Fried Goat Cheese Salad

While I was in Spain I developed an undeniable adoration for goat cheese (like eat a pound of goat cheese in one sitting, even when I'm full, kind of love). So, upon returning home to Texas it has been my goal, or rather a necessity, to incorporate goat cheese in to my life. While watching one of the new shows on OWN (I will always follow Oprah), I saw a chef cooking fried goat cheese and it looked easy. So, I decided that Valentine's Dinner was the perfect time to attempt this fancy-ish technique. My little goat cheese bubbles where hard to flip and cooked much faster than I expected, but they were absolutely wonderful!

Fried Goat Cheese Salad (serves 2)

Fried Goat Cheese

1 6 oz. package of goat cheese (or 3/4 of a 8 oz. package)

1 egg

panko bread crumbs (I used italian flavored)

flour

olive oil

Salad

Baby Spinach

Honey Balsamic Dressing

1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar

1 tsp. olive oil

1-2 tsp. honey (depending on how sweet you like)

Directions:

1. Roll goat cheese in to small 1/4 balls.

2. Make three bowls, one with flour, one with an egg (well stirred) and one with bread crumbs. With your thumb, lightly press each ball in to a disk.

3. Coat each goat cheese ball in flour, dip it in egg and coat it in bread crumbs. Repeat the final two steps, dipping the ball in egg and then bread crumbs once again.

4. Heat 1/8 inch of olive oil in pan.

5. Place each disk in oil, cook for 30 seconds to a minute, flip the disk and cook the other side 30 seconds to a minute.

6. Mix all dressing ingredients.

7. Serve warm goat cheese disks on a bed of baby spinach, topped with the honey balsamic dressing.

8. Enjoy!

Black Bean Soup

One of my all-time favorites, I remember my mom ordering black bean soup at the now long-gone Espinosas (a Chatfield favorite). As I've grown to unabashedly adore beans of all kinds, black bean soup has been on my to-cook list for a while so the other night, I finally tried and based on boyfriend reviews (which might be slightly biased) succeeded. Here is my ramshackle black bean soup that I threw together out of my college-student pantry and turned out to be extremely quick and tasty.

Black Bean Soup

Recipe:

1 can black beans, juice poured off, but not strained

2.5 cans water (fill the black bean can)

1 large handful of brown rice

.5 medium onion, coarsely chopped

6 pieces cooked bacon (I used turkey bacon because I like it better)

1 large tomato diced

1-1.5 Tbs. chili powder (to taste)

1.5 Tbs. garlic powder (or 1 garlic clove if you have one)

handful of chopped, fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon of your favorite salsa (I use my homemade salsa)

salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

OPTIONAL:

crumbled feta cheese for topping

sour cream for topping

Directions:

1. Sauté garlic (if you have it) and onions until onions are transparent.

2. Pour excess liquid off beans, put beans, rice, water, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, salsa and cooked bacon in large pot.

3. Bring mixture to boil and then reduce heat to simmer

4. Season mixture with garlic powder (if garlic cloves weren't used), chili powder, salt and pepper to taste.

5. Allow mixture to simmer until it has reduced to your desired consistency and the rice is cooked through(mine took about 10 minutes). Extra water can be added and reduced if the soup becomes to thick.

6. Serve hot with crumbled feta cheese, sour cream or both.

7. Eat up!

P.S. Sorry if this picture isn't the most appealing, we ate it so fast that the soup was almost completely gone before I remembered to take a picture.

Want, want!

I've been searching everywhere for a canister set. I've always loved my mom's collection of 4 mix-matched houses that hold our flour and sugar and it's hard to find something I like as much as those, but, thanks to etsy.com I've found some I love. Now that I love some, the problem is that I can't choose, which do y'all like?

I'm crazy about copper, love the warm and cozy antique look and yellow is my FAVORITE color, so I absolutely can not choose.

Banana Bread with Dark Chocolate

Perfect for a snow day, banana bread is one of my favorite hearty desserts. Today I decided to make it a little bit more dessert-y with some dark chocolate and a brownie pan, rather than the typical loaf pan.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas (about 4 bananas--I freeze mine and de-thaw them in warm water right before it's time to bake)
• 1 dark chocolate bar
• 
  
• Directions:
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan or an 8 x 8 brownie pan.
• 
  
• In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Chop the chocolate bar in to small shreds and sprinkle on top of the batter.
• 
  
• Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Sliced and Spiced Baked Potatoes

I adore potatoes, all forms of them, baked, fried, mashed, you name it, I love it! My mom used to make these potatoes when I was little and I always loved them because they look so fancy, but believe me, they're incredibly easy, versatile, yummy and healthy.

Ingredients:

Potatoes (1 for each person you're serving)

Olive oil

Salt

Ground black pepper

Garlic powder

Your choice of herbs--rosemary, thyme and oregano are some of my favorites

Optional Parmesean cheese (whatever kind you have in your pantry)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Slice thin cuts 3/4 of the way through the potato, the thinner the slices the better the potto will cook. Be careful not to slice all the way through, you want the potato to stay together for serving.

Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle each of them with olive oil. Make sure to get a little oil in between each cut (a basting brush is good for this...or fingers).

Mix together salt, pepper, garlic powder and herbs to taste (truly taste the mixture with each addition so you can get it just right. You will want 1-2 tsp. of mixture per potato.

Sprinkle the mixture on each potato and in between all cuts. Sprinkle parmesean cheese on top of the potatoes if you would like (I wouldn't recommend other kinds of cheese because they will get melty in the oven rather than crispy).

Bake the potatoes in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until all potatoes are cooked through (they should be slightly soft to the touch but not mushy).

Bon Appétit!

Gorgonzola Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Today was my fifth snow day in the past week, so my roommate and I decided that it was a perfect day for some gourmet cooking. In our search to find a recipe that only included the array of ingredients that we had in the kitchen (it's way too cold to go to the store), we decided on a recipe that my roomie has made before...Gorgonzola Stuffed, Bacon Wrapped Chicken! YUM!!

Ingredients (adapted from allrecipes.com)
Feeds 2 people

2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (our chicken breasts were sliced)
1/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley (we used dried parsley mixed with about a tablespoon of water)
2 tablespoons minced shallot (we used a white onion)
1 clove garlic, minced
4 thick slices of applewood smoked bacon
salt and ground pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray an 8x8-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Mash together the Gorgonzola cheese, parsley, shallot, and garlic in a small bowl; season with salt and black pepper.

Using a sharp knife, cut a slit into the thick side of each chicken breast about 2 inches long and 1 1/2 inches deep. If your chicken breasts are sliced, you can simply spoon the filling in to the center and roll them up).

Divide the filling in half, and stuff each chicken breast with cheese filling. Wrap 2 slices of bacon around each breast, and secure with wooden toothpicks. Place the chicken breasts into the prepared baking dish.
Bake in the preheated oven until the bacon is browned and the chicken is no longer pink inside, about 35 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of a breast should read about 165 degrees F (75 degrees C).

If you want crispier bacon, you can pan sear the bacon/chicken presents in a little olive oil for a minute or until the bacon is crispy to your liking.

Enjoy!

High Tea, Transvestites in Australia and a Pleather Jacket

I just got back from London and it was so refreshing. It was nice, first off, to speak english, all the time, to everyone. I could ask for help from anyone at anytime...what a relief. It was also nice to be taken care of, to have Taylor (Lunsford, I'm not referring to myself in third person) lead me throughout the city. I was so happy to simply follow along behind her goggling at clock towers, theaters and store windows.

It was an accomplishment to simply get to London by myself on Easy Jet, a somewhat sketchy airline. After walking out on to the tarmac (something that I never do) and an easy ride on the aptly named easy jet, I arrived in London Luton airport. I killed the time during my 55 minute bus ride in to London by listening to The Beatles and Kate Nash (the two most British groups I had on my Ipod) and was truly enchanted by the empty and dark London streets. It was amazing to me that at 1am the streets were quiet, in Barcelona, people don't even begin going out until 2am.

Taylor met me at my bus and we slowly made our way to her flat on the inefficient night busses. A brief stop at Star Kebab, an indian restaurant, for chips with curry finished the night and I QUICKLY fell asleep on the couch.

In the morning, we ventured to Hampton Court, on of Henry VIII's palaces. My excitement for the trip grew once I found out that there were not only costumed actors at the palace, but that we were also able to wear robes and join in on activities like a courtly dance class and a meeting with the queen and her advisors. After getting lost in a perfectly manicured bush maze, we stopped for a quick lunch of tomato soup and crusty bread. Mmm, what could be better on a chilly day than tomato soup in a royal garden.

That night I was able to visit Alex at her apartment which was, unfortunately, on the opposite side of the city. After riding on the most tightly packed subway you can imagine for 11 stops, I finally arrived. It was so fun to just hang out at Alex's apartment, we cooked a long and simplified version of chicken parmesan for dinner before heading out to some pubs for cider. The cider was wonderful, but the BEST was strawberry beer. Who would ever want to drink beer when cider exists? It blows my mind.

Saturday was quintessentially British. After pad thai for lunch, we headed downtown to see the sights. We made quick stops at everything I needed to see, including Buckingham, Big Ben, the Globe...and finished the afternoon with my favorite part of the trip, high tea.

The tea was in an old and slightly stuffy hotel, we were seated in the drawing room where small groups of ladies chatted and snacked. Our tea came with complementary champagne and from the time the champagne arrived, the fanciness never ended. I chose a black currant and hibiscus tea which was served in an adorable individual tea pot. We were also given a selection of sandwiches, scones, candied apples and pumpkin tarts. The food was amazing. I've always loved scones, but I feel that I can say I had never had a truly great scone until this tea. We slowly ate and drank until our bellies were full and tastebuds were exhausted.

We had some time to kill before heading to our musical, so we pit stopped at Harrods. Something that I didn't think I would be that impressed by was simply amazing. We turned the corner to find Harrods sparkling with tiny lights, but the exterior opulence was minimal compared to the floors of decadence inside. We wandered aimlessly from floor to floor admiring the vogue clothes, home goods and food, as well as the people who were able to buy them.

Our musical, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, was more extravagant than any show I've ever seen. It focuses on 3 transvestites as they journey across the desert in a bus named Priscilla. As you can imagine, the costumes were over the top in the very best way. Every song that you would expect to be sung, was, including I Will Survive. I can't imagine a more fun musical to attend!

My last day in London was filled with markets. We first went west to Portabello Street, a collection of antique vendors selling everything from magazines to fur coats. We left empty handed and headed to Camden Market, a gigantic intertwined maze of vendors. You can buy anything at Camden Market, from craftsman jewelry, to antique luggage to pleather jackets (which I purchased). You can and should also buy the trashiest of trashy chinese food. The asian woman lure you in with a sample and then give you a "special" price, which, if you're like me, you won't be able to pass up. Three pounds for a overfilled bowl of, well, whatever the woman decides to give you which could include, chicken, veggies, noodles and, my favorite, a sort of tempura fried dough ball. I ended the night with my 20 pound pleather jacket in hand (I worked the guy down from 35 pounds) and in severe need of fruit or some other healthy snack.

I adore London and absolutely can't wait to go back! I was sad to be home in Barcelona, but the weather today is sunny, my Señora fixed a wonderful dinner last night and I feel very European in my pleather jacket. I guess Barcelona isn't so bad.

Where is Andorra?

Today I went to Andorra, the tiny country nestled in the Pyrenees directly between France and Spain. I had, really, one main goal in visiting Andorra: get a passport stamp. My roommate had read online that the stamp is Andorra's Coat of Arms (neat!) and I wanted one. Since I started with this anecdote, you're probably assuming that I didn't get a stamp. If so, you're correct. Did you know that when you're traveling within EU countries you don't get you passport stamped! But worse, the office in Andorra that gives stamps and all of the post offices were closed because it was Sunday. I know, our planning wasn't very well though out.

However, there were two things that made up for my lack of a passport stamp:

Yes, that is a copper teapot in my hand. I bought that amazing, antique copper teapot at the same store that was selling this shirt:


There was pretty much nothing else to do in the quirky country of Andorra, so we ate a nice lunch and headed back on a bus to Barcelona about 4 hours after arriving.

Fish Heads

This week I was able to take a cooking class through my Food and Culture class. I was excited all week because, number one, I love cooking, and, number two, my teacher told us that we would be cooking something exotic. I was picturing fruit combinations with unheard of spices. Little did I know, that exotic meant sardines.

Yes, SARDINES. Eww.

Come to find out, not all sardines are pickled in salt and oil. They were actually just small fish.

The cooking instructor eased us in to the idea of cooking sardines with a wonderfully tasty Romesco sauce, made from peppers, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, hazelnuts and almonds. Just when the room was filled with the wonderful Romesco smells, the teacher pulled out the slimy little full, eyes-in, scales-on fish.

It doesn't bother me to look at these gross little fish, but soon to find out, we would be doing a lot more than looking at them.

The teacher first showed us how to push our fingers backwards under the fish's scales to remove each and every fingernail-like, metallic scale. By this time I was starting to freak...I don't even touch the fish to give them to the dolphins at Sea World, much less descale a fish with my own hands.

But then came the kicker, the teacher nonchalantly explained how to push your fingers right in to the little fish's gills and squeeze until it's tiny head just pops off and its innards pour out. I was starting to sweat just watching her pinch of the fish head, but it wasn't over. You had to slide your finger in to the headless fish cavity and raise your hand up, splitting the fish down the center. Once it's open, you not only have to finish cleaning out the intestines, but you also have to break the large bones and remove them piece by piece.

My knees were tingling as I looked at the vegetarian in my class, he returned my horrified look of panic.

Once the instructor had finished cleaning her fish, she immediately had us form a line to receive our 2-3 sardines. I hung back and was happily last in line, hoping that they would run out of fish, but, of course, they didn't.

When I was handed my fish to descale, I almost couldn't touch it. But I knew I couldn't be the only one in my class who didn't clean a fish, so reluctantly I began peeling off layers of slimy scales. I was doing okay, until I hit a snag and one of the fish's fins popped out in to swimming position. I almost lost it. I'm terrified of fish in the lake, I don't even want them near me, much less to pull out a fish's fin. Once I had finished descaling the slippery little sucker, it was time for the debauchery.

I carried my fish to the table, which was now covered in fish blood, innards and some sort of brown gunk (I'm assuming fish poop). Not only was I disgusted by the task at hand, but I felt like I was covered from head to toe in fish scales, I had scrubbed my hands many times, but they're sticky and clear. I stood, trying to muster enough courage to physically rip a creatures head off, but each time I looked down at the little guy all I could see was his half-winking eye, asking me to please leave his head and his body together. I couldn't do it.

I don't know what gave it away, but the instructor sensed my overwhelming repulsion to the idea of dismembering a fish, walked over to me, grabbed the fish and within a second, my fish was headless.

She made me (quite literally moved my hands) open up the body cavity, pull out the organs and break the large bones out of the fish, a job that was only slightly less miserable than actually beheading the fish.

We fried the fish, and honestly they tasted decent. But, I will never again butcher or clean my own meat. I understand there is a certain pride in cleaning your own meat, but for me, I am going to leave it to the professionals.

This simply reaffirmed my want to have meat so well butchered and cleaned by the time I see it that it is unidentifiable as an animal.

I guess I'm glad that I got to doing something a little "exotic," but I can say confidently that I would never repeat this class.

The Men of Valencia

I took a short (less than 24 hours in the city) trip to Valencia this weekend and one thing stood out more than all others about Valencia, the men.

Everyone that we encountered was overly nice, talkative and friendly, even if it was sometimes creepy. This "friendliness" of sorts, was severely exaggerated when it came to the men of Valencia.

Firstly, there was an old man who came up to my roommate and I and talked to us in Spanish about how pretty we were and how we should forget about our boyfriends while in Valencia for a good 5 minutes. During the 5 minutes, an American family came up to us to ask for directions, we told them we were just visiting too and they left. On reevaluation of the situation, we think they might have been attempting to save us from the awkward situation, we were too naive.

Our second encounter was with a man in a jewelry and craft store. He insisted on fastening my bracelet and also fitting me with a scarf (although he was a creepy salesman, I mostly enjoyed the small talk).

A third man came up to my roommate and I, kissed our hands and tried to talk us in to coming to the beach...that was a definite "no." This encounter I enjoyed the least, actually I can say, I didn't enjoy this at all, I'm not really okay with anyone laying a dirty teeth kiss on my hand, much less a stranger in the street in Valencia.

Finally, the best, was our waiter at the restaurant we chose for dinner. We had picked this restaurant because they offered paella, an appetizer, dessert and sangria all for 11 euros, a pretty good deal. We sat down and the first thing the waiter did was take our drink order, my roommate ordered a glass of wine and the waiter replied "sure." She took this to mean "are you sure," and got almost a little sassy with the confused waiter until I explained that he was just affirming that she had ordered wine. Next, he brought us an extra basket of bread (which we were a little nervous he would charge us for, but we couldn't resist). Our three appetizers came out one by one, salad, patatas bravas, and calamari. When our waiter realized that we didn't eat the calamari, he brought us an extra plate of patatas bravas.

I realize you might be thinking this is normal service, but in Barcelona, the service is pretty much non-existent, we would never be offered a substitute appetizer or extra bread.

Finally, we received our paella, and dessert and ate them both happily. After we had finished all of this food, we began to notice that all of the tables around us had been cleared and new people were being seated, but we still hadn't received our check. We started to try to make eye contact with our waiter, but he was very clearly ignoring us. After multiple tries and about 30 minutes, we decided that we would start to stand up and wave so that he would know we were finished. Maybe he had simply forgot our check. When we did this, he just waved back, so my roommate, annoyed by the uncertainty, said "our check." Our waiter continued to smile and wave while shaking his head no and motioning for us to leave.

That's right, we received a meal for FREE! We were astonished because we hadn't even been overly nice, talkative, or honestly even that clean (we had taken a 5 hour train earlier that day).

It was a wonderful day full of attention (whether wanted or unwanted). Valencia, I'll be back!