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10-year Anniversary Dinner at Tupelo

By kerry · Comments (5)

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Ten years ago tomorrow, a very sweet guy pulled up to my apartment in Brighton and we went on our first date. It was unseasonably warm — just like this January has been — and we wandered through Boston. We strolled through the Public Garden and wandered down Landsdowne Street to play air hockey at Jillians (remember when Jillians actually had an arcade?) We headed to Allston where we ate waffle fries and drank $2 Brubakers at Our House (now gone!) And finally, ended the day with dinner at Sunset Grill. It was a great date and I knew then that I wanted to keep this guy around!

Gotta love a place that serves drinks in mason jars!

Of course, that sweet guy was Sean — and he’s still a keeper! To celebrate 10 years together, we decided to check out Tupelo in Inman Square, Cambridge. I’ve been following them on Facebook for some time where they post their drool inducing specials daily. It’s not a fancy place, but it’s comfort food with Southern roots — just the kind of food we love.

We started our meal with drinks — Winter White Sangria for me and I Yam What I Yam Lager for Sean. Sean’s drink was really interesting — beer mixed with a sweet potato and maple reduction with a hint of cayenne.

Drinks and Cheesy Grits

As an appetizer, we got their crispy cheese grits which were deep fried cubes of cheese grits. Salty, crunchy, and creamy in the middle — these were addictive and I could have eaten another order easily!

I’ve been craving fried chicken for ages so I decided to get that. It came with collard greens and jalapeno macaroni and cheese. Overall, I liked my food though was a little disappointed that I got a chicken breast rather than chicken thigh because I prefer dark meat. The fried chicken crust was really tasty and super crispy though — and breast meat was moist and flavorful. The collard greens were perfectly tender with a strong vinegar flavor which went well to balance out their naturally bitter taste. I could have used a little more jalapeno with my mac and cheese, however, I enjoyed that it was creamy, stove top style.

Fried chicken, jalapeno mac & cheese, and collard greens

See that drumstick there? That's lunch for this weekend.

For dessert, we shared a piece of brown butter pecan pie with bourbon ice cream. So. Tasty!

I definitely want to go back to Tupelo and sample more of their food. The staff was friendly and the atmosphere in the restaurant was casual and cozy. Overall, a great way to ring in year 10 — here’s to another 60!

Comments (5)

Categories : Cajun, Comfort Food, Cuisine, Restaurant

Red Lentil and Sausage Soup

By kerry · Comments (2)

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

I’ve been really into the crock-pot recently. It’s so nice to come home and know that dinner is ready with just a little preparation the evening before. Plus, it’s one pot so it makes clean up a snap (for Sean since I rarely do dishes.)

We’ve also been trying to pare down our pantry and use ingredients we already have. In this case, we had a bunch of lentils and a bunch of potatoes, carrots, and kale from our Boston Organics boxes. And we recently stocked up on spices at Penzey’s so we had plenty of flavor agents. We only needed to purchase chicken stock, canned tomatoes, and sausage for this super healthy, filling, and tasty meal.

In my experience, you just never know how something will actually turn out in a crock-pot. It’s a bit of a roll of the dice (did I put in enough liquid? too much liquid? will everything disintegrate to mush? will the beans still be crunchy?) This recipe came out awesome! On a scale of 1-10, I gave it an 8 1/2; Sean gave it an 8. The lentils broke down during the cooking which made the consistency super creamy; the potato and carrot were perfectly tender without being mushy and the sausage kept its integrity and flavor. Coming home after our 2 mile walk with the dogs to a huge bowl of this soup made the end of the day a happy one.

Red Lentil and Sausage Soup
Serves 6-8

Comfort food that's *really* good for you!

1 medium onion, diced small
2 large carrots, diced small
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 small potatoes, diced small
1/2 lb. ground sweet Italian sausage.
1 bunch of kale, cleaned, stemmed, and chopped
2 cups dried red lentils
1, 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1, 28 oz. can water
1 quart chicken stock
2 tbsp. smoked Spanish paprika
2 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. dried thyme
Salt, to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
Crushed red pepper, to taste

In a large crock-pot, combine the onion, carrots, garlic, lentils, potato, and kale. Make mini-meatballs out of the ground sausage. I was able to purchase bulk sausage, but if I couldn’t find that, I would remove the casing of sausage links and make that into meatballs. Add the meatballs to the crock-pot. Add the tomatoes, water, and chicken stock. Add the paprika, basil, and thyme. Stir to combine. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Taste and add salt to your liking. Serve in large bowls and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper.

Comments (2)

Categories : Beans, Carrots, Comfort Food, Cuisine, Healthy, Kale, Main Dish, Meat, Potatoes, Potatoes, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Sausage, Soup, Vegetables

Crock-Pot Jambalaya

By kerry · Comments (1)

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

It is going to take me forever to fill in that green background!

This weekend was one of the laziest weekends I’ve had in a long time.

Friday, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Chrissy — an extraordinarily crafty friend and a brand-new blogger. We hung out and watched some bad TV and did some crafting. She’s working on a very cool/geeky Klingon baby hat (no, really — check it out.) I worked on the cross stitch bird that I found on MarthaStewart.com (via Pinterest.) I’ve got a big art project planned for my bedroom wall and this is just one little piece of it. Considering how long it’s taking me — I might be finished in 2015…

Look close and you can see Barley's cute snow beard.

We had our first very snowy day on Saturday and I used that as an excuse to stay home. Sean and I took Barley on a cold, snowy walk. I worked on my cross stitch. I baked fresh Italian sub rolls and almond sugar cookies. I watched a whole bunch of Psych. I did not change out of my pajamas all day. It was fantastic.

Is there any smell better than fresh baked bread?

Sunday followed suit though I did change into real clothes briefly to do some grocery shopping. And we went to the gym. But, otherwise, it was another restful day without any real plans. I did manage to make our weekly lunches; I enlisted the crock-pot to help me create this lazy man’s jambalaya.

Crock-Pot Jambalaya
Made 9 Lunches

So, so easy in the crock-pot!

1 large onion, diced small
3 medium green bell peppers, diced small
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. andouille sausage, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
2 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into medium chunks
1, 14 oz. can diced tomato
2 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp. Cajun seasoning
1 lb. 41-50 count shrimp, cleaned and peeled
1, 40 oz. can kidney beans, drained
9 cups white rice, cooked

Mix the onions, peppers, garlic, sausage, chicken thighs, tomatoes, chicken stock, and Cajun seasoning in a large crock-pot. Cook on high for 3-4 hours. During the last 30 minutes of cooking, add the shrimp and kidney beans. Serve on top of white rice.

Comments (1)

Categories : Cajun, Chicken, Cuisine, Fish, Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Recipe, Rice, Sausage, Soup, Starch

Cream of Mushroom Soup with Elbows

By kerry · Comments (1)

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Sean’s at a work outing tonight which means I’m on my own. I don’t have any problems cooking for myself, but when I thought about what I really wanted, it was clear: cream of mushroom soup with elbows, please.

While technically this dish is “cooking” — it’s not more than boiling some pasta and heating up that classic can of Campbell’s soup. You might think, “Really, Kerry? You can do better than that!” Sometimes, you just have to go with a classic. And, this dish…is a classic.

It’s classic dad food. It was one of the several dishes (including chili dogs and kielbasa) he’d throw together on nights when my mother wasn’t home. These dad classics were all foods she did not like, so when she was out, they were in.

To me, there’s something so comforting in a big bowl of cream of mushroom soup with elbows (bow ties are also acceptable.) It’s warm, creamy, and when topped with a hefty sprinkle of black pepper, nicely spicy. And it reminds me of being a kid.

Cream of Mushroom Soup with Elbows
Makes 1 very large bowl, but probably reasonable to split into 2 if you want to share

Thanks, Dad!

1 10 oz. can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 10 oz. can water
3 oz. elbow pasta (or bow ties), boiled and drained
Black pepper, to taste (I like lots!)

In a medium pot, stir together the soup and a can of water. Whisk together until combined. Bring to a boil. Toss with pasta. Sprinkle with black pepper to taste. Ladle into a bowl. Be happy.

Comments (1)

Categories : Comfort Food, Cuisine, Main Dish, Pasta, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Side Dish, Soup, Starch, Vegetarian

Oven Baked Fish Tacos

By kerry · Comments (0)

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Today…was a day. All of my Monday meetings were pushed up a day along with all of my Tuesday meetings which meant time at my desk was scarce and I didn’t actually get to serious work until after 5:00. You’d think that leaving the office at 7:00 would mean no traffic. You’d think.

MEH!

Ok, now that I vented, there were three highlights of the day.

First — key lime pie. I made this last night for a meeting today and used some of my precious allotted calories on a slice. Heaven. I was almost transported to Key West for a millisecond.

Second, I got my new laptop speakers in the mail today. These have a great design — they clip on the back of your laptop screen and plug in through the USB port. Super space saving, there are no extra plugs, and they sound great! I’m now enjoying the soulful sounds of Joss Stone from our new media center while I’m typing this blog post. Maybe I’ll torture Sean with some Garth Brooks soon (guilty pleasure from my high school days! Go ahead. Mock away.)

Finally, we had fish tacos for dinner tonight. One of my absolute favorites and it allowed me to use up some leftovers I had from the salads we had on Saturday.

I make fish tacos A LOT. I decided to try an new way of cooking the fish. Normally I saute it with onions and peppers, but tonight I decided it would be quicker and easier to just put it all on a baking sheet and shove it in the oven. Since I used flounder which has thin fillets, it cooked up in 6 minutes! Dinner was ready in 15 minutes … and I was a much happier girl.

Oven Baked Fish Tacos
Makes 6 tacos — served 2 hungry adults

The best part of tacos is that you get to design your own!

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1 lb. flounder or tilapia fillets (these fish are nice and thin and will bake up super fast!)
1/2 avocado, sliced
1 recipe simple slaw (or leftover greens of your choice mixed with a simple vinaigrette)
Sour cream
Your favorite salsa
Cilantro, rinsed and pull the leaves off the stems
6 corn tortillas, warmed

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Whisk together the olive oil, chili powder, cumin, and salt.

Spread a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with non-stick spray or rub a thin layer of olive oil over the sheet. Place the fish on the baking sheet and use a pastry brush or spoon to spread the paste you just made over both sides of the fish.

Place the fish in the heated oven for about 6 minutes or until the fish is cooked through and flaky.

Serve on the tortillas with the slaw and avocado. Add sour cream, salsa, and cilantro to your taste.

Comments (0)

Categories : Cabbage, Cuisine, Fish, Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Mexican, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Vegetables

Sweet & Spicy Chicken and Green Beans

By kerry · Comments (2)

Monday, January 16th, 2012

I’ve been making a lot of Mexican and Tex-Mex flavored dishes for lunches lately — burritos, enchiladas, chili — so this week, I decided it was probably time to change it up a bit. I was inspired by one of our favorite Chinese take-out dishes: spicy string beans.

In this case, I added some chicken and made the dish sweet and spicy. It took forever to process the green beans, but otherwise it was quick to throw together. This dish hits all of the same flavors that I like when we order Chinese while remaining very healthy. Knowing this is in my lunch box will help getting back to work tomorrow after this long weekend much easier.

Sweet & Spicy Chicken and Green Beans
Makes 8 lunch portions

Lunch assembly line.

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. ground ginger
1 tbsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 tbsp. corn starch
24 oz. green beans, stems picked off and cut in half
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 medium onion, sliced thin
24 oz. chicken breast, cut into medium cubes
8 cups white rice, cooked

In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, pineapple juice, soy sauce, water, garlic powder, ginger, crushed red pepper flakes and corn starch. Whisk together until well combined and the corn starch is mixed in without any lumps. Set the sauce aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a big handful of salt. Add the green beans and boil for 3 minutes. Drain into a colander filled with ice. Set aside.

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over high heat. Add the onion and saute until it gets soft and starts to brown. Add the chicken and saute for 5-7 minutes, stirring often so that all sides get browned. Add the green beans and the sauce (whisk it together one more time before adding to help redistribute the corn starch.) Stir to combine all of the ingredients.

Cook covered over medium high heat for about 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thickened.

Serve over white rice.

Comments (2)

Categories : Asian, Chicken, Cuisine, Green Beans, Main Dish, Meat, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Rice, Starch, Vegetables

Asian Chicken Salad

By kerry · Comments (1)

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

What a great weekend. On Friday, I decided to bake some cupcakes — my friends on Facebook helped me choose between lime and coconut or lemon with raspberry icing. Lime and coconut won the Facebook vote. I was leaning that way anyway because I’m getting excited for our trip to St. Martin in March where I expect to drink lots and lots of limey, coconut-y rum drinks! I spent the rest of the night watching Pretty in Pink and Project Runway. Love lazy Fridays!

This is my dessert tonight!

On Saturday, we went to a belated holiday party where we took part in a Yankee swap — I lucked up and ended up with a great scarf from Ecolissa. Sean got the new hot game among our friends, Quelf. It’s a pretty silly party game. He broke it out at the party. I sat out and still had a great time just watching. It was HILARIOUS!

Today, we met up with Ana & Jesse for dim sum. They just got back from Brazil where they got engaged! It was great to see them for some congratulatory dumplings. It was Jesse’s first time going to dim sum. I hope he liked it so we can do it more often.

We spent the rest of the weekend working on a project that we’ve been wanting to accomplish for a long time. We are creating a media library using an external media storage drive. Turns out it takes a long time to rip CDs into MP3s — after many hours, we’re still probably not even near half way done. But, it’s a good project to continue through the winter. I’m excited to finally have easy access to all of our music — and to be able to box up our CDs and move them to the basement so they aren’t taking up space.

Before we headed to the party on Saturday, I wanted to fill up on something that was filling and healthy. Like everyone else in the universe, I’m trying to eat healthier after the holidays. I didn’t want to get to the party and eat a bunch of junk. We had half a head of cabbage in the fridge, so I used that as inspiration to make this salad. It’s super fresh, flavorful, and filling. The salad base gets an extra punch from the cilantro and green onions mixed in.

This recipe makes a ton, so we had these for dinner last night and tonight. Plus we have leftover salad mix which we’ll use later in the week for something else (stay tuned!)

Asian Chicken Salad
Makes 6 HUGE Salads

GIANT, delicious salad.

Salad
1/2 medium head of cabbage, thinly shredded
1 head romaine lettuce, thinly shredded
2 large carrots, cut julienne
5 green onions/scallions, chopped
1 medium bunch of cilantro, remove the bottom couple of inches of the stem and then roughly chop the bunch
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, poached, cooled, and shredded
1 14oz. package of fettuccine style rice noodles, cooked and cooled (found these at Whole Foods — you could really use any noodles you like.)
3/4 cup of sliced almonds, toasted

Toss all of these ingredients together. If you are going to split this up over multiple meals, hold out the almonds and use them to garnish before each meal.

Dressing
6 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp. honey
3 tbsp. olive oil
3 tsp. soy sauce
3 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
3 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. granulated garlic/garlic powder
1 tsp. sesame oil

Whisk all of these ingredients in a bowl. Or put all of them in a plastic container with a tight fitting lid and shake, shake, shake until everything is well combined (this makes for easy storage for leftovers!)

Comments (1)

Categories : Asian, Cabbage, Carrots, Chicken, Cuisine, Healthy, Lettuce, Main Dish, Meat, Pasta, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Starch, Vegetables

Vegetable Green Curry

By kerry · Comments (1)

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

On Sunday, I did a bunch of cooking — and part of that was making a huge batch of green curry paste. Green curry is one of my favorites when I get Thai food. It’s not difficult to make on your own, but making the paste necessary for the curry does require quite a few ingredients and a little bit of time to whiz them together in the food processor. You can buy it in a jar at the store, but fresh tastes so much better.

I found the recipe that I used on Instructables.com It made A LOT. I froze the curry paste into 30 pucks using my mini-cupcake tins. Now I have at least a year’s supply.

Tonight, I went out for drinks with some co-workers. It was a really fun evening. I didn’t get home until 9:00 — thankfully, I was able to throw together a batch of vegetable green curry in minutes and we were having a healthy albeit late dinner by 9:30.

Vegetable Green Curry
Makes 2 Big Servings

Thank you green curry pucks!

1 tsp. olive oil
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 medium green bell pepper, sliced into strips
2-3 tbsp. green curry paste
1 can light coconut milk
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Thai fish sauce
1 large sweet potato, diced large
1 carrot, sliced
1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 can of chick peas
2 cups steamed white rice

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and green peppers and cook for 2-3 minutes until softened. Add the coconut milk, curry paste, brown sugar, salt, and fish sauce. Bring to a boil. Add the vegetables. Cover the skillet and cook for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are cooked through and tender. Add the chick peas and cook for another minute.

Serve over white rice.

Comments (1)

Categories : Asian, Carrots, Cauliflower, Cuisine, Healthy, Main Dish, Peppers, Recipe, Sweet Potato, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Dinner Tonight: Tomato & Squash Pasta with Sauteed Shrimp

By kerry · Comments (0)

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

I am in love with this unseasonably warm weather. I am not into winter sports and I’m very clumsy which makes icy sidewalks my nemesis all winter.

Sean and I have been taking advantage by taking lots and lots of walks instead of going to the gym which is fantastic this time of year when the gym gets super crowded.

Tonight we took the 2 mile loop around the neighborhood with Barley and it was so warm I had to stuff my gloves and hat in my pocket! I wonder if I could bribe Mother Nature with some cupcakes to keep this weather coming.

Barley is confused why we are stopping to take a picture.

After our walk, I whipped up this pasta. If you know me at all, you know I’m my own worst critic — so you know that this pasta is delicious when I tell you that after three bites I started to get sad knowing my bowl would be empty soon!

Tomato & Squash Pasta with Sauteed Shrimp

Tomato and Squash Pasta with Sauteed Shrimp

All that's left in this bowl now are my tears...

Salt
Pepper
1/2 lb. medium-to-large shrimp, cleaned and shells removed
2 tbsp. + 1 tsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
6 large cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp. dried basil
1 large red pepper, diced medium
2 small summer squashes, diced medium
6 plum tomatoes, cored, seeded, and diced medium
1/2 lb. dried spaghetti, cooked al dente and drained
Parmesan Cheese, to taste

Heat 1 tsp. of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the shrimp with salt and pepper. Once the oil gets hot, saute the shrimp for 2-3 minutes until the shrimp get pink and just cooked through. Remove from heat and set aside in a bowl.

Add the rest of the olive oil and the butter to the saute pan. Heat over medium-high heat until the butter is almost melted. Add the garlic. Cook for about 2-minutes stirring to make sure that the garlic doesn’t burn. Add the red pepper, summer squash, red pepper flakes, and basil. Cook for 2-4 minutes until the squash and red pepper start to cook through stirring to distribute the heat. Add the tomatoes.

Cook for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally. The tomatoes will start to break down creating a bit of a sauce and the summer squash will be cooked through. Toss in the spaghetti and stir to combine (I find stirring with tongs helps distribute all of the vegetables into the spaghetti.)

Serve in large bowls and top with the sauteed shrimp. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese to taste.

Comments (0)

Categories : Cuisine, Italian, Main Dish, Pasta, Peppers, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Squash, Starch, Vegetables

This Week’s Lunch: Turkey Black Bean Chili

By kerry · Comments (2)

Monday, January 9th, 2012

A couple of months ago, I decided that I’d test out a new way of dealing with lunch. Throughout my professional career I’ve gone back and forth with bringing lunch and eating out. Over the past year, I’ve gone mostly in the direction of the latter. It gets expensive to eat out all of the time and can be less than healthy. My plan was to start making one big entree on Sunday and portion it out for the week.

This has been one of the best ideas I’ve had in a long time and has stuck as a new habit. I’m saving money and eating better. It takes a couple of hours on my Sunday, but it’s time well spent.

This week, I made this turkey black bean chili perfect for these cold winter days.

Turkey Black Bean Chili

All of our lunches packed up for the week!

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced small
4 poblano peppers, diced small
3 jalapeno peppers, diced small
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can tomato paste
6 tbsp chili powder
3 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp ancho chili powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
2 lbs. ground turkey
1 lbs. dried black beans, soaked overnight
1, 10 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 medium zucchinis, diced small
12 oz. dark beer
4 cups chicken stock

In a large pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the onions, peppers, and garlic. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes until they get soft.

Add the tomato paste and spices and stir together. Everything will combine together and look like a paste. Stir in the ground turkey and break it up.

Add the beans, tomatoes, zucchini, beer, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and lower to a simmer. Simmer for 2-4 hours until the black beans are soft.

Comments (2)

Categories : Comfort Food, Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Recipe, Soup, Turkey