In the kitchen: road trip hand pies.

When we're on the road from MKE to MN, I'm usually in such a "let's get home as fast as we can" zone that there's hardly anything that will make me stop...excluding some necessary coffee needs every now and then. Stopping somewhere for food is definitely not worth it to us, especially since these little hand pies are so easy to make. And, as an added bonus, we use up any leftovers before leaving for a few days; this makes the recipe really cost effective because you're using what you've already made. Plus-plus!

Hand Pies For the Road. 

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Shortcrust dough, via Gordon Ramsey's Great British Pub Food. 

400 grams plain flour

1/2 tsp. fine sea salt

200 grams cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

3-4 Tbsp. ice water

Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the cold butter. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter pieces until the mixture looks like coarse bread crumbs. 

Add in ice water and mix with a fork, just until dough comes together. If it seems dry, add a bit more water, but don't make the dough too wet. 

Lightly flour a work surface, and gently knead the dough into a ball. Wrap in plastic and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before rolling it out for the pasties. 

Ingredients to make 5 pasties***

3 medium potatoes, such as Yukon gold, peeled

1 large sweet onion

3 carrots, peeled

Leftover chicken or pork, about 2/3 cup shredded meat 

1 Tbsp. grainy mustard

Olive oil 

Salt, pepper 

1 egg, lightly beaten 

***I saved time the morning of our trip home last week by just cooking together the leftover potatoes, carrots, and pork shoulder Andrew had made for dinner the previous night. It really doesn't matter what filling you use for the pies - use anything you have on hand! 

Dice the potatoes, carrots, and onion into equally sized pieces. 

Heat olive oil in pan over medium heat, add vegetables and cook 5-8 minutes until tender. Add the chicken pieces and cook to warm through. Add in mustard, and season with plenty of salt and pepper. 

Preheat oven to 425. Roll out dough into 5 rounds to fit 3.5 inch baking dishes; leave an inch of overhang. Fill pasties with cooked filling, adding a bit more salt to each. Pinch overhang to seal, and brush with beaten egg. 

Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown. 

And of course, as per any car trip, store in Tupperware containers and get ready to hit the road! 

In the kitchen: roast pork loin with bacon and Comté cheese.

I've said it before, and I'll say it plenty more times: I have a fantastic husband. Not only is he extremely dedicated to his work and research, he's also a fantastic cook (I like him for other reasons, too, but for now, these praises suffice). This Sunday, after a long day of research, grading, and writing, he whipped up this for dinner.

Yes, that is pig, on pig (on pig). The kitchen smelled amazing as I walked into our apartment after spending Sunday at work. Andrew put his own spin on it by cooking the pork in the sous vide (see here for more), which ensured it wouldn't dry out, but the recipe below just requires regular roasting. As there are only two of us, this recipe left plenty (read, PLENTY) of leftovers, but I think it'd be great for a family get-together, too; maybe a pre-Thanksgiving dinner party?

Roast Pork Loin with Bacon and Comté Cheese, adapted from Stephane Reynaud's Rotis.** 

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2 lb, 12 oz. pork loin

4 tablespoons olive oil

6 sweet onions, peeled and sliced into rings

6 slices of bacon; cook until crisp and set aside. 

7 oz. Comté (or Gruyere) cheese, sliced

4 green onions, finely chopped. 

Preheat oven to 350 F. 

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a non-stick frying pan until lightly golden. 

Heat remaining olive oil in a roasting pan. Add the pork and brown on all sides over high heat. Once all sides are browned, roast pork in the oven for 1 hour, 20 minutes, basting it with its juices. 

Remove roast from the oven, let rest for about 5 minutes. Make 6 cuts about 2/3rds of the way through the roast; in each, place some fried onions, a slice of bacon, and a slice of cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then return to the oven for another 10 minutes to melt the cheese. Sprinkle with green onions. 

**This book is fantastic. Roasts are really easy (and generally quite hands off), but for some reason I find lot of people are intimidated by them. Rotis is the perfect cookbook to help you break out of that. And besides, who wouldn't want to make their home smell like a French kitchen? 

Five things.

{via}

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My mom and sister went to the best apple orchard in MN today. Who's jealous? Moi.  What I would give for a turnover with cinnamon ice cream...

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Today is the first day that it hasn't felt HOT outside. There's an actual chill in the air this afternoon.  While I'm ready for the weather to change over from 90 degrees and humid to something much more pleasant, I'm sad, too, which is strange for me since I love fall! This summer was beautiful, in every sense of the word, even if we did have to turn the bedroom into a makeshift kitchen to survive the heat (that actually happened). The changing season is already making me miss all the wonderful adventures of summertime. 

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I finished writing our thank-you notes to all our friends and family last night. I already knew this, and have said it before, but we really do have THE BEST group of friends and the most generous families. Just rereading all the lovely cards put a huge smile on my face. I'm a sucker for all kinds of stationery, even blank cards with puppies on the cover with a quick but heartfelt note inside...so everyone's messages and good wishes made my day. 

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I made this for dinner the other night. So, so good, probably the best thing that's happened to cauliflower yet. Ms. Izard does not disappoint. For proof, see here...and here, and here. 

-------5-------

The X-Factor is back. It's one of my guilty pleasures since...last year. We were hooked last fall, probably because it was one of the few things on non-cable tv that we didn't hate watching. It took a bit of adjusting to get used to being limited to 6 channels, though we're doing just fine now...thanks to Netflix, Hulu, etc. But really, I don't know why I like this show - it's basically the same as American Idol and America's Got Talent, which I don't watch at all. Andrew put it well last night, tweeting this: 

Watching #XFactor is like listening to this. You can't help but enjoy it even if you know you should be hating it.

Michael Jackson - Will You Be There - Version Free Willy - [HQ]

Saturday Post No. 7

I had to snap this photo at a work outing last evening. I need some Hennepin. Two weeks to go. 

Don't have plans this evening? Need something to do while your freshly-baked paska is cooling? Go see my Ukes dance at Festival of Nations at the St. Paul RiverCentre! Three of our groups are dancing throughout the day and into tonight, and would love to have your support in the audience. 

After weeks of searching, we finally found ramps this morning. Andrew was like a kid in a candy store at Whole Foods and is now scouring the web for the best recipes to highlight this springtime treat; our favorites so far include ramp pesto and zucchini with ramp aioli. Stay tuned for results later this week, if we can control ourselves long enough to take a photo. 

Hello, sunshine!

The only thing that is making studying bearable today is the amount of sunshine that's streaming in from the living room windows. Can it be that springtime is trying to make its way to MKE?  

I have to take a bit of a blogging hiatus because the next several days have to be devoted to full time studying. In just about two weeks, I'll be on my way back from Madison, ready to celebrate being done with another bar exam...we should start stocking up on wine now in order to adequately prepare for that. 

On tonight's menu: shrimp étouffée with red beans and rice, very appropriate for Mardi Gras! The kitchen smells so good because we did a lot of our prep work earlier, when Andrew was back home on a break before heading back to campus for class tonight. 

Now I just have to make it through a few more hours of studying before dinner, then it's back to the note cards and outlines yet again...

But if you're looking for something fun to watch for a few minutes (which I inevitably am, after every few pages of notes!), check out Paperman, one of the animated short's that's nominated for an Oscar this year. It's a sweet and lovely distraction.

Back in the kitchen.

Actually, it's not like we really left the kitchen, because we spent so much time cooking at home in Minneapolis...but now, it's back to reality and we're in MKE after a long, wonderful, and amazing time in MN. It's been a while since my last post, but it was better to do things at home than to write about them. 

There's no way to describe what an incredible time we had with our families. We loved every second; it really was the best Christmas/birthday gift I could ask for (and, a bonus, we were home for my sister's birthday, too!!). If a picture is worth a thousand words...here are some ten thousand, all in photo form: 

Plenty of cooking, just a bit of dress up and dancing, and lots of love. Home is the best. 

For the kitchen: herbs.

Cooking with fresh herbs brings dishes to a completely different level, one that's bright, vibrant, and full of flavor. I'd love to be able to bring in bunches of fresh rosemary, thyme, basil from outside to use in my kitchen...but unless you have your own garden this likely is a bit of a luxury (actually, it's a near impossibility if you rent, like us, and have no private outside space). For now, we improvise, wrapping up fresh herbs that we bring home from the store with wet paper towels and then sealing them in individual plastic bags; they'll keep in the fridge a surprisingly long time that way. But just for fun, here are some inspirational photos to get you growing (hah!) inside your kitchens.

 Photos via: Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel, and apartmenttherapy.com

Happy Taco Day!

Apparently October 4th is National Taco Day. We played along, and made fish tacos for dinner, following the Sussman brothers' cookbook. Super easy, delicious, and fast! We topped them with a jalapeno coleslaw, a yogurt and lemon sauce, and tomatillo salsa, all homemade (and, coincidentally, all adapted from the Sussmans!).

Have a wonderful dinner, make some tacos!

A lovely visit.

On Tuesday, my mom came to visit us! She wasn't able to come with us when we moved, so it was wonderful to have her here for the last several days. We were happy to introduce her to Shorewood and Milwaukee, and it was great to be able to cook, chat, go for walks, and catch up together.

I'll write more over the next few days, as I was on a blogging hiatus during the visit. We had so much fun exploring our little neighborhood, cooking up different recipes, and taking photos along the way. Even though we're still new to the city, I think we did a good job of playing MKE tour-guides. 

It has been a lovely week, the perfect way to end September and usher in beautiful October. The leaves on the trees in our part of Shorewood are all turning shades of gold, bright orange, and deep red (MN Gopher colors!); I love this time of year! 

Have a wonderful start to your weekend, friends! 

Going vegetarian...for tonight.

For dinner tonight, our dishes were all vegetarian. Now, this is by no means an everyday occurrence, as some of our absolute all-time favorite dishes involve meat (and lots of it). Our families know from experience that most of our hosted family dinners center around pork shoulder or some other sort of slow-roasted meat. We didn't consciously decide that we were going to "be vegetarians" tonight, but it just so happened that every recipe that stood out to us called for vegetables, not meat. 

On the menu: 

Broccoli and leek pie, from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty.

Apple and ginger chutney, from Max and Eli Sussman's This is a Cookbook: Recipes for Real Life (we first saw this new cookbook highlighted on Smith and Ratliff and can't wait to try out more recipes!). 

Zucchini and hazelnut salad, also from Ottolenghi. 

All so fresh, flavorful, and (relatively) healthy...except for that pie, which definitely wasn't healthy, but it tasted so, so good. And honestly, we didn't miss the meat at all. There are some all-veg dishes that taste fine, but leave you wanting something heartier. All three tonight were completely satisfying. We've felt that way about most of the dishes we've tried in Plenty, a really great book that proves vegetarian cooking can be exciting and creative (the eggplant croquettes are a personal favorite). And I can't wait to try more of the Sussman brothers' recipes after flipping through their book; I'm especially looking forward to the s'mores with maple-bourbon marshmallows...maybe this weekend?!? 

What are your thoughts on vegetarian cooking? Love it? Hate it? Give Plenty a try - we promise you won't be disappointed! 

~N.

From the kitchen.

Welcome to our new blog, Milwaukee Kukhnya! Kukhnya (or кухня) means "kitchen" in Ukrainian.

Growing up, the kitchen was the most central room in our house, the first room we would enter when we came home (we hardly used the front door, which opens to the living room, when we were younger). My mom has told me that the kitchen was one of the main reasons she and my dad fell in love with our house when they bought it. With plenty of counter space, cabinets, and room for a dinner table, it was the perfect size for just about everything, from a quick meal between school and dance practice to a traditional Ukrainian 12-course Christmas Eve supper.

Sviat Vechir - Ukrainian Christmas Eve, 2012: mom, me, and my sister.

I liked to cook at home when I was younger but it was only after I moved out that I began to experiment with cooking on my own...actually, it was after Andrew and I met and started dating. Yes, I will admit that there was a time, in college, that we didn't care so much about cooking our own food. However, in an effort to get healthy, save money, and learn more about different cuisines, we started to cook for ourselves. The kitchen in our first apartment was small, tiny compared to mine at my house, but as my mom said, it kept us close. Literally. We didn't have space for more than two, maybe three people to stand in that kitchen at the same time. Despite its small size and galley-style limitations, we learned so much about food and cooking in that kitchen. We discovered that the smoke alarm will go off once, twice, perhaps three times when baking; that, yes, there was space for a sous vide machine on our counter (more on this later!); that mise en place is essential in any kitchen, but especially in a small one; and that slow-roasting a pork shoulder for the entire day creates one of the best meals we could share with our family and friends.

Thanksgiving, 2011

From our quiet Christmas Eves to Thanksgiving dinner for 10, our kitchen in our first apartment has been the center of many happy gatherings. Fast forward to now, the end of August, 2012. We just moved from Minneapolis to Milwaukee for Andrew to start his PhD program in English at UWM. We have a new apartment, a bigger kitchen, and a separate dining room! While we're excited about this new journey, we will miss our friends and family dearly, and especially the family dinners that we have grown to cherish. 

Andrew in our new kitchen!

That's why this blog is going to be centered around the kitchen, for a kitchen is more that just the place where food is prepared. It's the heart of a home, a place to share, experiment, and create together. This blog, our "kukhnya", will be our virtual gathering place with all our friends and family back home. We'll share our days with you, let you know about the cool restaurants we're discovering, and fill you in on our adventures as we explore this new city. Leave your comments and ideas, let us know what you're up to. We hope you visit often (both the blog and us in Milwaukee!), and we can't wait to welcome you to our new home.

~N.