The UCC Is Going National (!)

Avid UCC fans will know that we are branching out down the East Coast.

Biz is still livin' large in the 'burgh (before she takes the UCC international when she moves to Dublin at the end of the summer).

I just left Pittsburgh to move back to Washington D.C. (my hometown and first love). As soon as my new apartment in Del Ray in all set up at the beginning of next month I will start new posts on all the fun and wonderful things Amanda (my new roommate/best friend/new contributing editor for the UCC) and I are cooking.

Until then, I'll update with restaurant reviews (as I am eating out quite a bit, given that there is NO FOOD in my father's apartment where I am staying temporarily).

For example:

Today I went downtown to the Archives/Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter area to have lunch with my cousin Carli (senior in Spanish/Sociology at Duquesne, soon to be a resident of Madrid, Spain). Carli had scoped out a place called Teaism which has three locations around the D.C. area. We ate at their 8th Street (400 block, at the corner of D Street NW) location.

Teaism advertises itself as a Tea House. But it is in fact a restaurant and also a tea shop. Tea shop-wise it cares an assortment of fancy-looking teas, books about tea, things you can eat while drinking tea, and other tea-related paraphernalia.

I can speak more articulately of it as a restaurant. It was crowed, even after 1 pm when Carli and I arrived. We snagged that last table outside (since it was warm and we're people-watchers). You order inside, deli-style. For lunch and dinner they have an assortment of pan-Asiany small plates (since that's all the rage), ochazukes - which, here's the vocabulary lesson of the day: are Japanese rice and tea soups, bento boxes, sandwiches, big plates, and a variety of side dishes.

Carli and I are both eaters so we got big dishes. Carli got the Thai Chicken Curry with sticky rice. It didn't look terribly appetizing, but Carli said it was delicious. It was a huge shallow bowl filled with chicken and vegetables in what looked like a green curry sauce with a mound of white rice in the middle.

I ordered the Tempeh Curry with brown rice. Which came in the same shaped bowl as Carli's Chicken, but included a lot more veggies and a lot less curry sauce. Whereas Carli's chicken and vegetables seemed to be drowning in curry, mine was much more of a light curry broth. There was a good amount of tempeh and plenty of mushrooms, cabbage, and peppers. We both ordered the black iced tea of the day, which came with two lemon slices each. The tea was ... tea-y. I'm not very articulate about teas, I'll have to take one of my more snobby tea drinkers (John, are you available?) to test out Teaism's teas.

Teaism also serves Breakfast, Brunch, Afternoon Tea, and Dinner at their 8th Street location. Both the Dupont and 8th Street locations are open for weekend hours. The Lafayette store (the one closest to where I will be working!) is only open M - F.

I apologize for the lack of photography, I forgot my camera this morning when I was running out the door to meet Carli. But I promise to be much more diligent about food pictures with the next restaurant! And I'm sure I'll be back at Teaism to take photos.

So, if you're visiting D.C. anytime soon, check out one of Teaism's three restaurant/shops when you're cruising around town.

Happy Eating!

-Robin-

Mother's Day Baking and Kiva Bread Pudding

This post, again, is slightly/very late in coming. Last week, as most of you know, was mother's day. Shame on you if you forgot. I did. Kind of. At least it was in the back of my mind until the last minute - I was worried about what I would buy for Mom, and my mind kind of ignored the approaching family gathering. As such, I only remembered last minute that I would be making desserts for this gathering. Shame on me.

This is where our lovely friend, Ms. O'Connor, saves the day. You are probably getting sick of of recipes from "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey," but I am not, and because my family members are partial to these adjectives, neither are they.

In this instance, we were catering to the sweet tooth of my grandmother (Bush the Tush). I flipped through the book looking for something sweet, yummy, and relatively simple. This came in the form of the "Big Blondes." I don't think I can include the recipe below because I followed her instructions pretty exactly without much personal innovation - suffice it to say, you need to buy this book. But I do have pictures!

batter in the pan



a little sticky



tower of blondies!

Overall, these were a success. The random chunky bits in the blondies included walnuts, almonds, pecans, white chocolate chips, semisweet chocolate chips, shredded coconut, and Heath bars. No, I did not go crazy and throw everything in the pantry into the batter; Mrs. O'Connor did say to include all of these things. With a second try, I would omit the semisweet chips; I don't think their taste melded with the other flavors well. Bush the Tush didn't seem to notice. In fact, she insisted... repetitively... that she wanted to take several blondies home.

Because I never feel that one dessert is enough and because blondies do not fulfill the chocolate overload required among dessert selections, I made "Grown-Up S'Mores." These had a graham cracker crust; chocolate mousse filling with creme de cacao, kahlua, and brandy; and a marshmallow fluff meringue topping. The meringue turned out slightly burnt when I tried to stick it under the broil - note that you really have to watch it when doing this. Otherwise, use a blow-torch. Again, please buy the book - no recipe here!

folding in the whipped cream for the mousse



marshmallow fluff meringue - note: Mrs. O'Connor has a ridiculous affinity for Fluff



it's like an avalanche. a really slow avalanche that you have to move yourself.

There was not as much enthusiasm for the S'mores as for the blondies, but the overall review from the relatives was positive. I think that next time I'll add more alcohol...

Finally, this same night, I made banana walnut bread pudding with brown sugar rum sauce as a test recipe for Kiva Han brunch. I fiddled with a recipe from epicurious (banana bread pudding with rum sauce), lightening it with half and half and whole milk instead of heavy whipping cream, adding walnuts, and omitting the raisins. I'm not going to include the recipe here because I was not satisfied with the results (I need to play with it).

Here's a pic of the bread pudding:

And one of Robin at Kiva brunch:)




~*'Biz'*~

Look Before You Buy (Come Here Little Ducky)

This post should have been up last Sunday, but I was a little busy (and a little lazy) this past week. That, and I was initially unsure of how traumatized some of our readers might be by the photo to follow. Be prepared.

Last Saturday, Robin, Mike, and I ventured to the Strip District for a little shopping adventure. We failed to include photos of the Vietnamese shop, but I did make some purchases there: some spicy/sweet beef jerky and a Peking duck for my great Uncle Bob. My uncle was reminiscing about the Strip District and mentioned that you could buy a very good Peking duck at a Chinese food store. Imagine my delight when I came across two drumsticks sticking out of what seemed to be an over-sized Chinese take-out container. I came home with my duck, and while I was out the next day, my mother stuck it in the oven for dinner. I came home, opened the oven door, and found this staring back at me:

Holy crap.

I do not have a problem with leaving a face on the food you're about to eat. When eating meat, you have to realize that you are eating something that was once a living thing. But I did not realize that, when roasted, the face of a duck becomes the face of the ride of Satan. The equine qualities lend themselves to a scene from "The Brother's Grimm;" I half-expected the thing to rise and swallow me whole.

How did the freaky thing taste? The flesh was rather greasy which was to be expected with duck meat, but I was especially disappointed to note that the proportionate of meat to fat was pretty small.

Not a good meal, but a fun time.

Whiskey Glazed Pear and Pancetta Stuffed Pork Chops

Contributing editor Wendy Lloyd made these pork chops tonight for her parents along with this pasta salad.

Whiskey Glazed Pear and Pancetta Stuffed Pork Chops

1/2 cup dried pears

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

8 pork chops

3 1/2 ounces of pancetta, diced (Whole Foods has pancetta already diced in a tube, as a sidenote)

1/4 cup whiskey

Salt

To make:

Put pears in a bowl and cover them with lukewarm water and let them soak.

In a pan, heat the oil and butter. When hot, add the pork chops and cook until brown on both sides. Remove the pork chops from the pan and set them aside.

Drain the pears, squeezing any excess water from them as necessary. Dice the pears.

Add the diced pancetta and the diced pears to the pan you just cooked the pork chops in. Stir them until the pancetta is browned, adding salt as needed.

Divide the pancetta/pear mixture onto the 8 pork chops, roll up and secure with toothpicks.

Place the rolled up pork chops back into the pan, add the whiskey, and cook until the whiskey has evaporated.

Notes:

April and Tim Lloyd (Wendy's parents) both loved these. Try them out! Use apricots instead of pears or ... someother pork based product to mix it up a little.

-Robin-

A Little Something Delicious

This week is all about consuming the random foods I have in my apartment before I move down to DC. Here is an example of a quick lunch or light dinner I made this afternoon.

Found Ingredients:

1 Garnette Yam from California (purchased last week at Whole Foods)
8 stalks of frozen asparagus (I know that its asparagus season, but I have frozen spears from Trader Joe's in my freezer that need to get used up)
8 whole walnuts, broken up into small pieces (left over from yesterday's Nut Log baking, see previous posting)
Palm full of dried cranberries
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Sprinkle of garlic powder

How To:

I washed the yam and cut the ends off (because they looked bad). I scored it with a knife in an X shape on the top and put it in the microwave in a bowl for 2 1/2 minutes.

While the yam heated, I combined the balsamic vinegar, cinnamon, walnuts, and cranberries in a small bowl. This way everything got coated.

When then the microwave beeped, I put the frozen asparagus into the bowl with the yam and let it heat for another 2 minutes.

When it was done, I used a fork to open the yam along where I had made the X and poured the walnut/cranberry mixture into the yam.

I sprinkled the asparagus with garlic powder and it was complete.

A simple lunch or light dinner that lessens the load of food I have to pack up and move.
-Robin-

Ridiculously Phallic Nut Logs

Once Biz and I returned to my apartment from the Strip District today, we decided to bake.

We made a modified version of Jill O'Connor's "Honey Caramel-Pecan Phyllo Slices" (P. 97 of Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey). We're calling them "Ridiculously Phallic Nut Logs" for reasons you will see below.

Ridiculously Phallic Nut Logs

For the Nutty Caramel:

3/4 cup honey

2 cups heavy cream (we used soy cream ... which was mildly sweetened already, so cut back on the sugar if you use vegan cream instead of dairy cream)

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (1 cup if using the sweetened soy whippable cream)
1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

12 ounces walnuts, coarsely chopped (the original recipe called for pecans, Biz likes walnuts better, so we used walnuts)

For Rollin' the Logs:

48 sheets of phyllo dough (that's about 1 1/2 lbs - we only had half a box, which wound up being half of what we needed! Use a brand new full box, trust us, you'll need all the sheets!) (Actually, I think there's 1lb per box, so maybe 1 1/2 boxes?)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted (we used soy margarine and it worked fine)
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (yes, more sugar, this is not necessarily exact, its more like whatever you need for sprinkling)

1. To make the caramel, add the granulated sugar, honey, "cream," and salt to a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over low heat and let the mixture come to a low boil. Allow the mix to simmer until it's thick and has a golden color. With the soy cream this took forever. Don't worry though, it will eventually get there. Add the walnuts and vanilla and transfer to an oiled/Pammed bowl.

the mix prior to heating

on the stove (the phyllo dough defrosting nearby)

bubbling and getting there...
after adding the nuts and having cooled a bit

2. Let the caramel cool until you're able to handle it, but it's still workable. Divide the caramel into 12 portions and roll into rope about 3/4 inch thick using your hands. Oiling yourself up really helps with this process (ie: spray your hands with Pam). We at the UCC figured this out after Robin had made several relatively successful logs and I had caramel all over my hands and was complaining about the burning. This being said, we also did not wait that long for the caramel to cool.
Let the logs cool completely until hard, or until your impatient ass gets the better of you.

Robin shaping the nut logs - so sexy (Nice hair-in-the-eye shot Biz!)

Shaped nut logs - now you know what we mean.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit while you construct the logs. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Place one layer of the phyllo onto a workspace, brush it lightly with the melted butter or soy margarine, and sprinkle a light amount of sugar on it. Lay another sheet of phyllo over this one and repeat the process; do this until you have a total of 4 sheets. Lay one of the logs lengthwise along the shorter edge of the phyllo sheets. Roll up the log in the phyllo layers, brush the top with butter/margarine, sprinkle it with sugar, and place it seam-side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat this until all logs are encased in phyllo. Bake them in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

into the oven!
out of the oven!

4. You should let the logs cool and the caramel filling become firm, but we just cut them open and ate them 5 minutes after they came out. The center was gooey and delicious, and the outside was crispy and buttery.

Yum!

-Robin- and ~*'Biz'*~

Let's Strip

Today, Biz, Mike, and I went to the Strip District. Our first stop was La Prima, where Biz knows EVERYONE who works there.

I have been going there since I was in 6th grade, so it's kind of a given. At 11, I was getting il cioccolato (hot chocolate) ... now it's a doppio macchiato made with skim (a double espresso marked with skim). What can I say? I'm hard-core.

There's Biz, shmoozing at La Prima counter.
She makes such attractive faces, I thought this one was blog-worthy.
I have a large repertoire of expressions - stay tuned for the blog long enough and you might see them all.

Next stop was Reyna's Mexican Foods; I always get amused going in there. I think they should have parties down the aisles and give children bats with which to hit the pinatas. Robin made the point that you have to be careful though. Not because candy will fall on your head but because some of the items on their shelves are past the expiration date. Bad past experiences, so check labels before you buy!

Pinatas in honor of Cinco de Mayo at Reyna's.
... Robin's confused, those pinatas are always there - the Mexicans know how to party.

No, there were WAY more pinatas today than usual. Reyna's was particularly festive today.

Good stuff. (My favorite Greek food store and the best place to buy my daily breakfast - Fage yogurt)
Not good stuff. St. Patrick's Day is WAY over.

I was oddly fascinated by the sign posted at the exit to Stamooli's. The Mexicans know how to party... the Greeks know how to have a funeral?...

We stopped at the Penn Ave Fish Company for lunch (Mike and I ate, Robin hung out and watched Henry the fishmonger). This is my personal favorite place to get fish in Pittsburgh - so fresh and so delicious.

What can I say? I like the mongers.

Henry, washing fish guts at the Penn Avenue Fish Company. Robin makes it sound so unappealing, what remains following the removal of fish entrails is an incredible piece of fishy flesh.

The process is unappealing. Henry is very appealing.
Henry held a tail-less shark up for us when we said it was for the blog. Oh the power of running a food blog.
Biz and Mike having sashimi for lunch at the Penn Avenue Fish Company.
Mike looks like he's very angry in this picture. Or like he's going to steal my fish.

Not included in this post are our visits to Penn Mac and the ever-prominent cheese counter, Mancini's Bread (where I bought Sarah, my sister, cinnamon sugar butter) , an antique stand, and a Vietnamese food shop.

-Robin- and ~*'Biz'*~