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Happy eating!

The birthday party was a major success. It was small, mellow and just all around a great time. The food was fantastic and the cake was a hit!

And above all, 4 people tried Spam last night for the first time. And they liked it! Spam Musubis were the hit of the party.

Spam Musubi

We also have yummy chicken katsu rolled with spinach and Bull-Dog sauce. As well as beef bulgogi rolled with cucumber. Both were so delicious that Keldon had to make another round for people to snack on.

Katsu, Spam Musubi, and Bulgogi

The green salad with frisee and zucchini was overwhelmingly good. As were the cucumbers and green onions. I was pretty skeptical of the green onions, but I would definitely make them again.

And…. for the cake! For Keldon’s birthday this year, I made him a ukulele cake! (Please note: if you are clutzy like me, do not – I repeat DO NOT – attempt to use black food coloring.)

Keldon with his three ukuleles

the ukulele cake

Recipes coming soon for everything.

So I bought my first house on June 30. Yay! It’s this really cute little 1 1/2 story house built in 1914 in south Minneapolis. It’s on a movie set street with great neighbors.

For our celebratory first cooked meal in the house we had tacos! My favorite meal. I’m not sure if you know this, but if I could only have one food for the rest of my life, I would choose tacos. I don’t even know how many taco recipe I’ve created, but you can see them all here.

We made a turkey version of the Smoky Buffalo Tacos. We served them up with tortillas, cheese, lettuce, and tomato fried rice. Served with a great glass of Russian River viognnier and we were all set.

No, this cake is not actually made with Spam (that would just be too much fun, though). BUT! the cake does sort of look like Spam on the inside – all mottled and pink to replicate the mystery meat that Spam is.

I made this cake a year ago for Keldon’s surprise birthday. Since he’s from Hawaii and loves Spam, what better way to shower him with birthday surprises than a Spam cake?

Let’s not be too judgmental when taking my decorating skills into account here. It’s the idea that counts, right? Right. I had some major challenges with the frosting.

In any case, this was a basic white cake blended with some red food coloring (although not blended all they way to give it the distinctive Spam look) with white frosting blended with red, yellow, and blue food colorings.

Today is my boyfriend’s birthday. And for such a celebration of him turning the ripe old age of 26 (a youngin, I know!) we’ve taken the day off from work. We’re having a couple friends over tonight for some Korean/Japanese food.

Keldon is from Hawaii, so we *must* have Spam! Did you know Hawaii is the largest consumers of Spam? Thank you, WW2 & Hormel.

Plus, with this menu we can use a lot of the great produce we got at the Kingfield Farmer’s Market this Sunday: cucumbers, zucchini, green onions.

This is what we’re planning:
Korean Beef Bulgogi rolled up maki style

Chicken Katsu rolled up maki style

Spam Musubi (hooray! it’s Spam!)

Kim Chee

Green Onion Salad

Zucchini Ribbon Salad with this Asian Dressing

Cucumber Salad

I suppose I’ll be making some sort of guava or passion fruit martini to go along with this, but I have yet to come up with something. Stay tuned.

And of course, I have to rival the Spam cake I made last year…. so there will be a surprise revealed later.

What better way to celebrate a baby shower than with a summery, refreshing mocktail? If you want an alocholic version of this, just add vodka or rum and replace the elderflower syrup with St. Germaine or some other elderflower liqueur.

Virginique
makes: 1 mocktail

1 oz elderflower syrup
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
3 oz club soda
ice cubes
lime wheel for garnish

Directions
1. Mix together elderflower syrup, lime juice and club soda in a low ball glass. Add ice cubes and garnish with the lime wheel.

Here is another recipe included in the baby shower menu for my friend last week. It’s a Pip’s Plate original, and we sort of winged it last Sunday. It turned out incredibly yummy – this recipe is a great way to jazz up plain boring grilled asparagus.

We served this alongside Grilled Turkey, Bacon and Blue Cheese Sandwiches.

Lemony Grilled Asparagus with Goat Cheese
makes: 12 servings (6 pieces of asparagus per person)

Grilled Asparagus
3 bundles of asparagus (enough for 6 spears per person)
juice of 1 lemon
3 T olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Garnishes
1 lemon for zesting
3 oz chevre goat cheese

Directions
1. Prepare the asparagus by bending it from each end to determine the ripe part of the asparagus. Snap off the woody ends – you don’t want to eat these.

2. Whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Dress the asparagus and let marinate in a plastic bag for at least 20 minutes.

3. Heat grill to medium high heat. Put asparagus directly onto the grill. Cook for about 8 minutes, turning occasionally to avoid burning.

4. Remove from grill. You can place them on a platter or you can put them on individual plates for serving. Either way, once the asparagus is on a plate, use a microplane grater to zest the lemon over the asparagus. You should use the entire lemon. Then, take the chevre and crumble it on top of the asparagus.

Here is another recipe included in the menu for my friend’s baby shower last week. It’s refreshing, but make sure you are making this when watermelon is in season – the success of this recipe is heavily dependent upon a great tasting watermelon.

We served this along side the Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps as part of the first course.

served in ramekins so the juice wouldn't run into the lettuce wraps

Watermelon, Feta and Mint Salad
makes: 12 servings (about 1 cup each)

3 cups 2-inch chunks fresh watermelon
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 T chopped fresh mint

Directions
1. Combine all ingredients together in a bowl then serve. It’s that easy.

recipe adapted from epicurious

Here is another recipe included on the menu for my friend’s baby shower last week. Something else she loves other than grilled turkey and bacon sandwiches? Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps. We wanted to make something with a peanut dressing, so we ended up at this one.

We served this with the Watermelon Feta and Mint Salad in a little ramekin side bowl.

This is a great summer salad recipe, too. You don’t have to put it in the lettuce wraps – instead, you can just mix it up, leave it in the fridge and have it around for a satisfying and pretty healthy snack.

Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps
makes: 36 lettuce wraps (plus some leftover salad for later)

Peanut Dressing
8 large garlic cloves
1/2 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup fresh lime juice
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons peanut butter (smooth or chunky – it doesn’t matter)
4 teaspoons chopped peeled fresh ginger root
1 Tablespoon chili garlic sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Salad
9 oz rice stick noodles (vermicelli size – very thin)
2 pounds boneless, skinless hormone-free chicken breasts
3 medium carrots, peeled and julienned (cut into about 3-inch long pieces)
3 medium cucumbers, peeled seeded and julienned (cut into about 3-inch long pieces)
1 cup shelled edamame (soy beans)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped roasted salted peanuts
2 heads Boston or Bibb lettuce, washed

Directions
1. To make the dressing, combine garlic through pepper in a food processor. Process until smooth, then add oil to combine all ingredients. Put half aside for the salad dressing, and use the remaining half to marinate the chicken breasts.

2. Cook rice noodles according to package. When drained, cut the noodles into 3-4 inch pieces using a scissors then add to a large mixing bowl.

3. Cook the chicken. You may grill or roast the chicken. We grilled the chicken since it was such a beautiful day and we didn’t want to heat the house too much before the guests came over.

• To Grill: Heat grill to medium-high heat. Cook chicken for about 10-12 minutes, turning once.
• To Roast: Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place chicken in a roasting pan and roast for about 12-15 minutes.

When chicken is cooked through, move to a cutting board and slice. Add chicken to the noodle bowl.

4. Add carrots, cucumbers and edamame to the noodle and chicken bowl. Toss with the reserved peanut dressing.

5. To assemble, put about 1/2 cup of the noodle salad into one leave of lettuce. Serve with crushed peanuts as a garnish.

recipe adapted from epicurious

This recipe was a part of the baby shower I recently threw with 2 friends. It was a huge hit! Really quite delicious: savory, crunchy, smooth – the textures in this sandwich were out of this world.

If you’re worried about the blue cheese overpowering the flavor in this sandwich, I wouldn’t worry. Mixing it with the mayo mellows the flavor. You can also choose a milder blue cheese such as gorgonzola. Even blue cheese haters at the table loved this sandwich! This would also be a great turkey sandwich with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving.

We served these with Lemony Grilled Asparagus with Goat Cheese.

I realize that damn green tray shows up in a lot of my pictures – as pointed out by the owner, Maxine. Apparently because it sits on top of her microwave, it tends to be the first thing I reach for. Oh well.

The sandwiches before hitting the grill

Grilled Turkey, Bacon and Blue Cheese Sandwiches
makes: 12 sandwiches
this can easily be cut in half to make only 6 sandwiches

18 slices bacon (not thick cut)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 1/2 pounds of thinly sliced turkey
1 small head of radicchio
12 large slices good bread (ciabatta works well)
1 stick of butter at room temperature

Directions
1. Cook bacon until crispy. I like to bake it in the oven at 400 for about 12-15 minutes. Drain on a paper towel.

2. Mix mayo and blue cheese together.

3. Create an assembly line to put the sandwiches together in this order:

• First, butter one side of all bread slices.
• Second, spread blue cheese mixture on the other side of all bread slices.
• Third, divide turkey slices evenly among 6 slices of bread.
• Fourth, add 2-3 pieces of radicchio on top of the turkey.
• Fifth, add 3 pieces of bacon on top of the radicchio.
• Lastly, top each sandwich with the other side of bread.

4. Heat your grill to medium (about 350 degrees). When it’s ready, put the sandwiches on the grill. Grill each side for about 5-6 minutes or until bread is nicely toasted.

5. Cut each sandwich in half and serve.

recipe from epicurious