Spaghetti Bolognese

I craved pasta and meat the whole time I was in Spain...one can only eat some much ham, cheese and hard as rocks bread. I wanted to feel the comfort one gets from eating a bowl full of heavy pasta. Cold little bocadillos just don't do it for me. So i made Spaghetti Bolognese at my earliest opportunity. This dish was both tasty and economical. Recipe makes enough for 4. Prep and cook time: approximately 50 minutes.

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 boxes of whole wheat pasta
- 1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 lb of ground beef
- 1 medium sized yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1/2 cup of chopped basil
- 1/4 cup of grated pecorino romano cheese
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- olive oil
- salt and pepper

Instructions:
- Heat the olive oil in a pan, saute onion and garlic for about 3 minutes or until the onions become translucent
- Add carrot and green pepper and saute for another 5 minutes
- Add ground beef and saute for about 10 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink
- Salt to taste
- Add can of crushed tomatoes, simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes (sauce should thicken up)
- Salt to taste
- Add chopped basil and cheese at the end

Molly's Birthday and Red Velvet Cupcakes

Most of the gang was down in DC this past weekend to celebrate the disappearance of Molly's youth and the onset of middle age. We had a great meal at Indique, although I spent of the rest of the night feeling my food slosh around in my stomach alongside champagne, bloody mary mix and birthday cake shots. Yum.

During the day we made a batch of Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. For my first attempt at baking red velvet cupcakes, it came out decent enough, although it was more pink than red and was a little bit on the dry side. It also didn't have that hard to pinpoint red velvet "flavor". I used a recipe from Epicurious and had to substitute skim milk for buttermilk. After doing a bit of research on the web today, I think that the lack of buttermilk was the cause of the pink-ness of my cupcakes. Apparently, the chemical reaction from combining white vinegar and buttermilk is, in addition to the red food coloring, what gives the cupcakes that deep red color. (See! I told you people there is some sort of chemical reaction involved!) Also, most recipes called for three eggs and I only used two. An extra egg and buttermilk is probably what gives the cupcakes that moist and rich texture. Word to the wise: don't think that skim milk is an acceptable substitute for buttermilk.

Click Here to read the recipe I used. I would recommend adding an extra egg and another 1-2 teaspoons of red food coloring. Makes 12 cupcakes.

Chicken and Vegetable Orzo Stew

Daylight Savings Time is in effect and that means the sun sets at approximately 4 in the afternoon. Which means that it's soup season! This soup is very easy to make, takes only about 45 minutes. If you like hot, steamy soup and mushy vegetables, then this dish is for you.

Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 zucchini, diced into big chunks
- 1 package of frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon of thyme
- 1 teaspoon of oregano
- 1 teaspoon of basil
- 2 chicken bouillon cubes
- 2 cups of water
- 1 cup of orzo
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
- Sautee the diced onion in olive oil for a few minutes, until the onion pieces are translucent.
- Add the chicken and sautee for another few minutes
- Add the zucchini and spinach and sautee for another few minutes
- add the can of diced tomatoes, 2 chicken bouillon cubes and 2 cups of water
- add all of the spices
- bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes
- stir in the orzo and simmer for another 15 minutes
- add generous amounts of salt and the tomato paste at the end
- stir continuously throughout the cooking process

Sariwa

I noticed a new restaurant...actually I wouldn't call it a tiny restaurant, it's such a tiny space...it's more of a take-out place, on 16th street at Prospect Park West. The new restaurant, a Filipino place called Sariwa, has a short menu and serves up foods like Chicken Adobo and Beef Empanadas. Best part has to be the fact that it delivers to my neighborhood! Amar and I decided on an order of Chicken Adobo, a beef empanada, Vegetable Lumpia (spring rolls stuffed with green beans, jicama, carrots and tofu) and Pancit, a traditional Filipino dish of rice noodles sauteed with cabbage, carrots and green beans.

Overall, the food was pretty good but it appears that Sariwa is still working on its delivery skills. The food was a bit late and while Amar's food was piping hot, my Chicken Adobo was icey cold.

The Chicken Adobo reminded me of a dish my Dad often cooks back home: he stews chicken or pork, potatoes and hard-boiled eggs for hours in a soy sauce mixture until the the meat is falling off the bones. It's the ultimate comfort food and is just the right thing on a chilly and windy night. Anyways, this Chicken Adobo had a very similar taste. The Chicken is stewed in a soy sauce, vinegar and garlic mixture until the meat is tender and has both a salty and tangy flavor. The extra soy sauce and vinegar sauce was a perfect dressing for the rice. I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner, too bad I had to reheat it first.

Amar decided to order a mish mash of things: two empanadas, spring rolls and a noodle dish. The Pancit was very good - the noodles were also cooked in vinegar so it had a very tangy and tart flavor. The spring rolls had a very distinct taste - different from Chinese, Vietnamese or Thai spring rolls. The spring rolls are lightly deep fried and stuffed with green beans, so the flavor is light and subtle, but has an almost meaty texture. I can't say much about the empanadas - it was dry and cold by the time I got to it.

Given a few more weeks, maybe a month or two, I think Sariwa will be really good. I'm just so excited that there's a new delivery option in my neighborhood! Click here for the menu.

PS - the Izzy/George storyline on Grey's is really getting on my nerves.