Saturday, June 11, 2016 – Of all the Ingredient Challenges, there was still one I hadn’t made: salmon with kimchi. It was suggested to me by my coworker Eric S. So I had to do one last dinner party to finish up the series.
Ingredient Challenge Dinner Party Two
Saturday, May 7, 2016 – I’ve already told you the story of the ingredient challenges, so I won’t go into that again. Today, I had my second dinner party with the dishes from the ingredient challenges.
Today’s menu was
And for dessert, blood orange sorbet. (This wasn’t an ingredient challenge, but it was thematic with the rest of the dinner.)
Jan/Feb 2016: Multitasking Practice
So as we all know, I make good-looking food, but I’m slow in the kitchen. One of my issues is I tend to serialize everything (laymen’s terms: I do everything one at a time). If I really want to work on my kitchen speed, I need to get comfortable multitasking things. And the biggest opportunity for improvement is to have more than 1 thing going on the stove at the same time.
Ingredient Challenge #6: Salmon with Kimchi Slaw
Sunday, November 29, 2015 – And now for our last ingredient challenge of the season. My coworker Eric S picked salmon (good protein base), orange juice (I can make a citrus glaze for the salmon), cantaloupe (I guess I could infuse it into the orange juice), artichoke hearts (I can work with that), and… kimchi. Okay, we’ll see what I can do.
Lucky for me, I decided to try mixing the kimchi with the roasted artichoke hearts and mayo and call it a Kimchi and Artichoke Slaw. And you know what, it kinda worked.
Ingredient Challenge #4: Roasted Veggies with Veloute Sauce
Saturday, October 24, 2015 – Another ingredient challenge. My friend Crystal picked beets, parsnips, fennel, chicken stock, and onion. The chicken stock was an interesting one. Now, I could make soup, but that would be too obvious. So instead, I made a sauce, roasted the veggies, and topped them with the sauce.
Ingredient Challenge #3: Duck with Orange Ginger Sauce
Saturday, October 17, 2015 – Another week, another ingredient challenge. This time, it’s neither all meat nor all veggie.
My friend Alice picked walnuts, duck, cabbage, ginger, and blood orange. Sadly, it seems blood oranges aren’t in season right now, so I had to make do with regular oranges. The orange and the ginger make a pretty good sauce. The rest? Well, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Cinco de Mayo 2015
Cinco de Mayo 2014
Mexican Dinner, Practice Run
April 5-6, 2014 – Some backstory: My friends know I’m really into cooking, that I’m a chocoholic, and that I frequently combine strange flavors. (The famous example being the burger with chocolate sauce. But that’s a story for another day.) At least 2 different friends indepdendently told me I should check out mole and learn how to make mole. (The Mexican food, not the furry animal.) So I did.
Eggs Benedict
Saturday, January 11, 2014 – After my whole “Merry Eggs-mas and Happy Hollandaise” pun card, I decided it was time to learn how to make my own eggs benedict. Plus, I learned how to make both Hollandaise sauce and poached eggs in cooking class, so eggs benedict was a natural extension.