Sunday, January 29, 2012

Birthday Eats

Today is the hubby's birthday. On any given year, you can find us celebrating quietly, at home, perhaps with a nice bottle of wine and a home-cooked meal. This is in direct contrast to my birthday, which I start to look forward to at least two months in advance. Ben thinks birthdays are stupid, and wants them to be over as quickly as possible. So I decided we needed to do something fun to celebrate this year for a change.

Since Ben travels so much for work that he has about a squillion hotel points. We took advantage of this by booking a room at the Hilton Netherland Plaza in downtown Cincinnati for a night on the town. Ok, I know it's only Cincinnati and not somewhere exciting like New York, but it's infinitely more interesting than Dayton. Our room was free because of the points (yay!) so we splurged on an awesome meal and way too many cocktails.

We went to a really nice restaurant called Local 127. To start, Ben had French onion soup and I had potato and celeriac soup. Unfortunately, the soup was eaten before I even thought to take a photo. Moving on, Ben had a pork-intensive dish which he claims was delicious, with sausage, bacon and cheesy foam!


There weren't any vegetarian options on the menu, so I went with the scallops. I've never been a fan before but these babies changed my mind. They were huge, not tough at all, and they came on a bed of lentils with crispy rice on top! 


I insisted we have dessert, of course, and this is why.


Deconstructed sour cream cheesecake! It was orgasmic. The crust was buttery, the filling was creamy yet light, and caramel sauce was out of this world. And it came with a maraschino cherry made by the original makers of the maraschino cherry (according to our server, who was most excited about this fact). When it was over, I cried. Well, not really, but I definitely was sad that it was over so soon. 

Today we decided to go by Cincinnati's Findlay Market on the way home for some breakfast. We got Belgian waffles with chocolate syrup and blueberries which made my morning.


Post-breakfast, we wandered around for a couple of hours and got some chews for the pups, some handmade beeswax soap and some honeycomb. After experiencing my first vanilla chai tea, which might be my new favourite drink, we decided to grab a light lunch at a Vietnamese cafe. Light lunch my butt! I had the vegan pho with mushrooms and bamboo shoots, and it had so many rice noodles that I was stuffed afterwards. It was delicious though!


After lunch, we stopped back into the market to grab some whole grain bread, paprika salami for Ben, and double Gloucester with onions and chives for me. This is, without a doubt, the best cheese in the entire world. That might be a bold statement, but it's true, and it's also true that I never buy it because I literally cannot keep out of it. But for the occasional treat, I'll buy a small chunk to tide me over.

Cheese heaven!
We headed home late afternoon and presented the pups with their chews, which consisted of a kneecap and a knuckle, ick! They spent most of the rest of the night chewing obsessively.



For dinner I used our newly bought bread, cheese, salami, plus some hummus and veggies I had on hand to make a Ploughman's of sorts. It was delicious, especially with the addition of some Branston's pickle, the best invention ever.


Mission: Enjoy Ben's birthday was complete. We both had an awesome weekend and I'm sure I won't have trouble convincing Ben that we need to celebrate his birthday properly each year from here on out!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Lentil Shepherd's Pie

It's been another week of mostly cooking for one on account of Ben traveling for work. Last night I did make a delicious veggie and miso stir fry, but it was a quick meal and I was too tired to note what went into it and to take photos... I was hungry and the meal was gone before I even thought of getting my camera!

But this weekend is the start of hubby's birthday celebrations. His actual birthday is Sunday. He hates his birthday and the most we ever do is invite his parents over and cook, but they had the nerve to disappear to Hawaii this year so we had to get out of our rut (I'm totally not jealous that they're in Hawaii... I just love cold weather and rain!)

Tomorrow night we're off out for a meal, but tonight is a night in. I decided to make shepherd's pie with lentils and mushrooms since I'd seen the recipe somewhere, but when I found said recipe it seemed like too much. I just bought some large ramekins and wanted to make two individual pies for fun, so I made this up and hoped it would work... And it did!

Perfect night in!
Deliciousness was mine (and Ben's) and it was pretty easy. The pies turned out very big so I didn't have to make any veggies to go along with them. You could also double the recipe to make a regular-sized pie if that's what floats your boat.

Underneath the taters....
Lentil Shepherd's Pie

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup brown mushrooms, quartered
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup French (green) lentils
2 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup sharp cheddar, shredded

Sauté onion and garlic in some olive oil for about 2 minutes. Add celery and mushrooms and cook until the onions are translucent.

Add peas and lentils to pan, then pour broth over the top. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine.

Cook for about 20 minutes, or until the lentils are tender and have absorbed most of the water. Meanwhile, boil the sweet potatoes until tender, then mash and add the butter and cheese, stirring well to combine.

Divide the lentil mixture between two large ramekins and top with the sweet potato mixture. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes start to brown. Eat, and enjoy!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Pesto Perfection

It's been a looooong time since I've posted here, due to a mixture of pure laziness and travelling. We went back to the UK for 3 weeks over Christmas to visit my family and best friend, and had the most awesome time. It was depressing to come back to the US but it was surprising how quickly I got back into my routine of food, exercise and watching other peoples' dogs hump each other frantically.

This weekend we did a lot of exercise and celebrated with the world's yummiest pizza. We make our own dough and had some in the freezer which was awesome because it meant much less work. While I'm a fan of the regular tomato-based pizza, I have to say my favorite pizza sauce topping is pesto. It's so delicious, especially when it's fresh and homemade.


I baked the pizza crust for 10 minutes at 425 Fahrenheit, then I spread a generous amount of fresh pesto on top, followed by sliced onions, diced tomatoes, black beans, sauteed mushrooms and crumbled feta. I let it bake for about another 15 mins, then we chowed down. I had plenty of leftover pesto which made me very happy. My mum likes to make sandwiches with hummus spread on one slice and pesto on the other, so I did that this week and filled the sandwich with cucumber slices and lettuce leaves. Yum!

This photo just makes me hungry
Pesto

2 cups basil leaves, loosely packed
1/2 cup fresh Parmesan
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 garlic cloves, minces
1/4 cup olive oil, or to taste

Put pine nuts, garlic and Parmesan in a food processor and grind well. Add the basil leaves a little at a time, processing as you go. Add the olive oil slowly until the pesto reaches the desired consistency. (I used about a half of the 1/4 cup I measured out because I didn't want it super oily)

Pesto should keep in the fridge for a week or so.