Twice Baked Potatoes with Pancetta and Irish Cheddar

This recipe came about when I was walking the aisles at Whole Foods. I passed the cheese section and picked up some Dubliner Cheddar. Then I saw some pancetta nearby and put that in my cart. Determined to come up with a dinner idea using these two ingredients I decided on twice baked potatoes. For this dinner though I was just going to come up with my own instead of finding an official recipe.

Twice Baked Potatoes with Pancetta and Irish Cheddar
Serves 3-6

Ingredients:

3 russet potatoes, washed and dried
3.5 oz Irish Cheddar cheese, freshly grated
6 slices pancetta, cooked (I fried up mine on the stove)
3T heavy cream
2 T. unsalted butter, + a smidgen more
salt and pepper to taste

1). Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place potatoes in oven and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, pierce potatoes and return to oven. Bake until tender

2). When cool enough to handle (or you could use a towel) cut the potatoes in half and scoop out the inside. Be sure to leave a rim so the potato skins don't tear.

3). Mash potato filling with a fork. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add butter and combine. Add heavy cream and combine. Add pancetta and cheese. Stir entire mixture so that the pancetta and cheese are equally distributed.

4). Return filling to potato skins. Top each potato half with a smidge more butter.

5). Place potato halves on a cooking sheet lined with aluminum foil and a thin layer of olive oil. Return to oven until warmed through.







Delicious!

First Time

First time using the KitchenAid:



The recipe is here

And now mascarpone cheese is my new favorite thing.

My New Favorite Thing

I am in Love

Nam Nam Cafe

Since moving back to Louisville I have been making a list of new restaurants I want to try and ones that have been open for a while that I never got around to trying. Last Thursday I decided to try and new place that I read about in a local magazine, Nam Nam Cafe.

It is located in Saint Matthews and is in a rather small building. When I got there it was still relatively early (5:45pm) and not crowded. I took advantage of the carry-out option and my food was ready in about 5 minutes.

I got the Vermicelli Bowl (Bun Thit Nuong) with Lemongrass tofu. They also offer chicken, pork, beef and shrimp. In addition to this I got a side of Imperial Roll as well.



The sauce it came with was Nuoc Mam (fish sauce) which was delicious. The food was delicious and with very generous portions.

Another thing I liked was that Nam Nam uses local products when they are available.

Nam Nam Cafe
318 Wallace Avenue
Louisville, KY 40207

Best Laid Plans

This past weekend my dad and I had great plans. On Friday we were going to go on a 12 mile kayaking trip. We were all ready to go but come Friday morning there were thunderstorms both in Louisville and are intended destination. Although the weather was a bummer it worked out for the best because my cold that had been lingering on for over a week was the worst on that day. So instead of spending time outdoors, I spent a majority of the day on the couch, watching an NCIS marathon, and having the Kleenex and cough drops close by.

One good thing though is I did not lose my appetite. While my parents were out they thoughtful brought me back one of my favorites:



Shiraz is a local restaurant but with multiple locations in Louisville. It is delicious and very reasonable as well. Although I have been there probably 7 or so times I always get the same thing...the falafel wrap made vegan. This basically means that instead of yogurt sauce they add hummus. Let me also tell you that they do not skimp on the falafels which is important in my opinion.

Shiraz Mediterranean Grill
2011 Frankfort Avenue
2210 Holiday Manor Suite # 1
205 N. Hurstbourne Parkway
3501 Poplar Level Road

Another fun food find of the weekend was complements of Morels Food Truck. It was their new tofu musubi. I tried to figure out what exactly musubi meant, how to prepare it etc and found out (via google searches) that apparently it is also common for people to make spam musubi (yuck!). This tofu version was however delicious. I can't quite describe it except to say it reminded me of a tofu sushi roll.



Side view: the tofu was in the middle, surrounded by rice, wrapped in seaweed



Morel's Food Truck
502-276-6115
On their website they have a truck tracker as well.

Despite being under the weather it was a great food weekend!

Local

I am trying to shop at more local stores, restaurants etc. and succeeded today!

I had my first orientation session today in the neighboring county where I will be working. Since I had a little bit of a drive and was not exactly sure where the building was located I left early. Once I was able to find the building and realized I still had time to kill I decided finding a lunch spot would be the next priority.

Enter the Red Pepper Deli

I got the valley veg wrap with hummus, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, olives, and banana peppers. It was delicious, filling, and powered me through 3 hours of talk on insurance, benefits, and the like.

Once done I hit up the gym and then stopped at Rainbow Blossom for a few things:



Most of the stuff is for tomorrow's adventure: Morels Buffalo Tempeh Wrap, gummie bears, organic blueberries, organic cherries, lemon iced tea, and a "mac the chip" cookie

Tomorrow should be fun: it involves an early wake-up call, a little bit of a drive, a packed lunch, and being outdoors. Any guesses?

Impromptu Speedy Road Trip

I have my first day of orientation on Thursday (my job "officially" does not start until August) and found out that I needed another copy of my transcript. So this meant that I made a quick trip to Lexington today. I accomplished quite a bit in 5 hours.

After going to the post office and getting gas in Louisville I was on my way. I have been driving the Louisville-Lexington route so many times over the last 6 years that it always seems that I get there quickly. Two major benefits about getting transcripts during the summer: 1) I was able to pick it up immediately instead of waiting 2 business days, and 2) I was able to park right outside the building...that is unheard of at UK's campus.

I then did a little shopping while I was there and ended up getting a summery dress and a pair of jeans.

Finally, I made a trip to one of my favorite places in Lexington, the Good Foods Co-op. Lunch was from the salad bar. The co-op has so many options to choose from and everything is clearly marked for those with food allergies. I also picked up some of my favorites to enjoy in the coming days:


Vegan peanut butter oatmeal bar. It also has chocolate chips in it.

Plus a blueberry muffin and pumpkin muffin:



Dinner was the essence of summer: chickpea barley salad and corn on the cob.



Dessert:

Chickpea Barley Salad

This is my new favorite summer "salad". I came up with this recipe because I had quite a bit of fresh parsley to use up.

Ingredients:

1 cup dried barley, cooked to package specifications
1 cup loosely packed fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup diced red onion
1 cucumber, deseeded and peeled
2 medium tomatoes, chopped and deseeded
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 T. balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook barley
2. Prepare all vegetables
3. Put fresh parsley, red onion, cucumber, tomatoes, chickpeas, and barley in a bowl
4. Mix extra virgin olive oil and vinegar in a small bowl. Add salt and pepper
5. Combine veggies and dressing. Sprinkle with more salt and pepper if needed.

Ingredients in the bowl:



The end product:

Morels Food Truck

In the Louisville area there has been an increased interest and appearance in food trucks lately. In fact, there was an event a while back called Food Truckus Ruckus where area food trucks gathered together and people could get a glimpse of and taste their food. One participant at the event was Morels which is an entirely vegan food truck. Although I was unable to attend the event I have read about Morels and have visited their website. All of which sparked my interest and lead to my desire to taste the delicious food so many were talking about.

Fast forward to this past Saturday:

When I was at a local natural foods store, Rainbow Blossom, I saw that they had some Morels food there...the Buffalo Tempeh Wrap (some Heine Brothers Coffee also carries these wraps) so I immediately put it in my cart to have for lunch.



Up close



This was SO delicious and exceeded my expectations. I am already looking forward to having it again.

And for a random picture:



This was a bug that hung out on our garage all day this past week. I named him Edgar :)

Happy 4th!

Celebrating the fourth was pretty laid back at my house. I did make a festive dessert found here for my uncle's annual 4th of July gathering.



A close up



They turned out so well and I always think making bite sized desserts increase the likelihood that people will have dessert due to the convenience factor of grab and go.

And here is a confession: I am not a big fan of fireworks. While I like pretty colors I can't help but think fireworks are 1) a waste of money, 2) too loud (and I greatly doubt people wear any hearing protection when lighting them...noise induced hearing loss anyone?, 3) the amount of pollution to the environment.

Another thing I do to celebrate Independence Day is to read this every year.

Also, as I have a brother-in-law who has served in the military, thank you to all our service men and women who sacrifice so much each day.

Blogging will become more regular...promise.