Stone Brewing World Bistro

Tonight we went out for after work drinks with Marc's coworkers. I have to admit that his co-workers are probably the greatest group of co-workers I have ever met. They turned their after work drinks plan into a celebration of both our engagement and the upcoming baby of another co-worker.

I have to give them major props though because with only 3 days notice (we told them we were engaged Monday and met for drinks Thursday) they put together an engagement gift for us as well as a bunch of white elephant gifts. One of my favorite gifts was the magic 8-ball which is supposed to help us make our wedding decisions without placing the blame on each other. We also received some pink beer cozies which say "I'm the Bride/Groom, that's why."

Also one of the benefits of being at Stone Brewery is that we were able to eat their appetizers. We had pretzels, hummus, crab cakes and fried mashed potato balls. Those were my favorite. We ended up staying out until 8:30 so by the time we got home we just had a couple of tacos and went to bed.

Macaroni and Smoked Gouda Cheese with Pork

This recipe was inspired by one that we found inside of Fine Cooking. The fine cooking recipe requires you to put the mac and cheese in a skillet with bread crumbs on top and crisp in the oven. Which, while it sounds delicious, takes a lot more time then we have available this week.

So tonight we decided to adapt the recipe to what we felt was good. Basically we boiled some pasta. While that was cooking we made a basic white sauce (butter, flour, milk) and added shredded cheddar and smoked gouda. We heated up some leftover pork and when the pasta was cooked we added the pork and cheese sauce. I though the sauce was going to be too cheesy, but I actually wished it was a little more cheesy.

This recipe definitely brought me back to the days when my mom used to make cauliflower cheese for us to dinner. Which is basically steamed cauliflower, covered with the above cheese sauce.

Clam Pasta

This recipe is one that Marc picked up from his grandpa. It was also the first dish he cooked for me at his house when we first started dating. It is one of our most frequent dishes mainly because it's pasta and easy to throw together when you're not sure what to have for dinner. Plus all the ingredients are staples in our pantry which means when you're out of food, you still have a delicious dish.

I wish I could share the recipe with you but unfortunately I do not know it myself. I know it includes a can of chopped clams, some garlic, pepper, and other spices spread over angel hair pasta. That's about all I know . . . maybe one day after we're married Marc will share it with me.

Pork Tacos

We have a lot of leftover pork. And by a lot I mean it's probably all we are going to be eating for the rest of the week. Since today was over 100 degrees we decided to keep the house cool by not cooking. The perfect meal for this is pork tacos.

We toasted the tortillas in the toaster oven, heated up the leftover pork in the microwave, diced up some tomatoes, lettuce, green onions and opened a jar of salsa. Honestly, they most perfect tacos we've had at home for a while.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Today we decided to spend the day at home, relaxing and watching football. With football season also comes crock pot season. Which means it's the perfect time for homemade pulled pork.

Marc headed out to tip top, our favorite butcher shop, and returned with 5 pounds of boneless pork shoulder. Which means that now we have a lot of pulled pork to eat this week. Luckily I planned ahead and saved some pork without seasoning for future dinners this week.


Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches
from Fine Cooking

Ingredients

• 1 large yellow onion, halved and sliced
• 3/4 cup jarred tomato salsa (medium)
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbs chili powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 4-5 pounds boneless pork shoulder, trimmed
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• sandwich rolls or hamburger buns for serving

Put onion, salsa, vinegar, sugar, cumin, chili powder and salt into your slow cooker. Mix well. Add the pork shoulder, rotating to coat with sauce. Turn slow cooker on high and let cook for 5 hours.

When pork shoulder pulls apart easily, remove from slow cooker and place on a cutting board. Using forks, shred pork. In a small bowl mix 2 tbsp tomato paste, 2 tbsp cider vinegar and 1 cup of juices from the slow cooker. Whisk until combined. Add pulled pork and mix well, adding more juices from the slow cooker if needed.

Put pork onto hamburger bun or sandwich roll and enjoy.

Il Fornaio Coronado

Today is my birthday. Which means that since the beginning of September I have been looking forward to spending the day in Coronado. Little did I know that the night before my birthday I would get engaged and that my birthday morning would be spent sharing the news with all those close to me.

This morning I got to open presents in bed and then Marc prepared a delicious breakfast for us both. We tried to finish as many phone calls as possible before heading out to Sea World for the afternoon. The shamu show was pretty awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed the Arctic Encounter. To end the day we drove out to Coronado and enjoyed the afternoon sunshine while watching the boats pass. For dinner we ended up at Il Fornaio. I've eaten at this restaurant before in both Palo Alto and Pasadena but honestly, I thought the food was much tastier this time around.




After dinner when we had completely exhausted ourselves we decided to head back home and crawl directly into bed.

Le Passage French Bistro

Tonight Marc and I got engaged! When he came home from work tonight I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk on the beach, as we do on so many Friday nights. Little did I know that this Friday night he had a ring in his pocket and the plans to ask me the exact same thing.

As we walked along the beach watching the kids and the surfers play in the water we started talking about relationships. We wandered back towards our end of the beach and as we stopped to watch the sunset, he dropped to his knee, pulled out the gorgeous ring and asked me to marry him. I was so surprised and excited and immediately responded, "Yes!"

Once we arrived home we called our immediate family to share the news. Then Marc told me that he had made a reservations for us for dinner at Le Passage. Now I know why he listed leftovers on our weekly meal schedule. Le Passage is a local french bistro that we have been thoroughly impressed with. What we didn't know is they would have a specially priced 3-course meal for San Diego's restaurant week.

The food was delicious and we ended up with a flour-less chocolate cake to take home with us. It couldn't have been a more perfect evening.

Grilled Salmon Orzo and Green Beans

Tonight we had grilled salmon. We've never bought Trader Joe's frozen salmon before so we thought we would give it a try. I have to admit that the color of the fish was so much more natural then the died fish you often find in the grocery store. The flavor was also delicious.

We paired our salmon with steamed green beans and one of our new favorites, orzo. I boiled the orzo with water and also the juice from the can of corn. Once it was ready I added a little bit of butter, some freshly cracked pepper and then mixed in some canned corn. It's a good mix of spice from the pepper and sweet from the corn.

Chicken Noodle Soup with Lemongrass

To celebrate the first day of fall (or so the cashier at Trader Joe's told me it was) I decided tonight to make soup. Even though it doesn't look very fall like outside my body has been craving some of the slow cooked delicious-ness of a hot meal. This recipe comes from one of the first issues of Fine Cooking I received. I tweaked it a little with the items that we had in the kitchen but it still turned out as the perfect kick off to fall dish.


I used dry udon noodles because I couldn't find any fresh and I also limited the soy sauce in favor of lime juice. Lastly I bypassed the garnishes although I really wish I didn't.

Carlsbad Beach Grill

Tonight we headed out to our local Carlsbad Beach Grill. In search of some vegetables we both had a house salad and then split the Ono Grilled Tacos and Philly Cheese-steak. I still think they use way to much sauce on their fish tacos which is quite a bummer because the fish was so yummy. But the winner of the night was definitely the cheese-steak. They roast the roast beef on location every day. My usual complaint is the amount of salt but this was not salty and had the perfect balance between meat, grilled onions and peppers, cheese and bread. I would definitely get this again.

Grilled Chicken and Veg

On the menu tonight:

• roast sweet potatoes
• oven grilled yellow squash
• asparagus
• grilled chicken

Nothing too fancy but a perfect mix of starch, vegetables and lean protein. I'm still impressed that I can fill Marc's plate up with vegetables and he barely notices that there is no bread or pasta on it. It works especially well when you add sweet potatoes because that seems to be one of his favorite starchy vegetables.

Grilled Chicken on Ziti with Tomato Sauce

We're trying to establish some sort of routine and/or order in our house. So far this means that Sunday and Wednesday have been designed as pasta nights. Tonight we went with an old standby and decided to have ziti with tomato sauce. However it was new because this was a pasta sauce I made.

The tomato sauce came to be because as I was cleaning out the kitchen cabinet I realized that we had a lot of cans of tomato products. So I basically dumped them all in a pot with some diced onions that had been sauteed in butter until translucent, added some herbs and let it simmer until I thought it was thick enough for pasta sauce. Not really a recipe but a type of mess with it until it works plan.

Lucky for me it turned out delicious and perfect for our ziti. With a few parmesan shavings it even was worthy to photograph.

Smoked Gouda Mac and Cheese

Tonight we decided to throw together something we have never made at home. I was feeling like Mac and Cheese but we didn't want the horrible yellow powder they claim is cheese from the box. So Marc shredded some smoked Gouda and we had that on our mac and cheese with some chopped up hamburger bits and sliced tomatoes. Even if you don't add the extras you need to add the smoked Gouda to your macaroni because it's delicious!

Gyoza and Stir Fry

Not a very original meal tonight in our house. We ended up frying up some chicken gyoza and using Trader Joe's Gyoza dipping sauce. I think I actually like this better then when we cook the gyoza with Soyaki. They come out crispier and you are able to control the saltiness by how much dipping sauce you use.

After our appetizer we had rice noodles and chicken stir fry. Usually we use frozen veg but tonight we just chopped up some carrots, asparagus, broccoli and yellow squash. Honestly, I think this might have been better then the frozen vegetables.

Pizza

Tonight we decided to get out of the house and wander over to Knockout Pizza for a couple of slices. On our way out of the house we saw a little white dog running along the side of the street. It appeared that the owner of the dog wasn't too worried as she was just standing outside her house. But before we knew it a car turned to come down the street. Without thinking Marc ran into the street waving his hands, stopping the car, and saving the little pup. Turns out the dog was super friendly and let Marc pick him up. At this point the owner came over. The only thing she said was, "I told the little girls not to let the dog out." So much for concern over your pet.

Mystery

Unfortunately I'm not really sure what I had for dinner tonight. You see I am back posting tonight's dinner and all I can remember is that tonight I went to the airport to pick Marc up upon his return from Madrid. I'm pretty sure we didn't eat dinner together but I can't for the life of me remember what I had. I want to say it was probably the last bit of lentil soup or maybe a fried egg on toast but unfortunately I can't say for sure.

More

You may not know this but my first word was more. It was after dinner and my mom always asked if I wanted anymore before she would turn around and put the dishes in the sink. I guess that night I was hungry. Funny that I turned out to be a dietitian.

Tonight, I just had more lentil soup for dinner. I guess my body knows that it's fall even if the weather outside isn't showing it. Bring on the soups!

Lentil Soup

Tonight I had leftover lentil soup that I had made on Sunday. I came across the lentils and barley as I was cleaning out the cupboards and decided that I should use them up. Marc has never seemed that enthused about lentils. As for me, I used to eat them 3 or more times a week when I lived alone. To be honest I never did much with them when I cooked them so on Sunday I decided to experiment so that they would be more appealing to others.

After cruising around on the Internet trying to find a recipe I decided I was going to just try a little of this and a little of that in my lentil soup. We ended up with a diced onion, which I sautéed until translucent, a beef stock cube, lentils, barley and some cumin and coriander for a little flavor. After sautéing the onions I basically just added all the other ingredients and a lot of water and let simmer for a while. I think I’m going to have to work on this a little more, maybe add some carrot and celery next time.

I am also hoping that for my birthday I get an immersion blender so pureeing soups like this will be a whole lot easier.

Flying Solo

Today I dropped Marc off at the airport. He’s on a quick 3 day trip to Madrid. Lucky for me that means he’ll return on Wednesday. Unlucky for him, he’ll probably return jet lagged and hungry. While he’s away I have been taking the time to clean out the cupboards and fridge to make sure that the food we have in the house is still what we want to have there.

Don’t tell him but today I through out his Tang that he had from his apartment in Washington DC. He claims it’s nice to have in the house just in case you need something besides water to drink. I decided that not only is it expired but we don’t need those colors and sugar in our house. I hope he won’t notice but knowing me I’ll probably tell him when he gets home.

So tonight for dinner I ended up just having a fried egg and some sauteed cabbage. Nothing too exciting but for some reason I was really craving the fried egg on toast. It was pretty easy to throw together.

Repeat

Tonight we decided to fire up the grill and have some grilled chicken with Israeli Couscous and steamed broccoli. Pretty much the exact same dinner we had here.

I have to admit it was just as tasty as the first time around and also a dish I would love to share with my family over the holidays.