Hodgepodge

Well chardfans, it has been a rough week here in Lord of the Chard's New England division. Maybe it is Boston's refusal to have nice weather. Maybe it is the terrifying reality that I will be done with school in less than four weeks. Or Maybe it is the post apocalyptic book I am reading where everyone dies of influenza. Whatever the cause I have been in a bit of a funk. I thought I would share with you all a few unrelated ideas.

On Saturday my roommate Amanda hosted The Manor's (that is what we call our apartment) third annual Cambodian New Year. It was lots of fun and there was much merrymaking and carrot shaking. Brian and I acted as sous chefs, and I must say I totally dominated spring roll rolling. Here is a picture Amanda took of our feast.

Not pictured: French 75s, the cocktail of the colonizer.

The feast reignited my love of wrapping things in rice paper and has inspired me to bring some spring rolls in my packed lunch. Rice paper is insanely cheap and you can wrap them full of any combination of veggies and proteins you desire. They are portable and you don't have to worry about refrigerating them if you are planning on having them for lunch. Win!

Monday was the day of the Boston Marathon aka "Patriot's Day" so everyone was off from work and school and they city was clogged up like a heart that was one step away from a myocardial infarction! After watching insane people run 26.2 miles I felt motivated to work out and finish with doing 1000 skips on my jump rope. I know it sounds kind of silly but I cannot recommend jump roping enough. It is weirdly hard and your calves will be sculpted like something on greek statue. Jump ropes are cheap, but if you have a boyfriend who you can steal one from, all the better. I followed up my jumping with a green smoothie. A VERY green smoothie.

Kale, papaya, pineapple, non fat plain yogurt, banana

I also wanted to let you all know about my new go to quick dinner. I was inspired by seeing this 101 cookbooks recipe for quesadillas. Of course she makes hers much fancier than mine, but I followed the same idea and am addicted. Better still I have been able to find a new use for a kitchen item. I have had a crepe pan for some time now (nicely given to me by my mother or grandma), but to be honest had only used it once to make crepes. Well, let me tell you, it is the perfect pan for quesadillas. Nothing sticks to it!

Said crepe pan

 First I scramble up one egg with salt and pepper and pour it into the heated pan.

Once the egg is half gooey/half cooked (this will only take a minute or so) place a tortilla on top, pressing it into the egg so they are glued together. Place your hand on the tortilla and flip it over so the tortilla ends up on the bottom. I guess you could use a spatula or something, but why dirty another utensil?

What you will have post flipping

 Now sprinkle on a small amount of shredded cheese. I like to add black beans as well. I don't think I have to tell you peppers or tomatoes would be good here too.

 After the cheese has melted take it off the heat and either roll it up or fold it like a traditional quesadilla. I recommend adding spinach and some hot sauce too.

Having mine with leftover jicama from Cambodian New Year

Honestly this all takes less than 5 minutes and it is weirdly amazing. Tastier than the sum of its parts for sure. Since I often get home late from school and THE HUNGOR has come out to play this is a perfect quick supper for me.

Anyone else have any quick supper ideas? Maybe we could do a series of posts: "What to eat when you have HUNGOR, aka when you are going down."

Eho-Maki

Happy (almost) spring! To celebrate the end of winter, the Longoria family celebrated Setsubun, a Japanese holiday that marks the beginning of spring in Japan. There are many parts of Setsubun that sound fun to participate in, especially throwing beans at a family member dressed in masks (to scare away the demon Oni). But since it is just Daniel, Moses, Atticus and I, we decided that we would skip the bean throwing this year and make a traditional Eho-Maki.
Eho-Maki means "the lucky direction roll", which explains more about how to eat the sushi rather than what it is...so let us start with the recipe.

My friend Yoko uses the following ingredients when making her family's Eho-Maki:
Nori Sheets
Sushi rice
Avocado
Lettuce
Crab legs (I just used carrots)
Cucumber
Egg (I made fried tofu spears)
Daikon Radishes (I found these at our Asian grocery store, but they are GIANT and super expensive...I liked the taste, sort of pickled, but I knew Daniel would not like it)I have never made my own sushi rice before, but it was easy and tasted just like a restaurant version.
To make 4 medium-sized sushi roll portions of rice:
1 1/3 cups short grained white rice
2 cups water
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Wash the rice until the water runs clear. Combine rice and water and bring to a boil. After the rice has reached a boil, turn the temperature to low and cover. Cook for 20 minutes. Cool rice for 10-15 minutes. While rice is cooking combine the remaining ingredients into a small bowl and microwave for 30 seconds until sugar is dissolved. Pour mixture over the cooled rice. Stir until the liquid is well incorporated into the rice.

The next step, anyone can do...spoon the rice over the nori sheet, add your favorite additions and attempt to roll them up. Yoko did this much better than I. Mine looked reminiscent of a burrito.


Here is the fun part: every year Japan has a lucky direction (something to do with the zodiac sign), this year is south-east. After you have given up trying to make your sushi roll pretty, and decide just to eat it, you hold the roll toward the lucky direction and make a wish while you eat the ENTIRE roll of sushi without talking.

We found this to be impossible, so post wish-making, we decided to cut it up. My only suggestions would be to know which brands of nori are the best (ours was too fishy for me) and make sure you have wasabi and ginger on hand!
Nom nom, take that Oni!

Less Egg Frittata

Recently I have been trying to eat more eggs. I have been doing more strength training (I can almost do a pull-up!) and have been looking for different ways to up my protein. I eat a lot of beans and tofu but, well, that can get quite boring. Eggs seem like a versatile source of protein but I have never been big on them. Their smell, their wobbly goobly consistency... I've just never been a fan.

In any case I found this recipe for a frittata that seemed like it might be a gateway egg dish. And it was great! I had never made a frittata before so I used a pan that was way too big and had to smoosh all of it to the side to cook, but it still tasted fantastic. For my veggies I used green beans, edamame, corn, spinach, and potatoes. I cooked the potatoes a bit before adding them to make sure they got cooked all of the way through. I also added goat cheese and Sunny Paris which is my current favorite penzeys spice.

I ended up cooking it for more like 13 minutes just because I wanted to make sure there was no wobbly gooblyness, but for those of you more comfortable with egginess I am sure the 10 recommended minutes would be fine. 

Not wobbly goobly!

Do you all have any good egg dishes I should try? I made a mayo free egg salad sandwich the other day and did NOT enjoy it. What is your favorite way to have eggs?