YiMT: Nothing about this meal is kosher

This week's recipes feature pork -- two types of pork -- with cheese. In the same dish. On the same plate. Astounding! Outlandish! Not! Kosher! I only mention this because a couple of the girls in the house where I live try to keep their meals kosher, and I've only recently come to realize how entirely non-kosher my diet is. It's pretty surprising.

This meal is actually kind of a funny story (in my head, at least) because it shows just how inept I am at shopping. After receiving my first paycheck from my new job last week (HUZZAH), I spent a fair amount of time organizing my finances because, frankly, they had gotten wonky since my move to Brookline. And they're still a bit wonky, but that's mostly because I was living without any income for two solid months. Anyway. Getting paid also meant that I had money to stock up on food for the next couple weeks, and that's probably my favorite part about getting paid. If you haven't figured it out by now, dear reader, I enjoy food. I enjoy the experience of cooking, experimenting, trying what I've created, and feeling accomplished and full. It's fun. And basically amounts to edible science.

So I went shopping. And I didn't actually buy enough ingredients to constitute any one recipe or meal idea, despite the handful that was floating around my noggin. I only had about 2/3 of any given meal. Go me. And yet, Monday night's dinner was a feast.

First course
Aged cheddar and chipotle pepper hummus on fresh baguette. No recipe required. Delicious. Aged cheddar is one of the greatest cheeses of all time. OF ALL TIME.

Also, chipotle pepper hummus is perfect. Smoky and a little spicy and darned scrumptious. Trader Joe's knows its way to my heart.

Is this love?

Second course
Here come the recipes! I knew I wanted pork chops for dinner and wanted asparagus as a side dish, but I've never actually cooked asparagus on my own before. Back in San Diego, my family has an asparagus steamer, which is awesome. But I'm not about to go out and buy one of those simply because I don't have that particular pot yet. If I practiced that kind of spending, I'd be perennially broke.

That's where my iPod came handy. I went to my handy dandy Whole Foods app and looked up recipes featuring asparagus... and found the perfect one!

Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus

Ingredients
(for up to 4 people)
24 stalks of asparagus, trimmed
4 thin slices of prosciutto
Ground black pepper
2 Tbsp grated parmesan
1 lemon, quartered (optional)

Rachel's Notes
To trim asparagus stalks, you simply cut a bit off the ends. How much? Well, the ends of asparagus stalks are usually quite hard and not super edible, so use your best judgement and cut off as much as appears to be too tough to chew. In my experience, it's usually only an inch or two and covers the bottom of the stalk that isn't entirely green. Also, I've never seen anything other than thinly-sliced prosciutto available for sliced prosciutto at a reasonable price at a grocery store. Trader Joe's (I think they've bought my soul at this point) usually has good prices.

Directions

1. Preheat over to 425°F.
2. Place asparagus in a large skillet and barely cover with water. Bring water to a boil and cook just until tender (2-3 minutes).
3. Drain asparagus and transfer to a bowl of ice water to cool down and stop the cooking. Drain well.
4. Create four bundles of asparagus by wrapping one slice of prosciutto around 6 stalks. Place bundles on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil and sprinkle with black pepper and parmesan.
5. Roast until cheese is golden brown (4-5 minutes).
6. (Optional) Serve with lemon wedges on the side.

Rachel's Notes
The ice water thing is kinda weird. I've never seen it in a recipe before, but it works just fine and makes handling the stalks much easier when they're not piping hot. I didn't serve the bundles with lemon, but think that it would make a fantastic addition -- will be adding it next time!

Fresh out of the oven!

Travers de porc aux oignons
(Adapted from Etudiants aux fourneaux! by Cyril Lignac, p.40)

Ingredients
(For 4 people)
4 pork chops, loins, or ribs
1 medium onion
Ground black pepper, salt
Spices
Soy sauce
Olive oil or sunflower oil

Rachel's Notes
I've tinkered with this recipe a lot. The original asks for 2 bunches of green onions instead, and since I'm not really a fan of those, I simply traded them out with a regular yellow onion. Works like a charm. Also, since I am a bargain shopper, I find that I can often get a better deal on pork chops and pork loins than on ribs. I also prefer cooking without bones. The recipe is great with all three cuts, though, as I've seen over time. Try them all! I normally prefer oregano or herbes de Provence as my "spices." Sunflower oil adds a better flavor, but can be hard to come by for a cheap price.

Directions

1. Peel the onion and chop into bite-size pieces. Set aside.
2. Salt and pepper the pork, then add spices. Cook pork in olive oil or sunflower oil in a pan until 2/3 - 3/4 is no longer pink.
3. Add onions to the pan and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add soy sauce, cover, and let cook an additional 5-10 minutes.

Rachel's Notes
Cooking time varies somewhat significantly based on your stove and cut of pork. This type of meat is far too easily dried out, despite all the liquid it's cooking in, so your best bet in this case is to cook by sight and go until the pork is no longer pink -- and not much longer. I usually follow something close to this time scale for pork chops (the cut I use the most often).

Here's what the second course looked like:

Third course
Dessert! Which I usually like to eat at any and all times of the day and night. Dessert last night was Trader Joe's Coffee Bean Blast ice cream. I think it's probably the best coffee flavored ice cream I've ever had. Certainly better than what the dining halls at Wellesley had...

Wine of the meal
Ravenswood 2010 Vintners Blend Old Vine Zinfandel

I've been stocking up on wine for an evening of cards and frivolity with friends, but Ravenswood is not something I normally share. The Vintners Blend is the cheaper line of wines from Ravenswood, and the winery is one that I've known about since before I was in high school. My parents enjoyed a bottle of zinfandel now and then, and my dad was (still is) a particular fan, as I recall, of Ravenswood zinfandel. I consider this wine to be the poor daughter's version of pretending to be like her parents. As such, I tend to drink this wine only with family or very, very close friends or by myself.

Here's what the winery's fact sheet has to say about this wine:
"Not a poser Zin, but a real one. Big, bold, unapologetic. This 2010 rendition leads the charge with tantalizing aromas of black cherry, raspberries, and blueberries along with hints of oak. It then gets really serious with a cascade of fruit flavors, oh-so-flexible tannins, and a long, fruit-forward finish you’re not going to forget very easily."

I won't forget this wine based on my own personal history with the winery and my desire to be more like my dad. It's fairly robust and pairs well with pork dishes. In fact, barbecue pork ribs are a suggested pairing. The black cherry, raspberries, and blueberries are present in the flavors and aromas, sure enough, although the blueberries aren't as strong for me. In fact, I'm much more inclined to agree with the back of the label, which denotes flavors of raspberries, cherries, and boysenberries.

This is a wine for people who like wine, I feel. And by that, I mean people who drink red wine on a regular enough basis that the its drier, bolder tendencies don't scare them off. It's a good wine to go with a flavorful meal, and I think it's nice to have a glass of it nearby while one is preparing said flavorful meal. If, dear reader, you ever end up in my home for dinner one evening, and I break out a bottle of this stuff (or, hopefully one day when $20 per bottle doesn't seem extravagant, the County Series Zinfandel, which is what I remember my parents drinking), then you'll know you've made it into my inner circle.

Peace, love, and nostalgic wines,

Rachel

Yummy in My Tummy: Summer Salad Spectacular!

Hi ho there! Greetings from the sweltering heat of this humid Boston summer! Now, granted, I spend most of my days indoors at work or in my air conditioned bedroom (yes, I know, I live a dangerous life -- do not try it at home!), but it is actually impossible to escape the heat. It always catches up to me somehow. Walking home, exploring the city, sitting on the porch, cooking in the non-air-conditioned kitchen, etc. And when it reaches at least 80°F every day, no one really wants to cook in a non-air-conditioned kitchen. I mean, I love cooking, and even I dread the prospect of turning on my gas stove and boiling water for even a minute. Salads, therefore, are basically the lazy, temperature-sensitive chef's best friends in the summer.

As anyone who lives with me knows, I'm a fan of grabbing whatever is in my fridge and/or pantry and making something new and different out of it. In the case of this salad, I did just that. Here's the recipe:

Almond and Pomegranate Salad

Ingredients:
Baby spinach
Arugula ("rocket" for all you Anglophiles in the audience)
Grape tomatoes
Black beans
Pomegranate seeds
Sliced almonds
Salad dressing
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Wash all vegetables and drain. Remove stems from spinach if desirable. Toss greens together in a large salad bowl.
2. Add tomatoes, beans, pomegranate seeds, and almonds. Mix well.
3. Drizzle salad dressing over salad. Sprinkle with parmesan, if desirable.
4. Om nom nom.

Rachel's notes:

There are no specified amounts in this recipe. I measured nothing out when I threw this together after drinking a bottle and a half of white wine with my roommate and her friends. Everyone likes their salad proportions to be a little different, so play around with the amounts and see what works for you. Personally, I love heavier proportions of tomatoes, almonds, and pomegranate seeds because I think the flavors are so interesting and mesh together so well. One of my closest friends would probably choose to use mixed greens over arugula because she can't stand the taste of it. My roommate in France would have refused to eat the tomatoes. Salad is very much what you make of it, but I felt that this had to be one of the best salads I had ever tasted. And I'm not saying that because I was a little tipsy at the time. I replicated this recipe the very next night when I was 150% sober and still thought it was the best thing since cream cheese. This was a very last minute decision for a meal and it turned out marvelously.

Special note on salad dressing:

I don't usually make my own salad dressing. In this case, at any rate, I didn't. I used the Tuscan Italian Dressing with Balsamic Vinegar from Trader Joe's, and it worked great! I have a default salad dressing that I go to, however, when I run out and am too lazy to run to the store to buy more. I haven't tried it on this particular salad, but based on my past experience with this dressing, it would be a great match! I thoroughly encourage you, dear reader, to try it out and tell me what you think!

Walnut Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp vinegar (red wine or balsamic)

4 Tbsp walnut oil

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Salt, pepper

Directions:

Mix together all ingredients, stirring aggressively as dressing is apt to separate.

This should easily make enough for 2 people to have salad dressing.

Wine of the Meal

Green Fin 2010 White Table Wine 

This is one of the really cheap wines that you can buy at Trader Joe's for about $4 (maybe even less back home in CA, since two-buck Chuck is three-buck Chuck in MA) and is surprisingly good. Normally, I steer clear of table wines because, as experience with French table wines taught me, they normally taste like someone poured some ethanol into some grape juice. However, my current roommates insisted that it was worth a try one night when they were cooking and, boy, was I surprised!

It's somewhat citrus-y, but mostly sweet and fruity (yeah, yeah, citrus usually equals fruit, but I mean something more like mango here). People who know more about these things would likely say that there are oak overtones or something like that. Maybe. Personally, I think it's the perfect wine to share after a long day at the lab as you sit out on your front porch, waiting for the temperature to go down, trading stories with your friends. It pairs pretty nicely with this salad and is a surprisingly good companion for ice cream, as I discovered this evening.

Frankly, it's a cheap wine that doesn't offend my inner scientist (why would I pay to drink ethanol and grape juice when I could make it for free at work?), helps cool one down on a hot day, and doesn't do a number on my wallet. That's a solid wine in my book.

That's it for this week! It's shorter than the last Yummy in My Tummy, and future entries will probably be somewhere between this one and the first one in terms of length and depth. To make up for the simplicity of this week's recipe, I leave you all with a question: What is your favorite summer salad? Leave recipe suggestions in the comments!

Peace, love, and pomegranates,
Rachel

The Ginger Reader: Fifty Shades of Grey, an Introduction

Welcome to the inaugural entry of "The Ginger Reader"! I'm currently sitting in my local Panera, where so many other local clientele are also busy typing away on their computers (although, I admit, I am doing this not from my computer, but from my tablet, which somehow makes me feel fancier than the average biped). I should note that the cookies here are HUGE. Take a look at this monster as an example:

Sorry for the image quality. I forgot that I could take pictures with my tablet, and my phone does not have the best resolution. But I digress.

This cookie is almost as large as the napkin it's resting on, and that is impressive! Ahem, digressions aside...

I was inspired to begin a book review, or perhaps more accurately a book commentary, series after reading a not-insignificant portion of "Mark Reads Harry Potter."

(Another digression: He is currently reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, which is beyond thrilling. I'll have to see if my local library, or even my alma mater's library, has the series currently available to check out. I'd love to read along with him and see what he has to say about such an interesting graphic novel series. I haven't read his commentary yet, as I wouldn't want to spoil anything, but I recommend checking out some of the things he has done.)

Additional inspiration struck from the seemingly unending flurry of bestselling book series. I feel as though I have found myself wondering, "What is the newest trilogy to hit the market this month?" with shocking frequency. From Twilight to The Hunger Games,  from Game of Thrones to Fifty Shades of Grey, and everything in between... I felt like every time I turned around, there was another series with multiple books already published that I'd never heard of that was enthralling the masses, with varying degrees of quality and respectability. Astounding. 50 Shades caught my eye because, even though I am reluctant to admit such a thing, I was once a fan of Twilight. I once yearned after Edward Cullen. I was also once sixteen years old, so forgive me my youthful follies. Anyway, this trilogy by E.L. James had been described to me as Twlight with sex. Erotic Twilight. What might have happened on that honeymoon trip if Stephenie Meyer had not cut to black in the last book.

My inner sixteen-year-old was intrigued. My current 21-year-old self could only roll her eyes in disgust. Twilight with sex could only mean impossibly rich and pretty and brooding leading men with flat, vacant leading women that marked a step backwards in the fight for gender equality. Did the world really need another series with a character that is such a terrible Mary Sue that Mary Sues everywhere hid in shame at the prospect of being compared to her? Well, according to book sales, apparently. The logical voice in my head told me to give this series a wide berth, and for a long time I did just that.

However, as summer and the end of college approached, I realized that I had an unprecedented opportunity to read trashy literature for a good laugh without feeling guilty for not attending to piles of homework. The literary prospects for the list of "trashy books" began popping up everywhere -- too much good stuff. And then 50 Shades came crashing back into my field of vision as my friends sent me videos of celebrities reading excerpts from the book. I found myself falling out of my chair laughing at each and every excerpt shared on YouTube, and that propelled this "erotic romance" to the front an center of my attention.

My inner sixteen-year-old felt triumphant. My current 21-year-old self stroked her chin pensively; if this 50 Shades could cause diverse celebrities to parody, ridicule, and satirize it, then perhaps it wouldn't be such a painful read after all. Perhaps I could create a series of blog entries analyzing, commenting on, and reacting to, at the very least, the first book of the trilogy. Perhaps I could point out to my inner sixteen-year-old exactly why a trilogy like this is the last thing in the world young women need to be reading when they are still trying to develop their own identities, sexual, professional, or otherwise. Perhaps I could have a little fun reading this book, and perhaps I could make a few people laugh in the process. I bounced the ideas off the heads of a few friends, who enthusiastically approved (and so I hope I don't disappoint you, friends :) ), and thus did I rush to the Kindle store on my tablet and download Fifty Shades of Grey.

I invite you to join me, dear reader, for the next five entries of "The Ginger Reader" as I barrel through the erotic and kinky adventures of one Anastasia Steele, five chapter at a time. I don't pretend to be any sort of great critic, and I certainly don't expect to provide the most profound or articulate commentary as, based on my brief glimpse at the first chapter, I expect to spend much of the book baffled by, well, just about everything. I do, however, hope that you'll have fun and that you'll giggle or laugh or even see eye-to-eye with me when you read these posts because, hopefully, you and I share the same common love for good writing, complex characters, well-developed plots, and some good, old fashioned romance. And perhaps, together, we'll finally come to understand why so many women (and my inner sixteen-year-old) have been so enraptured by E.L. James' work.

Until the next chapter,
Rachel