Paul and Cori

Things we love: cooking, photography, crocheting, reading, math and board games.

Friday, July 29, 2011

I scream, you scream, we all scream for sweet cherry pie.

copyright: Cori 2011
I've been wanting to bake a pie for a while. At the grocery store, they only have sweet cherries. I buy almost 3 pounds of sweet, dark red cherries. Amy is coming over soon, and I know she loves cherries. Turns out, cherry pie is her favorite! I think that probably, most often, cherry pie is made with tart cherries- like apple pie. I figure this means adding some tartness (maybe lemon juice) and less sugar than the average cherry pie recipe. I do so research and find this is correct. Also, the recipes I found included almond extract as well. We do not have almond extract because of Paul's allergies, I don't think it's worth the risk. I do more searching for a suitable substitute, finding that vanilla extract will work, but you should add a little more than the almond extract called for in the recipe.
First I make the crust, because I know you can wrap it in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge.
copyright: Cori 2011

Paul had a very long day at work, and his train was running very late as well. So, I also make the filling and put it in a container in the fridge. I don't have a cherry pitter- Paul doesn't like cherries, and we don't have them very often- so I use a knife, and my trusty fingers. :) Red, red work.
copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011


copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011


copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011


 When I am finally ready to bake the pie the next day, the crust will not roll nicely, it keeps breaking- grr! Even though I let it warm up a bit first and everything. I don't know what is wrong, so I just push it into the pie plate, to make the bottom crust, it looks pretty good to me.
copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011
 I wanted to make the top crust fun, or possibly lattice, as I had only ever made a plain top crust before. Since the pastry wasn't rolling anyway, it was a perfect time to try something fun. Amy and Paul had bought me cookie cutters for Christmas, so I cut out a bunch (well, 12) stars to use as the top crust. I smooshed the pastry into another pie plate, and cut out the stars one by one. Then I added the remaining pastry around the edge to complete the pie look. For being such a stubborn, unroll-able crust, I think it turned out very pretty.
copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011


Now it just has to be Amy approved, and taste delicious!
copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

 She said it was the best cherry pie she has every tasted! And she's had a LOT of cherry pie, because it's her favorite. Yeah!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

spicy chicken pho

I really like pho, ever since I met Nancy and she introduced me to Vietnamese food. Angela and I go to our local "noodle bar" almost every time we go to lunch- which is almost every time we see each other- which is almost once a week!  We really love the soup. And the avocado smoothies! A couple times past, I got spicy chicken with vegetables, and I thought Paul would really enjoy it, so we made some of our own.
copyright: Cori 2011
The great thing about rice noodle soup is that you don't have to heat the noodles at all, the broth does it for you. Cook them once and you're done.
We cheated a great deal by using thai stock instead of making out own broth. It has a lot of flavor, sriracha is one of the ingredients, and it's vegan (so if you wanted to make this soup with tofu it would still be delicious).
Okay, recipe time:
1 package rice noodles. I like thin ones, but all we could find at the near by grocery store were thick ones, so we gave them a try. They were better the second time, after being in the fridge for a while (in my opinion).
1 small white onion, chopped. 2-3 cloves garlic, minced. 4 dried red chilies soaked in water for 15 minutes, minced.
2-3 carrots, sliced (you could also use celery or broccoli, mushrooms or whatever veggies you have laying around). 
1 bunch green onions, sliced.
Cilantro leaves, hoisin sauce, more sriracha if you want it- hoisin and sriracha are the best sauces for pho ever, I think (you could also use bean sprouts, basil, lime wedges, jalapenos...) for topping.
1 lb(ish) chicken, sliced (or use thin thin beef, rib tips, tofu, shrimp, fish balls or other protein).
2 cartons thai stock (or stock made from meat bones, or broth of any kind really).
spices. We used about 1 teaspoon each black pepper and ginger (we didn't have any fresh ginger to add) it depends on your broth and tastes you want, very simple is the key to pho broth, the spiciness and flavors really come from the toppings, but we wanted spicy chicken pho which makes the broth more complex.
 
Boil rice noodles until just done, do not over cook them. Set aside. We even rinse them with cold water, though it doesn't seem to help the sticking.

We cooked our pho in the wok, because it's big and we wanted to stir fry the meat and veggies first.
Heat some oil in your wok (or pan).
If your meat has to stir fry longer than the veggies, stir fry in hot oil until almost done. Add white onions, garlic, red chilies, and veggies. Continue to stir fry for about 5 minutes. Add green onions and stir a few times.
Add broth and spices, bring to a boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add rice noodles to a bowl, then top with soup. Top with desired toppings. Enjoy!
Adding coconut milk is great way to calm down the heat if it is too spicy. Hoisin sauce is sweet and works well for this too, but coconut milk adds a nice additional light flavor as well.

When there are left overs, keep the rice noodles separate from the soup. Reheat the soup to boiling for 1 miunte(ish) and add on top of cold cooked rice noodles, stir, top and enjoy again! It works like a charm, and the noodles are no longer sticky once they are surrounded in broth. They get warm quickly weather they are thick or thin. We added coconut milk to the broth when we reheated it because we didn't need it to be quite as spicy the second time around, about 1/4 of a cup.
copyright: Cori 2011

Monday, July 18, 2011

play time!

We named our kitty Inara when we got her 4 years ago because she has pretty stripes on her back that make her look fancy. (Inara is a character in Firefly (our favorite tv show), who is a very fancy lady). Inara is still a very playful cat, which I'm extremely happy about. Every evening she runs around the apartment, jumping on shelves and attacking her toys. She chases after (and kills) bugs that get in- of which there have been many lately. She is also a cuddly lap kitty and likes being picked up, which I also love.

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

Friday, July 15, 2011

plum curry

"I don't think I've ever eaten so much fruit in one meal before." -Paul.
The recipe calls for lamb, and lamb stock from a lamb bone, but we used chicken and Thai stock from Wegman's, because chicken is so much easier to get around here than lamb, also, it was on sale.
Plums, onions, green chilies, cilantro, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, garlic and ginger combine to make this curry. The tart plums and sharp cilantro pair surprisingly well together. I would have never thought of mixing these tastes together, but there are a lot of surprising and delicious flavor combinations in lots of curries. The green chilies also give it a hot little kick, which I always enjoy in almost any food.
Curry is one of my favorite meals to make.
We served our plum curry with kiwi and pineapple. The sweet pineapple really complemented the spicy/tart curry well.   
This summer I'm excited to try watermelon and/or pineapple curry.
copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011

Thursday, July 14, 2011

cookies! oatmeal

It has been a long time since I've baked anything. It's so much harder in the summer when it's already hot. Just knowing that the oven will make things more hot makes my plans of baking take longer to be executed. Yesterday, though, I really wanted cookies, so a baking I did go.
I've been looking for a new oatmeal cookie recipe for a while. I like making large cookies, and mine were turning out very thin and flat. I needed something that stayed more cookie shaped. I tried Grandma's oatmeal cookies, and they turned out great! This recipe has more cinnamon and vanilla than my old one, and the fat is all shortening. The extra cinnamon really made them taste great!
copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011



I hate oatmeal cookie recipes that are mostly flour and only about 1 1/2 cups of oats. My old recipe used 3 cups of oats and 1 1/2 cups of flour, which is what I loved about it. This recipe is the same way, they really are OATmeal cookies :)  The recipe called for raisins and nuts, but of course Paul can't eat nuts and we aren't really huge fans of raisins. I added some dried cranberries to some of them to see how they would taste. They don't particularly add anything super special, but they make them look pretty. Next time, I want to try dried cranberries and chocolate chips in them- that sounds like a COOKIE!

copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011


copyright: Cori 2011

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

WEDDINGS!

I love weddings. They are such happy, joyous, occasions. All the planning to make the day perfect, and then, inevitably, things go wrong- but it is just those things that end up making the day so memorable. For example, at my wedding: There was one flower petal on the isle when my Dad walked me down. When I was all ready to begin the ceremony, one of my bridesmaids wasn't there yet. We had a last minute groomsman change, and forgot to tell the DJ, so he announced the wrong name. I specifically told Paul's parents we would take pictures with them inside, so their transitions lenses would be clear instead of sun glasses- then I completely forgot until I was looking at the pictures. Paul's mom didn't come to the rehearsal dinner. We forgot Paul in one of the family pictures, and Mike in another. Of course, I also remember the things that went flawlessly, and it was the most fabulous day of my life! And it was over 5 years ago :) (June 24, 2006)
Since I've been a photographer, I've photographed several weddings. The thing I love about photographing weddings is that, for a time at least, they will be the most important pictures in the couple's life. I love editing photos, playing with them in photoshop, and sharing them with people who will love them just as much as I do.

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011


copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011




copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011



Add caption
copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011





copyright: Cori 2011
copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011

copyright: Cori 2011