Monthly Review: January 2013

First monthly review for 2013!  What photos did I capture with my iPhone this month?

Interested what we did in the past?
2012: May, June, July, August, November, December

We make pizza at home regularly.  This was a shaved pizza recipe from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.  I went to see her at Politics & Prose in November, and now I can’t wait to try out more recipes from her book.

We also made some pizza for our friends who have a newborn.  We came prepared: dough, chopped ingredients, pizza stone.  What a fun nigh!

Need pizza topping ideas?  Try these: Apple & Smoked Cheese Whole Wheat Pizza; Mushroom & Broccoli Pizza.

I was trying out a recipe to post for the Chinese New Year– which will be in February this year.  Look forward to a delicious post in the next couple of weeks!

Need Asian-inspired recipes for your Chinese New Year party? Asian Vegetable Rolls with Peanut Sauce; Pear Sorbet with Sesame Wonton Crisps; Asian Noodle Bowl; Spicy Asian Salad with Sunflower Seeds; Veggie Stir Fry.

Sam and I are really excited to run the Rock ‘n Roll DC 1/2 Marathon in March!  This is a photo from one of our long runs in Rock Creek Park.  Are you running any upcoming races?  What distances?  Where do you do your long runs?

One beautiful Sunday afternoon, Sam and I went ice skating.  It’s been on our bucket list for some time, and we had a great time.  We went to the Sculpture Garden Ice Skating Ring!  What are some of your “to-do” activities for 2013?

Recently, our favorite bar has been Meridian Pint in Columbia Heights.  They have a large selection of beers, and some good food.  Have you been there before?  If not, definitely add it to your list!

We spent a fun Saturday afternoon people watching and eating sandwiches from Paul, the delicious French bakery.  Stop in: buy a sandwich, pastry, or coffee and read a book- it’s a perfect weekend afternoon!  There are a number of DC locations: Penn Quarter, Farragut North, Foggy Bottom, Georgetown, and soon there will be one out in Tysons Corner.

Back in May, Sam and I tried Kushi for the first time.  This time around I tried the lunch version with my friend Alix.  The dish pictured above was my Ocean’s Oyako Don (salmon & roe), and she had the Spicy Zuke Don (spicy soy sauce tuna).  The lunch dishes come with miso soup, salad and pickles- most within a $12-$15 price range.  What’s your favorite sushi place?

The 2013 Presidential Inauguration was held over Martin Luther King weekend.  This photo is from the day before, where you can see they covered up that fresh grass that had been growing.  I think everyone was a little worried it’d get trampled up with so many people walking all over it, but it’s good thing they had a Plan B!  Did anyone attend any fun Inauguration Balls?

I won a set of AirBake cookie sheets from a giveaway Olga, of Mango & Tomato, was having on her blog!  I’m excited to bake some delicious cookies- any suggestions or recommendations?

Olga and I met at the Eat Write Retreat DC Blogger Conference back in May.  It’s been great making a new friend, and fellow food blogger.  I love her recipes, so definitely check out her blog for more giveaways and her fun stories!

I also received Breakfast for Dinner, the new cookbook by Lindsey and Taylor, of Love and Olive Oil.  We got this signed copy for helping out with some recipe testing earlier this year.  This was one of the first blogs I started reading, long before Fifth Floor Kitchen started, and I was so excited to help them out!  Can’t wait to try more delicious recipes from this book (in bookstores on February 12)!

Lastly, we finished off the month by trying out the Moroccan Chickpea & Sweet Potato Stew from A Couple of Cooks.  They have some fabulous vegetarian recipes, so definitely check out their blog- this particular one was easy and delicious, makes for great lunch leftovers!

We’ve got exciting news coming in February, so come back soon!

Spicy Veggie Lentil Curry

Being a food blogger does have some perks, one of them is trying out new products I might not otherwise get my hands on.  After noticing that we had bought some habañeros and other spicy peppers at the Penn Quarter Farmer’s Market, Plato’s Olive Oil contacted us to see if we would be interested in trying out one of their infused olive oils.

Of course Sam, the spice lover of this household, wanted to give this a try.  He’s even been thinking about making some of his own!  So we waited patiently for our olive oil to arrive.

Plato’s Olive Oil is a family owed company based in California.  The owner was looking for an olive oil infused with spicy flavors, and wasn’t able to find any- so he began experimenting!  The original, and the product which was sent us, is their habañero-infused olive oil, which comes from the Napa region in California.

To give it a try, I decided to make some lentil curry- and thought that the extra spice from Plato’s olive oil would be a perfect kick.  And I was not disappointed, the olive oil gave this dish the extra spice it needed!

But there is no way around it, and many food bloggers and photographers can agree, brown food is so difficult to photograph!  But sometimes- in this case a spicy veggie curry- it’s so delicious, I wish it’d look a bit nicer to show off it’s tastiness.

Veggie Lentil Curry
Adapted from: SweetSugarBean

2 tbsp Plato’s Habanero-Infused olive oil (or regular olive oil)
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 small carrots, chopped
1 inch ginger, shredded
2 jalapeño, chopped (optional)
3 tbsp spicy curry paste
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 14.5 oz light coconut milk
2 cups uncooked lentils
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 head of cauliflower
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Heat up the olive oil in a large pot.  Once heated, add the onions and allow them to cook for about 5 minutes, or until they become translucent.  Then add in the garlic, carrots, ginger and jalapeños.  Cook for an additional 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Next add in the curry paste, cayenne pepper, cumin and coriander.  Allow to cook for about a minute, then add in the tomatoes, coconut milk and lentils.  Stir well and bring to a boil.  Then lower to a simmer, and cook until the beans are done (about 40 minutes).

Once the lentils are cooked, add in the chickpeas, cauliflower and peas.  Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Finally, stir in the cilantro and serve.

Disclosure: I received a bottle of Plato’s Habanero-Infused Olive Oil to try, but did not receive additional compensation for this post, or was under any obligation to blog about it.

Food Matters Project #6: Hummus

It’s another recipe idea from The Food Matters Project!  I’m slightly delayed, but I’m blaming it all on the chickpeas.  This weeks recipe was chosen by Erin of Naturally Ella.  She has a beautiful blog, with wonderful pictures that everyone should check out!  Erin had chosen the Hummus Served Hot recipe from Mark Bittman’s book- Food Matters Cookbook.  Check out the comments section to see what others had made.

The original recipe was hummus served hot, which Mark Bittman discovered while visiting Turkey.  He also suggested a variety of different flavors for the hummus, not just the plain one.

Although hot hummus in a sandwich sounds wonderful, we’ve been trying to make our own hummus for a while now, with a number of failed attempts.  Most of the time we can’t get the texture right, although that hasn’t been our only issue.  Of course when making this, we have another failed attempt- but the kitchen disasters are what makes cooking fun!

We’ve been trying to use less canned goods, and trying out more dried lentils and beans.  So I picked up a couple of bags of dried chickpeas from the grocery store.  Per package instructions, I intended to soak them overnight.  But we had somewhat of a busy weekend, and about 48 hours later, when we checked out the chickpeas they had a weird smell to them.  Yes, they began fermenting in their water, yes the 2 pounds of dried chickpeas.  Which is why I’m blaming this delayed post on the chickpeas- I had to grab another bag from the store yesterday.

Round 2: Rinse of the chickpeas.  Soak the chickpeas in water and 1 tsp of baking soda (mix it up) for about 3.5 hours (or longer).  Rinse off the chickpeas.  Add them into a large pot, fill with water well above the chickpeas.  Heat until the water boils, and then lower the heat to medium-low.  Boil the chickpeas for about 2 hours, or until they are soft and mushy when you try them.

Yes, we won over the chickpeas!!!  My excitement doubled when I made pitas from scratch yesterday- and they worked on the first try.  But that recipe will have to wait for tomorrow.

Garlic Hummus
Adapted from: The Food Matters Cookbook (page 356)

1 lb chickpeas (canned or cooked)
1 head of garlic, roughly chopped
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water

Add the chickpeas, garlic and lemon juice into a food processor.  Purèe until the texture is smooth.  Then slowly add the olive oil and water, do this a little at a time- you don’t want to hummus to get too soggy.  Continue to purèe until the consistency is to your liking (this means you can use less/more water or olive oil).

*Note: I am allergic to tahini, but it is usually added to hummus.  You’d add it in with the chickpeas and garlic, about 1/4 cup.

Barley Salad with Veggies

Rain was predicted for today, and thunder.  Instead, it’s hot outside here in DC!  Summer is just around the corner, yay!  We’ll enjoy it for today- outdoors!

Every month 2 of my friends and I meet up at each other’s places and make dinner.  We switch off between our homes and the themes for the dinners, and the person who hosts also does the cooking.  Others bring the wine/beer.  Every month I really look forward to my time with A* and C* just because we always end up having fabulous conversations, and have tons of fun.  =)  Last night I hosted, and we had an array of wonderful food (if I do say so myself), which I will write about later in future posts.  But for now, I’ll give you some hints: dinner rolls, a Nutella bar, orzo salad and vegetable soup with parsley crisps.

Although, wonderful company makes food taste even better!

Barley Salad with Veggies
Adapted from: Cooking Light

1 cup uncooked pearl barley
3 cups arugula, lightly chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 large roasted red bell pepper, chopped
1 15oz chickpeas, rinsed and drained
juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 cup pistachios

Cook barley according to package directions.

Once the barley is cooked, combine: barley, arugula, red bell pepper, roasted red bell pepper and chickpeas in a large bowl.  In a smaller bowl mix: lemon juice, oil, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and stir.  Sprinkle the top of the salad with pistachios.

Veggie Flatbread with Cilantro Hummus

As many of you have probably noticed through  most of these posts, we don’t eat much meat here at Fifth Floor Kitchen.  Our thoughts are that if we do want to eat meat, we prefer “happy cows/chickens/etc”.  The fact that we didn’t have any meat in our fridge came in handy this weekend.  Our fridge broke!  Well, the freezer was working, but the fridge was warm.  (Yes, the beer did not get as cold.)  It’ll be completely fixed today, at 5pm, when the Refrigerator Man comes by and changes a thermostat.  I guess these are the pleasures of home ownership?  Most of the food survived, except some of the dairy products such as: milk, sour cream and some half-and-half.  But we’re back to a happy kitchen. 

This accompanied the Cucumber Gazpacho for dinner one night.  Also very simple to make, and very springy.  The original recipe called for pita bread, but while searching for it at Whole Foods I was concentrating on the “whole wheat”.  So instead I grabbed a flatbread.  (to me, these two are fairly similar- pita bread is thinner, while the flatbread is a bit thicker and softer)  I would say this was similar to a personal pizza, it’s got veggies and cheese (but could have so much  more on it).  The only exception is the “sauce” is cilantro-hummus-flavored.  So as long as you like cilantro, this is defintely worth a try.  The veggies on this don’t need to be the same, feel free to add what you like on your flatbread. 

Veggie Flatbread with Cilantro Hummus
Inspired by: Vegetarian Times

1/2 cup cilantro leaves
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 15-oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
juice of 1/2 lime
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup water
2 flatbreads (or pita’s)
2 jarred roasted red peppers, drained & sliced into strips
1 cup spinach leaves
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

To make hummus, add the cilantro and garlic into the food processor.  Turn on for about 1 minute until everything is chopped.  Then add the chickpeas, lime juice, oil and water.  Puree for 3 minutes until the mixture is creamy. 

Place the 2 flatbreads on baking sheet.  Spread each with the cilantro hummus.  Then top with peppers, mushrooms and spinach leaves.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  Bake for about 10 minutes, the flatbread should be crisp and the cheese should be melting.