Home Cookin': Double Turkey Dumpling Stoup

Double Turkey Dumpling Stoup
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.

11.26.06

We hadn't made/had any soup for a while, so Sunday my wife chose a "stoup" recipe she'd seen on Rachael Ray the other day: Double Chicken Dumpling Soup. I stopped at SuperTarget on the way home from church and she gave me the ingredients list... which meant that we had to be creative. This particular recipe called for gnocchi, and when I asked several employees at SuperTarget, they looked at me as if they were sure I was making the word up. Thus, you see some tortellini (tortelloni? I can never remember the difference) instead. I was also unsuccessful at finding Italian Bread Crumbs, but Panko bread crumbs made for a fine substitute, as did ground turkey for ground chicken.

Which just goes to show you, don't be afraid to be creative. I think the dish actually worked better than it would have been with the gnocchi, and DW mentioned several times how much she liked the meatballs. We then kept it on the stove for some friends of ours who came over after house hunting, and they gave it their stamp of approval as well (granted, it was almost 4pm and they hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we probably could have fed them cardboard and they'd have been happy).

They also got to have some of the gooey goodness dessert leftovers my mom had made for Thanksgiving. I can't remember all the stuff that goes into this thing (pudding, cream cheese, whipped cream, peanut butter cups, oreo crumbs), but it's all really bad for you, which means it tastes oh so good. Definitely a dish to enjoy in moderation, but enjoy we did. Maybe if my mom knows of a link to the recipe somewhere I can post it sometime.

Turkey Meatballs

chicken meatballs
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.

Can you believe it?!? My wife actually made the meatballs! My wife, the one who absolutely hates to touch raw meat of any kind, got her hands all squishy and slimy with not only raw ground turkey, but raw egg (and some panko bread crumbs) as well!

Buster in particular was quite impressed, as you can see. ;)

My First Cheesecake!

Vanilla Cheesecake
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.

When we were at my (DH) parents' house for Thanksgiving, my sister threw a birthday party for one of her old high school friends. She told me that her favorite dessert was vanilla cheesecake, and should she buy one or would I want to make one? Well, I'd never made a cheesecake before, and as I understood it was one of those mythical baked goods that was extremely complicated and almost impossible to do right. So I said sure, I'll make it!
Turns out, it's really not that bad. Mabye it's because I had Alton Brown on my side, but I thought it turned out quite well. It didn't really have enough time to cool before people consumed it, so it could have been better, but after it sat in the fridge for a while it was quite tasty. Maybe I'll have to make som more...

Top View of Cheesecake

Top View
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.

I had a little extra graham cracker crust, so I sprinkled it on top.

chutney powder

chutney powder
Originally uploaded by CorgiMom.

blahk. This was weird tasting to me. I wasn't a big fan. You mix this
powder with whipped yogurt. That part was fun- whipping the yogurt with
the KitchenAid stand mixer for a few minutes till fluffy. Yes, it does
get fluffy, which is pretty cool.

Home Cookin': Chicken Rogan Josh from a box

11.19.06

This food was interesting. We made Indian food from a box. The boxes came from an Indian store in Columbia Heights by a new Super Target. The store was lots of fun, and we decided to give the mixes a try.

The Chicken Rogan Josh was very spicy. I am used to Indian food having lots of unique spices in it, but I can't recall a spicier Indian food meal of those I have eaten. It was like a Thai-spicy level. The others who ate it with us really enjoyed it. We ate it with Spinach Naan from Super Target and tasted the chutney powder with whipped yogurt.

We used a half pound of butter in its cooking- crazy. The box instructed us to fry the meat in ghee, oil, or butter, and we chose butter. DH clarified the butter a little, he would like for you to know that. The recipe was a little strange as it instructed us to fry the meat, then add the other things, never stopping to strain off the frying liquid. This resulted in the two parts separating a little, and requiring the naan to mop up the excess liquid/butter.

Tavern on Grand

11.19.06

My wife's parents gave her the reigns for picking out a place to eat Sunday brunch today. She checked out a few places online, but settled on Tavern on Grand. The website declares "Famous for Walleye," which is fortunate, because by the time we got there, it was getting on about 1pm. Typically in this situation my wife would be in trouble, as if she gets too hungry, she gets to a point where she can't decide what she wants.

Luckily, she's selected this place specifically for it being "famous for walleye," so we were set. In fact, we all chose the "Shore Lunch," which is a walleye fillet with some potatoes and steamed vegetables (I won't mention the salad since it was pretty much there as an afterthought). We each had ours prepared a little differently - the in-laws chose blackened, I went for grilled, and my wife went off the map - she noticed that the walleye fingers appetizers were done with a "cajun deep-fried" batter. She requested hers with this option, which they accomodated.

The walleye was quite good, both the blackened and the grilled. The cajun I wasn't to thrilled with, since it wasn't cajun so much as "buffalo," a seasoning which I don't typically like. Basically, though, it was all about the walleye - the rest was just window dressing. And that was fine with me, because the walleye did not disappoint. I ate my whole thing and was quite satisfied. Yummy!

The other thing I should note was the atmosphere. For those who are familiar with Grand Avenue, this place was a bit of a surprise. It was like walking out of the middle of the bustling city and into an out of the way local dinner off of a lake in Wisconsin. The walls were painted with a fake log cabin pattern, the waitress wore jean shorts, and of course the game was on in the background.

As we walked out, we declared this was definitely a score. The Shore Lunch was $10 (the normal dinner version was $15), but was way better than any other $10 walleye plate you're likely to find in the city. Of course, you're free to try something else on the menu, but with my history, I've learned to stick with what they're famous for!

* Mello Yello available

The Melting Pot

11.17.06

This Saturday was the birthday of a member of our small group (as well as another next Tuesday), so this week we passed on the Bible study and decided to all go out to eat. The birthday girl got do help decide, and ended up on The Melting Pot. Normally, this swanky of a place would be a bit outside or normal food budget, but all three couples had Happenings books, and there was a $23 coupon in there that we could each use. Good thing, too, since the typical meal for two was $60!

But it was a birthday, a special occasion, so we all went for it. The waiter recommended the specialty of the four-course meal: cheese fondu, salad, main course, and chocolate fondu. We had already planned on going to Muddy Paws Cheesecake for dessert, so we opted for the somewhat cheaper option without the chocolate fondu.

The experience was a lot of fun, even if it over-priced (I mean, come on - they don't even have to have a cook!). The first course is the cheese fondu - we chose the Quatro Formaggio (my favorite) and the Wisconsin Three-Cheese. They brought out an assortment of breads as well as apple chunks and vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower (yuck!). I stuck with the bread mostly, as I detest cauliflower. The consensus on the apple chunks was "interesting..." We all ate a *lot* of this yumminess, and it was a good thing that they didn't give us too much or we wouldn't have had any more room for the main course!

The salad was pretty good also, but more of a palate cleanser, which was a good thing. The nice thing about the atmosphere was that it was very relaxed - the whole meal took about two hours, so we had a nice good break between the cheese and the main course to rev our appetite back up.

We got the Pacific Rim, which contained seasoned sirloin, pork tenderloin, potstickers, shrimp, duck, and chicken. All were excellent, and I was especially pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the duck. We had two different fondu liquids - the standard beef bullion as well as the mojo. I liked the mojo best because it didn't interfere too much with the taste of the meat, which was awesome. The bullion was a bit more overpowering, but that was actually a good thing for the chicken and shrimp, which weren't very exciting by themselves.

So this isn't a place I would go normally, and probably not even for a special thing without the Happenings coupon (although it wouldn't have been the *most* expensive place we've ever eaten), but it was very good. If you're looking for a fun experience as well as really good quality food, and you're willing to pay for it, this is your place.

* Mello Yello available

Ruam Mit

11.09.06

A couple of weeks ago, my father-in-law told us that he was planning on going to Thailand with my brother-in-law. When my wife heard that, she was instantly wanting to go along as well.

After talking it over, however, we discovered that the major reason she wanted to go to Thailand was because she loved Thai food, and that she would be content waiting to go to Thailand some other day if we could simply eat more Thai food here!

Thus on Saturday, we headed to Ruam Mit Thai Cafe in St. Paul. This is my wife's first recollection of going to a Thai restuarant back when she was younger and her dad took her there as part of a pseudo Take Your Daughter to Work type day.

She was very excited as we sat down and got ready to order. I say "she" instead of "we" because my excitement didn't even compare to hers. And Ruam Mit did not disappoint - the first thing on the table were the appetizers, Cream Cheese Wontons and Spring Rolls. The Spring Rolls were good, and they were nice enough to combine the two different types they offered to give us a combined version that we wanted, but the Cream Cheese Wontons stole the show. We declared that this was one of the best places in the cities to get Cream Cheese Wontons.

For the main course, we can tell you that I got #35 and she got #63, but we didn't really take notes, so that's about all we can give you. A Google search tells me the correct spelling of my wife's dish is Mee Kathi, which I thought was pretty good. It was almost like spaghetti with a bolognese sauce, only it was rice noodles, and the sauce was made up off ground pork, red curry, coconut milk, and kafir lime leaves, then topped with cilantro. Mine was pork with bell peppers and onions in a garlic and black pepper sauce served with rice.

Both were quite yummy, and we each like each others, so now we can trade off leftovers this week, which is awesome. Of course, I'm still a little bit in trouble for not making enough of the Pad Thai to have leftovers, but this helps. ;)

Pad Thai and The Office

9.11.06

It seems fitting to have the first post be a) something we made ourselves, and b) one of our favorote dishes.

This particular time was a group meal at our friends' house before all watching the show The Office together. This was the "Branch Closing" episdode, and was quite good.

In total, we had our friends W&CA as well as J&B, who are in the middle of moving here from... well, from nowhere, really, they were somewhat nomadic. Rounding out the crew was the brother of J from J&B, who is now living here as well.

I tell you all this because it is the reason I got in trouble from my DW. See, we only made a single batch of Pad Thai for 7 people. This means that there were NO leftovers. Oops!

Our Pad Thai is pretty simple - it's a recipe we got from taking a Thai cooking course from Supatra, who now owns her own restaurant in St. Paul. Really, though, Pad Thai is incredibly simple for being so good - you start by sauteeing some shallots, then throwing in your meat to cook. After that's done, you add in your sauce and your noodles (which you have soaked for 3-4 hours previous), then at the end some green onions and bean sprouts. Top with the ground peanuts and you're done. Yum!