreshing blend of watermelon, strawberries, lime, agave and tequilla that's both sweet and simple, but even easier to make.

via Refinery 29

It's labor day weekend, and I'm going to spend it blending up another mighty concoction. FOLLOW me on Pinterest, and see some ideas I have in mind.

Big Balls

haha I know, I've got a pervie mind.

Last night I was craving something hearty, but nothing to keep me busy as my roommate and I were expecting lots of trick or treaters... only NO ONE CAME. Oh well, more chocolates pour moi!

Anyways, this is the easiest, tastiest meatball recipe I've ever tried. Oh wait, it's the only one I've ever tried. Trust me though, it's pretty darn good (although, I'm sure a dollop (or two) of siracha would also make this awesome...er).

via Glut with Guts iPhone Gallery, Fancy I know.

1 lb. of Ground Beef (I usually buy a higher grade meat at the counter, then ask the butcher to ground it up)
5 - 6 cloves of garlic, minced (Gotta keep those nasty vamps away!)
1/4 bunch of parsley (I used Italian)
1 egg, lightly beaten
Salt and Pepper
Cubed cheese (I used pepper jack and cheddar)

Sorry about the estimations, but this is how I cook. Throw the meat, garlic, parsley, egg, salt and pepper into a bowl. Get your hands in there and mash it up, mash it real good. (Ok sorry, that was way too cheesy.)

Oh yea, heat that oven up to 350 degrees!

Roll the meat mixture into 1.5 inch balls, and stick a cubed cheese in the middle, make sure it is nicely wrapped to minimize cheese oozing (although from my experience, this is un-preventable).

Place these little dudes on a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Then serve atop some pasta and sauce!

To My Lucky Future Man-friend

This is also partially an apology. I'm a master of buttery brunch cooking and baking, and can almost guarantee you, future hubby, that you and I will never be super model-esque skinny bitches despite whatever genetic disposition you are or aren't blessed with.

And now, I'm adding to my repertoire of recipes, stews and casseroles to boot. I made the leap this weekend, and bought my very first, ruby red, cast iron dutch oven.

via Glut with Guts

It's pretty heavy, so maybe if I lift and heave this thing around enough, I'll at least have nice arms for you to look at? Although since my list of things I want to make start at boeuf bourguignon and spiral off from there, I doubt this as well.

It's only Tuesday, and I'm already excitedly counting down to the hours I'll  spend stewing and steaming!

Minna-made

Unpacking after moving has taken quite a bit longer than I had expected. This in addition to minor "issues" with our apartment have kept me hesitant from breaking in the new space. It's now week four in my apartment, and slowly but surely, things are coming together and I've started to feel a bit more at "home".

via moi

S came over the other day with two lovely new additions to my kitchen: basil and rosemary! After I wake up each morning, I scuttle into the kitchen and rub a leaf of each for good measure. They smell so great!

Moving out of my old apartment, I did a major purge of my things: I threw out boxes of old clothes, many bottles of lotions and sadly... a lot of kitchen stuff too. However, essentials at hand, I've started to cook once more.

via moi

I made my pseudo pad thai. I say pseudo (and probably should) about most/all my cooking as... I barely measure. This is a bad habit I've picked up from years of watching my halmoni (grandmother) cook in the kitchen... only I have no experience to back up my method. haha oh well.

I love "easy made" recipes. I hate when I pick up a cookbook filled with ridiculously obscure french names and processes or 'crazy' ingredients. I'm a simple girl, with simple tastes and would like a recipe to be blunt and show me how in 10 steps or less. No hand-holding, just slap it down on the table.

(Also, please ignore my washer/dryer in the background. My kitchen is cramped but functional and cute!)

Other weekend happenings: I'm loving my new neighborhood and all the foodie/wino nooks and cranies.

via Glut with Guts

Truffled eggs at Fork in Lincoln Square/North Center = HEAVENLY. Sitting atop a light puff pastry with a thin layer of mushrooms and goat cheese, this truffle flavor infused eggs made me happy and giddy. I don't think I spoke the entire time I was eating this and had my eyes closed like a freak after each bite.

Other notables from the Fork menu:

via Glut with Guts -- Duck Crostini

via Glut with Guts -- Orange Carrot Juice

After brunch, +1 and I went to our favorite breakfast/bakery place (that had a 2 hour wait for brunch! Hence why we choose the no wait Fork instead.) for some coffee.

Welcome to Lincoln Square:

via Glut with Guts -- Cafe Selmarie

via Glut with Guts -- The Fountain of Lincoln Square gets a washing!

via Glut with Guts -- Sunday Sprawl

via Glut with Guts -- Summer Sprigs! :D

Blizzarazzi 2011

What a wild whirlwind it's been these last few days! Chicago was hit with on of the worst storms it has ever seen, with cars still littered and abandoned all around the city.

Since I work for a great employer, we we're urged to leave as early as possible on Tuesday and brace ourselves for the quickly approaching storm. I stupidly decided the bus would be my best route home, only to realize once we we're in express mode that road conditions were the worst on Lake Shore Drive.

I'm so grateful to have made it home in one piece, as a bus not far behind mine ended up stuck on LSD, causing a delay and back up where people were stranded in their cars for more than five hours, some even more.

+1 stopped in for a second to make sure I was ok, and quickly went on his way before roads became blocked. I sat in my lonely apartment listening to the boisterous thundersnow howl outside my windows. I've never missed having roommates so much. I wish someone had been there to hold my hand and sing Broadway tunes to drown out the loud howls!

With such treacherous outdoor conditions, I had the next two days off of work. Now for those who know me, you know that eventually I want to be a freelance writer/copy editor, working from the comforts of home. I got a taste of the freelancer lifestyle the last few days, and was shocked at how much discipline and focus is needed! Instead of getting any work done, I watched mindless TV (when the power wasn't out) and cooked like a fiend, only interrupted by panicked work e-mails and calls.

On another note, thank goodness I don't work from home... I'd get so FAT!

SNOW DAY #.5 Menu:
Grilled Chicken and Mediterranean Pasta

SNOW DAY #1 Menu:
Breakfast Frittata w/ green onions, sausage and red onions
Southwest Mac and Cheese (from scratch!)

SNOW DAY #2 Menu:
Spinach Quiche
Sweet and Sour Pork

Oh man, I've never been more grateful for the indoor gym in my building. I was getting a bit stir crazy and feeling a bit heavy after all that cooking!

Wednesday, the storm finally broke. Neighbor J lives in a high-rise and texted to let me know that people were crawling all over the snow! We quickly got ready and ventured out into the catastrophic outcomes of Blizzard 2011. Struggling through 3 feet of snow in each step, we made our way to LSD which had been closed off to traffic (who would be driving in this madness anyways?). We joined the few brave ones and walked up and down LSD, something I'll probably never forget!

Oh man, I missed work greatly, but it was nice to be a "kid" again and play in the snow:

Tasty Taquitos and Janky 짬뽕

My cousin has stayed over with me for the past few days. Since we're best when we're together, we've been dining like royalty: late night taquitos and nasty 짬뽕 mix of drinks (i.e., pineapple margarita, apple martinis, malbec, merlot, etc.)


Our time together has mostly been comprised of this:

A semi-full stocked wine rack, yayyyyy!

The Best Cure-All Solution

Kimchi can save your life. No, no, I'm serious. The potent amounts of garlic fights off diseases from across the spectrum whether they be the common cold or the bird flu/SARS.

Better yet, the older and stinkier it gets, the more potently delicious each concoction becomes. I give you... my weeks-old-kimchi jjigae:

Boiling over with hunger yet? Because my Jjigae sure is!

Hands down, spicy Kimchi Jjigae can kick wimpy Chicken Noodle Soup's ass in a best of soups competition any day. Can Chicken Noodle Soup (CNS) cure a hangover? Kimchi Jjigae sure does. Can CNS scare illness right out of your body? Kimchi Jjigae does. Does CNS hold enough girth and nutrients to be a full meal in itself? Kimchi Jjigae is!

*ding*ding*ding*

We have a winner (but I'm a biased judge).

Still learning to navigate the kitchen,
♡M

Guess What (part. 2)

Sometimes, I pretend to know how to cook:

My not-so-picture perfect curry

Now that I reside in an ethnic-grocery-store-friendly neighborhood, I find myself mustering up the courage to try making different foods from other regions because, well, it's $$$ having to go out to eat when I'm craving one dish or another!

Best part: I can scour my fridge and dump in whatever leftover ingredients (including a really really old potato I was hesitant to put in, but did anyways. I'm still alive, so I assume it was ok to eat!).
Worst part: It doesn't quite taste like.... what I assume it should.

You can probably tell from the dark brown color of the sauce... I made it a tad too salty, something I'm known to do and desperately trying to combat! My mother has never been one to measure, and I guess I've come to inherit this trait.. without really having any of the qualifications or experience to do so. Oops!

This "mis-measurement" doesn't apply only to salt. I kept thinking, "am I making enough curry?" and kept throwing in more and more ingredients, even though some probably didn't belong in there. Kept adding water, because I had made it too salty. Kept adding more carrots and zucchini since the added water made the curry look sparse. End result, too too much curry. I ended up eating curry for lunch/dinner about four days in a row. eek....

Still learning to count and measure,
♡M

Guess What...

This is why I'm fat:

PUMPKIN BUTTER

I recently made a trek to the farmers market in the Loop, since it's gettin' cold out there and the market will soon be closed for the summer. I was there to buy some squash and pumpkins and instead got roped into buying this: PUMPKIN BUTTER.

I'm certain this is my new favorite ingredient. I've forgone the usual jam for my morning English muffin, instead slathering it with pumpkin butter. Dollops of pumpkin butter have found their way into the Sunday waffles I make, and sometimes, it's the replacement for honey in my pomegranate tea.

Dear pumpkin butter,
How have I lived this long before without knowing you? The photo above is from when I first cracked the jar open, still weary of what it might taste like, afraid you'd be too sweet or too goopey. But then you suprised me, you were the perfect blend of all the things that are right with autumn, no.. what's right with this world. You complete me, and it scares me that only half the jar remains in my fridge.
You make my world go 'round,
♡M

Pie Time

So it's fall, which is the only season that tempts me to indulge in pie. Pie hasn't always been a go-to dessert option for me, as sometimes the sauce of pies seems to sickly sweet.

BUT I'VE BEEN REFORMED thanks to a slice of heaven also known as Hoosier Mama's Sweet Cream Pie.. LORD have mercy!!!!

i sit here with my mouth open, drooling.... gahhhhh

Other than the first/last/only slice of key lime pie I had in South Beach, Miami... this pie... rocks my world. OH MY GOD it's that good. (Umm... disclaimer: the first time I had a slice of this amazing pie, I was three cucumber martinis and 2 pomegranate margaritas deep. Just as an FYI, although I'm sure this won't change much as this pie still rocks my world.)

Although I know that anything that comes out of the Glut with Guts kitchen won't compare, I will dedicate some time this month to makin' and bakin' a unique pie creation of my own. Ingredients to be determined... but I can guarantee the grating of some nutmeg will ensue....

Another thing that puts me off from pie is.. the goopey. (Is goopey even a word?) The way the guts of the pie ooze and gooze all over the plate, seems so... off putting! When a pie comes to me with the crusts beginning to smoosh together as the insides ooze out the sides, any appeal the pie might have had beforehand is gone. (Also note: Hoosier Mama's Sweet Cream Pie doesn't ooze.. maybe that's why I like it so much?) Anyways....

Enter Sur La Table, cookware/bakeware/utensil-dream heaven. [enter singing angels] The other day I found at my local Sur La Table:

EL PIE GATE... o

Yes indeed, the genius minds at Sur la Table now bring you THE PIE GATE, the device to keep the guts of the pie where they belong. Between the crusts! Ingenious inventions and gadgets like these made me wish I had me a suga daddy to replenish these requests. [daydreaming ensues...]

But until then.....

Your broke bloke-ette, with a gluttonous gut,
♡M

Meatless Mondays?

On my daily morning commute, I like to stand in the accordion section of my bus (as to avoid awkwardly standing in front of someone on the sometimes long, often short ride down Lake Shore Drive) pop in my earphones and open up my handy dandy NPR app to stream live radio.

Today's discussion was focused around the topic of Meatless Mondays. Started by a hype man (or commonly known as ad people), it's become a widely accepted phenomenon from schools to industrial/commercial food places, it's principles adopted by public health advocates, chefs and suburban moms!

One particular point of interest is that the organization has been able to recruit the likes of Dovetail in New York City, offering primarily vegetarian meals every Monday.

Definitely food for thought. Americans are reaching disturbingly record highs in obesity and heart attack rates (heart disease and strokes are the #1 killer in men and #3 in women) bringing to question:

Why are we eating so much processed meat?

In an attempt to be more contientious, tonight's menu will be a healthy grilled eggplant, marinated in balsamic and olive oil with a Israeli couscous and spinach salad on the side. OH, and a hearty healthy lovely glass of my new favorite.. malbec. :)

Can't wait for dinner!

Note: link to the NPR feature

sexy sabina

Blogosphere, meet Sabina... my sweet new rice cooker (thanks, parents!)!!!

I excitedly look forward to the kitchen adventures we will share :)

Cheesy Peaches

From the one and only Glut with Guts kitchen....

Last night, Chicago clouds and humidity deemed it impossible for me to leave my apartment. I grudgingly made my way to the fridge, knowing I wouldn't have anything to eat. (Times like this, I wish I lived in NYC, the land of abundant bodegas.)

Surprise, surprise. I found the following ingredients:

• Flour tortillas (only 3 left in a packet of 15)
• Cilantro (... eep! bought this about a week ago so wilting a bit....)
• Red onion (despite the lingering smells on ones breath, red onions rock my life)
• chicken breast (errrr.. possibly freezer-burned...)
• a small hunk-o-pepper jack cheese
• ...and a lot of other random items

Perfect! I unknowingly had all the ingredients for una quesadilla! Bueno! To relive my immediate hunger, I grabbed a peach to much on while I prepped the ingredients.

**Light bulb** I wonder.. what would this peach taste like inside the quesadilla?

Answer? brilliant:

Peach quesadilla!

I also raiding the fridge and found a honey and a lime, and made a delicious honey lime dipping sauce!