Oh, the sweet taste of a Super Bowl victory

I’m into the Super Bowl more for the food than the football, but this year’s game was quite exciting.

My Wisconsin-born boyfriend has opened my eyes to the wonderful world of the Green Bay Packers. We’re no sports nuts by any means, but he and I both have our fair share of Packers paraphernalia, including foam cheese hats, mini footballs, beanies and earrings (I have not one, but three pairs).

The first time I went back to Wisconsin for Christmas we saw the Packers destroy the Lions, which was quite the experience. Even in the dead of winter, we spotted plenty of fans in cheese-wedge bikini tops and others wearing not much more than green and yellow body paint. We were even on the same flight as Aaron Rogers on our flight out of Green Bay a couple days later.

Once the Packers beat the Bears, I started thinking about Wisconsin-inspired Super Bowl snacks. This recipe pays tribute to the land of cheese and beer, and comes from our friend Mike, who got it from a coworker who comes from Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Beer Dip
1 package ranch dressing dry seasoning
2 8-ounce containers cream cheese, softened
¾ can of beer
2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Blend beer and cream cheese. Stir in shredded cheese and ranch. Chill overnight. Serve with pretzels.

Wild Card Tuesday worth the gamble

Tuesday is not my night to cook. Sometimes.

While I love all the grocery shopping, recipe research and time spent in the kitchen that goes into crafting our meals, there are some nights when I just don’t want to thing about making dinner.

With this in mind, I pitched an idea to Chris a while back — Wild Card Tuesday.

In theory, Chris would be responsible for coming up with dinner plans each Tuesday. Homemade, pick up or dine out, doesn’t matter. I just want one night a week where I’m not walking straight through the front door and into the kitchen after work.

In practice, Wild Card Tuesday might not happen every single week, but when it does, I absolutely love it. I know cooking isn’t the special man friend’s favorite pastime, but I appreciate when he humors me.

Tonight I got some delicious grilled surf and turf along with a salad of spinach and mushrooms. He did the shopping, the grilling, the dishes. The only time spent in the kitchen was when I walked through it on my way into the dining room.

Learning to simmer down thanks to slow cooker

Slow cooking is an exercise in patience for yours truly.

I have, on numerous occasions, ended up with a runny sauce, crunchy pasta and casseroles with lukewarm centers because I am an impatient cook. I am so eager to reap the rewards of time spent in the kitchen that I don’t always spend enough time in front of the stove.

I’m learning to be patient thanks to my Crock-Pot. It’s nothing fancy, a gently used model my mom had stashed away in the garage, but it gets the job done. I’m getting better at plugging it in, filling the pot and leaving its contents to simmer for six to eight hours. I even trust the pot enough to leave it on overnight.

My slow cooker has a 3.5-quart capacity, which yields plenty of food for the two of us, which includes leftovers. There have been a couple times when I’ve scaled recipes back because they’re meant for bigger pots, but no disasters yet.

The following recipe comes from one of two slow-cooking books I picked up at the library the other day. The author’s original recipe called for a 4-quart pot, and I did scale things back slightly by using a smaller package of spinach. The original recipe called for ground beef, which we don’t really eat at home, and white converted rice, but I wanted to give brown converted rice a try instead. I also opted to omit the scallions and add minced onions and Italian seasoning. Next time I’ll probably also add a teaspoon of red pepper flakes for a little kick.

This is one of the speedier slow-cooker recipes I’ve come across. This dish would be just as easy to cook on the stove top in a quarter of the time, but where’s the working-on-my-patience fun in that?

Turkey with Spinach and Rice
Adapted from Slow & Easy by Natalie Haughton
1 pound ground turkey
1 package (10-ounce) frozen chopped spinach, thawed but not drained
2 14-ounce cans diced tomatoes with basil
2 garlic cloves, minced
¾ cup converted brown rice
1 teaspoon dried minced onions
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper, to taste
Grated Parmesan, for garnish

Cook the ground turkey in a frying pan over medium-high heat until brown. Remove from heat and drain off any excess fat.

Place ground turkey, spinach, tomatoes, garlic, rice, onions and Italian seasoning in electric slow cooker. Give a quick stir to mix ingredients.

Cover and cook on the high-heat setting for two hours, until the rice is tender. Sprinkle cheese on top and serve.

Mexico, delicious Mexico

I miss Mexico.

We got back earlier this week from a trip to the Yucatán Peninsula, where we spent nine glorious days exploring Playa del Carmen and the surrounding areas. We toured archaeological sites including Tulum and Chichen Itza, snorkeled among sea turtles, explored cenotes and soaked up plenty of sun while relaxing on the beach.

We also gorged on some delicious food and drinks.

On our first night in Playa del Carmen, our wonderful hosts Sev and Mitch took us to one of their neighborhood favorites, HC de Monterrey, for arrachera, Mexico’s tender, delicious take on flank steak. I liked it so much I ended up ordering arrachera a couple more times at different restaurants, but dinner that first night, served with a baked potato, lime, avocado, a grilled jalapeño and sour cream, was the best.

Other Playa favorites included pizza at Piola and some delicious shrimp tacos at Los Aguachiles. The cold Dos Equis Ambar was especially refreshing with my aguachidos tostadas (a shrimp tostada topped with onion, cucumber, cilantro and cabbage), shrimp popeye taco with creamed spinach, and shrimp taco al oro negro (with refried black beans).

We ate at the Turtle Bay Café in Akumal twice – lunch of arrachera quesadilla and chicken tortilla soup was great, as was breakfast a couple days later, when I devoured an omelet stuffed with shredded chicken, cheese and ranchero sauce. Heaven!

Other highlights included:

Piña coladas at a swing bar at Xpu Ha

A smoky chicken tamale at a café near the Cathedral of San Gervasio in Valladolid

I also enjoyed dorking around at Mega, a huge grocery store in Playa. While Sev took care of some shopping, Chris and I ran around the store, our cameras in hand, playing tourist.

The Squeeze Cheese actually comes from Wisconsin

Milk and eggs aren't refrigerated

The most hilarious name ever for toilet paper

Mega was the source for the only souvenirs I brought back from Mexico — queso jalapeño microwave popcorn, some creamy poblano soup mix and some tlalpeño, barbacoa and pibil bouillon cubes.

We spent the last couple days at the Hacienda Tres Rios Resort for the wedding of friends Doug and Shannan. This was my first experience at an all-inclusive resort, and the food was pretty good. The quickness with which they refilled our Tecates was even better. The all-inclusive dining plan might have made it a little too easy to order tequila all around at the reception.

It was pretty hard to get off the plane in foggy Sacramento, but the post-vacation withdrawal is well worth it for a wonderful time in Mexico.

Je t'aime Le Creuset

Out of all the wonderful gifts I received this holiday season, one of my favorites is a lovely Le Creuset Dutch oven.

This is some serious kitchen hardware. We’re talking about 7 ¼ quarts of enameled cast-iron wonder. The sky’s the limit as far as what I can cook in this ocean-colored beauty.

I’ve been scouring my cookbooks and the Internet for recipes, but before I get to braising all kinds of other delicious fun I thought I’d ease into it and get to know the Le Creuset by making a big hearty pot of soup.

Hearty Sausage and Kale Soup
14 ounce lean smoked turkey sausage, sliced
1 teaspoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch kale, washed, patted dry and cut into ribbons
9 cups low-sodium chicken broth
28 ounce can diced tomatoes, with juices
2 14.5-ounce cans white beans, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
1 teaspoon Creole seasoning
3 sprigs rosemary and 2 sprigs oregano, tied together with string
Salt and pepper, to taste

Cook sausage over medium heat in Dutch oven for a couple minutes, until hot. Remove from pot and place in bowl. Warm olive oil in pot and add garlic, cooking for a minute or two and stirring occasionally, until aromatic.
Add broth, tomatoes, Creole seasoning, minced onions, beans, rosemary and oregano. Cover and let cook for at least 30 minutes.
Stir in kale and sausage. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, until kale is soft. Remove rosemary and oregano before serving soup.

This non-traditional macaroni and cheese adds color to the holidays

My family doesn’t stick to tradition when it comes to Christmas dinner. We could do game hens one year, a big roast of some sort the next. I like it this way, especially with the memory of a turkey-and-all-the-fixings Thanksgiving feast in the not-so-distant past.

This year we decided to cook up a Mexican feast for Christmas Eve, and it gave me the perfect excuse to add my own twist to a recipe I’d been eyeballing in the December issue of Bon Appetit.

I wouldn’t normally consider eating macaroni and cheese with my chicken fajitas, but it worked. The poblano chiles give this mac and cheese a nice kick that went well with our tacos and burritos. Next time I’ll omit the cheddar and use all pepper jack for a little more heat.

Macaroni and Cheese with a Kick
Adapted from Bon Appetit
2 ½ cups dry macaroni, boiled until al dente and drained
1 tablespoon corn oil
2 whole fresh poblano chiles, plus one cup fresh chopped poblano chile
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
½ cup red onion, chopped
1 ½ cups frozen corn
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint whipping cream
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 ½ cup shredded cheese (I used a blend of cheddar and pepper jack), divided
Salt and pepper to taste

Char whole chiles directly over gas flame or in a broiler until blackened on all sides. Transfer to a paper bag, seal, and let stand 15 minutes. Peel and seed chiles; puree in a food processor until smooth.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or bring the temperature down if you’ve already got the broiler on).

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. At chopped chile, bell pepper, onion, garlic and oregano. Sautee until soft, four or five minutes. Add corn and stir for about a minute. Add cream and chile puree and bring to a boil. Stir in 1 cup of cheese and all macaroni. Pour it all into a 9-by-13 glass baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining ½ cup cheese, cover with foil and bake 20-25 minutes.

Healdsburg weekend makes for a very happy birthday

I celebrated my 30th birthday in style with a weekend in Healdsburg with my special man friend, who, as a side note, gave me a super cool new camera (perhaps so I’m not hounding him for blog photos all the time?) — such a thoughtful gift. It was one big birthday blowout for our taste buds, with stops at wineries including (these were just the favorites) Bella Vineyards, Seghesio Family Vineyards and Ridge Vineyards.

Downtown Healdsburg is a charming spot overflowing with tasting rooms— we particularly enjoyed Hawley Winery and Edmeades — and fantastic restaurants.

My birthday dinner at Barndiva, just a block away from the main square, was delicious from start to finish. For cocktails, I tried Johan’s Mama (aquavit infused with toasted cacao nibs and ginger, house-made blackberry liqueur, nigori sake, barrel-aged bitters, sage and lemon) while Chris opted for Poodle Springs (jalapeno-vanilla infused pisco, luxardo maraschino, German Riesling, crème de peche, toasted bitters, lemon juice).

It was tough to make main-course decisions, but Chris ended up with a rack of pork with stone-ground polenta, braised chard, pancetta and gravenstein apple chutney. Me? I devoured my Sonoma leg of lamb with heirloom bean gratin, haricot verts, mint pesto and tomato marmalade.

After dinner we enjoyed a picturesque night cap at Spoonbar.

The open faced turkey meatball sandwich at Bolovo, inside Copperfield’s Bookstore, was a knock out for lunch.

Willi’s Seafood is a must-try for such delights as the tuna tartare with jalapenos, cashews, ginger and coconut milk

and the curried crab roll. Great spot to grab a Sunday afternoon seafood snack.

Another excellent dinner choice was Zin Restaurant and Wine Bar, where I ordered strip steak with pinto beans and a chile relleno.

The weekend was a wonderful way to kick off what I’m sure will be my best decade yet!