PHO NO!

Recently, we tackled the mission that is pho. Chad is really amazing at undertaking these uber-long culinary adventures - ones that immediately scare away amateurs, ones that leave you knee deep in the kitchen for hours, days even! 

This happens to be one of them.

Pho was a two day adventure we took. We alternated lengthy turns stirring, filled our apartment hallway with consistently delicious aromas, and coordinated our other meals around the Vietnamese frenzy that was going down in the kitchen. Basically, it turned out to be really fun!

One aspect that definitely played into the fun of this recipe was compiling our first "spice bag." Star anise and cinnamon sticks were some personal favorites in there, and ginger always tastes (and looks) beautiful.

One thing this recipe called for was MEAT, and lotsss of it!

We had our broth beef here, some bones (with marrow still intact) to toss in later, and our rare steak to lay out atop our soup once it was all finished. 

An intimate moment with bone marrow. 

Scary, yet delicious stuff.

The final components that add to our richly seasoned broth: all kinds of complex meat and veggie combinations, complimented nicely by our delicious smelling spice bag and many, many hours of cooking.

The thin rice noodles begin cooking.

Slicing our meat and compiling some pretty impressive noodle bowls. The thinner the steak is sliced, the better. Obviously, ours was pretty thin and awesome.

 And in a climactic crescendo of culinary anticipation, we ladle the boiling broth over the rice noodles and our thinly sliced rare steak immediately starts to cook in the broth, as demonstrated beautifully by the pictures above and below! 

This had to be my favorite part of the entire process, by the way. Definitely tops the whole bone marrow experience.

As the meat and noodles finish the last of their cooking, each diner prepares their own fresh herb and spice concoction to taste. 

They say it's rude to create conversation at the dinner table when eating pho, since you distract your companion during the most delicious part of their meal, and I pretty much agree. Its almost ritualistic how one adds their mint and cilantro, siracha and hoisin sauces, jalapenos and lime - and then eventually dives into their own dripping, slurping and sometimes all too spicy bowl of soup!

Overall, it was an entirely rewarding process that ended with a beautiful spread that made us both proud. I savored my big bowl of soup far longer than I probably should have, and devoured the entire thing in no time. 

BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!

Last weekend was Chad's birthday, so I set to work whipping up a homemade cake for this amazing man I love.

I went about looking for a recipe in my normal fashion - surfing around some of my favorite food blogs, referencing endless cooking show tips and ideas, and eventually coming up with my own combination of all these things collectively - some times producing tasty things more successfully than others.

In terms of this cake, I just wanted something simplistically pretty. 

I chose a Vanilla Butter cake I found at CakeCentral.com, frosted it with a simple Buttercream recipe, and added some of my own decorational flair along the way.

Since I LOVE layered cakes (because what else is a birthday gift, but a projection of your own likes and dislikes?), I decided to do three 8" round pans and spread a simple raspberry seedless jam in between the layers to add some color.

As I added my layers, I applied a basic crumb coat of frosting to each - letting that first layer pick up all the crumbs and chill a bit before applying my (hopefully!) smooth top layer of frosting.

Also, I like to put parchment paper around and just slightly under my cake while frosting and decorating, that way I can get as MESSY as I want!

The final project presented to the birthday boy! 

Fresh raspberries on top to match our insides, and a bit of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips along the bottom rim.

Now don't get carried away!! We filled it with candles, lit it up and (I) sang Happy Birthday too! There is just no documentation of those obviously amazing moments.

And perhaps as a hint of birthday flattery, or because it perfectly worked with the number of raspberries on top, I only put 8 candles on anyway! 

But in the end, it was just an OKAY cake. Aesthetically, we both really enjoyed it but it tasted more like a cheaply frosted sheet cake than any one I've ever bought in stores.

 Also, as this final picture shows, I feel as though I probably added more raspberry filling than needed - only enough for a splash of color, but hopefully not enough to start dripping down your cake. 

Since the raspberries and cake were probably the best parts, you can find the Vanilla Butter Cake recipe here, but I definitely wouldn't recommend the Buttercream frosting to anyone. Thankfully, my boyfriend is sweet and said it tasted great! 

PROJECT: CARNITAS

My boyfriend's favorite food, hands down, is Carnitas. We scour the Mexican joints of LA with a strict repertoire of expectations when it comes to perfecting that which is PORK. And so, when we decided to take on this tedious culinary task on our own, we knew we had quite a bit to live up to.

First, we began with only the finest of ingredients - LARD!

The beginning of a more than 4 hour recipe...

Our pork was tended to endlessly, cooked multiple ways, and drooled over in anticipation all day.

By using our Dutch oven, we were able to slow cook the meat for a few hours, as well as eventually transfer it to the oven to add to its overall crispiness.

After searing and cooking on the stovetop, it was time to brew in the oven.

Stirring periodically gave us chances to sneak peaks!

 After spending the day cooking up our pork, we figured the only way to truly honor our meat was by putting it in yummy homemade tortillas, which we immediately set to work on in the last minutes of our Carnitas brew.

Chad is really good at kneading dough into submission, so thats always his job. Oh, along with mostly everything else too. I spectate, take pictures and eventually, dig in happily.

After "we" whipped up our dough, I set to work making our tortillas. Our set-up was starting to look pretty tasty at this point. I think our mouths were definitely watering! 

 The thinner, and larger the tortillas were stretched, the better they came out - aesthetically and taste-wise. Each one was like a little experiment in technique and timing.

I thought our tortillas looked pretty good, but unfortunately, they lacked in taste. Something about the recipe we chose offered no depth to the dough, it sort of tasted like flour and water.

I didn't end up taking a photo of our final meal (probably because I wanted to get to the stuffing-my-face part of it), but it was pretty amazing as a whole. Chad's really good at whipping up an awesome Mexican meal, whereas I am really good at eating it. 

All week long, in fact.