Date Night...in outer space!

Ken and I have been dating for so long we don't really "date" anymore.  But after almost 5 years we've finally learned that date nights are pretty important (took us long enough, I know.)  So last weekend we each chose something we'd like to do and went out on the town.


Of course I got the choice of restaurant!  First, dinner at Havana, our favorite classy Cuban restaurant in Walnut Creek (I believe there is also one in Alameda, or something.)  They have awesome mojitos in all kind of yummy flavors, although I would recommend staying away from the strawberry flavored "fresa" one because it has strawberry pucker in it, which turned out to be a bad idea.  Honestly, pucker in anything is a bad idea!  But I digress...  We ordered tapas instead of entrees, though I was VERY tempted by the black bean soup this time.  Boniato garlic fries with chimichurri aioli, crab cakes and some kind of lamb chop special (SO yum! I wish I had paid attention to the waitress more, but she had me at "lamb" so I was too busy nodding frantically at Ken and saying "YES YES! We'll have that!")


No room for dessert after that.  So a quick stop at La Scala for hot beverages and a (should have been) quick drive to Ken's choice: Chabot Space & Science Center.  I say "should have been" because we were dumb and got a little lost.  Fridays and Saturdays they bust out the big telescopes and all the astronomy clubs come out to play.  Some pros and ammeters have their telescopes out and let other people take peeks, but the best part is checking out the view in the big telescopes.  It's pretty humbling to realize you're staring at Saturn from your puny little home on teeny tiny Earth.  Even better, we checked out the Orion nebula from the Chabot's homemade telescope and learned how stars are born.


We froze our butts off up there, but not without taking a few long exposures.  Unfortunately, there was a troop of cub scouts taking a field trip or earning a badge or something, so they kept running around on the bridges I had "sturdied" my tripod on and most of my exposures of the city turned out pretty shaky.  Did snap a pretty good one of the telescopes though...thank god for concrete surfaces!

caught a plane going by...nifty!

Another successful date night...

Anything to get us from doing our typical "old people" things of walking the dogs, renting movies and reading books at the Border's cafe.  Yeah...who needs to be married when you have a married dating life?

bowls of happiness

On a rainy night it doesn't get any better than this: JAPANESE CURRY.


Hurray! It's Curray!


2-3 yellow onions, chopped chunky style

4-5 carrots, chopped in 1" segments

1 lb. thin sliced beef
-OR-
2-3 potatoes, cut in 1" cubes

1 package Japanese curry 
(the "Golden Curry" brand is found is almost all grocery stores, but the good kind is "Vermont" or "Apple" curry, which is pretty much only found in Asian food stores)

Depending on the brand of curry you buy the box will instruct you to add a certain amount of water.  Ignore it.  Add at least a cup less than what it calls for.  Add all the chopped veggies to the pot of water and bring to a boil.  When it boils turn the heat down to a simmer and let it cook until the veggies are almost fork tender.  If you're using thin sliced beef, now is the time to add it.  Let the beef cook in the hot curry, it will probably take between 5-10 minutes depending on how thin the beef is (I use shabu-shabu cut beef, it just makes it easier.)  Break up the blocks of curry and add it to the pot, let the curry dissolve and give it a stir, things should thicken up pretty quick.  Eat it with rice (Japanese-style rice!*) and if you are so daring, eat it with red pickled ginger.  Seriously!

So. Happy. :)

*Rice 101: Japanese rice is the short kind.  Not super short like Vietnamese sticky rice, not long like Chinese rice...right in between.  Educate yourself!

and the boyfriend ordered...salad?

MANLY salad, I might add!


Ken was having major regrets after eating a Carl's Jr. hamburger yesterday and when he arrived for dinner at my house the request was, "something healthy...maybe a salad?"   And because when it comes to food my man gets what he wants!  So we had salad.  ...A nice butch steak salad. 

Black and Bleu Salad

1 bag of ready greens 

1 lb of any type of steak you like (NY, t-bone, flank, whatever)

1 carrot, peeled into strips with a veggie peeler (my personal favorite way to prepare carrots for a salad)

2-3 button mushrooms, sliced

2 slices of red onion

1 avocado, pitted, peeled and sliced

1 big hunk of bleu cheese *

salt

pepper

Canola oil

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.  Salt and pepper the steak on both sides very liberally (I prefer a SUPER peppery steak.)  Heat a cast iron skillet (or any oven proof skillet) until the pan smokes.  Add a bit of canola oil to the pan.  Place the steak in the pan and sear on one side for 3-4 minutes.  Flip the steak, let it sear for 2 minutes, then transfer the pan to the oven for 10-15 minutes (depending on your preferred doneness.)  When you remove the steak from the oven, let it rest on a cutting board for 5 minutes before you slice into it.

Arrange all your salad veggies in a bowl.  Top with steak, a good dose of bleu cheese and this super simple, use-it-for-everything salad dressing:

Salad Dressing

2-3 T. balsamic vinegar  (or sherry vinegar, or apple cider vinegar)

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

3-4 T. good olive oil

salt 

pepper

Create a nest for your salad dressing bowl -- twist a dish towel (like you are going to whip someone with a wet towel in the locker room) and form a circle with it on your countertop.  Place your salad dressing bowl in the middle of the circle, this way when you poor the oil and whisk the dressing at the same time you bowl won't wobble all over the place.  Combine vinegar, dijon mustard, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Pour a steady stream of olive oil while you whisk it all together.  Add more salt or pepper to taste.  

Top your salad with your homemade dressing and enjoy!

* If you don't like bleu you can use feta...but then it would be "Black and Feta Salad" and that's not nearly as catchy.

Get your greens...and your beans!

First of many food posts (prepare yourselves...)

Quite possibly the longest week ever. On top of it being a very slow production week at work, I ended up catching a cold from riding the BART to the city last weekend and took a sick day in the middle of the week. Spent it re-watching favorite j-dramas and drinking a copious amounts of miso soup (best recovery food!) Ended out the week with a headache...ugh.

Nothing helps me unwind better than cooking, and since the weather is looking like rain, soup was on the menu again. This is quite simply the easiest and heartiest soup on my go-to list.

Greens & Beans Soup

1 package hot (or sweet) italian turkey sausage

1 bunch of kale, washed, de-stemmed and chopped into bite-size pieces

1 can of cannellini beans, rinsed (white kidney beans, or something similar)

6 cups of low sodium chicken or veggie stock (homemade is preferable...but canned is easier)

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon hot chili flakes

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

olive oil

Brown the sausages whole in a soup pot with a little olive oil (I love my le creuset stock pot more than life itself and highly recommend investing in one, or many.) Set the sausages aside on a plate lined with paper towels when they are done. Add a little more olive oil to the pot if you need to and saute the onions and garlic with the hot pepper flakes, salt and black pepper. Just before the onions get translucent add the stock and heat through. Slice the sausage into little rounds. Add the sausage, kale and beans to the stock; stir and cover. When the kale is wilted and cooked (about 3-5 minutes) it's done.

This soup freezes incredibly well. I usually freeze about two portions of this in glass jars for "oh crap, I forgot to make my lunch!" moments in the morning before work. ...which happens to me a lot.

the beginning is the end is the beginning...

There is a beginning to everything, I suppose...

Here goes nothing!