Pip's Plate

Had a really delicious lunch at Common Roots in uptown today. Split a couple of sandwiches with a friend.

Fried green tomato sandwich with pickled onions (left) and Whitefish salad sandwich (right). Both were excellent!

Today is my boyfriend’s birthday. And for such a celebration of him turning the ripe old age of 26 (a youngin, I know!) we’ve taken the day off from work. We’re having a couple friends over tonight for some Korean/Japanese food.

Keldon is from Hawaii, so we *must* have Spam! Did you know Hawaii is the largest consumers of Spam? Thank you, WW2 & Hormel.

Plus, with this menu we can use a lot of the great produce we got at the Kingfield Farmer’s Market this Sunday: cucumbers, zucchini, green onions.

This is what we’re planning:

Korean Beef Bulgogi rolled up maki style

Chicken Katsu rolled up maki style

Spam Musubi (hooray! it’s Spam!)

Kim Chee

Green Onion Salad

Zucchini Ribbon Salad with this Asian Dressing

Cucumber Salad

I suppose I’ll be making some sort of guava or passion fruit martini to go along with this, but I have yet to come up with something. Stay tuned.

And of course, I have to rival the Spam cake I made last year…. so there will be a surprise revealed later.

I think tacos are my favorite food of all time. Wow do I love them. I think if I were on a deserted island and could only have 1 food for the rest of my life, it would be tacos. With margaritas, of course.

Last night I made a new recipe for chicken tacos that were just beyond delicious. These tacos were pretty healthy too – full of vegetables and fruit. Use light sour cream for the chipotle cream and you’ve got a light taco recipe full of flavor.

Spice Rubbed Chicken Tacos with Chipotle Cream and Pineapple Slaw

Serves: 6

Time: under 60 minutes (less if you purchase pre-sliced pineapple)

Get the recipe Read the rest of this entry »

Remember Giorgio’s in the Uptown part of Minneapolis? Well, I never made it there (yes, I know, I really should have). There’s a new place in this uptown spot – it’s called Rinata. At first I thought their brand is very trendy and will be outdated in 2-3 years.

I met a friend at Rinata last night for dinner. I hadn’t seen her for awhile and it was very fun to catch up. Rinata has an interesting happy hour: everything on the menu is $2 off (including all drinks and food) that ends at 6pm. Cool!

We had some wine – their house white and red were very decent. We had an appetizer with octopus – we were both hoping it was better. It wasn’t nearly lemony enough, and it was served with saffron potatoes – kind of strange for an appetizer, but I’m sure some people like it.

Now, we hadn’t seen each other for a few months so we had a lot of catching up to do. Not to mention – it was 6pm – a wee bit early for us to be having dinner. Regardless, the over polite server came by about every 5 minutes for the next hour asking us if we were ready to order dinner. Yikes – give it a rest!

When we did order dinner, we were pleasantly surprised. All of the entrees at Rinata are pastas – I wish I had looked at the menu before going there since I’m not a big pasta person. Also, there is only 1 vegetarian friendly entree (unless you count the clams then it’s 2).

I had the papardelle with short rib ragu – it was simply yummy! My friend had the linguine with clams – it was also really good. I could tell that the pasta was store bought and not homemade. That was a disappointment. But the clams were really garlicky so that wins big points! (because we all know about my love affair with garlic)

In the end, I’m not sure if I’ll go back. It was decent, but not a place I would tell people they had to go to.

Rinata

2451 Hennepin Ave

Minneapolis, MN 55405

(612) 374-8998

www.rinatarestaurant.com

It was almost a year ago that I went to Portland, but I just came across a collage I was putting together so I thought I’d throw it up here.

Portland, OR is a fantastic place to visit. I visited with my mom, sister, and my mom’s friend. My sister and I walked through most of the city together. We also rented a convertible one day (woohoo) and drove down to the Willamette Valley to do some wine tasting. Who knew that Argyle has such incredible bubbly?! We also drove over to the coast on our way back. It was wonderful.

This was the place that I first tasted New Belgium’s Springboard beer – my all time favorite. They only sell it for a short time in the spring, and I’m anxiously anticipating this year’s release. Perhaps that’s why I thought this would be an appropriate post today.

It’s a beautiful spring day here in Minneapolis – going to be 60 degrees today and the sun is shining bright.

Dear Garlic-

If you were a person, I would ask you to marry me. I love you so much that my friends tell me I sometimes smell like you after a night of wild cooking. I can never get enough of you.

I remember the first time I met you. It was when my mom introduced us to each other over dinner. The way you dressed that Caesar salad is illegal in most countries.

Because of you, dear Garlic, I am not afraid of vampires. You give me courage to face the world.

In honor of you, I dedicate this post. My dear Garlic, let me count the ways I love you:

Garlicky Roast Chicken with Garlic Jus on Garlic Toast

40 Cloves and a Chicken

Roasted Garlic

French Garlic Soup

44 Clove Garlic Soup

Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and Garlic Chips

Chile-Garlic Egg Noodles

Garlicky Greens

Heidi’s Dad’s Garlic Bread

Castilian Garlic Soup

Roasted Sardines with Green Garlic and Mint

Skirt Steak with Cilantro Garlic Sauce

Orange, Sage, and Garlic Pork Tenderloin

Pineapple-Braised Ribs with Honey-Garlic Tomato Glaze

Lots of love,

Pip

xoxoxo

Pip + Garlic = True Love

Mmmmm….yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles!

Light and creamy usually don’t go together. But! If you substitute sour cream for heavy cream, then you still end up with a creamy consistency and cut off a lot of the fat.

This is another recipe that I whipped up from stuff I had on hand at home when I didn’t feel like going to the grocery store.

This recipe is vegetarian, but you could easily add shrimp or chicken to it if you like. Just add protein after the garlic and onion, cook for a few minutes till brown, then add the tomatoes and stew for about 5 minutes, then add the remaining ingredients and follow the instructions.

Light Creamy Pasta

serves 4

time under 20 minutes

8 oz egg noodles

1 T olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 small onion, sliced

14.5 oz canned whole tomatoes, crushed by hand

1/4 cup sour cream (any variety – soy, light, fat free, etc)

6 oz artichoke hearts, quartered, not marinated or packed on oil

1 T fresh chopped thyme

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook egg noodles for about 3 minutes (they should be al dente). Reserve the pasta water when draining.

2. Heat 1 T olive oil over medium heat in large skillet. Add garlic and onion – saute for 1 -2 minutes or until soft.

3. Crush tomatoes in a bowl by hand just to break them up so you don’t have huge chunks of tomatoes. Add to the pan with the sour cream. Mix well to distribute the sour cream.

4. Add artichokes and pasta. Continue to cook until everything is heated through and the pasta is cooked – about another 3-4 minutes. Add additional pasta water if you need more liquid.

5. Sprinkle with fresh thyme and add salt and pepper to taste.

In the most recent issue of Bon Appetit magazine (Feb 2009), they have a really great article on 50 Easy Ways to Eat Green.

What I discovered is Text Fishphone – it’s utterly brilliant! It’s the easiest way to find out what fish at your local grocery store is good for you (mercury levels, farming methods) and good for the environment (sustainable, farming methods). And it’s so simple: text 30644 and enter FISH, followed by the name of the fish you want to buy. It’ll return a text telling you if it’s a good one or not.

If you’re looking for the place in Santa Fe, NM, where locals go for lunch, this is it. Waaaay good green chile sauce! This place is totally a local hangout. It’s fairly small and diner-ish but it’s friendly and beyond everything else delicious.

Did you know there is a difference between New Mexican and Mexican food? I’m told that New Mexican cuisine is a blend of Mexican, Southwestern, and Spanish. Can’t beat that!

At Red Enchilada, I had the combo plate with a beef taco, cheese enchilada, pork tamale, and beans and rice. All topped with an incredibly good and a bit lip-smackin spicy green chile sauce. Everything was just tasty as all heck.

Top it off with a nice refreshing guava juice and you’re all set for lunch!

Oh, and I can’t fail to mention to fresh, delicate donut-like sopapillas. Pour a little honey on and you’re on your way to sweet heaven.

Red Enchilada

1310 Osage Avenue

Santa Fe, NM

505-820-6552