9 posts tagged “food”

My picture for a recipe on allrecipes.com is being used for the main image of the recipe. (Sure, I don't know if it updates to the most recent picture of the recipe.. from what I've seen, that shouldn't be the case.)

I think it's pretty cool! I feel all special. Click here to see the recipe. you can also read my review by clicking "more reviews" or whatever it says to see how I changed the recipe just a bit. Pleast note: If you hover your mouse over that link, the picture that shows up is NOT my picture.. you have to actually visit the recipe. My picture is the one with the cream swirl in the soup.

Yay.

Yesterday was a lot of fun for me. I pretty much cooked all day long. I miss doing that; I used to do that every day for a job and it was really the most fun I've ever had at a job before in my life.

I started with the pumpkin pie, which I've already posted in its own entry by sending pictures from the email on my phone, but just as a recap I'll post it again. This wasn't your everyday, run-of-the-mill pumpkin pie.. I put brandy in it. The end result was a much richer, darker flavored pumpkin pie than what I was used to.

I was skeptical of it, but Lorean swore up and down that he loved it and that it was delicious. I choose to believe him. I mean, it's not that the pumpkin pie was bad, it just had a much richer flavor than any other pumpkin pie I'd ever tasted before. It was really good, but after eating so much food for dinner, I couldn't even stomach a full piece of pie.

Next in line was the turkey. I took that sucker out and let all of the purge drain out of him (what they call the liquid/blood mixture), and then finally ended up shoving two full sticks of butter+herbs down under the skin on top of the breast. Oh boy, did that help.

And in order to prevent dry meat - I hate it when people overcook the turkey and the white meat is dry and flakey - I covered it in bacon. I put the bird in for 30 minutes at 500 degrees, and then after 30 minutes I covered the breast meat & bacon in foil, and lowered the heat to 350.

"I feel so exposed"

All in all, the bird took about 2.5 hours to cook. He was ten degrees shy of the right temperature when I took him out at 2 hours, so I left him in for another half hour just to be safe.

While big bird was roasting away, we ended up going to WalMart and getting serving dishes. I couldn't put a friggin' foil pan on the table and serve it that way. I just couldn't. At WalMart, I bought a large, square, glass serving dish and also an oval white dish. I'm happy to have serving platters now! Especially with Christmas and New Year's right around the corner.

When we came home, I pretty much got everything else cooking. The sweet potatoes had been soaking in water/bourbon, and I dumped the whole combination into a large pot and brought them to a rolling boil. The greens waited until the last minute - red chard with sauteed pearl onions and whole chunks of garlic.

Last in line was the cranberry sauce. I have to admit, I messed it up a bit and had to add more alcohol to it to get the darn liquid to light on fire (fresh cranberries, chambord, and some brandy to light it on fire).

Setting up took longer than I wanted because we had to get it all on to our table. We used brand new dishes, a new bottle of wine, and everything turned out wonderfully. Really, it was such a hit with the both of us - the only thing he didn't like was the cranberry sauce, which is fine because he just doesn't like cranberries.

Dessert ended up being pretty impressive, too. We had sparkling cider with dessert.

Pumpkin Pie & Cider

Tomorrow shall be my first Thanksgiving meal on my own. In the past, it's always been with family. They've been done with my parents at home, and boyfriends or whatever over for the meal as well; they've been done in Oregon with my dad's side of the family; they've been done with family visiting from out of town at my parents' house, taking up insane amounts of space and crowding everything. However, with all of these different variations of how and where we've held our dinners, they've always been pretty much the same.

Dinner consists of the typical Thanksgiving staples:

1. A giant, dry, overcooked and flavorless turkey, whose purpose is really only to be on the table, look pretty and nice but really be icky, and make everyone overly sleepy.
2. Candied yams, or sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. These are always flooded with an overly sticky sauce that runs all over your dinner plate and mixes with everything else, especially its closes side/neighbor on your plate, the...
3. Green bean casserole! YUCK! I mean, sure, the flavor is really good the first few times you have it, and I love the crunchy, dried onions - but seriously, where's the nutritional value in this dish? It's concentrated soup mix, green beans, creamy, fattiness, and deep fried/dried stuff! WHAT?
4. Bread of some sort, followed with butter...butter...and more butter...
5. Canned cranberry sauce. This isn't even sauce, this is jiggly, jellied, sugared crap.
6. Whatever else my family decides. When family visits, it ends up being roast beef as a second meat.
7. Mashed potatoes. Here's one area that I'll give my mom 'props' or 'kudos' for - the mashed potatoes are always homemade, the consistency is perfect and they're very good. Then again, I'm a sucker for mashed taters! However, if it were up to me, they'd be garlicky as all hell, and have heavy cream in them.

Off of the top of my head, that sounds like the basic meal plan for Thanksgiving at my parents' house. Maybe some fresh corn, if my mom feels like splurging... but it's so boring, it's so typical.

 So, in light of this new situation of me having to actually make a Thanksgiving dinner - if I were living alone, I'd just say "Screw it" and not cook anything special at all - I'm actually pretty nervous. It might just be lingering nerves from this past weekend with his wonderful family (cough, cough), or it may just be that I'm really too hard on myself when it comes to cooking.

The original plan was to closely mimic my old boss' magazine article for last year. Cedar-planked Turkey Breast, mashed sweet potatoes (with bourbon - mmm), and red chard with pearl onions. It was also served with an AWESOME homemade cranberry sauce, to die for. I will of course be adding my own spices and doing things a little differently, but I'm using that as pretty much my outline.

                                  For any of those curious, Jon's recipe and article can be found here.

Differences:

• I'm using a whole turkey. The darn thing better be thawed by tomorrow, although I'm starting to doubt that it will be. I couldn't find turkey breasts separate, without bones and wings etc etc, and I don't want to go through the process of taking the breast off of any bones - I'm too much of a perfectionist and I've go mad. So... whole turkey in place of breasts, and I'm slow roasting it. No big deal, it's not the end of the world.
• I'm not going to use cedar planks, unless I can find them at Safeway tonight. They didn't have them at Sprouts, and they of course didn't have them in any logical place that I looked for them at WalMart. I was ready to take a power drill to my ears by the time we left WalMart, so I didn't have sanity left to continue looking.
• I'm sure there's going to be plenty more alcohol in the taters for flavor.
• The red chard didn't look great, but I bought it anyway. If it's not to my liking when I get home, I'll end up doing another green vegetable for the side - also, not the end of the world.
• I'm making a homemade pumpkin pie. First thing tomorrow morning is going to be the pie, and darnit! I WANT A LEAF-SHAPED COOKIE CUTTER, for crying out loud!! I want to decorate my nice little pie! I think I'll run to a cooking store in the mall and spend an arm and a leg, just because I know their prices are going to be pure insanity.

I think it sounds like a nice layout for dinner. Good game plan, good game plan. I asked Lorean if he was missing out on anything he really enjoyed from his parents' dinners, and he said he really didn't care for the stereotypical dinners, either! YAY!

Tomorrow is going to be a task, for sure. I'm looking forward to cooking a FULL meal. All of the ingredients were bought fresh last night, and I can't wait to get started... even if I'm worried it won't turn out perfectly. :-(

I went across the street and got lunch because I was starving - there's this place that I go to maybe once a week, or every other week. It's called George's Lunchbox. They have really good sandwiches, and I order the same thing everytime: What they call a Supreme.

Bacon, avocado, turkey. My choice of cheese: Provolone. I get mayo+mustard, on marbled rye bread. It's pretty damn good, comes with lettuce and tomato, no onions.

Honestly, one of the best sandwiches ever. However, today I got back to work and realized she messed it up.

It didn't have any cheese.

It didn't have mustard.

It didn't taste the same because of that.

I personally don't like mayo when it's alone; I don't like the fatty, greasy/creamy feeling in my mouth, nor do I like the flavor... but I was so damn hungry and I figured, "Hey, everything else is yummy!" so I ate it.

Mistake on my part.

I now feel a little sick to my stomach. It doesn't feel very happy in there right now at all. Talking makes me want to puke.

Sigh.

Filet Mignon Dinner

Yesterday afternoon when I was on my way home, I decided to stop at Sprouts to pick up some ingredients for dinner. I was only going in there to get some lamb, possibly baby summer squash (which they were out of), and MAYBE a seasonal ale.

I passed up the seasonal alcohol - even though the pumpkin spice ale looked and sounded so good - and decided to just meander around the store. I ended up leaving with asparagus, two lamb shoulder chops, and two large, round hunks of filet mignon. These steaks were pretty massive, especially when you think of the serving you'd normally get in a restaurant for $30 (AKA, tiny hunk of meat, huge pile of starch, and pointless portions of overcooked vegetables). Even if you go to a nicer restaurant and order filet, you still pay upwards of $30 for it, and it's such a small steak.

...This is why I refuse to order filet unless I know the restaurant will cook it right and not rip me off.

Anyway, these two steaks were only $12, so I snagged them up and changed my dinner plans. I went home and immediately chopped up the leftovers of my red potatoes - maybe .75lbs or so - and threw them in a pot to start cooking. On the side I put a happy hunk of butter in its own pot, and about 5 large cloves of fresh minced garlic in there. I let it melt on low heat so that the garlic would slowly cook and get the most flavor out of it.

While those two things were doing their own things - potatoes having a little party in the boiling water, butter and garlic being friendly and mingling together - I poured some balsamic vinegar (as a side note, I have the sweetest vinegar right now - I don't know how I lucked out on this stuff, but it's so delicious. The perfect balance of tart and sweet. I'm Italian, what can I say?! I love my vinegar!) over the steaks and massaged it, literally, into the meat on both sides. I sprinkled it with a bit of garlic, freshly cracked black pepper, salt, and just a smidge of sage. Those puppies sat in the fridge for a while, and I moved on to other things.

In a VERY small pan, I put about 1/4 cup vinegar to 1/4 cup red wine. I bought the wine at a local wine store last night, the name of the wine escapes me right now, but it was awesome wine. Spicy, deep, a bit nutty; altogether very rich in flavor. With some whole black pepper kernels, I boiled that down to a thicker sauce. It was REALLY delicious. While that was going on, I shoved the asparagus in a pan and steamed them with salt, pepper, and garlic.

Last thing was the meat. The pan I had prepared has a drizzle of oil in it and I hated that sucker up on high, then seared the outside of the filets for maybe 3 minutes on each side. These things were so thick, that in NO WAY did this overcook the meat at all. It caramelized on the outside, but the inside was still practically raw - it was heated through and bright red. This is the way I like my expensive cuts of meat...basically seared like you would an ahi tuna steak.

If you haven't noticed, everything was pretty simple. I mashed the potatoes with the garlic, butter, and a bit of sour cream to make them creamy but still thick, and served everything together. The asparagus was light and crisp, and tasted SO good with the sauce. The filet was juicy, soft, and almost buttery in texture. The potatoes had chilled a bit, but regardless of temperature the flavor was RIGHT on. I craved garlic, and that's what I delivered..to..myself. Yes, I'm lame.

My boyfriend liked the meal a lot - I wish he'd given me a better (more vocal?) response since it's not every night we have filet mignon, I mean come on! But I liked it, and that was enough for me.

Nummy Dinner

Now I'm sitting here at work and I smell like chorizo and slightly burnt tortilla. This is because I wanted breakfast this morning, and pulled some chorizo out and just made it for myself. I prefer my tortillas to have a slighty burnt flavor, actually - I like to put them straight onto my burner and flip them over a few times until they get little black spots on them.

This smell pretty much sunk in through my skin and clothes.... le sigh. Oh well. It was a delicious little breakfast, and now I have some AWESOME Gevalia coffee that a coworker brings in daily and doesn't mind sharing with me. :-) what a good way to start the day!

This entry is just about food. I've got some pictures I uploaded the other night and I've been meaning to post, and I figure I'll go ahead and do it now.

This will also be public as it has nothing personal in it whatsoever, so for anyone that is viewing this and is not currently a friend, just a quick note: Food is my passion. I went to culinary school, I love to cook, and I take pictures of foods that I'm somewhat proud of. I also take pictures of food in restaurants, which sometimes makes people look at me funny.

With that said, on with the food:

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I made this the other night for dinner. I'd never made it before, and I didn't like any one particular recipe, so I just studied about 6 different recipes and found my own inspiration.

What I threw in the pot:

1. Mirepoix. I didn't have enough chicken stock and needed to make a little of my own. I sautéed that, removed it, and added...
   
2. Chicken and spices. The spices were heated up together in a separate and small pan; cumin, chili powder, cayenne, and cumin were some of the spices I used. Heating them slowly gives them a smokier flavor. I browned the chicken, added the mirepoix back to the pot, and added...
3. One can of chicken stock (low-sodium, mind you) and two can-fulls of water. Of course this calls for more salt and pepper, since adding water to any sort of stock kills the flavor. This also resulted in a little too much broth for my tastes, so later on I poured some of it out and shoved it in the freezer. It's good to freeze stocks of any kind because you can save them for quite some time, and whenever you need extra flavor in stock, beans, or sauces, you just add an ice-cube of the stock.
4. I added about a cup of frozen corn and probably ..a tablespoon?.. of minced serrano chili, and lastly 6 cloves of garlic.
   
5. I let this all boil for about 10 minutes before adding red and green bell peppers, and 4 tomatoes - all of which diced. I didn't want these vegetables to overcook and turn to mush, since I like having a slight crunch left from my peppers. At the last minute, I added a half cup of sharp cheddar cheese and stirred it into the soup until it melted and became stringy. This was a GREAT boost for flavor in the last few minutes, but next time I'd much rather use a Mexican cheese.
   
6. When all was said and done, I served the soup with a dallop of chipotle crème (which I just made with a bit of chipotle in adobo, sour cream, and lemon juice), tortilla strips, and some chopped cilantro and green onion.

It turned out to be a pretty good soup, especially for never having made it before.


Other food I've recently enjoyed includes dim sum at a restaurant here in Phoenix located in the Chinese Cultural Center down town, called the Golden Buddha. (Apparently they used to have their own website, but the only good description of the location I could find since the site appears to be down was located there, in the Chinese Cultural Center website).

For me, dim sum became a favorite while I was living in San Francisco for the time I went to culinary school. I was seeing a guy for a short amount of time that was adopted, and half of his family was Asian. Don't ask me specifically what culture they were - I couldn't tell you - but a huge benefit of that rather crumby dating experience was finding AWESOME Asian food spots.

Sadly, in Phoenix there aren't as many culturally different restaurants. There are some, but nowhere near as many as a city like SF (duh).

I may be one of those crazy people that likes to sneak off in their free time while at work and look at things on the internet that people would typically walk by and question, but it's nothing perverse or frightening - it's food. People will walk by my little cubicle and see that I'm ALWAYS looking at some sort of food; recipes, pictures, ingredients, food blogs. You name it: if it has to do with food, I'll check it out.

So in my search today for some ideas for prosciutto-wrapped scallops - specifically, I would like some sauce ideas and was searching around here and there on the 'net - I stumbled across a new food blog that I'm going to have to stalk and follow along with.

Last Night's Dinner.net is reeeaally interesting. From what I've read (and I've only glanced between calls this morning), the blogger lives in New York. Some of the meals she posts about she comments on how they were 'quick and easy' to put together, and they're just things they had in their pantry and freezer. I'm envious! A lot of those recipes are seafood, and if I had seafood laying around like that all of the time, I'd be a geniunely happy camper. I prefer eating any and all types of seafood over red meats or even poultry any day (although now that I think about it, lamb might give many seafoods a run for their money).

Anyway. I thought I'd post the link for any other bored foodies out there that enjoy looking through pictures and reading about what other people are eating. I, myself, am stuck in a bit of a rut financially with my boyfriend, and haven't had very many exciting meals lately as a result.

This past weekend a girl I've started to hang out with here in Phoenix told her mother that I went to culinary school (in short, that I was a "chef") and her mom proceeded to get super excited and asked if I would ever cater a party for her. I told my new friend to make sure her mom understands that I've never actually been given the title of "chef", aside from my degree that states that, but I'd be happy to help cater a small event for her.

Pretty much, all she is looking for are italian-themed appetizers, and desserts. No main course. That would work just fine for me, because I already have three REALLY SIMPLE and easy ideas for appetizers, and two easy ideas for desserts.

Apps:

• Prosciutto-wrapped scallops, pan seared of course. Some sort of sauce, but it hasn't come to mind yet what to drizzle over them - maybe a fragrant olive oil with garlic and sundried tomato? Or maybe that'd be a bit overpowering with the salty pork flavor...
• Bruschetta. It's easy and yet the flavors can be so complex. Also, she's a mom...probably wanting me to cater a small home-sized party or event. Nothing fancy, and this is REALLY affordable to fit into a super small budget. Bread, tomato, and other spices and ingredients. Pretty simple.
• Panko-crusted and fried (baked?) mozzarella cheese. Fancier version of sticks. I'd use a full log of cheese (fresh), and since they're typically circular logs in grocery stores, I'd slice the circle in half and stand them up against each other above a homemade, spiced up marinara sauce. Probably with capers and tasty things in it, rather than just chunky, poopy marinara.

I think those are pretty simple to make and easy to eat - they're small-bite oriented, so it helps use less silverwear and people could mingle while eating instead of having to focus entirely on their food. You're at a small event with only appetizers and small desserts to be with the people, not really for the food. The food is supposed to compliment the company. At least, that's how I kind of see it as.

Desserts:

• Flourless chocolate torte. I would cut it big enough to place a fresh raspberry in the corner of the square, and still have space to pipe a small swirl or decorative marking on top of the ganache glaze. I would, obviously, serve my favorite dessert to make with my favorite sauce ever - raspberry sauce. However.. I'd want to buy some Chambord. For those unfamiliar with such an amazing alcohol, it's black raspberry liquer. It's AMAZING, and would make the sauce more rich.
• Creamy hazelnut cheesecake. This might have a dash of cocoa powder on top for something to dress it up, maybe a small pipe of freshly whipped cream. Either a chocolate coffee sauce, or the whipped cream would have chocolate powder and coffee liquor in it; either way, for the coffee flavor, it would definitely be Starbucks brand. Mmmmmboy.

As for additional desserts.. I'm contemplating individual zabaglione desserts that would be served in..possibly shot-glass sized portions? I wonder where I'd get small glasses to make the individual servings in, but I think that would also be cute. A small leaf of mint, a quick pipe of whipped cream, and maybe a bit of fresh strawberry one top...hm.

Any ideas? When you think of italian food, does anything come to anyone's minds for better appetizers or desserts? The cheesecake and chocolate tort I'd make in a SQUARE springform pan, and slice with a wet knife to keep them even and pretty. I'd turn them all into smaller square, so those are easy larger desserts to make into smaller portions. Same with the zabaglione. That's kind of what I'm trying to keep in mind.

And just as a note, I would appreciate any and all opinions or ideas on this. I don't care if you're not my friend on here or in my neighborhood - if you have any tips you'd like to share, please do. (Not that I think many people will stumble across this post.)