For Valentine’s Day, I gave K two lbs of grass-fed Waygu beef steaks. Last weekend, I was at a conference all day. I was presenting and networking and learning and in my business element from early in the morning until dinner time. When I came home, exhausted and exhilarated with possibility, my wonderful husband was preparing this steak. He generously salted and peppered it and added a big knob of truffle butter. Then he sealed and sous vide it for six hours at 130 degrees. During the last hour and a half, he sealed and sous vide some potatoes as well. Then, right before we ate (as I was taking a cat nap), he seared the steak in a hot pan and fried the potatoes in duck fat.

This steak was like eating butter — a perfect medium rare. It was simply the best steak I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. The potatoes were clean and salty and crisp. I gave my hubby the gift of steak and he gave me the gift of a perfect meal. He truly did that cow justice. And that’s why this is the steak that love made.

If you’re traveling and at a loss as to what to bring back for your friends and loved ones, go with food native to where you’re visiting. It doesn’t gather dust and it always elicits a smile.

I started this blog as a creative outlet to share something fun my boyfriend and I were doing — the (mis)adventures of two kitchen novices cooking along to the Top Chef shows. Three years later, that boyfriend is now my husband and we’ve become proficient enough at this kitchen thing that cooking along to Top Chef is no longer much of a challenge for us! But that’s not going to stop us from tracking down and conquering new food adventures. Thanks to everyone who gave us suggestions, we’ll be doing a few “Chopped” style throwdowns to see if we could ever hack it on that show, we’ll be sharing some kooky original recipes and we’ll continue to share our travels and food recommendations that inevitably accompany those travels. Plus other stuff as inspiration strikes along the way.

K and I Cooking a Meal Together in Our Kitchen. Courtesy of StarTribune.com

But in the meantime, to celebrate our three-year blog-a-versary, here’s a roundup of our most popular posts to date and some of our favorite highlights:

Fried brussels sprouts with grilled prosciutto :: Proving once and for all that salty pork and brussels sprouts are MFEO

Roast chicken with tarragon veloute and cauliflower puree :: A good simple roast chicken plus the phrase “nip slip”

Pork shoulder with cheddar grits and Corona lime sauce :: Crockable comfort food, skip the sauce

Tempura avocado tacos with spicy fish slaw :: An original recipe with a crispy, creamy twist on fish tacos

30 days of food inspiration – Shrimp Sloppy D’ohs :: OMG, Chef Rick Moonen reads our blog!

How to throw a party – MN Food Bloggers style :: This night was an insane combination of amazing food, moonshine and Brother Ali

Thanks to the readers and commenters and questioners and to those who continue to inspire us to create. And thanks to WordPress for catching 13,788 pieces of spam that I never had to wade through. Cheers to three more delicious years!

So … what’s not out there in the world of food blogging that you’d like to see?

Do you want to discover original recipes?
Do you want more news/information/reviews of the local (Twin Cities) food scene?
Glimpses into the lives and menus of two foodies with three dogs?

You tell me —  how can I inspire you in your kitchen adventures?!?

Image Credit: Courtesy of © Carnival Film & Television Limited 2012 for MASTERPIECE

The Jilted Lady Cocktail

1 oz. Bombay Sapphire gin
1 oz. Creme de Violette liqueur
2 oz. Tazo “Calm” tea (or chamomile tea will work)
1/4 oz. simple syrup
juice of 1/4 lemon

Shake well in a martini shaker with ice, strain into a martini glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

This isn’t a great photo, but it’s a GREAT cocktail and, as you can see, the entire Grantham clan agrees.

If you’re unfamiliar with poutine, it’s a traditional dish from Quebec made with french fries topped with brown gravy and cheese curds to equal 100 percent awesome. Just gather your ingredients and get started.

Recipe serves two

Fries
Two russet potatoes
2 cups (approximately) canola oil (or another high heat oil)

Cut your potatoes into fries. Cut yours thinner than we cut ours — ours were too thick. If you want to cut down on the work, you could technically use frozen fries. Just be very careful when frying as little bits of ice can cause oil explosions (please don’t ask if I know this information from experience…).

Heat your oil in a large pot to about 320 degrees F. Fry the potatoes in small batches (don’t crowd) until golden brown and drain on paper towels or a wire rack. When your first round of frying is done, turn up the heat on the oil to no more than 370 degrees F. Fry the potatoes in batches again until even golden-er, browner and crispy. When you’re done with the fries, turn the oil back down to about 320 degrees F to get it ready to fry some cheese curds.

Meat and Gravy

1/2 lb ground lamb
1 TB Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 pint mushrooms, chopped
1 tsp fresh rosemary

1/2 carrot, small dice
1/2 celery stalk, small dice
1/4 onion, small dice
1/4 red pepper, small dice
1 TB garlic, minced
1/4 cup red wine
1 1/4 cup broth (vegetable, chicken or beef broth)
1.5 TB cornstarch
hot water
extra virgin olive oil

Brown the ground lamb in a bit of olive oil. In a separate saute pan, brown the mushrooms and add the fresh rosemary during the last minute of cooking. Add the mushrooms to the ground lamb and set aside.

Heat a bit of olive oil in a sauce pan. Add diced carrot, celery, onion and red pepper and saute until tender. Once tender, add garlic and lightly brown. Add the red wine and cook until it’s nearly evaporated then add the broth. Let cook for 7-10 minutes. Put the cornstarch in a small bowl and add just enough water to make the mixture liquid (aka a slurry).

Add the cornstarch mixture to the gravy and stir until thickened. Add lamb and mushrooms to the gravy mixture. Add a splash more Worcestershire sauce and some balsamic vinegar for depth, to taste. Salt and pepper to taste.

Cheese curds
1 bag of cheese curds (you won’t use the whole bag)

1/4 cup + 1 TB rice flour
1/4 cup cold, lighter Pilsner-style beer (we used Kölsch)
1 egg (cold)
1 tsp smoked paprika

Pile the french fries on an oven-safe bowl and spoon a generous amount of meat and gravy mixture over the top. Dot the top with cheese curds. Put the entire bowl under the broiler until cheese is melted, bubbly and just starting to brown.

Mix the rice flour, cold beer, the cold egg and the paprika (it’s important everything is cold). Dip a few of the cheese curds into the batter and fry in the oil (temperature about 320 degrees F) until browned and crispy. Drain briefly on a paper towel and salt.

Put the fried cheese curds on top of the poutine and serve.

Tender french fries bursting with fresh potato taste, a tasty meat and veg mixture, melty cheese and smoky fried cheese on top. Now that’s how you celebrate a cheese curd, Top Chef!!

We left the cocktail creations to the boys, but the ladies chose the secret ingredient — a bag of Whittard tea that was sitting on the counter (the gentlemen chose black tea). The good people at Whittard sent me a bit of tea and some 70 percent hot chocolate that has now become my favorite thing ever. Our choice of tea as ingredient was met with immediate groans and the turning of brain gears could be heard throughout the house. They shouldn’t have worried, they both managed to create *amazing* cocktails.

Without further adieu, here are the two winning tea cocktail recipes from our dinner date competition:

Elderflower Sake “tea”ni (created by K)
1 oz. cold Whittard black tea (we used oolong)
2 oz. sake
1 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. St. Germain elderflower liqueur
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1 oz. ginger beer
sugar on a plate

Put the first five ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously. Lightly wet the rim of a martini glass and dip rim into sugar. Pour contents of the shaker through the shaker filter carefully into the glass. Top off with ginger beer. Enjoy!

Hard Ginger Palmer (created by Adam)
1 oz. cold strong Whittard black tea
1 heaping TB honey
1 good squeeze of fresh lemon
1/2 oz. limoncello (optional)
2 oz. whiskey
1 oz. sparkling lemonade
ginger beer

Stir the tea, honey, limoncello (if using) and fresh lemon together in a highball glass until honey has dissolved. Add the whiskey, then ice to almost fill the glass. Add the lemonade, top with the ginger beer and garnish with a lemon slice. Enjoy!

And enjoy we did — both of the cocktails. The Elderflower Sake “tea”ni was sweet, bright and lovely and the Hard Ginger Palmer was dusky, but sprightly with lemon and ginger.

As I’ve mentioned, we never endorse products we don’t actually use. Neither of us drink coffee. In fact, my friend Adine had to show me the proper way to use a coffee maker on this very night. I can spatchcock and sous vide squab, but I’ve never been able to master a cup of coffee. It is my foodie shame. Because I’m not into coffee, I’m really picky about tea — I either really like it or hate it and there aren’t many types I really like. Who knew the British were so talented with tea?!? Okay … everyone knows that, but I’m happy Whittard sent me a sample to prove it.

It’s a festive time of year. Take your inspiration from K and Adam and use tea in your cocktails — it adds a bit of bitterness and a unique flavor. Experiment! Have fun! Cheers!

We managed to catch the first episode of season 10 before we left town and some of the new contestants are doozies. They do, however, seem supremely talented and for one of their first challenges they were to make Wolfgang Puck the perfect omelet. I love omelets. K hates eggs. This posed a challenge in deciding what to make. So we compromised — instead of Eliza Gavin’s New York strip and morel mushroom omelet with fennel tomato reduction (original recipe here) we made a grass-fed rib-eye steak with morels and tomato fennel reduction.

BONUS: The good people at BlueStar sent us an amazing cookware set and we gave it our first go for this dish. We don’t review products very often, but when we do you can be sure it’s something we’d use “in real life” and endorse wholeheartedly and boy do we endorse this cookware! These pots and pans are the best thing to happen to our kitchen since… well, probably ever. BlueStar also makes professional-quality cooking ranges for the home and, my stars — if we had one of their ranges in our kitchen we might never, ever move. They are that nice, seriously.

So, we took the new sauce pan and saute pan out for a test drive and fired up the oven for some steak.

Serves two

Steak
1 large grass-fed rib-eye steak
4-6 dried morel mushrooms (or fresh, if they’re in season)
1 TB extra virgin olive oil
2 TB water
2 TB red wine
1 TB dried thyme

Reduction
1 ripe tomato, medium
1/2 shallot, diced
1/2 cup fennel, diced
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
5 TB butter, cold
1 TB chives, chopped
1 TB fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp fennel fronds, chopped

Side
1/2 bunch fresh asparagus
1/4 cup Emmental cheese, course grated

Get your steak started — sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt and pepper and let sit for 10 minutes so the salt “melts” in. Heat oven to 300 F. If using dried morels, just cover them in boiling water.

Heat about 1 TB extra virgin olive oil over med-high heat. We used our BlueStar 10″ fry/saute pan for this. Whatever you use, make sure the pan is oven-safe (no plastic, etc). When oil is very hot, sear steak briefly on both sides (about 2 minutes per side).

When the steak is nicely browned on both sides, put the pan in the oven for approximately 20 minutes (or until 120 degrees on a meat thermometer).

While the steak is cooking, make the reduction.

Peel the tomato by cutting an X in the bottom. Pop the tomato into boiling water for 2 minutes then put immediately into ice water. When tomato is cool, the skin should peel right off. Remove the seeds and tomato goop and dice the tomato flesh.

Put white wine vinegar, sugar and 1/2 cup water in a sauce pan over medium heat. As soon as sugar disappears, add diced fennel and shallot. Reduce the liquid almost completely. Whisk in the butter until it’s incorporated and the sauce is creamy. Add tomato, chives, parsley, fennel fronds and salt (to taste). Keep the sauce warm.

Boil water in a small saucepan and add asparagus until it’s just cooked through (3-5 minutes, depending on thickness of asparagus). Drain water, lightly salt and keep warm.

When steak is cooked through, let it rest for 5-7 minutes before cutting. While steak is resting, drain the morels and gently squeeze out the extra water with a paper towel. Reheat the pan juices in the steak pan over medium heat (add a little extra olive oil, if needed). Gently scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan and add the morels and thyme. When morels are tender, add red wine and 2 TB water. Reduce until sauce is almost gone.

Slice the steak, spoon the morels and red wine sauce over steak. Spoon the reduction over the asparagus and sprinkle with cheese. Spoon reduction around the plate then eat!

This new BlueStar cookware kicks ass! The pots and pans are weighty, cook evenly and clean easily. We only wish they made meat thermometers — ours broke and the steak overcooked, but it was still tender and delicious. The sauce was buttery and light with sweet tomato and slightly anise flavor of fennel. The smooth, rich mushroom sauce warmly enrobed the steak to great effect. And the fresh asparagus with a little creamy cheese bite was very complementary. We couldn’t ever imagine this full meal being part of an omelet and we’re sure glad it wasn’t.

Who’s your favorite to win this season of Top Chef? So far, our money is on Elizabeth (from South Africa) or Kristen (the former model) or John (the guy who keeps reminding us about all his restaurants).

Then something came along that Momofuku’d up my whole plan — the absolute best bite of our entire trip:

This looks like a simple sandwich, but I assure you it is not. This is a pork bun from Momofuku Ssäm. The “bread” is a cloud-like steamed bun from heaven. The sauce is a sweet and sticky hoisin with just a touch of spice. The pickles are fresh, crispy, tangy with rice vinegar and paper-thin. And the filling is a huge hunk of juicy pork belly with the perfect layer of succulent, melting fat. When you bite into it, the sky opens up, rays of sunshine fall upon your face and choirs of angels sing around you. They abruptly shut up the second you finish the last bite and that’s when you realize A) You should have just ordered an entire lunch of these so you could hoard them all to yourself and B) You will not have room for that perfect Brooklyn doughnut and you just don’t give a damn anymore.

This was just the prelude to lunch. K ordered the Duck Duck Noodles with a rich and scrumptious peanut sauce. If you think this looks like an ordinary bowl of spaghetti, shame on you. You’re on time out and there will be no Duck Duck Noodles for you.

I went with the rotisserie duck over rice with both a scallion pancake and some lettuce to wrap everything up. The duck was absolutely perfectly cooked and the scallion pancake was a rare 50/50 blend of crisp and tender. With a little hoisin sauce and some crispy shallots, I had so, so many perfect bites.

We were fueled for our trip to Brooklyn where the streets are wider and there’s more room to breathe. We spent the afternoon touring the quaint and slightly odd Brooklyn Museum — the layout took you from a meticulously recreated period room from the 1800′s straight into a contemporary art installation featuring carpet-covered skateboards, then back again.

As we neared the end of our visit, we realized too late we should have lugged our suitcases with us and checked them at the museum. Instead, we had to schlep all the way back into Times Square to pick up our bags. But our reward for doing this? It was rush hour and a cab to the airport was not readily available. A stretch limo with a *hilarious* driver, however, was available at the bargain price of the same as we would have paid for a cab. In order to not be facing backwards or to the side, we sat in the limo’s only “proper” seat … and had a 45 minute shouted conversation with the seasoned driver allllll the way up front. There was a lot of space for just the two of us and it was pretty awesome to experience a stretch limo navigating Manhattan’s rush hour traffic — all in all, a ridiculously over-the-top end to a trip that was one heckuva treat!

Extra special thanks to Open Table for scheduling (then rescheduling) our trip, for putting us up in a hotel and for picking up the tab for dinner at Top Chef Kitchen. The takeaway lesson to all of you is to enter contests, you never know when you might actually win. Thanks to the staff and chefs at Top Chef Kitchen for a memorable and delicious meal. And THANK YOU NEW YORK CITY! We’ll most definitely be back.