Weight Watchers POINTS® Value: 3 (Calculated using eTools) Servings: 6
Level of Difficulty: Easy Course: side dishes
Ingredients 1 cup uncooked couscous 1 1/2 cups water, warm 10 pieces dried apricots 1/4 cup almonds, whole, toasted 2 medium scallion(s), green parts only 1 cup fresh mint 1 cup fresh cilantro 1/2 medium lemon, juiced 2 tsp olive oil, drizzled 1 tsp kosher salt, to taste 1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground, to taste
Instructions
Put the couscous in a medium bowl; pour the water over it, stir with a fork to combine. Cover and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes, then uncover and fluff with a fork. Put the apricots, almonds, green onions, mint, and cilantro on a cutting board and coarsely chop everything up; add this to the couscous. Add lemon juice, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss gently to combine.
Jon and I just happened to be on Capitol Hill last night to rent movies. Given the later hour, and not having anything at home readily available to cook for dinner, we decided to eat out. We ended up at Quinn’s, which is in the Pike/Pine area of the Hill.
Immediately, I was blissed out to find they had Dogfish Head’s Black and Blue on tap, a delicious beer to start with! Then, I was even more thrilled when our server replied to our question of a peculiar name of a starter (devils on four horses). The answer: Dates stuffed with blue cheese wrapped in bacon. SOLD! We additionally ordered the artichoke skewers special, I ordered the crispy chicken and Jon had the fish and chips.
The dates were toe-curling heavenly, and just about as perfect as possible. The artichoke skewers were deliciously surprising, especially with that lingering sweetness you get after eating a few. Our order was taking awhile due to a large party that came in before us, so we got comped the rabbit pate, which was pretty stellar. At that point, I ordered Russian River’s Damnation, which was a beer style I’ve been craving all week. I wasn’t disappointed. (I’m slacking, no tasting notes for you!) Jon’s fish and chips looked fried and delicious (and they were!), and my crispy chicken (as promised, with greens and cheese grits), was not exactly what I expected.
It was a small chicken breast with a crisped skin on top, layered on bacon-y kale, then layered on the cheese grits. Restaurant chicken usually underwhelms me, but this? This was amazing. The first thought in my head was that it tasted like duck. (I found out later it was braised in duck fat, then crisped in butter). The greens were equal to what Jon makes (which is PRETTY DAMN GOOD) and the grits were just absolutely delicious.
When our waitress returned to us to ask if we wanted dessert, we had to decline just because we had enough richness for the evening.
We were treated well, the wait wasn’t too long, and I’m always happy to find a good beer selection coupled with good food. I look forward to eating there again.
ETA: I failed to mention that our food was running late due to the kitchen getting a large order in ahead of us. We got comped some rabbit pate, which was delicious. It was very, very awesome. Yes.
We are fortunate, in the US, to have access to safe drinking water from our taps. Often, our tap water exceeds the safety of bottled water and tastes better than bottled water.
Bottled water is bad for us. From the manufacturing of the plastic bottles (petroleum based), to the waste management (including “recycling” which just ships the bottles to be some poorer country’s problem), not to mention the outrageous cost, there is just no reason to choose bottled water when we have access to potable water from a faucet.
Not even to mention how disgusting and sad it is to walk on a beach, like in Bermuda or Cozumel, and see plastic stuff littering the shore, washing up on the beaches.
Out in the Pacific, there’s a trash island that is twice the size of Texas. Seriously – we need to take advantage of the luxury we have. Drink tap water.
Bacon Maple CookiesI’ve been up to my eyeballs learning web development (specifically, developing wordpress site themes). I’m starting to dream about coding. I actually was dreaming about it in every dream last night!
All that aside, I’ve missed sharing another cookie recipe with you! Bacon Maple Cookies! I have a vegan version I want to try to make as well, so I will post the substitutions in parentheses. You won’t need a maple leaf cookie cutter, but it wouldn’t hurt. 🙂
Bacon Maple Cookies
Refrigerator Cookies
Oven 350°F
1 cup softened butter (or soy-free vegan butter)
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg (or 1 Tablespoon flax seed + 3 Tablespoon water)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt (substitute Bacon Salt if you like!)
2 1/2 cup sifted flour
Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the egg and continue to beat together with the vanilla. In another container, sift the flour, then take the 2 1/2 cups sifted flour and the salt and combine with the butter mixture. Make two balls and put in the refrigerator (you can also roll out 1/4-1/2 inch sheets between wax paper), and chill for 3-4 hours.
After chilled and firm, roll out into a 1/4-1/2 in disk if you haven’t already, and cut out your cookies, placing them on parchment paper or baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, checking to make sure they don’t get but a flush of brown.
Set on a cooling rack. Next it’s time to make the frosting!
Frosting
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon softened butter (or soy-free vegan butter)
3 Tablespoon 100% maple syrup
4 strips, thick cut bacon, (1/3 cup vegan bacon bits or vegan bacon)
Extra maple syrup and milk (or soy-free milk replacement) on hand to thin as needed)
Bacon – you can go about this a few ways if you use the real thing. You can fry up the whole pieces, then put them in a food processor and lightly chop them, do it by hand, or cut the small pieces of bacon before you fry them. (The vegan version can use the equivalent to 1/3 cup bacon bits or fry the vegan bacon and chop it up.) When crisp, drain the fat and set bacon on a paper towel to rest.
Mix 1/2 cup of powdered sugar with the softened butter. Then add the maple syrup and the rest of the powdered sugar. If this mixture seems too thick for you, thin out with maple syrup first, and then add milk if you feel you’ve gone into sugar overload and it’s not thin enough!) Add the bacon bits and stir until well combined. Take a small knife and coat the tops of the cooled cookies with the frosting. Let set 30 min before transporting!
Salted Chocolate ShortbreadI made these cookies over the weekend with the help of a few of my friends. It’s a play on a standard shortbread recipe, and was pretty much totally made up. Because of that, it’s possible that I did it “sub-optimally,” but the result was a darn tasty cookie! For the sea salt, I used three different salts available at Whole Foods in Los Altos, CA. I had to ask the cheese counter for the salts, as that they were not out on the counter. The employee, though, was happy to go to the back and get the six salts available, and portioned out my request (small amounts) with no complaint. I spent about $3 on a tiny amount of salt, but it was well worth it. I used lavender flower, pink large crystal, and smoked sea salts. The lavendar salt went the fastest, but the pink large crystal salt was often commented on as being the tastiest, with the chocolate becoming more pronounced thanks to the salt.
Salted Chocolate Shortbread
Oven 350°F
2 sticks (cups) butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 oz fine unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons of at least one variety of fancy sea salt (large crystals)
Cream the butter with an electric mixer, then add the sugar and vanilla and cream until almost fluffy. Melt the unsweetened chocolate on the stove under low heat, stirring frequently, Remove from heat once it is melted and set aside. Mix the chocolate in with the butter. In another bowl, combine the salt and flour. With a wooden spoon, fold the flour mix into the butter mix. Don’t be afraid to not stir it in completely.
Use wax paper to either roll out the dough into a disk, about 1/2 inch thick or roll 1-2 small cookie logs. Make sure they’re covered with wax paper or plastic wrap. Put these in the refrigerator for at least an hour. After an hour has passed, either use a cookie cutter on the disk, or cut 1/2 in slices of the cookie log and place them on an ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle about two pinches of coarse sea salt on each cookie. You can also use parchment paper on the sheet for easy clean up. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until just a little browned. Cool on a cooling rack and enjoy!
Iron Head Jane 