Peas and Proscuitto

Yesterday, someone asked me what I usually eat, and it took me awhile to respond.  It threw me off, because I cook almost every day but I didn't have an immediate answer.  I began by telling them "vegetables mostly."  Then I realized that might sound weird, so I tried to throw out other options - "Oh you know, pasta, rice, that kind of thing."  In reality, I rarely eat either.  I try not to eat rice and instead use quinoa, and I typically save pasta for when my boyfriend makes it for me.  My main staple is a lot of vegetables, olive oil, vinaigrettes, eggs and soup.

I am in love with vegetables, and this isn't anything new.  I was always the one, even at a young age, hovering over the vegetable tray at Christmas and other holidays.  I begged my Mom to buy me heads of red cabbage to snack on.  I ate canned asparagus and sweet pickles with my Dad. I was ecstatic when Grandma brought kohlrabi from the garden.  I ate peas from the freezer.

Meals mean a lot to me. I sometimes agonize over what I am going to buy at the grocery store.  It is a process for me.  I plan out each of my meals and I research, decide, and then go on a mission. In fact, I am even a bit sad when I get invited out to dinner with friends, because that means I miss the opportunity to cook something.  When I was younger, I would look up recipes and then try to figure out ways to get my mom to buy the ingredients (not always to high success).

This morning, I woke up naturally early at 7:45 am which I think is one of the first times that has ever happened and I was VERY excited!  Waking up so early had my stomach grumbling around 8:30 and I wanted to eat something that wouldn't take too long to cook but I also wanted something healthy to offset all the sugar I ate yesterday.  I decided on Orangette's Peas and Proscuitto.

I have never had proscuitto before.  I have always associated it with fancy - appetizers wrapped in proscuitto? You know that must have been a fancy party.  It is usually really expensive at the store, and not being a big fan of meat, I haven't been able to justify the purchase.  However, yesterday I was at Fred Meyer and proscuitto was on sale for $5 for 3.53 ounces.  Still not cheap, but affordable. Also, you get very little meat for your money, so at least I didn't have to worry about wasting it.

So on to the recipe.  See the link for the original recipe - I changed things a little bit (biggest change: olive oil, not butter).

Here is what I made.

Ingredients:
1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil
Garlic, to taste
3 green onions
1 pound peas
4 slices proscuitto
pepper, salt, turmeric to taste

1) Turn the stove to medium.  Add olive oil to the pan - enough to swirl it around and cover the whole pan.  Let the oil heat up, and add one diced green onion and about a teaspoon of garlic.  Let cook for thirty seconds or so - I let mine brown a bit because I love browned crispy garlic.

2) Add the peas, salt and pepper to taste, and cook for ten minutes.  You can add the peas frozen if you didn't have a chance to defrost.  About halfway through, add two more diced green onions and more garlic, to taste.  I found that the original cooked onions/garlic weren't as flavorful as fresh, which is why I added more.  After ten minutes, some of my peas were nicely browned.

3) Cut the proscuitto into little pieces.  I tried to make things easier and stack the four slices on top of each other, then cut them.  Don't do this - it was really hard to separate the little pieces.  Instead, cut each slice separately.  Turn off the heat, but leave the pan on the same burner, and add the proscuitto. Cover and let sit for five minutes.

To eat mine, I added salt (I didn't add salt during cooking) and turmeric.  SO TASTY!

Butterscotch Cookies

Perfect Friday- Pomegranites, cookie baking, Say Yes to the Dress and memoirs to read.

I got this recipe for Butterscotch Cookies from Orangette.  It is super easy, and you probably have most of the ingredients at home (besdies nonfat dry milk!).

Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
14 Tbsp. (1 ¾ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¼ cups dark brown sugar
1 large egg
2 Tbsp. nonfat dry milk
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375*.  Grease the cookie sheets (I used cooking spray).

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt.  After adding the salt (table salt) I also used a sea salt grinder, and added some to the mixture - do this! The extra chunks of salt add an amazing touch.

In a medium bowl, cream the brown sugar and butter.  I always cheat and melt the butter first in the microwave - it makes it a lot easier to cream together. Add the egg, dry milk, and vanilla extract.

I found the dry milk in the baking aisle, near the evaporated milk and coconut.  I had to stare at the shelves for awhile, but eventually found a row of dry milk.  I have NEVER used this stuff before, but it is NOT the same as evaporated milk.  In fact, you are supposed to be able to make milk out of it by mixing the powder with water.  Don't get too excited.  It does not taste the same, I was very disappointed to find discover.  I momentarily thought my problems were solved and I wouldn't have to agonize over buying a gallon of milk and wasting it.  Instead, I could just make my own with powder :) But no, that is not the case.

Anyway, after you mix all the wet ingredients, try not to eat all the batter.  I was in love with the brown sugar/butter mixture.  SO DELICIOUS.  Then, add the flour mixture - I did this in two batches.

Now, decide whether to add the pecans.  If you are adding them, do yourself a favor and buy chopped pecans, or make sure to chop them into very small pieces. I did half and half and with the sea salt, I felt the pecans went with the flavor of the cookies very well.  I think if you wanted to go half and half, it would be easiest to split the batter in half and add the nuts to one batch.  I was lazy and added it to one cookie at a time, and that was a mess.  I just wasn't sure how much batter I wanted nutty.

Then, drop cookies by heaped tablespoon-fuls onto the cookie sheet. I had to use a pizza sheet, and fit seven cookies/sheet.  The cookies flatten out a bit, but not tremendously, after cooking. However, I would have preferred them a bit smaller.  Then get your fingers damp (I almost didn't bother - DO it!), and pat the cookies into circles abou 2.5-3 inches in diameter.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes.  I always have an awful time deciding how long to bake cookiers for.  For these ones, 8 minutes was absolutely perfect. I waited five minutes and then transferred to a rack to cool.

These cookies aren't going to blow anyone's minds, but they are simple and tasty.  They aren't too sweet or too overwhelming, and they are a nice treat to have around the house.  They are also super easy to make - it is nice to have a standard cookie you can always whip outta your back pocket.

The recipe says it makes 30, but I only had enough to 21.  Maybe I ate too much batter?

#042 Best Fries

 I went to #042 Best Fries: Boise Fry Company (BFC) a few weeks ago and am finally getting around to writing about it.  Hopefully being in Boise this weekend will let me settle down and spend some time writing cool posts about exciting places.

Boise Fry Company is VERY unique and I think if anyone was being all tourist-y in Idaho, this would be the perfect place to go.  Whenever I tell someone not from Idaho that I am living from Idaho, I inevitably get some sort of potato comment and the BFC embraces the potato culture whole heartedly.  The funny thing about potatoes is we really can't deny it.  They are everywhere! 

This place is pretty tiny when you walk in.  It is also located in a pretty crappy looking strip mall (if you take Broadway and go past Front/Carls Jr. etc, you will see it on the left).  There are a few tables outside, which help expand the space on a nice day, but I think you can't help but feel crowded whilst waiting for your order.

The mission of the BFC is to provide you with the most incredible fries, burgers and service a company can offer.  I don't eat hamburgers so I cannot attest to the quality of the burgers, but can totally say they have incredible fries and service.

You should know by now I am very picky when it comes to service.  I have always said I do my jobs with a smile, so I see no reason why someone deserves extra money for doing their job with a smile.  I could go into the whole concept of tipping in an entirely different post -- let me know if you feel the need to debate.  And before you start arguing -- YES, I DO tip and I tip just fine. Anyway, back to the point -- I really appreciate and love good service.

The staff here was phenomenal.  Everyone was super friendly and approachable.  I asked for a recommenation -- should I get Okinawa or yam french fries?  The cashier responded with, "Actually, you should try purple fries and they are delicious with garlic aoili and rosemary salt." He really knew his stuff, offered up a suggestion, and was totally nice about it.  I couldn't say no to such a confident response, so it was the purple fries for me.  He also made sure I got to-go cups for whatever sauces I wanted.  When I saw the sauces and realized I wanted more, he had no problem getting more for me. 

Another awesome thing about BFC is the focus on the fries.  In fact, burgers are called "sides," which I think is hilarious. 

The reviewers on yelp seem to like BFC, but a lot had very high expectation and didn't think the french fries were the *best* they have ever tasted.  That may be the case -- I have had some damn good french fries, and I don't know if this knocked my socks off.  However, I liked this place because it was just so much fun!

Here is a link to the menu 

You choose among seven types of potatoes, and then you choose the cut (options vary depending on the potato).  I got a medium and it was a good amount of fries.  They have very few hamburger choices - when I was there, it was basically a beef, bison or veggie choice (with the veggie one getting rave reviews).  There was also a quinoa side salad, which I ordered.  It was only $3 and it was delicious!  The lettuce wasn't iceberg but a tasty mix of hearty spring greens, and the pear vinagrette was to die for.  In fact, my salad was almost gone by the time I got home (yes, I ate it with my hands!).

I got my fries and salad to go, but I would recommend scheduling some time to stay at BFC.  The fun part is in all the options once you get your fries.  There are TEN different fry sauces and what seemed to be about fifteen kinds of salt.  Some salts included cajun, horseradish, sea salt, vanilla, jalapeno, and garlic rosemary.  Some sauces included sweet mustard, blueberry, chipotle, garlic aoili, fry sauce and sour thai. 

They also have something for you real fancy people: the Bourgeois.  This includes their finest cut French fries fried in duck fat, garnished with truffle salt (for $8).

For my fries, I tried the garlic aoili and sour thai.  I have to be honest and say I didn't like the sour thai at all.  It seems to me like you could make some sort of delicious thai dipping sauce, but this just tasted off.  The garlic aoili was great, but a bit like dipping your fries into straight mayo (very thick).  I mixed it half and half with ketchup, and it was phenomenal. 

The rosemary garlic salt tasted great, but in hindsight, I wish I would have added more.

Regardless of how good the food is (mine was good) BFC is a really cool place because of it's novelty factor.  This would be great fun for kids or out-of-town visitors always giving you a hard time for Idaho "The Land of the Potatoes."  Finally, it is a bit expensive, so I would recommend meeting up with friends here for Happy Hour.  It is M-F, 4-6 pm, and buy one get one free on beer and small fries.