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Some Recipes and things

Christmas is fast approaching......

We haven't done much cooking lately, what with getting ready for the holidays, and what we have cooked have been simple things like beef dips, homemade pizzas etc. I did cook a ham on the weekend, one we had bought from Millarville, but I wasn't that impressed with it. I did the same glaze and cooking that I did on the Thanksgiving ham, but it was dry, and I am fairly sure I didn't overcooked it. Let's blame the ham, shall we?

My office has pretty much shut down for the holidays; most of the staff is still here, but there is not much to do. So, here are some links and stuff.

This crab cake recipe is what I'll be making on Christmas Eve. We've made it once before, and they were excellent. I love the spiciness of the peppers in the cakes and the Mayo.

Nigella's prawn cakes are GREAT.

Christmas morning, we will be having prosciutto and Brie rolls. This is from one of my notebooks. I think it may have come from Gourmet or Bon Appetit. The original recipe called for just prosciutto, but we likey the Brie.

Makes 4 large or 8 small rolls.

1 pkg Pillsbury crescent dough
Brie
prosciutto
honey
Dijon mustard

unroll the dough, and separate into 4 squares. Press the perforations within the squares together with your fingers to seal. Lay a couple of pieces of the ham and cheese on the dough, and roll up. If you want 8 small rolls, cut each roll in half with a serrated knife. Press ends closed so no cheese escapes. Mix mustard and honey together and brush on top. Bake as directed on the Pillsbury package.

I printed off this recipe for Roasted Red Onions from Jamie Oliver ages ago, but have not made it yet. I should though.

Another Jamie Oliver recipe I'd like to make is this brunch bread, a grown up version of the above rolls, sort of.

I agree with the Exploding Chef that Delia Smith leaves much to be desired in the personality department. But doesn't this Onion and Goat Cheese Tart sound amazing?

I made this mini Beef en Croute Delia Smith recipe in the summer. It was good and very impressive-looking.

A couple of years ago, I searched the internet for recipes for Coal candy to make for Christmas. Here's one I might have to try next year.....

Christmas Baking and other stuff.

I whipped out the new Kitchen Aid mixer on the weekend and did some baking to give away for Christmas. I made whipped shortbread, raisin cookies, java bark (chocolate bark with espresso powder mixed in), and my version of cowboy crunch (peanuts and graham crackers covered with milk and white chocolate).

Scott took ALL the raisin cookies to work, so I have to make more tomorrow. We also made Antipasto a few weekends ago - it turned out excellent. I will be giving some of that away as well to my favorite co-workers. Scott is guarding the anitpasto supply jealously, making sure I don't give too much away. Yeah, he better be careful, there's only 15 jars left! He may be out by the new year. Actually, the way he's been eating it, he could be.

I am working on my food menu for the Christmas holidays as well, as we are having company. I am definitely making crab cakes on Christmas Eve, of course there will be turkey on the 25th. I tried to convince everyone that we should have ham, but they are traditionalists, and want the bird. We also got a new BBQ this weekend, as our old one couldn't make it thru a bad wind storm we had a few weeks ago, and took a header off the balcony, where it landed, not only bent, but in pieces. This is my new bbq. Although mine does not look like this, it looks like a giant cardboard box that nearly killed me when we pulled it out of our car. I appreciate the heaviness and sturdiness of a good bbq, but not when I have to carry it around.

Anyhoo, we are also going to have tenderloin steaks and my version of the Ruth's Chris chop salad. I have made it 3 times since we got back from our trip, and it just gets better and better. That's what I have for the menu so far, but there are lots of meals that I still need to fill in. One thing I don't need to worry about is dessert - 2 presents I have received at work this Christmas - a huge box of Bernard Callebaut chocolates, and also a great big Tortuga Rum Cake.
A very merry Christmas indeed!

Horrible Recipe of the Day #1

How disgusting does this sound?

Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding with Butter Rum sauce?

Ew. I can't imagine why anyone would think of such a recipe!

The new addition to my family

Looky what I got last night......

THIS!

Dammit, I wish I knew how to add pictures.

Anyway, isn't is georgeous? Oh yeah, all metallic chrome and slinky. That is one SEXY beast.

Can't wait to give it a spin.

San Francisco Report

Well, what can I say. What a city. The night after we came home, I was watching A Cooks Tour on the food channel. It was the French Laundry show. That is one of my favorite episodes. The way his personality is so giddy and goofy, and he is almost shy about meeting Thomas Keller is so sweet. It is totally in contrast to his normal appearance.

Incidentally, Thomas Keller went and did a demonstration and book signing and the Williams Sonoma store in San Francisco that was 3 blocks from our hotel the day after we left, dammit! And Anthony Bourdain was there on the 10th. F**K.

Anyways, so the show starts with Tony in San Francisco. He is walking down the street, and he says how much he likes San Francisco. He says it's a little dirty, and everyone is drunk.

That is the perfect description of the city.

It sure is a crazy place. The traffic! THE DRIVERS! Some of the worst I've ever seen. The hilly streets, some of them are truly terrifying to drive down. But it was beautiful.

We went to Alcatraz, which was much cooler than I thought it would be, Union Square, Colt tower, walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, took at boat tour, and just went every where we could and soaked it all up.

Great weather, nice people, good food.

And that's what this is about isn't it. This isn't a complete list of meals, just some that stuck out in one way or another.

Our first day there, we had a late lunch/early dinner at a restaurant at Fisherman's Wharf that will have to remain nameless, as I can't find the bill. Anyhoo, it was very nice, with an outdoor patio covered in ivy and flowers. Service sucked, but the food was good. I had a crab cake sandwich, something I had never heard of, or thought of, but it was good, served with a remoulade sauce on the side. Scott had a great meal; a baby shrimp and crab sandwich on bannok bread. It was so good and fresh tasting.

That night we found what I think is my favorite bar in the world now, Lush Lounge.

One note I should have written first, we had a terrible time finding places to eat for breakfast and lunch around where we were staying. And to find a place to have a drink after dinner was nearly impossible. Do these people not have pubs? Apparently not.

Lush Lounge was so cute and small and dark. The staff was really nice. We had frozen mandarin cosmos (one thousand thumbs up) and frozen watermelon martini's (two thousand thumbs up). A yummy night.

We had a questionable breakfast at a questionable Jack In the Box. Not a good choice, but we were hungry, and as I said, pickins were slim.

Fisherman's Wharf at lunch. Scott has developed an obsession with said wharf. Went to Gold Rush restaurant. It's like a fast food place. He wanted Fish and Chips. The menu didn't really appeal to me, but they did have calimari, which I have recently learned to love. We got our food, and were immediately unhappy. The fish and chips were out of a bag. The calamari wasn't rings, it was these bizarre pyramid shaped chunks. I barely touched it, so Scott, who felt bad because he had insisted on going there, took me to Crepe Cafe and bought me a beautiful crepe filled with fresh strawberries and whip cream. He redeemed himself.

We had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack which was a silly place, full of goofy decorations and music. Scott had crab, and I had a steak. I also had a Gold Claw Shaker Rita (a margarita) that was so freakin good. It was also $9.00 US. Boo. The food was good though. Down by the wharf they have these stands in front of restaurants that sell crabs and shrimp cocktails and stuff. It's just street food - no tables or anything. I tried so hard to get Scott to have his crab there, because I knew he wanted to. But for whatever reason, he said he didn't want to. His loss, and I got to have a Shaker Rita.

The best breakfast we had was a little place in a Galleria (open air mall) called
360' Gourmet Burritos. We had excellent egg and cheese and black bean burritos called 360 AM burritos. Their salsas were so good too - a really nice mild one and a sweet/spicy one that tasted a lot like pepper jelly.

Two other dinners of note -

Ar Roi Thai restaurant. This one has a short story with it. There were 3 thai restaurants within 2 blocks of our hotel. The first one, which was right across the street from our hotel, sounded good to me. Scott wanted to see the menus of the other 2. Ar Roi was the second. Ar Roi and the third restaurant both had soft shell crab, which we both wanted to try. We decided on Ar Roi. We decided to order 2 appetizers and share an entree, and then if we were still hungry we would get something else. So we decided on the crab and another appetizer of crepes filled with spicy chicken. When the server came (like a lot of thai/chinese/vietmanese restaurants, service is very abrupt.) we asked for the crab. They were out. We asked if they were out of anything else. They said no. We then decided on the crepes and chicken satay. They were out of the crepes. We asked if they were out of anything else. They said no. We then tried to order satay and a salad. No salad. Good God. Finally, we hit on something they did have - satay, spring rolls and pad thai. All were pretty good, the spring rolls were the least best of the bunch. And with a glass of beer for Scott and water for me (they only serve wine and beer) the total was a reasonable $27.00 US.

Ah, dinner at Ruth's Chris. Amazing dinner. We started with a small chop salad, which is probably the best salad I have ever had. I was a little worried about the dressing, blue cheese and lemon basil, because I am not a blue cheese fan, but it was great. I had the petit filet and Scott had the rib eye. We shared a creamed spinach. The steaks were just great, mine was so tender. We had a apple crumb for dessert. With one drink each, our bill before tip came to $110.00 US. Was is worth it? Absolutely. I will go back any time for the chop salad alone.

That being said, I am planning on spending much time in my kitchen trying to recreate the salad. Scott says he will be my taster. What a trooper.

Beef and Broccoli

My mom used to make this for special occasions when I was young. It's been a long time since I had it, but I found myself pulled to both beef and broccoli at Sobeys last night. It was darn tasty.

1 lb steak, cut into strips
1 Tb paprika
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups beef broth
Handful chopped green onions
1 bunch of broccoli, chopped in bite size pieces
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tb cornstarch
2 tomatos, cut in wedges
Hot cooked rice

Toss the steak with the paprika. Melt 1 or 2 Tb butter in a large pan, and lightly brown meat. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add broth, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the onions and broccoli, and cook covered for 5 minutes. Mix the cornstarch into the soy, add and cook until thickened. Add the tomatos and cook until the tomatos are just heated through.
Serve over rice.

Orzo, and then Burritos

Sunday night, I made Orzo with Goat Cheese and Ham from my November issue of Gourmet.

It was very good, very fast to make and I love recipes that have few ingredients. Halved the recipe, as there are only 2 of us, and there was still enough left over for Scott's lunch the next day. Only downside - he said it didn't taste as good after being microwaved.

Last night I made Pan Fried Bean Burritos also from the November issue of Gourmet.

While the overall outcome was good, I did some pretty dumb things along the way. While roasting the peppers,onions, garlic and tomatos, I burned myself when my hand slipped. Then, I cut my finger while cutting up the peppers. I couldn't find a seranno pepper, so I used whatever kind of pepper it was that Sobeys's was selling the other day. Since the pepper was one of those funny shaped ones that make it hard to half and seed, I used my fingers to get the seeds out. I don't know what that pepper was, but damn, it was spicy. The salsa was so hot, it was almost inedible. And I didn't have any more tomatos to calm it down with. The last straw for me was that, after washing my hands, I touched my face near my nose, and my skin felt like it was on fire for the better part of an hour afterwards. AND, I forget to put the cheese in the burritos too!

But, other than all that, they turned out fine; I would definitely make them again. The reviews after the recipe mention that they all found the salsa to be bland. Well, not ours, but maybe next time, if we do it right, we may have to "jeuje" too.

On my to-do-list - buy more band-aids, and some rubber gloves.

WE'RE OFF TO SAN FRANCISCO!

See ya when we get back!

Today's lunch was....fantastic

I'm a big "bring your lunch to work" person in an office of "let's go out" people. I suppose my main reason is to save money, and if I'm going to spend money on eating out, I want to go somewhere nice and with people who don't want to talk about work for the entire meal.

Today at lunch I went out to do some work errands. I had to stop at the grocery store, and decided to drive a little further down the road to DinoRosa's Italian Market. I got some bread, prosciutto, cheese, olives stuffed with feta and sundried tomatos, tomato paste in a tube, and lemon cookies.

As I was making my way to the deli, I noticed the little open kitchen that is always closed when we are there was open, and damn, did that food look good.

I got the Combo #1 - penne pasta with meat sauce, 2 big meatballs, a chicken breast in mushroom cream sauce, and a garden salad with house vinaigrette. For $7.99! I didn't even eat half of it, it was enormous. I split it with our receptionist, and I'm taking the salad home to have with our chicken fajita's tonight.

The only bad thing about the lunch was that I wanted to take a picture, but all the vultures down the hall came running when they could smell it, so I had to eat as fast as I could.

Bastardos!

My $25,000 idea

Have you seen on MSN where you can post your idea for a new product like sprayable peanut butter, or ketchup and mustard slices (like cheese slices)?

I have an idea too.

Sometimes when I cook, I cut the recipe in half. There's only me and Scott at home, and you know, sometimes you don't want leftovers.

My idea is for measuring cups that, on the inside, have a line to fill the cup only halfway. Like the 1/3 and 2/3 cup. Then, if you are making a recipe for something like salad dressing, and the recipe calls for 2/3 of a cup of oil, instead of estimating, you would have an indication line for what half of 2/3's is.

Isn't that a good idea?

I ate Ostrich

And I didn't care for it.

Ham

ham.JPG
Originally uploaded by Lemon3000.

Now is that a ham, or what!?!?

Beautiful slow cooked ham with a brown sugar - chutney - ginger glaze.

Now THAT'S a Thanksgiving

We made THE best T-day dinner I've ever had. And I bet that if you asked our company, they'd say the same thing.


For snacks we did raw veggies and dip, chips and dip, Gouda cheese, and cold cuts.

The main course - Chutney glazed ham (Never in my life have I had such a good ham.), mango salsa (YUM), green bean casserole, corn-cumin mashed potatoes, and buns.

Apple pie and Pumpkin pie for dessert.

When we were cleaning up, Scott threw the ham bone in the crock pot with some veg, so now we have a most delicious ham broth in the fridge. Tonight we will make soup to freeze.

We had a pretty good day, had fun and laughs with our company, and did a lot of talking.

Hope everyone out there had a good one too.

Haggis

Haggis
Originally uploaded by Lemon3000.

Ham and Kale

1/2 onion chopped
1 lb kale, washed, stems removed and chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup beef broth
1 cup water
1 cup chopped ham

Saute the onion in some oil until softened. Add the kale and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer, covered for 45 minutes until kale is softened.

Lavender Salt

Use on chicken, fish or lamb.

2 1/2 tsp dried chopped lavender
1/2 cup coarse salt.

Combine!

Shrimp Dip

1 or 2 tins of shrimp, drained
1 block cream cheese, room temperature
chile sauce
Worcestershire sauce
tabasco
salt
pepper
lemon juice
onion powder
1/2 tsp horseradish

Combine all ingredients but shrimp and season to taste. Fold in shrimp. Let sit for a few hours, and serve with crackers, potato chips or veggies.

Hot Pepper Jelly

Speaking of the best recipes, here's my mom's recipe for Hot Pepper Jelly. It is good with cream cheese (try garlic cream cheese) and crackers, in sandwiches, and brushed on chicken and stuff.

I usually just seal the jars with wax as we eat it so quickly.

3 red peppers, seeded and finely chopped
1 or 2 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
6 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 to 1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 bottle of liquid or 1 pouch of powdered Certo
red food coloring if needed

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a pot, and cook over medium high heat. Stir frequently until mixture comes to a boil. Add food coloring if you want. Add Certo and boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, skim off foam, and pour into sterilized jars.

Makes about 6 small jars.

Bread and Butter pickles

This recipe makes the absolute best Bread and Butter pickles I have ever had. This takes you to the recipe on the Food Network site.

The recipe is from Alton Brown who I like very much.

Although points must be taken away for his stint on Iron Chef America.

My Birthday Wish

Dear Scott and family,

As you know, my birthday is fast appraoching. This weekend, while in Chapters at the mall, I came across what would be for me the ULTIMATE birthday present. My very own copy of Anthony Bourdain's cookbook. I know, it says that it is not in stores until October, but IT IS HERE! I held it in my arms on Saturday.

Please help my deepest birthday wish become a reality. Let me bring Tony home.

Beef Ribs

Sometimes you get a recipe from an unexpected source. Like your boss, who rips recipes out of newspapers and magazines for you to try (and bring him leftovers). Or your 6th grade teacher. Or a gossip magazine.

This recipe came from a recent In Touch magazine. I made it for dinner last night, and was it good!

Blue Smoke beef baby back ribs

2 racks beef ribs
2 Tbsp pepper
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp paprika

Heat oven to 200 degrees. Combine all but ribs, and coat ribs with mixture. Put ribs on a shallow pan, and cook for 5-6 hours until tender.

Serves 4.

The magazine also says you can cheat and parboil the ribs for 1 hour with some onion and garlic, and then rub and cook them at 350 for 1 hour. I liked the slow method though.

Canmore

Went to beautiful Canmore, Alberta this weekend for the Highland Games. We had a great time, saw lots of dancing, piping and drumming, and of course, the heavy sports (caber throwing, hammers etc.).

We went down early Saturday morning so we could do some walking and sight seeing. We went to Nosh, the new(ish) food store, did an olive oil tasting, tried some other foods, and bought some sweet paprika, fancy mustard, and cream of balsamic. When I posted the entry about some of the things we did in B.C., I forgot to include that we had fruit and cream of balsamic vinegar. It's a thicker, sweeter version of balsamic, and was really good over peaches and nectarines from the farmers market, and strawberries from the garden. And of course, now we have our own bottle just in time for winter when there are no peaches, nectarines, or strawberries. Oh well.

We also went to the lavender store (can't remember the name) and bought some herb de Provence, and organic lavender for cooking. Brulee bakery here in Calgary makes really good lavender cookies, and I want to try too.

For lunch on Saturday, we went to Murrieta's. It's a very nice restaurant on the second floor of a building, so you can look down and people watch. Scott had the lamb burger. It came on a bun with grilled tomatoes, caramelized onions, and melted cambazola cheese. I had the chicken brioche, basically a chicken sandwich, with grilled tomatoes and boar bacon. Boar bacon tastes just like regular bacon! My sandwich was pretty good, but a few of the bites had a fishy aftertaste, like the chicken had been cooked next to or in a pan that had previously held fish. Scott liked his lamb, but said they could have used a little less cheese. Both meals came with a spring mix salad that was really nice, and Scott had potato salad which he didn't like because he said the potatoes were still hard. I had fries. We skipped dessert, and went down the road to the candy store for Cola bottles and Swedish berries.

Our very favorite place in Canmore is the Grizzly Paw pub. Canada was playing Russia in the world cup hockey that night, so we were very lucky to snag a table in front of one of the fireplaces that also had a view of the big screen TV. The place was packed, but since we knew we would not be back again this visit, we decided to take our time. To my amazement, they serve Mojitos!!!! I started off with one, while Scott had the flight of light beer (smaller serving of 4 of their beers). He decided that the Grumpy Bear was his favorite, and drank that the rest of our stay. I, of course, wisely stuck with the Mojito. We shared some potato skins to start. I had the beef dip, which wasn't super, and Scott had a chicken wrap with spinach, feta cheese and pepper jelly. About halfway thru the meal we switched. He said his wrap was too spicy, but I loved it. We both had fries and the house salad which was greens with cheese, boiled egg and picked beets. No dessert. Candy, hot tub and beer waiting back at the hotel.

The Highland games just wouldn't be complete if Scott didn't get to try haggis. So he did. He loved it. I didn't try it. I am just not that brave.

A really good new recipe

As I said a few posts ago, I have been feeling the need to cook more and try new recipes lately. Last night I made chicken with mango chutney and Brie. Don't know where this one came from, as it is written in one of my notebooks. I have 5 (and counting) spiral notebooks that I have copied recipes to, and written down my own ideas to try. Few of them have sources though. This one doesn't.

For 2 people:

2 chicken breasts
Dijon mustard
Bread crumbs
Thyme
Salt and pepper
Garlic
Mango Chutney
Brie slices

Preheat oven to 400.

Pound the chicken breasts until about 1 inch thick. Brush with mustard. Mix the crumbs with the thyme, garlic and salt and pepper. Coat the chicken in the mixture. Heat pan with some oil and cook chicken until done. Drizzle chicken with chutney and cover with cheese. Cook until the cheese is melted - 10 minutes or so.

Corn

corn
Originally uploaded by Lemon3000.

How beautiful is this corn? And it tasted amazing too.

mojito's are good too!

mojito2
Originally uploaded by Lemon3000.

Picked up some mint at Millarville on Saturday so we could make some more Mojitos.

24 mint leaves
1/4 cup (or more) sugar
1 cup lime juice
1 cup rum
1 cup fizzy water

Smash the mint and sugar together in a pitcher until mint is in small pieces. Add the lime juice and rum and stir until sugar is disolved. Add the fizzy water. Makes 4 drinks, and is pretty.

Buffalo Steak

Had the best dinner last night. When we were in B.C., we bought some buffalo steak. Last night we cooked it up.

Scott ground up some rosemary, garlic, chives and olive oil, and marinated the meat. We also cooked a rib eye steak too. I soaked that in some teriyaki sauce (my favorite). We made some potato salad, and had some corn that we had bought back from BC too, where we had gone to a corn boil. Instead of boiling or steaming the corn, we cooked it on the bbq. I pulled off some of the outer husk, and then pulled them down and pulled out all the silk. Then I replaced the husks, and threw them under some water for a minute. When the barbie was hot, we threw them on, and then turned them every 5 minutes or so, until the husks were charred and some of the kernels were brown/black. It seemed to take longer than we had expected, but I think our cheap barbie was having trouble keeping the temperature up with the enormous storm we were standing in. Anyone in the Calgary area knows what I am talking about. When we moved the bbq onto the driveway to start it up, the weather was so-so. Ten minutes later, the wind was howling, there was thunder and lightning and hail. We got completely soaked.

But was it worth it! The steak was good - I had never had buffalo before, and it's similar to beef. The corn was the best I'd ever had, especially the charred bits. I would do both again, but especially the corn. I think that the corn would work really well in recipes too. I have one for corncakes that I usually make when we have ham, and I think roasted corn would be great in place of raw corn.

The trip and some of our dinners lately have revved up my need to cook again. I have been reading cookbooks a lot lately and have found lots of new things to try. I do like to cook.

Stuffed Jalapenos

Well, here is my jalapeno recipe. I have one word of advice though. When you halve the peppers and remove the seeds, make sure that you get out as much of the white membrane as you can, otherwise, depending on the pepper, they may still be really hot.

You need:

Cream cheese
Cheddar cheese, you want about equal amounts of both cheeses
Jalapeno peppers, cut in half lengthwise and seeded and deveined
Milk
Flour
Bread crumbs
Oil

Soften the cream cheese, and then mix with the cheddar. Stuff each pepper half with the mixture. Put the milk, flour and crumbs in separate bowls. Dip the peppers in the milk, and then into the flour. Let sit for a few minutes, then dip in milk again, and then in the crumbs. Let sit for a while to let the breading firm up. Heat up the oil, and carefully fry until light brown all over. Let sit for a few minutes, and then dig in!

Julia Child is gone.

I wasn't planning on posting any more today, but I have just heard that Julia Child has passed away at the age of 91, just days away from her 92nd birthday.

I am so sad, I really loved her. I have 3 of her cookbooks, including Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she was just SUCH an inspiration to me.

Please read this, it is a lovely article.

Also, if you go here, you can see Julia's kitchen that she donated to the Smithsonian.

She truly was a treasure, and will be remembered in wonderful ways.

L

Shrimp "Fritters"

This weekend we made an antipasto platter of olives, bread, ham, 2 cheeses - Brie and Gruyere, tomato slices with lemon basil, olive paste, and those eggplant rolls stuffed with cheese and tomatos.

I am seriously addicted to those eggplant rolls. They are so good I hate to share with anyone, including Scott, when I buy them.

We also made "shrimp fritters" from Nigella.

We sort of fudged the recipe a bit. But were they ever GOOD!

We peeled, deveined and chopped up some shrimp (probably 3/4 cup chopped.) We mixed it with some chopped green onions, 2 cloves garlic chopped, salt and pepper, sherry, and some flour, and then added some water to make a thickish batter. We let it sit until we were ready to eat, then heated up a couple of inches of oil, and made patties of a little less than a soup spoon at a time. They only took a couple of minutes a side. Scott made a spicy Mayo while I wasn't looking.

They sure were a hit. They only bad thing was that I didn't think to take pictures until they had all been eaten! Oh well, I know for sure we will make them again.

Souvlaki

I made chicken souvlaki the other night for dinner. It was really good. I marinated the chicken in some olive oil, lemon juice and spices, and made some tatziki - yoghurt, lemon juice, dill, and garlic.

I made a platter of olives, tomatos, feta, pita and the tatziki. I brought the leftovers for my boss, and he went crazy. He followed me around saying "Did you really make this? Really? Really?" I guess I'll take that as a complement.

Food quotes

I am reading a book called "Food, true stories of life on the road."  with essays by varoius writers and food people.  There are alot of great food quotes. 

"We must all eat to live; some more urgently than others." Unknown
 
"Wish I had time for just one more bowl of chili." Kit Carson's last words
 
"Reminds me of my safari in Africa.  Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water."  W.C. Fields
 
"We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink." Epicurus
 
"Tell the cook, thanks for the meal."  Buddha, his last words
 
"I'M NOT REALLY CRYING
it's just
the sheer
number
of chopped
onions
in the world."  Francisco X. Alarcon, Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation
 
"Be a fearless cook.  And never apologize."  Julia Child
 

 

More pasta

Tomorrow night for dinner I am making Spicy Farfalle with Roasted Tomatos. I don't remember where I got this one from, but it's a keeper.

For the Roasted Tomatos:
3 plum tomatos
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp garlic
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp fresh basil
black pepper

For the pasta:
8 oz farfalle
1 tsp garlic
1 Tb olive oil
8 Kalamata olives, pits removed and chopped
hot sauce to taste
2 Tb chicken broth
1/2 cup feta crumbled

Preheat oven to 400'. Quarter tomatos and toss with remaining roasted tomato ingredients. Roast for 30 minutes.

Cook pasta. Heat oil and cook garlic until soft. Add tomatos and all juices in the pan, the olives, hot sauce, and broth. Simmer until hot, and season with salt and pepper if needed, but remember you are also adding feta. Toss with the hot pasta and top with feta.

This is such a good meal. It really doesn't take long, and the flavors are great.

Please try it!!!!

My most excellent chicken wings

MY MOST EXCELLENT CHICKEN WINGS.

When I was in college, I worked for a hotel cleaning rooms. Every once in a while someone would leave a magazine behind. I got this recipe out of one of these magazines. It is sooooooo good, but is kind of rich. It needs to marinate overnight, and the recipe makes quite a lot, so make sure you have room in the fridge.

MOST EXCELLENT CHICKEN WINGS.

3 LB chicken wings
1 stick butter or margarine
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup water
1/4 tsp dry mustard

Combine all ingredients except wings. Heat until butter and sugar are melted. Cool, and pour over wings. Cover and marinate overnight, turning 2 or 3 times. Bake at 375' for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.

They are the BEST.

"I bid you Peace" - The Frugal Gourmet

It's a sad day.....

Rest in Peace, Jeff Smith.

We'll miss you.

Pasta

Here's a pasta recipe.
All ingredient amounts are approximate, like sometimes a recipe should be!

Chop a couple of cloves of garlic, and cook over fairly high heat in some olive oil. After a couple of minutes, add some red pepper flakes, and stir for another couple of minutes. Then a handful or two of chopped up Kalamata olives, pits removed, obviously. Cook for a couple more minutes, then add a large can of chopped tomatoes. Simmer for 10 or 15 minutes, then season with salt and pepper. You won't need a lot of salt because of the olives. Toss with pasta.

So good.

My fault

I should have known better than to heat up my lunch when my boss was still here. Sure, he goes out for lunch EVERY DAY. But why shouldn't he want to eat my lunch too? That's reasonable, isn't' it? Today I brought in the last of the BBQ pizza, and of course my boss went crazy. I finally had to give him some. He did like it though. He is a bachelor. He eats things like creamed tuna on toast or Frosted Flakes for dinner. So he is kind of like a captive audience. He'll eat pretty much anything, and is always very complementive.(Is that a word?)

And of course, now he has gone for lunch. And I am still hungry.