Chicken Liver Pate with Wine and Cilantro -- aka Chicken Liver Mousse or "Terrine de Foie de Volaille"

I never really liked winter. Having lived in the north part of this country for over a decade, I see winter as this long season (usually six months) consisting of cold winds and short days (and horrible snow storms sometimes). ..Until I went to southern France, where you could have an outdoor Christmas market in December, drinking mulled wine and sampling foie gras. What fun! How delicious! Oh, I miss it terribly...

Well, mulled wine isn't that hard to make. In fact, we've been making it every winter now. Homemade foie gras though, is tough. I mean, unless you live in the center of a metropolitan city or live in the middle of nowhere on a farm, where can you lay your hands on some goose liver here in the states?

No worries, I've found a cure, namely the chicken liver pate -- "terrine de foie de volaille" if you will. It is just like foie gras, but a bit less fatty. Perhaps a little healthier as well? (Oh, did I mention it's Paleo compatible?)

One-step Cocoa Frosting for a Chocolate Birthday Cake -- birthday recommended but not mandatory

We've been having too much fun since last Friday -- so much that I have not yet got a chance to update about our beer hopping and a joint birthday party.

I arrived at the beer hopping late, thanks to a hectic clean room schedule. Nonetheless, I had LOTS of fun, discovery local businesses and such. The most impressive pit stop would have to be our local brew shop luck &levity without a doubt. The six home brewers there brought over a dozen tasty beer, from bitter stout to sweet rhubarb to Belgian wheat. What a great treat!

(I found this picture of us chilling from the brew shop website.)

Chocolate Covered Matzo with Coconut Flakes, Dried Fruits and Seeds -- we are so ready for the passover party

We have awesome friends, J being one of them. Not only is he a master griller, a talented brewer, but also a great Jewfest thrower. (Yeah, also a big fan of making up funny words that conveys the meaning so well that I think some of those should be added into the dictionary.) For the Jewfest tomorrow, he let me help with the dessert. The instruction I received was "The dish I've generally made in the past is just taking maztah and covering it in melted chocolate then dried fruit or whatever else, etc...or if you have something else in mind I'm sure that's cool too." This is total trust I'm talking about, man. I'm was so excited to see the great opportunity to take a run with it.

I started with four sheets of Matzo, as an experiment. D had half of a sheet for dessert tonight, and thought it was pretty good. So happy it worked out. So I made more, but ran into a very practical problem quickly -- we were out of surface area! 

Roast Chicken -- start it on Monday so you can have leftovers all week long

I have been plotting. What is the most effortless way to have delicious meals all week long? We used to get rotisserie chickens on Friday night, which means a relaxing weekend of chicken pot pies and whatnot, and maybe even lunch for a day or two throughout the weekdays. Though it does get a bit boring. We have tried all chickens in major grocery stores. Of course we have our favorite, though the most convenient store tend to provide overcooked/dried ones. So we took a break from rotisserie chicken for a month. Now we miss it! Luckily, we had a bird in our freezer -- a hearty 6 pounder. The plan was to cook it on Saturday night, so that we can have it over the weekend, and stretch it for lunch through mid-week. Well, it turned out to be a bit more complicated...

After pulling the bird out of freezer EARLY Saturday morning, I realized that it would take more than 24 hours to defrost. No worries. We would just have some pork chops (aka D's favorite dinner) and roast the bird on Sunday. But we forgot that we had a BBQ lunch on Sunday! It was quickly decided during the BBQ that we should all gather at our place to watch the new season of Game of Thrones over pizza. So instead of roasting a big bird, I made three whole wheat bacon & onion pizzas instead. Do not worry about our cholesterol level please, we did have a kale & spinach salad on the side.

Finally, after days of planning, I got to roast the chicken tonight! Woo-hoo! And it turned out well!

(Warning!) Addictive One-step Green Hummus

I used to laugh at folks making a big scene about coffee addiction, until I started to get headaches in Asia without it. I realized I was having five mugs (not cups) of coffee a day, finding it soothing to have a cup of joe in my hand. I sort of sensed it was not a good thing but simply could not stop.  Finally, I decided to give it up for two weeks during Christmas break for a change. The first couple days were TOUGH. I was never aware how MUCH I was relying on those cup of dark liquids that pulled me through numerous papers and assignments in college, and warmed my spirit and soul through many winter days. I have given it up almost completely now, except for the occasional treat of a foamy cappuccino.

Last weekend, I found myself in the very same situation: I was UNABLE to stop eating the green hummus made for St. Patrick's Day gathering. Danger! Danger!! Lights started flashing. I was glad that our guests were willing to take some home, so that I was not exposed to long term seduction. Though on a second thought, it easy quite healthy and easy enough to make, so...

Family Gathering for St Patrick's Day with an Awesome (Healthier) Soda Bread

This post is a bit delayed -- we've been having guests over for dinner EVERY SINGLE NIGHT since Saturday, and there was simply not enough time left for blogging besides all the lab stuff and fun gatherings. But I'm ready to share the party that kick-started everything -- the family gathering to celebrate St Patrick's Day. D's got some real Irish blood in his vein, have lived in Ireland, loves a real Guinness and has a harp tattoo on his back -- in case you are wondering why we were so eager and had the celebration party way before actual day and the parade! Our guests were awesome -- they spread green and joy everywhere in our loft. 

Together we shared corned a great time over black velvet, green hummus, beef and cabbage, Irish flag oven fries, almond butter coconut cookies, and this Irish soda bread.