Crab Feast!

Posted on June 24, 2013 by melsmosaic

Maryland, summer, hot temps, that means it’s time for crabs!! Had the pleasure of wandering down the street to one of the local crab restaurants for a 2-hour feast of all-you-can-eat crabs the other night. And, go Groupon (and the restaurant) — they had a special a week or so ago for 2 for $40. Can’t beat that. Let the fun begin.

All the essentials are brought to the table — mallets, knifes, paper towels, buckets, beer. Why can’t that last one be included?

(note: this is not Bud, but good stuff, Fat Tire)

Next, the sides of coleslaw, corn and fries. That corn was good! This is all tempting us before the essentials arrive!

Finally…ahh…here they are. Heaven. Sometimes I think you actually burn more calories than you take in when eating crabs because of how hard you work to get the meat but it’s well worth it. Though these were small-medium size, the meat was good! Couldn’t ask for much more on a Saturday night.

Voulez-vous dîner avec moi ce soir?

Posted on June 23, 2013 by melsmosaic

Etes-vous intéressé? Il y a un nouveau restaurant français à DC.

And now to English we go. Was getting together with some long-lost friends the other day and they did the searching for where to meet. There was rumor of a new French place that just opened its doors a few months back in the 14th street/Logan Circle area of DC so we wanted to check it out. The name, Le Diplomate.

Tough to get reservations so we took the risk of walking in and got there early enough to not have to wait too long. Two of us got there before the other tw0 and grabbed a drink at the bar. My friend had a glass of wine and I had a house cocktail that can be served either straight up or on the rocks. The Romarin – Absolut, St. Germain, rosemary, and grapefruit. Very nice and refreshing!

Once we were seated, there were many options on the menu, traditional for French fare. I will say, while looking it over, I had a great time talking to the waiter in French. When I can, I’ll do it. Have to practice. While looking over the menu, they bring you AMAZING bread. Baguette, wheat, cranberry-walnut stuff…waiter…another basket. Dang, so so so good! Two of my friends opted for raw oysters for appetizers and another for some (french) fries. I waited for the main course.

Main course-wise, two at the table went for Steak Frites, another went for Lamb Shanks. For me, because so much french food has dairy, not having had it for so long, and the lack of ingredients in it, had to go for Steak Tartare. Also ordered some grilled asparagus.

Overall recap of the evening. Great place, highly recommend trying it. I would also recommend aiming for a reservation or getting there early. It was packed 20 minutes after we arrived (6:15pm). Also give yourself tons of time. It took us 15 minutes to get a bottle of wine and water. Raw oysters took 30 minutes. Raw… Main courses took awhile too. We were so busy talking we didn’t really notice. On the wine note, we had the Kim Crawford Pinot Noir. We opted for a well priced option.

But, after dinner we were meeting some others and went across the street. That’s where we found some wine I’d never tried or heard of. It’s the Prima from Spain. Check out their site — I can’t decide the exact name of the bottler/vintner because the names change a bit on the site so I don’t want to say the wrong one. I just know this is where to visit — bodegasanroman.com.

Japan #3: Korean BBQ

Posted on June 13, 2013 by melsmosaic

As we progressed through Japan we had to expand our cuisine beyond just local fare. One night we opted to go for Korean BBQ. My uncle asked his colleagues for recommendations and they gave him ‘the best place to go.’ So, off we went. It was of course one of those hard-to-find, hole-in-wall restaurants – perfect!

So at the Korean BBQ, you have a grill in front of you, order raw food and grill to your liking. So much fun. We ordered basic food that we were used to — chicken, shrimp, pork, veggies, versus some options on the menu that we were either unfamiliar with or had heard of but didn’t want to take the risk of eating, especially on vacation.

The marinade and seasoning on the meat were delicious and the mushrooms were just – WOW! It was a meal that you take slowly and you can just kick back and relax.

Manchego Madness!

Posted on May 3, 2013 by melsmosaic

I was debating what to do for dinner last night and had a craving for the one cheese I can eat — Manchego! Then, what to do with it? My creativity got going on my way to the store, yes Trader Joe’s, I came up with two ideas:

-Manchego Nachos, aka Manche-chos

-Manchego Popcorn

When discussing these options with the as-eager-food-lovers at TJ’s, all of decided both had to be tested.

For the ‘chos, I wanted to start out simple – nothing but cheese! I used the blue corn tortilla chips as they nicely contrast the color of the Manchego and used the microplane grater/zester to finely grate the cheese to adorn the chips with the lactose-free treasure. Since I was making a small bit, I just threw the chips in the toaster oven — perfect for small bits of nachos!

For the popcorn, I used my microwave popper and when done, tossed the popcorn with more finely grated cheese, S&P.

To complement these, I served them with some prosciutto and grape tomatoes.

Ok, a picture doesn’t do it that much justice. They were pretty good. The cheese doesn’t look as pretty as expected, but it was a unique taste. The prosciutto would taste very nice under the melted cheese!!

For the popcorn, the cheese melted just a bit and it was a nice addition.

I would give this 7.5 out of 10 stars, especially for a first try. With 2.5 to go until perfection, that definitely means more testing is in order! Darn.

From Green Peas to Red Wine

Posted on May 2, 2013 by melsmosaic

I am the type of kitchen person who does not like to waste anything/throw it away. I won’t keep and keep, then keep and keep things forever in an attempt to use them, past their pull dates or until they’ve grown various levels of fuzz, etc. just to attempt to use them — that would qualify me for Hoarders (SO not going there) — but aim to make the most of my money.

So, from Supper Club on Sunday, I had leftover fresh mint. As I’m typing this, I realize I could have saved cooking and just made Mojitos, darn…next time. Anyway, one of my favorite quick, and beyond simple, recipes that I found years ago to use mint in is Mint Bruschetta. What do you need?

-Food Processor
-Frozen Peas (thawed — I defrost them quickly in the microwave)
-Fresh Mint leaves
-A bit of olive oil — maybe 1-3 tsp
-Sometimes, to taste, I add garlic and lemon juice

Just throw all of it in the food processor and blend to desired consistency. Season to taste. How much easier could it get???

End result? Green mush, right? But GOOD green mush.

Then, after making this delicious mush, had to enjoy some wine. Went to my wine rack and found a bottle. I saw my scribble of $8 on the back of the bottle. That works. OH MY GOD, what am I drinking? Smokey, deep, heavenly bliss. Do peas merit this, does this merit peas? Well, the only thing that matters is that I deserve both. What am I enjoying? Calina Carménère. For only eight bucks, AMAZING. Check it out!

April Supper Club

Posted on April 29, 2013 by melsmosaic

A long time ago I was looking to join a supper club/cooking club and was very fortunate to have someone reply to my post on Cooking Light and she said ‘we have dinner on Sunday, this is the theme, feel free to come.’ Almost a decade has passed since then. It’s been amazing!

In the club I am part of, we try to meet about once a month. The host picks the theme, obviously provides the venue, the drinks (wine, beer, soda, etc), and everyone brings a dish. We try to use Cooking Light recipes but it can vary a bit. I tend to use others because Cooking Light isn’t always the lightest. And since I’m lactose intolerant, I can’t find the best ones there. What I laugh at a lot is our ‘cooking light’ idea — yeah, everybody eats what everybody brings — we eat so light by the time we consider portions. It’s awesome! It’s homemade, it has no calories. Just like birthday cake, right?

I was the host for this month and the theme I chose was April Observances — it is crazy how many things are observed. From the ‘normal’ ones like major holidays, to significant ones like Breast Cancer Awareness Month (yes I know it’s not in April). But, did you know that April is Tomatillo and Asian Pear Month, and it also has International Macaroni Day in the calendar on the 23rd. Where do these come from?

Well, I opted for that tomatillo and pear observance that I mentioned. I found a Charred Tomatillo Guacamole recipe to try, as well as a Crunchy Pear Salsa.

To the kitchen I go…

In the guacamole, I had some decent size tomatillos so roasted them for about 20 minutes, vs. about 12-15. Then when mixing everything together, carefully picked out the tomatillo skin because it just sort of sat in the bowl.

In the pear salsa, I was going to substitute Asian pears for the Bosc, because of the observance, but had no luck finding them. Had to stick to the darn recipe!! I didn’t use too much of the (hot) pepper because it can get supper spicy.

I served both of them with lime tortilla chips and baked tortilla chips.

Come of the end of the night, there was none of either of these left.

As for the rest of dinner, some of the other dishes that made an appearance included:

-a Chicken & Brussel Sprout dish with some type of grain mustard accent (Brussel Sprouts and Cabbage Month)

-Grilled Cheese (National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Month)

-Pecan Pie with Whiskey Whipped Cream! (National Pecan Month)

Didn’t have a chance to take a picture of the Pecan Pie because we ate it so fast!!

Overall, great dinner once again. Can’t wait for the next time we get together to see what the meal brings.

Cooking…4,5,6…Lobster Tail

Posted on April 20, 2013 by melsmosaic

After making biscotti last night I wanted to treat myself to a nice dinner. A grocery store had lobster tails on sale so I couldn’t resist that! Decided to just steam one, saute some spinach with garlic, get some tomatoes and a nice baguette to dip in olive oil & balsamic with Artisan Salt and pepper. Served all that with a very nice Pinot Blanc from Chateau St. Jean. Perfect dinner for a Friday night.