So um, yeah I don’t have any chocolate cake for you this week. Or for Jason for that matter. I feel like such an evil witch! Thing is, after coming back from Florida and eating like rabid pigs the entire 10 days I sorta felt like we needed to dial back a bit and treat our bodies to more healthful and nutritious things. I’ve also upped my workout game for this month and was excited to hear from Jason that he was going to start running after work. I’m kind of a fitness junkie (if you haven’t already noticed from all my obsessive Instagram photos) so the fact that he decided to do it on his own made me really happy.

When we got back from Florida, one of the first things I noticed was my overflowing herb garden. I was surprised to see that my cilantro had grown back. I thought that was an annual? My oregano and thyme were flowering, but my chives…oh my chives! I have to tell you, I’ve had this original plant since we were still living in the apartments about 9 years ago and back then it was a tiny little sucker in one of those brown plastic pots you buy them in. Since then, it’s grown (and over-grown and invaded) into huge, massive plantings in our raised garden bed. It’s even started to creep out and into the grass! I never realized how invasive this thing is. I’m not too bothered by it though because I’m just happy it continues to come back each year with little effort from me. Jason might have a different sentiment though since he’s the one that has to trim them back. Oops!

I really, really love this pasta dish. Whenever I make it for my clients I always tell myself, ‘This is really good. I should make it for myself sometime.’ It’s really rather comical– there will be times where I’ve made a refrigerator-full of delicious gourmet food for my client and then I come home and stuff my face with a lazily put together piece of peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It’s then that I wonder, ‘Well, how does that work?’

Oh well.

The chives in this pesto are really somethin’. And I like adding a little bit of lemon to this to perk it up. Walnuts always seem to be my first choice when making pesto, mainly because it’s what my grandma uses but also because I happen to think it tastes the best. Remember to keep a little bit of pasta water to add to the pesto later to make the sauce– it is your friend.

Whole wheat fusilli with chive-basil pesto and Pecorino Romano

Serves 4-6

1 cup chopped chives

1/2 cup chopped basil

1 large garlic clove

3/4 cup walnuts, toasted

Zest 1 lemon

Juice 1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon mayonnaise, preferably homemade

1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Pinch Aleppo chili flakes or red pepper chili flakes

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

12 ounce box whole wheat fusilli

1/3 cup pasta water, reserved

1/3 – 1/2 cup walnuts (depending on how many nuts you want dispersed through the pasta), toasted and chopped roughly

Pecorino Romano cheese, for serving

Set a large pot of water to boil. Once it does, throw in a generous amount of salt and toss in the fusilli, stirring, and then letting cook until al dente. When it’s done cooking, ladle out 1/3 cup of the pasta water and put it into a large bowl where you’ll combine the pasta and pesto together. Drain the pasta and set aside.

In a food processor combine the chives, basil, garlic, walnuts, lemon zest and juice, mayo, Pecorino Romano, Aleppo/red pepper chili flakes, salt and pepper. While it processes, drizzle in the olive oil until completely incorporated. Taste for seasoning.

Add pesto into large bowl with pasta water and then add in the fusilli. Toss together gently with large spoons until the pesto sauce has coated all the noodles wonderfully. Add in the toasted chopped walnuts and toss again. Serve immediately or at room temperature with freshly shaved Pecorino Romano.

Note: If you have leftovers, eat them straight out of the fridge or at room temperature. I find that if you warm up pasta that already has pesto on it, the sauce dries out. Cold or room temperature pasta though is very delicious and makes for a light, spring lunch!

It was Jason’s birthday this past Saturday and we spent the entire day gallivanting around Ann Arbor, using this birthday deal Wiki page as a guide, and scored free cupcakes, cookies, and chocolates. He even got his lunch and dinner free! I’m sorta beating myself up for not discovering this goldmine sooner– we could have been milking this sucker dry for years! Oh well, I’m already planning out my birthday route and will have lots of goodies come August. Apologies if I sound like a greedy 12 year old.

I was initially planning on baking a chocolate yellow cake for Jason’s birthday (his favorite cake ever and probably would have been totally fine with a boxed mix but, eh…you feel me right?) and blogging about it today if it came out well. But since we have desserts galore in the fridge (did I mention all the free things we got?!) I thought to postpone until maybe next week.

So, instead I give you tacos. These are the kind I make for my clients all the time.  They’re super easy, fairly healthy (don’t mind all that mayo sauce…), and totally good. They’re sorta sweet and spicy from the brown sugar and New Mexico chile powder and the queso fresco and cilantro-lime sauce gives it a yummy savoriness. I’m going to insist you make New Mexico chile powder a staple in your spice repertoire because it’s seriously so dang good and makes everything taste that much better. It’s got a wonderful earthiness and spice to it which I love and I always reach for it as a dry substitute for aji colorado, a Peruvian chile base.

New Mexico chile + cumin-spiced butternut squash tacos with cilantro-lime sauce

Serves 4 people

2 3/4 pound butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed (about 7 cups total cubed squash)

// Preheat oven to 375 degrees and arrange grates so that they’re closest to the center.

Line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil and divide cubed butternut squash onto them. Measurements for spices are per baking sheet. If you’d prefer, you can dump the butternut squash into a large bowl and mix the spices in there; just make sure to double the measurements I have specified below. I like to just do them straight on the baking sheet so I don’t have extra stuff to wash later.

[Measurement amounts are per baking sheet]

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black  pepper

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon coriander

3/4 teaspoon New Mexico chile powder

1/2 teaspoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

// Toss butternut squash with spices until totally coated and spread out on baking sheets. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes, give the squash a toss with a spatula and move baking sheets to the other grate. Cook for another 25 minutes. Toss again and let cool slightly.

For the cilantro-lime sauce:

Makes 3/4 cup

3/4 cup mayonnaise, preferably homemade

1 tablespoon fresh lime  juice

1/3 cup packed cilantro leaves

1 garlic clove

1 1/2 teaspoons Cholula, or hot sauce of your choosing

1 tablespoon lukewarm water

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

// Put all ingredients into a mini food processor and give it a whir until everything is combined. Taste for seasonings. This keeps in the fridge, covered, for about a week.

Taco accompaniments:

Corn tortillas, softened and warmed through on a grill pan

Sliced red onions

Queso fresco, crumbled

Cholula sauce

Fresh lime wedges

Fresh cilantro leaves

// Serve tacos with warm corn tortillas, cilantro-lime sauce, red onions, queso fresco and cilantro. Squeeze extra lime juice and Cholula on top too if you’d like.

I’m sorta kinda obsessed with tarragon lately. Last week I treated myself to at-home smoked salmon and bagels with a lovely tarragon-shallot cream cheese– the latter of which I’m still happily finding things to slather it on as a means for quick delivery to mouth (it’s seriously so good guys, especially mixed in with scrambled eggs!), and since I loved it so much and am a huge tarragon fan, and let’s be real here…since I still had a mess of it still chilling in my fridge, I wanted to come up with another way of  using it before we leave for Florida on Saturday.

I love potatoes. But I mean, who doesn’t right? And I’ve always had an affinity for them all smashed up and fried into patties. It’s got that creamy inside, crunchy outside thing going on and then when you top it with a super yummy sauce, it’s just like…whoa, close your eyes good. So, while I started playing around with a recipe in my head I knew for sure that it had to include these potatoes since I was already getting way excited about the prospect of eating it, but I also wanted to toss in something else that would play nice texture-wise and at the same time help tie in the tarragon bit, and it was then that the idea of adding cod struck me. Cod, relatively speaking, is a fairly mild fish with good flakiness to it and thought it would pair well with the potatoes and especially the tarragon, since that herb seems to go hand-in-hand with seafood most of the time.

Guys, this ish was bananas. Sometimes when I eat something really yummy I take super small bites just to prolong the goodness. This was one of those times. I never wanted to get to the end! And when I did (unfortunate but expected), I pretty much wiped off any last remnant of sauce from my plate with my finger.

Creamy tarragon lemon sauce

Makes 1 cup

1 small shallot, chopped roughly

3/4 cup mayonnaise, preferably homemade

1 1/2 tablespoons packed fresh tarragon leaves

Zest from 1 lemon

Juice from 1/2 lemon

S + P

// Put all ingredients into a small food processor and whir together for a few seconds until everything is chopped finely and combined. Season to taste. Stash in the fridge. This keeps for about a week.

Cod potato cakes

Makes 10 cakes (kind of a weird number but plan on serving 2 cakes per person)

1 pound cod, cut into 4 filets and seasoned with s + p

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

// In a medium-sized fry pan heat up the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Put the cod in the pan and cook until golden on both sides and mostly cooked through, about 7 minutes total. Set aside on a plate. Clean out pan with a paper towel.

3/4 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed clean and diced small

S + P

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 leek, cut in half lengthwise, cleaned thoroughly, and sliced thin

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves

// In the same fry pan, add butter and olive oil and let it sizzle over medium heat. Toss in the potatoes and get them well coated with the fats. Season with salt and pepper and cook until golden and cooked through. Add in the sliced leeks, garlic, and tarragon and saute with the potatoes, using a fork to slightly smash everything together. Cook until fragrant. Put all of this into a large bowl.

2 teaspoons grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons mayonnaise, preferably homemade

1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

Pinch cayenne pepper

S + P

1 egg

Olive oil, for frying

// Grab your cod and break it up into pieces into the bowl with the potatoes and leeks. Then, add the Parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, panko, dry mustard, cayenne pepper, and s + p. Taste for seasonings, adding more spice to suit. Then, add the egg and mix everything together until combined.

Using an ice cream scoop, portion out mixture and form into cakes. Put on a plate and stash in fridge to chill for about 30 minutes.

When ready to fry them up, grab a pan and drizzle with olive oil. Turn up the heat to medium-high and place the cakes onto the pan in batches, and cooking until both sides are golden brown, about 5-7 minutes total. Set them onto a paper towel-lined plate to drain.

Serve warm with a generous dollop of tarragon lemon sauce.

It’s really difficult to be happy in the wake of something as horrific as yesterday’s events at the Boston Marathon. My first response to tragedies are always shock, fear and sadness for the people involved. And then my anger sets in and I just haven’t been able to shake it. It’s incomprehensible to me how some people are able to cause so much pain towards others and I feel helpless not knowing how to stop it. I start thinking about what we’re doing as a nation to make it more difficult for guns to get in the hands of the wrong people and then something horrible like this happens, an attack without the use of any guns, and I sink into a deeper worry, coming to the sad realization that no matter what we do, what barricades we build or what interventions we put into place, there will always be people in this world doing bad things, whatever the method.

I was in a serious funk yesterday afternoon, not wanting to work out, not wanting to even cook. I just wanted to sit in front of my computer watching the news and seeing any developments taking place. I was pretty depressed, and I know I wasn’t the only one. But then one of my clients posted a picture of his daughter blowing out the candle to her birthday cupcake which I had left for her that day, and tagged me in the photo thanking me for the nice gesture. Seeing that photo made me smile– the first one of the evening after hearing about the news. It pulled me out of my funk and reminded me that no matter how much bad there is out there, there is always so much good.

And so today, I want to do some good in the form of food.

Last week I made you a yummy salad of fresh mozzarella, pesto sauce and slow-roasted tomatoes. It was so ridiculously easy and delicious that I wanted to keep rolling with that theme of simple goodness by making you something I like to treat myself to on occasion. I’m sure most of you have at one time in your life eaten a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon and dill. I love it, minus the dill. I can’t seem to get past the strong herbal pungency. What I do love though is tarragon– an herb that is quite underused in my opinion– and happens to go really well with fish which is why I’ve paired it here with the smoked salmon in the form of a flavored cream cheese. And gosh let’s talk about cream cheese for a second here because who doesn’t love this stuff? If I go to a bagel (btw, do you say bay-gel or bah-gel) place, I always ask for the cream cheese on the side so I can break my bagel into bite-size pieces and shovel it into the heaping mound of cream cheese, with the cream cheese to bagel ratio being about 3:1. I like to think I eat cream cheese with a side of bagel. Gross?

This tarragon + shallot cream cheese is sort of the star in this show though, even if the smoked salmon I used is out of this world. It’s a more refined, grown-up version than that veggie schmear you’d always get and much prettier too with the tiny specks of green from the tarragon and purple from the shallot. And like the compound butter I’ve made in the past, you could use this in a multitude of ways too: sandwiches, crackers, pita, steak, seafood, pasta…

If you decide to make it to eat with the smoked salmon and bagel, please oh please make sure you get the best possible smoked salmon you can get your hands on. I’m lucky to be near an exceptional smoked provisions market where they sell the creamiest, most luscious smoked salmon I’ve ever tasted. Like buttah! I always get their Highlands variety– their most popular– and if you’re interested in scoring some they do take mail orders online here.

Realized I forgot to add some music last week. Oopsie! Been really digging this Skrillex remix of Ben Benassi’s Cinema:

Tarragon + shallot cream cheese

Makes a little over 1 cups worth

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

4 ounces Kerrygold butter (or another exceptional choice), room temperature

1 small shallot, minced

1 small garlic clove, minced

1 heaping tablespoon fresh tarragon, chopped finely

A little under 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Zest of 1/2 lemon

Slight squeeze lemon juice, just a teeny bit

// Put the cream cheese and butter into a food processor and whir to combine and smooth. Mash the minced shallot, garlic, tarragon and salt together into a paste with your knife, chopping them together and then pressing down on them with the side of the knife and drag across the cutting board. I find if you do this, it helps marry the flavors together sort of like how a mortar and pestle might. Put all of this into the food processor with the cream cheese and butter, add the lemon zest and juice and pulse a few times until just combined. Store this in a glass jar and keep in the fridge for about a week and a few days. Let it sit at room temperature for a bit before spreading onto food.

Smoked salmon and cucumber bagel

Makes 1 (but can adjust to make more)

1 bagel, sliced and toasted (I used whole wheat bagel thins)

Tarragon + shallot cream cheese, at room temperature

Thinly sliced smoked salmon (I used Tracklements Highlands smoked salmon– my absolute fave and go-to smoked salmon in the area)

Thinly sliced English cucumber (the mandoline works wonders here)

Fresh tarragon leaves, just the tiny young ones

A few grindings of lemon pepper (I like Trader Joe’s variety)

A tiny drizzle of olive oil

// Grab your bagel and slather with a good amount of tarragon + shallot cream cheese. Dress it with a few slices of smoked salmon and then top with cucumber. Add tarragon leaves for extra flavor and garnish and then finish with a few grindings of lemon pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Dead simple.

Today’s post was supposed to involve Brussels sprouts. Gorgeous, purple Brussels sprouts. Yes, I know– I swooned too. They are, however, still tucked in my refrigerator because a) I couldn’t commit to a recipe (and by recipe, I mean winging it and tossing it with stuff I already have in the house) and b) I didn’t have the vessel I wanted to cook it in. So, after a good half and hour of searching the web for appropriate vessel and finding all the cool ones to be over $200 (!!) and also realizing that duh, it wouldn’t get here in time anyway, I puttered around in my kitchen, lamenting on the relationship between my dying money tree and extraordinarily expensive taste, hungry and looking for something to eat.

Fortunately, I had the foresight to have made these roasted tomatoes early in the morning since they needed several hours to roast at low temp and were ready for me come lunchtime. With leftover pesto sauce from the spaghetti I made last week and a small ration of fresh mozzarella cheese still tucked away in the fridge, the thought to smash them together for a quick salad lunch came naturally. And it was so simple and so good that I wanted to share it with you all. Just goes to show that delicious food needn’t be fussy.

Slow-roasted tomatoes + creamy pesto sauce + fresh mozzarella cheese

[slow-roasted tomatoes recipe adapted very slightly from Not Without Salt]

Makes enough for about 6 people, with extra pesto sauce to go with pasta, sandwiches, whatevs the rest of the week

3 vine-ripe tomatoes, or whatever else you have laying about (Heirlooms would be beyond gorgeous), sliced 1/4″ thick

Olive oil (In hindsight, I should’ve used garlic olive oil to pump up the flavor but regular ‘ol olive oil did the trick just fine too)

Salt

Creamy pesto sauce (Peruvian-style, my grandma’s recipe)

Fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced

S + P

Olive oil, for drizzling

// Preheat your oven to 225 degrees. Grab a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper. Lay the sliced tomatoes onto the paper and season delicately with salt. Drizzle with olive oil. Stick this in the middle rack of your oven and let it roast for about 3 1/2 hours or until the tomatoes have shrunk considerably but are still juicy. I let these go longer and ended up with some tomatoes that looked more like chips! Not what I was aiming for but they were crispy and beautiful anyway. Hurrah for kitchen mistakes that turn into lovely kitchen discoveries!

When the tomatoes are done (and you’ll be so thankful because the smell of these guys roasting for hours will have you intoxicated by then and super giddy to finally give them a try!), serve them with fresh mozzarella slices, pesto sauce, and extra salt and pepper + a drizzle of olive oil. This was so good as a light lunch but I reckon they’d also be delicious to have as an appetizer or salad before the meal.

[tomato chips anyone?]

Buen provecho, friends!

Isn’t it so awkward when you can’t understand what people are saying due to the language barrier? I was at the Mexican grocery store yesterday picking up stuff to make this and when I went to go get rung up, the guy kept saying something to me to which I responded with about a hundred I’m Sorry’s and What’s. I was getting all flabbergasted and sweaty because gosh it’s so embarrassing when you don’t know what they’re saying and it brought back horrific memories of when I was still in college and interviewing an international student and when she asked me a question I could not for the life of me understand, even after being repeated six times, to which I eventually just blurted out, “That’s a really weird question,” just so we could move on. After that, I buried myself under a rock and didn’t come out till yesterday.

I am not ashamed of these enchiladas though. Pretty easy to make using whatever leftover meat you have laying around and they’re so ooey gooey and delicious, with an amped-up enchilada sauce. I think if you add enough heavy cream and butter to things it guarantees a win, no? I had some frozen jamón del país from the last time I made it so I just used that but shredded rotisserie chicken or beef would be good too. The toppings you serve with enchiladas can make or break it in my opinion so I’ve listed a few ideas at the bottom of the recipe.

Here’s some fun music to get you going on this weirdly awkward Tuesday. This is the stuff I listen to when I work out– gritty and awesome, Deadmau5 smacks me in the ass and tells me to keep going.

Tuesday enchiladas

Makes 6 enchiladas

Enchilada sauce: 

1 – 28 ounce can mild red enchilada sauce

1 cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons melted butter

2 teaspoons good chili powder (I use Urban Accents Rio Grande Chili Blend– it’s awesome)

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

S + P

Enchilada filling:

4 cups shredded meat (I used frozen leftover jamón del país but you could use rotisserie chicken, turkey, pulled pork, beef…the options are limitless)

3 cups enchilada sauce mixture

2 tablespoons corn starch

1/2 cup cold water

6 whole wheat tortillas

12 ounces Mexican quesadilla cheese, shredded (If you can’t find this you can substitute in another melty cheese like chihuahua or Monterey Jack)

Fun toppings and accents: 

Mexican crema

Lime wedges

Red onion relish

Sliced radishes

Shredded lettuce

Avocado slices

Cholula hot sauce

// In a medium-sized bowl, combine the enchilada sauce, heavy cream, melted butter, chili powder, sugar, and s + p. Measure out 3 cups of this mixture and put into a medium-sized sauce pot. Put the remaining sauce to the side.

Add the shredded meat to the enchilada sauce in the pot and mix together. Turn the heat on and let it come to a gentle simmer, cooking for about 20 minutes. Combine the corn starch and water to make a slurry and slowly incorporate to the enchilada sauce, whisking and letting it come up to a slight simmer again until it thickens, just a couple minutes. Take off the heat and cool slightly.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Grab an 8 x 11″ baking dish and spread with a little bit of the remaining enchilada sauce you had set aside earlier, swirling the pan so the entire bottom is coated.

Start filling your enchiladas by putting a small amount of the meat and sauce onto the tortilla and then topping with shredded cheese before rolling up and putting in the pan. After you’ve rolled all of them, pour any remaining meat sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Sprinkle with the rest of the shredded cheese. Take a sheet of aluminum foil and spray with oil and cover the enchiladas. Bake in the middle grate of the oven for 45 minutes. Cool slightly before serving. Dish these up with lots of Mexican crema, lime wedges, hot sauce, and crunchy fresh things like radishes and shredded lettuce. Good stuff.

This, my friends, was my sustenance growing up. My grandma would always feed this to me, as evident from all the baby pictures that show me with a purple mustache. It’s a fruit pudding of sorts with the base consisting of chicha morada, the Peruvian purple corn drink, and studded with extra goodies like dried sour cherries, pineapple bits and green apple. Truthfully, I had this so much as a kid that I sorta got turned off by it as I got older, not really digging the whole jiggly, puddingy consistency to it. But, just last week with fresh pitcher fulls of chicha morada and a desire to do something else to it besides drink it, I was convinced to give mazamorra morada another shot when a family member gave me the idea on Facebook. And I’m so glad I did! Each spoonful brought back such wonderful memories growing up as a kid in Peru, with images of my grandpa cooking and baking at the forefront. It’s sort of amazing how food can do that to you you know?

I have to be honest with you though and tell you this recipe isn’t really really the way they used to make it for me when I was little only because they probably used sweet potato flour to thicken the pudding instead of cornstarch, which is a pretty traditional method of doing it in Peru. Buuut, since I’m so spastic and fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants sometimes and have horrible commitment issues when it comes to planning my food, I didn’t have the foresight to order the special sweet potato flour until yesterday which means it won’t get to my doorstep until Wednesday which means I couldn’t have made this for you this weekend which means the chicha morada would’ve gone bad by then. Makes sense, right? So, long story longer, I did just go ahead and use the cornstarch and it did the trick too but if you can get your hands on this magical, special sweet potato flour, I highly recommend it. If you do use it (and props to you because you’re more awesome than me for actually having planned this stuff), I would wager using slightly more of it than cornstarch to thicken the porridge.

Mazamorra morada // Peruvian purple pudding

Serves about 10-12 people

8 cups chicha morada, cut in half and divided so you have 2 – 4 cup measurements

1/3 cup prunes

1/3 cup dried apricots

1/3 cup dried sour cherries

2 cups diced pineapple

2 cups peeled and diced Granny Smith apple (about 2 apples)

1/3 cup granulated sugar

8 tablespoons corn starch

1 cup cold water

Ground cinnamon, for garnish

// In a large pot , pour in 4 cups of the chicha morada, the prunes, dried apricots, and dried cherries and let this come to a gentle simmer and cook for about 15 minutes or until the fruit has plumped up and softened. Add the remaining 4 cups chicha morada and toss in the pineapple, apples, and sugar, stirring, and then letting this come to another simmer, cooking for an additional 10 minutes.

In a small bowl whisk together the corn starch and water and then add this in a thin stream to the pot, stirring wildly to make sure the corn starch slurry gets quickly incorporated to the pudding. Let this come to a slight boil and continue to stir until the pudding has thickened slightly, just a few minutes. At this point, you can make a judgement call and add more cornstarch slurry to it if you like it thicker.

Take this off the heat and let it cool slightly before enjoying or let cool completely to room temperature (it’s how I eat it). Sprinkle on some ground cinnamon to make it pretty. Provecho!

Me eating mazamorra morada, circa 1980 in Peru

I think I have a thing for white drinks? I’ve done the hot white chocolate and then the horchata and now this in like a span of a few weeks. Sorta weird but gonna roll with it anyway.

Been meaning to make this for you guys because I was so excited to pick up this rose tea at the Asian market a month ago and have been in love with it ever since. Sidenote: about two weekends ago I made a trip to the Asian market with the intention of only buying two things– soy sauce and sesame seed oil and so I didn’t bother to grab a basket. A little while later, hands and arms overflowing with bottled goods, I walk precariously to get the basket. Still, a few minutes beyond that, hefting/scooting with foot 100 lb. basket of things, I have to trade it in for a freakin’ cart. No idea why I’m telling you this story or that it even makes sense but it was sorta embarrassing having to walk back and forth in front of the check-out guy who was probably thinking this girl is a weirdo.

Anyway, pretty! Making this always makes me smile and feel uber girly. Doesn’t it make you wanna wear frilly lace and pearl necklaces? No? Oh.

Musical highlight today: Was stoked Drake won best rap album at the Grammy’s last night– I think his album Take Care is ah-mazing. I listen to it 3060.50 times a day. Here’s one of my favorites (also, the part at the end where his late grandma is talking, makes me get teary sometimes):

Rose milk tea

Makes 1 mugful

2 tablespoons loose leaf rose tea

1 cup hot boiling water

1/2 cup milk of your choice (today I used 2% milk)

Sweetener of your choice (today I used agave nectar)

// I used my french press for this but you could also just let the tea steep in a pot too. Put the tea into the french press (or pot) and pour the hot water over it and let this steep for at least 5 minutes, or more if you want it very concentrated. Press the strainer down and pour the tea into a mug. Meanwhile, warm up the milk until frothy. Add the milk to the tea and stir in your sweetener (if you’d like). Drink!

There’s this small taqueria in Chicago we love going to called Allende and not only do they have like the best tacos ever, but they also serve a delicious homemade horchata. It’s pretty much heaven in a cup.

Late last year I fell in love with Rumchata, which is basically a mix of horchata plus rum, but super concentrated. It tastes delicious– think leftover milk at the bottom of your bowl of cinnamon toast crunch cereal– but the only thing that I didn’t like was the artificial flavoring in the bottled stuff.

So today I made everything from scratch, from the horchata to the homemade version of Rumchata, and let me tell you it was so worth it. I’m glad this made a huge pitcher full because I know I’ll be drinking this a lot the next few days.

Homemade agua de horchata

Makes a giant vat of this delicious stuff, about 12 cups! 

3/4 cup white rice

1 1/2 cups hot water

12 ounces evaporated milk

14 ounces sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract

8 cups cold filtered water

4 cups vanilla rice milk (I used Rice Dream Vanilla)

1/2 cup granulated sugar, or to taste

// Pour the rice into a medium sized bowl and then dump the hot water over it. Let this sit for 2 hours.

Strain the rice and put into a blender. To this, add the evaporated milk, condensed milk, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. Blend together for several minutes until the rice is really broken down and the mixture is fairly smooth.

Strain this mixture into the biggest pitcher you got and then add the 8 cups water, vanilla rice milk, and sugar. Stir together and taste, adding more sugar if you’d like. At this point you can pour it over ice and enjoy right away or stash in the fridge to chill. The longer this sits the happier and tastier it gets.

But if you really wanna get down and dirty…

Homemade rumchata

Makes 1 drink

1 cup horchata

1 ounce spiced rum

1/2 ounce simple syrup*

Dash ground cinnamon

Cinnamon stick, for glitz (optional)

*Simple syrup is equal parts water to granulated sugar, heated until sugar dissolves. 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar is plenty and will keep for about a month in a jar kept in the fridge. Use this for cocktails all month long.

// In a glass with ice cubes, mix together the horchata, spiced rum and simple syrup together. Sprinkle with cinnamon and add the cinnamon stick if you’d like. Serve it up!

Well that’s sort of a bummer the 49ers lost last night. For a minute there I thought they might just be able to pull one out but…no. The power surge though, now that was exciting. I had more fun on Twitter for those 35 minutes than I did watching the whole game methinks.

So this is what we ate during the game: sticky sweet chicken drumettes dressed in a mish mash of seasonings and spices pretty reminiscent of traditional Peruvian barbecue. The marinade is typically slathered on skewered BBQ’d beef heart which is something I absolutely love. I think I’ll make it for you this summer when I fire up the grill. You’ll still love me right? If I give you cow heart. Hello?

Sweet and savory chicken drumettes

For 20 chicken drumettes

1 tablespoon ají colorado

1 teaspoon New Mexico chile powder

2 garlic cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons red vinegar

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon honey

1/4 cup canola oil

20 chicken drumettes

// Put all the ingredients, except the chicken, into a blender and blitz it up until smooth. Dump this into a large bowl and add the chicken drumettes, mixing and massaging with your hands. Let this marinate at room temperature for about 1 hour and up to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Arrange chicken onto a baking sheet and spread out. Put in the middle rack of the oven and cook for about 35-40 minutes then stick under the broiler to get golden brown, about another 7-10 minutes. Let rest and eat with spicy green sauce, corn on the cob, and grilled/boiled potatoes (please, please, please!)

And with roasted or grilled chicken there must always be spicy green sauce to go with. This is a trademark Peruvian thang that we always have at the table. Yum.

Peruvian spicy green sauce

If green isn’t your thing, try the ají amarillo sauce instead– we usually offer both at parties. 

Makes about 2 cups

1 small yellow onion, chopped roughly

8 serrano chile peppers, seeded and chopped roughly

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

8 ounces queso fresco, crumbled roughly

3 tablespoons canola oil

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon curly parsley, chopped roughly

// Put all the ingredients, except the parsley, into the blender and mix to smooth. Taste for seasonings and then add the parsley at the last second and blitz until you can see fine specks. This keeps for about a week in the fridge. Eat it with everything.