Cheat Day Brunch

Since we lost an hour of sleep last night, we ended up sleeping in a little later than planned.  It was too late for breakfast, but we weren't ready for lunch quite yet, so we decided to make a fantastic brunch right at home.  You know how us DCers love our brunch!  With our new Paleo diet, we designated Sundays as our cheat day.  We didn't stray too far from it for brunch, but there were definitely a few ingredients you wouldn't find in the typical Paleo plan...ricotta, parmesan, flour.  We started our day with a frittata, filled with greens and bacon, and some apple pancakes, which were more apple than pancake.

We first got to work on the frittata by cooking up some bacon.  Once it was nice and crispy, we took it out of the pan, so we could cook up the other ingredients in the rendered fat.  The extra fat that we didn't need at the moment, went into a dish nearby, to be added back in later.

Next, it was time to saute the shallots in some of that bacon fat.  Once those were softened, we tossed in the greens.  We didn't want to use all of our kale, so we used a bit of kale and a bit of spinach.  These were also cooked up in the bacon fat until they had wilted.

While that was going on, I mixed together the eggs, parmesan, and ricotta.  Once those were thoroughly mixed, we added in half of the bacon, and the cooled greens and shallots.  You don't want to add them to the egg mixture while they're piping hot, otherwise you'll end up with scrambled eggs.  We also added in some black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, and some dried parsley.

Once everything is mixed together, you'll pour it back into your pan.  Spread the mixture out evenly, and top it with the rest of your bacon and more parmesan cheese.  Once the edges have set, you're ready to throw 'er in the oven to finish baking for about 20 minutes.  When she's done, she'll look like this...

Now, for the pancakes!  I made these while the frittata was baking in the oven.

Start by peeling, coring and slicing your apples into rings.  We used the fuji apple and one of the granny smith apples.  The batter was simple...just some flour, eggs, milk, melted butter, baking powder and cinnamon.  Since we always like to put our own little twist on recipes, we also added in some pumpkin pie spice (since we didn't have any nutmeg on hand), and some chopped pecans.

Once your batter is mixed, just dunk your rings in the batter so they're completely coated, and place them in the pan to cook up.  One thing we learned after the first batch...if you decide to add nuts to the batter, its probably best to spoon them into the hole of your apple rings.  This will allow the apples to sit flat in the pan, and cook up more evenly.

But that's the fun part about cooking...it's all about trial and error, learning as you go, and making adjustments along the way.  That first batch may not have looked the prettiest, but they still tasted pretty darn good!

In the end, we had a delicious brunch.  The frittata was a savory dish, balanced out by the creamy ricotta. While the pancakes were sweet and tart from the apples, which still had a nice crunch to them.  And brunch wouldn't be complete without a bloody mary!  The only thing we were missing was a slice of cantaloupe at the end to make it a complete brunch.

Whole Roasted Chicken

Tonight we tackled a whole roasted chicken for dinner.  It may seem like a daunting task, but in reality, the oven does all the work.  We ventured over to Trader Joe's to pick up some groceries for the week, and picked up our bird.  The nice thing is that they have whole organic chickens that are already brined.  Whether you brine it yourself or buy a pre-brined bird, brining is the way to go.  It helps keep the meat really moist and delicious.

So once we got our bird home, Justin got to work on him, giving him a nice rub down with some butter and Kosher salt, making sure to get some of the butter under the skin as well.  Despite the brining, you still want to liberally salt the skin.  This too will help keep him moist.  And the butter helps brown the skin so it's nice and crispy.



While Justin was massaging the chicken, I got to work chopping up all the veggies to make a nice little bed for him.  We went with leeks, celery, half an onion, and some carrots.


I also got together the aromatics that we stuffed into the cavity of the bird.  These included a whole lemon, sage, rosemary, thyme, garlic, and half an onion.  Then you just stuff it all inside the cavity.

Once everything is stuffed inside, you want to close the cavity by tying the drumsticks together.  We'd consulted Ruhlman's Twenty prior to roasting to see what Mr. Ruhlman suggested, and to keep the meat moist, he recommended either stuffing the cavity or closing the cavity (he also recommended the liberal use of salt).  Doing so prevents the hot air from circulating through there and drying the meat out from the inside.  We figured we'd do both, to keep the meat moist, and add some additional flavors.

Once he was all tied up, we placed him on his bed of veggies so he was nice and cozy, and placed him in a 450 degree oven for about 45 minutes.  Justin has a convection oven, so he cooked a bit faster than if we were using my regular oven.  If you want to check your bird, the telltale sign of doneness is when the juices run clear.  After about 45 minutes, our bird was pretty much done.  We wanted to crisp up all of his skin, so we flipped him, and put him back in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Mmmm...look at that delicious, golden brown, crispy skin!  Just like any other meat, you'll want to let your chicken rest for a good 10 minutes before you start carving him.  So while our guy rested, I added a little butter, and some fresh thyme, sage, rosemary, and fresh cracked pepper to the veggies.  I also took a wedge of lemon that had been in the cavity, and squeezed some of the juice over them.  Then it was time to eat!

The meat was so juicy and moist, with hints of the lemon and herbs that we'd stuffed inside it.  The skin was perfectly crisp with just a hint of salt.  The veggies still had some bit to them, and were a perfect complement to the bird.  We also baked up a sweet potato and topped it with some pancetta and green onion.  So if you're looking for an easy, one pan meal, you should definitely try roasting a whole chicken.  Plus you'll have leftovers for later in the week!

One Hell of a Burger

With spring nearing, and a trip to the beach over Memorial Day weekend, we've decided it's time to whip ourselves into shape.  We both packed on a couple pounds over the winter, so we decided to take action!  I'm a newbie to the whole Paleo diet, and if you're not familiar, here's a simple overview of what you can/can't eat:

courtesy of dearpaleo.com

We already eat pretty well, so it shouldn't be too hard to transition to a slightly stricter Paleo diet.  We're allowing ourselves 1 cheat day a week.  This should help fuel my love of carbs.  

We had already planned on making burgers tonight, so to make it more Paleo friendly, we skipped the bun, and just placed the patty on a bed of bibb lettuce.  When trying to decide what kind of burgers we wanted to make, I thought of one of my favorite burgers in DC...Ray's Hellburger.  Sadly, the place has shuttered, but you can still try their burgers at Ray's to the Third.  Anyway...I'd always get their burger with roasted garlic, and grilled onions and peppers.  So this is an ode to Ray's Hellburger.

We started by roasting a few cloves of garlic...with a drizzle of olive oil, and sprinkle of salt and pepper, just wrap them up in foil and pop 'em in the oven.  An while the garlic roasted up, we also cooked up some sweet potato fries.  The fries got a brushing of olive oil, and a sprinkle of truffle salt, pepper, garlic and parsley.

While the garlic roasted and the fries cooked up, I got to work on the burger patties.  I chopped up a couple cloves of garlic, an mixed that with the ground beef, some truffle salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.  We kept it really simple.

Since we had some peppers, onions, and mushrooms left over from last week's steak sandwiches, we warmed those up to top our burgers.  They were simply seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper.

As the components cooked up, we started to build the burger.  The burger went on top of the lettuce, we spread the roasted garlic on the burger, and then topped it with our peppers, onions, and mushrooms.

The crowning jewel was the fried egg on top!

The yolk was nice and runny, and since we held off on condiments, it provided a nice "sauce" for everything. An honestly, I didn't miss the bun.  This whole Paleo thing may not be so bad afterall.

Soup & Salad Snowquester

For those of you living outside the District, the meteorologists/media dubbed today's storm, "Snowquester".  To our dismay, snowquester was more of a rain-quester, but Justin had the day off, and I was able to work from home, so it wasn't all a loss.  But with the cold, windy rain, it was a perfect day for a big bowl of soup and a nice fresh salad.

Since we picked up a ginormous butternut squash from yesterday's share, we turned him into soup, using the recipe we posted about here.  Rather than crumble bacon on top, we seared up a couple pieces of pork terrine.  These went on the bottom of each bowl, and we ladeled the soup over it.  That way, when you dug in for a spoonful, you'd get a bit of the terrine.

The real star of tonight's meal though was the salad with a strawberry balsamic reduction.  We started by toasting up some walnuts and pecans, and by crisping up some pancetta.

 Then we chopped up a granny smith apple, and some radishes we had on hand.

Then it was time to make the dressing.  We chopped up about 6 strawberries and threw them into a saucepan with enough balsamic vinegar to cover them.

As the vinegar reduced, and the strawberries broke down from the heat, it started to thicken, and the sweetness of the strawberries started to come through.  It developed a smell, much like strawberry jam, but still had a bit of a tang from the vinegar.  Once it had reduced down to a thick syrup consistency, we whisked in a bit of olive oil.

Then it was time to build the salad.  We used the bibb lettuce from the share as our base.  Then layered in the apple and radishes.  The panchetta and nuts were sprinkled on top, along with some crumbled goat cheese.  Then we drizzled the dressing on.

All of the components worked really well together.  The apple was tart and crunchy, while the radishes added a bit of peppery spice.  The nuts also added a nice crunch, and the panchetta added some saltiness.  There was the nice tang and creaminess of the goat cheese, balanced out by the sweetness of the strawberries and reduced balsamic.

All in all, it was a great, hearty meal to warm us up through the rain/snow-quester!

CSA Day!

Woop! Woop!  It's that time again!  It's the last share of the season, and it's a good one!  We're happy to report we did not pick up another cabbage tonight.  Although with St. Patty's around the corner and our last cabbage dish turning out so delicious we wouldn't have minded. We did score plenty of greens though, and some great meats.  Take a look!

We were hoping for more sunchokes so we could make the kale and farro dish again, but we may have to make a special trip to the store.  We're working on planning out exactly how we want to use everything, so if you have any ideas, send 'em our way!