Accomplished! goal 101-- 12/12 new dishes Empanadas!

Woo-Hoo! Last night I made Empanadas which concludes my year long goal of cooking one new dish a month for 12 months! I'm already thinking up a twist on this goal for 2011, maybe one dish/meal from every continent? Maybe finding and using one ingredient I've never used before (like celery root, or some of those asian vegetables).

Before I could get started cooking I had to clean our little, dirty, dirty, kitchen. Not just because it's easier to cook with all the counter tops clean, but also because I didn't want old crusted splatters on the stove in my photos.

Our little kitchen. While I think most people want more counter space, we really could use more.

I mentioned in my last goal 101 post that the dish was inspired by a Food Network show, so I looked to the Food Network website for the recipe. I found it, but it made mention that they had scaled it down from a bulk recipe and none of their chefs had tried it in the proportions written. After conferring with Joy of Cooking, and Bobby Flay's recipe for Empanada dough I called Ian to get his professional opinion on the amount of salt and sugar to use. We agreed that where it said "tablespoon" I should replace it with "teaspoon" and it would work fine.

Everybody was together for a nice picture before getting beat up into dough. I love my little pink prep bowls. They have lines inside so each one can give you two measurements. The smallest is an 1/8 cup to the halfway line and 1/4 filled all the way up.

I like the sifted mountain of flour as evidenced by it getting two photos by itself. It just looks so neat! You can also notice the difference in color as the top photo uses a flash and the next one did not. I tried taking pictures without a flash, but our kitchen is too dim and they kept coming out blurry.

I was so tickled by the flour mountain, my amazement was a child-like awe. You should find something to make you wonder like a kid again.

 I was nervous about making the dough and perhaps in a chicken/egg scenario I then forgot to add the egg to the food processor. I hear Ina Garten's gentle voice saying, "You don't want to blend it too long or it wouldn't be flaky." I also heard the recipe's voice saying "it should turn into a ball." "Why isn't this working?!" I huffed to myself. Well, because I didn't have the stuff in there to hold it all together of course! It came out fine in the end, afterall, the little pies were headed to the deep fryer.

The recipe called for Sofrito and Adobo yet did not give recipes for them so it was back to the computer as the dough was chilling in the fridge. Sofrito I learned can be any number of things. Sweet peppers, cilantro, garlic are the main ingredients and then in any amount you want sort of, maybe? This one says to cook it. This one says just to mash it up in a mocajete. This one says to cook it and add oregano and black pepper, but the recipe has that coming later. Hmm.

I decided to mash it up and then cook it down too. It went into it's own little pan as I sauteed the onions.

The mash-it-up portion of the Rachel doesn't know game.

After the onions were softening in the cast iron over medium high heat, I added my Sofrito and the tomato paste and some red pepper, and oregano, black pepper and salt, and the rest of the cilantro. On the show he used Culantro as well. Ian and I both saw it and said "Where can we get some!?" Still no idea, yet it's on the list of things to try.

The peppers and onions etc softening up pre-beef.

Ian got home just in time to roll out the dough. This was a labor intensive recipe, from start to finish. I was back and forth to the computer deciphering the secret messages of the chef, I was mincing peppers and onions (wearing my old swim goggles, of course), and wondering if that had been enough of such-and-such because the recipe was a little vague. So I was happy Ian showed up willing to roll out the dough instead of going straight to his unwind haven cave.

During the Bobby Flay Throwdown, the other chef used his flour sifter as the circle cutter for his empanadas and I thought "How clever!" so I did too!

Load up the top half of the dough circle with the beef mixture, fold up the bottom, pinch the ends together and then roll it in on itself from one side to the other.

 We debated between our baby deep fryer and using a pan. Considering the pan we'd need for frying is the cast iron that I had dirty with beef yum, and our little deep fryer already had oil in it, we chose the easier route.

Delightful, golden brown, little hand pies of delicious is what these are! The dough was fine, though I think if that egg had jumped into it sooner they would be better. The beef mixture was flavorful without being too spicy, and if I had remembered to salt it in the pan, it would've had the perfect flavor balance.

The only other thing that would have made these better is if we'd remembered about the Guava sauce on our grocery day and bought Guava paste. I think that fruity sauce would have highlighted the flavors in the empanada and made it a more complete delicious.

It was nothing but smiles though as we ate our little hand pies. Delicious little hand pies. Too much work to add into the rotation, it was just a lot of work. I am keeping the Sofrito idea handy though because it is meant to be used as a base, and it works so well! One "recipe" I found for it online mentioned using an extra ice cube tray to freeze little sofrito cubes for use later. I might hop on that train.

Ian was happy as a clam to munch on homemade empanadas! Always encouraging me to go off recipe and always willing to eat the product (as long as there's no -aise). His support and will-eat-anything attitude really made this goal fun and easy to keep coming back to! Thanks Ian.

That wraps up my new dish goal! Goal 101 is officially ACCOMPLISHED!

goal 101-- 11/12 cook a new dish

Ian and I were on the road for the entire month of November. It is an adventure that I know I am very special to have been able to experience.

I'm giving myself a pass on the "new dish" for November. While I didn't cook anything new, there were plenty of new eating extravaganzas and when you add them all up I think they are perfectly aligned with the motivation behind this goal.

For instance, our second morning of the trip (while we were waiting for the AAA guy to come after our car broke down on the FIRST night!), we made camp-stove breakfast in the vestibule of a rest area in Idaho just North of Utah. That is a first.

Fine dining at my Dad's house. A multi-course meal after a work day! The sea-food soup (name escapes me) was awesome, and I tried lamb, it was delicious. Also a first.

Thai 9 is always on the list of eateries when we visit Dayton, OH. My mouth waters just thinking about it. This is the eel lunch special.

Collards from my dad's garden to the far right (we didn't get around to cooking them as soon as we thought we would) along with some organic samples from the local grocery store. Ian had talked up my collards skills so much, they were requested for the Thanks-o-ween family dinner. One of the first times I've tried to recreate an awesome dish, away from home!

It was quite a spread at the Thanks-o-ween dinner. All sorts of yummy veggies and foods.

Knowing we would be visiting New Orleans later that week, Ian made sure while we were in Asheville, NC that we ordered the beignets at Mayfel's so we could compare them to those of Cafe Dumonde.

The first beignets I've ever had. Granted, I've tried lots of other types of fried dough. Every nationality that has discovered hot cooking oil has a version of fried dough. Mayfel's are the superior beignet.

While it was rumored to be the best pizza ever, we realized the by-the-slice doesn't offer you the creme of the crop at Satchel's. We are eating in the front of the VW bus that is parked in the yard of the restaurant.

Some lawn-sitting. Ian's favorite Florida past-time. While in Gainesville we were treated to another thanksgiving proportion feast (and given a to-go platter of delicious pulled pork and sides).

Jeff and Ian. Also, the slow cooker. Not featured, the deep fryer with which we figured out the best way to deep fry nori, and whole baby red potatoes, a culinary first for me!

Cooking over the fire pit at Cape San Blas Florida. While we only got to spend one night at this magical haven, it was relaxing enough to last another week.

So glad we got to have Po'Boys while in NOLA. I tried soft shell crab for the first time.

My brother's delicious!!! vegan pancakes (setting on top of a Fajita painted platter).

Best tacos I've ever had? I think so, Torchy's Tacos in Austin were super duper delish.

Family style barbeque at the Salt Lick somewhere outside of Austin, TX. Piles of food that they just keep refilling and they let you take left-overs! Man!

We were given leftovers from the leftovers from Ben and Gina's Thanksgiving feast. In the foreground Ben's homemade smurf bread. Ian ate mostly Ham for the rest of the trip, and as a testament to how much he loves ham: we were at the grocery store yesterday and all the hams are on sale. He really wanted to spend 17 bucks on a little ham "If we had that meat slicer my Dad has, this would be perfect!" I gave him a look and he said "I know, I know I just ate all that ham from your brother. I. just. love. ham." Just about anyone else would be sick of it by now, right?

So the way I see it, I may not have actually "cooked a new dish" in November, if you take the literal sense like my previous posts for the goal. . . yet I was quite adventurous and experienced a number of firsts with food while on our month long travels.

With only three days left in December,  I need to get my hiney in gear with a new dish for this last month and 12/12 for this goal. I'm inspired to make Empanadas. I told Ian I've made them before so it wouldn't count. He said that since they were baked (opposed to fried like these will be), and how I can't remember what city I was living in or what they're filling was: those first ones don't count. He says Empanadas will count as a New Dish for my goal 101. I'm fit to agree with him, especially after having our appetites whet by the empanadas chef Frank Maldonando made on an episode of Throw Down with Bobby Flay.  I may or may not use his recipe.

Goal 101 may be the longest recurring goal I've ever consciously worked toward. I don't remember every saving up to buy a bicycle or anything like that. I'm getting giddy with anticipation to check this one off the list! I almost thought I'd blown it because I didn't have a new dish for November. Then I remembered one of the great things about goals, you can change them and sometimes you're still working toward what you had set your mind to even if it's not the literal translation.

Stay tuned for some Empanadas so good looking you'll be looking for a ticket to Portland!

Epic Recap -- Ghost Towns

We saw a lot of cool stuff on the back roads in Nevada. There were a number of abandoned mining towns from different eras. We didn't stop for the old west ghost town that looked real enough to be in the movies, yet Ian was intrigued and made a quick u-turn to stop at this modern day ghost town with dilapidated buildings. Wait, what's the the word  that's further down the stream of falling down than dilapidated?

"Whoa, we've got to stop. I'm pulling over!" One of the quick decisions Ian made that led to fantastic visual feasts.

Jet streams from the nearby air base were all over. We even thought we saw a suspicious grey smoke on a tangent from a strong jet stream but couldn't be sure it wasn't more than a trick on our eyes.

Snow-capped mountains in the background made the few buildings so much more epic. Zombie-pocalypse-ish.

It looked like a fire had claimed one of the main buildings, whatever it had been and then the people just left.

"Go sit in that chair." "umm." I said tentatively walking toward it yet uncertain, I mean what if some terrible disease is waiting in the foam? Answering my internal dialogue Ian says, "It's fine, it's been sitting in the middle of the desert, there's nothing wrong with it."

Something about this house with wallpaper still hanging was just so intriguing to me.

The whole time we were wandering around, I kept thinking about my college friend Sarah Gardiner. A penchant for abandoned buildings (like the state mental hospital in TC before it was turned into condos), and a phenomenal eye with a camera, she'd have come away from this site with an entire portfolio's worth of awesomeness.

If you can believe it, the recaps are still from Nevada. It was a festival of epic. 

Epic Recap -- Hoover Dam

"oh! You know you are getting close to the Hoover Dam when the power lines are so massive!" Ian said.

We got to see a lot of amazing sunsets on our trip at least half a dozen I'd say. I remember ever seeing two sunsets in Portland and I may be making one of those up! The dry clear air of the other parts of the country (and in the latter part of our trip driving west toward mountains) were just the perfect conditions to watch that giant ball of fire temper into the spectrum of rainbow crossing the whole sky. sigh. so wonderful.

 "You stay here and take a picture of me, hang on I'm gonna walk over here" I said.

At some point we actually looked at one of the plaques on the bridge we were on and this one had a timeline on it of the design and construction. The bridge opened to the public in October 2010, we were surprised. "Where did cars go before this was built?" I kept asking. "Across the dam," Ian would say. "Noh. No way," I'd exasperate.

You could just stare at it for ages. I still didn't believe cars had to wind down the road that I couldn't even see and all cross the dam and wind back up the other side. "Where did the cards used to go?" I'd ask again. "ACROSS the Dam" Ian would reply. "No, I just can't imagine it. We're going to have to add that to our list of things to look up." I thought aloud. "Sounds good," Ian said. 

Every couple on the bridge seemed to be doing pull-aways even with the myriad of other people with expensive cameras that I'm sure would have been more than happy to take a picture. When in Rome though.

 "Ian, let's do a pull-away! It seems the cool thing to do here." "Okay" "Do another one, my face is all squished in that one." "okay" "Ah, perfect!"

It wasn't until somewhere in Florida that I thought "Oh! we should have taken pictures of all the state welcome signs along the way" then again Ian's voice said in my brain said "Why take a picture of something you can just find on the internet" When we saw the Nevada sign right near the ped crossing Ian said "Go over there! We'll get a picture." I told him I only had pictures of 3 of the state signs and my internet theory. "What we should'ave done is pull over and jump out in front of the signs and take a picture." "Oooh! Yeah! that would have been awesome! I could always photoshop us in?!"

As we were leaving the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge eI stopped in the little circle were all the informational plaques were. "What are you doing?" Ian asked since I had just said I wanted to get a move on. "Trying to see if it says where the cars went before the bypass was built."  Ian skimmed the plaques on his side and said "Here. . ." The following text is actually pulled from the Hoover Dam Bypass website so imagine the same information more concise and prettier in metal: "Prior to completion of this project, the existing route of U.S. 93 used the top of Hoover Dam to cross the Colorado River."  "SEE!" Ian pointed out. "Okay, huh, wow. No wonder they finally built a bypass that must have been slooooow."

continued from the Bypass Website:
"The traffic volumes, combined with the sharp curves on U.S. 93 in the vicinity of Hoover Dam, created a potentially dangerous situation. A major catastrophe could occur, involving innocent bystanders, millions of dollars in property damage to the dam and its facilities, contamination of the waters of Lake Mead or the Colorado River, and interruption of the power and water supply for people in the Southwest.

By developing an alternate crossing of the river near Hoover Dam, through-vehicle and truck traffic are removed from the top of the dam. This new route eliminates the problems with the former highway--sharp turns, narrow roadways, inadequate shoulders, poor sight distance, and low travel speeds. "

Epic Recap -- Thanksgiving

Ian and I partook in at least four thanksgiving like feasts (Lansing, Dayton, Gainesville, Austin) while we were out and about traveling the country visiting friends and family.

On the actual day of Thanksgiving however we were roaming around a quiet New Orleans with other Ian. I actually had to use my imagination to experience the debauchery and public disgustingness that would be a normal/festive day in the quarter.

Beignets and Po'Boys were our only two food requirements for the city of New Orleans. We'd even eaten beignets at Mayfel's in Asheville so we could compare.

Cafe Dumonde, a nola institution was still buzzing with activity on the quiet holiday. (Mayfel's beignets were totally more delicious)

An after breakfast walk along the river, looking at all the giant boats and things.

Some of the quaint nola architecture.

"I want both of you like where Ian is!" so they both move in different directions. Afterall, they are both Ian.

We finally found an open restaurant serving Po'Boys! Mike's Carribean or some such. . . Everything a good po'boy should (except cheap). A delicious thanksgiving indeed. Foreground is deep fried shrimp, background is two softshell crabs. My Ian had crawdads.

Also in nola we ate at Juan's Flying Burrito. It was the best unexpected delicious of the trip. If you're in new orleans, go there.

Is it us, or is this building all leaning a few too many inches to one side?

By the end of the day I was getting a little anxious about my online business since I hadn't gotten to check in for a few days longer than I anticipated. So through some problem solving, Ian Smith remembered the borders book store. We go there and it was closed, but he said I should try the wi-fi (both Ians agreed) anyhow because they don't usually turn it off at night.

While I was slowly checking my email over the weak wi-fi connection Ian M. found this gecko scaling the building.