Foodie Tuesday II

It's been a little quiet around here lately, I just haven't felt much like talking (er.. typing). So I'll probably just share some photos this week.


Some delicious things I've been enjoying lately..

I don't really understand how the best subs to ever exist are in a stupid little DC suburb, but they are, and they live at Brother's. I burn, I pine, I perish. 

Real talk - I only tried one of these. Raw food freaks me out. 

Bijou is really into butter..

Homemade chocolate frosting. mmmmm

Passion tea tastes like summertime. 

Recipe: Chocolate Crescent Pockets

Sometimes all I want is something that is gooey, delicious and fresh out of the oven without actually doing anything. I found this recipe years ago and it is seriously the easiest thing in the entire world and is DELICIOUS. It's a whopping two ingredients and take 15 minutes from start to finish. 

 Chocolate Crescent Pockets

1 roll crescents

chocolates / nutella / whatever your heart desires

Preheat your oven to 350. Roll out crescents and separate into four. Press the seam together (It'll be two together) to form a rectangle. Place a few chocolates/nutella/etc in the center.

Pinch the edges together and give a little twist. Make sure all the seams are closed so chocolate doesn't melt out. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

THAT IS IT.

They go amazingly well with ice cream (duh, what doesn't) and are the perfect quick dessert!

Foodie Tuesday

Delicious things I've been eating this week

Recipe: roasted garlic pasta salad

I've made it to a second food post! Hooray! I think my record of failing is somewhere around four posts so I'm halfway there and WILL NOT BE STOPPED. 
I saw this recipe floating around pinterest, which led me back to one of my favorite food blogs Budget Bytes. Keywords for me in this recipe were 'garlic' and 'ricotta'. Done. Like is there even any reason to add anything else? Because I would literally bathe in a tub of ricotta and then you want me to add ROASTED GARLIC? Luckily it was as delicious as I thought it would be AND it was as easy as it possibly could be. 

roasted garlic pasta salad

1 head garlic

1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1 lb.pasta shells

15 oz. ricotta cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan

to taste salt & pepper

1 cup cherry tomatoes

3 cups baby spinach

handful of basil (this is how I actually measure)

Using a sharp knife, cut approximately 1/2 inch off the top of the head of garlic. Place the garlic bulb in a small bowl or dish and drizzle 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil over the exposed cloves. Budget Bytes recommended 2 minutes in the microwave, but I went old school and roasted it in the oven for 25 minutes at 400 degrees.


Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, add the pasta, and cook for 7-10 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup of the starchy pasta cooking water.


While the pasta is cooking, squeeze the garlic cloves from the head and mince well. Add the minced garlic to a medium bowl along with the ricotta cheese, a healthy dose of freshly cracked pepper, and about 1/2 tsp of salt. Add the 1/2 cup of hot, starchy pasta cooking water. Stir until it forms a smooth sauce.

Drain the pasta. Return the drained pasta to the warm pot. Add the spinach and pour the ricotta sauce over top. Slice the tomatoes and basil, add them to the pot as well. Stir until everything is well mixed. Add in the parmesan cheese and stir again. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm!

It was DELICIOUS. I don't make much pasta anymore because I ate too much of it as a kid, but this was so ricotta-y and garlic-y and the basil and spinach added the perfect freshness to it. I'll definitely be making this again and again. 

Via instagram v.1

Delicious things I've been eating lately via instagram

Sorry I'm not sorry for all the food posts. Food is my bff.

Recipe: Fluffy Biscuits

I used to bake constantly. 2-3 times a week there would be brownies, fruit crumbles, cakes, etc. It was my favorite thing to do and if I hadn't gone to school for esthetics I definitely would've gone to culinary school. I also had a great big kitchen, extra money to spend on groceries, and people around me who loved to eat sweets. Then I moved away with a weirdo who doesn't care for dessert. HOW DID I END UP WITH A PERSON WHO DOESN'T CARE ABOUT DESSERT? It still makes me question my judgement in men to be honest. 


Anyway, back to baking. When we moved to Austin our kitchen was so. small. I'm talking one cabinet, with the same amount of width for counter space (which needed a microwave to go on it). It was a beautiful kitchen, but it made me so sad to not have space to move around and I pretty much stopped baking other than for special events. When we moved to Atlanta, it was WONDERFUL. Our kitchen was huge. Our pantry was the size of my bedroom. And there was a big southern family an hour away who loved to eat. I finally got back in the swing of it but was too lazy to photograph it or think about posting recipes (okay, I thought about it, but again, lazy). 

Which brings me to the point of this post. I need to be back in the kitchen. Especially until I find a job, I'm making an effort to cook regularly and bake at least once a week. It can get pricey but there's also plenty of things I can make with ingredients I already have. So, I'm going to do my best to have a weekly food post, whether it be cooking or baking, but most of my ideas for this blog burn out quickly (remember spiritual Sunday? Yeah, I still plan on reviving that one of these days). 


First recipe is BISCUITS! Homemade biscuits are one of those things that never taste as good to me as restaurant biscuits, so I'm on a mission to find the perfect recipe. They're great because all the ingredients are normally on hand already and they take less than 20 minutes to make! Recipe adapted from allrecipes.

Fluffy Biscuits

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cup milk

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening and butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat egg with milk; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Turn onto a well-floured surface; knead 20 times. Roll to 3/4-in. thickness; cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. biscuit cutter. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

These turned out pretty damn delicious, although still not perfect (next time I'll add more butter I think). I ate them with lots of butter and raspberry preserves and they were delicious. They hold up great for breakfast sandwiches, too. 

New York Weekend

Monique, my dad and I took a weekend trip to New York for my cousin's graduation and another cousin's christening. I had a fabulous time. Even though I only lived there as a kid, New York has always felt like home to me. You'd think after 20 years in Virginia I'd feel that way about here, but I don't, and I never will. I kind of ruled out ever living in New York again because of winter, but I may or may not be considering it when we move again (I know, I'm crazy, I can't help it).

Friday was Victor's party at the restaurant he works at and oh. my. god. The food. THE FOOD. I eat Portuguese here all the time but it's just not the same. I basically died over and over again from how delicious it all was. 

caldo verde, which I posted a recipe for here 

Carne de porco à alentejana (pork, clams & potato), worth dying for

Saturday we had a barbecue to go to, but Monique and I slipped away early so we could have our own barbecue with my cousins. We sat around a fire pit, made s'mores and stayed up until 3am talking. It was really, really great. My sisters and I were always sort of the outcasts of the family. We were the only ones who didn't have two Portuguese parents, didn't speak the language much, and my mom kind of kept us away from everyone (on both sides, actually). They have all been really close their entire lives and it always makes me sad that I missed out, but I finally feel like we're all forming better, closer relationships and it really makes me happy. Better late than never. 

Sunday was the christening, which was another excuse to wear a cute outfit and stuff myself until I couldn't walk. 

HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE TO BE THIS CUTE? 

We headed back to my aunt's house and sat by the fire all night again. It's so nice to be around family, especially when they're people you like enough that you would be friends with them anyway. I'm going to make sure I visit a lot more from now on, and maybe, JUST MAYBE, I'll even move there. God help me.

And just because he's adorable and my family ALWAYS ends up singing when we're together (why? I really don't get it and never will) my formerly very shy little cousin coming out of his shell (aka drinking). 

Caldo Verde

via

One of the things I miss most about home is Portuguese food. Every single time I go back to Virginia we have to eat it. I didn't expect much from Austin, but moving to Atlanta I hoped there would be enough of a Portuguese community that could offer some variety, but as far as I know there is only one >:(. My dad owned a restaurant when I was a kid which meant great food when I was there, but he never cooked at home, so I never got a proper learning for cooking it. 

I took it upon myself to learn, starting with something super simple but one of my favorites - Caldo verde. It's a potato based soup with kale and linguica (Portuguese sausage). This is one of those soups that tastes better day after day, after the flavors have time to meld together, and best served with delicious bread. Try it out!

(I kind of just wing it, so you can adjust to your taste preferences)

3 tbsp olive oil

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, chopped

6 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1 quart chicken or vegetable broth

1 quart water

2 links of linguica (which is impossible  to find, chorizo is fine) 

ground pepper to taste

a few handfuls of kale, chopped

In a large saucepan over medium  heat, cook olive oil, garlic, and onion for a few minutes. Stir in the sliced potatoes, incorporating it with the oil, garlic and onions. Add the broth and water, bring to a boil and continue boiling for 20 minutes. In a separate pan, cook the linguica thoroughly, remove from heat and slice thin. 

When potatoes are soft, remove from heat and blend with a hand mixer (trust me, I've learned this is the best way through trial and error) for several minutes. Put back on heat, adding a bit of pepper, linguica, and kale. Simmer for 5 minutes. Devour soup.

Ah, I have a full belly and a dog begging for extra sausage. Now if only I could figure out how to make pastel de natas..

FOOD

I couldn't decide if I wanted to make an entire post about the food we ate in Savannah, but why the hell not?  Food is the foundation of our relationship and it deserves to be talked about.  
The first thing I didn't realize about Savannah was it's fucking expensive.  We walked around the city looking at different menus outside and all we saw were burgers for $19 and $14 Mac & Cheese.  Yeah, seriously. So we settled on the five guys that was right next to our hotel. 

I generally think five guys is overrated but I've been really into burgers lately so I was pretty pleased. I got a gigantic homemade cookies and cream ice cream cone after but it ended up being bad news bears for my belly so Chuckie demolished it for me. We also spent $30 at the candy shop. No shame. 

We went to a little diner (Henry's) and had breakfast sandwiches the next morning.  The best part of the meal was the syrup

Only the classiest of places for my love. 

Then the food started getting GOOD.  After an amazing afternoon in the park, we decided we needed something authentic. A real celebration dinner.  Cue: Sisters of the new south.

It was SO good. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, okra and tomato casserole, mac & cheese, corn bread. It was delicious. And even better at 1am in bed.

But I still think the best place we went the entire time was Lulu's Chocolate bar.  It's all desserts, coffee and alcohol.  Basically my favorite things on the planet.  We split white chocolate chocolate chip cheesecake that was to die for.  I will dream about this cheesecake until the day I die.