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.