donuts from the donut-coop. DONUTS MAKE ME GO NUTZ!
TODAY, April 26, 2012! Dining Out for Life is a nation-wide annual fundraiser that benefits AIDS service organizations. Participating restaurants donate a percentage of your check to a local organization. In 2011, the event raised over $198,000!! Over 180 restaurants are participating throughout the state of Minnesota. The DO4L website has been down all morning, for Twin Cities folks, here is a .pdf of participating Minneapolis-St. Paul establishments. For people outside of the TC, you’ll have to do some internet searching on your own :)
Our Top Five - Two Months In
We’ve been in Minnesota for just over two months now, and have had so much fun getting reacquainted with Minneapolis and St. Paul. Here are a few of our favorites, so far:
1. Free Thursdays as the Walker
2. The Happy Gnome
3. Gold Medal Park
4. HauteDish
5. Taco Taxi
What are some of your favorites? Where else should we go?
Two of our favorites: Q Fanatic and Pizza Farm (in Wisconsin).
(Source: scaredpanda.com)
Getting my calamari on at Busters. The line was too long at Sea Salt #minneapolis #calamari #craft #beer #saturday #spring (Taken with Instagram at Busters on 28th)
Stone Bowl Bibimbap in the Twin Cities
This week, we surveyed the Twin Cities for the best version of this famous dish, and found a surprising amount of variety.
According to Korean cookbook author Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall, this style of bibimbap originated in the city of Chonju. The stone bowl is called tolsot and is seasoned by boiling it in salted water and rubbing it down with oil. A tolsot lends its inhabitants the same flash of greatness that a cast iron pan can give to a blackened cheese sandwich.
When your sizzling stone bowl arrives, it’s a good idea to avoid hugging that hot bowl right to your chest, even though you’re glad to see it. Squirt a healthy zigzag of the sweet and spicy red pepper sauce across the top of the rice mountain, break the egg yolk, give the mess a stir, and then sit tight for few minutes so the rice along the bottom has time to develop a chewy, brown crust. Texture, texture, texture, and adjustable levels of spice, sweet, tang, and nuttiness are all at your fingertips.
Weeknight cooking on Flickr.
When I share that I have an affinity for cooking, the first thing people will say is often, “What’s your favorite thing to cook?” I usually end up saying Filipino food or roast chicken or something because I don’t want to sound lame. Truthfully, my favorite thing to cook is whatever the heck I can come up with from what I have on hand. I love the exercise of seeing a few ingredients, free associating with my culinary subconscious, and then seeing what I come up with.
Here are some jarred artichokes, olives, green pepper sitting in the fridge. Mmm, pizza? Hey, we always have canned tomatoes. But I have to do work and stay awake tonight so no glutenous pizza…how about brown rice pasta*? Ooooh, that canned pink salmon I bought on sale at the co-op a year ago and totally forgot about! Oh man, salmon cream cheese is so good. Wait, how about tomato cream sauce. I wish I had vodka. Oh well. THIS COULD WORK!
And there you have it, the birth of a weeknight meal and proof that my cooking life is way less glamorous than my cookbook collection would suggest. Thanks to Criminy for his mad salad skills, too.
Pasta with Salmon-Tomato Cream Sauce
1 Tablespoon vegetable or olive oil
1 small onion or 1/2 c. shallots
1-16 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/2 c. artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 c. green pepper, chopped finely
1/2 c. green olives
2 Tablespoons cream cheese (can also sub with 1/4 c. heavy cream)
salt and red pepper flakes, to taste
approx. 3/4 of a 16-oz box fusili pasta*
Directions: Boil water, cook pasta until just under al dente. Drain and set aside. While pasta is cooking, saute onions/shallots in oil in a large cooking pan on medium heat. Cook for 1 minute. Add green peppers, cook another 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes to pan, including juice from can, artichokes, and olives. Simmer for approximately 3-5 minutes at low-medium heat until some of the juice evaporates. Add canned salmon, breaking up into small pieces. Season with salt and red pepper flakes. Simmer another 2 minutes. Add cream cheese and mix thoroughly so that cream cheese melts and sauce is a consistent color. Add cooked pasta to the pan, mix thoroughly with sauce. Serve warm.
*I just tried this gluten-free brand of brown rice pasta, Jovial Foods, and it is one of the better brands I’ve had. The texture holds up well, which is key since brown rice pasta tends to get mushy easily.
Girl, you make gluten-free food look good.
Insane chicken hash. #yum #minneapolis (Taken with Instagram at Barbette)
Yes, that is a buffalo wing on top of the bloody mary skewer. Best bloody ever.
Beef tongue sammy. Mmm, meat stacks! (Taken with Instagram at Muddy Waters Bar & Eatery)
Irish Whiskey macaron at Cocoa and Fig. (Taken with instagram)
