Saudi Arabia

Arabian food! Woot!

So the Arabian food was a lot like the Moroccan food... no curry though, saffron instead, but the premise is very similar (tomato base, veggies, etc.)

I made Al Kabsa, Fattoush, and Falafel (I think I didn't put enough bread crumbs in the falafel because they didn't fry up right, so that recipe is going to be excluded until I figure out what works...)

Enjoy!

Al Kabsa
serves A TON

1/4 c. butter
Chicken breast pieces (how every many people you're planning on serving - 8-10)
1 lg. onion, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 c. tomato sauce
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 c. grated carrots
4 whole cloves
1 pinch nutmeg
1 pinch cumin
1 pinch coriander
1 pinch saffron
6 whole allspice berries
1/2 t. cinnamon
(Other spice suggestions are white pepper, dried limes, and green cardamoms, which we didn't have)
salt
pepper
4 c. hot water
1 chicken stock cube
2 1/4 c. basmati rice
1/2 c. raisins
1/2 c. slivered almonds, toasted

Melt butter in large pot. Add chicken pieces, onion, and garlic and saute until onion is tender.

Stir in tomato sauce and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes, carrots, and spices. Cook for a few minutes. Add water and stock cube.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover.
Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Add rice and stir carefully.
Re-cover and simmer for 45 minutes until rice is tender.
(Can remove chicken and brown it in the oven at low temperature instead of boiling it)
Serve rice on platter with chicken and garnished with almonds.


Fattoush (bread salad)


*This is a great fresh salad that is a bit tangy, but has a lot of different flavors to it

4 c. lettuce
1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 T. fresh cilantro, chopped
4 T fresh parsley, chopped
2 T. fresh mint, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
3 T. olive oil
1 T. lemon juice
2 c. well-toasted pita bread, broken into small pieces

Mix all except pita.
Add pita bread. Mix again.
Serve.

Enjoy!

Greekalicious

So this week was Greek. YUM. We had souvlaki kebabs, Greek salad, tzatziki dip, and then we added pitas to the mix when we ate leftovers on Wednesday!

Here's the Greek food in its glory. Ian was a terrific slicer, dicer, and skewer-er... haha.

And here are the recipes! Enjoy!

Souvlaki (Meat and Veggie Kebabs)
makes 15 or so kebabs of the above nature

1 lamb chop
1 lb. beef (of some kind)
(or whatever mixture of meat you'd prefer)

2 lemons
1/4 c. wine (red or white)
2 t. dried oregano
2 t. dried thyme
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 small onion, chopped
Salt and pepper

2 red peppers
2 green peppers
2 onions
1 red onion
1 container grape or cherry tomatoes

Whisk together lemon juice (from 2 lemons) and wine. Add herbs, garlic, and chopped onion. Put some marinade aside for cooking later (if desired). Add meat, cubed, and mix together. Make sure meat is evenly coated and allow to sit for at least two hours (overnight is better).

Use either metal or wood skewers. (If using wood, make sure to soak at least 30 minutes before assembling kebabs). Chop peppers and onion into large pieces. Assemble kebabs.

Grill, BBQ, or bake in oven at 375 degrees F for about 20-30 minutes. Serve with tzatziki (also good as pita filler)


Tzatziki Dip
(this was great for Ian, because he doesn't like mayonnaise, and so this will be a great substitute)

32 oz. plain or greek yogurt
1/2 English cucumber, grated
5 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and Pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate. 


Greek Salad (Horiatiki)

3 T  extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon (juice)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1/2 red onion, sliced into rings
1/2 English cucumber, sliced into half moons
1 green pepper, julienned
4 oz. (or so) feta cheese, crumbled or cut into cubes
1 small can kalamata olives (about 15-20)

Whisk olive oil and lemon juice together. Add garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano. Mix. Place salad ingredients in a large bowl. Pour dressing over just before serving. Garnish with fresh black pepper.

Legally Blonde and Illegally Praked

So we went and saw Legally Blonde in Salt Lake on Wednesday Night. Picture to prove it (kind of...)

The show was quite entertaining (as it was the last time I saw it). Ian told some of his engineering buddies about it and they called it bubble gum for the mind... good, but pretty pointless. It's true. But Legally Blonde is thoroughly entertaining!

Thursday we went to see Kimi's dance recital. They did a waltz and a Latin Medley... both of which were awesome... and both of which Kimi had solos in. She's an amazing dancer!

On Friday we went Cooleroo hunting with Seth and bunch of people from his ward. That was a lot of fun. Then we met up with Kimi, Nate, and Robyn after they went to Kimi's dance recital. We went and got frozen yogurt at YoZone. Good stuff.

On Saturday we went to HOLI - The Festival of Colors down at the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork. We went with Travis (my cuz) and his wife Jenessa. And the reason the title is "Illegally Praked" is because we saw this...

And we hope it's because someone sent their four-year old out to paint the sign...

Anyway, here is our "before" picture:

Aren't we beautiful? And here is the scene as we were walking up...

So after buying our bags of color, chilling for a bit, then making our way through the throng on the hill, we planted ourselves about midway up the hill. Ian gave me a blue Braveheart handprint on my face... I made him a red-head. (More like flaming orange, but...)

Good times all around. So after some pushing and shoving, preaching by the temples priest that no one heard, the countdown began... at 20. ? Seriously, who starts a countdown at 20?! Yeah, we got to about 13, then everyone just went nuts and started throwing the colors around. And after the sun darkened for a minute, you couldn't breathe for about two, this is what we looked like:

(Ian obviously had his sunglasses on during the whole thing... which was funny...)

So we walked the miles back to the car, dusted ourselves off, and came home.

Then Ian took me out for Mexican food, which was muy delicioso!

Sunday was a day of rest, which we desperately needed. We made Teriyaki burgers and sweet potato fries, and Seth brought over some delicious pork chops.

This week was crazy busy, but awesomely amazing!

Japanese Food Night!

When we drew this one out, I knew it was going to be pretty durn easy... So here's our absolutely necessary Asian picture....

Haha. We're funny. At any rate, Japanese night was a hit. We had Teriyaki chicken, Asian Slaw (not necessarily Japanese, but we needed some kind of vegetable...), Asparagus Tempura, and Miso Soup!

It was really great! So here are the recipes...


Teriyaki Chicken
serves 4

1 T. cornstarch
1 T. cold water
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. shoyu (soy sauce)
1/4 c. cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 t. ground ginger
Freshly ground black pepper
4 chicken breasts

Combine cornstarch and water in a saucepan. Mix together. Add all remaining ingredients except chicken. Simmer until sauce thickens and bubbles.  Set aside 1/8 c. of sauce.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place chicken in a lightly greased pan. Brush with sauce. Turn pieces and brush again. Bake for 30 minutes or until done and brush every 5-10 minutes with sauce.

Garnish with extra sauce, sesame seeds, and orange (if desired).


Asian Slaw

6 T. rice wine vinegar
6 T. vegetable oil
5 T. creamy peanut butter
3 T. soy sauce
3 T. brown sugar
2 T. ginger root
1 1/2 T. fresh garlic, minced
5 c. thinly sliced green cabbage
2 c. thinly sliced red cabbage
2 carrots julienned
6 green onions, chopped
1/2 c. chopped cilantro
(can also add napa cabbage and red bell peppers)

Whisk together rice vinegar, oil, peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and garlic.

Combine remaining ingredients in separate bowl. Toss with sauce mixture just before serving. Garnish with sesame seeds.


Tempura Batter

1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. cornstarch
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 egg
2/3 c. ice water

Stir together dry ingredients and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat egg slightly and mix with ice water.

Stir in the dry ingredients. Stir only until mixed. Will be slightly lumpy.

Dip whatever you would like (we used asparagus) into the batter and deep fry in hot oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.



Miso Soup

4 c. water
4 T. Miso
Green onions
Tofu

Mix together water and miso until miso is dissolved. Add green onions and tofu (firm), simmer until warmed through and ready to eat.

Tomorrow is Greek Night. I'm pretty excited about it!

St. Paddy's Day Leftovers

So if you had leftover corned beef and cabbage... grab some puff pastry, fry up the leftovers, wrap them up in squares of the pastry and cook until golden brown. Serve with horseradish sauce and you're good to go :) Just a word to the wise for using up those leftovers...

Les Miserables

So this is our family's final year at Bonneville High School and the theatre program. The current production is one of my favorites! Les Miserables is a fantastic operetta filled with great music and fantastic artistry. Bonneville's productions is really spectacular. The costumes are amazing (shameless plug for my amazing mother who designed and made them!) and the set is beautiful. The kids do an amazing job singing, and the acting is pretty fantastic as well.

Ashlee is playing Fantine (Cosette's mother). Here is the program cover with her on it:

I really suggest that you go if you have a chance. It's running tonight (22), Thursday-Saturday (25-27), and Monday (29)... and I believe there's also a matinee on Saturday. It starts at 7pm in the BHS auditorium.

Click here to see the facebook event.

Call 801-452-4081 for discounted tickets.

All ticket are $8.00 at the door the night of the performance.

Here are a couple post-performance pictures :)

The Luck of the Irish

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

So Ian discovered the morning of March 17, 2010 that he owns absolutely nothing green. It's true. He wears blue, grey, black... yeah, no green. So I took it upon myself to remedy that and bought us some lucky wrist/sweat bands? Whatever you would call them...

Here's a picture of us trying to take a picture of our wristbands. Haha...



And here is a not-as-good photo of us actually getting our wristbands in the picture...



And of course, the St. Patrick's Day drinking picture. Cream Soda... yeah, haven't had that much carbonation in a LONG time....



And our Irish feast! (We moved "international food night" to Wednesday and didn't pick it out of a hat... yeah, we did Irish, for obvious reasons. I was a little wary of making corned beef and cabbage since I had head a lot of negative things about it, but this turned out great! And the Irish soda bread... as Ian said, it has the "same density as granite." I also made a green coconut cream pie. Mighty scrumptious.



We also went looking for the movie "Waking Ned Devine." That worked not so well. The only place that had it only had one copy and they sold it a couple hours before we got there. *sigh* So I ordered it on Amazon, and we're going to have a post-St. Paddy's Day movie watching special.

Here are the recipes!

Corned Beef & Cabbage
serves 6-8

1 3lb. corned beef brisket (uncooked), in brine
16 c. cold water
5 bay leaves
1 T. black peppercorns
2 t. whole allspice berries
4 whole cloves
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small head cabbage, cut into wedges
8 potatoes cut into eighths
1 large onion, cut into large pieces
2 c. baby carrots
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F

Rinse corned beef thoroughly in a colander with cold water

Place corned beef in a large dutch oven with a lid. Add water, bay leaves, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, and garlic. Bring to a boil, uncovered. Skim off any scum that comes to the surface. Cover and transfer pan to oven. Braise until fork tender. (About 3 hours and 45 minutes)

Transfer corned beef to cutting board and cover tightly with foil to keep warm. Add potatoes, carrots, and onions to cooking liquid and bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cook until almost done. Add cabbage and cook until all veggies are done.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cabbage to a large platter. Slice the corned beef across the grain (after trimming fat) and lay across the cabbage. Surround with potatoes, carrots, and onion. Spoon some of the hot cooking liquid over all and season with salt and pepper.

Irish Soda Bread

*Can add raisins, cinnamon, sugar, etc. to this
3 c. flour
1 t. sugar
1 t. salt
1 t. soda
8-10 oz buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
Mix all together, do not overmix. (Dough will not be smooth and elastic like normal bread)
Form into a round loaf. Score an X in the top to allow proper flowering.
Place on baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Reduce heat to 400 degrees F and bake for 35 minutes.
Cool.

Coconut Cream Pie

1 can coconut milk
1 c. half-and-half
3 egg yolks
1/3 c. cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pkg. frozen coconut, thawed
1/4 cup toasted coconut
1 t. coconut extract
1 pie shell, baked

In a medium saucepan combine first five ingredients. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in frozen coconut and coconut extract. Pour into pie shell and chill 2-4 hours until firm.

Top with homemade whipped cream

Whipped Cream

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1 t. coconut extract

Mix together and whip until proper consistency.

Try it! Enjoy!

Food and Family Gatherings

So I have determined that food seems to be the single most unifying factor in human existence. This past weekend Ian's family was in town, so we spent a good chunk of it having a blast with his family. And, as with most family events not dependent upon whose family you are are with, I was incredibly full the entire time.

Livvi stayed with me at my apartment. It was a ton of fun. We had our pizza night, as usual, on Thursday night. And we ate A TON of pizza. Well, mostly Ian ate a ton. Livvi and I just ate a lot. On Friday I took the afternoon off work and took Livvi to my favorite cafe down in Springville (Art City Trolley). The food there is so fantastic. Then we went and bowled with Cheryl and Tom (Ian's parents), Heather, Graham, and Jack. (Ian was taking a test... lucky man, haha). And we were all equally bad. Graham won with a grand total of 85... it's true. Heather came in second with 68... and Tom and I tied for third with a grand awesome total of 67. Yes. We're that good. On an awesome note, we ate chocolate covered cinnamon bears...which always make life better.

Then Seth joined us and we went to Red Robin, the restaurant of choice for Oxborrow family gatherings. (A choice I don't mind!). We had burgers and endless steak fries. Mmm Mmm good!

That night Livvi, Ian, and I hung out and eventually we ended up watching Terminator Salvation. I slept through the end. I stayed awake through the rest... and slept through the battle. Figures.

Saturday we spent most of the day up in Bluffdale at Graham and Heather's for Jack's first birthday! It was snowing on Saturday, but despite that fact, the men still wanted to go out and play some ball. So we were out throwing the football... and Ian and Graham went up for a ball that I threw... and Graham came down with a majorly dislocated finger... yeah, as in poking out in directions it is not meant to. Tom just grabbed it and put it back, but Graham's playing was done for the day... Nice, eh?

We also played Scene It, and Livvi, Ian, and I won with a come-from-behind victory. Livvi got "Breakfast Club" and we ended up moving twelve spaces on the roll... got the all play challenge... and won off of Whoopi Goldberg guessed by yours truly. It was a lot of fun.

Jack's party was great. My salsa was a hit, which is always appreciated. And the rest of the food was fantastic (again... really full...). And then we watched Brian Regan... hilarious, plus Graham was dying from laughing, which made it that much more hilarious.

Sunday we went to church and then Ian's parents and Livvi headed home to Vegas.

And thus ended the weekend of awesomeness.

Although we did go over to my grandparents' house for dinner on Sunday (which was marvelous) and filling again. :)

Look for the St. Paddy's Day post upcoming. It will have photos of our kind-of traditional Irish fare and our non-alcoholic celebration. Haha...

Something Like International Food Night

So our weekly tradition (which has yet only been once... I know...) of international dinner from a hat was somewhat different this week.

My friend Tara and her husband are driving from South Carolina up to Alaska (he's being stationed there in the Air Force) and they happened to pass through Ogden! (*Note: Tara moved into my elementary school in 3rd grade and then moved to Washington state at the end of 4th grade. Amazingly enough we wrote letters fairly religiously and saw each other every few years. I went to DC last year and stayed at her parents house while she was visiting them. It was awesome! I'm so glad we were able to remain friends even though it wasn't exactly easy!)

Anyhoo, so Ian and I drove up to Ogden, stopped at my parents' house, then went to Olive Garden (like I said... internationalish...). Reason: Olive Garden is one of Chris and Tara's favorite restaurants and there isn't one in Anchorage. Sad day for them. So we went to Olive Garden. It was a lot of fun! I hadn't ever met Chris before (when we were together in DC he was overseas on a mission), so that was awesome.

Look! Picture...


Huzzah!

Next week we'll be back to our usual...

Ian's family is coming up this weekend and his sister Livvi is going to stay here and have her first taste of college life. It should be a blast! We're also celebrating his nephew's first birthday (cutest baby boy EVER!), and I'm really excited to see everyone. It was a lot of fun last time, and I expect this time to be no different! A full report to come...

Dinner From a Hat

So Ian and I decided to launch a new weekly food moment. We already have our Thursday Night Pizza Nights (which are muy delicioso), but we decided to start doing an international cuisine night. Basically we put about 50 different countries into a bag (which was then placed in Ian's hat, hence the "dinner from a hat") and we randomly drew one out.

Last night we pulled out Moroccan. Yep. I have never cooked Moroccan before, so it was exciting. We pulled up a few recipes online and then went shopping. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the couscous at Smith's, so we settled for putting the dish over rice.

So I'll post about our adventures in cooking every week...well, I'll try to (and next week I'll remember to take pictures).

So Moroccan. We decided on two dishes. Moroccan Couscous (err... rice) and Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives. So incredibly delicious! Especially the chicken. I'm posting the recipes below...

So this first one is kind of a curry. It is most excellent!

Moroccan Couscous (or rice)
serves 5-6

1 c. couscous (or 3 c. rice cooked)
1 lb. tofu
1 c. sliced carrots
1 c. sliced celery
1 c. sliced mushrooms
1 med onion chopped
1/2 c. walnuts chopped
1 can chickpeas
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 c. water
curry powder
cayenne pepper
paprika
salt

Brown tofu, veggies, and nuts. Add remaining ingredients except couscous (spices to taste). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 40 minutes.

Boil 1 1/2 c. water with 2 T. oil. Add couscous, stir, cover. Reduce heat. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve veggies over couscous or rice.
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This chicken recipe is absolutely delicious. Even more so if you love green olives!

Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives
serves 4

4 chicken breasts
1 T. olive oil
1 onion sliced
1 onion chopped
salt
pepper
paprika
ginger
1/4 c. green olives
1 lemon

Heat oil. Add 1/2 c. water slowly. Layer onion rings. Sprinkle with spices. Lay chicken on top. Add more salt and pepper to the top of chicken. Cook over low heat, covered, for one hour.

After an hour, add chopped onions and sprinkle more spices (lightly) and parsley (if desired) on top.

Place olives in a pan of cold water. Bring to a boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes. Add to chicken. Cook together for 5 minutes. Take off heat and squeeze juice from one lemon over the entire dish. Serve with rice or couscous (or we just ate it with the above recipe and rice).
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Seriously good. Pictures next week.

As for anything else going on... the remainder of February was pretty tame. I am going to make an effort to post more often... really. With pictures... :)