We went to visit friends over the weekend, and after a loooong drive and some relaxing rush hour traffic-jam traffic, we had this wonderful meal upon our arrival.
My friend’s husband is a bit of a burger connoisseur. Always on the quest for the perfect burger. The right meat, the right seasonings, the right bun, etc. So when I heard he was making us burgers, I knew we were in for a treat, and boy were we!
These burgers were definitely one of the best I’ve ever hand. He grinds his own meat, and insists on grinding just before grilling. His current philosophy is the simpler the better. So it’s just meat, onion, and cheese. But they did make a homemade thousand island type dressing that we loved too. We each had two! And plenty of homemade fries to go with too. So good!
RECIPES:
Burgers
Fresh ground short rib meat
Salt and pepper
American cheese
Make 3 or 4 oz loosely packed patties, lightly salt and pepper. Fry on a griddle until desired doneness. Add an onion on the patty once it’s flipped and then top with cheese. Lightly grill the buns. Eat.
After Ellie was born, my good friend Haniyyah came to visit us with her daughter Zayna. Zayna is about six months older than Ellie so we dressed them in the same onezie for a cute photo. Zayna was old enough to crack a smile, but Ellie just sat there like a slug. Continue reading “BIG SISTERS and LITTLE SISTERS”→
This is a nice variation on potato pancakes with a combination of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and parsnips. The beet puree has a bit of apple in it making it a little sweet. We really liked the combined flavor of the potato cakes, beet puree, and the dill on top. I served these with roasted asparagus and a salad.
Ellie gobbled up the asparagus and the beets, but not the potatoes. She’s strange like that. This was a very satisfying filling meal. This will definitely be made again.
I decided to cook Polish this year for Fat Tuesday to accompany my pazckis. My mom made halushki when I was growing up and I loved it. It was such an odd combination of ingredients. Noodles, bacon, cottage cheese, potatoes, and topped with sugar. Something about it really works. Aya loves when I make this one. Even her mom loves it!
As far as authentic Polish, I really have no idea if this is or not. This recipe could be Polish, or it could be Hungarian. My aunt makes a halushki dish too, but it is completely different than this.
This was Ellie’s first time eating halushki and I found it funny that in being a true halvsie kid, she used her chopsticks.
This was my first time making dill pickle soup. I used a recipe recommended from my friend. I really liked how it turned out. It was just the right amount of pickle flavor. I didn’t add the extra chicken bullion cubes and used soy milk instead of regular milk. But everything else I did according to the directions.
RECIPES:
Halushki
My mom wasn’t very detailed with this recipe. There was a lot of “a little bit of this,” “approximately,” and “maybe” when she told me the recipe.
Ingredients:
Potatoes(3) peeled and cubed
Onion (1) diced
6 strips of bacon
About 8oz. wide egg noodles
Almost 16oz. of cottage cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Dried parsley
Sugar
Cook the bacon and set aside. Brown the onion. Cook the potatoes in boiling water. Cook noodles in a separate pot. Once everything is cooked, combine in same pan as the onion. Crumble the bacon on top and mix. Add the cottage cheese while noodles are hot and combine. Serve on plate and sprinkle with sugar. It sounds so gross, but it’s really good.
Dill Pickle Soup
Ingredients:
8 cups chicken stock
2 cubes chicken bullion
1 large carrot – grated
2 cups peeled, cubed potatoes
1 cup chopped celery
5 small dill pickles – grated
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbs flour
1 egg
5 Tbs sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
Fresh dill – finely chopped
In a large saucepan, combine chicken stock, bouillon, carrot, potatoes, and celery. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook covered over low heat until potatoes start to get soft.
Add pickles and continue cooking about 15 min. In a small bowl, beat milk and flour until smooth then stir in a small amount of the hot soup. Add this mixture to the soup pot and bring all to a boil until slightly thickened. Remove from heat.
In a small bowl, beat egg and sour cream until smooth and stir in a small amount of the hot soup. Add this mixture to soup. Keep soup warm but do not boil, as this will make it curdle. Garnish with dill.
I’ve made a pledge to cook Japanese at least once a week. Either for lunch or dinner. Since we are raising Ellie to be bilingual and bicultural, it’s important to us that she is familiar with, and exposed to Japanese food. I just wasn’t sure where to go to find recipes that Aya didn’t have to always translate for me.
My mom had gotten me a Japanese cookbook when Aya and I were dating in college that I had never opened. Until now. So far it’s turned out to be a great resource and Aya just fills in where I have questions. So first up from this cookbook is grilled chicken balls cooked on bamboo skewers. The Japanese name is tsukune which is a type of yakitori (skewer grilled chicken; think Japanese kebobs). Yakitori (tori means bird) is pretty much a Japanese version of shish kebobs. It’s a very common bar food but not limited to that. You can use just about any part of the chicken to make yakitori. Breasts, thighs, wings, heart, liver, gizzard, cartilage, and skin(Aya’s favorite…yup). I’ve had most of these, but I prefer the breast, thigh, and wing meat best. But tsukune are chicken meatballs. Ground chicken wasn’t on sale so I actually used ground turkey instead, shhh.
What’s great about these is that you can make the meatballs in advance and then grill later with the sauce. You could even freeze them. I made mine in one swoop.
Aya was impressed I made these (so was I) and loved them. So did Ellie. I served it with miso soup, brown rice, stir fried renkon, daicon salad (Japanese radish) and o-hitashi (spinach with toasted sesame seeds).
RECIPES:
Tsukune (Grilled Chicken Meatballs)
Ingredients: (I made a double batch)
11 oz ground chicken (I used turkey)
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp flour
2 tsp cornstarch (potato starch is more common in Japan)
6 Tbsp dried bread crumbs (panko)
1 in. piece of fresh ginger
Soak bamboo skewers in water overnight. Blend all ingredients for the chicken balls except the ginger in a food processor. With wet hands, scoop about one tablespoon mixture and form into meatball (Will be about half the size of a golf ball). Makes 30-32 meatballs. (My double batch made 34 meatballs, so I think I made mine a little too big.
Grate the ginger and add the the ginger juice to a pot of boiling water. Add the chicken balls and boil for about 7 minutes or until cooked all the way through. Remove meatballs and set aside.
In a small sauce pan, mix all the ingredients for the sauce, except for the cornstarch mixture. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about ten minutes. Add the cornstarch to thicken the sauce. Remove and put in small bowl.
Thread 3-4 meatballs on each skewer. Brush with sauce and cook on a medium grill or on a barbeque (I put mine in the oven under the broiler on low). Rotate and add more sauce.
Blanche spinach in boiling water for 15 seconds. Drain immediately and rinse with cold water. Squeeze out excess water by hand and compress spinach into a ball. Place ball of spinach in a bowl with soy sauce and water. Let soak 15 minutes or longer.
Drain spinach and squeeze out excess liquid by hand. Roll spinach into a cylinder log shape about 2 inches in diameter. Cut it into 4 pieces. You will have 4 small cylinders now. Dip one end in sesame seeds and serve on plate. (I really should have taken pictures of the process). It is supposed to be cold. If you want more flavor you can pour ponzu or soy sauce on the spinach too.
We went to visit friends over the weekend, and after a loooong drive and some relaxing rush hour traffic-jam traffic, we had this wonderful meal upon our arrival.
