A Hungry Bear

slow cooker black beans

29. April 2009

This is a great recipe that my BFF Morgan shared with me, and it couldn’t be easier. (You might also recognize Mo as the person who created every last little thing about AHB - she’s the world’s best graphic designer.) I took a pound of dried black beans - less than $1 - and turned it into 8 individually portioned servings of black beans, froze them, and have been reheating them for healthy lunches (stuffed in a little tortilla with sour cream, guacamole, and lots of salsa). The hours and hours I had to slave away in my kitchen to get these black beans to taste great was worth it though. Oh, wait - it only took me 3 minutes. 3 minutes + healthy + $1 = are you getting out your crock pot yet??

Update 5/11: And by the way, this post was selected by Alisa at Foodista for listing on their site. Thanks Alisa!

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asparagus & mushroom salad with parmesan dressing

28. April 2009

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I found this simple recipe for roasted asparagus with sauteed mushrooms and a Parmesan reduction dressing (described as a warm “salad”) in Food & Wine a couple of months ago. The torn-out page has been in my food ideas binder for a long time, until I made it, and I think I accidentally tossed it out. And after countless searches on F&W online, I can’t find it, to provide a link to the original. Sorry about that. But for now, if you’re looking for a way to mix up roasted asparagus, try this! (more…)

passionfruit punch

24. April 2009

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This is my favorite drink from Food 101 Atlanta. While I don’t have a recipe to follow, I’ve tried to recreate what I’ve had at the restaurant. It’s become one of my favorites, especially as the weather heats up… The important part is the J. Love passionfruit vodka, which gives the drink it’s flavor without any overwhelming sweetness. (more…)

olive tapenade stuffed chicken

23. April 2009

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Chicken thighs are cheap, but I’m always at a loss for how to make them. Recently I’ve been searching for new ways to try them, and found a recipe on foodblogsearch.com that was really compelling (3 exclamation points convinced me). I made some modifications, but it’s basically just chicken thighs rolled around a spoonful of olive tapenade, roasted and then served with a simple roasted red pepper sauce on top. Something about the preparation made this the juiciest chicken I think I’ve ever had - maybe the saltiness of the olives in the center brings out the juices like a brine? And considering it only took about 15 minutes of active prep time, I can agree with the What Geeks Eat author that this recipe is a must-try (!!!). (more…)

green goddess potato salad with pancetta

20. April 2009

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When you’ve got 2 cups of green goddess sitting around, it’s time to experiment. What about dressing up some potato salad? Sounds good, but how can I be sure A will like it? Easy: add bacon. (more…)

green goddess dressing with grilled halibut & salad

18. April 2009

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Molly Wizenberg wrote about green goddess salad dressing in her Bon Appetit column last month, and I immediately wanted to try it (her writing has that effect on a lot of people I guess). Until Molly’s article, I thought “Green Goddess” was just a brand of dressing made by Annie’s Organics, but I’ve never tasted it. She waxed poetic about how great it was on a simple bed of romaine leaves or a piece of fish - so I made both. I thought it was incredibly good. The only downside was that it made a bit too much for us to finish, even after having it for 5 days in a row on various vegetables. Next time I’ll make a half batch, but I’m including the full recipe here as Molly presented it (adapted from Chez Panisse Vegetables cookbook). (more…)

redhead in bed

17. April 2009

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I was flipping through this month’s Food & Wine magazine and was surprised to see one of Atlanta’s most successful rap musicians, Ludacris (if you don’t know who that is, start here). I wonder if it’s a sign of a true yuppie if you have both Ludacris’ Chicken & Beer album plus an article about his Singaporean restaurant in your house?

Anyway, the article talked about how great his new Atlanta restaurant, Straits, is, and featured a lot of recipes from their menu. The one that immediately caught my eye was the Redhead in Bed cocktail. Strawberry puree + citrus vodka: how could you not love that? I haven’t been to the restaurant yet, but it’s on my list now.

Cast of characters (makes enough for 4 drinks): 1 pound strawberries, 1 lime, orange Stoli (citrus vodka), ice, 1/2 cup sugar. (more…)

barbecue beef brisket

15. April 2009

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Do you know when I feel the most satisfaction from cooking? It’s not when I really nail a recipe and get compliments (that’s nice), or when I come home from a restaurant and recreate a dish (rare, but also really nice). It’s much simpler than that. The most rewarding thing to me is to be given a request, as in, “can you make this for me?”

This just happened last weekend, much to my excitement. We’re sitting around, me with my food magazines and A with his mountains of matlab code and airplane designs, and he starts telling me about his mom’s barbecue beef brisket, and wondering aloud if maybe I’d make it for him one day? Brisket! I’ve never made brisket! Barbecue! I love barbecue! It sounded perfect. By the time I called A’s mom and got the right recipe, I had already made my first barbecue brisket - that’s how impatient I am. (Now that I have her recipe, I’ll try for brisket #2 in a few weeks and post that too - a barbecue-brisket-off is in the works!) (more…)

guacamole revisited

13. April 2009

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I’ve made guacamole on AHB before, and while I still stick to my original recipe of no-recipe-at-all, I’ve been making it more often recently and found a few new tricks that make it even better. So just in case you don’t have your own non-recipe down pat, let’s review this one. (more…)

isle of pines

10. April 2009

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This could be the new cosmo, if only it had a better name… So here’s an idea for today’s Friday Happy Hour: have some girlfriends over, make them this drink, and try and come up with a name that captures how not-too-sweet not-too-sour but if-you’re-not-careful-you’ll-drink-it-too-fast-and-wind-up-wasted type of good that it is. Got that? (more…)