Lea & Perrins Giveaway

Sometimes it is the little things in life that can put a smile on your face.  Last night, I was lucky enough to come home from the gym to the smell of dinner cooking in the kitchen.  I typically do most of the cooking in our household so I am always appreciative when Bret takes it upon himself to cook dinner for us. 

Bret made a really hearty dinner of steak and potatoes.  The potatoes were twice-baked and seasoned with butter, caramelized shallots and paprika.  Because Bret had some extra caramelized shallots, he made a simple compound butter and I put a generous slice of the butter on my steak.

Bret and I also used a little bit of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce with our steak.  I recently received a complimentary bottle via Foodbuzz and we hadn't yet used it.  I have faithfully used Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce for years and I was definitely excited to receive a free bottle of it.

Even better, Foodbuzz and Lea & Perrins is providing a complimentary bottle of any Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce (10 oz or smaller) to one of my readers.  There are two ways to enter:

1.  Leave me a comment telling me how you typically use Worcestershire sauce.  Do you use it as a marinade? As an ingredient in a dish? As a sauce?
2.  In a shameless act of bribery, vote for me as Boston's Best Local Blogger here and leave me a comment telling me that you voted.

Voting ends on Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 11 PM EST.  A winner will be drawn via Random.org.

Dancing Deer Baking Co. Giveaway Winner

Chosen by Random.org, the winner of the Dancing Deer Baking Co. Giveaway is....

Megan from Delicious Dishings!  

Thanks to everyone that entered and to Dancing Deer Baking Co. for giving me the opportunity to host this reader giveaway!

Product Review: Fresh Wave Soy Candles

Earlier this month, I took another cooking class at Myers + Chang.  After the class, I was talking with another cooking class regular, Mitchell Green, and he mentioned a fabulous line of soy candles that help with kitchen odor control.  After the class, Mitchell tweeted me the name of the candle brand - Fresh Wave.  Fresh Wave took notice of our conversation and offered to send me a few products to sample.

As a food blogger and a city dweller, I was super excited about trying these products out.  While I love the aroma of roasted garlic, crispy bacon and sauteed onions while I'm cooking, I don't like these odors lingering throughout the rest of the apartment.  Fresh Wave sent over three of their products - the crystal gel, soy kitchen candle and travel spray. 

I received the package of products from Fresh Wave when I was lying sick in bed and doing absolutely no cooking so I didn't get to use it right away.  But this past Monday night, when I was cooking my braised chicken with red sauce and rice, I knew that the candle would come in handy.  After dinner, the kitchen smelled of sauteed onions, seared chicken and tomatoes. 

I took the candle out and gave it a whiff.  To be honest, it smelled faintly of herbs but not much else.  I was doubtful that this candle would really work.

But when I lit it, it really neutralized the odors in the kitchen.  Unlike scented candles, it doesn't cover the smell up temporarily for you to only smell everything again when you blow out the candle.  Instead, the candle managed to neutralize the air. 

Since then, I've opened the Fresh Wave crystal gels and placed it on the small shelf that is above my oven.  It is hard to measure its effectiveness but I figure it will only help deodorize the kitchen even when I'm not cooking.

Thanks to Fresh Wave for letting me test these products out.  While the Fresh Wave products were wholly complimentary, my opinion is honest and completely my own. 

To learn more information about Fresh Wave, you can head to their website.

Mama Chang's Pork and Chive Dumplings

For the blogger potluck, some of the girls requested that I make Mama Chang's Pork and Chive Dumplings, which is one of Myers + Chang's most popular dishes.  I learned to make this at the first of many cooking classes with Chef Matt Barros at Myers + Chang.  I've only made these dumplings once for Project Food Blog, which was a bit stressful, so I was looking forward to making these again in a more relaxed manner for the potluck dinner.

First, I gathered all of the ingredients for my pork and chive dumpling filling:

• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
• 6-8 large Napa cabbage leaves
• 1/2 bunch of garlic chive (I substituted with regular chives)
• 2 teaspoons sesame seed oil
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce

I washed and dried the cabbage leaves.  Bret chopped them up and placed them in a bowl with a few generous pinches of salt.  The point of this is to draw out as much of the moisture out of the cabbage as possible.  We set the cabbage aside for ten minutes while I prepared the dumpling sauce, which consisted of four liquid ingredients, along with some chopped ginger:

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon black Chiangking vinegar (I substituted with balsamic vinegar)
• 2 teaspoons Sriracha chili sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame seed oil
• 2 tablespoons rough chopped ginger

I whisked together all of the liquid ingredients, while Bret chopped up the ginger.

I added the ginger to the sauce, gave it a mix, and set it aside.

By this time, the cabbage was ready.  Bret put the cabbage in a cheesecloth to squeeze out the extra moisture.

I put all of the dry dumpling ingredients in a large bowl  - the pork, chopped ginger, chopped Napa cabbage leaves, and chives.  I also added a few pinches of fresh-cracked black peppercorns.

I added the liquid ingredients - the sesame seed oil and the soy sauce - and mixed everything together by hand.  I mixed it just enough to combine the filling ingredients without overworking the meat.

Bret and I then got to work filling the dumpling wrappers with a half tablespoon of pork filling, sealing it with water and pinching the dumpling together.  The ingredients call for round dumpling wrappers but I couldn't find any at my Whole Foods so I went with square ones.

This recipe makes a lot of dumplings.  I packaged up thirty of them for the potluck and left Bret with some to cook on his own while I was gone.  I had some extra filling leftover so I also rolled some mini Asian meatballs for Bret to cook with his dumplings.

When I got to Megan's place, I warmed up a skillet on her stove with a few tablespoons of vegetable oil.  I browned the dumplings on one side and then steamed it with a few tablespoons of water.  I had some trouble adjusting to Megan's stove so the first batch came out more brown than I'd like but the next two batches came out a perfect golden brown.

My dumplings were a big hit and I was thrilled when everyone wanted to take leftovers home!

Have you ever made dumplings before?  Do you like to steam or pan-fry them?

Today is the final day to enter my Dancing Deer Giveaway!  You can enter in two different ways but must enter by 11 PM EST!

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Happy Thanksgiving!  I'm spending the day with my family and my fiance.  My mom is a phenomenal cook and she puts on quite the spread for Thanksgiving.  By the time you're reading this, I'll probably be in the kitchen doing whatever task I'm assigned.  My mom enjoys doing all of the cooking for Thanksgiving but I usually manage to sneak in at least one dessert.  This year, I decided to make King Arthur Flour's Pumpkin Bread Pudding from the Whole Grain Baking cookbook.

While the recipe calls for the use of whole wheat bread, I decided to substitute it with Nature's Pride's OvenClassics Oatmeal Bread.  I received a complimentary loaf of bread courtesy of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program and it has been sitting in my freezer for about a month.  On Monday night, I took half of the loaf out of the freezer and let it thaw and stale in the fridge for twenty-four hours.

On Tuesday night, I found that the bread wasn't quite as stale as I'd like it to be so I cubed it up and spread the pieces on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.  The recipe called for six cups of stale bread but I had more like seven and a half cups.  I put the baking tray in the oven for eight minutes at 250 degrees and let it sit for an additional five minutes in the oven with the oven off.

While the bread was in the oven, I got the liquid ingredients of the pudding together:

• 1 cup raisins (I omitted this because I'm not a big fan of raisins)
• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup of packed light brown sugar (you can also use packed dark brown sugar)
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 2 tablespoons dark rum
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 tablespoons crystallized ginger (optional) (I omitted this since I didn't have it on hand)

In a medium bowl, I whisked together the pumpkin puree, eggs and light brown sugar.

I then whisked in the half-and-half, rum, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves to the pumpkin mixture.  You could definitely smell the rum and I liked that it would be a boozy bread pudding!

I took the stale bread out of the oven and put it in a large bowl.  Since the bread was warm, I put it in the fridge to cool down. 

When the bread felt like it was more at room temperature, I poured the pumpkin mixture onto the cubed bread.  I used a slotted spoon to make sure that all of the bread was coated.

I covered the bowl and let the mixture sit overnight in the fridge.  On Wednesday I took the pumpkin mixture out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature.  I then got to work on the bread pudding topping by dicing up a generous 1/4 cup of pecans.  I then combined 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup light sugar, and two tablespoons of unsalted butter in a bowl with my hands until it made a crumbly mixture.  I then stirred in the diced pecans.

I then pre-heated the oven at 350 degrees and greased a 9-inch round baking dish.  I gave the bread pudding a final stir and then poured it into the baking dish. 

I sprinkled the pecan topping evenly on top of the bread pudding and put it in the oven.

I let the bread pudding bake for forty minutes.  I wanted the bread pudding to bake through almost completely so that I could warm it up (and get the wonderful brown sugar color on top) on Thanksgiving at my parents' house.  I let it cool completely before I put the cover on and refrigerated it overnight.

The pumpkin bread pudding looked amazing and I hope that it tastes as good today as it looked last night!

Happy Thanksgiving!  What was the best part of your Thanksgiving?  And don't forget to enter my Dancing Deer giveaway, which ends at 11 PM EST tomorrow!

Cold Curry-Peanut Noodles

When I was searching for inspiration for the blogger potluck, I was also trying to tidy up the apartment a little bit.  I decided to go through stacks of old Food Network magazines, rip out the recipes that look interesting, add the recipes to my ever-growing recipe book, and recycle the rest of the magazine.  I try to do this kind of purging every few months.  While I was doing this, I found a fantastic recipe for Cold Curry-Peanut Noodles in the June 2010 issue and I thought I'd give it a try.

Since I'd be doing the actual cooking at Megan's place, I prepped as much of the ingredients as possible at home.  I've got to give Bret a lot of credit for helping me out.  I was still getting over the flu and was very slow-moving.  If Bret didn't help me, there is no way this dish would have come together as quickly as it did!

First, I gathered the ingredients:

Crunchy peanut butter, hot red curry paste, and rice wine vinegar.

One cucumber, one carrot, one lime, a bunch of scallions and a bunch of cilantro.

I started by getting the curry-peanut sauce together by adding 2/3 cup crunchy peanut butter, one tablespoon of red curry paste, and a 1/3 cup of cilantro leaves in the food processor.

I added two teaspoons of rice wine vinegar, the juice of one lime, 1/2 cup water, and a pinch of salt to the mixture.  I pureed all of these ingredients until it turned into a smooth sauce.  I put this in a plastic container and set it aside in the fridge to chill.

Bret was a great sous chef and peeled, seeded and thinly cut one cucumber.

He also thinly sliced one large carrot.

Meanwhile I set aside some more cilantro leaves for seasoning.

And I thinly sliced two scallions.

With all my ingredients prepared at home, I didn't have too much to do at Megan's place.  I simply cooked approximately twelve ounces of whole wheat spaghetti and tossed the sauce, vegetables and spaghetti together.  I reserved about a half cup of the pasta cooking water aside and used about a quarter cup of that water in the noodles to help loosen it up.

I also sliced up a lime to squeeze some fresh lime juice onto the noodles upon serving.

This was the first time I've made this dish and it was so easy!  The noodles had more of a peanut flavor than a curry flavor but I liked the small level of heat the curry paste brought to the dish.  I'm definitely going to keep this recipe on reserve for a flavorful, healthy and meat-less dish that takes such little time to prepare.

What is your favorite Asian dish to prepare at home?  Also, don't forget to enter my Dancing Deer giveaway!

Braised Chicken with Red Sauce and Rice

On Monday night, after a week of being sick in bed, I was excited to finally get back to cooking in the kitchen.  I knew that my fridge would soon be filled with lots of Thanksgiving leftovers, so I wanted to clear out some of the half-used items in my fridge.  This included 3/4 of a bottle of marinara sauce, eight cloves of garlic, and half a large yellow onion.  I decided that I would make a simple red sauce with these ingredients.

The night before, I took out a package of chicken thighs from the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw.  I patted the chicken dry and seasoned it with salt, pepper and herbs de Provence.  I warmed up my handy Dutch oven on the stove at medium-high heat with a two tablespoons of unsalted butter.  I added the chicken thighs to the pan to sear the meat.

While the chicken was browning, I quickly chopped up the leftover half onion.

I also took out some frozen Brussels sprouts from the freezer that I didn't use for my fall roasted vegetable medley.  I halved the sprouts and set them aside.  I wanted to make this sauce hearty so I decided to add a can of cannellini beans that I had in the pantry.  I drained and rinsed the beans and set them aside.

After searing the chicken on both sides (for approximately six minutes per side), I took the chicken out of the pan and set it aside.  I lowered the heat on the stove and added the chopped onion to the pan.  I also minced the eight cloves of garlic right into the pan using a garlic press.

I cooked the onions until they softened up and made sure to scrape all of the flavorful bits off the bottom of the Dutch oven.  I then added the halved Brussels sprouts to the pan.

And finally I added the cannellini beans to the vegetable mixture.

I returned the chicken to the Dutch oven and put it in with the vegetable mixture.

I covered the chicken thighs with the leftover marinara sauce.  I also added a few shakes of red pepper flakes.

I put a cover on the Dutch oven and let the chicken cook for about twenty minutes before I turned the chicken thighs over and cooked it for another twenty minutes.  While the chicken was slowly braising, I cooked two cups of rice in the rice cooker.

Forty minutes later, I checked the temperature of my chicken and it was ready to serve!  I plated a scoop of rice and a chicken thigh onto the plate and topped it with my hearty red sauce.  I grated some Parmesan cheese on top and dug in!

While the chicken took some time to cook, using the Dutch oven made this very simple and no-fuss.  Plus, cooking the chicken slowly in the Dutch oven made the chicken so moist while helping the flavors of the sauce come together.  I was happy to clear out some items from my fridge, pantry and freezer for Thanksgiving leftovers...which I'm definitely still enjoying!

Do you try to clear out your fridge in anticipation of Thanksgiving leftovers or am I the only one?  Also, please don't forget to vote for me as Boston's Best Local Blogger here.

Dancing Deer Baking Co. Giveaway

While a lot of my friends do live in the Boston area, some of my best friends live as far away as San Francisco, Indianapolis, and Hoboken (okay, that's not that far but definitely not close).  And that's not mentioning my friends and family who live in England, South Korea and Australia.  While I can't celebrate every special occasion with my friends in person, I always try to find a way to let my long-distance pals know that I am thinking about that.

Dancing Deer Baking Co. is one of my favorite companies that I turn to when I want to send out a special (and sweet) treat to help celebrate birthdays, engagements and job promotions.  As you can imagine, these next few months are some of the busiest months for Dancing Deer as the holiday season approaches.  I was really excited when the folks at Dancing Deer invited me to tour their factory as they gear up for this busy holiday season.  And then I was bummed when I realized that I wouldn't be able to make due to a work commitment. 

The folks at Dancing Deer, however, were kind enough to cheer me up by sending a package from their Gourmet Sandwich Cookies Collection for me to review.

The cookies arrived this past week but I was still battling the flu and couldn't dig into them right away.  On Friday night, Bret and I finally opened the package.  I was happy to read that my package had been packed for me only two days earlier!

The cookies come in two flavors - Boston Cream Pie and Chocolate Peppermint.  Both feature a layer of chocolate ganache spread between either two vanilla cookies (in the Boston Cream Pie sandwich) or between two chocolate peppermint cookies (in the Chocolate Peppermint sandwich).  There were twelve individually wrapped cookies.  Bret and I decided to split one of each flavor.

For the record, I am not a chocolate person.  While I like chocolate, I'll never choose chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake or a chocolate cookie.  It was no surprise that I liked the Boston Cream Pie cookie sandwich (which actually tasted like Boston cream pie) but surprisingly my favorite was actually the Chocolate Peppermint cookie sandwich.  The cookies were so chewy and soft.  I loved the peppermint flavor in the chocolate cookies and I couldn't stop raving about them.

So, in the season of sharing, Dancing Deer is offering one of these Gourmet Sandwich Cookie packages to one of my readers.  The reader that wins can pick when and where it ships during the holiday season.  You can enjoy these cookies yourself...or send it to someone as a gift!

There are two ways to enter:
1.  Leave me a comment telling me the best thing you've ever received in the mail.  Was it a postcard? Flowers? Cookies?
2.  In a shameless act of bribery, vote for me as Boston's Best Local Blogger here and leave me a comment telling me that you voted.

Voting ends on Friday, November 26th at 11 PM EST.  A winner will be drawn via Random.org.