Week 47 - Mushrooms

We love mushrooms and eat them often, so for the Week 47 challenge focused on mushrooms, I went looking for mushrooms made in a style that we hadn't tried before. I found a quick mushroom recipe on The Kitchn for buttered balsamic mushrooms, and that sounded like a good addition to our Thanksgiving-style dinner.

The ingredients were:

- about 1 tbsp olive oil ($0.10)

- 2 shallots ($0.98)

- 2 tbsp butter ($0.18)

- 2 boxes of cremini mushrooms ($4.58)

- salt & pepper ($0.02)

- dried rosemary ($0.08)

- dried thyme ($0.08)

- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar ($0.18)

- heaping tbsp of brown sugar ($0.08)

- 1 tbsp soy sauce ($0.10)

- 1 large spoonful of garlic ($0.05)

The cost for the mushrooms was about $6.43, with the bulk of the cost from the mushrooms and the shallots. We ate them with some green beans ($0.95), cathead biscuits ($3.34), and the Trader Joe's breaded turkey-less stuffed roast with gravy ($12.99). The entire dinner cost about $23.71, more than our usual challenge meals (or dinners generally), but it was our pre-Thanksgiving feast (since we ordered a catered one for actual Thanksgiving day). We had leftovers for lunch the next day (roast and biscuits), and then some more roast for dinner, so the cost was spread out a little bit more.

The steps for making the mushrooms were:

1. Prep - wash and slice mushrooms; chop shallots.

2. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add shallots, and cook until starting to soften.

3. Add the butter and melt.

4. Add the mushrooms, and cook until they start releasing juice, stirring often. Add salt, pepper, and about 1/2-1 tsp (didn't measure) of rosemary and thyme, rubbing the dried herbs in your hands before adding. [The seasonings were supposed to be added with the mushrooms, but I forgot until a few minutes later. It was fine. Also, had never heard the tip about rubbing the herbs before, but it makes sense.]

5. Once the mushrooms have started releasing juice, lower heat to medium low, and add the balsamic, brown sugar, soy sauce, and garlic.

6. Cook until the mushrooms are soft and the sauce has reduced.

The mushrooms were delicious, with lots of flavor from the garlic and herbs. The rosemary and thyme were much stronger than I was expecting, but maybe I should have been rubbing the spices in my hand all along before adding them to dishes! These mushrooms were a perfect accompaniment for this Thanksgiving feast, and I would gladly make these again as a vegetable side dish.

Week 48 - Leftovers

Skipping over Week 47 because it's Thanksgiving, it's time to talk about the Week 48 leftovers challenge. Not only was there leftover stuffing cake that I just ate as cake for breakfast and lunch for a couple of days, but there was more stuffing that didn't make it into the cake. I saved it specifically to repurpose as leftovers for the challenge because one can never have too much stuffing.

I don't remember where I saw it anymore, maybe Chowhound, but someone suggested making stuffing cups filled with egg. That sounded brilliant and perfect for brunch, so that's what we did. First, you add the stuffing to a greased muffin tin, and then you create a well in each cup for where the egg will go. As you can see, I put too much stuffing in each cup. Then we baked the stuffing at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.

I couldn't remember whether the eggs were beaten first or not in the recipe I was inspired by, so I decided to try it both ways since we had four stuffing cups. In two of them, we added an egg unbeaten. The egg whites overflowed all over the pan since there wasn't enough room for the egg in the well of the stuffing cup. Oops. Since that didn't go as planned, we beat a third egg and split it for the other two cups, which worked better but still not perfectly.

Then the muffin pan went back in the oven for another 10 or so minutes until the eggs looked done enough to eat. The cups with the beaten eggs worked so much better, but it's possible both would have been fine if I hadn't overloaded each cup with so much stuffing.

Although the stuffing cups were pretty good, I think the stuffing cake was better. But it was a fun way to turn stuffing leftovers into brunch!

Week 46 - Underused Equipment

I've been posting about the 52 week cooking challenge in order this year, but am making an exception for the next two, given that we're in the midst of Thanksgiving. The Week 46 challenge was for underused equipment. Unfortunately we have too much underused equipment in our kitchen, and I thought I'd have to break out the stand mixer or the juicer or something else that would take up a lot of space. But after A reminded me about a particular plate that I used to prefer for serving Bundt cake, it occurred to me that I could make a savory Bundt cake. Even better, that Bundt cake could be made of stuffing. I love stuffing.

The stuffing recipe I used was pretty much the same one that I used for the Week 10 challenge last year, based on the stuffing my family makes on Thanksgiving. The only real differences were that this time I added celery and carrots, and also used the entire pound of chicken breakfast sausage. Otherwise it was pretty much the same thing.

The carrots and celery meant more prep, but I wanted to include more vegetables in the stuffing since I wasn't going to be making lots of vegetable sides like you might get on Thanksgiving. I liked the stuffing quite a bit with those additions, and will probably make it like that from now on (as long as it's not for my parents because of celery allergies).

After making the stuffing (cook vegetables, cook sausages without casing, add stuffing mix, add chicken broth and water as needed, add cilantro), we loaded it into a greased Bundt pan and then baked it at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I probably could have baked it longer, but happily, it stayed together after we flipped it out on to my favorite cake plate. I thought the ridges of the Bundt pan would be more pronounced, but it still looked good.

We cut the stuffing into slices like it was a cake, and I even wrapped the leftover pieces in plastic wrap like slices of cake. Although it didn't taste dramatically different from the stuffing that I kept eating straight from the pot, it was fun seeing it in cake form, and it was so tasty.

I did make one vegetable side to go with the stuffing cake - glazed shallots based on a recipe I found on Bon Appetit. Basically, you take the outer layers and ends off of the shallots and put them in a large skillet. On top of the shallots, you pour in a cup of chicken broth, 2 tbsp of melted butter, 1/2 cup of white wine, a tbsp of sugar, salt, and pepper. It was a lot of liquid and I wasn't sure if I should have used less considering I was probably making less shallots than their recommended amount.

The whole thing is brought to a boil and then simmered until the liquid is more like a thick glaze. It took about 15 minutes, and I kept rotating the shallots to try to make sure they cooked evenly. The recipe added another tbsp of butter at the end, but I thought we had more than enough butter already, so I skipped it. That was probably a good move as the glaze was really, really buttery and quite salty. I probably should have used less of the sauce ingredients. The shallots tasted good, but it was just too much butter and salt.

Since the plan this year is Chinese food for Thanksgiving, it was nice to already have my November stuffing fix earlier in the month. It also functioned as some much needed comfort food during a difficult week for us, and we were thankful.

Turkey Carnitas

When we came back from Thanksgiving, we returned with giant bags of leftovers, both stuff from the actual Thanksgiving dinner and other produce that my parents had in their fridge that they wouldn't be able to use in time. Lucky for us, Kenji had posted a recipe on Serious Eats on Thanksgiving for leftover turkey carnitas. Sounded like the perfect way to get rid of some leftovers.

Everything we used for this meal came from leftovers except for the canola oil for frying, bay leaves, and the sour orange. The local markets didn't have any actual sour oranges, but they did sell bottles of naranja agria, so I went with that. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of the naranja agria so it doesn't go to waste. (Suggestions?) It was nice to be able to make a meal without spending too much money!

We pretty much followed the recipe as written (as much as possible, anyway), mostly because we've had good luck with other recipes Kenji's put up since they're the result of so much research. The biggest difference though was that the turkey meat in the recipe was all dark meat chicken, but ours was a combination of dark meat and white meat, and probably mostly white meat, since that's what was left. I didn't want to just use the dark meat and then have to figure out what to do with the rest of the white meat, so I just made it all, prepared that it might be a little drier and might need more hot sauce to counteract the drier meat. (On top of that, my family got a different turkey this year for Thanksgiving and it turned out drier to begin with, so I was prepared for the meat to be drier and less juicy than most people mentioned in their reviews.)

It was pretty straightforward to make the carnitas. The turkey, sour orange (I think I used about 2/3 cup or so), quartered onions (used 1 red and 3/4 yellow, since that's what was left over), and bay leaves get combined in a pot, and everything boils together for at least an hour until the turkey is tender and easily shredded. Once it was done, it was time to shred the turkey, and then to brown it in a skillet until crispy. Along the way, I also heated up some tortillas in the oven and made some toppings for the tacos, including sauteed onions (we had sliced onion leftovers) and an onion/cilantro/lime garnish.

The turkey carnitas tacos were pretty good, but the meat was definitely dry. I think that's a combination of the large amounts of white meat and the fact that the turkey was on the dry side to start with, so I'm not going to fault the recipe for not delivering juicy carnitas when the original meat wasn't really very juicy. We were expecting a little more flavor from the carnitas after boiling with all those ingredients for so long, but they were just okay. Combined with the onion toppings and copious amounts of Cholula and green dragon sauce though, the tacos were pretty good. While we did like the tacos, we didn't like them so much that we would roast some turkey just to make these again. But if we did have roast turkey leftovers, we might try this again. It was nice to be able to do something different with turkey leftovers.

Week 10 - Book Inspired

Most of the books I read these days are cookbooks or books about food or travel, so when I saw the Week 10 challenge, book inspired, all I could think of was Harry Potter. None of the recipes I found online really sparked my interest so I had to look further. In book 3 of Harry Potter, they eat roast turkey and roasted potatoes at the Christmas feast. A holiday meal inspired by their roast turkey and roasted potatoes sounded like a good dinner plan to me!

Instead of roasting a turkey, I decided to make herb-crusted turkey tenderloins based on this recipe. There was only one problem - turkey tenderloins were actually pretty hard to find around here! We went to Trader Joe's but they were out, we went to the butcher shop but they didn't sell them, we went to Whole Foods but in the entire store they only had 1 gigantic package, way more than we needed. So, since it just needed to be inspired by the food in the book, I made herb-crusted chicken breasts instead.

For the herb-crusted chicken, the ingredients were:

- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts ($2)

- dijon mustard ($0.15)

- honey ($0.10)

- lemon juice ($0.10)

- rosemary ($0.50)

- oregano ($0.05)

- lemon pepper blend ($0.08)

At just under $3 (approximately), that was pretty simple and affordable for the chicken portion. I didn't really measure anything, but just adjusted it for taste. 

The steps for making the chicken were:

1. Make the spice blend. I used equal parts fresh rosemary, dried oregano, and ground lemon pepper blend (lemon zest, salt, pepper), maybe about a tbsp of each. (The recipe actually called for dried rosemary, one of the few spices we didn't have in our cabinet, but I forgot and picked up fresh rosemary for this and the potatoes.)

2. Make the honey mustard. We didn't have honey mustard at home, so I mixed together equal parts dijon mustard and honey, maybe a couple of tsp of each, with a few spritzes of lemon juice.

3. Coat the chicken breasts with the honey mustard mixture and make sure they are fully covered. Sprinkle the rosemary spice blend on top of the chicken (and pick up any remainder on the bottom of the chicken).

4. Bake at 400 degrees until chicken is done. I baked it for 20 minutes, which was slightly too much, but for the most part, it wasn't too dry and actually came out well. After pulling it out of the oven, I sliced it up to try to make it look more like a carved roast since it was supposed to be inspired by roasted turkey.

Overall, the chicken was good, tasty and flavorful, and still pretty juicy. I could see us making this in the future for an easy chicken recipe. Just coat it in mustard and then use whatever spices we want on the outside (and all dried spices should be fine), bake for 15 minutes or so. Simple!

The more time-consuming part of the dinner was the stuffins. A and I have been wanting to make stuffins for a while. First, we've been wanting stuffing ever since we started eating that turkey holiday sausage last fall in our Thanksgiving-like meals. Second, A had so much fun piping on the frosting for cupcakes that he made for my birthday that he was really looking forward to piping some mashed potatoes onto stuffins. It might be over 2 months after Christmas, but we finally got around to having our holiday stuffing!

For the stuffing, which I based on the stuffing my mom makes for Thanksgiving, the ingredients were:

- 1 package of herb seasoned classic stuffing ($2.99)

- 1/2 lb of chicken breakfast sausage ($2.72)

- 8 oz of white button mushrooms, chopped ($1.99)

- 1 yellow onion, chopped ($0.55)

- olive oil, about 1-2 tsp ($0.30)

- 1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped (leaves only) ($0.50)

- 2 cups of chicken broth ($0.60)

- water ($0)

- sage ($0.05)

That came out to about $9.70 for the stuffing portion. It did make a lot of stuffing though, considering I ate almost a whole bowl of stuffing while "tasting" it and had another small bowl leftover for breakfast for another day. I love stuffing.

For the mashed potato "frosting," the ingredients were:

- 3 russet potatoes ($1.47)

- 4-5 garlic cloves, minced ($0.10)

- minced rosemary, about 1 tbsp ($0.50)

- milk, about 1/2 cup ($0.35)

- butter, about 1-2 tbsp ($0.40)

- salt, pepper, and garlic powder, to taste ($0.10)

The potato portion of the meal came out to about $2.92. Mashed potatoes are so budget-friendly. That amount of potato made enough for all the frosting plus a big bowl of leftover potatoes. That makes the total for the "frosted" stuffins about $12.62 and the grand total for the whole meal approximately $15.60. 

Ideally, we would have made both the stuffing and mashed potatoes simultaneously on the stove, but a serious lack of counter space in our apartment and the need to also prep the chicken made the entire process not so seamless. Anyway, the steps were:

1. Cook the chicken sausages (without casings) and crumble as they cook. 

2. Add onions, mushrooms, and olive oil. Saute until both are softened.

3. Add cilantro and mix together.

4. Add some of the bread crumbs for the stuffing and mix together. Add chicken broth to moisten. Continue to alternate adding the bread crumbs and the broth. If you run out of broth, use water for the rest of it (to make sure it's not too salty).

5. Mix together until it reaches desired consistency (smooth and moist). Adjust seasonings (I added some sage).

6. Grease muffin pan and use 1/4 cup scoop to fill the muffin cups with stuffing. Flatten into each muffin cup.

7. Bake at 400 degrees until it has browned a bit. I baked them for way too long (30 or so minutes), but we were trying to get all the other components done, and the potatoes weren't ready and the chicken wasn't ready when it was supposed to be, and there was nowhere to put the stuffins, so yeah, the stuffins were a bit overdone.

8. While the stuffins are baking, make the mashed potatoes. Boil the potatoes in salted water until very tender, mash the potatoes, add all the other ingredients, and mix until smooth and melded together.

9. Pipe the mashed potato frosting onto the stuffins (that was all A). (Be careful - it's hot!) Add some little sprigs of rosemary as a garnish (that was me).

10. Bake for another 5 minutes or so and then serve.

I was a little disappointed in the stuffins, mostly because I baked them for way too long. I imagine they are supposed to have a bit of a browned crust to them, but this was too much. It was a little hard to bite with how overdone they were and that took away some of the great flavor of the stuffing (since we ate it in regular, non-stuffin form as well). That said, they weren't terrible, the mashed potatoes were good, and they were pretty fun as a way of eating 2 holiday staples. Despite the cooking mistake, I'm happy we tried making them. This may not be exactly what they ate during the Harry Potter feast, but it was definitely inspired by their holiday meals!

Thanksgiving with a Twist

Continuing our clearing out of our draft archives ... I wrote this back in mid-November and for some unknown reason, never posted it. It's Christmas today (merry Christmas to all who celebrate!), so let's jump back and try to finish off everything Thanksgiving-related before New Years rolls around...

Whenever I think of the new(ish) turkey sausage at Trader Joe's, the very holiday-sounding turkey cranberry apple sausage (previously reviewed here), it makes me think about Thanksgiving dinner. Since there's only 2 of us, it's perfect for the "turkey" part of a mini-Thanksgiving dinner, and that's exactly what we did both times we've had it. The first time (more here) we mixed it with candied yams and green bean casserole. This time (why the sausage is no longer pink, I have no idea, it's very confusing), I went with mustard-roasted potatoes and a brussels sprout saute in mustard sauce. Still haven't made the sausage with my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner - the stuffing - but maybe that will happen another time.

First up, the mustard-roasted potatoes. In meal planning for this week, I had initially thought I would buy a few sweet potatoes and use those for sides since they're healthier than regular potatoes (we're supposed to be cutting down on white starches...), but the price on the regular potatoes at the store (5 pounds for $1.19) was just too tempting. Of course, we then had 5 pounds of potatoes instead of 3 sweet potatoes, so I had to figure out what else to do with them. As soon as I saw this recipe for mustard-roasted potatoes on Smitten Kitchen, I knew that would be it. I followed the recipe pretty closely, so I would use the SK post as your starting point for detailed instructions.

These potatoes are basically wedge fries baked in a mustard sauce, which sounds (and was) completely awesome. Putting them together is also really straightforward, but the prep took a little longer than expected, since I am a little obsessive about removing any trace of green from the potato flesh. (Really though, who wants digestive issues? A little more work is worth the peace of mind.)

First, you slice up about 3 pounds of potatoes into wedges. (I had a general idea of how to do it, but since I wasn't completely sure and hadn't done it before, I found this video of Gordon Ramsay doing it helpful.) Then, in a large bowl, mix together 1/2 cup whole grain dijon mustard with 2 tbsp of olive oil, 2 tbsp of melted butter, the juice of 1 lemon, about 1 tsp of grated lemon peel, 3 minced cloves of garlic, about 1 tbsp of dried oregano, and some salt. Instead of using kosher salt, I opted for the Trader Joe's lemon pepper grinder, which I thought would be really complementary to this recipe. Mix the sauce together, then coat the potatoes in the sauce.

Now, the baking part. The racks go in the top and bottom third of the oven. You use 2 greased trays and spread the potatoes around. Bake for 20 minutes, swap the trays, and bake for another 25. Somewhere in there, you also turn the potatoes around. By the end of the last baking period, they should be pretty crispy.

We really liked the mustard-roasted potatoes. It was like eating seasoned fries and they're much healthier wedge fries than the ones at KFC. I can see myself making fries like this again, just maybe with not as many potatoes. That's because we ate them all. Yes, 3 pounds of potatoes and we ate them all. Add to that the 2 pounds of potatoes that I made the night before (roasted with peppers and onions) and we ate 5 pounds of potatoes in 2 days. No. More. Potatoes. (for a bit).

To go along with the potatoes and the sausage, I picked up some shaved brussels sprouts from Trader Joe's. I really wanted to make sure we ate some sort of vegetable with dinner to balance out the meat and potatoes. Although the full bag of brussels sprouts is cheaper and probably makes more overall, you can't beat the convenience of a pre-shaved bag of sprouts. So quick and easy. That's a convenience I'm willing to pay a little more for.

Since we were going to be having mustard-roasted potatoes, I had been toying with the idea of making a dijon mustard sauce for the brussels sprouts also. But then I read the SK post more closely and saw that you basically discard any of the extra mustard sauce that didn't stick to the potatoes. That was perfect! I could just add a little bit of olive oil to the mustard sauce to thin it out and then add that as the sauce for the brussels sprouts!

For this saute, I minced about 5 cloves of garlic and chopped 2 small onions, added them to a skillet with some olive oil, and sauteed them until they got a little softer, and then added the shaved brussels sprouts. Added about 1/4 cup of water and popped the cover on to let them cook, then uncovered it and added a chopped up bunch of scallions (whites and greens), as well as the mustard sauce, and then cooked it for a few more minutes. This was without a doubt our favorite part of the meal. That mustard sauce is really quite lovely.

Overall, this was a pretty good Thanksgiving mini-meal although we were both really craving some stuffing by the end of it. Leading up to Thanksgiving, we had Thanksgiving-flavored turkey sausage, mashed potatoes, candied yams, roasted potatoes, brussels sprouts, green bean casserole, and fresh cranberries, so the lack of stuffing was kind of a glaring omission. (We also didn't have gravy but since we didn't have "real" turkey, that isn't surprising and doesn't feel missed.) I see stuffing in our future!

A's Favorite Food Memories of 2012

2012 was a very interesting food year for M and me. This was an incredibly difficult choice to narrow my list down to 10 favorite memories, and there are so many great things that I had to leave off. With so many great food memories from this year, I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us. So in chronological order...

1) Alcachofas (Artichokes) from La Cova Fumada (Barcelona)

The thing about these artichokes was that they were so simply prepared. A drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper before being grilled/baked in the oven. This was the first time either M or I had ever had straight artichoke and not the preserved/pickled hearts you see most often here in the US. We never knew just how much we would love these wonderful little vegetables, and it spawned in me the drive to emulate this simple dish many times at home for us to enjoy.

2) Tickets Olives from Tickets (Barcelona)

I call these magic olives. This is the signature dish of the Adria brothers from back in their El Bulli days. Avant garde gastronomy at its finest. It's some sort of chemical reaction between olive juice, added chemicals, and an alginate bath. The end result is something that is the size and shape of an olive. You slurp the semi-solid oval into your mouth and let it burst. An intense olive burst is what you get, and it's an amazing and mind-blowing experience. Liquid olive that's actually solid too.

3) Fried Egg with Truffled Duck Fat and Potato Cream from Tickets (Barcelona)

This was not only a tasty dish, but it was another display of amazing melding of science and cooking. The dish claims to be a fried egg, but neither M or I remember a solid egg being present. It was more of a custard or pudding that was egg flavored. The duck fat didn't feel greasy or heavy, and the truffle added a nice decadence. The potato cream was much more of a foam than cream. Overall, it tasted like a really good Tortilla Española covered in black truffle.

4) Xipirons amb Mongetes (Baby squid with white beans) from Bar Pinotxo (Barcelona)

Xipirons are baby squid that are about an inch long or so. They are extremely tender, and most of the times we ordered them in Barcelona, they came fried. Juanito offers you these delectable squids sauteed with white beans and olive oil and then drizzled with a balsamic reduction. The result is one of my favorite dishes of all time. It's a dish I still think about today. If we ever make it back to Barcelona, I think M and I will need to make a beeline for La Boqueria to slide up to the counter.

5) Cigrons (Chickpeas) from Bar Pinotxo (Barcelona)

Oh hey, look, another dish from Bar Pinotxo. Along with the aforementioned xipirons, M and I also got a half order of his famous cigrons. They apparently come cooked with raisins, rock salt, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and parsley. Juanito also has a version that includes murcillo or butifarra, but we don't think we got that version. The chickpeas were perfectly cooked to be soft but still retain just a touch of bite. A wonderful, vegetarian option for a country full of meat.

6) A Whole King Prawn from El Celler de Can Roca (Girona)

One restaurant we knew we had to try and get a reservation for when we decided on Barcelona for our European excursion this year was El Celler de Can Roca. It is currently the #2 ranked restaurant in the world, and we were ecstatic when we got our reservation. The restaurant was started by the 3 Roca brothers who all learned cooking from their mother who has a restaurant just up the street from them called Can Roca. She certainly taught them well. This dish was a masterpiece of ingenuity, creativity, and full-on flavor. The menu describes the dish as "a charcoal-grilled king prawn, king prawn sand, ink rocks, fried legs, head juice, and king prawn essence". What they did with this one prawn was nothing short of magnificent. The "sand" tasted like concentrated prawn, the prawn itself was succulent and sweet, and the fried legs added a nice crunchy texture along with even more prawn flavor. They even chose a wavy plate to mimic the sea floor. A truly magnificent dish.

7) Flower Bomb from El Celler de Can Roca (Girona)

This was one of the most beautiful desserts I had ever eaten in my life. Oh, it tasted really good too. "Rose cream, loquats and orange blossom, chamomile sorbet, calendula gelatine, violet cloud, and jasmine oil" is the description given. In essence, it's edible flowers, rose cream, and sorbet wrapped in a sugar spun "bubble" that you have to crack to get into. The violet cloud is cotton candy touched with lavender for a wonderful additional flavor. As much as it pained me to have to break open this beautiful dish, I was extremely happy to eat it.

8) Drunken Noodle with Fried Sea Bass from Lotus of Siam (Las Vegas)

Lotus of Siam is one of the supposed holy trinity of Thai restaurants here in the US. The other two are Jitlada in LA and Sripraphai  in NYC. Oddly enough, the only one we haven't been to is the one here in our backyard. It's hard to describe the flavor of drunken noodle, but if you have ever had some before, imagine the best drunken noodle you've ever had. Multiply that greatness by 10, and then add on perfectly fried pieces of sea bass, and this is what you're getting. The sea bass is very lightly battered and ultra crisp. The fish is perfectly flaky as well. Lotus of Siam was the only place we knew we had to go to in Las Vegas, and we'll certainly go back next time as well.

9) Adobada Taco with Pineapple from Tacos El Gordo (Las Vegas)

Tacos El Gordo is a taco chain started out of Tijuana. After M heard about this amazing taco joint, I knew we would be going at some point during our trip. She is, after all, taco crazy. As much as I loved all of the tacos we tried, the standout was the adobada taco with a slice of pineapple. Adobada is pork that's layered on a spit similar to shawarma. It's marinated, cooked, and sliced to order. It's piled on to a couple of corn tortillas, layed with onions and cilantro, and slathered with some green sauce that's just out of this world. The pineapple is optional, and you have to actually ask for it if you want. We actually tried it both ways, and the pineapple, while not 100% necessary, really made this taco sing. The sweet and sour mix from the pineapple paired itself extremely well to the flavors of the spices in the meat and also the sauce. The end result is a taco that, for all of $2, is the best bang for the buck on The Strip.

10) Thanksgiving Dinner at My Brother's Home (Chicago)

Sure, this is a bit of a cheat since it's not really one specific dish, but if you're talking about food memories, this is a great one. Ever since M and I moved out to NYC, we've never had a chance to spend a holiday with my family. This year, after my nephew was born, we knew we had to be with them. Now, this wasn't anything special with what we made, but it was the first Thanksgiving meal that we cooked without any help from any parents. My brother and I combined to cook a fantastic turkey, M and I made the stuffing and mashed potatoes, my brother made the cranberry-orange relish, and he took over for the green bean casserole while M and I were stuck still working on the stuffing. The only things we didn't make were a Brussels sprout side from Whole Foods that my brother bought in case we botched the turkey and the turkey gravy. It felt so satisfying to successfully cook this major holiday meal. And no, we didn't eat the little begging dog under the table.

2012 was such a great food year even if it wasn't great for most other things. Hopefully 2013 is even better overall.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2012

2012 may not have been the best year all-around but it was a fantastic year for food, which made choosing my top 10 food memories of the year really difficult.  When I "narrowed down" my options the first time, I ended up with 59 different dishes.  I could have made multiple top 10 lists just from our 10 days in Barcelona, so it's no surprise that it completely dominated this year's list.  Here's my top 10 (in no particular order, except to end with something sweet):

1.  Contessa de espárragos blancos con consomé de ibéricos (white asparagus contessa with Iberian consomme) from El Celler de Can Roca

We went to El Celler de Can Roca, currently the number 2 restaurant in the world, for a 5 hour lunch during our Barcelona trip in May.  One of the courses on our tasting menu was this amazing asparagus dish, with such vivid flavors that I can still taste it to this day.  It was a duo of hot and cold white asparagus bites - the hot consisted of tender white asparagus with black garlic that was so soft that it melted in your mouth, and the cold was an asparagus ice cream with black truffle that was buttery and salty and creamy all at once.  The hot asparagus alone probably would not have made it onto this list, but the asparagus ice cream was great, and together it was asparagus overload (in a good way). Good thing we love asparagus!

2.  Chicago Style Char Dog from Gold Coast Dogs

Despite living in Chicago for a few years, the only Chicago style hot dogs I had eaten prior to this fall were from Portillo's (and even then, had only had 1) and Shake Shack (here in NYC).  (This was in part due to the fact that I didn't eat red meat for much of the time I lived in Chicago and only started my "ballpark exception" for hot dogs near the end of my stay, but let's not talk about that now.)  In September, A and I decided to explore some of Chicago's best hot dogs, and made our own mini Chicago style hot dog crawl.  I love Chicago style hot dogs because they have so many vegetables, making them rather healthy! If you've never had one, it is a hot dog (in this case, charred) on a poppy seed bun topped with mustard, onions, tomatoes, pickles, (neon green) relish, sport peppers and celery salt. My favorite from our crawl was this classic char dog from Gold Coast Dogs.

3.  Alcachofas (artichokes) from La Cova Fumada

La Cova Fumada wasn't the first place I had ever eaten an artichoke in my life, but it is the place that made me realize I liked artichokes.  La Cova Fumada is a tiny hole in the wall place in the Barceloneta neighborhood of Barcelona, filled with mostly locals and without any signage whatsoever. They don't really have a menu, but just make suggestions based on what you like and what's good that day. When the server suggested alcachofas (artichokes), we said yes, despite not having any idea what kind of artichokes would be coming.  I think I was still picturing slices of artichokes like the ones in the jars, which I think were the only ones I had before.

When the artichokes arrived, we were perplexed. How do you eat those? Luckily I had an international data plan so I googled it.  After peeling away and eating all of the outer layers, we discovered the soft, meaty artichoke hearts that had been soaked in olive oil and it was a revelation.  I had never had an artichoke that tasted this good.  These artichokes would make this list on their own but they also get a place on this list because they completely changed my mind about artichokes.

We went on to order artichokes at many other places but they often came as alcachofas fritas (fried artichokes).  We loved those too, like these perfectly fried, delicious, hearty artichokes from Sant Joan, another place where we were the only non-locals having lunch and where they were really nice and served us really delicious food.  (These artichokes were on the short list but ultimately didn't make this top 10.)

4.  Nam kao tod from Lotus of Siam

When we went off on our Las Vegas mini-break in December, there was only one restaurant that we knew for sure we had to visit - Lotus of Siam, considered by many to be the best Thai restaurant in the United States.  One of the dishes they are famous for is nam kao tod - a salad of crispy rice mixed with minced sour sausage, green onion, fresh chili, ginger, peanuts, and lime juice.  When I hear rice salad, all I think about is khao yam from Jitlada. This isn't the same and khao yam is still my favorite, but this was quite good.  The combination of flavors, the sourness and spice, was so nuanced and different from the Thai food we eat on a regular basis.  I love Thai salads and this one was one of the best.

5.  Pan con Tomate from Paco Meralgo

Paco Meralgo, one of our favorite restaurants in Barcelona, is also one of the few Barcelona spots (and the only one on this list) that we've gotten around to blogging about (post here).  Pan con tomate, literally translated to bread with tomato, is a Catalonian specialty and our favorite was here at Paco Meralgo.  The perfect crispiness, fresh and intense tomato flavor, just the right amount of drizzled olive oil - I dream about this dish to this day and hope to someday eat this again.

6.  Cigrons from Pinotxo

Another place we loved in Barcelona was Pinotxo, a tiny corner bar right at the entrance to La Boqueria, the famous marketplace on Las Ramblas. Pinotxo is famous for having good food but also for Juanito, the charming guy behind the bar who knows exactly what you should order.  He suggested that we get these chickpeas (cigrons in Catalan) which were incredible (and somehow only a half-order, so inexpensive).  The cigrons dish varies based on season and what's available in the market, and on the day we went, we tasted raisins, rock salt, parsley, olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixed in with the chickpeas.  A simple recipe but an incredible dish.  I love chickpeas and could eat this on a regular basis (if only it were here!).

7.  Thanksgiving stuffing

This may seem like an odd entry in a list of favorite food memories since Thanksgiving comes every year, but there is a reason.  This year was the first time I spent Thanksgiving with A's family, and we, along with his brother, made the entire Thanksgiving dinner ourselves.  What I was happiest about was the stuffing (my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal!).  It's my mom's recipe - herb stuffing with sausage, mushroom, onion and cilantro - and I've made it before at home, but have never done the whole process (ingredient purchasing, all the prep and all the cooking) completely on my own.  It was bittersweet since it was the first Thanksgiving ever that I haven't seen my family, but there was also a sense of accomplishment and pride that I could carry on my family's stuffing tradition.

8.  Olives (and other things that burst) from Tickets

Other than El Celler de Can Roca, the only other reservation we made before leaving for Barcelona was for Tickets Bar, the tapas bar that was opened by the Adrias (formerly of the impossible to get into El Bulli).  Tickets was an entertaining and whimsical place and there were so many options that we picked the "let your server choose your food for you" option.  The only thing we knew we wanted to get were las Olivas del Tickets (the Tickets olives), which were a signature dish and the same ones they had at El Bulli.  These little green bubbles were relatively solid on the spoon (although you did have to be careful), but they liquified instantly when they hit your mouth, bursting open to reveal tons of olive flavor.  It was like eating an olive in liquid form.  The whole experience was so much fun that I think it left me giddy.

We also had some other dishes at Tickets with things that "burst" in your mouth.  The miniairbags rellenos de queso manchego (manchego cheese mini airbags) looked like puff pastries but were crispy shells topped with manchego cheese and caviar which, when you bit into them, exploded with cool liquid cheese.  The ravioli liquido de queso Payoyo (liquid Payoyo cheese ravioli) looked like big opaque white bubbles with crackers on top, but exploded with cheese once you ate them.

While none of these dishes alone probably would have made this list based solely on their flavors (not that they were bad, but there was some tough competition this year), the enjoyable experience of eating the olives (and the other bursting foods) let us know we were in for a really fun dining experience at Tickets, one we will never forget.

9.  Xipirons

To me, one of the greatest food experiences one can have is the discovery of a new food to love.  It was like that with the artichokes, and it was like that with xipirons (Catalan)/chipirones (Spanish), which are a tiny squid that I have never seen anywhere except for Spain.  They're small (only a few centimeters long), really tender, and so much fun to eat.

One of the greatest dishes we had with xipirons (and we searched for them on menus once we realized we loved them) was xipirons amb mongetes (baby squid with white beans) from Pinotxo.  Suggested by Juanito (of course), the dish that arrived was filled with tiny squid, lots of white beans, and lots of balsamic vinegar.  It was delicious.

One of more popular ways to make chipirones was to fry them.

These fried chipirones from La Paradeta (a casual chain of places where you point to the seafood you want, which is all fresh out of the harbor that day, and then they make it) were like popcorn. I could just imagine eating these as a snack while walking around the city. Also delicious.

10.  Flower bomb from El Celler de Can Roca

After trying the flower bomb dessert at El Celler de Can Roca, I knew immediately that this would be on this year's favorite food memories list.  Jordi Roca is a genius.  This dessert - full of edible flowers - just tasted like spring, if spring had a flavor.  According to the menu, there was rose cream, loquats and orange blossom, chamomile sorbet, calendula gelatin, violet cloud and jasmine oil.  It arrived with most of those ingredients, including the flowers, inside a delicate clear sugar shell, sitting on a bed of what looked like violet cotton candy.  It was sweet, it was floral, it was fruity, and most of all, it was perfect for May and springtime.  I've never had any dessert like it - which made me feel so present in the time and space in which we were living - so I knew this would definitely be one of the best things I would eat all year.

Hoping 2013 brings great food memories (and hopefully something in NYC will make the list)!