oh hai! I still do this from time to time

There has been an overwhelming lack of time and motivation in the land of monkeys and cupcakes and for that I apologise.

However, I bring you a surprisingly delicious and pretty health-full dish! Chard and spaghetti squash gratin. Yes, yes, very rarely do you see healthy and gratin in the same sentence but this fits the bill fairly well. I adapted these two recipes found here and here. I went for fat free fage greek yogurt in place of the sour cream and it worked like a dream and boosted the protein a bit. I am sure that it may be a touch richer with regular or low fat sour cream but I wasn't missing it. This is totally a make again and I really look forward to seeing what else I could mix in, hmmm mushrooms? salmon? the list really could go on.

Glamorous leftovers at desk shot

Dulce de Leche

First off, I do not recommend this cooking method and it could be dangerous. Proceed at your own risk. That said, I am totally going to make this again using the same method.

I have seen this recipe kicking around the interwebs for some time and I opted for the crockpot-you-won't-be-home-if-the-cans-explode method found here. There are tons of different ways to do this and many require much, much more attention and stirring so I went for the lazy one.

Into the crockpot went four cans of sweetened condensed milk with the labels removed and were then covered with water. Cook on low for eight hours. The cans will be hot when you fish them out of their watery home. Be careful when you open the cans, there will be a bit of pressure and some of the delicious dulce de leche will blurp out. I urge anyone who tries this to resist consuming all of it with a spoon during this initial step. It will be hard and you may fail.
I served this up at two sorriees over the weekend with apples and it was very well recived.

Chicken liver roasted butternut squash pate

After having some amazing pate at the nearby wine bar I decided that I should try my hand at it. This was also nice since it incorporated the butternut squash which lightened it up a bit and made good use of the abundance of butternut squash that we had from our CSA. This was a hit at one of the Halloween parties that we attended this weekend, I brought wee toasts and some crackers to serve as the pate vessel, however I observed most people dunking pretzels in it. What can I say we are nothing but classy. If you want the recipe check it out here.

Product Review- MimicCreme

Now, I don't normally do reviews but I figured why not.

A few weeks ago I was doing my normal shopping at the Co-op and we needed evaporated milk for a creamy soup. Turns out they were out of it and I really did not want to cave and go for the full-fat cream monty. I get enough milk fats from cheese and whatnot, I can skip it in a soup that I will not miss it in. We ended up stumbling upon a product called MimicCreme non-dairy milk section. It is non-dairy, soy-free, and gluten free. The ingredients are simply Purified Water, Almonds, Cashews, Sodium Bicarbonate, Rice Starch, and Non-Iodized Salt. I was a little apprehensive and concerned that it would be a watery gross mess. It was not the case at all, creamy nice looking, and worked like a dream in our soup. It even fared well when the soup was frozen and then reheated. MimicCreme gets a firm thumbs up from our household and and is a nice healthy/different option for cooking. We have totally made repeat purchases of the product. My only complaint is that the unsweetened comes in a 32 oz container and sometimes it is a bit more than we need, but I just end up using it in coffee or in other projects.

super oatmeal

Again, I will spare you a photo of one of they most unphotogenic foods, oatmeal. To be honest I pretty much hated oatmeal unless it was in cookie form until I was well out of college. It was slimy, gross, and generally unsatisfying. Especially unsatisfying when in a lame-ass wee packet that served as a sugar delivery system. I also grew up in a cream of wheat household, my mother hated oatmeal and never offered it as a breakfast option. That brings me to about the age of 24-ish, I realised that I should give oatmeal another try, its good for you relatively easy, and relatively cheap.

Enter steel-cut oats. These little suckers are a whole different animal. Nutty, a bit chewy, and minimally processed. The major drawback to steel-cut oats is the cooking time, if made traditionally it takes about 40 minutes of ACTIVE cooking and stirring. Yes, you can make a bunch all at once but there is nothing more boring than standing over your stove top just stirring oatmeal. Watching paint dry or counting paperclips come to mind.

I have since perfected the lazy steel-cut oat preparation- the steamer/rice cooker. I have one that I rescued from my parents house years ago it is very similar to this one. This is also the only way I prepare rice. I have only successfully ruined pots while cooking rice on the stove. Note- this oatmeal making process is no faster it is just hands free. 1/2 cup steel cut oats to 2 cups water in the little rice cooker dish, fill the water reservoir to the high line and set it for one hour. When it dings you have two hearty servings of oats that will improve immensely if they are left to chill overnight in the fridge then reheated in the morning.

Okay, back to the super oatmeal. I have tried numerous mix-ins for oatmeal and for the most part they are totally up to you and your preferences. However this morning I stumbled upon a real winner. After the oats were done in the steamer I split them in to two containers added a spoonful of chia seeds, a squeeze of hazelnut agave, and a spoonful of cashew butter. This all got mixed together then put in the fridge to wait till morning. The chia and cashew butter gave it a bit more body and staying power for the tummy, plus some healthy fat and a fiber boost. Breakfast Win!

Wow, this is an awful lot of talk about oatmeal....

Bacon Jam

I generally leave all of the bacon experiments to Mr. Dave, however when I happened upon Not Quite Nigella's bacon jam I knew I needed to try it. Wow, just wow. First off it makes your house smell awesome, second it got me out of some of my ceiling painting shift when the Hubbs took over so that I could tend to the jam. I am pretty eager to give this a-go with some soft cooked eggs in the near future.
Not gonna lie it looks pretty gross while its cooking, like strange bacon soup.

After it improves slightly, mostly because you get to eat it.

corn fritters aka I forgot that I really dislike frying things

We have been a bit backlogged on eating our farm share, we went out of town for a weekend and really got behind, leaving our household of two with eight ears of corn. To dispense with four of those ears I tried my hand at some corn fritters. They turned out pretty tasty plated up with some wilted tat soi and some ginger garlic chutney for the Hubbs. And I was quickly reminded how much I dislike frying. eating fried sure, making it no.

Savory Ricotta Kale Pancakes

Holy yummy breakfast. I found some super fancy ricotta on sale at the coop and bought it with no real plan for it. I have been intrigued by the concept of ricotta pancakes, mostly cause it packs a bit more protein than regular pancakes. In my world pancakes are kind of a waste, they just make me more hungry.

I based the pancakes on a recipe that I found here, I omitted the sugar and added a touch more than a pinch of salt. Once that was all together I added one bunch of kale that I had wilted with a chopped onion and a bit of garlic. They turned our fluffy and wonderful.

One finished and one half-way there.

home made cheese and a giant sandwich

I recently made the kitchen foray into making cheese. I can honestly say it was pretty cool and way easier that I would have thought. It was like a science experiment that suddenly results in cheese. Specifically a shiny wonderful ball of mozzarella.

Although the poor tomatoes in the northeast are being sadly taken out by blight, the few that have made it have been amazingly tasty and worth the hearty price tag. At the Troy Farmers Market I picked up some delicious tomato beauties from Slack Hollow Farm. Those tomatoes were begging for a tryst with my fresh mozzarella, thus the giant sandwich was born. I found a nice looking loaf of ciabatta at the Coop, sliced it the long way and went to town caprese style.

Giant sandwich=awesome

side note- I was talking to my sister yesterday and she commented that her husband was making cheese, and I had to respond "oh I made some cheese this morning" Random.

natural habitat

These tried to make their way back home into the nature of center square.

Shrimp Boil Fritatta

We definitely had a boatload of leftovers from our shrimp boil and while leftovers are wonderful this was one that really lost a little something after a night in the fridge. The Hubbs was very concerned that the shrimpy/crawfishy goodness would go to waste so he suggested a fritatta.

After I pulled all the meaty bits of seafood out of their shells I chopped up the potatoes and cut the corn off the cob. The onions and garlic from the boil were already pretty soft and mushy so I just tossed them in as is. This mixture turned out to be about 3 cups of filling, give or take. I mixed three eggs and 1/2 cup of milk and combined with the boil mixture. I was going to add just a bit of parmesan at this point only to find out that my parm had gone rouge in the fridge. The only other cheese option was a smoked gruyere so I shredded a nice chunk in to the mix. Add 1/2 cup flour plus 1/2 t baking powder, plus what ever seasons you prefer (I went for a dash of Cayenne and a bit of old bay). Mix the whole thing together and pop it in the oven in a greased pie pan or oven safe dish. 350 ish for 40-45 should do it. This was a pretty freestyle job, as fritattas want to be.

Shrimp Boil

I really cannot claim any credit for the shrimp boil or even the inspiration. That I have to give credit to The Kitchen Sink. I simply saw the blog entry and said "hey that would be tasty", and after having a crap-tastic day I was determined to try and force a good evening. The only real tweak was the addition of a few crawfish that looked inviting at the market.

Steamy


This was enjoyed with a few glasses of asti on our stoop to celebrate summer FINALLY arriving in the northeast. The Hubbs and I determined that this was tasty, messy, and did in fact improve the evening. Next time we would probably add in some spicy sausage as well and more people; we have a ton left over (but the Hubbs has a banner idea, so keep an eye out....)

Margarita

Some of you who know me know that for most of my drinking years, I often passed on tequila. That was unless I was terribly tipsy and it was 1. bought by someone else, 2. rack, and 3. utterly gross. Given those factors I thought I hated tequila. Much like how I thought I hated wine because I had only ever stolen white zinfandel from a box that my Mom stored under the kitchen table.

Needless to say I decided to take it back about a year and a half ago. I gave tequila another chance and it has been a wonderful affair since then. Again, to those who may know me know that I also do not drink rum, spite my love for it. Rum however is a foul tasty temptress in my world. She makes me irrationally angry and frankly, batshit crazy. For the sake of my marriage and friendships I will not be giving rum another go.

Margarita:
This is my recipe made to my preference and is not what everyone likes, but it has gotten some pretty encouraging reviews from my attorney.

2 oz Tequila (whatever brand you prefer, but really don't totally cheap out)
2 oz triple sec (feel free to cheap out here, unless you are going for Grand Marnier don't bother in my book)
2 oz lime juice.

pour over ice, no salt, and most certainly do not turn that shit into a watered down snow cone.

Cheers

New Asian Market

Mr. Dave of Ridiculous Food Society fame recently visited and reviewed the newest addition to the Asian market family in the Capital District. His review is far more comprehensive so please feel free to check it out here.

It is bright and clean, although still has that "Asian market smell", but that is just how it goes. I really look forward to spending a bit more time there and taking advantage of their fresh meats and fish. One thing that very much surprised me was this........

Yes, Durian. I admittedly was to chickenshit to buy one. It was too far away from trash day to purchase a supposedly delicious fruit that stinks of dead bodies. I am still intrigued and may heed the siren call soon. Plus I loved that it was tucked unassumingly in a cooler next to green tea ice cream and an impressive assortment of dumplings.

picture purposely omitted- sesame ginger nufu salad

Our household has been known to purchase a tub of the tofu salad from the co-op and gobble it up almost instantly. This goes the same for both versions of the tofu salad, Matt's and the curry cashew. A few weeks ago I got some flavored and seasoned tofu when it was on sale and stashed it in the cheese drawer to await inspiration.

Yesterday morning that inspiration struck! Leaving the flavor decision up the the Hubbs, tofu salad was going to be made. After choosing sesame ginger I looked down at the package and realized I had in fact not purchased two packages of tofu I purchased one package of tofu and one package of nufu. specifically Sunergia nufu peanut tofu. Apparently nufu is soy free "tofu", I had never heard of it nor really knew that it existed. It is virtually identical to tofu except that the soybeans are replaced with peanuts. Although this is seasoned lightly, it still tasted a lot like tofu straight out the package. However after jazzing it up a bit hoooboy! tasty stuff.

Sesame ginger nufu salad

1 package Sunergia nufu peanut tofu
half of a vidalia onion chopped small
4 green onions chopped
1 T natural peanut butter
approximately 2 T warm water
few shakes soy sauce.

Crumble up nufu and mix with both onions. In a separate bowl combine peanut butter and warm water and mix till fully incorporated and smooth. Add a bit of soy sauce to the mixture and combine. Pour the sauce into the nufu and onion mix; stir it all up and enjoy.

This really was super tasty and would be great in a wrap or over some greens. We just kind of chowed it on its own. Pictures were graciously not taken since tofu/nufu is really not the most photogenic of foods to begin with and once you smash it up you really are not doing it any favors.... but trust me this was delicious and quick.

easiest "fancy" salad ever

Ooolala, is that a course from a swanky tasting menu? Nope, just my lunch on Saturday. After a busy morning that included an awesome run with my sister, the farmers market, the co-op, and an unsuccessful trip to Rolf's Pork Store; I was totally ready for lunch.

I took some nice fresh spinach from our CSA, topped it with tangy goat cheese, fresh figs, a splash of balsamic vinegar, and cracked pepper. Wicked easy and enjoyed while sitting on my stoop taking in the neighborhood.

edamame dip AKA "holy shit there is sunshine in my mouth"

There us no way this picture will ever do this dip justice, unless I photo shop a halo and ethereal lighting into it....

I stumbled across the recipe for this wonder-dip at Closet Cooking, I tweaked it only slightly. My edamame was already cooked, I used fresh lemon juice in place of lime, and I tossed in a garlic scape for good measure. Wowzer is this tasty! It really is like an amazing summer day that you can eat with veggies, or chips, or on a sandwich. I highly recommend giving it a whirl for yourself.

Belgium

Ha ha! I have a reason aside from laziness as to why I have not posted.... We were visiting Belgium. The land of beer, chocolates, mussels, and fries!

There were some definite winners that we were able to sample throughout our journey. The beers (not surprisingly) were wonderful, we really did not encounter any real duds at all. Similarly any chocolate we encountered was delicious and in a totally different category than most chocolate you find stateside.

You can get giant steaming pots of mussels every way imaginable. I am admittedly a bit of a mussel slut and will accept them any way that I can get them and will always be pleased. So, me liking the mussels was a bit of a sure thing.

Our firm recommendation on the fries. Skip them if they are at a restaurant or part of your meal they will be lame, pretty standard, and they will serve them to you with just about everything. Go to a stand or a cart. That is where the pom frits action is. They will be hot, greasy, and with a bounty of dipping sauces that can be slopped all over them.

Oh, and if you ever find yourself in Antwerp check out a place called The Bistro. One of the best meals I have had in a long time.

A P.S. to Belgium- Your cities will smell way less like piss if you actually have bathrooms. Just seems like a safe bet when your culture encourages consumption of multiple liters of beer in a given sitting. Just an observation.

another photoless post

Ok. This is totally lame but I have been hankering for a pb+j sandwich for a few days, earth shattering right? Either way, we tend not to have jelly/jam in the house purely because it does not get eaten. In my quest I remembered that pb and honey is rather delicious as well, alas no honey. BUT we do have wonderful vanilla flavored agave..... and holy shit it was amazing. I don't know if it was the fact that it was a new flavor combo or what but I am still dreaming about that half a sandwich.

pizza with broccoli and garlic scape pesto

This time of year is one of my favorites, not just because its getting warmer and you get to cookout more often, but because of garlic scapes. I was introduced to them a few years ago in our CSA share and was instantly hooked. We now seek them out when they are in season and toss them in just about everything that we cook, soup, pasta, stir-frys, the whole she-bang. Yesterdays dinner turned out to be chock full of scapey goodness. We used premade dough from the market topped with scape pesto, some broccoli, a few plops of ricotta, and a sprinkling of grated parmesan. It was awesome. Alas since I am a bad blogger.... we forgot to take pictures. Sigh

I still am being a bad blogger

I can't say that I have gotten my mojo back and that makes me sad. So I am forcing the mojo. Keep an eye out, there will be something soon, I promise.

Kung Pao Tofu

Told you that I didn't totally abandon this little nook of the interweb. In an effort to use some tofu that was nearing its "best by" witching hour I opted to make some kung pao tofu. I adapted this wonderful looking recipe from For the Love of Cooking. It came out rather tasty if I do say so myself, and was quickly nommed by the boys in the house.

I am being a very bad blogger

In contrast with my general bad pictures and lame prose, I have simply been lazy and uninspired.....

And I kinda don't know where the camera went.

Regardless, it is no excuse. I just need to find my mojo, maybe spring will perk me up. Keep your fingers crossed.

Irish Soda Bread

In order to fortify the Hubbs for the opening of sanctioned outdoor drinking season in downtown Albany, AKA the St. Patrick's day parade, I made some holiday appropriate soda bread. This was a slightly modified version of Helen Doyle's Irish Soda Bread from Cooking Light. I skipped the caraway seeds and used a mix of milk and buttermilk as to extend the buttermilk a bit. It came together very quickly and did not suffer for me skipping the quick knead. I really felt that kneading something only 3-4 times was not worth making the floury giant kneading mess.
From the best that I can tell the Hubbs survived the parade (I had to miss it). I can't say that my lovingly made soda bread actually helped but I would like to think it did.

Sorry for the whole lot of nothing....

I have not abandoned my sweet little blog, it is just that a lot of things are lining up so that there is very little to post.

There was some fun bacon toffee made for a birthday soiree, but someone (cough, Hubbs looking in your general direction) deleted all of the pictures on the camera. It was wicked tasty and allowed me to conquer my fear of the candy thermometer. It was inspired by a post by Foodie With Family. If you want pictures and the low-down it is all there. And it was totally had not to just eat this toffee for every meal, matter of fact we may have bookended every meal and snack with the nummy bits of sugary-bacony-goodness.

I also have been traveling for work and some family stuff and was hoping for some wonderful meals or restaurants to post about, however it really just didn't happen. I had a full week of rather mediocre food, not to many gems in the lot.

Keep an eye out for a few things to come.... I have a few things up my sleeve.

confession/observation

Ok. I know that bacon is considered a bit "trendy" right now, but I would like to argue that it is less trendy but more that people are simply taking it back. I spent years of my life shunning pork of all kinds, and I still do for the most part. Yes, it is the "other white meat" as we are told, but that is exactly what it is, white. It tastes like white, or beige if you will. I am sure if I found a nice local farm that does not breed their piggies to be lean and mean I would love it.

Needless to say, I started eating bacon a while back and seriously, I am in love. I could eat it every day and look for ways to incorporated it into my world. So color me trendy and bring on the bacon.

dinner we forgot to take pictures of...

We made a fairly stellar din-din of stuffed chicken breast and sauteed bok choy this evening and completely forgot to take any pictures till we and our guest had pretty much licked the plates clean. It went kinda like this.... hearty sized chicken breast (not the comically large ones or the freak chicken, just about 5-6 ozs that are appropriate to eat and have enough meat to put a bit of an opening down the side. Those were filled with a mixture of goat cheese, dried cranberries, fresh thyme, and some ground flax seed. I smooshed that all into a slit in the side of the breast and sealed it off with a toothpick and tossed in the oven. We chopped up some baby bok choy and started the stems with olive oil and shallots, once tender added in the leafy parts with some garlic and a few glugs of balsamic vinegar and some garlic. Once everything is good and wilty drop a few globs of goat cheese then mow on it.

Not to bad for a Monday.

VD

Hee hee, VD is funny.....

All things venereal aside, we made the most bad ass dinner tonight for Valentines day. French Onion soup and a spinach salad with a warm bacon vinaigrette and poached egg. The soup was very simple and accented wonderfully by the gruyere, hand picked by the wonderful Gustav at the Co-op. We generally do the float method rather than putting everything in the oven, while wonderful, it really turns into a dreadful clean-up of melty cheese.

The salad was pretty badass. We cooked up three strips of sliced smokey bacon till crisp, removing the bacon and most of the fat (save it for later). Added some minced shallots to the pan, then a bit of apple cider vinegar and dijon mustard. Once all of the good bits are deglazed from the pan add the fat and a bit of olive oil if needed and whisk till warm and combined. Plate the whole thing up over spinach, the bacon, and add in a poached egg (ours was not nearly as juicy as I would have liked....).
And then love all of the cheesy, crusty, bacony, wonderfulness.

Chocolate Chip Cashew Butter Cookies

I really have been feeling the cookie itch lately. Plus, cookies are way easy to unload on others once you have had the two or three that you have actually been hankering for. I liked these, but probably would have skipped the chips, strangely enough. The cashew butter really made a great cookie that was much more subtle than a regular peanut butter cookie and I think it would have stood on its own just fine. I followed this recipe, swapping cashew butter for the pb.

Next time I will definately skip the chips, maybe sub in some nice roasty cashews or toffee bits..... hmmm toffee bits.....

Nerding out a bit....

I rarely muse about pop culture here, but seriously why is Bryan Fuller not involved in every t.v./movie project ever. His touch is whimsical, amazing, and enthralling.

All things that he touches wraps you in a binky of goofball comfort.

some of the ugliest pizza ever

I am VERY aware of the poor quality of my pictures and most of that is due to a cruddy point and shoot paired with a lack of picture taking patience. That said, these were pretty uggo and the crap-tastic pics are certainly not doing them any favors.

The only one even fit for public viewing.....

These pizzas were made on the gluten-free crust previously seen here. We opted for a sauteed spinach, caramelized onion, and egg pizza. the two that we graciously saved from picture hell were an hoisin sauce, chicken, and caramelized onion combo. Lastly was the "fancy squash", roasted delicata squash, artichoke hearts, and caramelized onion.

Word of warning. If you get egg white on your pizza stone it will eventually burn off and can be scraped off, however it will smell super bad.

Cranky with a chance of snickerdoodles

I have been in an awesome mood, and by awesome, I mean an utterly cranky; borderline fightn' mood. So it is awesome in how in awe I am of my magnificent grumps.

Regardless I am still having my love affair with my new kitchen aid, so when the hubbs was asked "chocolate chip or snickerdoodle?" he actually responded "snicker baby snicker" this was via text, lest you think he is some sort of beatnik cool cat. Also posed with that question I think the hubbs is the only one that would immediately go for the doodle. I like them very much, but who passes up chocolate chip? But, I digress.....

I halved the recipe from here which is pretty much a very standard snickerdoodle. I have found very few variations. I did however make my cookies out of tablespoon size balls, hee hee balls, and the turned out to be rather robustly sized cookies. They were a good treat for my snickerdoodles loving husband and a nice surprise for my partners in snowy-day-happy-hour crime.

National Chocolate Cake Day!

I could not let national chocolate cake day pass with out honoring it in some way. We chose to celebrate with our favorite, go-to, easy as pie, vegan chocolate cake from the moosewood collective. We made it very un-vegan by covering it with a hearty amount of butter-filled peanut butter frosting. All in all a bit ugly in presentation but utterly delicious.

Plus! I got to use my new Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I.think.I.am.in.love.

Spring/Summer Rolls

In my little head spring rolls are smaller, made with wonton wrappers, and fried. Whereas summer rolls are bigger, "uncooked", and made with rice paper. Either way the terms are often, correctly or not, used interchangeable.

These are delicious and make for a light meal. We made these ones with assorted veggies and avocado or shrimp; then whipped up a choice of sauces. A soy garlic or a zesty peanut butter. They are slightly labor intensive with the rice paper but once you get going it is a snap. We have also set up all the fillings and sauces and had a summer roll party. Much like a baked potato bar but with summer rolls, fun but slightly messy. This meal made me remember that I really like these and should keep these as a "go to" lunch or dinner.

There are tons of recipes and tutorials on making these on the interweb, so I will save you the pain of my poorly executed instructions.

News!

I know that you all have been waiting anxiously for my next thrilling post.....

No, not really. Well I guess that is ok.

We have been making some tasty feed, and some not so tasty feed. Put it this way, cocoa black bean soup sounds like it should taste like you have a wonderful mole sauce tossed into your black bean soup. Match made in heaven, right? Nope just kinda bitter and lame.

I hope to make something worth posting this weekend. This is also contingent on finding the battery charger for the camera.

In other news I have decided to join The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training and will be participating in the Rock and Roll Marathon this May in San Diego! I am super excited and wicked nervous about the training. Expect some additional chatter about blisters....

Click here for the link to my donation site

Slow Roasted Garlic Lemon Chicken

Yes, yes, I am aware that I am playing a bit of catch-up and I should probably space out these posts a bit, but frankly I don't feel like being that organized and calculated.

We made this for an annual get-together that our friends have every holiday season. Our new house was site for this particular years soiree. Among our friends contributing for this little potluck was Mr. Dave. The slow roasted chicken taken directly from a Nigella recipe. The only changes that I made was using chicken pieces rather than having to chop up a whole chicken and I peeled the garlic rather than leaving it in the skins. That was a purely a personal preference.

Here is the whole she-bang ready for the oven.

While this does take a bit of time, hence "slow roasted" it was very easy and the leftovers held up very well and remained tasty, especially paired cold in a salad.

Seared Tuna and Soba Noodle Salad

This is a dish that gets made from time to time in our household, usually by the Hubbs. This is one of his "dishes", generally because for a while I would notoriously over-sear the tuna rendering it just sort of lame. The recipe is very flexible, forgiving, and accommodating to what you have in the house.

For this go-round we crusted the tuna with back and white sesame seeds and gave it a nice sear in a pan then set aside.

While you are searing, boil some water and cook your soba noodles, the amount really depends on how many you are feeding and your personal preference. At any point in the cooking, depending on how well you can multi-task in the kitchen or if you have help whip up the dressing. The dressing generally consists of:
low sodium soy sauce
fresh grated ginger
minced garlic
mirin
rice wine vinegar
sesame oil

Toss all of these together and tweak to taste. If you want it a bit sweeter add more mirin or a bit of sugar. You could include some chili oil, fish sauce, etc. depending on your tastes as well. Once your noodles are cooked and drained add a bit of the dressing to the noodles reserving some for later.
To plate this up, put a nice amount of spring greens or baby spinach on a platter and place the soba noodles on top. Thinly slice the seared tuna and place it over the noodles and pour the reserved dressing over the top and then chow down. This is also a good ace-in-the-hole for guests or a fancier dinner it is quick and easy and looks and tastes amazing.