Pear Epiphany Dinner

I didn't feel in the mood for an actual meal tonight, so just picked up truffle pate, Parrano cheese, Comice pear (my first time eating this variety and I love it a lot) and crackers. I wish to become more knowledgeable about cheese, but I knew I wanted a salty cheese to offset the richness of the pate. And the flavors worked nicely! I need to go back to Whole Foods and pick up more pears, I'm pretty sure I've just picked up a new habit.

A Memphis Thanksgivin' - Part Four

This post is the last installment of my Thanksgiving trip, it's been quite a extravaganza of food per usual. I also drank a lot of wine and apple cider, very festive! Here is a round-up of more food that graced our table this week:

Korean seasoned crab

Galbi (Korean short ribs)

Steamed lobster

Braised short ribs

Seafood pancake


I relished my time at home and look forward to the next round at Christmas!

A Memphis Thanksgivin' - Part Three

I spent most of Thanksgiving day cooking and it was time for dinner before I knew it! We do a mishmash of American and Korean food for our holiday meals (I have to admit kimchi and cabernet together was a bizarre flavor combo). Hope you all had a wonderful day of eating and lounging about. Without further ado:

Korean style ribs

Chestnut and apple stuffing*

Cucumber kimchi

Fried chicken

Jellyfish salad (!)

Turkey breast (store-bought)

Yams with marshmallows*

Green bean casserole*

My cranberry conserve I make every year (Ina Garten recipe)*

Giblet gravy (store-bought)

Mashed potatoes*

*Dishes made by me

A Memphis Thanksgivin' - Part Two (or Dos)

I never underestimate my family's capacity for unusual social events. But, a Spanish chef cooking dinner for us was not something I was expecting. Chef Ramon Fernandez-Salgueiro is from La Coruna, Spain where he has a tapas restaurant called A Roda. Every year, he closes the restaurant for about 20 days and takes a vacation. Lucky for us, this year, he was visiting our family friend, James, and was gracious enough to prepare some authentic Spanish tapas for us. The rundown:


Tomato and melted fresh mozzarella


Goat cheese with prosciutto


Spanish omelet with potato


An omelet slice


Brandy shrimp


Garlic bread (seasoned with the juices of the shrimp)

All that with a couple bottles with Spanish white wine made for an immense and very satisfying meal. It was such a wonderful experience and of course, made all of us want to visit Spain as soon as possible. Thank you, Ramon!

A Memphis Thanksgivin' - Part One

Whenever I come home, I have grand plans of eating here and making this, but of course, they never come to fruition; I am usually too busy sleeping a lot and catching up on DVDs. But, I'm in town for a bit longer than usual and will strive to do better.

So far:



Mid-day snack at Chick-Fil-A. Waffle fries with Polynesian sauce with sweet tea, of course! I am not a big fast food person (although I guess no one forced me to get a Burger King Croissan'wich at the airport a couple days ago), but I love Chick-Fil-A. And then... mulled apple cider! I used Martha Stewart's recipe as a guide.


The spices were: cinnamon sticks, allspice berries and whole cloves.



I threw in some clementine peel with the cider and brought it to a boil. Then, I let it cool a bit before drinking. Very fragrant and very good! I highly recommend jazzing up your apple cider in some fashion; it really adds oomph and gives you that special something.

Stay tuned for more Mtown fabulosity!

Shrimp and Bokchoy Noodles

[UPDATE: I have submitted this post to Presto Pasta Nights, a weekly blogging event. This time around, it's hosted by Soy and Pepper. This submission is my first ever to any sort of blogging thing. How exciting!]

This is not what my dinner was supposed to look like. I had planned on a simple Asian noodle soup to use up some chicken broth that had been unearthed in my pantry. In typical fashion, I came home to realize my chicken broth had expired in November 2007. Whoops!

With my powers of improvisation, I came up with this noodle dish, which had the following: shrimp, baby bokchoy, garlic, onion, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil and thin udon noodles. I wish I had grabbed more bokchoy; I had forgotten how much I like it!

Now, I'm watching The Cosboy Show and eating popcorn. Mid-week therapy of champions!

Test Run: Creamed Spinach

I am heading home for a week (!) for Thanksgiving and decided it'd be wise to testing some recipes beforehand. I didn't go home for Thanksgiving last year, so this time around I am even more excited than usual for this gluttonous holiday. After a recent trip to Boston Market (for shame! I know), I become very taken with the idea of making creamed spinach, which is a dish I've never attempted before.

Boy, am I glad I tried this out because it was disappointing. Due to a comedy errors, which I won't go into, I had to settle for frozen spinach (getting enough fresh spinach to yield a pound would have been too pricey for this experiment) and used a Rachael Ray recipe that was too simple to yield stunning results (for the record, I like Rachael and have made her recipes before). The spinach sucked up all the butter and cream instantly, but still stayed very green and refused to give that lovely creamed spinach look we all know and love. I threw in some parm cheese, but unfortch, it did not help matters too much.

Please pipe up if you have any tried-and-true creamed spinach recipes. In the meantime, I will continue conducting my own research!