Happy first anniversary to The Hungry Panda!

I had to look back at the archives to realize it's been a year since I've started this blog.  So...what can you expect from me in the future, besides themed dinner parties, restaurant reviews, and silliness?  I'm very excited about some new cookbooks I've purchased, Rick Bayless' One Plate at a Time and Andrea Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen.  With those, I hope to expand my repertoire of dishes beyond quick sandwiches and salads (which is sadly all I eat when I don't have time/energy for anything else).  The latter's blog is amazing, and of course I will explain why I think I need a Vietnamese cookbook.

Here's what I'm working on:

-pane siciliano (I've made this bread more times than any other in the past few months, so it deserves an entry.)

-Asheville Bread Festival (Yes, I went...where were you??)

-pie crust (Will I ever top my m-i-l?  A tall order, considering I did not grow up eating pie.)

-Wiltshire on Market review

Anyway, I made graham crackers on Monday night, just to say that I could.  (I doubt I'll be doing this again.)

                                      

Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/graham-crackers-recipe/index.html

Changes:

- I used a total of 10.25 oz of graham flour; no all-purpose flour.

-Following other reviews, I substituted the molasses with 2 oz of honey.

-I used liberal dashes of cinnamon, but it really didn't make a difference in flavor.

-No whole milk in this house; just skim.

Thoughts:

-I couldn't roll my first batch very thinly, so it became a delectable crunchy cookie.  Mr. S. had better luck with rolling the dough out to the correct thickness with the second batch, but the crackers became slightly burnt.  Still edible though.

Eating my way through Denver, Part 2

Day 3:

Oddly enough, I'd never had pho for breakfast before.  This was decent.  Of course, my mom and grandma's pho is far superior.  ;)  But there was a generous amount of meat and I could tell that there was no MSG in the broth. 

A tasty coconut boba drink.  I still don't like tapioca pearls though due to their texture.

Lunch at Noodles & Company (top to bottom: Japanese udon, tomato & basil soup, beef stroganoff, side salad)  If you have to eat fast food, this is up there with Panera in the "makes you feel like you're eating something healthy" department.  I enjoyed my udon very much.  There were too few noodles and too much meat and vegetables, which is not a bad thing.  :D  The tomato soup was creamy and not as tasty as Panera's but it was cold outside and it is one of my comfort foods.  

Eithiopian dinner at Queen of Sheba.  My friend and her sister had never had Eithiopian before.  It was so much fun to introduce them to it!  The beef in the forefront was the best.  I also enjoyed the collard green and potato/lentil dishes.  This was the meat combo for two (with an additional order of lamb tibs in the middle) and it easily fed the three of us.  The service was wonderful and we even got to chat with the chef/owner after our meal.  

Day 4:

Baked goods at Wholly Cannoli

I wasn't blown away by my cannoli ($3.50 + tax).  It was almost too sweet, very heavy, and definitely too big.  Their other offerings looked good though, and my friends enjoyed the raspberry twist and eclair.

We had lunch at Star of India.  Their lunch buffet only costs $8!  The chicken curry was moist and had a great flavor, while all the vegetarian dishes were savory.   However, I didn't relish the chicken tikka masala because the chicken was tough and the sauce was bland.  I don't remember being impressed by the tandoori chicken either.  The naan was soft but soggy with oil.  

Arash Grocery features foods from the Middle East, most of which I had never seen before.  It was so much fun!  I loved the rows and rows of pita, lavash, and barbari bread, as well as yogurt soda, bulk bags of nuts and spices, pistachio candies (which weren't good), poppy seed pastries (which are!) and lots of fresh vegetables.  My friend bought the chickpea cookies above.  They were very dense and chalky, but had a good flavor.

Continuing our international food tour, we visited Dah Won Rice Cake.  The owner was nice, although a bit difficult to understand   The rice cakes were very chewy and filled with red beans.  Not my favorite thing, but I'm glad that I tried it.

Next door to the rice cake shop is Paris Baguette, which I assumed to be French on first glance.  But I was very pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a Korean bakery.  I LOVE Korean bakeries, and have not been to one since I went to Dallas 3.5 years ago.  I wanted to buy one of everything in the store.  (And at $1 apiece, I guess I could've, but I'd spent too much money by this point...)

Last but not least, we visited a Mexican bakery, Panaderia Tlaquepaque.  I purchased an elephant ear, which was dry and tasteless, and a cinnamon pastry that needed to be reheated before being good.  I guess the latter was due to us visiting later in the afternoon.

Our loot---I actually didn't try the barbari bread until I returned home.  (It was dry, flat, and tasted like white bread.  Not a fan.)  The poppy seed pastry tasted like "a gigantic Fig Newton" in Mr. S.'s words.  I bought a red bean pastry and a cross between a cinnamon roll and a red bean roll at the Korean bakery.  Both were delicious.  My friend bought tahini and halva, but we didn't try either.  Her dulce le leche empanada was marvelous though- sweet, tender, and flaky- and enough to redeem the bakery in my eyes.

Eating my way through Denver, Part 1

Just going to combine some days of the trip, in order to not bore you TOO much.  Plus I have more projects in the works and I need to remember that I started this to document my own cooking adventures, not so much the eating ones.  Although they are fun and so much simpler.  :)

Day 1: Golden (This town smells like yeast thanks to the Coors plant.)

Spinach, mozzarella, and chicken crepes with a small salad for lunch at Grappa Mediterranean Bistro.  I found it peculiar that they only served these and several flavors of gelato (Nutella and tiramisu included) but these were light and flavorful. 

Bakery goods at Pandoro Bakery, which is run by a nice Italian couple.  I bought the chocolate croissant and the chocolate/nut cookie seen in the very far right corner of the last picture.  Both were delicious, particularly the croissant.  

Homemade chicken alfredo with basil sauce (not quite pesto, since it was without nuts, and made by yours truly)

Day 2: in which we visit a French bakery

Daniel's of Paris was sadly mostly bare when we visited.

I purchased the togelais, which as far as I can tell is Aurora's own creation.  It consists of a shortbread base, chocolate mousse covered with dark chocolate ganache and with a rim of shredded coconut.  I enjoyed this more  as the flavors of the layers complimented each other better. 

My friend's dessert, the chantal, chocolate cake with hazelnut mousse, and amaretto syrup covered with dark chocolate ganache. It was rich yet light, with no amaretto flavor to me. Overall, a little pricey at $3.50 per small pastry, but well worth the price.

Homemade jambalaya, based off a Paula Deen recipe.  Yummy and very comforting on a cold day.  I also made cinnamon rolls that night, but they looked the same as always.

Days 3-5 to follow, as well as my Chicago food adventures!

Denver week placeholder

We've had crepes, pho for breakfast, noodles, Eithiopian food, and French pastries. Also homemade cinnamon rolls, pane siciliano, jambalaya and basil chicken alfredo. Along the way I've seen many pretty pastries, delicious looking loaves of bread, and local candies. It may take a week to cover what I've eaten in Denver/Aurora/Golden but I'll give it a shot. (and yes, I will someday cook food of my own again).

Cheap, stylish, and tasty.

Mr. S. and I went to Burning Bush Grille in Prospect for our Friday date night.  We were initially impressed by the reasonable prices, the presence of bison (yum!) and the neat decor.  (They were showing the Cooking Channel instead of ESPN or some sports game...yay!)

I ordered the chicken and ground bison kebab, which also came with rice, a vegetable kebab and a small flat piece of lavash bread.  The tender grilled chicken had a very mild spice rub, while the bison was a little saltier.  The vegetables merely tasted grilled (which is great, don't get me wrong), and the rice was buttery (my only complaint, besides wishing there was more tzatziki sauce).  This was $11.32, and one of the most expensive items on the menu.

Mr. S. ordered the super gyro ($7.55) which he reported as "good, but not the best gyro I've ever had."  The bread was soft and delicious.  Again, the meat was very mildly seasoned, not to the point of being bland, but unmemorable.

So overall, we appreciated the prices (especially with a LivingSocial coupon), the care taken in presentation, and the quality of the food.  I think that we like things spicier than most people, so that may be the cause of  slight discontent.  We will return if we're ever in this part of town again.  

Upcoming food adventures on The Hungry Panda:

-Vietnamese coffee (I'm a procrastinator)

-pane siciliano (ditto)

-whole wheat rye from bread class (ditto)

-croissant challenge (We haven't done this yet, but I have some French butter in the fridge...my secret ingredient...don't tell Mr. S.) 

-DENVER!  (I'm taking a vacation from my vacation, and I'm thrilled.) 

Mr. S.'s Saturday night fun-time pseudosamosa egg roll extravaganza.

The pictures shall speak for themselves.

 

Out of order, but who cares.

Today was our last bread baking class.  (Pictures from last week are on another SD card and will be the subject of another post.) A reporter and photographer from the Courier-Journal came to write a neighborhood feature story on us.  The former was a bit intrusive (seriously, don't talk to me when I'm weighing out ingredients) but the latter was very nice.  We had a conversation about lenses and his beautiful full-frame dSLR.  But anyway...we made whole wheat Irish soda bread in honor of St. Patty's Day.  I learned a few things from this:
1.) Whole wheat flour is not that bad (if it's King Arthur).
2.) I do not like currants.  They tasted too much like raisins, and became bitter after baking.
3.) Some dough is just meant to be soft and wet.  It's hard to resist the urge to add more flour.

 Whole wheat flour has a pretty yellow color and an interesting texture. 

 Mixing the wet ingredients

 Ball o' dough (very sticky and wet)

 Our free-form loaf, decked out with instant oats and currants

 Scoring (by the knife expert in the household)

 Our finished loaf---after we discovered that the currants tasted bitter, I picked them all off. 

All of the finished loaves looked fantastic!  The bread was chewy and tasted like what I imagine a whole wheat biscuit tastes like.  I liked this bread better than the sourdough rye from last week.  Since we didn't have any other lunch, we consumed half of the loaf almost instantly.  o_O

The bread from all four weeks is portrayed in this pretty basket.  I can't take any credit for this styling---the actual photographer arranged it by the window first.

And now, time for some bonus bread!  While we were waiting for the Irish soda bread to come out of the oven, Chef H. demonstrated a fig and aniseed scone twist from Global Baker (except that it wasn't a twist for the sake of time).

 Fig preserves--I was dubious about these, since I have hated Fig Newtons since childhood.  I am very happy to report that these taste far superior, esp. when mixed with Saigon cinnamon and aniseed.  :) 

This was delicious---buttery and sweet, but not overly so, and with a wonderful soft pillowy texture that reminded me of my mom's blueberry streusel.  This would be a great dessert or breakfast offering.