Star-crossed in the kitchen

Follow the adventures of Katie and Frank as they discover what two inexperienced chefs can do in the kitchen.

[starcrossedkitchen]

We’re here, I swear!

Welp.... that certainly was a long, unexpected hiatus. 

Two whole weeks. Sheesh.

But, we’re back! And ready to continue chronicling our kitchen adventures.

Last night we made lobster.

That’s right, lobster. And not the dinky little frozen tails you buy at the grocery store that fit in the palm of your hand.

No, I went to the fish market and we got big, juicy, thick, 10 oz. lobster tails.

Hey, if you’re gonna do it, might as well do it right, yeah?

We followed this recipe to make super buttery, mouthwatering lobster tails in the sous vide. We set our cooker to 130 degrees and did approximately 40 minutes, give or take 5.

While the lobster cooked, we made a packaged parmesan risotto and then oven baked some asparagus with garlic and olive oil.

Delish!

[starcrossedkitchen]

Long days equal longer evenings

Sometimes, you just have one of those days. You’re tired, you’re over work, you’re over the week, you’re over getting out of bed...

Those are the days when my opinions on dinner could go either way. Either I’m going to:

want to order takeout or do a lazy boxed meal

want to take out all my feelings on an over-the-top, involved recipe.

Last night, we settled on 2.... but a little on the easier side. Let’s be real, who can say no to a spicy Mexican pork and rice dish?

The recipe was easy enough, except in my rush to try and get it all in the Instant Pot quickly, I didn’t do prep the way I should (minced onions? Who forgets to see how their onions should be cut?)

34 minutes on high pressure, quick release, then 6 minutes on high pressure, 10-minute natural release.

We didn’t eat until 10 pm, and after a long, stressful day, that’s annoying. Still, the meal was AMAZING, and definitely one we’d add to our list again. 

[starcrossedkitchen]

Adventurous weekend

Boy, was this weekend a doozy! In all honest, each meal probably deserves it's own post... but we were so busy, there was no time to post until today (and even then, Frank had to remind me, whoops!)

To kick the weekend off, Frank and I decided to go to a local restaurant we'd been talking about for months. If you haven't heard of shabu-shabu (A Japanese hotpot type meal) look online to see if there's a place near you... because it's awesome. In fact, I'm pretty sure I repeated that sentiment more times than Frank's ever wanted to hear it...

On the menu for us was wagyu beef, Australian lamb and Berkshire pork. The meat was served raw with a pot of boiling broth, a bowl of veggies and noodles, a small bowl of rice, and some dipping sauces. It's a cook-your-own type thing, and while intimidating at first, it was also a lot of fun.

Sunday was our big cooking day!

We visited Frank's parents and decided to take something to cook sous vide. After packing up the Anova, it was off to the market to see what our options would be.

Four ribeye steaks later, we were set.

Two were about 2-inches thick, while the other two were maybe an inch. We used his mom's vacuum sealer to seal up the seasoned meat before dropping it in the water bath at 130 degrees for 2 hours. His dad has a Big Green Egg (okay, okay... maybe this meal wasn't so much treating them as also treating ourselves...) so Frank gave the steaks a nice sear before we sat down to a hearty meal that included homemade mashed potatos, wine cooked mushrooms, a salad and some of his mom's homemade soup.

Delish.

[starcrossedkitchen]

Not above cleaning dishes

I mean of course, eating leftovers. Who does dishes?

(Thanks Frank, you’re a complete hero for doing all those last night, even though I told you to wait for me to do them and then only offered to dry...)

Leftovers. Have you ever noticed how sometimes leftover food tastes better than fresh? Like pizza! Last night, I demolished two slices of cold pizza left over from our party on Sunday. I have no regrets.

The weather was unseasonably warm for our part of the country (60 and rain... today it’s 30s and snow, yippee!) so we decided to pour two glasses of wine, grab all the food tupperwares, and sit out on the patio... under the rain umbrella of course.

it was relaxing. We stuffed ourselves with as much buffalo chicken dip as we could before we ran out of decent-sized chips. Frank ate one of the BBQ chicken wings I insisted tasted like Chinese takeout. We nibbled on some chocolate covered Pringles. Then we sipped our wine and chowed on cold pepperoni pizza.

And really, is there a better way to spend a Tuesday? Gonna be honest... I think not...

[starcrossedkitchen]

Super Bowl(s) of food!

By now, I’m sure you’ve all been flooded with social media post after post about what was served at every single Super Bowl party in the country.

Welp, here’s one more.

Frank and I decided to do chicken wings! We went to the Market and got 1 lb of garlic parmesan buffalo wings, and 5 lbs of regular wings. We decided to do the marinated and a pound of the regular in the sous vide, and the remaining wings in the Instant Pot!

When they were finished, we deep pried them and coated them in sauce (BBQ for a third, homemade garlic parmesan buffalo for the rest).

Delish. I’ll be honest that I couldn’t really tell a difference in texture, flavor, juiciness, etc between the IP and SV wings, but they were all wonderful.

On top of the wings, I made fresh guacamole (from a family recipe), mozzarella-stuffed onion rings (that kinda turned into a disastrous mush), and some chocolate dipped pringles and bacon (seriously, do it). Frank was the deep-fryer extraordinaire, but he also jumped in and made buffalo chicken dip (his is the bestttttt) and Swedish meatballs (his mom’s recipe I seem to be unable to not burn...).

Throw in some pizza that a friend brought and we had ourselves a party... and a TON of leftovers!

[starcrossedkitchen]

Turkey pepperoni has 4 calories

This week has sucked. Let’s just get that out right now.

And when we’re not able to get/make dinner until 7 or 8 at night, it can be hard to find the motivation to not just throw something crappy in the microwave so we can lazily get fed.

In steps these awesome chicken roll ups! We were both so excited to try them, it helped keep us motivated as the clock struck 8:30 and the food still wasn’t in the oven.

We only had chicken strips, not chicken breasts, but they were just as easily flattened and made into smaller versions. We also skipped the onion, and we did straight up bread crumbs instead of whole wheat... because we’re cheap and lazy and it’s what we had.

(BTW did you know turkey pepperoni has 70 calories per SEVENTEEN slices of pepperoni!? That’s 4.11 calories per slice... aka what I’m gonna snack on from now on.)

While I worked on the chicken, Frank went and made some vegetable soup from scratch! I got veggies chopped up while I waited for him to get off work (celery, carrots, potatoes, and my personal favorite: parsnips!). He used a jar of his homemade chicken stock, but because I’d made a massive amount of veggies, he added some bouillon to the mix. 20 minutes high pressure in the Instant Pot and voila! Throw in the spices and herbs you want, and it was done.

[starcrossedkitchen]

Treat yo self

Every diet needs a cheat day, but if you do it right, your cheat day can actually be healthy!

Almonds and scrambled egg whites.

That's what Frank and I snacked on during the day, in order to keep our intake low so that by the time dinner came around...

That's right - we used our free chips & guac coupons (keep the chips) and got ourselves two delish burrito bowls. They were an indulgence, something we won't do every day, but it was nice to relax with a good 'ole bowl of rice, beans, meat, cheese and guac, among other things. Plus, we were both able to keep our orders under 1,000 calories, allowing us to stay at around 1,500 for the whole day! Not bad!

[starcrossedkitchen]

Sunday Funday

Weekends are generally packed for us, which sometimes makes it hard to eat “right.” Because of this, we try to focus one day on cooking, and this weekend it was Sunday.

A trip to the market resulted in a 1/2 pound of scallops and two crab cakes, which we were very excited to sous vide.

After a quick online search, it was determined that we should put the crab cakes in for the same, brief amount of time as the scallops, and then finish both to a golden crisp on the stove. Temperatures for the scallops varied, but all said 30 minutes, so we decided to just try 123.8 and hope for the best.

One bummer is that, while the crab cakes crisped up AMAZINGLY, the scallops never seemed to get that nice, golden crust on the flat ends that we were hoping for.

Still, everything tasted divine, and the meal was gone pretty quickly after being put on our plates. I’m surprised Frank was even able to snap pictures first!

[starcrossedkitchen]

Low-carb, no prob!

In our attempt to get healthier (paired with the beer festival we’re attending tonight), Frank and I decided yesterday to go low carb with our diet.

An egg for breakfast, paired with a slice of cheese and some sliced meat for lunch was on the menu before we got down to a recipe we’ve both been very eager to try.

Low Carb Instant Pot Chicken Basil Pesto!

Plus, we got to use the Instant Pot again!

We cut out the sun-dried tomatoes, because Frank’s not a fan, and instead added an extra half cup of regular tomatoes for the last step.

The bonus was that this recipe was really quick and easy to do, so we were eating before we even knew it! And it claims to be 8 servings, but we decided to 1, consider it 4 servings and 2, put half the recipe in a tupperware immediately so we weren’t tempted. At that amount, it’s only a little over 550 calories per serving!

As you can tell, it came out pretty watery, so I think next time we’ll try to cut down on the chicken broth a bit before cooking.

We also sprinkled a little shaved Parmesan on top because, well.. we love cheese.

Tonight’s a little up in the air. We’re planning to eat the remaining taco burgers for dinner.... but after 3 hours of drinking beer at a festival, odds are good our healthy week will end on a “not-so-healthy” note.

Still, we’ll get back on track tomorrow, when we work more with the Anova!

[starcrossedkitchen]

We’re obsessed

In a way, I feel almost bad for the Instant Pot. We loved it, we cooked with it, and we had fun for a solid month and a half...

...and then sous vide cooking came along.

Don’t get me wrong, we still use the Instant Pot on the reg. But while our excitement used to be “What are we going to Instant Pot next!?” now it’s “What are we going to sous vide next!?”

Anywayyyyyy...

Last night we made taco burgers. This recipe was posted in an FB group we’re in yesterday and my God were we excited. Burgers made with taco seasoning? AND stuffed with cheese? Sign me up!

If there was one thing I’d change, I’d probably do the burgers different, and maybe a little bigger than 1/4 pounders. For this time around, I made the patties, then folded up a slice of cheddar and put it in the center and folder the burger around it. I don’t think the burger was thick enough, so they all ended up with cheese gushing out (not a bad thing... I just want maximum cheese in my burger). Next time I’d probably flatten two thin patties, put the cheese in between and pinch the edges together.

We’re ALSO debating the idea of crumbling up tortilla chips to mix into the burger before cooking. If anyone happens to try this out, let us know how it turns out!

[starcrossedkitchen]

Unintentional hiatus

Well... it’s certainly been a while. Sorry about that!

No excuses, so let’s just skip all that.

In the last couple weeks, Frank's been getting into the idea of sous vide cooking. He's been showing me videos and we both joined a Facebook group about it. On Friday, the precision cooker we'd been eyeing was on sale, so I bought it!

Saturday we decided to try it out by cooking two, big, 1-inch-thick porterhouse steaks. They were a-mazing. I'll be honest, I've never been a steak person. My dad likes his steaks well done, so that's how I was raised and I was never impressd. Saturday we cooked our steaks to medium-rare (129 degrees for an hour) and I was blown away. I've definitely been converted.

While the steaks were cooking, Frank steamed some broccoli in the Instant Pot and I sauteed some mushrooms and onions on the stove.

The weather was so nice out, we seared the finished steaks on the grill outside and then ate out there to enjoy the rare weather we never get in January here.

[starcrossedkitchen]

Monday is for meat

Although let’s be real, every day is for meat.

I know, I know, some people do that whole “Meatless Monday” thing... which is great. I’m sure we’ll be doing that once or twice (or more).

But today, we had meat. Salmon to be more specific.

Two fillets, coated in a “Southwest” seasoning Frank picked up on a weekend excursion. Pan fried off and on for 30 minutes because I started them too early.

While I was doing that, Frank got to work with the Instant Pot. Seriously, this thing is great. He cooked some brussel sprouts for 3 minutes, high pressure quick release, and then sauteed some onions and mushrooms before tossing in the sliced sprouts and heating them up in some of the chicken bone broth we made yesterday. And by “we” I mean “he.”

Avocados were on sale! So, they weren’t amazing and definitely should have ripened for another day or two, but when I see those dark green fruits with a sign advertising them for less than a dollar each, I pounce.

Plated with a small serving of leftover garlic mac & cheese, and overall, we had a pretty decent meal. I was happy. Frank was happy.

....and then we ate some taco dip while watching the National Championship.

Hey, we’re only human.

[starcrossedkitchen]

Sunday Funday

Day one of our healthy lifestyle, and we decided to make it a big day.

Following our intense trip to the grocery store (I only got sidetracked and lost Frank once!) we got to work.

First on the list, homemade ranch seasoning and taco seasoning!

It’ll be nice to have these on hand and know exactly what’s in them when we need them. It was relatively easy, and both included herbs and spices that are pretty common in the kitchen.

Up next, Frank got to work on cooking a full chicken in his Instant Pot. If you haven’t heard of this thing, you need to check it out and start saving... it’s amazing.

Anyway, this chicken cooked for about 28 minutes, and the juices are incredible... we may have both drunk a few spoonfuls.

The chicken was fall-off-the bone tender and while he carved it up, I tossed some quinoa into the leftover broth.

And let me just say, I don’t think I will ever make quinoa with water again. The flavor the chicken broth added to the grains was so savory, and it mixed well with the chicken once plated.

We tossed on a bit of sauteed zucchini and boom, dinner!

When dinner was said and done, we decided to toss the chicken carcass in the Instant Pot with some water and veggies to make a bone broth! Timer says two hours, so fingers crossed it works!

[starcrossedkitchen]

Today will be interesting...

Well, it’s the weekend! And we all know what that means...

1) it’s the official start of our healthier eating lifestyle 2) it’s the part of the week where we usually indulge more

And of course, what weekend wouldn’t be complete without two - yes TWO - birthday dinners?

Tonight we’re heading to a popular hot spot for “young professionals” to celebrate a friend’s 26th birthday (geez do I feel old...). The local beer head - with roughly 40 pages of beer on the menu - also hosts a wide variety of “pub eats” so odds of us finding something relatively healthy are low.

Still, our plan is to drink slow and few, and maybe split the healthiest pizza on the menu. In the meantime, we’ll be eating our normal, non-exciting lunches in an attempt to save up for what we’ll consume tonight.

Yay parties!

[starcrossedkitchen]

New year, same us… only healthier…

Happy 2017!

I know, I know. That was SO five days ago… but hey, some of us had to spend that time recovering from hangovers and from our final glutonous days before our New Year’s resolution of eating healthy kicked in. (Plus a couple days of procrastinating the start of our diets)

And here we are.

This weekend starts our journey to a healthier lifestyle, and we hope you’ll join us. For now, we’re going to devour our last bites of sinfully amazing garlic parmesan mac and cheese before we crack down and really get to work.