Banh Mi

It's no secret I am a recent convert to the lure of a good sandwich. It started with a small addiction to Jimmy John's- (#5, no tomatoes, add hot peppers) and branched out to anything hot from Surdyk's after the boys were born and we temporarily forgot how to feed ourselves from our own kitchen.

I've been quite happy with my Surdyk's mainstays these past few months- the Minneapple Melt is out of this world, the Grand Marais, Apple Orchard and Mt. Vernon aren't too shabby either.

Tonight I was introduced to yet another new sandwich, one that I see many more of in my future.

Banh Mi.

This Vietnamese sandwich is the newest offering at out favorite last minute dinner place. I wasn't super impressed by the one I ate tonight, but the components are worth delving into again and again. Since we are in Minneapolis and there is no shortage of Vietnamese eateries here I plan on searching out a truly delicious Banh Mi.

Really, what's not to like? Roasted pork, pickled carrots, pickled daikon, cucumber, jalapenos, some sort of aioli and a light spicy fish sauce brought it all together on a chewy baguette.

It wasn't LOVE at first sight, but I like-like it. I'm happy to have something to pursue since I'm not a huge fan of Pho. I mean, what kind of Minnesotan am I if I can't even profess love for the most famous of all Vietnamese dishes? Most people would say I haven't had good Pho, and they may be right. Anyway- the search is on.

*After doing some searching it sounds like part of my dislike might stem fromthe hefty pricetag attached to the sandwich I ate last night- $8.99....most local Banh Mi runs below $5, most around $2-3. We're going to sample what Jasmine Deli is peddling tomorrow. Let's hope I can have another "good" day and eat to my hearts content!

Book Club?

Since I'm in the middle (well, almost middle) of another pregnancy where the things I can eat borderline on totally unhealthy (chips and Frito's Spicy Bean Dip anyone?) and really unappetizing I'm going to try and at least THINK about good food. You know, the stuff I used to spend hours reading cookbooks, magazines and websites to find.

I miss the weekends spent shopping for a meal and the hours spent preparing it, not to mention the first bites. Oh there were some doozies back in the day. When we had ample counter space and no kids. I gotta get back to that*.
But right now it's not going to happen- a moderate case of HG is making sure of that. So I'll read about it. Because I love a good book about food. And right now, that's all I got.

*I'll keep the kids though- seriously, my first thought upon seeing my son Lincoln after he was born was "I could eat this kid...I might eat this kid!" I still have days where I think I might eat my kids they are so deliciously adorable. I think all new parents turn a bit cannibal upon seeing their newborns.

Wish me luck! I've got all three books coming from Amazon and I can't remember a package I was this excited to receive.

Mama Grace's BBQ Pot Ribs

This isn't a food blog without Mama Grace's rib recipe. January 5th isn't my birthday without those ribs either. This recipe has become quite special to our family. Some of our family, that is. Every year growing up, it was a big deal to pick what you had for dinner on your birthday. More often than not, I chose Grandma's pot ribs. Not only are they delicious, but it's nice to have something that Grandma Grace made. She died when I was 2, so I don't have any memories of her. I DO however, have this recipe. It's meant so much to me (and Erin, Ryon, Mom, and Dad) for so long, that I thought everyone in the family loved it. Much to my surprise, our cousins have never eaten these ribs, simply because our Aunt Lori never liked them. She must be insane. I'm not even kidding.

Here's what ya need:

2lbs country style pork ribs
3/4 c. ketchup
3/4 c. water
2 tsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. chili powder
2 onions, thinly sliced
salt and pepper

Here's what ya do:

Remove the silver skin! I just learned this over the summer, and I'm not very good at it, but if you can do it...it's worth the trouble.

rub the ribs with salt and pepper, and brown them in a pan. (A little oil might be good here.) Place them in a large pot.

Put the other ingredients in the pot. You can pre-mix them, but I usually don't. They're going to be in that pot a long time, and everything will eventually blend together.

Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook at least 70 minutes, turning the ribs frequently.

Remove the lid and cook an additional 20 minutes uncovered, to thicken the sauce.

Feel free to double the sauce, or add more onions if you like. I usually do. Erin and I both agree that these ribs are best served with mashed potatoes and coleslaw. Try putting the sauce all over everything.

Erin's already posted this recipe on recipezaar, but I HAD to put it here too. Feel free to check it out there, along with 91 other recipes she's shared.

What to Feed a Toddler?

Before the boys were born I had great ambition to make all their food from scratch. Organic! Fresh! Homemade! No Preservatives! It was all so idyllic. And for a few months, so EASY! We had boys who ate spinach on an almost daily basis. We had a freezer full of purees that ranged from the plain and simple apple sauce to the fancier mango-pear-squash combo and the always favored edamame-spinach concoction. It was awesome!

Then they started eating solid foods.

And I pretty much closed up shop on making everything from scratch. It's hard. I feel like such a poser. I can make my own chicken fingers and freeze them by the batch. I even made up a ton of meatloaf scooped it onto a cookie sheet to bake which resulted in a big bag of what we lovingly called "Meat Wads" that we could pull out of the freezer at will and the boys ate that up like it was the best thing in the world.

But fruit? Veggies? I'm severely lacking in that department.

I figure- they're beyond the puree stage, they want things to chew on. It's so easy to steam and puree and get creative. It's so boring to just steam and chop up a bunch of carrots. And their favorite spinach? Forget it- they don't want it anymore.

So we've fallen into this cycle of chicken tenders, mac and cheese, pasta, quesadillas, grilled cheese- easy things for lunch. I've even started to give them (gasp) Chef Boyardee and hot dogs! For shame I know. For dinner it's whatever we're having, which is hardly balanced.

How do I get my good eater's back? I'm thinking a smoothie would be a great start for getting more fruit but I need ideas for veggies. I'm not a big proponent of juice although we drink prune juice for dealing with constipation. Hopefully a more balanced diet will help with that too.

Ideas?

So after I posted this I found these two cookbooks that seem to be based around putting fruit and/ or veggie purees into other foods:
The Sneaky Chef
Deceptively Delicious
I think we're going to check these out from the library and give them a try.

Rainbow. Cake.

I found inspiration for the boys 1st Birthday cake here: Tasty Kitchen*.
Anyway. This was no simple feat making this cake. It took three people to wrangle babies while I baked for hours and then frosted, stacked and froze for another bunch of hours. By the time I got home I was totally beat and didn't care what the hell the cake looked like because I was DONE!

Here is the final product:



Not too shabby.

I'd better figure out what we're doing next year because this year was a total home run.

*or from a MckMama post if we're being honest but this is where the recipe was posted by the woman who brought this tower of delicious to the MckGathering.

Most Delicious Mac Ever.

A few months ago I was reading one of my favorite local/ food blogs and I was introduced to the idea of adding a few of my favorite things to one of my absolute favorite dishes. Jalapenos + Bacon + Macaroni and Cheese. Oh gosh. It's so good.

There are pictures and words and possibly some semblance of a recipe on that original post but I must say I didn't really pay attention for the drooling. This is what I came up with after those three magical things were put together for my brain to wrap itself around.

1 lb box of Rigatoni (cooked al dente) drain and set aside

4 Tbls Butter- melt in heavy saucepan add 4 Tbls flour, cook roux until bubbly and the raw flour smell is gone

Add 4 cups of milk- I do it slowly and whisk the roux in as I go. Bring to a low boil and let thicken a bit.

To make it super fantastic: Add chopped up Jalapeno slices from the jar (hot, mild, many or few- it's up to you) Bacon- I just used a package of the Hormel bacon pieces you find near the salad dressing because I was being kind of lazy today. A few splashes of the juice from the jar of jalapenos.

Cheese, obviously. I use one package of shredded (2 cups) today I had Colby Jack on hand but I've used Cheddar or the 6-cheese Italian blend- it's whatever you like.

Once the cheese is melted and the sauce is thickened to your liking pour the sauce over the pasta and mix it a bit.

Enjoy.

What We Ate: State Fair Edition

It's that time of year where seemingly all of Minnesota crams into St. Paul for 10 days of food and fun. It's really no secret, we go for the food.

We plan. We make lists of what we want to eat. We write down locations for these items so we are not sidetracked by fancy signs beckoning us to delicious sounding delicacies such as Australian Fries with Sweet Chili Sauce and Sour Cream or Carolina Barbecue Baked Potatoes. I almost *almost* got both of these today. It sounds sooooo good! And the smells? Oh the smells. Once you get out of the really crowded areas where the air is thick with sweetness and grease you can smell things like smoked meat or Italian seasoning and you just get ready to EAT.

So this year we did really well. We stuck to our game plan and we weren't totally stuffed when we walked back to our bus. That was surprising. We even had a few "extra" things since we were feeling pretty proud of our sticktuitiveness. Is that even a word?

Here's the low down, in the order we ate them:

Fried Green Pepper Rings.
This was a new one for us and the hype did not disappoint. I think it will be a Fair staple from now on.


Big Fat Bacon.
I love bacon. I think last year was the first year for BFB and we didn't get to the fair last year so we had to try it. 1/3 pound of bacon on a stick, maple glazed with orange chipotle dipping sauce. I'd probably get this again.


Lefse with Butter and Brown Sugar.
Probably one of Johns favorites- it was at the top of the list this year instead of one of the last things we got.


Peach Glazed Pigs Cheeks.
Sounds weird. Tastes like Pulled Pork. I could've used a little more sauce but they were pretty good. Next year I'll get the Pig Lickers (chocolate covered bacon) instead.


Cheese Curds from The Mouth Trap.
I'm not a huge fan of Cheese Curds but I'll never pass them up. These were lightly battered, salty and had just they right "chew". Another of John's favorites.


Fried Green Tomatoes.
This is my favorite. It's the only way I'll eat tomatoes unless they are chopped up on a taco or in a sauce of some sort. Serve with ranch and Tabasco. YUM!


Key Lime Pie Bar.
Frozen Key Lime Pie. Covered in Chocolate. On a stick.


Minnesota Wines.
We happened to wander into the Agriculture building and got ourselves some Wine on a Stick- three 2 ounce pours of our choice of wines. We tried a Rhubarb and a Raspberry from the fruit wines category and a dry red- I do not remember their names and the only one we walked away loving was the rhubarb. It was delightfully good.


Pronto Pup.
AKA Banquet on a Stick- just don't call it a corn dog. It's like a corn dog...but different. I personally like corn dogs better.


Next year we'll have to try out a few things we didn't this year. Dole Whip always catches my eye and at the last minute I think "It's just soft serve Ice cream!" and I don't get it. Of course the entire bus ride home I think of how good a little pineapple soft serve would be. Next year.

The one thing that wasn't originally on our list that we tried to get was a shake from the Dairy Barn. Those things are cheap and really really good. We inched our way around the barn and when we finally got to the line it was like 40 people long. We skipped it. Next year we'll do that right away before it gets crazy.