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Coffee Grading #1 - Thinking Cup

2012 is becoming the year of the numerical food blog posts. I've already completed 4 of 52+ new-to-me recipes from my favorite food websites, cookbooks and recommendations from others. I have planned my first of 12 dinner parties (a January 29th taco night with friends). That covers a lot of the "appetite" aspect of this blog, but not the "appetite" + "instruction."

Given how much coffee and food I consume during grading tests, quizzes and projects, I have decided to start another series: coffee-grading. As much as I love my condo, sometimes I prefer to do work at coffee shops. A latte, some Icelandic electropop, and a wooden table can motivate me to finish my work faster in a comfier environment than my classroom. I am also not tempted to nap on any coffee shop couches (as I would be on my own). The next time you're at your favorite coffee shop, look around for math tests, red pens, and rubrics among the sea of MacBooks...teachers are everywhere!

For this series, I'll write short reviews of my favorite spots around the Somerville, Boston and Cambridge areas with respect to location, food/drink, table space, ease of finding a seat, and atmosphere.

Website: thinkingcup.com

Yelp Reviews: http://www.yelp.com/biz/thinking-cup-boston-2

Location: Near the Boston Common, Thinking Cup is popular with tourists and college students from nearby Emerson and Suffolk. It's easy to get to from the Park St or Downtown Crossing T stations. Street parking is difficult.

Food and/or Drink: Excellent. For food, I recommend the peppercorn turkey sandwich, roast beef sandwich, goat cheese, apricot and arugula sandwich, and mini cheesecake. For drink, I recommend the Americano, honey cinnamon latte (pictured below), and watermelon lime cooler (seasonal).

Table Space: All the tables are tiny. They're made for up to two people at most, though I've seen groups of four crowd around them. You could do lesson planning on the computer or grade papers, but not both at the same time. Two teachers and their laptops could not coexist on the same table unless both had teeny tiny netbooks or were okay with perching the laptops halfway off the table.

Ease of Finding a Seat: Bring out your vulture skills, it's like Wrentham Village parking lot on Black Friday in here. The central location and proximity to landmarks causes a huge influx of tourists on weekends, especially on nice days. You'll likely have to put away your Bostonian anti-social face and make friends with a stranger just to get a seat. Luckily, most people are not aiming to set up shop with a computer and work for multiple hours.

Atmosphere: The music varies from downtempo to techno, and the lights sometimes get dim. The playlist is punctuated by many different languages and conversation topics. Try to avoid sitting by the door in the winter, as the constant influx of cold air can interrupt your work groove.

Grocery Challenge #2

Meals

• Steak salad with grape tomatoes, romaine, butter lettuce and chimichurri sauce
• Alton Brown's pan seared ribeye (bought another steak and more red wine vinegar for dinner)
• Chicken salad with grape tomatoes, romaine and spinach (left over from last week)
• Mushrooms with onions, garlic and truffle salt (see ribeye post)
• Fried eggs (with things like leftover mushrooms or avocado halves)
• Banana & almond milk smoothies
• Anchovy and radish salad
• Lemony roasted potatoes (an oldie but goodie from the Veganomicon cookbook)

Planned But Did Not Make

• Roasted eggplant
• Tuna and green bean salad
• Mint iced tea
• Egg salad
• My Ivy Chopped Salad from the GOOP newsletter
• Tomato and avocado salsa

Leftover

• Eggplant
• 1 avocado
• Mint
• Green beans
• Onions
• 1 can tuna
• Anchovies
• 1/2 a bulb of garlic
• Zucchini
• Cabbage
• Some butter lettuce
• 1 romaine heart
• 2 lemons

Why didn't I use up all my groceries? I had a few restaurant meals (Ceia brunch and Sei Bar with my boyfriend & his parents) and bought lunch out a few times. I also noticed a pattern with the "planned but not made" meals. I either used the ingredients for other things (e.g., using up all the tomatoes in salads before they could become salsa) or could not muster up the energy to wash and chop the vegetables for salads.

I could try to change my lunch preparation by making sure to prep the veggies the night before. However, I don't like salads as much after the ingredients have sat for a day, and I've had a few mishaps trying to carry individual portions of salad dressing to school. Either I'll front-load the salad prep on Sundays or try to find things that are quicker to prepare.

Recipe #4 - Pan Seared Ribeye with Truffled Mushrooms and Chimichurri

Ray's the Steaks is my favorite steak place in the D.C. area. When I was last there, I had the Brazilian Strip steak with spicy piranha sauce and roasted wild mushrooms with truffle oil, porcini-fresh herb puree and golden sherry. Recipe #4 is an in-home adaptation of Ray's.

Pan Seared Ribeye: Alton Brown + Truffled Mushrooms (me) + Chimichurri: Simply Recipes

Steak

1 boneless rib eye steak, 1 1/2-inch thick

Canola oil to coat [used olive oil]

Kosher salt and ground black pepper [used Murray River sea salt]

Place 10 to 12-inch cast iron skillet in oven and heat oven to 500 degrees. Bring steak(s) to room temperature.

Mushrooms

While doing this, start the mushrooms:

2 packets of gourmet mushroom blend

2 tsp truffle salt [did not have any sherry, fresh herbs or porcini]

1 small onion

3 cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

Heat pan on medium, then put in the olive oil. Once the olive oil is warm, put in the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is soft. Put in the mushrooms, sprinkle with the truffle salt and let it cook on low heat.

Make the chimichurri while the oven continues to heat.

Chimichurri

1 cup firmly packed fresh flat-leaf parsley, trimmed of thick stems

3-4 garlic cloves

2 Tbsp fresh oregano leaves (can sub 2 teaspoons dried oregano) [subbed cilantro]

2 Tbsp scallions [added this because I had scallions and wanted to experiment]

1/2 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp red or white wine vinegar [used red]

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes [doubled this]

Finely chop the parsley, scallions, cilantro, and garlic (or process in a food processor several pulses). Place in a small bowl. Stir in the olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Adjust seasonings.

Back to Alton...when oven reaches temperature, remove pan and place on range over high heat. [I forgot to do this and only had it on medium, because I was running around squawking and trying not to get meat juice on the olive oil bottle]. Coat steak lightly with oil and season both sides with a generous pinch of salt. Grind on black pepper to taste. Immediately place steak in the middle of hot, dry pan. Cook 30 seconds without moving.

Turn with tongs and cook another 30 seconds, then put the pan straight into the oven for 2 minutes. Flip steak and cook for another 2 minutes. (This time is for medium rare steaks. If you prefer medium, add a minute to both of the oven turns.)

Remove steak from pan, cover loosely with foil, and rest for 2 minutes. Serve whole or slice thin and fan onto plate. While the steak is resting, prep a quick red wine vinaigrette over romaine lettuce for a side salad.

My Thoughts

Deliciousness: Why did I wait seven years to cook steak this way? I dig it and can't wait to cook it again. The mushrooms turned out great too. The truffle salt was definitely worth the impulse buy! I am now obsessed with chimichurri and want to create more variations with red onion, capers, and oregano. Chimichurri is the savior for home cooks who don't want to waste cilantro and parsley.

Ease of Preparation: The whole meal took about an episode of the Office to complete (prepping of ingredients, then the process for each of the four components). It helps to have a fellow cook to help you sprinkle the seasoning on the steak and time the 30-second and 2-minute intervals.

Leftover Staying Power: Projected five stars, but we ate it all, so I will not know until I make a double batch.

My First Boston Brunchers Experience - Ceia

The Peeps

Went to Ceia today with the Boston Brunchers, a lively bunch of ladies (and gentleman) who had lots of fun restaurant tips, cooking ideas, social media and jokes to share! I'm looking forward to enjoying more delicious food and drink with these folks.

The Meal

Upon arrival at our seats, out came our array of SLRs, iPhones, and point-and-shoot cameras.

We started with the St. Germain 75 cocktail: Tanqueray, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, fresh lemon juice, simple syrup, and sparkling rose. The St. Germain 75 was much smoother and more complex than a mimosa.

Up next was the oyster escabeche: lightly cooked oysters and a bit of grapefruit in a light mignonette. This was a great amuse bouche, though I still prefer raw oysters with a little lemon juice.

Then came some bread with olive tapenade (not pictured).

The salad course was incredible. I inhaled this gorgeous concoction of cold smoked asparagus, smoked asparagus puree, organic mache, fresh mozzarella, shaved cipollinis and aged balsamic faster than you just read this sentence.

In between the salad and main course, my tablemate got the Rosemary Lemon Drop, which consisted of Ketel One Citron, fresh lemon juice, limoncello, and rosemary simple syrup. I was too busy drinking the french press coffee to try another drink, but hers sure looked good!

Another tablemate commented that the poached eggs on the linguica and sweet potato hash with quail bearnaise would be the first poached eggs she would ever try. What a way to get introduced to poached eggs...these were perfectly cooked.

Not on the menu was this Chilean late harvest sauvignon blanc, a delicious dessert wine paired with the...

...raspberry coconut pain perdu. I had only ever seen pain perdu on Chopped, and now I know why contestants are always making it. What an end to a delicious meal!

The Place

I would recommend Ceia as a great date or ladies' brunch spot. It's stylish, comforting and homey.

Sitting at the bar would be just as fun as sitting at a table.

Check out these awesome wall-mounted wine racks!

Looking forward to coming back to Ceia for more food...I don't think I can wait until this year's Yankee Homecoming Ten Miler. Perhaps Newburyport High School will need some science fair judges this year...and what better way to prepare for judging than another Ceia brunch!

Disclaimer: Brunch was provided free of charge to Boston Brunchers. We only paid gratuity and were not required to write a review.

Grocery Challenge #1

Introducing...the grocery challenge!

I would like to get better at long-term meal planning, so I decided to track my purchases at Whole Foods and see what I ended up making and throwing out. I used to live within walking distance of a Whole Foods, but that was very dangerous for my budget--it was too easy to pop in after work and buy prepared food or impulse purchases. We've all been there at some point--went to the store with the best of intentions but came home only to find a bag full of organic soap, a hand-woven basket, starfruit and sushi. Now I drive to a nearby Whole Foods, which enables me to make larger purchases and dissuades me from impulse buying.

Here's my first haul and what it created:

Meals & Parts of Meals

• Vietnamese Shrimp Salad
• Tuna, White Bean, and Chard Salad <- adapted from Stone Soup
• Chickpea and Chard Salad <- adapted from Stone Soup
• Hard-boiled Eggs
• Roasted Yams
• Adobo & Coconut Cauliflower Rice
• Tuna with Cauliflower, Red Pepper, Capers, and Parsley
• Pineapple-Honeydew-Cara Cara Orange Salad <- good for lunches

What Was Left at the End of the Week

• 4 apples
• Spinach
• 6 eggs
• Basil (had to toss)
• Mint (had to toss)
• Cilantro (had to toss)
• Chickpeas (didn't end up making chickpea soup)

Thoughts

I am still trying to find a balance between fresh ingredients and week-long sustainability. I went out for dinner a couple times (Tuesday and Thursday) and ended up buying lunch a couple times (Thursday and Friday). The dinners were planned, but peanut butter & bacon bagels were definitely *not*.

Recipe #3 - Adobo and Coconut Cauliflower Rice

Adobo: Burnt Lumpia

(Adobo adapted from March 2007 Sunset Magazine Easy Chicken Adobo recipe + the Burnt Lumpia commenters)

1 Tbsp olive oil [did not have achuete oil]

1 tsp smoked paprika

8 bone-in chicken thighs, with skin

6 cloves garlic, minced [added one more...I love garlic]

2/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup soy sauce

1 tsp. whole black peppercorns [added too many by mistake]

2 bay leaves

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. When the oil begins to shimmer, place the chicken in the pan, skin-side down, and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Flip the chicken over and brown the other side, another 5 minutes.

Remove the browned chicken from the saute pan and place in a large bowl. Pour off all but 1 Tbsp of the drippings from the saute pan and return to low heat. Add the garlic and saute until lightly brown and fragrant, about 1 minute. Deglaze the pan with the soy and vinegar, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Return the chicken to the pan, along with any accumulated juices from the bowl, and bring to a gentle simmer. After the liquid reaches a simmer, cover the saute pan and cook for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, uncover the pan and increase the heat to medium, cooking for 15 minutes more or until sauce thickens to your liking. While the chicken cooks, occasionally stir and spoon sauce over the chicken. Remove the bay leaves and serve [with coconut cauliflower rice]. Drizzle chicken and rice with sauce.

Coconut Cauliflower Rice: Stuff I Make My Husband

1 head cauliflower, leaves and large stem removed, cut into chunks
1/3 cup (heaping) unsweetened coconut flakes [omitted]
1/2 Tbs fresh grated ginger or 1/2 tsp good-quality ground ginger [used the fresh]
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you like it) [used 1 tsp]
1 cup fresh cilantro sprigs
1/2 cup roughly chopped scallions [used parsley instead, the scallions at the store were wilted]
2 tsp coconut oil (probably optional) [used this instead of coconut flakes]
Salt to taste

Pulse the cauliflower in a food processor until it resembles rice. Set aside and wipe out food processor bowl.Put all remaining ingredients in the food processor. Blend until very finely chopped. [Boyfriend cut the cilantro and parsley himself]. Combine the mixture with the cauliflower. [Instead of cooking in the microwave, we pan-fried it with some of the chicken drippings. We accidentally burned it a little, hence the much browner color on the final plate.]

My Thoughts

Deliciousness: 5 stars. This hit the spot and reminded me that I need to cook other Filipino foods with my mom and aunt (pancit palabok, pancit canton, pancit bihon, chicken sotanghon, lumpia, empanadas, embutido, leche flan etc.) so I can learn their cooking secrets.

Ease of Preparation: 3 stars. There is a lot of chopping and processing involved, so I am very grateful to my boyfriend for helping out with that. Even with the combined powers of two people, this took us over an hour to make. I used my Rachael Ray pan and my Le Creuset dutch oven, and I would have preferred to use a much wider pan for one batch.

Leftover Staying Power: 3.5 stars. I took some to school two days later, and the cauliflower rice didn't hold up as well as I thought it would.

Recipe #2 - Vietnamese Shrimp Salad

Source: Serious Eats

Ingredients & Modifications

• For the dressing:
• 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice [used lemon juice instead]
• 1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar [omitted]
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, plus more if desired [used more]
• For the salad:
• 1/2 pound cooked shrimp, peeled and de-veined
• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed (or pre-washed) [used spinach instead]
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 red bell pepper, cored and cut into thin bite-sized strips [used yellow pepper instead]
• 1 carrot, peeled and shredded [omitted]
• 1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely diced [used zucchini instead]
• 2 scallions, finely chopped [used onion instead]
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 
  

Preparation

Prepare sauce. Mix into other ingredients. Eat.

My Thoughts

Deliciousness: Five stars. Whole Foods had cooked shrimp on sale last week, and it was enormous and chompable. I liked the zing from the fish sauce and red pepper.

Ease of Preparation: Doable within one episode of Big Bang Theory. The chopping is the most time-consuming part; there was no waiting time because I put the shrimp & cilantro into the sauce while I chopped the veggies.

Leftover Staying Power: I took some to school for lunch the next day, and it held up quite nicely!

Recipe #1 - Pineapple, Honeydew and Mango Salad

I made recipe #1 for a math party that I attended today. The party was a potluck, and the host asked guests to bring salad, dessert, or drinks. I decided to combine the dessert and salad by bringing this fruit salad from Epicurious.

Ingredients

2 cups diced peeled fresh pineapple

1 cup diced seeded peeled honeydew melon

1 cup diced peeled pitted mango

2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh cilantro or mint

1 tablespoon minced crystallized ginger

1 tablespoon minced red bell pepper

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Preparation

Mix all ingredients except sesame seeds in large bowl. Let stand 10 minutes for flavors to blend. Divide fruit mixture among wineglasses and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Modifications

I bought precut honeydew and pineapple to save time. I used mint instead of cilantro and cut the fruit very small, as reviewers recommended. I didn't include sesame seeds. I forgot to buy limes, so I ended up using two tablespoons of pisco sour.

I also had thought I could use an orange bell pepper that I had in the fridge, but it was wrinkly, so I used a cara cara orange.

My Thoughts

Deliciousness: 4 stars. The mangoes weren't ripe, and I would have preferred the lime juice and a little texture from the bell pepper. I'm glad I didn't use cilantro though--that would have been overpowering.

Ease of Preparation: Very quick--I finished it within two weddings of an episode of Four Weddings (~20 minutes).

The Final Product

Boston Brunchers - Ceia in Newburyport

My friend Jess recently told me about Boston Brunchers (a blogging/brunching community that also includes writers, tweeters, bakers, and PR professionals). I love discovering new places to eat and am excited about getting involved. This month's brunch is at Ceia, a Newburyport restaurant with an average of 4 stars on Yelp. Sounds like an awesome day trip and opportunity to meet other foodies over oysters, linguica and potato hash, and much more!

Photo Credit: Ceia (http://www.ceia-newburyport.com)

Enter to win brunch at Ceia in Newburyport!

Restaurant Outing - Sei Bar

Yesterday we rang in the new year with a visit to our favorite sushi restaurant, Sei Bar! The sushi and the customer service are equally awesome. We love going there for date nights or birthday celebrations--you can always count on a cheerful, easygoing experience! No crowds, long waits for tables, or snooty attitude can ever be found. The staff will also get to know you after you come in a few times, and they've been known to throw in free creme brulees, drinks, or Viking boats.

Some highlights of dinner (coincidentally some of my favorite things to order) are below:

Reason #1 to Love Sei Bar: Fresh, Simple Ingredients. Spicy tuna hand rolls (2 regular, 4 white tuna). I'm now a huge fan of white tuna after being converted by my friends Brad and John.

Reason #2 to Love Sei Bar: Innovative Recipes. We first saw the sushi sandwiches (tuna, spicy mayo, and tempura) in April at Brad's going away party. It made an official appearance on the holiday menu in December.

Reason #3 to Love Sei Bar: Viking Boats.Our viking sushi, from left to right: Tufts maki (cooked tuna over a roll of cucumber and tempura), caterpillar roll, Tesla roll (tuna, roe and seaweed salad over a roll of cooked tuna and mango), spicy white tuna hand rolls, and salmon sashimi.

Not Pictured Today, but Likely Will be on Future Visits

• Lettuce wraps with minced chicken
• Spicy avocado salad
• Tuna naruto
• Spicy lime veggie soup
• Flower tea
• Creme Brulee

On the first day of '12, my true love gave to me...

...a Canon Rebel T3...(i).

This baby is way more technologically capable than my old Canon PowerShot, so my dream of cooking up a storm and then presenting my cooking via a frequently-updated food blog will now come to fruition! However, I haven't touched an SLR since my days at Corks & Curls and Cav Daily, so I feel rusty with concepts like aperture, shutter speed, composition. Furthermore, there are so many features, modes and options on the camera...will have to make a study date with the instruction manual!

My dream of a food blog has been around for a while, with my first forays into food blogging taking place in the dark ages of the interwebs. My friend Kat and I were inspired to chronicle our kitchen experiments for our friends and family to see. Though Kat was diligent about her posting, I was...not. At the time, I was a newly minted teacher trying to juggle three different preps and learning how to lesson plan while chomping on the results of my kitchen experiments, often ending at one of these stages of the meal's circle of life:

1) Infancy: I devoured the meal before remembering to take a picture. "Ooh that chili was the bomb dot com. Was there something I was supposed to do? Ehh, I'll blog next time."

2) Toddlerhood: I fully intended to take a picture but didn't charge the batteries or forgot the camera. "I am so ready to write about this gruyere, mushroom and bacon egg frittata. No battery? Ehh, I'll blog next time."

3) Childhood: I took a picture but my kitchen light gave the food the unflattering treatment that only a DMV camera can impart, so I deleted it. "This gourmet cream of mushroom soup tastes so good...but looks really vile. Ehh, I'll blog next time."

4) Adolescence: I took a picture but let it languish on the camera's SD card. "I'm in a food coma after eating buffalo chicken. The pictures look a little better than usual, but I'll just take a nap before I upload. [Three hours later] Ehh, I'll blog next time."

Looking back on the rare meals that made it to the Adulthood stage (camera + USB cable = upload success), I realize that some lesson planning wisdom I've gained over the years can turn my food blogging from a C/D to an A/B. In a math lesson, clear objectives, routines and materials are key to making sure all the activities run smoothly. In 2012, out with the "I'll blog next time" and in with the "I'll blog this now!"

1) Clear Objectives: I didn't have a clearly defined purpose. I'd blog random snacks or elaborate french toast with banana cardamom sauce. I didn't set any time deadlines for myself. In 2012, I will blog the following: one new recipe a week and one dinner party a month. The recipes will come from my cookbooks or favorite food blogs. I won't blog every single meal I make, otherwise I will burn out and fall back into the "next time" trap. Sometimes I'll include things like restaurant meals or budget challenges, but I'm going to aim for reasonable rather than try to write about everything under the sun.

2) Routines and Materials: The lovely Canon Rebel T3i and Eye-Fi card will make uploading so much quicker. I'll also post on the new recipes on Wednesdays to get into a regular habit, and post the dinner party recaps within two days of the parties.

Looking forward to twelve dinner parties and fifty-two new recipes in 2012!