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Cold Asian beef noodles

February 5, 2012 by Hannah

Cold Asian noodles with beef

Random funny story of the day:

I was making a layered Mexican dip the other day, and I since the dip was for Stephen and his friends, I asked if he thought sliced green onions would be good on top. He said nah… a few seconds later, he says something like “Oh, what about some of those chives in the fridge? That would be really good!” That would be the green onions…

(No husbands were harmed in the making of this joke. Stephen thought it was hilarious when I told him he was actually thinking of the green onions.)

Anyway…

I have a level of deep love for cold Asian noodles that Stephen would call abnormal. And sometimes he does. But that’s ok, because whenever I make it, it means more for me. Room temperature or cold Asian noodles make my heart sing.

I made this recipe (inspired by this) for dinner one night when Stephen wasn’t there and then ate it for lunch for over a week. It was glorious. And that’s coming from me, the person who can barely stand eating leftovers more than once. I have by no means mastered Asian cooking (or even Asian noodle cooking, for that matter) but this recipe works for me and my noodle cravings.

Ingredients

Supposedly this is awesome with medium-rare sliced sirloin. I, however, do not keep spare sirloin steaks in my refrigerator for noodle purposes. I keep sell-it-before-it-goes bad clearance-sale super-thin-cut beef  in the freezer. Sometimes. What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. Or something.

  • A few pieces of very thin-cut steak (we’re talking like less than 1/4 inch thick, maybe even 1/8 inch, as you can see in the picture)
  • Salt
  • 3/4 cup soy sauce (I use the Great Value low-sodium stuff. Classy.)
  • 3 Tbs sesame oil (Please do not think you just need oil for oil’s sake and use something else. Sesame oil has a distinct Asian taste, and as much as I substitute ingredients for everything, there is no replacement for sesame oil.)
  • 2 Tbs olive oil
  • 2 Tbs rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp hot chili oil (or a little more if you like your lips to tingle. Or a little less if you have wimpy delicate tastebuds.)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced (insert love song for my garlic press)
  • a small sprinkle of powdered ginger (I am not a fan of strong ginger flavors, so you may want to add more if that’s your thing.)
  • 2 Tbs brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sliced green onion
  • 1/2 pack (about 8 oz?) of thin spaghetti or rice noodles (though if you don’t want it totally doused in sauce, you can use the full pack and get a lighter flavor)
  • fresh cilantro

Please keep in mind that these are guesses at measurement. I ended up with a ton of noodles last time I made this, so I might have doubled the amount of noodles that time. Or just added extra chili oil. I can’t remember. Obviously you can play around with the proportions and measurements and it will turn out just fine.

Directions

It comes together pretty quickly, but it’s much better if it sits in the refrigerator for at least a few hours.

  1. Salt both sides of the thin steak and “grill” it quickly on a skillet with medium-high or high heat. If it’s as thin-cut as the one I used, you want to flip it over as soon as the surface is brown, and then take it off as soon as the other side is brown too. You don’t want it to get tough. Set it aside to cool.
  2. Mix soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, rice wine vinegar, chili oil, garlic, ginger and brown sugar in a bowl.
  3. Put the meat in a plastic bag along with a few tablespoons of the oil mixture and zip to seal. Shake it up a little bit and let it sit in the refrigerator for a while so the flavors can mix.
  4. Cook the pasta, drain, and place in a bowl. Pour the rest of the dressing over the noodles and toss with green onions. Cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator to cool and let the flavors mix and mingle. I like my flavors to be sociable.
  5. To serve, toss the noodles with cilantro and place some in a bowl. Cut the meat into thin strips and place some on top of the noodles.
  6. Eat with chopsticks. It tastes better that way. Unless you’re not good with chopsticks, in which case the bitter taste of defeat might in fact make the noodles worse instead of better.

I like to let it come to room temperature before eating it because I think the flavors come out better that way, but it’s good straight from the fridge too.

Mmmm….

Spicy beef noodles

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Vegetable ham chowder

January 11, 2012 by Hannah

Vegetable ham chowder

I wish the picture did it justice.

Let me tell you about this recipe.

It all started as a Better Homes and Gardens recipe with lots of cheese and very few veggies. I didn’t have enough cheese. I kept tossing in veggies till it looked more colorful. A star was born.

Since then, I’ve made it 4 or 5 times. It is so easy, and it uses ingredients you probably already have on hand. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a health food, but it’s certainly not a health splurge either. Please make this soup. You will be everyone’s favorite person within seconds of putting it on the table (or maybe Stephen is just biased…).

Ingredients

I’m sorry… I have never measured. And it has never turned out exactly the same. Yet it has been delicious every time. Rest assured…. though my made-up, highly approximate measurements in this list are not entirely accurate, I’m sure they’re close enough to the truth to turn out pretty great. You can achieve Ingredient Victory. I believe in you.

  • 2 1/2 cups water (3 cups if you really have a lot of vegetables)
  • 3-5 medium potatoes, chopped
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 3 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1/2 a large onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 – 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar, monterey jack, or whatever you have)
  • 1 15-oz can cream-style corn (I’m actually going to try it with 2 cans next time, since I added so many extra veggies the last time I made it that the corn was almost nonexistent)
  • 1 cup cooked cubed ham (you can use up to 2 cups if you’d like it more meaty, but I prefer to let the vegetables shine)

The chopping may take a little while, but that’s the most labor-intensive part of the recipe by far.

Directions

It is so quick and easy (especially compared to the burgundy beef stew recipe I posted last week…).

  1. Combine water, potatoes, carrots, celery and onion in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10-15 minutes (I usually simmer mine a little longer because I like the potatoes to start crumbling at the edges). Do not drain.
  2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan (do this while the vegetables are cooking). Stir in the flour and pepper until thick and smooth.
  3. Add the milk all at once. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Side note: Do not step away from the stove for too long. Milk can go from nothing to BIGMESSBOILINGOVER in approximately 1.4 seconds.
  4. Add the cheese to the milk mixture and stir until it melts. This pot should now be full of velvety, cheesy goodness.
  5. Pour the cheese mixture into the vegetable mixture whenever the vegetables are done simmering.
  6. Stir in the corn and ham. Season to taste with more pepper. Heat through, but try not to let it boil.

Stephen and I usually eat this with Cholula sauce (the stuff sweet, sweet dreams are made of).

[rabbit trail] I grew up on Cholula sauce, and the stuff can go on almost anything. When Stephen joined the family, he was soon initiated and now he loves it too. We are kind of addicted. [/end rabbit trail]

It’s great with cornbread on the side!

Veggies in the pot before cooking:

Pot of chopped vegetables

And… ta-da! A beautiful Vat-O’-Soup:

Pot of veggie ham chowder

Posted in Easy meals, Recipes | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments »

Burgundy Beef Stew

January 5, 2012 by Hannah

beef burgundy stew

Oh, how I love mushrooms. And anything cooked in wine.

This burgundy beef stew is from a book called Cast Iron Cooking, but I never had a big cast iron pot till this Christmas (thanks Laura!). I’ve always made it in my regular pot, but I bet it would be even better in cast iron.

Cooking with wine

I don’t drink wine, I just cook with it, which would explain why I always wander down the alcoholic beverages aisle in Walmart a few times before I can find what I’m looking for. That being said, I’m pretty sure I scoured that aisle in search of “burgundy” and found none. There’s probably some key piece of wine wisdom out there that would have solved my problems, but I ended up using merlot because it was also the color of red. I think the previous time I used pinot noir. The recipe says any dry red wine will work. It’s probably amazing with burgundy, but I may never know. Nor will I know until a truly dry red wine hits the $3.95 bin at Walmart. Oh, the places my taste buds could go…

Don’t be like me.

(Unless you’re poor cheap frugal, in which case, draw up a folding chair and we can share some tap water and have a nice little chat.)

Ingredients

How about I write the official ingredients, and then I write what I actually used next to it? I’m pretty sure there is not a single morel mushroom to be found in Fort Worth.

  • 5 slices bacon, chopped (I used thick-cut)
  • 4 Tbs unsalted butter, divided (I always use unsalted, but if you have salted, it’s perfectly fine to use)
  • 8 oz. small button mushrooms (see below)
  • 4 oz. morel mushrooms, chopped (Instead of using button and morel mushrooms, I just used “regular” mushrooms and cut them into chunks. And then I added some more, because mushrooms and I have a special relationship like that.)
  • 16 small white onions, peeled, or 1 cup frozen pearl onions, thawed and drained (I used 1 large onion, roughly chopped)
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • 2 lbs beef chuck, cut into 1 1/2″ cubes (I used “stew beef” and cut it into approximately 1-inch chunks)
  • 2 Tbs flour
  • 3 cups dry red wine
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 cup beef broth
  • 2 sprigs fresh thyme (or a good shake of dried thyme… maybe 1/4 tsp?)
  • 2 sprigs fresh sage (same as with the thyme)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley (or a few good shakes of dried parsley… maybe 1/2 tsp?)
I bet this recipe is stunning with all the actual ingredients.

Directions

It takes a little while to cook, but it’s worth it.

  1. Cook bacon over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove the bacon pieces to a plate and set aside.
  2. Add 2 Tbs of butter to the bacon fat. When melted and stirred, add mushrooms and cook for about 3 minutes until just tender. Season with salt and pepper. Add the onion and carrot and sauté until vegetables are tender (maybe another 7 minutes). Transfer vegetables to the bacon plate with a slotted spoon and set aside.
  3. Melt the remaining 2 Tbs butter in the pan and add the beef, stirring and cooking until browned on all sides. Add the flour, stir, and cook about 3 more minutes so the flour can brown.
  4. Pour the red wine slowly into the pan and stir, scraping up the nectar of heaven drippings from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil and add garlic, broth, thyme, sage and bay leaves. When the mixture is boiling, reduce to a low simmer, cover and cook for 1 hour. Your kitchen will smell wonderful.
  5. Dump the bacon and vegetables back into the pot and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook for another 30 minutes. Stir in parsley a few minutes before serving.

We had this with a side dish of boiled potatoes. I had never made boiled potatoes before, as they seemed too boring, but OH. Not these. I’ll post the recipe for that later.

Sauté the bacon:

Sautéing the bacon

While it cooks, you can cut up the beef:

cutting the stew beef

And the mushrooms:

chopping mushrooms

And the onions (I don’t have a picture of the carrots… sorry):

onions cut into chunks

Cook the veggies until tender:

Cook until tender

Then remove them to the bacon plate and try desperately not to eat them:

plate with bacon and vegetables

Mmmmmm drippings….:

Butter and drippings

Add the beef:

stew beef

Stir to brown on all sides:

browned stew beef

Add the red wine and seasonings and other stuff:

add red wine

And after a loooong time of self-restraint, you have this:

burgundy beef stew

Which tastes like this:

bowl of stew

Do you have any red wine wisdom you’d like to pass along? Is “burgundy” simply a code name for something else?

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments »

It’s a…

December 30, 2011 by Hannah

gender reveal it's a...

Well wouldn’t you like to know. 😉

We found out the gender of our baby on Dec. 22. We got to see one set of parents on Dec. 23, and the other set of parents on Dec 24. We also mailed the news to our grandparents, and we did the same thing for all of them. Here’s what we did:

We placed the above “It’s a…” photo and a sealed envelope inside of a bigger envelope. When they opened the big envelope – OH, THE SUSPENSE! – they only saw the “It’s a…” photo, and they had to open yet another envelope to see the actual news. Because I’m delightfully mean like that.

Oh, you want to know the gender too?

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(See what I did there? I told you I’m mean.)

It’s a…

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baby gender it's a boy

The lighting/coloring of these pictures looks really weird on the blog, but there you have it. We’re having a boy! And because it’s a boy, we now have to come up with a name (we had our girl name all picked out). We’re so excited to finally know, and we get to call him a HIM now instead of an “it”!

We had a good Christmas. 🙂

Fear not. We’ll be back to our regular programming of recipes eventually.

Posted in Everything else, Kids | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments »

Pregnancy week 17 and an excuse

December 12, 2011 by Hannah

I feel lame for not posting many recipes lately, but in addition to all the normal craziness, Stephen and I moved, so we’re still trying to get through the last few boxes. I’ve been cooking, just not posting. I’ll catch up one day!

So, I don’t want to be that annoying person who posts quizzes all the time, but I’ve got to keep people updated on Baby Lightning* somehow. 🙂

*This name came about in a very convoluted but fun way involving name tags and lightning bolts. Until we know if it’s a boy or girl, it will henceforth be known as Baby Lightning.

Stephen and Hannah distorted

How far along?  17 weeks, day 5
Total weight gain/loss?  As of 2 weeks ago, I had gained 4 lbs
Maternity clothes?  Maternity clothes are still way too big, but most of my pants have been too small for a while. I’m down to a pair of stretchy skinny jeans and some yoga pants.
Stretch marks? I haven’t done much stretching yet. 🙂
Sleep?  When I actually go to bed, I’ve been sleeping great! The only problem is getting to bed on time… which doesn’t happen often, so I haven’t exactly gotten a full night’s sleep in a while. 😦
Best moment last week? Baby-related? Nothing is really different between this week and last week.
Movement? Maybe? I’m still not sure yet.
Food cravings?  Nothing specific. I’ve been eating a lot of those little vine tomatoes, but that’s because they’re delicious and healthy. I just keep them on hand because I need to snack every now and then or I feel nauseous.
Gender? Don’t know yet
Labor signs? Haha no
What I miss: RUNNING. For a few months I couldn’t run because of ridiculous nausea, and now that I’ve been feeling a lot better, I don’t even get enough sleep as it is. I’m not going to cut that even shorter just to go running. The baby needs me to sleep! Hopefully I’ll get to start running again once the holiday craziness is over. 🙂
What I am looking forward to: Finding out if it’s a boy or girl later this month

So there you have it. A ridiculous filler post. If you pester me enough, I might get around to grabbing some cooking photos off my camera and posting a recipe.

Posted in Everything else, Kids | 2 Comments »

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