Chinese new year

Gung hoi fat choi. Happy year of the dragon! Hoping this is a good omen as Aaron and I were both born under the sign of the dragon. We celebrated a day late as we did dinner with our neighbors Kate and shawn on Monday.

To continue on the organization streak I rearranged the laundry Room but now have to decide on a paint color for the walls and woodwork. I found some cute decor ideas from ballard designs.

To kick off the year we had fried noodles and lemon chicken. The noodles were fresh store bought that were quickly boiled and then stir fried with veggies - baby bok choi, shredded carrot, bamboo shoots, and clover shoots. The sauce was a combo of black bean sauce, hoisin sauce, samba olek, ginger and sesame oil. The chicken was thinly sliced, marinated in rice wine, egg yolk, soy sauce and a baking soda. It was then coated in a mix of corn starch and flour and deep fried. The sauce is equal parts sugar and water, fresh lemon juice and a little sesame oil with two tablespoons corn starch. little

Mole and skiing

We took rowan skiing for his second time today with his friend braden. He got new goggles that he was actual excited to be wearing! And he rode the chair lift for the first time. Then  B's parents were nice enough to watch the boys while aaron and i skied together. We swapped so they could ski too.
Before leaving to ski, aaron and i got the crock pot set up with mole so that we would have a hearty warm meal when we came home. The mole recipe:
Heat .5 c sliced almonds, .25c sesame seeds, coriander seeds, 4 whole cloves, star anise and one cinamon stick broken
Mix in a blender with one whole onion, combination of fresh and dried chile's to add up to 15. We used anchos, pasilla, anaheim, negro and new mexico chiles. One small can of diced tomatos, 5 cloves of garlic, 4 c chicken stock and one wheel (3 oz) ibarra chocolate.
We used a pork roast, but chicken works equally well. Put the meat and sauce in a crock pot set on low for 5 hours. Shred the meat and serve with queso fresco, cilantro and tortillas.

Honey pecan shrimp and orginazation

I didn't set any large unobtainable new years resolutions, i want to drink more water, exercise more and try to control my temper better. But somehow for the past week plus, i have been on an organization streak. I rearanged the play room, in the pics, rearranged the laundry room and have my eyes set on the pantry next. This bug has even bitten aaron, as he cleaned and organized the gear closet.
Tonights dinner is a recipe i found a few months ago on one of the blogs i follow, userealbutter.com  it is a dish aaron and i loved in salt lake so i have been eager to recreate it. This is excellent.  I substituted candied pecans for candied walnuts, as aaron has a mild allergy. I used one pound of shrimp. Peel them and marinate in one egg white and a large pinch of salt for 30 minutes. Mix 1 tbsp condensed milk, 1 tbsp honey, 6 tbsp mayo and 1/2 lemon in a bowl and set aside for the sauce. To make the candied pecans mix 1/4 cup sugar with water, heat until it becomes a nice carmel color. Mix in the pecans and remove from the heat. Stir fry the broccoli in a little oil and set aside. Remove the shrimp from the marinade and dust with cornstarch. Fry in 3 inches of oil until golden. Drain and mix with the broccoli and pecans. Toss the mixture with the sauce to coat and serve with rice.

Beer Braised chuck roast with mushroom stout quinoa and roasted squash

This is a grand teton brewery inspired meal. We have a small keg of black cauldron stout on nitro at home and some chuck roast from snowdrift farms. I found the recipe on william sonoma but they modified it from julia child and i added my own tweaks. I cut the roast into 1/2 in thick slices and browned them in the dutch oven, then saute one onion sliced, add back the beef, two cups of beer two cups of beef stock ( i used better than bullion), two bay leafs, a bunch of thyme, and about 1/3 cup of brown sugar. Bring to a boil on the stove and then cook for 2.5 hours in a 375 degree oven. Once done, remove the beef and make a gravey by stiring in 2 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar.  The quinoa recipe came from a craft beer blog. Saute 1/2 red onion diced with a container of mushrooms sliced in 1 tbsp butter and 3 tbsp olive oil until tender. Add one cup quinoa, one cup beer, one cup beef stock. Simmer for 20 minutes until all of the liquid is absorbed.

Blackened cod with creamy polenta

No lifestyle pics today, rowan and i went to a music class this morning and had a wonderful lunch with his friend braden and jannine. Aaron was busy woodworking again, he is building a kitchen set for rowan and is close to finished. Cant wait! Rowan has started to love pretend cooking. He makes us all sorts of fake food and drinks. I know he will love his kitchen.
For dinner we had blackened cod with creamy polenta. I just pan fried the cod with cajun spices. The polenta was quick and easy, three cups of water brought to a boil and then i wisked in one cup of polenta stiring continuously for about 7 minutes. I then wisked in two tablespoons of butter and a third cup of parmasean and three strips of cooked bacon crumbled. I served this with a spring greens, spinach mix.

Mommy's little helper

With the new house came a generous two car garage with workshop space. Since the landcruiser is too large to park in the garage aaron has filled up one whole side with woodworking equipment. His first major project was to build a helping tower for rowan. He and our neighbor worked many cold hours in the garage but the results are beautiful! Our first project in the new tower was tortallini soup. The recipe is souper (tee hee) easy! Saute some chopped carrots in olive oil with garlic. Add six cups of chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add tortallini, i used dried but fresh or frozen would work as well. Once the tortallini are cooked add frozen spinach and peas. Heat until the peas are cooked and season with salt and pepper. Just before seving stir in a bit of pesto. I didnt have any so i just grated cheese on top.

Happy new year!

We had a quite new years eve, celebrated by a gorgous cross country ski up moose creek, beers at grand teton and a family dinner. We managed to stay awake until 9pm so we celebrated with folks somewhere off the atlantic coast. For rowan the highlight of the day was watching the giant road grader plow our road.
For dinner we had morrocan spiced meat balls served with isreali cous cous with a tomato sauce and an arugula and pomogranite salad. The recipe is from fine cooking.