Mr. Dips - A Long Overdue Review

 Ok so this was an outing I did solo because my little partner in crime was with her dad that weekend, but I was in Brooklyn so the opportunity could not be wasted. I finally made it to Mr. Dips at the William Vale Hotel at the end of summer. My obsession with this place is more about the Airstream hitch it is housed in, because I guess in one of my previous lives I wanted to travel cross-country in one of those modern homages to the pilgrim way. However, I digress, I did want to try them because their Instagram account constantly tempted me with images of their waffle fries and soft serve ice cream, dipped in whatever flavor the hard shell of the month is (drool worthy for sure). 

Ok so I decided to go all in and had The Hot Bae from their Chixy Dips menu and their Dirty-dipped Waffles, as well as their Blackberry Buttermilk from their Dipsy Doozy menu. Every bite and sip I had was delicious, even if I cut my lifespan by a decade because of it. It was worth it. Here are some pictures of my food as well as some little bird friends who were feasting on the crumbs left by those who came by before me. Oh and this gorgeous heart shaped cloud that just caught my attention while I was sitting on the grass, enjoying my feast.

Needless to say. I will be visiting this certain Mr. again, just will probablyhave to bring my skates with me next time to burn at least some of the calories afterwards. I definitely recommend you visit them withat this and their other NYC locations. Here is the link to their website.

 

 

Slow Cooked Pork Loin in Malbec Reduction

 

I love a good piece of slow cooked meat, and even more so when I can make a nice thick gravy from the juices produced as the meat cooks. There is nothing that can beat the experience of the tenderness of meat that falls apart at the slightest pull from your fork and the taste of it accompanied by that delicious gravy. This recipe was inspired by my beef stew recipe. I didn't use quite as much wine in this one but the tase was tremendous. Here is the list of ingredients:

Pork tenderloin (I used a piece that was about 1 lb)

1 Medium White Onion (cut into slices)

2 Garlic cloves (minced)

8 Medium size white mushrooms (cut into slices)

2 TBSP Olive oil

1 Large Bay leaf

A pinch of cumin

2 to 3 cups of water

1/2 cup of Malbec (or any spice infused red wine of your choice).

Salt and pepper to taste.

2 to 3 TBSP of flour.

In a Dutch oven, heat up your olive oil and sautee the onions, garlic and mushrooms until the onions start to get a little translucent. 

Push the garlic, onion and mushroom mix to the sides and put your pork loin in the center. Sear it on all sides and then add your water and season with salt and pepper to your preference. Add the bay leaf in at this point as well.

Cover and simmer until the liquid in the pot has reduced to half. Now you can add your wine. Cover again and let things simmer until the liquid is reduced by half again.

Start adding the flour a little bit at a time using a whisk to stir the flour in and break up any lumps. Only add enough flour to help things thicken a bit. Once that happens you will be done. The whole process should take about 30 minutes or so, but it is always worth checking your meat to make sure it is cooked through. Once you are sure this is the case you can cut your pork loin into nice thick slices. Serve with your favorite sides and add some of that beautiful gravy along with some onions and mushrooms. Enjoy and savor the fruits of your culinary labor.

Here are some pictures of the cooking process.

#comfortfood #porkloin #winterfood #stews #foodthathealsthesoul

Whole Wheat Bread - Take 2

 

You might recall my post from about 2 weeks ago and my lackluster attempt at making whole wheat bread. I did my second attempt tonight and it definitely yielded much better results. All I did was tweak the proofing times. I let the dough go for 1 1/2 hours on each proof, which allowed it to rise nicely as you can see on the picture. Glad to say it turned out delicious.

#bread #bakingbread #breadmaking #homemade #homemadebread

Honey Dijon Brussel Sprouts

As I mentioned in my previous post, I bought a bunch of vegetables when I went food shopping this week. Among those were a beautiful stalk loaded with Brussel sprouts. My challenge was trying to find a recipe that would help me do justice to them. So of course I did a search, which yielded the usual ones. Some called to sautee them in garlic, others said add bacon. I had already tried that so it was only when I checked Instagram that I came across a recipe for coating the sprouts in a honey dijon concoction. 

If you have read this blog before, you know by now that I am not one to follow recipes exactly as noted (unless it is for baking and even then I figure out a way to differ). Here is the link to the original recipe  

Here is my list of ingredients and cooking instructions

1 lb Brussel sprouts (cleaned and cut in half)

1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp coarse dijon mustard

1/4 tsp garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Fill a medium sauce pot with water and add saltto lightly season. Put your sprouts in and heat up until simmering. Cook your sprouts until tender.

While your sprouts are cooking, in a large bowl, mix the olive oil, honey, dijon mustard and garlic powder, until all ingredients are completely incorporated. 

Drain your cooked sprouts and then toss them in the honey dijon mixture, until evenly coated.

As an additional step, I put my sprouts into a baking dish and put them in my air fryer for about 10 minutes to give them a little crisp finish and intensify the mustard flavor. 

It turned out pretty well. 

The Lonely Girl's Cream of Asparagus Soup

 

Since cold weather has actually started in earnest in the Northeast US, I figured it would be a good time to make one of those soups that makes you feel warm and good all over. When I went food shopping this week, Trader Joe's had these beautiful bunches of asparagus. I couldn't resist getting them because I wanted some veggies, and since my daughter is with her dad this week, I could get something other than broccoli. The problem is that even for me the bunch I got was a lot more than I could eat in one week without all the other veggies I got going bad. The answer was to make something that I could have already prepared and that coukd keep for longer than a few days in the fridge. Creamed soup to the rescue!

Here is the list of ingredients and cooking instructions.

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp ground ginger

2 garlic cloves - minced

1/2 large russet potatoe - diced

1/2 medium white onion - diced

1/2 lb asparagus stalks

2 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp butter

3 cups chicken or other kind of stock

1/2 cup milk

1/4 tsp dried thyme

Salt and pepper as preferred

In a medium sauce pot heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil and toss in your diced potatoe and onion and sautee until the onions get nice and translucent.

In a pan heat up 1 Tbsp of olive oil and drop in your ginger and garlic. Sutee until the garlic starts getting fragrant, then add in your asparagus and toss in the oil, ginger and garlic medley unitl the asparagus get nice and deep green. Remove and cut up unto small pieces. Add to the onions and potatoes in the pot. 

Add in the stock and heat to a simmer. Cook for about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Put the contents of your pot in a blender and add the milk. Blend until completely smooth.

In your now empty pot, melt the butter and mix in your flour with a wisk to create a roux base. Slowly add in the contents of your blender making sure you wisk as you add it in to break up any lumps forming in your roux base. Once all the contents of the blender have been incorporated add salt and pepper to taste, and heat until it simmers. 

Serve as a side, or serve a full bowl with a side of rice and enjoy the creamy goodness.

#wintersoup #heartysoup #coldweatherfood #comfortfood

Sunday Baking - My Return to Blogging

 I hope there are still some of you following me out there. I have been away for a while because there were major changes in my life, which took a toll on me. It took me meeting a wonderful person who is just as in love with food and cooking as I once was, to get me inspired to want to do this again. So this post goes out to Luca. Thank you for sharing your love of cooking with me. 

Today's post is about my first attempt at making whole wheat bread. The recipe is from one of my Pinterest pins from "The Woks of Life" here is the link to the recipe 

https://thewoksoflife.com/perfect-whole-wheat-bread/

And here is the step by step pictorial of the process and my results

The wheat flour and yeast mixture.

The ball of dough after adding white flour.

Getting ready for the 1st proof.

It has risen!

Putting the dough into the 

loaf pans for the 2nd proof.

They didn't rise as much :(

The final product.

It was not a complete disaster, but I wish I had gotten a bit more rise out of the second proof. Maybe a longer proofing time might have helped. I will try again in about a week and will let you know how that goes. 

Brussel Sprout & Shallot Flatbread

This is a very simple one but very delicious if you are into brussel sprouts. I had bought more of those than I really needed for a recipe and found myself at a loss for ideas of what to do with them until I realized that I could make a flatbread with the pizza dough recipe I had found in the blog Kayotic Kitchen. I had some shallots and Parmesan cheese which I thought would compliment the sprouts nicely so I set about the task of putting these ingredients together.

Brussel Sprout & Shallot Flat Bread
1 TBSP Olive oil
20 Brussel sprouts cut in half (about 3/4lb)
2 medium shallots
1 Cup shredded Parmesan cheese
 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a skillet pan saute the sprouts and the shallots together until the shallots get nice and soft and aromatic. Set them aside and roll out your dough onto a baking sheet, making sure to poke holes into it with a fork so to prevent it from rising when it is baked. Coat the dough with some olive oil, then put the sprout and shallots on it spreading them evenly throughout the surface of the dough. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese evenly over the vegetables and dough. Place the whole darn thing in the oven until the dough starts to turn nice an golden at the edges and the cheese has melted (approximately 20- 25 minutes). Enjoy and accompany with your favorite wine.