Today, after touring the amazing Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Penisula of Mexico, we were lucky enough to have lunch at La Casona De Vallodolid, a restaurant specializing in traditional Yucatan cuisine.

We tried a lot of new things, including: lime soup, poc chuc (roasted pork with bitter orange), cochinita pibil (achiote-marinated pork, slow roasted underground), ceviche and horchata (sweet rice milk).  We also had guacamole (of course) and chips, and for dessert: rice pudding.  It was all delicious and seemed very authentic.  We will have to try out some new Mexican recipes when we get home. Plus after walking around for hours in the hot sun, it was nice to take a break.  The restaurant itself is very beautiful.  It used to be the governor of Yucatan’s home so it is large with beautiful tiles.  And there is a hidden courtyard with a beautiful ceramic fountain (see photo above). Definitely worth a stop if you are visiting Chichen Itza or Valladolid.

Poc chuc and lime soup

Cochinita Pibil

Ceviche

Rice Pudding

Wall decorations

This cake is so chocolatey and so simple.  We spent Christmas Eve with our good friends Patrick, Virginia and Wyeth.  After a traditional Swiss raclette meal, with a light green salad, we feasted on chocolate mousse cake, topped with raspberries, that we made:

This cake is really easy to make: just four ingredients: eggs, chocolate, butter and vanilla.  And if you want to put it over the top: raspberries.  Note it’s gluten free if that’s important to you.

First you melt chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate together.  Then you whip 4 extra large eggs together until they triple in volume.  You fold in the eggs to the chocolate mix, add vanilla and bake.  Let cool and top with berries if you like. Also good with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.  Merry Christmas Eve!!

Today was a cold, snowy day and we spent most of the day inside baking cookies. We decided late in the day that we wanted to make beef stew. However since it was already 5:00 PM we knew  we could not make a traditional stew that cooked for hours.  We researched “quick beef stew” on the internet and found a recipe that called for sirloin tips — because they are more tender than the usual meat used for stew, they cook much faster.  The other ingredients were carrots, potatoes, onions and beef broth.  We also cooked kale as our side dish and of course cookies for dessert.

The other ingredients besides sirloin tips were carrots, potatoes, onions and beef broth. First we cut the meat up into chunks and coated it with flour.  Then we chopped the onions, carrots and potatoes.  We sauteed the meat first, then added the vegetables.  Finally we added beef broth.  We liked the taste but next time we are going to use less flour.

This is Max: Today after school my friends and I visited a cool ice cream place: Lab 320.  Definitely worth stopping by, but maybe when it’s a little warmer out!

They spread out liquid ice cream on sort of a reverse crepe machine (it’s super cold instead of hot).  Then they scoop up strips of the ice cream and roll it up.  I ordered the banana rolled ice cream, which was really good, especially with fresh banans on top.  The other thing is cereal balls dipped in nitrogen. The nitrogen almost stings your tongue, but it’s very cool. It produces a vapor when you eat it.  (They call it Dragon’s Breath)That being said, you must eat it within four minutes of getting it, or its just overpriced cereal.

Another thing my friend got was Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream. While it was churning they added nitrogen to it.

This meal we decided we wanted to make a simplified beef wellington (without proscuitto, and with the puff pastry cooked seperately.)  So instead of wrapping the filet mignon in puff pastry, we cooked all the ingredients: the filets, the puff pastry rounds and the mushroom topping, separately.  Then we put them all together.  For sides, we made a healthy version of creamed spinach, baked potatoes and a Boston lettuce salad.

For  the Beef Wellington, we used three different types of mushrooms- shiitake, cremini and oysters to make the mushroom topping We diced them and sauteed them in butter and truffle salt.

We seasoned the filet mignons with a crust of salt and pepper, and seared them for about two minutes a side. Then we placed them in the oven to finish.  Even though the filets looked pretty amazing, Alex had the ingenius idea to inject butter into the steaks using a syringe (an unused one that Dad brought home from work!).  It worked pretty well except a couple times the butter exploded out of the filet.

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For the puff pastry we used store made puff pastry and rolled it out, then we cut out ovals the approximate size of each filet (we cut a piece of parchment paper the size of a filet and use that as our guide).  Then we baked the pastry in the oven (while the filets were finishing up).  The pastry puffed up so much that we ultimately cut it in half to use around our filets.

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For the sides, we made made creamed spinach.  First we steamed about 10 oz. of spinach with a sliced small onion and a clove of garlic.  Then we pressed all the liquid out of it and put it in the processor with salt, pepper and cottage cheese. Voila, beautiful healthy creamed spinach.  For the Boston Lettuce salad, the hardest part was cleaning the lettuce.  Then we just added goat cheese, cranberries and walnuts. And then we made baked potatoes (i.e. we baked them!)

To plate it all, we put a smear of the creamed spinach on the plate and then we made a Beef Wellington sandwich, if you will, with the puff pastry as the “bread”,  the steaks as the main ingredient, and the mushrooms as the topping.  It was DELICIOUS!!!

This week we tried out another Blue Apron dinner: General Tso’s Chicken: We were really happy with this meal. It was outside of our comfort zone and we would not normally cook it, and it tasted better then we expected. We expected it to be unhealthy, like the normal Chinese take-out version of this, but because our chicken wasn’t fried, it was tastier and healthier. The dish also allowed you to determine how spicy you wanted the chicken to be, which is very helpful when you’re in a family with very differing tastes. The only thing that we thought could of been improved on was that there wasn’t enough bok choy. In fact, we needed to add our own spinach to barely gather enough greens.

The main ingredients were: chicken breast, scallions, daikon radish, baby bok choy and corn starch. For the sauce, Blue Apron gave us Sambal Oelek (no idea what this is but its spicy), garlic, sesame oil and soy glaze.

First we had to prepare all the ingredients: mince the garlic, chop the scallions, chop ends of bok choy, slice radishes and chop the chicken into bite-sized bits.  This took a REALLY long time: partly because the chicken was almost frozen (note to self: make sure you let Blue Apron ingredients thaw before you start prep).  The we cooked the rice. Then we made the sauce for the chicken in a pan.  What was cook is that the sambal oelek is spicy/sweet and you add however much you want in (depending on how spicy you want it).  We chose a medium amount.  Then we had to cook the chicken (after coating the chicken in corn starch).  Blue Apron says to use the same pan as the sauce–but this was taking a long time (and there were 2 of us) so Max handled the sauce and Alex started the chicken in a separate pan.  Once the chicken was cooked through we combined it with the sauce.  Then we used the “chicken” pan and cooked the bok choy in it.  As noted above, there wasn’t nearly enough bok choy!!! We added some extra spinach and a splash of soy sauce (Blue Apron just said to cook it in olive oil).

This was a super fun meal to make, the kind of meal you would expect from Blue Apron. It wasn’t something you make eveyday but was still delicious! (Just make sure you have A LOT of time to do this…or use lots of pans.)

Good friends of ours (thanks J&C) gave us a voucher for two meals from Blue Apron, a company that delivers you the makings of a full meal, along with detailed directions.  So we decided to try making them.  Here is our review. The first two meals we received were: 1) Bucatini Bolognese with Brussel Sprouts and Pecorino Cheese and 2)Pan-Seared Cod with Meyer Lemon Sauce & Fall Vegetables.

First of all the packaging was very good: everything was cold and all of the packaging is recycleable.  It’s also cool that they give you exactly the amount of ingredients you need.

The first dinner we made was the Bucatini Bolognese.  The recipe looked good: but super straight forward: carrots, onions, garlic, ground beef and tomato sauce (we often use different ground meat in our bolognese: a combo of veal and pork, or lamb, so it was a little surprising this was just beef.).  The directions are easy to follow and with good photos, but you definitely have to do the work (lots of chopping).  Basically you chop up all the vegetables, sautee them, add the meat, add the tomato sauce and let simmer: serve with pasta, pecorino cheese and garnish of basil  The twist Blue Apron wanted us to do was to pick off the Brussels sprouts leaves and add them to the bolognese sauce at the end.  But we prefer Brussels sprouts roasted so we roasted ours in the oven with a little olive oil and salt and pepper…that way they turn really crispy.  Then you can sprinkle on top of the plated dish or just eat on the side.  Also from some kids’ perspective they would NOT want Brussels sprouts in their bolognese sauce at all so if you cook them separately, people can add them or not. Also, the amount of brussels sprouts was very close to a garnish, and we do NOT recomend using Brussels Sprouts a garnish–we wanted more of them so we could eat as a side.

The second dinner we made was Pan-Seared Cod with Meyer Lemon Sauce & Fall Vegetables.  This recipe was definitely more adventurous (and we liked that it was something very new to us).  Again the directions were great….but there is a lot of chopping…don’t think that this or the Bolognese dinner are QUICK dinners. First you slice 2 baking potatoes very thin (and roast in oven with olive oil and salt & pepper), then you have to chop up broccoli, carrots and garlic.  You saute those in olive oil till soft and set aside.  Then you lightly flour the cod fillets with rice flour (we’ve never used rice flour so that was interesting) and sautee them in the same pan.  When the fillets are done, you set them aside and make a sauce with butter, meyer lemon, and chopped almonds.  That was really fun.  We don’t make sauces very much so this was a good introduction.  OK so then you are supposed to plate the dish by combining the roasted potatoes with the cooked vegetables with creme fraiche (like sour cream), and then put the fish on top of that and lemon sauce on top.  The problem is that you have these amazing crispy potato slices that you are supposed to combine with soft (damp) vegetables.  We thought that was a crime…it would ruin the potatoes so we didn’t do that step–we plated them separately.  Again maybe its a kids’ thing, but cooked broccoli should never be combined with crispy potatoes.  But the whole dish tasted amazing.  Thanks Blue Apron (and J&C).

Today we woke up and craved a really good baguette…really good french bread, but there were no bakeries nearby so we decided to make it ourselves. It is amazing how few ingredients there are: flour, yeast, water and salt! But there were a lot of steps (and a lot of kneading) but the end result was worth it. Plus the house smelled SO good when it is baking. Mom says the best smell in the world is the smell of home made bread baking in the oven.

The first steps were mixing the ingredients together. First you use a mixer but then you have to do it by hand:

Then you have to divide the dough in two and let it rise for an hour.

Before it rose

After it rose…

Then you knead it again, roll each ssection of dough into a rectangle and the roll that up to form a long baguette. Then, of course, you have to let that rise.

Finally after another hour, the loaves are ready to bake but you have to brush them with egg white to give them a crust. And half way through the baking you have to brush them AGAIN!!

Tonight we wanted to have fun with dinner and try cooking some new things (along with some old favorites).  So we made ceviche, steak with a special Texas Spice Rub, Hasselback potatoes (they look cool and taste delicious), and apple crisp.  The cevice and the Hasselback potatoes were the new things, and the steak and apple crisp were old favorites.

Here is what the full meal looked like:

Ceviche:

For the ceviche, we used a recipe from the cook book: United Tastes of Texas (thanks again Jay and Jean).   First we cleaned and cut up shrimp and mahi-mahi into bite size pieces.  Then we juiced 1 lemon and 2 limes.  We added tequila to the lemon/lime juice and then let the fish sit in the juice/tequila mixture for 2 hours (in the fridge).  The lime/lemon juice “cooks” the fish. This is due to the acidity in the juice. Then we chopped up green onions, cilantro, and tomatoes and added that to the mix.  It’s important to add the vegetables at the end; otherwise they get soggy. We used trifle dishes to plate the ceviche.  Ceviche is basically fish cooked without heat, but with lemon and /or lime juice instead.

Texas Rubbed Steak

For the steak, we made a Texas Spice Rub (salt, chile powder, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper and paprika), rubbed it on the steak and let sit an hour, and then grilled them on each side to get them brown and for the grill marks and finished them in the oven.  This recipe is from United Tastes of Texas as well; we just don’t use quite as much chile powder as the recipe calls for.

Hasselback Potatoes

For the hasselback potatoes, we sort of followed a recipe we found on the food network fromRee Drummond (“Pionneer Woman”).  These are so fun to make: first you scrub a medium potato, then you slice down into it but not all the way through.  You can rest the potato on chop sticks and only slice down to the chop sticks to keep from cutting all the way through.  Then you coat the potato with a mix of melted butter, olive oil and chopped green onions and salt and pepper.  (The recipe calls for softened butter and chives, but we thought if we melted the butter it would get further down between the slices of potatoes.)  Then you cook at a preheated oven (450 degrees) for at least 60 minutes.  We found that they weren’t completely cooked through even then so we turned the oven down to 350 and cooked for another 15 minutes.

Apple Crisp

Finally for the apple crisp, we peeled and chunked 5 apples. Then we mixed a little sugar, flour and cinnamon with the apples. For the topping, we creamed butter with sugar and then added flour, oats, and more cinnamon.  We sprinkled the topping all over and baked it…unfortunately we ate it before we took a photo of the final thing but it was yummy.

For tonight’s meal, we made a bolognese pasta dish with three different types of meats – bacon, veal and pork. It was the most flavorable bolognese I had ever tasted in my life. First, we chopped up bacon, carrots, celery and onions. We used the cuisinart to make the carrots, celery and onions really small.  Then, we cooked the veggies in olive oil until they turned transparent. Then we added the bacon (you can also use pancetta, but we couldn’t find it in the super market). We then added the ground veal and pork and broke it up in the pan. After the meat browned, we added tomato paste, white wine and MILK.  And we let it simmer for a few hours.   We had some extra bacon so we added it to a simple spinach salad (spinach, tomatoes, bacon and goat cheese, with a sherry vinaigrette).  Note we always have an extra bowl of just the meat sauce on the table because we are all carnivores in our family, and we always want to add more meat sauce to our pasta.

For the pumpkin pie, we mixed the sugar, cinnamon and salt.  Then  in a separate bowl we mixed the canned pumpkin with 3 eggs. Then we poured the dry bowl into the wet ingredients and stirred in evaporated milk. Then we added the mixture into the pie crust and put the in the oven. After the pie was finished, we let it cool on the rack before refrigerating it.