Mardi Gras Weekend Indulgences: Scallops and Galaxy Leggings

Happy weekend-gras! See what I did there? Though, I think most people refer to it as Carnivale weekend, but either way.  I hope you're enjoying traditional indulgences before Lent (if you're into that).  I also hope everyone stayed safe in Snowgnarok here on the East Coast.

Just before the storm came, Matt and I went to the grocery store to get some food, and one of our purchases was scallops, one of our favorite seafoods.  And I guess I should feature the recipe used here (since it is somewhat original).

Look at them defrosting.

The defrosting was probably the longest part.  But soon after came the spicing and searing.  I like searing because high heat and minimal contact with oil creates flavor and crunch without too much unhealthiness.

Angry scallop is angry.

Look at them sizzling!

In the pan, we tossed in some garlic paste for some added flavor.  If you're into that.  Me and Matt clearly are.

So pretty and yummy looking.

As a side, we made peas and rice, since those are things that go with seafood.  And wine, but we didn't make or have that because we totally don't drink because we're underaged.

So this picture came out pretty dark.  Sorry.

Scallops with Peas and Rice
Scallops

• 8 scallops
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon garlic paste
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Salt and pepper

Peas and Rice

• 1 cup brown rice
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon dried cilantro (though I'm sure fresh cilantro would be even better)
• 1/2 cup peas

1. Defrost scallops
2. While the scallops defrost, cook rice in rice cooker
3. When the rice is almost done, add the lemon juice and cilantro
4. Heat the butter and oil on a large pan on medium-high
5. Use spatula to put garlic paste
6. Place scallops on the pan for 1 minute and a half on each side
7. Add peas

Serves: 2

Shirt (Urban Outfitters), hat (pins and needles), leggings (Tobi), shoes (Aerosoles), cuff (gift from mum),  and necklace (Urban Outfitters)

Since it was Carnival weekend, I decided to go a little crazy with my outfit.  By crazy, I mean, I wore leggings as pants and not just ANY leggings, but my favorite galaxy leggings.  The color also matches the nautical theme of the dinner with the wave-shaped rice with the scallops.  I wish I had a masquerade mask to wear, but that's an art project for another time.

So no entry on Tuesday, but Thursday, look forward to a post about Valentine's Day's ultimate treat: chocolate truffle.

Keep it yummy,
Jo

Keeping Warm and Cute: Blueberry Pie with Spelt Crust

I had the biggest urge to bake a pie. Seriously, it was intense.  But last time I tried making a pie (which I somehow forgot to blog about, my apologies), it did not come out very pie-like.  It looked more like a cobbler, but was still delicious.

Arrowhead Mills Spelt Flour

The crust recipe comes courtesy of the About.com page about Scandinavian baking, which was so simple, I figured, why not give it a shot?

Lauren whisking the flour with the butter

I did not feel like making two pie crusts, so I halved the recipe.  My friend, Lauren, brought a stick of butter, of which we used 2/3 of cup of to make the dough, which looked like this:

My little ball of dough: pie is magic

While the ball of dough was refrigerating, we decided to make the filling, which consisted of frozen strawberries, frozen blackberries, frozen blueberries, frozen raspberries, agave nectar, and arrowroot.  In hindsight, I should have used MORE arrowroot for more gelatinization.

I used the Blackberry Cobbler filling recipe from Babycakes NYC

After half an hour, it was time to roll out the dough!  I am legitimately amazed that show much dough arose from just a cup of spelt flour, but food can be made of magic like that (not really, it's more the proteins in the spelt that cause that, but hey, magic sounds better).

Rolling out the dough!

We spooned the pie filling in the pie and poked three holes so that vapor and whatnot have somewhere to go and my pie didn't explode int he oven.  We had a ton of leftover dough, so Lauren and I decided to be creative.

Two friends worshiping Death?  I dunno what we were going for.

So after thirty to forty minute, our pie was ready!  And leaky.  Due to the lack of gelatinization.  But that just made the whole Death-worship thing that much more legit.

THIS PIE HAS COME FOR YOUR SOULS

You know how the filling was funny?  I think we forgot to have the pie set a bit, so serving it was a huge mess.  But, whatever, it was delicious and satisfied my pie desires.

Mmmm, pie.

The fashion was definitely inspired by the colors of the pie filling and the fact that it was deathly cold outside. So how do you keep warm?

Sweater (Free People), Skirt (H&M), yoga pants (Lululemon), collared shirt (Cooperative), and hat (knit by Indigo Hare)

Layers.  Like ogres and onions.  Since that day I had a presentation to give, I wanted to dress well.  But it was also in the single digits Fahrenheit, so I had to be smart about how I looked.  The fact that I had to bike a mile round trip between classes did not help either.  I put the sweater over the collared shirt, which kept my core nice and warm.  The yoga pants are so much thicker than regular leggings and have more structure, rendering them appropriate even if I did not have a skirt on.  And of course, I wore my warmest jacket with a circle-scarf wrapped three times around my neck to keep my face warm.

On Thursday, we continue the saga of I Can't Follow Recipes with an awesome recipe for vegan enchiladas and a super-edgy coordinated outfit to go!

Keep it yummy,
Jo

Taka Taka

Sorry for the really late post!  I've had a friend over the past few days and was just everywhere all the times. I did not have much access to my laptop when Jil was over, but now, sadly, she went home and is going to Italy for the whole semester.

But I digress.  I was strolling through SoHo the other day, listening to Grimes, I looked across the street to find a place named Taka Taka, which serves Japanese tacos and Mexican sushi.  I just had to go there.  I went with my friends, Danielle and Jil, and we had the greatest time.  It was a fun-seeming place: the music was trendy and the decor made it seem fun.

Look how trendy!

There was also a conveyor belt from which to take traditional sushi rolls for appetizer.  What they also gave was a sampling of spicy sauces.  When I say spicy, I mean, I wish I had milk at the table to cool my mouth.  And I hate milk.

Conveyor belt sushi color-coded by price.  Avocado, cream cheese, cucumber and crab masado.  YUM!

Clockwise from top: pickled serrano chiles, jalapeno mayo, and chipotle mayo.  Ouch!

I was most interested in the Japanese tacos, so I ordered the Miss Carnitas.  It was a taco with Japanese-style cooked meat with guacamole and pico de gallo.  I loved it!  It was, however, not a lot of food for $21, but I would definitely get it again, considering I was there for dinner, which doesn't necessarily have to be pricey, but if I'm in the city with a friend who I'm not seeing until August, splurging a bit is allowable.

Japanese tacos.  Corn tortillas = delicious + gluten-free

Polka dots have been super popular and trendy over the last few years and, for Christmas, Danielle got me a pair of polka-dot sweater tights.  I wore this outfit the other day, but as with the gray-scale outfit, I think this outfit provide a nice contrast from colors present in the foods.  And if you just stick with tradition sushi, the black bottom and white top mimic the black seaweed and the white rice.  You are what you eat, right?

Hat: Staring at Stars; Shirt: Free People; Shorts: American Eagle; Boots: Minnetonka; Bag: Renaissance Fair; Tights: gift

Keep it yummy,
Jo

Stuffed Squash

Squash had not been a food commonly consumed in my house in NYC.  The only time I really ate pumpkins was in pie at Thanksgiving and that was about it.  Through the C.S.A. weekly box of vegetables, though, we received an acorn squash.  I had never seen one before and Andrew and Andrea were fans of roasting them and/or putting stuff in them.  So, I decided to use the "and" function.

Finished product!  Acorn squash stuffed with rice, scallions, carrots, colored bell peppers, and topped with Parmesan cheese

I wasn't expecting it to be so sweet on the inside, I was pretty proud of myself for preemptively adding spices like curry powder and turmeric to the rice to add some kick to the meal.  I admittedly added red pepper flakes which are quickly becoming my favorite flavoring.

With this meal, I would try to pair it with like colors.  I usually dislike yellow, but I have this one tank top from Free People that is to die for. I have a similar skirt that's corduroy with buttons from Forever21 and a BDG olive-green cardigan to match the colors of the squash skin and the scallions. I usually wear my Minnetonka moccasins as comfort-shoes, but sadly, I will have to retire them soon.  I'll probably just replace them with a similar pair from the same brand.

Keep it yummy,
Jo

Thin Mints!

Due to the fact that Girl Scout Cookies have crack in them (not really, at least, I hope not) and wheat flour, I can't eat them.  So I was so happy that BabyCakes came out with a recipe.  And what better way to surprise someone for their birthday besides baking them cookies!  Matt's birthday was last week (I am the worst blogger; the passed two weeks have been super busy and rough) so I decided to bake him thin mints.

The recipe!

Dry ingredients

Dylan trying to do soil science over a cup of oolong tea

Wet and dry ingredients together!

Makeshift double-boiler for melting chocolate.  It worked, so whatever.

The cover of the plastic case with the thin mints.

Making these was a lot of fun.  But it took about an hour and a half because I was trying to do too many things at once and even though I have a bigger kitchen, there never seems to be enough space.  But they received rave reviews from Matt, my housemates, and Dylan.  So, I'd call it a success!

Dress from Tobi, tights from Steve Madden, boots from Steve Madden, socks from Urban Outfitters, and the hat is from H&M

Since black is associated with dark chocolate and green is associated with mint, this dress I think goes with the concept of thin mints.  I was pretty excited that it was the first day of fall weather, because I love boots and tights.  It makes me feel more stylish and creative than just wearing a dress with sandals.  Bring on the cold, Ithaca!

Keep it yummy,
Jo

Renaissance Fare

I have been into fantasy and medieval things like Lord of the Rings and King Arthur for as long as I can remember (see also why I am a terrible blogger who watched such movies instead of writing the promised blog post).  It's just so mystical and the fashions are gorgeous.  So I was super excited when the vague plans to go to the Sterling Renaissance Festival became a concrete trip.  Andrew, Andrea, Jil, Steve, Marissa and I got into Jil's buggy and went for a what-should-have-been 1.5 hour drive to the fair.  It was set up in forest-y area where people rode decorated horses and dressed up in period pieces.

Look at this horse, this horse is amazing

Medieval royal fair has generally been associated with rich meals, while peasants have been generally associated with slop.  Well, I associate more with the peasants than with royalty (I am a rather simple girl, to be quite honest).  So, knowing about out-dated norms that exposed ankles were scandalous, as were pants, I decided to opt for a maxi skirt.

Hat (bought at the fair), shirt (Urban Outfitters), skirt (PacSun), purse (Urban Outfitters), glasses (Urban Outfitters)

Now for the food?  Of course, being the meat eater that I tend to be, I got a massive turkey leg, and, given the spice-lover that I tend to be, I got the thing slathered in hot sauce.

Is it the size of my face?  I think so.

Sheesh, I don't think I've ever ate a piece of meat that good.  I looked up online some fact about it and apparently it is a 1000 calories and you need to walk 5 and a half hours to burn that off.  Well, good thing that that's how long we were at the fair and the duration of afterwards shenanigans.  Plus, I really hate all this talk about how festival food is totally bad for you (it is, oh, it definitely is) but at the same time, how often do people actually attend these things?  I eat pretty clean most of my life and if I want to enjoy a day out with my friends, I should be able to eat whatever I please.  That is my rant.

Overall, the festival was so much fun.  Highlights included swinging a swords, watching a joust, and witnessing the Highland Games.  I can't wait to do it again next year.

Keep it yummy,
Jo