WOW> Summer has come and almost gone.
Personal News: August 22nd I will attend an Open Casting Call for the next Food Network Star... Wish me luck! Hopefully the Idea of saving the world with food will be enough....
At the beginning of summer I came in and filmed at Whole Foods. Hopefully those videos will be edited and posted soon... Nothing better than education on Seafood and Meat.
Lots of great Ideas and new people to (cross my fingers) work with and learn from...
This summer has been a hot one.... Thank God for the Charcoal Grill.
Veggies have been the main dinner item for the past couple of months. Nothing like local corn burnt on the grill. Portabello mushrooms in tamari, bell peppers, asparagus, grilled pizzas and cold salads. Anything to keep the oven and stove off.
The move to Gluten Free and Dairy Free is inevitable at this point. Seizures can be very heavily helped by cutting these two main staples out of the diet of my usual "dinner guest"
Dairy in general is mass produced and bad for us and the earth so it makes lots of sense to just stop with it...
Tonight will be an experiment with gluten free pasta. We will see how it goes! Like I said before to Save the world with great food is my mission and hopefully this is just one more step into the right direction. If only one persons mind can be changed I consider it Job well done!
Friday, August 13, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
WHOAH! Summer is Finally here!
Tis' the season to BBQ, Cold Soups, Watermelons, Homemade Popsicles and Ice-cream. I love the summer time. Not only are some of the best meals prepared outside but my favorite desserts are cold as well.
There was some family in town, who I hadn't seen in close to seven years. Very strange for me not seeing family considering we spent every summer growing up hanging and visiting with mom and dad's respective families. The chance arose and I was roped into three days of family. Eating out, hanging out, and gin and tonics. My absolute favorite and go to drink ;)
After a couple days of visiting that included eating out almost every meal and hanging outside in the smoldering heat. Jane and Doug's Trip was rapidly coming to and end, or maybe it was just my weekend ending and work week beginning. The final consensus was "Jane and Doug come over for dinner." The more permanent living spot that I'm in has been HOT. The entire west facing side of the house is windows and the sun shines till almost 8 at night, it ends up being at least 10 of not 20 degrees hotter in the house. All day Monday after breakfast was spent going back and forth to Home Depot and Lowe's trying to get the swamp cooler to work. With no luck and it going to be warm and rainy on Tuesday I came up with a plan, Gazpacho and Chocolate Mousse Pie.... MmMmMmMmMmmmMMmm.
Gazpacho is one of the best cold meals a person can make. A spicy tomato cucumber soup with cold veggies and hot buttery croutons for garnish. You take onion, garlic, pimento or a roasted red pepper, cucumber, and tomato juice. You blend it up and add some red wine vinegar and olive oil and let it chill. You can add any veggies cut up and cold. I like yellow and orange bell peppers, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, green onion, and avocado. Most often you will get sour cream as well. I don't like sour cream so i choose to use avocado instead. To make your own croutons you can use your favorite bread or focaccia, cube it into small pieces and dry it out in the oven at 200* for about 2 hours. You can add a little olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, pretty much any seasoning that you want for your croutons you can use. The best part is the hot toasty buttery croutons sizzling in your cold soup. My dinner guests were impressed. They had all forgotten about Gazpacho into the moment they were in my home.
I was pleased with the compliments but i could not wait to bring out the chocolate mousse pie. I'd like to say I slaved over this in the kitchen but surprisingly making a traditional mousse with egg whites, yolks, and whipped cream has many steps and dirty dishes but is literally "easy as pie." I made the chocolate mousse, layered strawberries on the bottom of a chocolate cookie crust and in the middle of two mousse layers then garnished with half strawberries all around the top and a dollop of whipped cream on each piece. My dinner guests were dazzled. My aunt mentioned a couple days before whats the point of dessert if it's not chocolate. I was in love with this recipe, it came out way better than my normal chocolate pudding pie. Rich smooth and creamy. I sent a piece home with my mom and got a couple phone calls the next day about how amazing the pie was.
My advice don't skip the steps and make the real deal Mousse. It is Phenomenal!
There was some family in town, who I hadn't seen in close to seven years. Very strange for me not seeing family considering we spent every summer growing up hanging and visiting with mom and dad's respective families. The chance arose and I was roped into three days of family. Eating out, hanging out, and gin and tonics. My absolute favorite and go to drink ;)
After a couple days of visiting that included eating out almost every meal and hanging outside in the smoldering heat. Jane and Doug's Trip was rapidly coming to and end, or maybe it was just my weekend ending and work week beginning. The final consensus was "Jane and Doug come over for dinner." The more permanent living spot that I'm in has been HOT. The entire west facing side of the house is windows and the sun shines till almost 8 at night, it ends up being at least 10 of not 20 degrees hotter in the house. All day Monday after breakfast was spent going back and forth to Home Depot and Lowe's trying to get the swamp cooler to work. With no luck and it going to be warm and rainy on Tuesday I came up with a plan, Gazpacho and Chocolate Mousse Pie.... MmMmMmMmMmmmMMmm.
Gazpacho is one of the best cold meals a person can make. A spicy tomato cucumber soup with cold veggies and hot buttery croutons for garnish. You take onion, garlic, pimento or a roasted red pepper, cucumber, and tomato juice. You blend it up and add some red wine vinegar and olive oil and let it chill. You can add any veggies cut up and cold. I like yellow and orange bell peppers, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, green onion, and avocado. Most often you will get sour cream as well. I don't like sour cream so i choose to use avocado instead. To make your own croutons you can use your favorite bread or focaccia, cube it into small pieces and dry it out in the oven at 200* for about 2 hours. You can add a little olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, pretty much any seasoning that you want for your croutons you can use. The best part is the hot toasty buttery croutons sizzling in your cold soup. My dinner guests were impressed. They had all forgotten about Gazpacho into the moment they were in my home.
I was pleased with the compliments but i could not wait to bring out the chocolate mousse pie. I'd like to say I slaved over this in the kitchen but surprisingly making a traditional mousse with egg whites, yolks, and whipped cream has many steps and dirty dishes but is literally "easy as pie." I made the chocolate mousse, layered strawberries on the bottom of a chocolate cookie crust and in the middle of two mousse layers then garnished with half strawberries all around the top and a dollop of whipped cream on each piece. My dinner guests were dazzled. My aunt mentioned a couple days before whats the point of dessert if it's not chocolate. I was in love with this recipe, it came out way better than my normal chocolate pudding pie. Rich smooth and creamy. I sent a piece home with my mom and got a couple phone calls the next day about how amazing the pie was.
My advice don't skip the steps and make the real deal Mousse. It is Phenomenal!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Cuisine for Two
I am trying everyday to adapt to cooking for a small amount of people. Usually it is just me plus one and I generally "prefer" to cook for me plus anywhere from 3 to 5. For my budget and the earth it is uneconomical and wasteful. While shopping around Home Depot I grabbed a "Cuisine For Two" magazine. A complete impulse by and mostly just meat and fish recipes but a couple of vegetarian and definitely ways to change the meat with different veggies.
The recipe that stood out the most to me was a Zucchini cake with Diavalo sauce. I thought why not and modified the recipe to what I had. I grated two zucchinis, half of an onion, one clove of garlic, and a sweet potato. I twirled those around in the salad grater to get all the extra water out. I added some egg and panko and baking soda, also nothing is complete without a little bit of salt and pepper.
Diavalo Sauce is typically a spicy tomato sauce. You take a yellow onion and red bell pepper and saute those. I also added some red chile flakes to the oil that I was sauteing the Garlic is something that I never skimp out on. I have learned that it is best to add the garlic in once the other "mirepoix" like vegetables are almost completely finished. The recipe I had called for white wine vinegar and white wine to deglaze the pan with. I did not have the white versions in my sauce so I used red wine vinegar and some Merlot I had leftover from visitors. You then add some tomato paste and diced tomatoes. After everything has been added you cook it down on low temp for about a half an hour.
When the sauce was done I was good and ready to fry up the cakes. I heated olive oil in a non stick pan. A non stick pan is important in this case because when frying wet, gooey things you want to be sure they will not stick on the pan. I put a very large overfilled 1/4 cup of the zucchini mixture into the pan smashed it down and fried each side for about 5 minutes. I prefer crispy fairly dark brown for color when I'm frying any sort of vegetable. These included.
I dished dinner up and brought it out to my "dinner guest." WOW! i thought it was so freaking good. Sweet fried veggie cakes complemented with a spicy tomato sauce. Healthy, cheap, and quick; A winning combination in my book. My "dinner guest" on the other hand liked the cake but didn't know why there was hot salsa on it. They suggested to make the veggie cakes again, but use it as a side dish to a piece of fish. Not filling enough and the "hot salsa" did not make it a big hit. But if I was cooking for 1, I would eat a version of this once a week!
The recipe that stood out the most to me was a Zucchini cake with Diavalo sauce. I thought why not and modified the recipe to what I had. I grated two zucchinis, half of an onion, one clove of garlic, and a sweet potato. I twirled those around in the salad grater to get all the extra water out. I added some egg and panko and baking soda, also nothing is complete without a little bit of salt and pepper.
Diavalo Sauce is typically a spicy tomato sauce. You take a yellow onion and red bell pepper and saute those. I also added some red chile flakes to the oil that I was sauteing the Garlic is something that I never skimp out on. I have learned that it is best to add the garlic in once the other "mirepoix" like vegetables are almost completely finished. The recipe I had called for white wine vinegar and white wine to deglaze the pan with. I did not have the white versions in my sauce so I used red wine vinegar and some Merlot I had leftover from visitors. You then add some tomato paste and diced tomatoes. After everything has been added you cook it down on low temp for about a half an hour.
When the sauce was done I was good and ready to fry up the cakes. I heated olive oil in a non stick pan. A non stick pan is important in this case because when frying wet, gooey things you want to be sure they will not stick on the pan. I put a very large overfilled 1/4 cup of the zucchini mixture into the pan smashed it down and fried each side for about 5 minutes. I prefer crispy fairly dark brown for color when I'm frying any sort of vegetable. These included.
I dished dinner up and brought it out to my "dinner guest." WOW! i thought it was so freaking good. Sweet fried veggie cakes complemented with a spicy tomato sauce. Healthy, cheap, and quick; A winning combination in my book. My "dinner guest" on the other hand liked the cake but didn't know why there was hot salsa on it. They suggested to make the veggie cakes again, but use it as a side dish to a piece of fish. Not filling enough and the "hot salsa" did not make it a big hit. But if I was cooking for 1, I would eat a version of this once a week!
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