Simple Sesame Noodles

Posted on March 15, 2013 by jesslovesphilly

It’s starting to get nicer here in Philly, although March is a difficult time for weather around these parts. One day will be be 60 and sunny and the next will be 35 and windy. I’ve been getting in the mood for the warm weather on those 60 degree days by listening to country music, taking more walks outside, and trying some warm-weather-friendly recipes.

I love cold sesame noodles and when I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I had to take a look. I had most of the ingredients already at my house so I just picked up some ginger and green onions and I was in business. I’m a big fan of something similar available at Trader Joe’s and I was nervous I couldn’t live up to it but I was pleasantly surprised.

This is a super simple recipe that you can make at the beginning of the week and have in the fridge whenever you need it. I made a big batch on Monday and had some as a side dish for lunches and dinners. It keeps well and might even get better with time. There are so many different flavors in the sauce but they make for the perfect combination.

Simple Sesame Noodles
recipe from Pioneer Woman, found here

12 ounces, fluid Thin Noodles, Cooked And Drained
¼ cups Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Sugar
4 cloves Garlic, Minced
2 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
3 Tablespoons Pure Sesame Oil
½ teaspoons Hot Chili Oil ( I left this out)
4 Tablespoons Canola Oil
2 Tablespoons Hot Water
4 whole Green Onions, Sliced Thin

I love making pasta with my dishes and challenging myself to have everything else ready by the time the pasta has cooled. It’s definitely the little things in life, guys. I used regular spaghetti for these but thin spaghetti would definitely work. I didn’t go out of my way when it came to the noodles and spaghetti served me just fine.

I started boiling water for the noodles and set to work on the rest of the recipe. Combine the rest of the ingredients (except for the green onions) and whisk together. Cook the noodles when your water is boiling. When the noodles have been strained and cooled (to at least room temperature but you can go colder if you’d like), pour the sauce over them and mix in some chopped green onions. It’s a no brainer recipe that tastes just like you hope it would!

Luckily I bought Rice Vinegar and Sesame Oil awhile back and never got around to using them…

The Sauce

Chopping time

Everything mixed together

These were unbelievably good! They have the perfect sesame flavor and the hints of garlic, sugar, and rice vinegar round out the taste. It’s a perfect summer side dish. I seriously can’t say enough good things about these little noodle guys!

Irish Potato Candy

Posted on March 11, 2013 by jesslovesphilly

It’s that time of the year again… St. Patrick’s Day season!

In case you weren’t aware, St. Patrick’s Day is not really just a day. It’s more of a month long celebration. Two weekends ago I attended Lepre-con in Hoboken, NJ and this past weekend was Erin Express in Philadelphia. Next weekend is the real St. Patrick’s Day, which makes for 3 weekends straight of wearing green. Is every place in the world as enthusiastic about day drinking and rocking shamrock sunglasses?

I’ve always been a fan of St. Patrick’s Day because it’s two days before my birthday and always a lot of fun. I start getting excited when the wave of green hits the grocery store. There’s usually some display near the front of the store complete with cookies & green icing, shamrock shaped cupcakes, balloons covered in rainbows and pots of gold, and…. Irish potatoes.

I never realized these were kind of a Philly thing. Oh Ryan’s Irish Potatoes can be found at almost every grocery or convenience store in the area and that’s how it’s always been. When I casually pointed them out to Jeremy and he was unfazed, I was shocked. He had no clue what these little potatoes were made of.

Irish Potatoes are not made of potato at all (at least, this kind isn’t). These potatoes are packed with confectioner’s sugar and coconut, rolled into balls, and covered with cinnamon. They’re hardly good for you but they’re so sweet and rich, they’re worth the seasonal indulgence. This year, instead of buying the classic package at the grocery store, I tried making them myself. Great news: this recipe is so so easy and tastes just like the real thing.

I found the recipe here and made 1/4 of a batch because I knew having these in the house could be dangerous. 1/4 of a batch yields about 12 – 15 potatoes, which was more than enough for what I needed.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

To start, soften the butter and cream cheese in the microwave. It will make for easier mixing. Add in the rest of the ingredients except for the cinnamon and mix together. I used my hands and a nice little ball of potato (pictured below). Roll the mixture into bite sized balls and roll those in cinnamon. My potatoes were maybe 3/4″ in diameter but feel free to eyeball it. Real potatoes are not exactly perfect and round so don’t stress if yours aren’t either.

Ingredients mixed together:

For rolling the potatoes in cinnamon, I covered a plate in cinnamon and rolled them on there.

A baby batch means baby dishes!

After rolling, I refrigerated my potatoes because of the butter and cream cheese. They’re also quite delicious when they’re refrigerated and a little more firm. If you’re looking for an easy St. Patrick’s Day treat, these should definitely be a contender. You don’t have to be from Philly to know these are a hit. Happy St. Patrick’s Day season to all!

Grilled Pineapple Salsa

Posted on February 24, 2013 by jesslovesphilly

I remember reading once that one should eat colorful meals as these are generally on the healthier side. Fruits and veggies add a lot of color to your plate and they’re essential for well balanced meals.

I wasn’t thinking about this idea at all when I stumbled upon this Grilled Pineapple Salsa recipe but, as the recipe came together, it was hard to ignore all of the colors in my bowl. Initially, I was drawn to the flavors; I love pineapple, red onion, and cilantro. I’m starting to push myself to try spicier food as well so I thought the jalapeno would be a step in the right direction.

Source: closetcooking.com via Jessica on Pinterest

This salsa was amazing. I truly think it might be my favorite recipe I’ve made thus far. It’s so flavorful and fairly easy to make and the grilled pineapple flavor is so so good with the jalapeno and red onion. It’s salsa on another level. Plus, it’s made up entirely of items from the produce section so you don’t have to feel guilty about heaping it onto your plate. All you really need is a good knife, a cutting board, and a grill! I used my pink George Foreman grill because part of me thinks I’m still in college.

Ingredients

1/2 pineapple, Peeled, cored and sliced 1/4 inch thick ( I used two 20 oz cans on pineapple rings instead
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 jalapeno chili pepper, finely diced
1 lime, juice and zest
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
salt to taste

I modified the recipe a bit from the original. I used canned pineapple because I was pressed for time and wasn’t brave enough to dismantle a fresh pineapple on my own. I also used 1/2 jalapeno pepper rather than 1 because I wanted to take baby steps in my spice initiative. It ended up being a good choice because this salsa was fairly hot with only 1/2 jalapeno pepper. Even Jeremy thought so and he willingly adds jalapeno to anything. If you’re not into spice you could probably use 1/4 of a pepper or even omit it. That’s your call.

I started with the pineapple and chopped the other ingredients while the pineapple was on the grill. It’s all about time management, as always. I brushed both sides of the pineapple with oil and cooked 2 or 3 rings at a time on my little George Foreman grill. I chopped my onions, cilantro, and jalapeno when I wasn’t dealing with the pineapple rings. When all of the rings were grilled, I cut each of them into roughly 8-10 pieces. Next, I piled all of the ingredients into a bowl, added the lime juice/zest, and mixed it all together for the finished product.

I just made a big batch of this and plan to use it throughout the week on whatever I can. It’s that good. For now, I’m back to Oscar watching.

Things I’m Really Into Right Now

Posted on February 15, 2013 by jesslovesphilly

Happy Belated Valentine’s day to everyone! I hope your day was filled with romance, flowers, and cards if that’s what you’re into. If not, I hope you did a good job avoiding Facebook and Instagram. I agree with those of you who would say that we shouldn’t need one day to celebrate love and we should celebrate the ones we love everyday but I’m a total sucker for holidays. I especially love holidays with a focus around red, pink, hearts, and glitter so haters go ahead and hate. I had a wonderful day but I’ll spare you the details. My boyfriend is a caring, thoughtful person and he is great at showing it. I’ll leave it at that.

I feel like I’ve been suffering from writer’s block these days. The other day I went to get a pulmonary function test for my doctor and the lab tech who worked with me said he’s heard there’s no such thing as writer’s block. It turns out he’s a writer and has some published pulp fiction so we had some great conversation. Anyway, I think he meant you’re supposed to force yourself through writer’s block and try new angles. The easiest angle I could think of was just writing about the things I’m really into right now.

I’m really into Girls. The show on HBO, not the people. I hate to go so broad as to say Lena Dunham is the voice of my generation, as many have already asserted, but she does, like, totally get it. In the most recent episode she has a quasi-mental breakdown about being happy and gathering all of life’s experiences. I also don’t want to say I’m prone to mental breakdowns but I feel like I’m always very conscious of making sure I’m experiencing everything I want to so that I don’t “grow up” and feel like I missed something. I even went to Manayunk’s ice sculpture festival last week just in case I would have freaked out at age 40 because I never went to Manayunk’s ice sculpture festival. I mean, who does that??

I’m really into “This American Life” with Ira Glass. I used to be totally resistant to NPR because I thought referring to things as acronyms made people sound like elitist butt heads. Like, “you don’t listen to NPR? I loooove NPR. It’s so intellectual and elite.” I have since matured and now listen to “This American Life” because it is actually really awesome. I find myself repeating stories to people all the time and at first they’re like, “Why are you telling me about Dolly Madison?” and then they’re like, “Wow, what a skank.” Actually, the real story was about Rachel Jackson, wife of Andrew Jackson, and she totally probably wasn’t a skank but that just didn’t sound as funny. The Valentine’s Day episode was especially entertaining/heart-breaking/ridiculous. So go, be cool and listen to NPR. Or you can listen online like I do and just avoid all of the fancy pretenses.

I’m really into Silver Linings Playbook, as I have been since I saw it a few months ago. It’s set in Philadelphia so it’s an automatic win for me right away. Jennifer Lawrence and Robert DeNiro are especially good (and totally deserve Oscars, go ahead and disagree with me if you’d like) but even the little things in this movie are perfect. I ended up reading the book after seeing the movie (because I was that into it) but I was surprised to find I liked the movie better. The whole element of betting is missing from the book and I think that really added a lot to the plot. This movie also ignited my love for “Ho Hey”, my current ringtone, and The Lumineers. It’s such a feel good story despite the plot revolving around mental illness and death. It also has an amazing cast and some excellent humor; even the minor characters add a lot to the movie.

I’m also really into today’s warm weather on the East Coast and some of the items I bought earlier this week from anthropologie including this lovely beanie:

Source: anthropologie.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Last but definitely not least… I’m really into the fact that it’s Friday and the weekend is only a few hours away. Happy hour is calling my name.

Hating Nemo

Posted on February 12, 2013 by jesslovesphilly

This weekend didn’t exactly go as I had planned it thanks to a Winter Storm with a cute, fishy little name. Nemo left Philadelphia practically untouched; we got no more than 2 inches of snow. What Nemo did accomplish, however, was ruining my plans to travel to New York City and stay with two of my friends in their new apartment. I love New York and haven’t been in far too long. Lucky for me, Philadelphia is a mere 2 hours away and tickets are less than $30 round trip. My one consolation is that I’ll be visiting NYC the first two weekends in March so a trip is not too far in the future.

Staying in Philly led to a strange turn of events in that my weekend sort of revolved around the Lunar New Year. We did our usual Pho trip on Saturday because the restaurant would be closed on Sunday. On Sunday, I traveled to Chinatown with two friends for some dim sum because it’s been in the works for a few weeks now. One friend, Will, did a lot of research and settled on Joy Tsin Lau because of its positive ratings on Yelp. It turned out to be a popular spot because we ended up waiting over a half an hour to be seated. The restaurant was packed with families and groups of friends celebrating the Lunar New Year. In fact, all of Chinatown was packed with people celebrating the New Year; I’ve never seen the streets so crowded there.

The architecture in Chinatown is so colorful and set a perfect backdrop for Chinese New Year related festivities. Not pictured here are the piles of firecracker shells that were lining the streets and every corner. Clearly people had fun on these streets the night before. It was nice to be back in Chinatown, as I hadn’t visited for awhile, and it was nice to experience the fun of the Lunar New Year even if I wasn’t totally stoked about the new moon calendar. It felt like we were witnessing Christmas for a lot of families in the restaurant… it’s always nice to be around that sort of atmosphere.

Joy Tsin Lau was the most colorful building on the block and the inside did not disappoint. It was colorful and ornate, although incredibly crowded. I avoided taking pictures inside because of the crowds so these will have to do. I also couldn’t tell you much about what I ate or what anything was called because it was loud and I had no idea what any of the names meant for the items we pulled off the cart. I just know I ate a lot of dumpling looking things and most of it was delicious. I was challenged to just go with things and try whatever was on the table but after Will said the tripe looked like cat tongue that was a lost cause for me.

One of my other great accomplishments for the weekend, besides celebrating my first Lunar New Year, was my Valentine’s Day manicure. I took the holiday as an excuse to paint each of my nails a different shade of red/pink even though I know my mom would say it was tacky. She and I don’t see eye to eye when it comes to “funky nail polish” as she would call it and she probably still hasn’t stopped judging me for the first shade of blue nail polish I purchased but it’s all good. We agree on most other things, or at some things.

From thumb to pinky (All Essie): Fiesta, Off the Shoulder, We’re in it Together, Leading Lady, Watermelon.

For those of you who have taken pictures of your nails: how weird is it? I feel like a total nerd and I always think my hands look weird but I really wanted to share. No guts no glory, right?

Super Bowl Sunday

Posted on February 6, 2013 by jesslovesphilly

The Super Bowl was a big win for the Ravens, Joe Flacco, Beyonce, and my kitchen. All of the above put in a lot of good effort for the Championship game and it definitely paid off. See what I did there?

Super Bowl Sunday is a big event in most American house holds but it was especially big for me this year because the Ravens were playing and because my kitchen game has never been so good. I had to take advantage of the opportunity to really push the envelope on snackage. In reality, not everything I made was super challenging… it was more a test of endurance. It was a two day project that required making dough here, cooking an eye roast there and was complete with a mad dash at the end to pile everything in the oven at 350 degrees. It’s all about that strategy.

Bear with me, this post will be picture heavy. Menu items include:

Ham and Cheese Pretzel Bites
Italian Sub Layered Bake
Spinach Dip
Pretzel Buttons
Purple & Gold Cupcakes

Ham and Cheese Pretzel Bites:

Original recipe from Pip and Ebby here

Please excuse the parchment paper in the background but this is the best picture I got. These were so good. Like, insanely good. They flew off the plate way faster than anything else. I will admit, they were a pain to make because I had to forgo some time watching the game to boil these guys in boiling water with baking soda but, in the end, I would say it’s worth it. They weren’t too difficult to make… just time consuming and a little messy. Jeremy claimed they were “just like Auntie Anne’s” which I think is a stretch but they definitely had some of that buttery, pretzel goodness.

I would post the entire recipe but for the sake of time… check out the link above. For now, I’ll leave you with progress pictures.

Dough Rolled out (2 of 4 pieces)

With Ham & Cheese – pre rolling

after baking soda boiling

Unboiled versus boiled – see how they puff up?

Not the prettiest final shot but, trust me, you can’t go wrong with pretzel, ham, and cheese

Italian Sub Layered Bake

Original recipe here

You can’t go wrong with meat when it comes to the Super Bowl. This recipe had more than enough deli meat to go around plus it was warm with melted cheese. Really, it was bound to go over well.

Ingredients

1 roll refrigerated crescent rolls
1/2 pound sliced deli capicola
1/2 pound sliced deli ham
8 slices salami
8 slices swiss cheese
2 egg whites
Salt & pepper
(optional) garlic salt, oregano, Italian seasoning

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Split your crescent roll dough in half for top and bottom pieces. I was able to find crescent roll dough in a whole sheet, meant for baking purposes so I just cut the rectangle into two squares and went on my way. Layer on half of the meat & cheese and whisk your egg whites with some salt and pepper in a bowl on the side. Drizzle half of the egg whites over your dish and layer on the rest of the meat. Drizzle the remaining egg whites on top and press the second crescent roll square on top of it all. I added some garlic salt, oregano, and Italian seasoning to the top for some extra flavor. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes then remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes.

Pretzel Buttons

Original Recipe here

These are so so easy and I got a ton of compliments on them. They’re definitely a nice dish to bring to a party if you want to making something but you’re not trying to get aggressive with the cooking.
All you need are:

square pretzels
a bag of Hershey’s Hugs
plain M&M’s

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees (170 if your oven runs hot). On parchment paper, arrange pretzels with Hugs on top. Bake them in the oven for 4 – 5 minutes. I did 4 minutes at 200 and I think my Hugs were a little too melted but they still worked. When the chocolate is shiny and soft (but still holds its shape) pull them out of the oven and place an M&M carefully in the center of each Hug. Let the chocolate cool completely before moving them. I would definitely recommend refrigerating them for 5 – 10 minutes… they took awhile to cool on the counter.

Spinach Dip

Source: joandsue.blogspot.ca via Jessica on Pinterest

This was the Spinach Dip recipe I made but, unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture. Spinach dip is the perfect Super Bowl food and it’s always fun to try and figure out the best way to cut a bread bowl. I used Knorr’s vegetable soup mix instead of the dry leek soup mix in the recipe and I added more sour cream and no mayo. I tweaked it just a bit… gotta stick with the Spinach Dip I know and love.

Lastly, I present my Ravens cupcakes! These were pretty standard; I bought easy cake mix and premade frosting but I dyed the batter yellow and purple and swirled it together in the cupcake tin. Jeremy also played sous chef and dyed the icing. He was also in charge of M&M placement… crucial task.

Dying the batter

Mixed

I filled the tins with half of each color and swirled them together with a toothpick

”BR” for the Baltimore Ravens

My kitchen lighting is oh so yellow but you can see the purple here. Definitely the winning edge that kept the Ravens above water after Blackout-gate slowed their roll. People kept talking about how the momentum was gone but the Ravens kept it together at the end. I liked the strategy in the end with the intentional safety. You save plays like those in high stress situations… like the Super Bowl. Let me know what you thought of the game! Or the commercials. Or Beyonce. Or the blackout. Aaaaand I’m done.

The Lumineers

Posted on February 4, 2013 by jesslovesphilly

Source: 24.media.tumblr.com via Jessica on Pinterest

It seems safe to assume most of you reading this have heard “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers but if you haven’t, check it out here. It’s one of those songs with so much feeling behind it, I can’t help but debate my existence and purpose in life every time I hear it. Maybe that’s a little intense but the song always gets me thinking or, at the very least, feeling.

Jeremy is a big Lumineers fan so tickets to one of their concerts was high up on my list of potential Christmas gifts for him. Unfortunately, my only option was to pay $90 per ticket on Stubhub for the worst seats in the house because scalpers bought up all of the tickets at face value during the presale. So many times I almost just bought a pair for $180 but my resistance paid off when, about two weeks ago, the Lumineers posted on their Facebook page more tickets were being released. This time, the only way to get them would be to pick them up at the box office of the Tower Theater, where the concert would be held. Jeremy and I were about 15 minutes away from the theater as the message was posted so we headed right out to the box office and picked up a pair of tickets in the 7th row at face value, $35. Miracle of miracles.

The Tower Theater in Upper Darby, PA à la Instagram

The show was incredible. The crowd was a little bit older than I had expected; I thought for sure the lyrics would pull in a high school girl crowd but it was a lot of couples and the vast majority appeared older than us. The fact that the show was a Thursday night could have affected who was in attendance but the couple next to us, who were probably in their fifties, knew the lyrics to every song and they danced along the whole time. The band must consist of a very musical bunch because each one of them played 7 different instruments while they were on stage. They had a new piano and this was only the second date of their first big tour so you could tell they thought the whole night was just as cool as we did. Neyla, the only female member, kept scanning the crowd and smiling like she couldn’t believe this many people knew every word to these songs they had written. In a world of big stars and auto-tune, it was so refreshing to see obvious musical talent presented by musicians who were genuinely and visibly grateful for the audience’s enthusiasm.

Since the concert, I’ve been replaying the Lumineers album over and over on Spotify. It accompanied me through my epic day of cooking leading up to the Super Bowl yesterday and for a good part of my work day so far. I’ll post tomorrow or Wednesday about the Super Bowl… if you’re a foodie, check back because I scoured Pinterest for the best recipes and there were definitely some real winners. Also sending out a well-deserved congratulations to the Ravens! Jeremy is a big fan, which has led me to adopt the Ravens as my AFC team. I would have loved it if the Eagles had won but a Super Bowl Championship for the Ravens is the next best thing in my eyes.

More on this later… for now, I’ll leave you with the two Lumineers songs I seriously can’t get out of my head. There aren’t official videos yet but I found cool live recordings from The Sights of Sounds.

These Two Lanes