Day 164: Greek to Me

So, although last night was my (and Ian's) first meal at the Disney World Resort, where everyone takes pictures of everything, we forgot to take a picture of dinner. Sorry. But you can probably imagine it.

We'd just spent an incredibly long day on airplanes and in airports (Spokane to Denver; Denver to Columbus to Orlando) and on buses (huzzah for Disney's Magical Express!) and listening to middle aged women yell at their kids even while checking into the hotel (Caribbean Beach Resort: it has Finding Nemo fishes all over the bedspread and on the wallpaper, which is cool except Finding Nemo took place in Australia). We were tired and hungry. We were trying our best not to let vacation stress get to us, especially so early. I even came up with four H's to help me be a better wife and vacationer. I will be:

Happy, Helpful, Humorous, and Humane.

Good, huh?

Anyway. We had reservations at Kouzzina, Cat Cora's restaurant on the Boardwalk (which is a neat place--we didn't go there on our honeymoon, the only other time we've been to Disney World). If you don't know, Ms. Cora is an Iron Chef and a darn good one at that. She's Greek, from Mississippi. So her food has sort of an old world comfort food feel to it. I had Cat's Ouzo-tini to drink (oh my goodness so good if you like licorice since that's what ouzo tastes like, but I'd only heard tell and it was better than I expected), and then pasta with a lamb ragu for dinner, and kemaolbiohjsohgkl something Greek I couldn't pronounce with phyllo and pastry cream and a lovely gelato for dessert (I will look these things up and give you a better run-down later. The internet is slow and I'm typing on Ian's tiny computer where the apostrophe is not in the right place, nor is the dash).

Anywho. Today we hit EPCOT! (Did you know that stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow?) I will be singing the Carousel of Progress song all day. Plus we have reservations at the French restaurant in the around the world thingy for dinner, and I will have pictures this time! I promise!

Day 163: Gourmet To Go

I have long intended to go to the taco truck in downtown Spokane and order a tongue burrito. Today, I finally set aside the time to do so, and the taco truck was closed. Luckily, another truck was open: Mommy G's Gourmet Grilled Cheese. The tongue will wait for another day.

I had a fabulous experience eating Mommy G's food. I had the #6, a French onion grilled cheese that featured Gruyere cheese, caramelized onions and mushrooms, all on a croissant. SO good. So fattening, too, but oh well. Apparently Mommy G's just opened on June 5th, so instead of being way behind the times (everyone I know in Spokane has been going to the taco truck forever and I still kept forgetting to go), I'm ahead! Yay! So Spokaners: go to Mommy G's!

This was also fortuitous timing for me in another sense: I've never been to a food truck at all until today, and I've been trying to figure out what to do with myself post-graduation. I don't have the cash to start a food truck of my own, but I am pondering a little lunch delivery business if I can work out the details, and looking over Mommy G's menu sort of lubed up the wheels and gears in my head. So I'm happily concocting a lunch menu, pondering the costs and practicalities of a lunch business... maybe it will happen, maybe it won't. But for now, it's fun to think about.

And yes, I know it's "Spokanites." I just think "Spokaners" is better.

Day 162: Just Ducky

I have long understood duck confit to be one of those magical foodstuffs that can lift those who eat it to ecstatic heights. I remember hearing some chef or other say that if you put duck confit on the plate, you win--no matter what you pair it with, it's just that good. An exaggeration, I'm sure. But last night, when Ian and I went to Sante in Spokane (at last! we've been meaning to go since I started school here two years ago and it had to be our last chance to go before we finally made reservations) I finally got to see what the fuss is about. (As you can see, I couldn't wait for Ian to take the picture--we're those cool people who take pictures of their food in restaurants, though thankfully it was light enough not to need a flash--to take my first bite.)

If you don't know, duck confit is prepared in a very special way. It is made with the leg of a duck, salt-cured, and then poached in the animal's own fat. Many of you probably know that duck fat is culinary gold. There are lots of fats out there that, once rendered, might be worth throwing away--they taste good, but they are saturated fats after all, and we Americans are, as I understand it, concerned about that. But duck fat is one of those flavorful things that makes you say, who cares? Health schmealth.

Anyway, Sante served their duck confit with spaetzle (also a first for me--yum), asparagus, morels (marinated in something sweet--I would tell you exactly what but I forgot to write it down and their menu isn't updated on their website since they cook seasonally--but morels were also a delicious first for me) and some sort of cream sauce (I feel quite remiss in not being able to tell you exactly what--you'll just have to go to Sante and see, I suppose). It was one of those unforgettable meals. We also had the bresaola plate to start, which had bread, cheese, cured beef, apple, and some homemade strawberry preserves--all lovely. For dessert: vanilla creme brulee (is there anything better than creme brulee?) and cappuccino. All around, a fantastic meal.

Day 161: Rangoons

Yesterday's new food wasn't particularly adventurous, but it was particularly yummy. I got it at Panda Express, in a dash to have dinner before attending my MFA program's graduate reading (Congrats to everyone! It was a great reading!). Don't judge me for enjoying my fast food Chinese. How can you go wrong: cream cheese (with some sort of seasoning/herbage) tucked into a wonton wrapper and deep fried. Um--yum. The sauce they served it with was too salty for my taste (and I can take a lot of salt) but they really required nothing extra. The crispy outside and creamy inside was enough all on its own.

Apparently, rangoons are usually filled with crab (the literal Chinese translation, Wikipedia tells me, is "crab horn" or "fried crab horn"). Mine were not, but it sounds like it could be yummy. But this is really a fully Americanized Chinese dish, if it's even Chinese at all. I don't know how much I can trust Wikipedia, actually. I did discover that Rangoon was the former capital of Myanmar. So maybe it comes from there. Or maybe someone just threw the name on it to make it sound fancy, like chicken divan. Either way, it was good stuff. I might try making some on my own.

Day 160: Happy Anniversary!

Today is my husband's and my fourth wedding anniversary! We celebrated with dinner in: filet mignon, scalloped potatoes, salad, bellinis to drink (with the canned peach stuff this time--yum!), and for dessert, ice cream sandwiches made with homemade ginger cookies.

This is my thing I've never had before for today. I mean, I've had ginger cookies, I've had ice cream, and I've had ice cream sandwiches. But I've never had ginger cookie ice cream sandwiches. So maybe this is a little bit of a cop-out, a little un-adventurous, but I do think it's a dessert-time revelation. These ice cream sandwiches are so dang good. They're kind of Barefoot Contessa-ish: simple but elegant (the one in the photo doesn't look as elegant as it could, but we were just itching to dive in). They're the kind of make-ahead, no-fuss dessert that's perfect for a dinner party because it can just be ready in the freezer, made days ahead if you like. If you come to a dinner party at my house, you might just have these.

Day 159 (For Real This Time): Waffling

First, let me say whoopsie! I noticed I had a discrepancy between the number of blog posts I've posted and the number of days this project has been going on. And guess what? I skipped day eighty-three. Ay carumba! But I've fixed my count now, and as disappointing as it is to be one day farther behind than I thought I was, at least I'm back on track.

So: as for today's post (Day 159, for real this time).

I often find myself perusing a cookbook only to find that the recipe I want to use requires huge cooking times or refrigeration overnight. I tell myself I'll remember next time, that I'll be prepared and start prep work in the early morning or the night before. I rarely remember to do this. My husband, however, does.

He got it in his head yesterday that he wanted to make waffles for breakfast, so last night before bed we whipped up the batter for Overnight Waffles, a recipe we found in our good old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.

It seemed like these should be the waffles to end all waffle making, especially for those of us who are used to making waffles from a mix (Ian often makes oatmeal cinnamon waffles, but those are what we consider "healthy" and therefore don't count). They had yeast in them. Yeast! And vanilla and sugar and all those good things. We expected fluffy waffle nirvana.

Boy, were we wrong.

Ian says this isn't the first time the old Better Homes & Gardens has let us down, though I reminded him that it has provided a few of his favorite dinners (he LOVES the Greek-style turkey burgers). But I couldn't deny, these waffles were flavorless. I reread the recipe. We'd done everything right. We'd refrigerated long enough. We'd taken all the steps we were asked to take, and what we got was not worth the effort. It makes one long for Krusteaz.

Part of our problem could lie with our waffle maker, which we realized this morning is a piece of junk. Ian used to blame the "healthy" waffle recipe for the waffle maker's uneven cooking, and sometimes he blamed himself, but we were recently at my parents' house where my dad made us several batches of delicious waffles (thank you, Dad and Krusteaz) in their professional waffle maker, and so of course ours suffers by comparison. But I've never heard of an uneven cooking sapping all the flavor out of a food. So the middle was browner than the edges. So what?

I did learn one lesson from this: just because something takes longer to make, that doesn't mean it's better.

Day 159: Fruit with a Kick

Have you ever had dried chili mango? This stuff is such a surprise! It's dried mango, coated in a sweet and spicy mixture that makes it taste a little like a sweet jerky. But without the meat flavor. It's chewy and sweet and hot--all lovely things. But it's definitely a surprise flavor. I'm not 100% sure what I think about it quite yet.

The thing is, I'm only a recent convert to dried fruit. I discovered it as a bit of a diet aid--I know, it's not exactly low calorie, but it's like training wheels between candy and a healthier diet. Except, usually I prefer plain fruit to the dried variety. I suppose it depends on what kind of fruit it is. The dried variety does satisfy a certain craving for chewiness, though it's a lot less sticky than most candy.

Anyway. I'm mostly intrigued by how well the spice and the fruit go together. I know I like spice and chocolate--the baristas at my favorite coffee shop (now closed down, dangit) used to warn me about their Mayan mocha, made with Tabasco and black pepper, but it was always my favorite--but with fruit? Never really thought about it. I might have to experiment with this new notion.