Ahi Tuna

I'm not too clear on the recipes for any of this, since Ed made it. The Asian slaw he made the night before, and let it sit marinated overnight in the fridge. Its based loosely off of Alton Brown's recipe, but I don't think he used any peanut butter. It was a little too spicy, for my tastes. The veggies were purple cabage, napa cabage, carrot, yellow and red peppers, jalapeno, and scallions.

The tuna we got at the New Deal fish market, which I will definitely be hitting up more often. It's run by three generations of guys, and I guess the youngest guy quit his job as an engineer to help with the fish. That is dedication. Anyway, these guys definitely knew what they were talking about, and sold so very good fish, which is the primary objective when it comes to eating raw fish. They only had tuna steaks, next time we're going to get some tuna loin, which has the grain going in a different direction.

The marinade and dipping sauce for the fish was some sort of combination of soy sauce, honey, and sesame oil? Again, Ed made it and I didn't pay any attention. He had that reducing for a while, so it was a thick, sweet, salty deliciousness by the time it got used as a dipping sauce. The tuna he coated in sesame seeds, about half and half white and black, since we happened to have both. Then he seared it in a cast-iron pan, about 30 seconds a side, until it was cooked about 1/8 inch in on each side. Maybe someday I'll get around to asking him for specifics... since we're doing this again for some friends next week.






The way every piece of tuna should look... what a beautiful fish!

Irish Soda Bread

A while back, I got a bunch of dried cherries that turned out to be not sour at all. I don't particularly like these not-sour dried cherries, so I've been somewhat at a loss as to what to do with them. I think I have it figured out, though, because they were fantastic in this Irish Soda Bread, replacing raisins. This recipe is straight from the King Arthur Flour book.

2C white flour
1C whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4C sugar
2 tbs butter
1C dried cherries (or raisins)
1 egg
2C buttermilk

Mix your dry ingredients, and crumble the butter into the batter using your fingertips. Beat the egg, then add the buttermilk, and once those are incorporated, dump the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir just until combined (it was pretty dry), then plop that into a greased bread pan. Cook on 350 for 45 minutes, or until done. At least, I think it was 45 minutes. You might want to check it at 30.

Yooper food of da gods

Yooper is what they call someone from Michigan's Upper Penninsula. Their regional food is a pasty. Pronounced "pass-tee". We realized that we couldn't leave the U.P. without trying one of these, so we found a shop that Matt told us was actually rated as the best pasty shop in da U.P. The pasty was good. My trip to the U.P. is complete.

Eating PRO on the go, parts IV, V, and VI

Cookin' skier style!

I'm falling a little behind here... Day four, we had pasta and sauce. Somewhat generic, but skier fodder the night before a long race. Two other girls came over, and they brought some enchiladas they had made, which were a fantastic appetizer. The pasta we cooked in the microwave, about half a box at a time in a big bowl of water. We used small zitis, which were not quite as good as the Annie's shells, but might have been better with some stirring. For the sauce, we microwaved some onions and mushrooms and then threw that in the crockpot with some canned sauce. No pictures, but it worked.

Day five


Chili! We threw a bunch of cans of stuff into the crockpot before leaving for the race today.

2 large cans of tomato chunks (put these in last, until the chili is at a consistency that you like)
1 can black beans
1 can red beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can corn kernels
1/2 white onion
1/2 yellow, red, or orange pepper
1C chopped mushrooms
1/4C chili powder
2 tbs hot sauce

We let that do its thing in the crockpot until we got back, about 6-8 hours. Then we ate it with the leftover corn tortillas from taco night, and some shredded cheese on top. Served 7 hungry skiers (probably 8-9 normal people).

Day Six

We'll call this random night. We ran out of food and wandered into the grocery store, and walked out with some sweet potatoes, bananas, cheese curds, salad dressing, smoked salmon, and two loaves of artisan bread. That fed 7 people for $30, and we hit all the colors of the rainbow when we added a salad topped with beets and chickpeas.

Lunches, snacks, and other munchies


Such a pretty sandwich! hummus, beets, cucumbers, and bean sprouts. The hummus was pretty goopy for this use, but it was delicious.


Annie's Mac and Cheese: an absolute staple.


Vanilla yogurt, walnuts, and banana. Perfect post race food.

Also, lots of Wheat Thins, Cheezits, sesame sticks, dried fruit, fig newtons, nature valley granola bars, carrots and hummus, and soy nuts. Yum!

So, I guess the point of these posts is that you can indeed eat well while living in a hotel room, for a reasonable price. We ended up feeding 6-7 people (sometimes some people went out) for 7 nights for $170. Not too shabby!

Eating PRO on the go, part III

Moroccan couscous:

(This is not my recipe, Jess made this, so I might get it wrong).

Ingredients
2-3C dry couscous
equal parts water
1-2C chopped dried apricots
1/2C chopped fresh mint
1/2C slivered almonds
1 boullion cube
1 can chickpeas

Heat the water in the microwave. Add the boullion cube and stir it around. Pour it over the couscous (which is sitting conveniently in the crockpot). Add everything else, stir it around, and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. stir it around again and eat. Served 6.

Eating PRO on the go, part II

No pictures, but:

TACO NIGHT!!

We had to feed the rest of the NENSA crew last night, and its easy to extend the taco night theme to feed more people, so we ran with it. First, we made some kick-ass guacamole (recipe below) in the one big bowl that we brought. We cooked some rice in the crockpot, which took about two hours. Pretty much everything else was in cans. I wish I had a picture of the guac.

Guacamole:
3 avocados
1 tomato, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2C cilantro, chopped
1/4C lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Put everything in a bowl, and mush up the avocados with a fork. Make sure its all evenly mixed, and enjoy either with chips or in a taco.

For the tacos, we had small corn tortilla shells (which actually weren't that great, as they broke at the bottom too easily and then got messy. Inside of them, we had refried beans (canned), black beans (canned), chopped fresh tomatoes, chopped fresh orange pepper, rice, pre-shredded cheese, salsa, black olives, and some beanless chili since the boys wanted meat. Good stuff!

Eating PRO on the go, part I

Jess Snyder and I are in Houghton MI this week at the National US cross country skiing championships, and to make it a little more affordable we're cooking for ourselves this week. This could be disastrous, but between a microwave, a fridge, and a crockpot, we have a bunch of really good meals lined up. Vegetarian chili, tabouleh with chickpeas and feta, taco night, rice and microwaved stirfry veggies, Moroccan couscous with mint and apricots and almonds, and various yummy snacks, means that we'll be eating well and enjoying life. I've decided to post a picture and recipe of each meal we eat each night, mostly as a distraction from being in Houghton MI.

Tonight was Tabouleh and chickpea night.


Tabouleh:
~1C dry bulgur
1 tomato
1/2 cucumber
~1/2C lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
feta cheese to crumble on top
1 can chickpeas
~1/2C chopped parsley
~1/4C mint leaves

Boil some water either using the coffeepot or the microwave. Pour it over the bulger in the crock pot, cover, and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, until it tastes chewy, not raw.

Chop the cucumber and tomato, add the chickpeas and herbs, add the lemon juice and salt and pepper, and stir it around. Taste it, and adjust the seasonings as needed. Remember that you'll be adding the bulgur, so you want it a little more lemony than you'd normally make it.

Drain the bulgur, and add to the mix. Stir it around, sprinkle cheese on top, and eat.