This is my new hairstyle. I think it looks cute. Tim hates it. He would prefer I didn't leave the house looking like this. I think it looks nice and Nordic. We've agreed to disagree.

Other places where I have conceded to Tim: his demand for more beef stroganoff in our lives. I have a great recipe that hailed from my great aunt Clara, on the Mische side (which i am strongly resembling in the photo below). This morning Tim and I went to our local grocery store: where the produce is cheap, the meat section is diverse, and speaking English is optional. I was browsing in the pre-wrapped beef area, and the butcher offered to help me find something. I'm always game for advice from the experts, so I told him I needed a cut that was thin and good for pan frying.

Hmmm...says the bilingual butcher. He takes in the breadth of beef choices he has in front of him and then grabs a package. Here, you want this, and he hands me a tray of thin cut, very marbled meat labeled "Boneless Top Blade Steak."

This? I ask.

Yes, yes, this is the best, he says. This is really the best, it's tender and very good for you. And it's on special right now.

I must have looked a little quizzical, like, hey, what are you, you trying to pawn this discount meat on me? Hm?

So he says, This is baby foot.

HUH? I say.

You know, baby food, when you make baby food with beef, this is the beef you use. It's really the best. Really good, really tender.

Ohhhhhh. I say, Okay! And we just cooked up that beef and it really was the best stroganoff I've had in a long time. Tender, and just the right texture for baby foot.

Here's Tim and I at our friend Dana's fabulous birthday party last night. I spent most of the night showering Yitzak the cat with attention. When we arrived, I couldn't stop saying Merry Christmas! instead of Happy Birthday! or Nice to see you again!

Happy Birthday, Dana! You're the tops.

1 cook + 1 baker = perfect for one kitchen

Jeremy and Rita came over last night. We told them we had cabbage, tofu, sweet potatoes, and onions. They brought over mushrooms, parsley, and wine. Jeremy is a much better cook than I, so I committed to making our little cupcake friend above. Jeremy and Rita committed to making cabbage roles, without knowing that when we said "cabbage," we meant "purple cabbage." Also, Jeremy later admitted that all along he was picturing lettuce wraps, not cabbage rolls. So basically, we're lucky we ate at all.

Um, let's see...things we learned. Cabbage rolls take HOURS to make. If I was in a spelling bee and had to spell "parsley," I would definitely fall prey to the bell. Jeremy learned to cook with mushrooms. I learned that even if you husband turns down the oven down to 270 (!!!) in the middle of baking 12 mini souffles, those little souffles will be just fine so SORRY, IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I DIDN'T MEAN TO RUIN YOUR STUPID CUPCAKES ALREADY, says Tim. We also learned that boiling a purple cabbage turns the water a nice shade of window cleaner blue.

Recipes used: Picadillo Purple Cabbage Rolls, Parsley Garlic Butter sauce, and Chocolate Souffle Cupcakes with Mint Cream.



And then I took a nap on the couch. The end.

Superbowl Sunday.

It was more about pizza than football.

My friend Stephanie and I have been trading a couple Sundays a month to teach each other how to bake goodies and Indian food. We decided pizza was our next baking tutorial, and used a great honey pizza dough receipe that we found on-line, asked people to bring a couple toppings, and ended up with a kitchen full of banana peppers, spinach, goat cheese, mushrooms and pineapple. Woot woot!

The pizza dough was great, and we ended up making two double batches and spreading them between five pizzas. This gave us five crusts on the thin side, but we were lucky enough to also have three pizza stones to use. We heated up the pizza stones, rolled out the dough, and then put the pizzas together on the stone. We baked them for 12-15 minutes at 450.





All but one pizza had red sauce and a smattering of ingredients. To make a scruptious and simple sausage and onion pizza like you see above (adapted from Daisy Cooks), brown 4-5 links of sausage in a pan until they are cooked through. Then remove from the pan to cool and add 4-5 thinly sliced onions and an inch of water;cook on medium for 15-20 minutes. The onions will get soft and translucent and take on the flavor of the sausage (meow). Then spread the onions evenly on the pizza and tuck in sliced sausage pieces and bake. Declicious, and you really taste the pizza bread this way, too.

Congrats to us for having just the right amount of pizza and beer for what ended up being 15 people, and boo to the Saints who took out the Vikings. Boo.

Mysteries at work.

My office recently moved to south Chicago. We moved into an old fraternity house (fun!) (sort of!)and sit up on the third floor. My favorite part of the office is a winding staircase that I only recently found out about. It reminds me of a church. I feel like I'm going to meet the rest of my choir friends at the top, and have a pot luck dinner waiting for me at the bottom. It curls down to the 2nd floor, 1st floor, and then to the basement. What's in the basement?

The workplace kitchenette, of course! There are giant refrigerators, a microwave and toaster oven, bathrooms, pop and candy machines, and a few tables to spread out and eat. Sometimes I bring Bananagrams and we play it over lunch. Those are good days. Today I ate my lunch at my desk so I could stare at the Internet some more. Cause I don't do that enough while I work.

I finished my lunch and took my dirty paper plate back down to the kitchen. Otherwise, you get that food smell in your two-person office, and I just don't want to start that trend. I also wanted some refined sugar to top my meal off. So off I head towards the winding staircase.

Hello, candy machine! I said. Oh...oh no! Something has happened to you, but I can't quite figure out what! Let me set the scene for you:

1. Several lines of candy in the machine where missing product from their first 1-2 coils. Snickers, Nutri Grain bars, and other compact, heavy things from the middle rolls were no where to be seen!

2. Upon further inspection (after I purchased my Twizzlers), the bottom of the candy machine was littered with stray Cheetos.

3. There was a yard stick leaning up against the candy machine.



Hmmm. New office, WTF? Where's The Fun?

Adventures in Uptown.

It started out as a simple idea. Let's go out on Friday night! Just the ladies! Yayyyyyy!

And then I suggested that we see a show at Annoyance Theatre. I'm not even going to re-type the title of the musical, because if I did, most would say "well, what did you expect?" Which is why I have this unsettled feeling of bewilderment. I EXPECTED it to be a horrible, offensive, one-penny production with bad actors. I just didn't expect to be so right.

Thoughts that myself, Kaye, Christina, Rita, and Stephanie all had at one point during the first half of the show:

He's going to hurt his voice if he keeps talking like that.
Oh, no. She's not going to say...oh. She said it.
Don't drink that...oh. He drank it.
The Dame is actually pretty good.
Yelling in key is not singing.
Ugh, maggots.
I need another drink.
Why do his jeans fit so weird?
He's not going to take off...oh. He took it off.
He's not going to use his belt on his...Oh.
Thank god there's an intermission so we can leave.

Thought that another audience member said out loud:

What IS this?



Heh. It was actually really funny to look over and see all the ladies exchanging the same WHAT THE WHAT?! looks. Everyone was too nice to say they wanted to leave at intermission, so I pointed that no one said they actually wanted to stay. Did I mention that before we went to THE THEATRE we had an amazing dinner at De Mera? The manager was annoying ("hey, have you guys heard of Facebook?" WHAT?) but the food was delicious, and I love eating without a knife and fork (or spoon).

We decided to find a place for a drink, and tried out about five different bars before settling on Max's bar. We wanted to find a hole in the wall that wasn't too loud or crowded, and this was certainly the place. Since there was no place to go but up from our previous entertainment, we enjoyed the many unique characteristics this bar had to offer with smiles on our faces: a "unique" smell, a bartender that was maybe six months pregnant and the only other woman in the bar, lots of leering men, and a one-eyed man that kept creeping towards our table until the bartender would yell "Larry! Come over here!" and then he'd retreat to a bar stool for about 10 seconds before slowly standing up and sidling over to our table again. Again, on the up side, everyone said goodbye to us when we left. Very sad, leering goodbyes.

To top off the night, I swore at a cab driver. What a night! Uptown...you are a strange minx of a neighborhood. I'm glad I got to experience it with a group of fun-loving and forgiving females. Sorry ladies.

doh.

I made a bunch of dough this Sunday. See the results below.



I also made scones. They were delicious. And here is the recipe, straight from everybodylikessandwiches.com:


fruit scones
1/2 c milk
1 egg
2 c flour
2 t baking powder
½ t salt
1/4 c cold butter, cubed
3 T white sugar
2 large handfuls of frozen blackberries

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Whisk the milk and the egg together until frothy and then set aside. In a large bowl, blend the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and blend the mixture with your hands until you have no lumps larger than a pea. Add the sugar and the blackberries and toss about until the blackberries are coated with the flour mixture. Add the egg mixture slowly until the dough comes together. Leave any remaining egg mixture to brush on as glaze.

2. Turn dough out onto a clean counter and knead it no more than 12 times. Pat dough into a round approximately 1/2 an inch thick, and cut into 8 wedges. Place on an ungreased baking sheet or a Silpat. Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges with remaining egg mixture. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.


I added an extra tablespoon of sugar and substituted fresh strawberries instead of frozen blackberries. Very good. I think I'll go eat the last one right now. MMMmmm. Butterfloursugar.

It's Easter already? YESSSS.

Oh ho ho, you missed Easter. Let's just say it started out with THIS:


Cranberry Red Roast Braised Pork Should from Chef Ming. Only took six hours. Totally worth it. Oh yes, I also made steamed biscuits. Sooo tasty with the smoky, steamy, rich, berry-licious pork).

And then there was this for the vegans in attendance! My first attempt at curry turned out well---potatos, cauliflour, carrots, onions, coconut milk, curry --- don't just stand there! GO! It was so good I made another batch on Monday to take to work all week.


We also had some friends in town! Fargo Liz, Birthday Buddy James, Catherine, and new friend Leah, who taught me how to blanch green vegetables. As I was cooking the whole time they visited, they were forced to drink sangria for several hours straight with no entertainment other than avoiding the random Facebook attendee at the cocktail hour (don't ask). Until I introduced them to the many desserts on hand, including vegan stout chocolate cupcakes (brought by the vegans, so amazing), and the two desserts I made:

Amy Sedaris's Lady Baltimore Cake, featured on the Martha Stuart Show, and...



The first ever Dessert Ham. It should be added to your menu like coffee and pie, something to be nibbled on if you have any available space left in that belly after hours of sitting and eating idly. Lovely, covered in brown sugar, cloves, cranberries, and orange juice. Mmmmahhhhhhh.

Oh, but how do we work it off? Okay, we don't. But we do play musical chairs every Easter. And this year I was not surprised to see the best card players I know, Kaye and Liz, vying for the title (Liz won, not surprised. She's cunning).

I'm still working on finishing off the cake. Working hard. Really, really hard. And look! Mike made a new friend.

Happy Birthday with Sushi.

Tim and I have learned so much about each other in Chicago. I have learned to control my temper, and Tim has learned that I value gifts where time and thought have been used in large amounts, instead of a book from Barnes and Noble.

So for my birthday this year he cleaned the entire house (!!!), made me a pan of brownies, and asked our friend Mai (a real oriental! ha ha, she loves it when I say that) to teach us how to make sushi, something I've wanted to do since I bought him a sushi making kit in 2005. She took him shopping and then came over last night. IT WAS AWESOME. And I'm having sushi for lunch. Here are some of Mai's tips for sushi:

Meat: get frozen tuna steaks. Tuna that is thawed has already been frozen at least once, so the frozen stuff will taste better. Imitation crab is cheaper at an Asian Market than your usual grocery store.
Veggies: Avocados and a cucumber are good to start with. Cut them so they will look pretty when they are cross-sectioned in the sushi roll.
Rice: Buy the good stuff at a food market, it's the most important part of the sushi roll. We got Nashiki medium grain rice, five pounds for $6. I made two cups and it was enough for about 10-12 rolls. Also, get Japanese rice vinegar---the taste is important.

Step by step: I made the rice as the package directed. After it was done, we spread it out and cut it repeatedly to get the heat out. Mai also poured in several tablespoons of the vinegar and cut it in, just so we could taste it but it wasn't overpowering. The rice was really sticky.



I started cutting up veggies and meat. The imitation crab was cut into strips, but most of the tuna was minced for a spicy tuna mixture, using mayonnaise, soy sauce, and Srirachi chili sauce to taste.



Now came the tricky part. We layed out the bamboo rolling mats and cut out a small sheet of Seran Wrap, folded a sea weed sheet in half, and placed it shiny side down, so the rice is on the rough side. Then we spread the rice out thinly and evenly, leaving a little overhang on the longer sides so they would bond together better. See? Aren't we cute?



The next part gets a little tricky. Basically, you use the Seran Wrap to keep your rice from sticking to the mat. We flipped the seaweed/rice over after patting it down, and then we were ready for our ingredients. We did combos of everything we had, and then Mai showed me how to fold the roll so the edges meet while keeping the meat and veggies in their rightful place. The hardest part then is packing the rolls together, sort of in a square shape, so that the rice sticks together and doesn't fall apart after you slice it.



See also mixed in some wasabi with the soy sauce, so delicious. After about I had a couple rolls under my belt (heh!) I attempted a trifecta: tuna, avocado, AND cucumber. And it worked! I am the queen of sushi.



Tim had already left to see a Bill Frissell concert, so after we ate about three rolls each and cleaned up, Mai and I finished off the wine and birthday brownies with Kaye and watched those snazzy Isabella Rosselli biology films on Sundance.com everyone is so excited about. What a great way to celebrate another year of life! Happy Birthday to my one and only twin brother Aaron (I'm bringing your very humble birthday gift to the Fargo Marathon) and baby Ben, who still craps his pants. YOU LOSE!

Friday the 13th...the bbq.

Tim and I hosted a potluck to celebrate the rare and exciting occurrence when the 13th of the month lands on a Friday. SPOOKY! To prepare, I read the first chapter of "I Like You, Hospitality Under the Influence" to beef up my hostess skills, and I also used the cheese ball recipe and oh, my. So. Good. Buttery cheesy richness, that is now making my small intestine whine like a box of hungry kitties.

Okay, that was maybe a little too far. But here is how I spent my Friday:

1. Sleeping in! I took the day off! Wooo HOOO!
2. Finding recipes to steal on Buttersugarflour.com
3. Running errands;
a. Fixing the glass in a picture frame at Yu Hardware, my favorite hardware store in the entire world.
b. Shopping for mangos, veggies, and all the fresh stuff at Tony's Finer Foods
c. Dropping off recycling
d. Returning $12 worth of spices and then pushing around a cart full of vodka, beer, and two different types of milk at Jewel
e. Paying $3.85 for six fresh, beautiful polish sausages at Starpolska
4. Baking
a. Mango Tart from an Australian amateur baker



b. Red Velvet Cupcakes from Runnersworld.com that I wrote "scary" messages on:


In case you can't read that, it says "the call is coming from inside the house."

c. Peppercorn cheese ball. I will not taunt you with photos of this. That would be cruel.

d. Technically not baking, but I did mix some killer drinks---a sort of lemonade-y beer vodka cocktail. You may be judging me at the moment, but I'll note that a second pitcher was requested and drained (Kaye is a trooper).

5. Drink and enjoy. Several of my co-workers joined the party, as did the small handful of couples that we know in Chicago. We grilled lots of brauts, and approximately two tofu dogs. Wii bowling, lots of chatter, and a bowl full of apples later, my co-worker pulled this out of the oven:



If there was ever a time to scream and pull out the butcher knife, stabbing in random directions as you attempt to escape your eminent doom...uh, now is the time. THAT, my friends, is what is known as a "Bacon Explosion." It is sausage and cheese wrapped in bacon and drenched in BBQ sauce. I had ONE FORK FULL and was like, um, holy crap, NO. NO NO NO.

Actually, the funniest thing was one party guest who had spent about 45 minutes petting Mimi, the giant orange cat, saw that no one was eating the daunting explosión de tocino and sincerely asked "will the cats eat it?"

HA!

Fun times for all, and lots of dishes and left over beers and brauts today. Yippee! Happy Heart Day!

Saturday evening din-din.

Recipe tweaked just a teeny-tiny bit from American Test Kitchen.



Mix together and rub on four medium sized chicken breasts:
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 chili powder
1 tsp salt

Chill for 30-60 minutes covered in the fridge.

In the mean time, bean time:
3 TBSP oil
1 1/4 c. minced onions

"Heat oil in large..." soup pot "...over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook. stirring frequently, until light golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Add..."

2 medium garlic cloves minced
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1 fresh serrano chili (next time, keep 1/2 the seeds to add a little kick)

"...cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes, sugar, and salt; bring to boil."

28 oz can of crushed tomatoes, American test kitchen recommends Muir Glen brand. Apparently, they took Hunts, Muir Glen, and a couple that fell in between and drained them over night. The four brands ranged from a golden water base to a red water base. APPARENTLY, the more golden the base, the fresher the tomatoes, because they are boiled for a shorter amount of time, soaking out less of those nice red juices.
2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt (leave out the salt, it's not needed)

"Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cream and return to simmer. Remove pan from heat and cover to keep warm.
While sauce simmers, adjust over rack to upper-middle position (about 6 inches from heating element) and heat broiler. Using tongs, dip chicken into yogurt mixture..."

Mix together 1 container of small container of yogurt, 2 minced cloves of garlic, 1 tsp ginger (could add more, the recipe calls for 1 TBSP grated fresh ginger) and 2 TBSP oil.

"(chicken should be coated with thick layer of yogurt) and arrange on" broiler pan lined with aluminum foil "Discard excess yogurt mixture. Boil chicken until" there's no more pink juices in there! "or exterior is lightly charred in spots, 10 to 18 minutes, flipping chicken halfway through cooking."

"Let chicken rest 5 minutes, then cut into 1-inch chunks and stir into warm sauce (do not simmer chicken in sauce). Stir in cilantro."

Handful of chopped cilantro.

The yogurt coating in this dish keep the chicken super tender and delicious! It turned out a bit salty, so I recommend leaving it out and adding later if needed. Tim and I both ate a ton, and there was still enough for three lunches.

Yummo. Tumm-ah. Yummy.

Two words.

Frosting shots. (click on menu)

My mother and I love her.

I spent all Monday-Friday working and traveling and took the train to DC from NY on Wednesday morning. My only free time for the whole week ended up being Thursday morning, so I got my work stuff together, packed them into my Christmas briefcase, and walked to the Museum of American History at the Smithsonian. The volunteer at the information desk showed me a floor map and asked if there was anything in particular I wanted to see. Eh, like, duh.



In the Meberg house, we were taught that making your own sandwich at home is just better than eating food made with convenience in mind. At first, I thought this was because we were poor. Then, I started seeing a pattern. We never stocked Little Debbies, but we always had fresh-baked cookies or bars on hand. We rarely ordered in pizza in and never got frozen pies, but we feasted on sun-raised crust for our Italian Deli Rolls. Taco Bell Mild Sauce? Get real. Mom canned a mountain of fresh salsa every summer, and we always finished it before April. Eventually, I realized that the canned green beans from the garden were better than an aluminum can of french style (cut super tiny) green beans.

But would the Mebergs have past this taste for good food on to their children if it had not been for the wonderful and slightly campy Julia Child? After all the frozen food and processed TV dinners of the 50s, Julia decided that the American people deserved better. Thank god. I still remember the first time I watched one of her shows with my mom: she was sauteeing something with oil in a frying pan and said "now, some of you may be concerned about the oil in this dish. So if you're worried about your calories and want to substitute something a bit healthier than oil...use butter." Heh.

Since then, I've pretty much used butter whenever possible.

The Smithsonian displays Julia's kitchen from several different viewpoints. When Julia and Paul moved into their house (they originally bought it and then rented it back to the owners for two years), they heightened the counters by two inches to account for Julia's 6'2" frame. They covered a wall of windows with pegboard and then traced around the pots with a marker, so she would know where each one went. Knives belonged on the wall, not the drawer, where they would shift and get dull. Julia also liked cats (!) and had a bunch of paintings on the walls and figurines displayed on top of her refrigerator. Her table and chairs were from Norway, where she and Paul had stayed for a bit after her schooling. The big knife on display was her "Fright Knife," which she used for comical relief on her show. Also on display were Julia's many cookbooks, including her 23-page recipe for french bread.



This was such an amazing thing to see. Although I knew very little about Julia Child before, and having always thought she was English due to her warbly voice, it was quite an inspiration to see someone dedicate their whole life to helping people enjoy the food we put inside our bodies. It was grounding to see that while she had A LOT of kitchen gadgets and counter space, it was still just a kitchen, not a science lab or gourmet restaurant.

I type this as I am snacking on a gigantic bag of Belly Flops, irregular Jelly Belly beans. Hm.

It worked!

Last night I made chicken soup using the stock I made before Christmas break. And. It. Was. Delicious.

For the soup, I added two chopped sweet potatoes, the bottom half of two leeks, and chopped up chicken to about 7 cups of stock. After boiling for a while, I added in some dumpling lumps---1 1/3 c. flour, 2 TBLSP baking powder, 1 Ttsp salt, 2 TBLSP vegetable oil, 2/3 c. milk. And, like 2 tsp of thyme which was like, 4 years old. So probably not a lot of tasty stuff left in those powdered leaves, but, hmm.

AND IT WAS AWESOME.

I'd post a picture, but my camera battery is dead and I can't find the charger.

WHO CARES! I didn't ruin the soup! Woot woot!

oh no she dih int.

oh yes she did.

Delicious. Delicious. And delicious.

I finally used my Kitchenaid to make some pizza dough this evening. What, hello Mister Dough Hook! Nice to meet you! My dough turned all stretchy and soft and pristene. And then it blew up to twice the size, and rolled out like a dream. A DREAM I TELL YOU!

And I cooked the sausage on the stove top and then added about four giant onions and steamed them, then piled them on top of the rolled out dough, no sauce needed, and then piled the sausage on top. Baked at 350 for half an hour, then 10 minutes on 425. Crispy. Crunchy. What do you think, Tim?



Garfi gar vuh gar? Mmmm, me too. ME NEED FOOD.

Borscht.

Did I mention that our family of four children and two happily married, hard working Americans grew up on a farm where we grew, harvested, froze, and canned all our own vegetables? We also had two deep freezes to hold all the chicken, beef, and sometimes rabbit we raised and then slaughtered. Ah, warm pin feather memories.

One fall we had a particularly large crop of vegetables, so we took them in to town and sold them at a small farmers market. There were some larger than life beets, and one of the town characters (think more Northern Exposure, less Gilmore Girls) bought them and told us he would be making borscht.

I know sometimes I remember things incorrectly from a child's point of view, but I believe this is what started my mom's ritual of making at least one pot of borscht every winter. So when I saw a pile of beets at Tony's Finer Foods, I scooped up potatoes, carrots, an onion, and a pound of discretely labeled "stew meat" and brought them home.



After adding some garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaves and simmering for an hour, Tim and friend Kaye gave a rave review for my first pot of borscht for the season. I'll be eating it for the next eight meals. ALSO...we found the best deal at our grocery store for a delicious meal at home...GUESS HOW MUCH A WHOLE CHICKEN COSTS A TONY'S FINER FOODS. Go on, guess, you're never going to get it.












$2.18! I know. I'll be roasting a chicken with stuffed with cilantro, oranges and lemons tomorrow. Yum.