Sorry it's been so long, but we have been super busy! Between starting a new job and selling the house in a week, I've been a busy busy girl! I wrote this recipe down for a good friend to make with New Mexican food:
Black Bean and Corn Salad
1 big can of corn
1 big can of Busch's black beans
2 jalapenos
1 stalk of green onion
1 clove garlic
1 jicama
1/4 red onion (if you like raw onion)
1/4 cup cilantro
lime juice
olive oil
Get a pan searing hot and add the drained and rinsed corn and black
beans to give them a little char, when done, put in a bowl to cool down
Fine dice the green onions, cilantro, jalapeno, and optional red onion
Mince the garlic
Cut the jicama and dice to size similar to beans and corn
Mix all ingredients with 3:2 ration of olive oil:lime juice (usually 5tbsp evoo to 2 tbsp lime juice)
Add some lime zest to make it a little tangier
Enjoy!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Farm & Table
Matt and I saw a new restaurant in the North Valley last weekend while looking at new houses to buy. It is called Farm & Table, located on 4th St. North of Paseo.
Matt looked it up and became obsessed, so we tried it out yesterday. You do have to make a reservation on opentable because it's a very exciting restaurant to people in the valley. I will give the disclaimer that this place is a little pretentious, but I don't know a farm to table restaurant that isn't. On the scale of "farm to table" pretension, it's pretty low. Ok onto the good stuff!
We got a lovely bottle of carmenere for $26! Bonus. The bread is a homemade focaccia served with olive oil and radishes from their garden. Quite lovely. I ordered the duck, and I have to say it was the best cooked duck I have eaten in Albuquerque! The apple puree and braised red cabbage were a delight! The "asiago" polenta could have been a little better. You will see things like "bacon" and "asigo" on the menu and expect more of that flavor when there is very little. Which is not all bad, considering I don't like how all food cooked with bacon only tastes like bacon. I digress. Wonderful meal and well priced in my opinion!
Matt got the potato leek soup to start and it was very fresh for a creamy potato soup! I cringed when he ordered it because it seemed so hot and thick for the spring/summer season. But once I tasted it I was pleasantly surprised that it was not heavy at all, needed salt, but well executed. Then ordered the green chile cheeseburger because he's a man :) I tried it out and got more flavor from the green-chile cornmeal bun than the actual green chile on the burger, but it melded well together to make a good burger. I was most surprised by the fries. The mix of sweet potato, russet and parsnip was really amazing! I often make homemade baked fries and loved this take. I recommend getting them to try even if they don't come with your meal. All in all a delicious $11 burger.
Total bill was about $65 without tip, which isn't too far from what we do at buffalo wild wings and I felt full but not weighed down when I left the restaurant, a bonus with local food.
Will go back for brunch! Yum! And "fingers crossed" to try a new lamb dish.
This is my duck, half eaten, sorry I was pretty hungry and remembered to take a pic when half way done
Matt looked it up and became obsessed, so we tried it out yesterday. You do have to make a reservation on opentable because it's a very exciting restaurant to people in the valley. I will give the disclaimer that this place is a little pretentious, but I don't know a farm to table restaurant that isn't. On the scale of "farm to table" pretension, it's pretty low. Ok onto the good stuff!
We got a lovely bottle of carmenere for $26! Bonus. The bread is a homemade focaccia served with olive oil and radishes from their garden. Quite lovely. I ordered the duck, and I have to say it was the best cooked duck I have eaten in Albuquerque! The apple puree and braised red cabbage were a delight! The "asiago" polenta could have been a little better. You will see things like "bacon" and "asigo" on the menu and expect more of that flavor when there is very little. Which is not all bad, considering I don't like how all food cooked with bacon only tastes like bacon. I digress. Wonderful meal and well priced in my opinion!
Matt got the potato leek soup to start and it was very fresh for a creamy potato soup! I cringed when he ordered it because it seemed so hot and thick for the spring/summer season. But once I tasted it I was pleasantly surprised that it was not heavy at all, needed salt, but well executed. Then ordered the green chile cheeseburger because he's a man :) I tried it out and got more flavor from the green-chile cornmeal bun than the actual green chile on the burger, but it melded well together to make a good burger. I was most surprised by the fries. The mix of sweet potato, russet and parsnip was really amazing! I often make homemade baked fries and loved this take. I recommend getting them to try even if they don't come with your meal. All in all a delicious $11 burger.
Total bill was about $65 without tip, which isn't too far from what we do at buffalo wild wings and I felt full but not weighed down when I left the restaurant, a bonus with local food.
Will go back for brunch! Yum! And "fingers crossed" to try a new lamb dish.
This is my duck, half eaten, sorry I was pretty hungry and remembered to take a pic when half way done
Taste While Cooking! A Cautionary Tale....
While making my creamy cajun chicken pasta thing on Tuesday, I re-learned a simple but valuable lesson to taste your food while cooking!
I over salted, ugh, I know. Horrible!
I typically spice my food with regular spices and not mixes because rarely do I find a mix that isn't 90% salt and 10% spice! But, not being from the South, I have no idea what goes into cajun spices. Sooo, I use slap ya mama mix! Well, forgetting that it does have salt, I added a ton to my sauce and then added garlic and salted my water for the pasta (like necessary). But once complete, it was a bowl of salt lick. Gross. Needless to say, no one was asking for seconds and we had a "round 2" with cheese its later that evening.
I will say, I have made the recipe many times and this is the only time it has sucked ballz. The cream sauce is an amazing way to eat creamy pasta guilt free. I use reduced sodium stock and low fat laughing cow.
I over salted, ugh, I know. Horrible!
I typically spice my food with regular spices and not mixes because rarely do I find a mix that isn't 90% salt and 10% spice! But, not being from the South, I have no idea what goes into cajun spices. Sooo, I use slap ya mama mix! Well, forgetting that it does have salt, I added a ton to my sauce and then added garlic and salted my water for the pasta (like necessary). But once complete, it was a bowl of salt lick. Gross. Needless to say, no one was asking for seconds and we had a "round 2" with cheese its later that evening.
I will say, I have made the recipe many times and this is the only time it has sucked ballz. The cream sauce is an amazing way to eat creamy pasta guilt free. I use reduced sodium stock and low fat laughing cow.
Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta
Everyone makes mistakes, including myself (so modest, I know). But I made a HUGE mistake Tuesday night while cooking. I decided to use up the rest of the rotisserie chicken I bought from Costco, by making my famous low fat cream sauce with pasta thing.
While flipping through channels on Saturday, I saw "Hungry Girl" on the Food Network make a low fat cream sauce of some sort using laughing cow cheese and I thought "Hmm, smart." So I looked up the recipe and holy hell there was a lot to it! Skip forward about a month, my friend Carrie makes an awesome creamy cajun salmon dish that I wanted to try out. And, as per usual, I didn't have any milk or cream in the house. But I did have laughing cow cheese and chicken stock and viola! low-fat cream sauce.
Ok, so now on to it. This is the components for the sauce, you can add anything you want to it to alter the taste. Once, I added garlic and fennel to top spicy sausage (yes, it was awesome) and other times I added slap yo mama mix to make a spicy cajun flavor. Tuesday night I decide creamy cajun chicken penne sounded delish and fast. So I started to boil the water and get the sauce ready.
Note: I use a Mauviel copper pan to make my sauce because there are no hot spots, but I'm sure you can use any pan.
In the pan, heat some chicken stock
When it starts to steam, slice and add 4 wedges of laughing cow cheese
*I am fully aware how gross it looks
KEEP WHISKING! Do not let this sit, it will gross you out even more!
Add flavor at this time
After about 5-10 minutes, the cheese will melt and it will look like this
and this! (I use a silicon spatula to occasionally scrape the side of the pan)
Cube your chicken
Toss everything in a large mixing bowl
Viola! I recommend adding some kind of veggie, but I didn't have any at home
While flipping through channels on Saturday, I saw "Hungry Girl" on the Food Network make a low fat cream sauce of some sort using laughing cow cheese and I thought "Hmm, smart." So I looked up the recipe and holy hell there was a lot to it! Skip forward about a month, my friend Carrie makes an awesome creamy cajun salmon dish that I wanted to try out. And, as per usual, I didn't have any milk or cream in the house. But I did have laughing cow cheese and chicken stock and viola! low-fat cream sauce.
Ok, so now on to it. This is the components for the sauce, you can add anything you want to it to alter the taste. Once, I added garlic and fennel to top spicy sausage (yes, it was awesome) and other times I added slap yo mama mix to make a spicy cajun flavor. Tuesday night I decide creamy cajun chicken penne sounded delish and fast. So I started to boil the water and get the sauce ready.
Note: I use a Mauviel copper pan to make my sauce because there are no hot spots, but I'm sure you can use any pan.
In the pan, heat some chicken stock
When it starts to steam, slice and add 4 wedges of laughing cow cheese
KEEP WHISKING! Do not let this sit, it will gross you out even more!
Add flavor at this time
After about 5-10 minutes, the cheese will melt and it will look like this
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