Chicago Marathon Photos

I love the marathon. I can think of few things more inspirational. I cry every year. You're all just incredible.

Oh, and I found Waldo. 

The Smart Lady's Guide to Homemade* Hummus

Have you ever looked up a recipe for hummus from a chef or blogger that's really, really good? The standard recipe is: garbanzo beans, olive oil, tahini, seasoning. Process it all together.

Then, there are those that reallyyyyy know their stuff, that go above and beyond, and they add one very special step. They are happy to tell you the secret to the smoothest, creamiest hummus.

Do you know what it is?

De-shelling the freaking garbanzo beans.

Seriously. Every, single one. Here's what you do. There's a really thin layer (membrane? Worst. Word. Ever.) that covers every single little pea bean and if you pinch the outsides of it gently, it'll pop right out of that shell. Discard the shell. High five! You did ONE bean. Now, do a thousand.

No thanks! I did it once and it was smoother and creamier but I like to think of things in terms of effort and return. I am not convinced the effort was worth the return.

So, I have my own, lazy cook's secret for hummus. This is mostly just for entertaining in my book, but if you regularly make yourself fancy homemade hummus, #respect. This will work for you too. Ready? It's.........



Buy Sabra!

I like the garlic kind, but any kind will work (and honestly, so will any brand, I just happen to be particular to Sabra.) Mix it up so it looks smooth and creamy, then take it out of that plastic container and put it into a proper bowl.

Drizzle it with olive oil. If you have flavored olive oil, this is even better. We have a chili infused olive oil that is out of this world. Then, add some chili flakes and a big sprinkling of oregano. It'll make glorious little rivers and pools of extra flavor that is my 30 second version of "above and beyond." Mix it up a tiny bit but don't combine it totally. It loses both flavor and effect!

Ta da!

It looks better, tastes amazing, and I'm pretty sure the Sabra factory de-shells those bad boys for you because it's perfectly creamy and you'll enjoy an hour of your life that otherwise could have been spent de-membraning those glorious but tricky little Mediterranean beans.

Cheers friends, and happy weekend!

The Pioneer Woman's Salmon, or The Easiest Dinner In The World

Say that thinking of The Most Interesting Man in the World.

Tonight, there were important things to get to than dinner. Building a coffee table and last week's DVR'd Scandal in particular. The fact that both of those things are happening right now, today, and not 4 months ago/one week ago respectively is bananas. The coffee table is one of the FIRST things we wanted for our new place and I've waited anxiously for months for Scandal to come back, so yeah. How do these things get away from me? WHERE ARE MY PRIORITIES?

I digress. Salmon! Oh my gosh, this is so good and so easy it's not even fair. I'm a sucker for a good love story and good food, so it was love at first read for me and the Pioneer Woman's blog. And now that she's regularly on the Food Network, I fully (irrationally? maybe?) think of her as my friend. She's so nice! She'd like me, I know it.

So, when I walked past these beautiful, huge pieces of salmon tonight at the grocery store, my mind went straight to my BFF Ree.

Her recipe for salmon (which is actually a recipe from a friend of hers) is so simple. Rub salmon filets with olive oil, salt and pepper. Put the filets on a baking sheet, put it in a cold oven and turn the oven on to 400. After 25 minutes, take out your salmon and you will guaranteed have perfectly flaky, perfectly cooked salmon on your hands.

A few tips:

• Wrap your baking sheet in tin foil for minimal dish washing. I do this whenever possible, I am that lazy. With salmon, I consider this step non-optional.
• This is a great base recipe for any sort of salmon you want. In my world, pretty much nothing is getting in my oven without at least two spices on it and salt and pepper do not count. Neither does garlic. I added a lot of lemon pepper and dill to the salt and pepper and it. was. awesome. I've also used this method for miso salmon and a mustard glazed salmon, both good too!
• My salmon filets were quite possibly the biggest I'd ever seen, and were particularly thick. If that photo is not doing a good job of proving it, note that that is a DINNER PLATE, not a small plate. So, I knew they'd need a little longer to cook than 25 minutes and let them go just one extra minute, then took the pan out and tented it with foil, allowing very little air to escape. This helped the salmon keep cooking gently while the broccoli roasted.
• Speaking of broccoli roasting, it's pretty much my favorite thing ever. Pop another sheet pan (use that foil again!) in the oven with chopped broccoli, drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder if you please. This should go in at the same time as the salmon, but it'll need an extra 15 minutes to get extra crispy (turn the oven up to 475 if you like it extra crispy like mine) which is coincidentally the perfect amount of time to make couscous and pour yourself a glass of wine.

The table's done! I clearly had nothing to do with this considering I just wrote nineteen paragraphs about the "easiest salmon ever." Anyway. I'd take a photo of the table but low-light photography and I are not friends yet. Someday, someday.

Olivia Pope (another good friend) awaits.

Cheers, friends!

Photography: Chicago Sunday

There's few things more enjoyable than a Sunday afternoon walk. Something about a nice long walk makes me feel healthy, productive, adult! Even when the reality is that I'm mildly hungover from Octoberfest celebrations the night before and the most productive thing I've accomplished is refilling the water tank in the Keurig.

On just one such beautiful Sunday, I headed out for a long walk and on the way out, grabbed my camera to work on my 10,000 photographs... here's a few of my favorite shots. 

Butternut Squash and Kale Pasta Bake with Chicken Sausage

Hey Chicago friends, remember how we didn't have a spring? I'm pretty sure this insane, ridiculous, story-book perfect fall we are having totally makes up for it. I'm head over heels for autumn, and my love affair is manifesting itself in embarassingly stereotypical ways. I'm exclusively drinking pumpkin spice lattes. I bought tiny pumpkins for my dining room table. I'm instagramming pictures of the changing leaves. I BOILED A FREAKING CINNAMON STICK. I know! I'm a tragic victim of Pinterest-fueled autumnal hype.

So, I'm just going with it. Tonight, I made a VERY seasonal dinner and it turned out prettyyyy great, so I thought I'd share. 

It was also very easy. Embrace the frozen organic veggies, my friends! Chopping up a butternut squash is one of my top ten least favorite things to do, and I'm pretty sure cleaning kale is up there too. 

And if the goat cheese gives you pause, don't worry. It melts together with everything else and there's only a hint of that sharp, tangy flavor when its all said and done. This is not an overly gooey, stringy, cheesy dish. Instead, the cream sauce just sort of sticks everything together enough so that you taste everything at once and everything on its own ALL AT THE SAME TIME. That makes no sense, you say? Blame the cinnamon fumes.

Recipe below!

Butternut Squash and Kale Pasta Bake with Chicken Sausage

Serves about 6 hungry adults

Prep time - 20 minutes
Bake time - 30  minutes

• 4 links cooked Italian chicken sausage
• 1 C onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2.5-3 C cubed cooked butternut squash (I used frozen)
• 2.5-3 C chopped kale (I used frozen)
• 1 box of whole wheat penne
• 1 Tb olive oil + more for drizzlin
• 1 C Italian seasoned panko bread crumbs
• Goat cheese cream sauce, below

Goat Cheese Cream Sauce

• 4 oz goat cheese
• 15 oz container of light ricotta
• 1 C chicken stock
• 1/4 C milk
• 1 Tb salted butter
• Cracked black pepper to taste
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp sage
• 1 tsp flour

To start, preheat your oven to 350, boil your (salted!) water and prepare the pasta until it's cooked to al dente. Drain the pasta and return to the pot.

While your  pasta is cooking, dice your onion and mince up the garlic, then saute it all over medium heat in the olive oil until your mixture is translucent. When the onion and garlic are cooked through, add the kale and butternut squash and mix everything together. Let it cook uncovered for about 10 minutes or until the frozen vegetables have heated through and all of the liquid has evaporated.

To prepare your sauce, combine all ingredients over medium-low heat in a saucepan and slowly whisk together until its totally combined and smooth. Allow the sauce to come to a boil and then take it off the heat from heat. (Note: if it seems VERY thin, add a bit of flour, but you want it to be more liquid-y than less so that as it bakes it stays really creamy!)

Dice the chicken sausage into small pieces.

To the pasta, add your chicken sausage and vegetable mixture. Toss it all together then add your sauce to the pot -- mix lightly, don't squish it all up!

Spray a 13x9" pan with olive oil or canola oil spray, then scoop in your pasta. Smooth it all out into an even layer then sprinkle the panko bread crumbs over the top. Drizzle olive oil lightly over the top, then cover the whole pan with foil.

Bake for 20 minutes covered, then remove the foil for an additional 10 minutes to brown the top.

Eat and enjoy!

Sunrise

 

The sunrise over Lake Michigan

This morning was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. 

Life and Soba Noodles

Life. Oh man. So crazy!

In the last 4 months I:

Moved
Went to Alaska (hey there bears)
Quit my job
Went to Europe (hey there gelato)
Started an awesome new job

So, yeah. Life! Crazy indeed.

I'm not busy-complaining. (<< Read that!) I am one lucky lady and I know it. Just... makin' excuses for neglecting the blog.

(Seriously, how do you ladies with children and jobs and husbands and pets do this? I bow down. My plant died yesterday, I am hopeless.)

I am DETERMINED to write about Europe because it was beyond awesome and I want a written record of all of the fun details... but until then, I present you with...

A HEALTHY RECIPE.

Lame? Totally, I know. But guys, I gained 5 pounds in Europe, and I can't even call it vacation weight anymore. I made my brother pretzel crust brownies the other day. Then I had to physically drag myself downstairs to give the extras I couldn't fit in the box to the doorman so the little Italian fat kid that now lives inside me wouldn't win and eat them all at once.

So yep, we're getting vegan here.

But I promise, it's good too!

Soba Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing

Spicy Peanut Dressing

Make this first to marinate for a bit while you're chopping and boiling, and make it to taste! Here's how I did it, but make it spicier/saltier/sweeter to your own preferences. Whisk these ingredients together with a fork until its very smooth, like the consistency of salad dressing:

• 1/2 C peanut butter
• 1/4 C rice wine vinegar
• 2 Tb toasted sesame oil
• 3 Tb reduced sodium soy sauce
• 2 Tb sriracha sauce
• 2 Tb honey
• 1 Tb warm water

Noodles and Vegetable Salad

• 1 cucumber
• 1 red pepper
• 1 orange pepper
• 4 C spinach (roughly!)
• 4 stalks green onion (again... roughly!)
• 1 8 oz package of soba noodles*
• pinch of sesame seeds

1. Wash your veggies! 
2. Julienne cucumber, red and yellow peppers 
3. Dice green onions (the green AND white parts) into very small pieces
4. Put all of your spinach into a colander over the sink
5. Cook your soba noodles - boil them for about 3 minutes and then pour them over the spinach in the colander to flash steam/boil the spinach
6. Shake the spinach and noodles to get rid of all excess water, and then refrigerate for 30 minutes or so until the noodles and spinach are relatively cool
7. Add the chopped vegetables and spicy peanut dressing to the bowl of noodles and spinach and mix everything up really well to combine
8. Sprinkle with sesame seeds (totally unnecessary, just fun!) and enjoy!

*Soba noodles sound really exotic but aren't that hard to find or love. You'll probably find them with the other Asian foods in your local grocery store... I got mine at Dominick's! They're noodles made out of buckwheat flour -- lots of protein, whole grain and a really great nutty flavor.