Chili & Chives

I was stuffed. Talal was stuffed. The pork chop was stuffed. On my drive over to Talal's from BMC, I brainstormed dinner menus. I decided on a warm, hearty meal. I started with white cheddar polenta and builded up. I sauteed carrots and pearl onions with some red wine, butter, salt and olive oil. Layer #3 was wilted spinach with lots of garlic. Last, but not least, I stuffed a boneless pork chop with prosciutto, tarragon and more of the cheddar. It was such a big meal, that I

While Mommy was in Lebanon, Tina and I decided we want to throw a Surprise Champagne Party for her in honor of her book. We never had the chance to truly celebrate because she went to Florida and Lebanon almost immediately after. We texted Tante Hala and made sure she was free and it went full-speed from there. Tina and I immediately built the menu, where we started with an Italian twist - caprese skewers, fresh bread, arancini. I kept going back and forth until Tina finally

To keep the surprise, the plan was 1) buy the groceries on Saturday and hide the champagne, 2) to go to Yasmeen's on Saturday to prepare all the desserts and 3) to send Mommy & Daddy to the Galleria while we cooked. Even though mommy didn't suspect a thing, she was everywhere she shouldn't have been ;). A few hours before we went to Pearland, Tina and I made the Rugelah dough because it needs 4 hours in the fridge. We forgot the dough at home and had to remake it at Yasmeen's

Today, I had my last potluck with the SEI Team. As always, I wanted to make something special. Originally, I wanted to make a creamy pasta and start creating my own mac & cheese. However, inspiration didn't strike. So, back to the drawing board. I didn't have to look too far because my Possibilities page gave me an option. Potstickers. Of course, I decided this at 10pm. Tina and I went to HEB late at night and bought the items. We were among the very few at the store and we b

I woke up and headed downstairs. Daddy asked me to drive him to Starbucks to go buy coffee. It turned out to be a huge trip. I was low on gas, so we stopped at Shell. The myrtles had made my car all sticky and icky, so we stopped at Mister Car Wash. My tire pressure light was on, so we dropped next door to get the tires filled. Then the guy told us there was a nail in my tire, so we drove to Discount Tire. Daddy wanted me to get a matching tire, so we went to the other Discou

Many years ago, mommy and I were home alone for a couple nights. Tina and Daddy were both away. I can't quite remember when or how long ago, but Mommy and I remember making and eating a delicous dinner. We never wrote it down. The only thing we could agree on is that it had pasta and eggplant. I called mommy on my way to my Adobe Illustrator class at UH. She remembered the pasta and we decided to make it. I grabbed some things from the store and came home. Mommy had started t

Mommy had her turn to make something yummy. Now it was my turn. I wanted to make something from my possibilities list, the plum fruit leather. It was an extrememly simple recipe, but it was an exercise in patience. I roasted the plums in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. I added them with sugar and Chambord to the food processor. I poored it onto the Silpat and let it bake at 170 degrees with the oven cracked open to dry it out, but to avoid baking. It only took about S

I planned a whole day out for Father's Day. We started with Fooul, then went to watch Secret Ocean 3D at the IMAX, cards at the Marriott, and finished by grilling some seafood for dinner. We grilled shrimp (coated in the homemade habanero hot sauce), salmon (coated in Paul Prudhomme's salmon seasoning, Cayenne pepper and Oregano) and lobster tails. We didn't do anything absurdly unique to the food, but we spent the day building up to the delicious food. It was an awesome day!

I woke up on Wednesday after Tropical Storm Bill. It didn't rain. It didn't flood, but hey, who said meteorology was an exact science. Despite the lack of drama, the whole family stayed home. Per usual, mother and father had their coffee and Tina was still sleeping. I wanted protein. I pulled out the eggs and Daddy suggested adding heavy cream. For some complexity. I sauteed onions. I sliced the spicy Spanish Chorizo and threw them in the pan with the onions. The color turned

Step 1: Decide you want to make Coq Au Vin. Step 2: Wait a few months to have an open bottle of red wine. Step 3: Buy pancetta, mushrooms, carrots, bone-In Chicken, a bunch of Thyme, and pearl onions. Step 4: Fry pancetta in Dutch Oven and put aside. Step 5: Crisp both sides of each piece of chicken, set aside. Step 6: Cook the carrots and pearl onions. Once nearly done, add garlic. Step 7: Strike a match and pour Bourbon with the vegetables and light it up. Step 8: Add every

Today, I made Makloubeh at home. From what mommy told me, the dish only has eggplant, but I vaguely remember eating the dish at Tante Nouha's having matchstick carrots and cauliflower. I decided to tackle this beast. I started with weeping over one & a half onions. Once they took their time and caramelized, I added ground beef and Teta's 7-spice blend. After the meat got crunchy (Daddy's words-not mine), I added a cup of rice, 2 cups of water, chicken boullion, salt and peppe

For Tina's birthday, I got her a Myabi Offsett Bread Knife. I know I have a minor obsession with knives, but it was Tina's turn. Gift #2 was a beautiful, red-enameled pizza stone, using the logic of Jim Lahey's Bread Book. As always, our goal was to make the pizza crispy, which has not yet worked for us. We heated the stone at 500 degrees, pulled it out, placed the cornmeal, dough and toppings and baked for around 10 minutes on high broil. It was an intense operation, althou

A Friday at home can be pretty boring. Luckily, Tina kept me company. What can we do... We decided on baking. I looked through some of our cookbooks. I chose the Lemon-Currant Scones. I had no currants, so I used craisins and golden raisins. I had no heavy cream, so I used buttermilk and whole milk. I had no clue how to make scones. From what I saw, the recipe resembled buttermilk biscuits. They weren't very sweet, so we created a glaze from scratch. Fresh and warm with a sw

Maybe it's a Suki thing, but when I get going in the kitchen, I tend to spend my whole day there. After the scones and the pizza, we had about an hour 'til Sandra was meeting us to go to Pinot's. Just enough time for me to flip through a cookbook - even when I wasn't planning to make anything - and pick something to make (which we happened to have all of the ingredients for). There was a Hazelnut Brittle in a Food & Wine Cookbook. Despite all the dishes we used and washed, I

Tina and I had some friends over for a BBQ. We made a punch by blending a watermelon and put it through a sieve to remove the pulp. We added Simply Limeade and Citron Vodka. Since it was a hot day, we made an Ice Ring. Well actually, we just wanted to try it out. We froze Margarita mix with thin slices of key limes, mint, and orange zest. After letting it sit over night, it was ripe for the punch! At Home With Tina and the buddies #punch #homemade #limes #summer

I spent 2 years with this group of people. We spent hours together; day in and day out. We've cried together. Laughed together. Goofed off together. So much has happened over that time. I've grown tremendously, because they've pushed me to be better and work harder than I ever thought I was capabale of. To commemorate this amazing experience, I invited the group to dinner. Who would have thought that they would almost all be in attendance?! Professor Le Bon couldn't make it a

There is one item that was on my Possibilities page before I even had a blog. It was the Silpat. Virtually nothing sticks to it. Cheese, Fruits, Caramel. Talal treated me to a surprise cooking class at Sur La Table in River Oaks. I was the most advanced attendee in the class, but it was still a nice, easy going lunch. We learned how to make eggplant caponata bruschetta, cheese-stuffed arancini (deep-fried risotto balls; pronounce aranchini), seafood pasta with white wine and

After a long day, I just needed to unwind. I got a neon pink mani & pedi. Then, I grabbed a pear soda at Central Market. After sweating for nearly 3 hours in the Houston heat, I went to Kroger for dinner ingredients. Like many time when I cook an impromptu meal, I went through a long thought process. It started with fried rice & and asian-inspired salmon, but I wanted something healthy. What if I subsitituted rice for quinoa? Well, who wants quinoa fried rice? Salmon.. I had