Bites of My Life

First week back to school is down and a very successful sister weekend in New York is now over. A busy few days getting adjusted to my new schedule, internship and classes was followed up by bachelorette fun! More on my weekend to come. 

-A pile of fried eggs and green things while plopped in front of the TV for the Golden Globes last week. Sunday dinners are always a favorite of mine.

-Sifting through my cookbooks to kick off one of my New Years Resolutions. 

-Phamen. 

-Cherishing time with this pup!

-#KatsBrooklynBach weekend finally arrived! My sisters and I had a whole weekend in NY for just the three of us to celebrate our soon to be bride of a sister. 

-First stop in New York was for lox and bagels.

-Custom tattoos in case anyone forgot what we were celebrating. 

-Cheers to the bachelorette!

-New York brunch you never disappoint. Sunday morning at Prune.

-A stop at Milk Bar of course. Went for salted pistachio caramel soft serve with crunch. Everyone ooh and ahh with me now. 

-Us Tucker's eat a lot so a butt kicking workout at Soul Cycle was just what we needed and actually amazing. 

-Last meal at Jack's Wife Freda. Home of amazing avocado toast and adorable sugar packets. 

Annie 

When You and Your Sister Get Each Other the Same Thing for Christmas...

Okay so funny story. My oldest sis Claire and her boyfriend are asian food connoisseurs like myself. They recently took a two week trip to Japan where they had some of the most amazing authentic asian cuisine (jealous). I wanted to get them something unique and different for Christmas this year. I decided on getting some big ramen bowls and spoons, as well as little soy sauce bowls etc. I wanted to get them the works to recreate amazing asian food at home. So here's the funny part, without mentioning anything about my gift idea, Claire got me the EXACT same thing. I'm not kidding. And this isn't just some present you find on display at a department store, we both ventured into random asian markets to scour for this authentic gift. Pretty hilarious, but I guess great minds think alike. 

My big Chinese dragon bowls have been sitting around since Christmas waiting to be filled with a brothy asian noodle soup. Would it be miso ramen or seafood pho? Soba noodles or curry? I had been researching all different recipes, but ended up combining about five. This dish is sort of like ramen and pho had a baby. I call it phamen.

Asian Rice Noodles Ramen Pho Soup
yields one large bowl of soup, recipe mostly adapted from Love and Lemons

Ingredients: 
1 egg
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
5 oz. shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 green onions, white and green thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Tbsp. peeled and minced fresh ginger*
16 oz. (half a box) vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 (2.2 oz) package rice noodles
1 big handful of spinach or kale
drizzle of sesame oil (optional)

Garnishes:
red pepper flakes
sriracha
sliced green onions
sprouts
bean sprouts
chopped cilantro

Directions:
Fill a small sauce pan about halfway up with water, enough to cover your egg. Over high heat, boil just your water. Once boiling add your egg and reduce heat to low. Simmer your egg for 8 minutes to create the perfect runny ramen egg. 

While your egg is cooking, heat your vegetable oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Sauté mushrooms, green onions, garlic, and ginger. Season with salt and cook until mushrooms are tender, about 6-7 minutes.

Your egg should be finishing up by now. Take out of the hot water and run under cool water. Peel your egg and set aside. Place in a deep bowl or cup. Pour the soy sauce over your egg to let it marinate a little. Flip your egg every once in a while give it an even light brown color.

Add vegetable broth and water to the mushrooms and bring to a boil. Add noodles and reduce to a simmer. Add spinach and cook until just wilted. Once your soup has come together pour into a fairly large serving bowl. Flavor with soy sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil. Take your egg out of the soy sauce and cut in half. Garnish the phamen with your runny egg, chopped cilantro, red pepper flakes, sprouts, green onions, sriracha etc! Now you have a beautiful bowl of phamen!

*The easiest way I've found to peel and mince ginger is by cutting off the skin with a knife then using a microplane to mince it. This is also a great way to mince garlic!

I highly recommend the addition of a runny ramen egg. Here you can see mine marinating in it's soy bath. 

I have to give myself a pat on the back for this recipe because it was pretty outstanding. It makes a huge bowl, but I wouldn't share. I had leftovers, but I still kept it all for myself. If you want to be nice, the recipe easily doubles for sharing purposes.

Annie

Turtle Turtle

Alright, it's been two weeks, time to cheat a little on that New Year's resolution of eating healthy. 

Every year my family typically gets that same kind of things in our Christmas stockings. Socks, underwear, jewelry, gift cards, and candy. My sisters and I always get the Lifesaver Christmas Storybooks, mom gets her Russell Stover French chocolate mints, and dad gets Turtles. Homemade Lifesavers and mint chocolates seemed a little daunting, but I'd seen this recipe for homemade turtles and knew dad needed the homemade version this year!

Homemade Turtles adapted form Averie Cooks
yields 12 turtles

Ingredients: 
4 oz pecan halves
15 caramel squares, unwrapped
1/8 cup half-and-half
12 oz chocolate chips
sea salt, optional for sprinkling

Directions: 
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Choose one that will fit in your freezer or fridge. 

Make small piles of pecans, about 5 or 6 pecans on the baking sheet. Overlap them so the caramel doesn't seep through. 

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the caramels with the cream. Microwave on 30 seconds intervals stirring each time between. Will probably take about 2-3 minutes. Spoon about a tablespoon over each pile of caramels. 

Now time to heat the chocolate. Use the same method for the chocolate that you did with the caramels. 30 second intervals, stirring between. Once it is completely melted spoon about two tablespoons over the caramel and pecan piles. 

Add a pinch of salt to the top, then place the baking sheet in the freezer or fridge to firm up. Store at room temperature for a week or up to a month in the fridge! 

They were pretty much amazing and tasted just like your traditional chocolate, caramel, pecan turtle candy, only better! My dad is probably my favorite person to cook and bake for. I think every time I make something new he says "I think this is the best thing you've ever made!!" Let's see if I can keep impressing him!

Annie

Resolving

A New Year's resolution post seems a little cliché in the blog world, but I feel like if I write my yearly goals down for the world wide web to see there is a better chance I'll stick to them. I guess I feel like people may judge me if I don't stick to my word, which when it comes to resolutions, I think everyone could use some accountability. 

I have four resolutions this year. To not text and drive (this is carrying over from last year), eating more whole foods and less processed foods, cooking or baking at least twice a month from my cookbooks and lastly, to revisit calligraphy. 

I sat down the other night with my stack of cookbooks in front of me and started sifting through the pages of recipes, making notes and marking pages with sticky notes. I love collecting cookbooks, but in the internet world today I usually cook from Pinterest and food blog recipes. Not a bad thing, but it's time to put my cookbooks to better use!

via

As far as texting and driving, I was really good about this at the beginning of last year. It's a horrible habit I have and I committed not to do it. Toward the end of the year I got lazy. It's such a dangerous act and there is no reason to put myself and others at risk. No text is that important. I'm giving myself a second chance and pledging again to not text and drive.

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More whole foods in 2015 instead of processed foods, because why not? It's better for you, whole foods are delicious and because I would rather take the time to make a great snack or meal instead of grabbing the closest sugary or salty processed food. When you think about what you're eating before you find yourself scarfing down a bag of chips, it's likely you'll go for something more nourishing and fulfilling. 

I read a great resolution about moving slower this year. Moving slow by, stopping your day to make a great breakfast or moving slow when working on something important. I get in such a rush about everything. It's time to move slow and enjoy the days little moments. This can be in cooking, working or spending time with others.

And finally, I want to revisit calligraphy. I took the beginner and advance class form Blue Eye Brown Eye and learned incredible skills. I still have all of my supplies but I haven't practiced in so long. Calligraphy is a lost skill I want to out back in my bag of tricks!

Now help keep me accountable people! I can do this. 

Annie

Bites of My Life

Enjoying the first couple weeks of the new year and the last couple weeks of being off from school, led to more family and friends time, then blogging and internet time. Break is officially over and I'm currently writing this post from the kitchen table of my sweet Norman home. 

Since we last met, I went to Dallas for New Years, fell down the black hole that is One Tree Hill on Netflix, skied the mountains of Breckenridge with 23 of my friends and as always, took lots of bites. 

I love the fresh feeling of a New Year. New classes, new experiences, new opportunities, a new internship, new goals, new trips, new weather, new clothes etc. The normal is still there, but the new excites me! 

-A catch up session with my dear friend over smoothies and wheatgrass shots. I might have rookied her into the wheatgrass. 

-Trying to prove to my mom quinoa ain't so bad with this tri-quinoa salad with avocado, shallots and spicy roasted butternut squash. 

-One of the things on my Christmas Break to-do list was to cook Greek food again. I made it a little easier and made half and bought the other. This big fat Greek mezze platter was a sure hit. Homemade kafta (lamb meatballs), homemade tzatziki, hummus, feta, grape leaves, olives and tomatoes!

-Ventured down to Dallas to ring in the New Year with my best friends.

-Mom's black eyed peas have already brought me good luck this year. Anyone else call this dish Hoppin' John?

-A send off breakfast with dad and a preparation for the cold Colorado weather. Ordered the Chilly Crunch, at The Red Cup. A concoction of yogurt, frozen blueberries and granola.

-Me and my fellow ski bunnies for a week in Breckenridge, CO. 

-The sous chefs of the group who proudly cooked three full meals for 24 people, there was a lot of ground beef involved...

-The whole group (almost).

-By golly I found it. The most amazing breakfast combination, an oatmeal latte. Have your latte and eat it too!

-My smoked salmon crepe in Downtown Breck, was worth the two hour wait.

-Back home with a day to spare before coming back to school. Mi familia, good wine, great pasta and a super stuffed belly to end my last Christmas break. 

I have what you may call a "fun semester" or senioritous semester" being that I'm only in 9 hours. It's going to be a pretty laissez semester as far as school, but I have that whole get a real job after school and find a house thing weighing over me. Now I better wrap this up before I'm late to my first/last day of school ever. 

Annie