I recently did some baking with my bffflaeaeaeae Joyce a couple of weeks ago and figured I should write about it...2016 new year’s resolution - blog more. #YEAROFSTEPH

J found a delightful recipe for a blood orange galette which looked beautiful in the pictures so that’s what sucked me in.  Also, blood oranges are life.  Blood and oranges, the two best things.

It wasn’t too hard to make except for the part when I asked Joyce if she brought her hand mixer with her because you know, she’s supposed to read my mind, and she said no and rolled her eyes at me. (Cue eye rolling emoji).  So Nutribullet it was!

We made the frangipane/almond filling in the Nutribullet and it actually came together quite well! So don’t worry if you don’t have a hand mixer.  Side note:  we used Almond Meal from Trader Joe’s in the recipe - worked just fine. Also thanks to all this baking we’ve been doing, I now have about 5 types of sugar in my pantry...completely unnecessary...or is it....

Also, definitely put more than 2 layers of blood orange.  They shrink in the oven so I think go towards maybe 4 layers. Or slice your blood orange a little thicker.

BLOOD ORANGE GALETTE

based off of recipe from Call Me Cupcake

For the pie crust 1 cup + 2 1/2 tbsp all purpose flour 1/3 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp almond flour /ground almonds (we used almond meal from Trader Joe’s) 1 tbsp granulated sugar 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp ground cardamom (Didn’t have any of this so....didn’t put any in) 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon 10.5 tbsp very cold butter, cut into cubes 2-4 tbsp ice water For the frangipane + blood orange filling 5 tbsp (75 g) softened butter 5 tbsp (70 g) granulated sugar 2/3 cup (75 g) almond flour (We used almond meal) 1 egg 6-8 blood oranges, plus extra for eating while you’re slicing For the egg wash 1 egg pinch of salt 1 tbsp milk 1 tbsp turbinado sugar Crust 1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the diced butter and, using your pastry cutter fingers, cut in the butter until dough is crumbly but there are still visible pieces of butter. 2. Drizzle with water, 1 tbsp at a time, and mix gently with a fork until dough just comes together, do not knead the dough! 3. Pat the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, wrap the plastic around the dough and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Frangipane filling + blood orange filling 1. Beat butter and sugar until creamy (in a nutribullet...if you don’t have a hand mixer), about 30 seconds. Add the almond flour and egg and beat until smooth. Set aside. 2. Use a sharp knife to cut down the sides of the oranges, removing all of the skin and white pith. Slice the oranges thinly. Remove all seeds. (Eat the oranges that get ‘messed up’ while you were cutting) Assembly 1. Roll out the dough to a large circle on a lightly floured surface, about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. Make sure to roll and turn the dough so it doesn't stick to the surface. Using the rolling pin, transfer the dough to a piece of baking paper. 2. Spread the frangipane filling over the rolled out dough, leaving a border around the edges. 3. Put the orange slices in two (2 thick layers, maybe 4 thin layers?) layers on top of the frangipane. Fold the edges over the filling. Slide a thin cutting board or the removable bottom of a tart pan underneath the baking paper and galette and put it it in the freezer for 20 minutes. Bake 1. Preheat oven to 390°F. 2. Mix the egg, a pinch of salt and milk in a small bowl. 3. Remove the galette from the freezer and put it on a baking sheet. Brush the edges with egg wash and sprinkle edges and fruit with turbinado sugar. Bake until the edges are golden brown and filling bubbly, about 40 minutes.

SO so good. Olive was very interested in it, though she seems to think everything is for her to eat.

I don’t think anything can get better than a ham, cheddar, and dill biscuit.  Frealz though.  Except maybe puppies.  But we don’t eat puppies.  Currently hopped up on a multi shot latte so please excuse the crazed typing.

I was listening to my fav podcast - Spilled Milk and basically anything they talk about I immediately crave and need to EAT or MAKE RIGHTNOW.  Skipped on over to their website and decided I needed these biscuits in my life.  Never mind that I have never made biscuits before, whatevs.

Got the recipe off of cookstr and you also need to make these RIGHTNOW it’s super easy.

The recipe on the website says it yields 8 biscuits but either our biscuits were ant-sized or maybe because we were using a small mason jar as a cutter?  We made at least 20?  Because this pic is only half of the biscuits we made.  Joyce back me up on this. Anyways, more = better.  Unless it’s diarrhea.

These biscuits taste like CHEEZ ITS which is amazing how does that even happen and end with a nice peppery kick and then DILL DILL DILL.  If you don’t like cheez its, I don’t like you.

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (If you like more pepper, GO FOR IT)

½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch cubes

¾ cup packed shredded sharp cheddar (You can use more if you want)

1 cup diced ham

3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

2/3 cup buttermilk

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons whole milk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, and pepper. Squish the butter into the flour with your hands until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Try not to squish too much, because then your biscuits will be gross and not flakey like biscuits should be. Add the cheddar, ham, and dill, and stir in the buttermilk until just combined. Maybe squish a little more with your hands so there are less crumbies.

3. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk and milk together and set aside.

4. Lightly flour your counter/table/flat thing and dump your dough onto it. Shape into a rectangle about 1½ inches thick or whatever looks cool. Cut as many biscuits as possible with a 2.5 in biscuit cutter, or in our case, a mason jar and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.  You can push the extra pieces of dough left from the edges back together and make more biscuits, because like I said before - MORE = BETTER. 

5. Lightly brush the top of each biscuit with a bit of the beaten egg yolk mixture.

6. Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes, or until they are golden brown and ENJOY.

O m g.

So I love grits. Well, maybe I should start with I love corn. I don’t know why but any form of corn - I love it. Steamed corn, popcorn, corn soup, hominy, corn nuts, corn ice cream (Yes. It is amazing) I could go on…

This past weekend I took the train up to Philadelphia to hang with my sister. Which, by the way, is so much better (and cheaper!) than driving…try it sometime. I hate driving and parking, especially the parallel kind. I should really practice more.

Basically all we did this weekend was eat. A notable dish I had this weekend was at Honey’s Sit n’ Eat. We went to the South St. location for brunch. All the brunch stuff looked great - eggs! Pancakes! Challah French toast! Baconnn etc etc. Let’s not forget the fresh squeezed orange juice. I splurged on the $4 tiny glass and it was well worth it. So fresh and so sweet!!

I checked out the specials menu and saw ‘Summer Vegetables and Grits’ - rainbow cherry tomatoes, zucchini, red onion, scallions with a sunny egg.

Um yes plz. I ordered that and it did not disappoint. I had pepper jack cheese added to it, mmm decadent, gooey, cheesyness. The tomatoes were deliciously garlicy and I love sunny side up eggs. If you don’t like sunny eggs, I don’t trust you.

Check out this bomb plate and go to Honey’s!!  The OJ is hiding in the upper part of the photo.

OMG Butter.

I made Mozzarella Arugula Ravioli with a tomato bacon butter sauce today and I found out that it is possible to have too much butter.....and also thyme makes things taste like mushrooms.  Must be the woodsy-ness.

Adapted from this recipe but I hate goat cheese because it's too musty for me so I subbed mozz.

May or may not have placed the bowl on the floor by the window to get that au naturelle lighting.

Hello friends! It’s been quite a while hasn’t it?

Comin’ back with a bang with this freaking delicious smoothie.

I first tried this smoothie at milk&honey market in Philly and fell in love with it. First of all, it’s my favorite color - greeeeen! And secondly, it’s semi healthy? Because it has arugula in it. Yes it’s green. It must be healthy.

I finally got around to trying to recreate it myself last week and then I made one every other day. Every day is too much…cleaning magic bullets is hard work yo.

Ingredients to make 1 smoothie:

- 2 cups of arugula (or more if you're feelin' sassy) - 1/2 cup of orange juice (I used lots of pulp) - 1 sliced frozen banana - 1/2 cup chopped frozen pineapple - 1/2 cup of water

1. Put arugula, water, and oj into the blender. Blend it up nice and smooooth

2. Add the banana and pineapple, maybe a splash of water if the banana and pineapple are peeking up over the green juice.

3. Blend until smooth.

4. Pour into fancy mason jar and enjoy!  I had a fancy glass straw at one point but I think I lost it.....disaster.

If you feel arugula is a little too crazy for you, or you don't like that peppery taste, you can try using spinach in place of the arugula.

Let me know what you think or if you've had any fabulous smoothies lately! Please excuse the trash cans in the background of this photo...I need to work on my photo skillz.

Hello Friends, I am back! It's been quite a while since I've last posted, so I figured I should get back into it....

Let's start with tacos.

These tacos are from when I visited my bfflaeaeae Joyce in Gaithersburg a couple of weeks ago.  It might've been the last visit before she leaves me for Cambodia in a month sob sob sob.

The place is called Taco Bar and it is deeeelicious.  Pictured above is the taco combo which comes with two tacos and rice&beans.  I got lengua (tongue!) and pastor (pork&pineapple).  The pastor was a little salty, but the lengua was really tender and moist. Mmm moist. I know you love that word. Even better was there was a little condiment bar which you could pile on as many toppings as you pleased! You can bet I loaded up and then some..and maybe went back for seconds. Or thirds.  Not sure if you can tell but there are jalapenos on there, my fav!

For our fancy meal of the day, we went to minibar, yes, no capital M, that's how fancy it is.  It's located in DC near the Spy Museum. That's all I know, I just followed Joyce.

I didn't get very many fancy pictures of minibar since I left my Canon at home, saddest time ever, but Joyce (ahem, I) took many pictures with her fancy fancy new camera.

minibar is a molecular gastronomy restaurant and the man behind it is Jose Andres, who actually used to work at El Bulli (number 1 restaurant in the world 5 times!!) in Spain with Ferran Adria, I think there might have been a tiff and that's why he's here in America...but anyways.....

minibar is an incredible experience and if you ever get a chance to go you should take it!  It's different than conventional restaurants because there are only I believe 4 seatings in one night, each seating is max 6 people, and there are only 12 seats in the kitchen. That's right, kitchen, we sat right in the kitchen and got to watch the chefs cook and plate the dishes right in front of us.  One of whom was SUPER HOT, Joyce knows what I'm talking about.

The meal was around 20 courses, they were all around one bite, or a small dish. They made "snow" sorbet on fir leaves and drizzled honey on it as a dessert, made little bubbles shaped liked carrots with liquid carrot inside, some sensational stuff.  There were some dishes that were kind of weird, but the method is to have you try things that you would have never thought of.

We also went with the non-alcoholic beverage pairing for all you asian red facers out there and it was great.  My favorite beverage was probably this passion fruit drink, you could really taste the sourness of the passion fruit.  There was also a fresh squeezed blood orange juice that was awesome!

To close, I will show you the one picture I took, which is of a tiny microgreens box they carefully trimmed to place on our dishes.  I love microgreens and succulents.

I had a quite delicious weekend starting with last Thursday.

Thursday I met up with my long lost high school friend Ashley and we went to Bahama Breeze.  We started off with drinks that tasted like straight up hard liquor...needless to say I did not finish mine.  I'm more partial to chocolate milk, myself.

My tasty entree made up for it though. Sorry for the bad quality of all of the photos in this post....they were all taken with my phone.

I got the 'Sun-Drenched' Portobello and Seasonal Vegetable sandwich which consisted of pepper jack cheese, asparagus, zucchini, tomato, teeny portobellos, lettuce, and...other seasonal vegetables.  For some reason I imagined a circular sandwich with one of those portobellos that are as big as your face.  This one surpassed my imaginings.  It was a pressed sammich, so it came out nice and toasty and had a side of some sort of tangy vinaigrette.  The toasted bread was a nice textural contrast to the buttery vegetables and there was an added kick from the pepper jack.  I would definitely get this sandwich again! For my side I ordered the black bean soup with rice, which was also very flavorful, but I wish it wasn't room temperature. So dericious.

Friday, I headed down to Baltimore for my friend/big Anna's birthday.  No tasty food to report there, but after coming back from the bar I did singe the roof of my mouth on leftover eggplant parm...love that stuff. OH WAIT. The morning after we went to a tasty breakfast spot called Sam's bagels and I got a jalapeno cheese bagel with egg.  Why is the combination of egg and sandwich so show stopping? I could eat those all day.  I topped it off with a tiny bottle of Green Machine Naked Juice which had an exorbitant amount of sugar in it, like 35g or something.  Oooo yeah.

Saturday I made my way to Gaithersburg to hang out with my bffflae JOYCE!! We started off with Noodles & Co., which I was in love with as soon as I saw the menu.  SOUP?! Yes please. NOODLES?! In a heart beat. Remind me to show you guys the soup and noodles dance one day....

Sadly my noodles were just alright.  For some reason, it reminded me of a veggie pizza.

Behold, the Whole Grain Tuscan Linguine (Whole grain linguine, broccoli, red pepper, onion, mushrooms, garlic, white wine, cream) and Thai Curry Soup (Yellow coconut curry broth, spinach, cabbage, mushrooms, tomato, red onion and rice noodles).  The curry soup was pretty good, once again it was lukewarm.  What is with people and lukewarm soup? Have you no respect?!  I felt like it didn't need the rice noodles inside but the vegetables were tasty. After all of those raw onions my breath was kickin'. And I liked it.

Joyce's dish was much much more appetizing.

MMHMMM. Check out that PENNE ROSA. Spicy tomato cream sauce, penne pasta, mushrooms, tomato, spinach, wine, and parMEsan.  This stuff was mildly spicy which upgraded it to the next level. There was so many other things on the menu that I wanted to try so I will definitely need to stop in again.  Or open my own here in Delaware. Anyone want to join me?

Afterwards we watched The Hunger Games which was pretty good.  The first half moves quite slowly and I almost fell asleep...let's just say that was because I woke up at 6am that morning.  I would also like to say that Jennifer Lawrence looks better as a brunette. Hottie McTotties all around.

For dinner we headed to Dupont Circle and went to Hudson Restaurant & Lounge.  We had been here last time I visited and we got the ever famous White Sangria Fusion Margarita.  That stuff is pure genius. Exactly from the menu: "White sangria fusion of martin codax albariño, grapefruit, pear, sage, and lavender with cabo wabo reposado x-rated fusion margarita topped with sweet lime espuma" Sweet LIME ESPUMA?! Fancy panties right there.  Of course we had to order that again.

For appe-teasers we ordered Grilled Asparagus with Meyer Lemon, thickest stalks of asparagus I've ever seen...so tasty, and also Truffle Mac and Cheese.  Please see the below blurry yucky photo that doesn't do it justice.

Rule of Thumb for me, anything in a skillet equals automatic deliciousness.  This truffle mac was deliciously gooey, cheesy, and rich.  The elbows (my fav!) were cooked perfectly and smothered in deliciously creamy cheese, parmesan and smoked gouda, drooooolllll.  

For entrees we foolishly ordered two pizzas, Margherita and Veg Out Flatbread (grilled squash, zucchini, red onions, mushrooms, spinach, roasted red peppers, provolone), and almost died trying to finish them.  The pizzas weren't too bad, just your run of the mill pizzas. It might have been because we were feeling the effects of one too many glasses of sangria marg and the luxurious truffle mac.  I wanted to pack up those babies and slip them into my (nonexistent) pockets but to no avail.

Later that night we ended up at Jumbo Slice, which basically just needs the photo.

Hellz to the yeah. Pizza bigger than your face.  I think we had eaten one third of it..maybe less when we were about to cross the street and Joyce pulled me back since a cop car was coming. -Insert slow motion effects and low yelling of NOOoooOoooOOoo- Pizza fell to the ground. Saddest moment of life.  It's okay though, there's always next time!!

Next morning....er...late afternoon, we headed to brunch at First Watch Cafe.  Joyce stole some creamer and I got a Veggie wrap which I stupidly forgot to position so you could see the insides...

Tomato basil wrap, crimini mushrooms, tomatoes, red peppers, spinach, and cucumber. Just imagine it in your mind...with a side of Hummus, fancy salad with a poppyseed dressing, fruit cup, and delicious potatoes. I love hummus and vegetable wraps, the freshness and crunch of the different vegetables paired with creamy hummus.

All in all, a most delicious weekend in Maryland!! I will end with Joyce and Q snuggling.

So. I am not someone that can fully enjoy the delights of an alcoholic beverage because of a certain asian redface/glow/what have you that happens to my ENTIRE BODY. I basically look like I'm dying and need to take a benadryl or something. And somewhere along the lines it's hard to breathe...but no matter.

Anyways! Yesterday one of my old roommates and I finally did something we have been saying for weeks we would do. We made sangria!!! Which is one of the magical delights that come from the land that I love and was born to live in. Spain.  I will be there forever one day.

This idea came about because a couple of weeks back we went to a Mexican restaurant for happy hour that shall not be named. The waiter was very nice and all, but he was completely clueless.  Hopefully just about Mexican cuisine and drinks and not life..but it's okay because he was better than average looking.  I ordered a sangria and Becky ordered a mojito...fairly common drinks.  When the word sangria came out of my mouth, Mr. Waiter looked at me like he was judging me, in which I later realized was just a look of complete and utter confusion.  When he came back with the drinks he said, "Sorry it took so long, I don't really know how to make sangria or mojitos."  ..............

WHAT?! Uh, you work at a Mexican restaurant, dude. I would hope you know how to make those.  Or at least have the in with someone that can. Also, you can't just tell the people you're serving blasphemy like that! What kind of waiter are you.  Good looks can only get you so far.  And then he also ran away with all of our money and didn't give us change but that's a whole 'nother crock o' butter. Once again, not on purpose, it was just the clueless talking.

So back to sangria!!! We kind of just winged it and did whatevs. And the result was delicious. Transcendental. Yummy. Made the Asian redface worth it. Maybe. Because it does make me look pretty hideous.

We used lemons, limes, oranges, strawberries, organic blood orange soda (so fancy!), and sweet red wine. The above is after the fizzy soda was poured in.

Adding the wine!

TA DA!

Swirl around, let sit in fridge for as long as you'd like and serve chilled. Enjoy in good company.