The Date Night Cookbook - Spaghetti with Creamy Poblano

It’s Date Night Cookbook time again, kind of. Full transparency, this is not my first time making the Spaghetti with Creamy Poblano Sauce I just didn’t document it before. But I’ve gone on a cooking spree making eggplant parm and I’m in deep into cooking so I’ve decided to go with a twist for some of the eggplant that’s leftover. I decided to split the eggplant that I breaded into half regular red sauce and half creamy poblano. Two batches of sauce was well worth it, especially since I used jarred red sauce and because the creamy poblano whips up super quick.

The poblano starts off with charred poblano peppers, surprise! I cut 3 peppers in half, remove the seeds and broil them in my oven for about 5mins until they’re blackened and I start to question if the smell of smokey poblano peppers will set off the fire detector. So far we’re 0 for 2. I put the peppers in a bowl and cover it for 10mins to let them steam so the charred skin is easier to peel off when I’m ready.

While this is going on I boil some spaghetti. Easy.

Then I throw the peppers into my mini food processor with 1/2 cup of sour cream. Now the Fulmer’s go all in and use crème fraîche in their recipe which I tried the first time I made the dish. I’ve switched over to sour cream because it’s cost effective and once it’s mixed in with the rest of the sauce, I can’t tell the difference. Minor changes, in my opinion, but use the real deal if that’s what you’re in to. Once that’s all blended and pretty smooth, I sauté some garlic and I’ve actually started adding in a protein like pancetta or bacon for a more umami, meaty flavor. The original recipe also says to include corn but Caleb isn’t a fan so I leave that out. I think its a good swap with the meat but who says you can’t have it all i that’s what you like. Once the garlic and meat are cooked I carefully add in the poblano mixture and another 1/4-1/2 cup of my sour cream (I honestly just used a whole 8oz container of sour cream so I’m not sitting on a tiny bit of leftover in the fridge and it works out perfectly.) I combine the sauce and stir everything together and let it simmer before adding the pasta and coating it. Season with salt and pepper to taste (this needs a lot of salt because everything is so heavy and fatty but if you’re like me and add in bacon or pancetta be careful!) Then it’s topped with Cotija cheese and paprika. I never have cotija cheese and I don’t want to buy it just to sprinkle on top of this one dish so I skip that part and it’s all good. The sour cream makes the sauce creamy enough for us and I never need more but that’s up to you isn’t it?

On this special occasion I’ve topped my pasta with eggplant parm that I’ve made using some poblano sauce as well and it’s amazing though I can’t say I would put in that effort all the time. Eggplant parm is a PROCESS and I don’t know that I can make that kind of time commitment regularly but this pasta is in the rotation at least once a month for me though I have noticed a shortage of poblano peppers at our grocery store recently. I’m not sure about subbing in a different pepper but we’ll cross that bridge if it comes to it. Until then, creamy poblano sauce is my new favorite creamy sauce to make at home.

The Date Night Cookbook - Italian Shakshuka

I’ve recently gotten the Date Night Cookbook by the Try Guys’ Ned Fulmer and his wife Ariel for Christmas and I decided I would try my hand and one of their recipes. The appeal of this cookbook for me was that Ned and Ariel are just normal people, aka not professional chefs. So, a book of their favorite things to make feels much more doable than someone who cooks food for a living. These recipes feel easier to take on and honestly, i was hopeful that they would be appealing enough to Caleb that I would have ideas for what to cook us for dinner. This isn’t totally the case seeing as Caleb is quite picky but it’s given me a few more things to add to the rotation and some fun desserts I’d like to try and make to get back into cooking.

First up this fine morning, I decided to take on the Italian Shakshuka. I’ve made a Shakshuka before and thought it was fine. I used to see a café on campus in Chicago sold it around breakfast time and I was always intrigued but never got it. So here is my second brush at making a shakshuka and also my second taste at it.

A little unconventional for our breakfasts but I’m down to experiment. Everything in this was in Caleb’s realm too so I did manage to get him to share it with me as well. Score.

The great part of Ned and Ariel’s recipes are that they’re easy and quick. Throw some things together and boom, you’re ready to eat. In this case, you heat some garlic, onion, and chili flakes in a vessel and once it’s fragrant you add 26oz of crushed tomatoes and let simmer. They say to add basil, crack some eggs on top and season with salt. The Fulmers top it with feta and cover it to let the eggs steak for 5mins and it’s ready to go. Easy peasy. We also happened to have some tuscan garlic bread from Wegmans leftover so that was much better than regular white bread to dip in it. The eggs were a little over for us so our stove must run a little hot or I left it on a little too long (I do get a little nervous with baked eggs because they look raw up top but I have to live a little more free here for a better outcome.)

In the end, it was good, but not good enough to crave. It’s an easy dish to make and cooks fast with one dish quickly so I’m a fan of all of that but we’re not huge breakfast people so throwing this into the mix doesn’t seem very likely for us. I would recommend it though, I’m sure for some people, it would fit right into a regular breakfast routine.

FL - Litchi Delights!

We’re back for a limited time to see ALL THE FAMILY! And while we’re here in the Pines, we’re stopping off at Litchi. My cousin loves Litchi. He’s an honorary employee with how often he comes and how much money he spends at this establishment and recently the owners of Litchi Snow Ice have opened their own food spot, Litchi Delights (right down the plaza from their original boba location. So now that I’m here for a visit, we’re going to try out Litchi Delights and see what the fuss is all about

LOCATION: 15973 PINES BLVD PEMBROKE PINES, FL 33028

What really motivated me to come here was the signature foot-long fries!! Nothing screams Emily like a good ole potato and the novelty of a ‘foot long french fry’ is enough for me to make a dedicated stop. I’m sharing today’s snacks with my two cousins from Germany so we can have a little bit of everything and really test out the menu. We’re skipping on the ‘hibachi’ today for the ‘Asian snacks’ and a couple french fry toppings.

We decided to try the takoyaki and the Taiwanese-style popcorn chicken from their ‘Asian snacks’ portion of the menu and a couple of signature foot long fries one order with cheese and the other with their signiature sauce. For whatever reason, they gave us the fries with the sauces and toppings on the side but that’s fine with us. Our full group of 6 can be intimidating at once because we order a lot and it’s easier this way so we didn’t mind dipping instead of having the toppings on, especially since we were new to the fries and didn’t want to commit to the sauces if we didn’t like them.

Honestly, the snacks were alright. The fries were kind of disappointing because they’re quite oily and don’t taste like potatoes, just fry oil. From the way they ate, it seems like they were made into a potato batter/mash and then extruded into the fryer in order to obtain their foot-long length. This makes sense seeing as a potato isn’t typically a foot long in length to cut fries out of but it feels like there was a lack of seasoning in the potato mix at all because they just taste like oily air. The saving grace is that these end up being a vessel for for sauce or cheese but plain, it’s not a great taste. Even dipping it in a generic cheese sauce couldn’t save it and the signature sauce wasn’t anything to write home about. Thankfully, the Taiwanese-style popcorn chicken was seasoned well and flavored nicely as were the takoyaki which I always love getting at places.

In the end, Litchi Delights was a little disappointing, and while the staff and owners are nice and the establishment is clean and friendly, I think I’ll just stick to their bubble tea whenever I come to visit.

Sweet and Saucy Pork Chops

Homemaker Emily is here! Kind of.

I’ve decided to try to do better at cooking new dishes for us to try and add to our weekly rotation. It’s getting hard when all we cook is pasta or rice bowls. I’d like to order out less but that won’t happen unless I get better at meal prepping and planning. It’s not going to be easy at all, especially since Caleb doesn’t like beef or seafood.

This time, I figured I’d try to make Chris Morocco’s sweet and saucy pork chops. It’s a simple recipe with a few ingredients that I mostly had already and didn’t take much prep time in advance. Easy to make after a full day at work. This is adulting.

Chris also has a youtube video on Bon Appetit’s channel which is always helpful and encouraging to have just as a reference while cooking. I’ve had pork chops often growing up but they’re tricky for me to cook without drying out. They aren’t terribly fatty which is also good because Caleb doesn’t like the texture of fat and gets weirded out by bone-in meat sometimes so a boneless chop worked for this recipe and felt doable. I did deviate and left out the capers and rosemary just due to sheer laziness and I didn’t want to buy either and have so much leftover that wouldn’t get used again. Less waste but I’m sure this led to less flavor as well. A sacrifice I deemed acceptable. There’s still shallots, garlic, and red wine vinegar for a flavorful enough sauce that I felt confident about making my adjustments.

Overall, the recipe was easy to follow, it went well with some (pre-made) mashed potatoes, baked zucchini, and the timing of it all was quick. Everything came together well and the flavors worked. I really enjoyed the flavors of the red wine vinegar with the shallots and garlic, the pork was simple enough to cook following Chris’ directs, and I felt I was careful to not overcook it.

Unfortunately, Caleb wasn’t a huge fan and pork chops overall throw him off with their texture. So, while the flavor was good and would eat again, it’s a no-go on pork chops moving forward. I tried. It’s been a few attempts and none of them have been successful so while I like this recipe, I’ll have to keep testing other options. However, I would recommend this to other people to try. It’s pretty tasty and easy to make for sure.

CORT - Wild Ginger Asian Fusion

I’ve been watching too much food TV and too many youtube videos with people eating sushi because I’ve been craving it so often lately. I decided to splurge today too and get a super fancy roll because I deserve it.

LOCATION: 47 MAIN ST., CORTLAND, NY, 13045

Enter the special Yummy Yummy Roll at Wild Ginger Asian Fusion. I’ve seen this special on their specials board every time I walk inside to pick up my order but I finally noticed it online when I was ordering. The Yummy Yummy roll is lobster tempura, avocado, crab wrapped in soy paper topped with fresh mango. No surprise that it’s an $18 roll so this was a very special day and the only thing I ordered. Usually, I add shrimp nigiri to my orders to bump up the price and make it worth ordering online for me and for the restaurant but this was all on its own.

I was a little worried about the quantity I would be getting and assumed the lobster was the big price and it would only get 6 or so pieces. I was happily surprised.

I actually ate half of my order then took the photo so there’d be a cross-section to see what’s inside so this was a full 12pc order. 12pcs is definitely enough for me especially since these pieces were actually very very large (more of a two-bite situation for me per piece.)

Overall, it tasted great. I was nervous about the mango being too overpowering but they were actually great and it was a well-balanced piece. I will say, that while it was a solid quantity of sushi and it tasted good, I wouldn’t get it again. The flavors were good but not $18 worth, in my opinion. Lobster doesn’t add too much to the flavor and isn’t worth the cost in this instance. The mango added more to it than the lobster did and I just wouldn’t ever crave this flavor. Worth the try once, just to end the wondering if it’s good.