Sun Noodle Ramen Kits

RAMEN!!! I love ramen. Ever since I had my first taste at Toki Underground, I’ve been hooked. It changed my whole outlook. I should have known there was a non instant version that I was missing out on. But that was ALL I knew. My friend Lorri in NYC shipped me a bunch of ramen kits by Sun Noodle and I’m obsessed.

The kit comes with two individually wrapped servings of fresh noodles and a pack of tare that you dilute in hot water. The rest is up to you!

I can only eat cooked sprouts, but lucky me, these sprouts for the ramen are cooked. I made a sauce that was sesame oil, black pepper, soy sauce to taste.

Dropped in some sprouts into boiling hot water for a minute. Then drained.

Tossed it into the sauce and added some green onion and called it a day. This is probably something I made up, but it worked with the soup!

I went to the local asian market, and picked up slices of char siu and crispy pig. I blanched some chinese broccoli. I also cooked a can of bamboo shoots, stirred them in some chili oil, sesame oil, oyster sauce and soy sauce. I also sliced up a sheet of seaweed and boiled a couple of eggs (since I can’t eat them poached or soft boiled).

I also picked up a jar of pickled red ginger. And put the bowls together how I wanted it. ALMOST PROFESSIONAL RIGHT?

I used a tonkatsu broth for mine. OMG SO GOOD. MY FAVORITE.

He and my friend Anna both went for the spicy sesame. They both said it was one of the best ramen they’ve had. AND IT WAS INSTANT at HOME. Ok, I did fancy it up a bit with extra ingredients, but restaurant quality noodles and soup at home was just super amazing to me. I’ve got a couple of these in my freezer in case I wanna do another ramen night.

THANK YOU SO MUCH LORRI for introducing me to these. My life is changed again, by ramen.

Posted on January 28, 2015 by miemo 0

Loco Moco

I’m not Hawaiian. But I wish I was. They live the good life. Even though it’s pretty expensive to live there, from my understanding you don’t need much. Sometimes I crave Hawaiian food, but can’t find anywhere around here to satiate my hunger, so I have to figure it out myself. There was a Hawaiian themed bar I tried out, they failed horribly. Never again. Any whoo. I found this recipe on Food Republic. I of course didn’t follow it to the T and ended up with a not so wet gravy, but it was good all the same.

Wash it down with some pog and you are good to go!

Posted on January 26, 2015 by miemo 0

Smash Cake

One of our dear friends, Kam, turned 30 last week. And our friends Jason and Deanna decided to give him a smash cake, as well as some hulk hands to complete the job. Best.Idea.Ever. They baked him a cake layered 4 stacks high specifically for this occasion. Prior to this, we went out on a triple dinner date (CFF= Couple Friends Forever) and its always a good time. I am so thankful to have my friends, and our husbands all get along. After smashing one cake, we ate another. We love you Kam!

A video posted by Miemo (@miemonster) on Jan 10, 2015 at 5:37pm PST

Posted on January 14, 2015 by miemo 0

Corn Pancakes

I remember when IHOP used to have corn pancakes. I really loved them. It was like almost like corn bread but in a pancake form (and I love corn bread!). Then one day, they decided to break our hearts and take them away with no explanation (maybe there was an explanation but I didn’t look it up). Anywho, I stumbled across a copycat recipe and YAY, something to satisfy my craving.

Mix corn meal, flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder.

In another larger bowl, eggs, and sugar.

Then add buttermilk, whole milk and melted butter.

Add dry ingredients to wet.

Then let the batter sit for a little bit, while you prep your pan.

Heat up some butter in a skillet or griddle.

THEN ENJOY!

Corn Pancakes
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup butter, melted
butter for cooking

Directions
Combine the first 5 ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside. In a large bowl whisk together eggs and sugar until well combined. Mix in milk, buttermilk, and melted butter. Slowly mix in dry ingredients to wet ingredients until well mixed. Let batter sit for at least 10 minutes.

Heat a skillet or griddle to medium low heat. Add butter to coat the pan. Spoon batter into pan and cook pancakes until golden on each side.

Posted on January 12, 2015 by miemo 0

Dog Birthday Cake

I love my pup. A lot. He’s my furchild. You can make fun of me if you want, but I threw Bawse a birthday party this year. It will be the last year that he’s an only child, and hes a lot calmer now so we can have dogs in our tiny space without much destruction.

He had his buddies come over, we took them to run around in a park, then came back to cake and ice cream.

Here’s how I made his pup friendly cake!

Mix whole wheat, oats, and baking powder in one bowl.

Pumpkin, eggs, natural peanut better and vanilla extract in another.

Then mix THAT together.

And bake!

Cream cheese, yogurt, and honey.

Mix til smooth.

Decorate with milk bones!

I didn’t want the extra cake to go to waste after I trimmed it flat, so I made cake balls!

Bawse’s Birthday Cake
Ingredients
3 ½ cups whole wheat flour
½ cup oats
1 tbsp baking powder
2 ½ cups water
½ of 15 oz can of pumpkin puree
1 egg lightly beaten
½ tsp vanilla extract
Mini Milkbones for decoration

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F. In a medium bowl mix flour, oats and baking powder together. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix water, pumpkin, egg, peanut butter and vanilla until well mixed. Stir dry ingredients into wet, until thoroughly mixed. Scoop into non stick cake pans. Bake until center sets about 45 minutes.

Cool completely. Remove from cake pan. Frost and decorate.

Frosting
8 oz low fat cream cheese, room temperature
2 tbsp plain yogurt
1 tbsp honey

Directions:
Mix until smooth, spread on cake!

Posted on January 9, 2015 by miemo 0

Spam Musubi

I have my moments, where I miss the sunny days spent in Hawaii a few years ago for my birthday. And now being pregnant, I crave things even stronger than I did before. My husband gave me a spam musubi mold, so I was like. HECK YES. I have to use it right?

I gathered all my ingredients. Cooked 3 cups of sushi rice, sliced up a can of spam, nori furikake (rice seasoning), and cut sheets of roasted seaweed.

You want to make sure you have all your ingredients ready before you cook the spam. I cut the seaweed in half, and cooked the rice and pulled it out of the cooker to cook a little so it wouldn’t stay too wet. Mix the sugar and soy sauce.

Cook the spam in it until crispy and caramelized.

Spam Musubi
Ingredients:
3 cups of uncooked sushi rice, cooked
1 can of low sodium Spam, cut into 10 even slices
4 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp sugar
5 sheets of seaweed, cut in half to make 10
Furikake

Directions:
Cook the rice. After it is done cooking, take it off of heat, stir and set aside to cool. Cook spam in a non stick pan in the soy sauce until caramelized and crispy. Place a musubi press on the center of a half sheet of nori. Take desired amount of rice and scoop into press. Press to pack tightly. Sprinkle furikake to taste. Top with a slice of spam. Press through and wrap.

This is just one way to do it! You can add egg, less seaweed, the possibilities are endless. There are even different flavors of spam to experiment with. Once you get the basics down, you are good to go!

Posted on January 7, 2015 by miemo 0

Comfort Food: Chicken and Rice Soup

When I’m sick, I’m a big baby, BIG baby. And when my mom was still alive, no matter how old I got, if I was sick, I could always go to her and she’d make me some of her magic maman soup and everything would be better. Then I would take a nap and feel better. Now that she’s gone, I’m forced to make it myself. It doesn’t have the same touch as love from my mom, but it still does make me feel comforted.

Start off with some bone in, whole chicken pieces. Thighs or breast, your preference. Salt, lemon grass and ginger. THAT’S IT. Bring to a boil and let simmer until chicken is cooked. Remove the chicken, then scoop up all the fat and gunk at the top.

Then add rice to the broth, cook until rice is tender.

Mix in shredded chicken pieces. And serve with your favorite toppings! I like chili oil, white pepper and sometimes a little green onion and cilantro.

Since this is made with love, I didn’t really keep track of how much what, in where. This is definitely going into my cook book, once I start keeping track of measurements. If you want to try it out yourself, feel free to contact me (twitter, facebook, IG), and I’ll try to help you out!

Posted on January 5, 2015 by miemo 0

Shrimp Etouffee

Maybe you knew, maybe you didn’t know. But my family has Louisiana roots. My love for cajun food, and mardi gras is probably apparent. One of my favorite dishes is etouffee. I can’t eat it often because its so buttery and delicious that it can’t possible be good for you right? I don’t make mine with roux. I only use that for gumbo. It’s pretty time consuming for me.

The base of many if not all cajun dishes. The holy trinity, celery, onion and green bell peppers.

Butter. Always butter.

Smother the veggies until tender.

Add your shellfish and garlic. Season.

Add water and flour. Check the seasoning again, season to taste!

Stir in parsley and green onions, turn off heat.

Mama Miemo’s Etouffee

Ingredients

1 ½ stick of butter

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 lbs of peeled, deveined shrimp, or crawfish tails with fat

1 tbsp all purpose flour

2 stalks of green onions, sliced thinly

¼ cup parsley, minced

Cajun Seasoning, black pepper, cayenne pepper, to taste

Directions:

In a heavy bottom pot with a lid, melt down butter. Add onions and sautee until clear. Add green bell pepper and celery. Cover, stirring occasionally until golden. Add shrimp and garlic. Stir until shrimp is pink. Whisk 1 cup of water with one tablespoon of all purpose flour until well blended. Add to pot, stir and add seasoning. Bring to simmer. Continue to season to taste. When sauce thickens up to a gravy consistency, add parsley and green onion. Stir, cover and turn off heat. Serve over rice.

Posted on December 10, 2014 by miemo 0

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I used to eat only boxed mashed potatoes. Gasp, I know. But that’s how my mom made them for Thanksgiving. I never really grasped the concept of making mashed potatoes from actual potatoes. Then one year, I stored my mashed potatoes in the same bin as my dryer sheets when I moved. And when it was time to eat mashed potatoes…they tasted like my dryer sheets.

I am scarred for life.

I learned how to make mashed potatoes from real potatoes. It was a lot easier than I expected. And again I have no recipe.

First I take a whole bulb of garlic. Slice off the top, drizzle olive oil over and in it. Wrap it in foil and throw it in the oven. Whenever I eat mashed potatoes, it is usually with a roasted dish, so at the point it’s already on.

Peel and cube the potatoes. I think I used about 4 russets. Then cover with cold water and salt. Boil until fork tender. After those are done cooking, I drain them and set aside. In a small sauce pan I heat up a little cream, then peel the roasted garlic and then toss them into the pot. I let them infuse until bubbling but not boiling.

After the potatoes are drained, I put them back in the pot, and using a potato masher I mash it with butter (to taste) and add the garlic and a little bit of cream at a time until its the preferred texture. Here you can mash and add salt and pepper to taste as well!

Sorry I don’t have a recipe. I hoping it will be intuitive enough. If not, I’m sure there’s plenty of recipes to follow, like this one!

Posted on December 8, 2014 by miemo 0

Brunch: Farmers Fishers Bakers

Looking for a brunch place in Georgetown? Check out Farmers Fishers Bakers. A couple of friends visited from NYC and their go to spot in DC is this place for brunch. That means a lot coming from a couple of foodies that LIVE in one of the best culinary cities in America. They asked us to join, and hello, I love brunch, I couldn’t say no.

The husband HATES looking for parking in the city, but lucky me, he will take us here again (because it is that good) because they have a paid parking garage available. He doesn’t care the cost, as long as he doesn’t have to scrape rims on the city sidewalks.

The food is fresh, hot and delicious. There is definitely something for everyone. I like that they bring the the breads to the table, as well as passed dishes like eggs benedicts and fried shrimp. And what’s even better? All this quality food, at a buffet brunch price of $29.99.

They’ve got grilled veggies, make your own nachos, a plethora of desserts, hot meats, friend chicken, french toast. SO much food.

Did I mention, the cinnamon buns are amazing? Yes. And they come out hot and gooey.

So who wants to go to brunch?

Farmers Fishers Bakers
3000 K Street NW
Washington, DC 20007

Posted on December 5, 2014 by miemo 0

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