Simple Quick Dinner~Tofu Salad

Now with Mike and me working long hours every day, cooking is not as high a priority for us.  We end up eating quick meals a few times a week, frozen food once a week, and eating out once a week. I was fortunate to grow up in a home where my family ate home-cooked meals together at the dinner table with the TV turned off.  We always had a salad or some kind of fresh vegetable and for the most part ate healthy meals. That's why I crinkle my nose in disgust after I succumbed to the fact that the lack of time means that Mike sometimes eats lunchables and I eat lean cuisines or hot pockets for lunch. 
This is my attempt in making a healthy meal.

I put this together the other night and Mike was sweet and told me that this dish was pretty enough to serve at a party.  We ate this salad with the enoki mushroom and seaweed soup from the previous post. 

1 cucumber-thinly sliced
1 block soft tofu
1 can kogai-ajitsuke clams (in a sweet soy sauce)-do not drain
chopped green onion for garnish (optional)
soy sauce (optional for those who like more flavor)

Stack all the ingredients on top of each other and serve. 

What to do with Enoki Mushrooms

 Sometimes I wonder if people actually read my blog. I track the number of viewers on Google Analytics, but comments are quickest way I know that someone actually stopped by to read the post.  But then when I call some of my friends, we'll be having a conversation and they will casually bring up something I posted about.

 Hence, this post is dedicated to my sister.  She has set up her homepage to my blog because she's a nice sister and also so she can read about my cooking experiments.  The other day we were talking about her great deal 100 grams of enoki mushrooms for $0.33. That's pretty cheap. Being the younger sister I am, I burst her bubble and told her the asian market I shop at had that same special going on. 
My sister asked me how I usually cook my enoki mushrooms and I cook it in an Izakaya style with butter, garlic, salt and pepper. 

Here are my other enoki mushroom creations.

Simple soup (kind of tastes like nira soup)
Dried Seaweed
garlic
enoki mushrooms
hon-dashi -fish stock (same thing we use to make saimin broth)
Salt, pepper, soy sauce to taste.

Enoki mushroom, caramelized onion, mozzarella, and goat cheese flatbread pizza
Goat cheese or any kind of cheese you want
Garlic
Caramelized onions
Olive oil
Bought the flatbread for ~$5 at Sam's Club

Kay Reag, hope you enjoyed this mushroom post!

Beef Bourguignon

Watching "Julie and Julia" made me curious about this dish called beef bourguignon.  It sounded wonderful and I had to try it.  I searched online for a recipe and saw that Julia Child's original recipe required over 4 hours of cooking! I searched until I found a modified recipe which required only 2 hours of cook time and then modified it even more. I went grocery shopping and was going to purchase pearl onions and then thought, "I don't like pearl onions" so I didn't buy them.  If I had used this same philosophy with the wine, my beef bourguignon might have ended up as a stir-fry. 
I don't want to bore you with all the details, so long story short; I bought my ingredients and went home to cook the beef.

Here's the beef bourguignon simmering in my new dutch oven!  After it simmered for a total of 4 hours (the meat was tough after 2 hours, so I left it in the oven), I drained the liquid and made a sauce by reducing the liquids and adding a flour-butter paste. 

My final assessment, I do not think I would make it again.  Why? It took a lot more time (and dishes) than I expected, I do not care for the taste of wine, and I do not like stewed meat.   Mike rolled his eyes when I told him that.  He was like, "Hello, if you make a recipe named 'beef bourguignon' there will be beef and wine in it." I knew that, I just was curious if I could make it or not. 
Mike enjoyed the dish.  He said it was a bit more gourmet than the beef burgundy that he makes at home in which its more like a stew and there isn't a sauce to pour over the meat and vegetables. 

Texas Restaurants~The Grape

I never used to be a burger lover.  Maybe it was because when I thought of burgers, I instantly thought of frozen processed hamburger patties.  But oh, how magical the world is when there are homemade burgers that are hand-formed and grilled to order.  Mmmm...Now I seek out yummy homemade burgers. 
One of my friends suggested that we go to The Grape for sunday brunch because their cheeseburger was rated #1 in Texas Monthly's "50 Best in Texas 2009."  My interest was heightened when I found out that the cheeseburger was only served on Sundays and Mondays. 

Take a look at that cheeseburger.  It's a 10 ounce burger topped with homemade bacon (fried extra crispy) and white cheddar served on a toasted bun.  On the side of the burger were lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and horseradish pickles. I am not a fan of horseradish, but these pickles were surprisingly good.  The burger was served with fries for a total cost of $12.99. Not too shabby for a massive burger that required me to open my mouth so wide that I could not manage to look girly in the process. 
Would I say this is the "best" burger in Texas? I don't think that's a fair statement, since I haven't had many burgers to compare it to.  The Grape's cheeseburger was delicious and I would definitely go back to eat it again, but I still have miles of unchartered burger territory before I can make that claim. 

*The Grape is a cute little locally owned restaurant in Dallas. I would suggest making reservations because this restaurant was packed last Sunday afternoon.

The Grape

2802 Greenville Ave.

Dallas, TX 75206

(214)828-1980

Calling me out...of hiding

This post is dedicated to Ms. Kendell. A few days ago she called me out about my lack of blog posts and called me a "post blogger." Yes, I take A LOT of pictures and end up blogging about the events MONTHS after they occur and by the time I blog; I've forgotten what the food tasted like.  So, it saddens me to do this, but those pictures will just be lost and I'll be starting fresh with new pictures and hopefully current posts. 

 I don't want to bore you with the details or excuses for the lack of blogging.  My google reader has also been neglected and I haven't been able to catch up on reading my favorite blogs. 

March was just a really busy month..  I'll sum it up in one long sentence:  went on my 5th work trip of the year, am now a gold member on American Airlines, got really sick and lost my voice for a week, in-laws visited, bought a new car, friend from home visited, hello allergy season, and am now nursing an eye infection. 

So stay tuned for more food posts. Just so that I do not cheat on the posts, expect to see posts about Beef Bourguignon (I plan to make this in the upcoming weeks) and I'll be checking out The Grape's burger in Dallas this weekend. 

*I had a picture of a blood orange that I segmented a while ago and thought that this post needed an image.  How's that for randomness?