FoodB

We have made this recipe before and this time we learned from one big mistake in the ingredients. Pasta primavera is basically cooked vegetables mixed together with noodles. Pretty easy dish to make and pretty easy to eat as well. Jenn and I both really like eating this and on those nights when we don't really have much energy to cook, this makes an easy meal to throw together. By the way, the mistake we made the first time we made it was using the amount of Pepper that the recipe called for. Just put a little pepper in while cooking and add it later for taste. The recipe I used asked for somewhere around 2 Tbs of pepper which was just way to much. Also Jenn added eggplant to the recipe (leftovers from the night before) and it seemed liked a perfect addition. The tomatoes used in the recipe were grown in my very own garden. It's so great to see something you planted grow enough to be able to eat it. I just hope the corn I planted is able to survive this heat wave.

Here's the recipe:

Pasta Primavera

Posted by Gordon at 12:56 PM | Permalink

Jenn made another new recipe last night. She found a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis in the Everyday Italian cookbook that I gave her for Christmas called eggplant rollatini. Basically it is a long strip of eggplant rolled up with different cheeses in the middle with marinara sauce poured over top. I have to admit that it was not my favorite meal but Jenn really enjoyed it. Basically it is an eggplant parmesan deconstructed and put back together without frying. I think the frying is my favorite part of eggplant parmesan and the flavors of this dish just didn't do it for me. I blame Giada and not my wife though because she followed the recipe to the letter. Damn you Giada!

Here is a link to the recipe and if you are a die hard eggplant person this may be the missing link from your cookbooks. I wouldn't want someone not to try this either just because I didn't like it also. I like all of the ingredients, I just didn't like them this time.

Eggplant Rollatini

Tonight is Past Primivera which is also a recipe by Giada that we have tried before. This time we are going to go light on the pepper because the recipe asks for way to much.

Posted by Gordon at 12:17 PM | Permalink

So after a long weekend of walking and hotel cuisine, I find out that Jennifer has made a menu for the week and is going to be making dinner all this week. I was really burned out on cooking so it was a nice change for someone to offer to cook for me for the week. Usually we try to trade days that we cook just so we don't end up getting to tired through the week.

Last nights meal was Shrimp Thermidor over Paprika Butter Potatoes. From what I got from Jenn, these were two different recipes that she decided to merge together and the results were really good. The cheese from the shrimp went really well with the potatoes and made the whole meal feel like I was eating really fancy mac and cheese.

Here is the recipe:

Paprika Butter Potatoes
For 2 People, 1 1/2 lbs of small red potatoes (for more people 3 lbs)
1/2 stick of butter
2 Tsp Sweet Paprika
2 Tbsp Chopped Parsley
Salt and Pepper to taste
Olive Oil

1. Preheat oven at 420 degrees.
2. Wash the potatoes and peel if you'd like (cut any potatoes bigger than 2 inches in half).
3. Set potatoes on a roasting pan and lightly toss them in Olive Oil.
4. Sprinkle Salt and Pepper to taste.
5. Cook in oven for 20-25 minutes or until soft.
6. Melt butter in a small sauce pan, add Paprika and stir to combine.
7. Take the potatoes out of the oven and transfer to dish and toss in the Paprika Butter and sprinkle with Chopped Parsley

Shrimp Thermidor
1 lbs. Jumbo Shrimp (you could also use Lobster or Prawns)
2 Cloves Minced Garlic
1/2 Small White Onion, Chopped
4 Tsp butter (separate butter into 4 equal pieces)
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 Tbsp Flour
Splash of White Wine
1/2 Cup Milk
1 Tsp Sweet Paprika or Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 cup White Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Shredded
2 Tsp Parmesan Cheese
1/4 Cup Bread Crumbs
2 Tsp of Chopped Parsley

1. Peel the shrimp and devein. Chop up in equal chunks.
2. Cook chopped onions in 1 Tsp of butter until tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the shrimp and 3 Tsp of butter, garlic, salt & pepper & cook another 5 minutes or until pink
4. Add flour and cook for a minute or two.
5. Add the splash of white wine, milk and paprika or old bay seasoning and let it sit on the heat for just 1 minute.
6. Take off of heat and add the cheddar cheese.
7. Transfer to a casserole dish.
8. Add Parmesan cheese to the top and then Bread crumbs and Parsley. Add a dash of paprika on top.
9. Broil in the oven for 2-3 minutes.
10. Take out of the oven and serve these over the potatoes.

Posted by Gordon at 03:56 PM | Permalink

Once again I made my annual trip to Comic-Con down in San Diego. Since this is a food site and not a fanboy site I won't bore you with details on what Bill Willingham said about what was upcoming for Fables and try to focus on the food aspect of our trip.

This year mark the first time I attended a Con where I was married and had a budget in mind. I always noticed that my biggest expenditure outside of the hotel room was always eating. 3 Meals a day for 5 days can rack up a pretty hefty price tag considering we are staying close to the Gas Lamp district in San Diego and alcohol is never cheap. So with this all in mind I figured that I could take my crock pot and make at least 3 dinners and work out the rest when I got there.

So I made a menu consisting of Pot Roast, Pulled Pork sandwiches and Pasta Figole soup. The pot roast was the first thing that came to mind. Anytime I think about crock pots I always think of pot roast because it was the only thing I remember my mother making in the crock. I have had success in the past also with pulled pork and it is about the easiest recipe I have ever made since I used to microwave hotdogs when I got home from Junior High. The soup was a bit of a stretch though. I found a recipe online that mimicked the Olive Garden's Pasta Figole soup and have made it in the past. It is an easy soup to make but the amount of ingredients (somewhere around 20) made me think twice. I went ahead with the soup once I found out that my friend Dan was all for eating in the room and since he was driving I wouldn't end up carrying groceries 10 blocks.

First night there we got in around 3 and there was no time to cook. Once we picked up our badges and visited the preview night there was no way in hell that I was cooking. We all decided to head over to Kansas City Barbeque because it was steps away from our hotel. What a mistake. If you are a big fan of Top Gun the movie this is definitely your place to go (and if you are what the hell are you doing on my website?) otherwise I would advise to stay far, far away. I am generally more forgiving of BBQ restaurants because I know first hand how hard it is to serve good food to a large group of people when they are expecting it now. The moment we walked in the service was horrible. Comic-Con has been going on for sometime now and the local eateries are hip and hire extra help or get everyone to chip in on overtime. Feeding over 100,000 nerds for a weekend is no easy task. Yet this place had only 3 waitresses as far as I could tell and no busboys. It took us about an hour to get drinks and 2 hours to get food. We were all to tired to walk at that point and ended up toughing it out.

I ordered a sliced beef sandwich and the meat was dry. I have been learning about BBQ techniques now for about 2 years and know that there are very simple ways to keep the meat you are serving warm while not losing too much moisture. For a place that has been in business for over 20 years not to know these is unforgivable to me. Also the decor is pretty laughable. Back in the 80's they filmed the end of Top Gun in the bar area and ever since KC BBQ has been pimping that fact. If you have a good movie filmed at your establishment that is somewhat relative to modern times I could see spending a little on advertising that fact but to honor such a flashy no story action movie about American Cold War fighter pilots almost seems like a joke. I would love to see the Sherman Oaks Galleria with a banner that says that Commando was filmed here. Next time I am in San Diego and in need of BBQ I will go to Phil's BBQ instead.

I could go on with my complaints about this place because there are more but I am choosing to digress.

Thursday morning I made the soup. Being the most difficult item on the list I decided to get it out of the way first. To start I had to brown a pound of ground beef (tricky in hotel room with smoke detectors I might add). Once that is done I put it in the crock along with one chopped onion, a half a bag of peeled carrots (chopped in half), three stalks of chopped celery, 2 cloves of chopped garlic, 1 can of red kidney beans with juice, 1 can of great northern beans with juice, 1 can of tomato sauce, 2 can of chopped tomatoes, 2 Tsp of vinegar, and 1 12 oz. can of V-8 juice. I prepared the spices a head of time being a mixture of Oregano, Basil, Thyme, Salt, Pepper and Garlic Powder. I set it for 10 hours on low and headed of to the Con. I got back to the room about 4 o'clock and added some cooked macaroni and about 30 minutes later we had soup. I was pretty good and the only thing that would have made it better for me was a touch more salt. That was the one thing I forgot to bring to, Erg!

After cleaning the crock pot that night I decided to go for the easy recipe on Friday, Pulled Pork. Dan had brought some crock pot liners which really kick ass and made my life a lot easier. Go out and buy some if you ever use your crock pot because they cut down cleaning to about 2 minutes. For the pork I threw in a 4 pound boston blade butt roast and added a half a cup of vinegar as well as garlic powder and salt and pepper. All together I think it took me 30 seconds to put it all in and leave. Once again I set it to 10 hours on low and headed out. I got back later and the only thing I needed to do was shred the pork which because of the cooking time and amount of moisture produced was a snap. I pilled some of the pork onto a hamburger bun and poured BBQ sauce over it. Those were some pretty good sandwiches and if they weren't so unhealthy I would be eating them way more often. For those of you not into BBQ'ing as well this is a pretty easy way to fool your friends. Just add some liquid smoke to the recipe and brown it for about 2 minutes a side in a frying pan once finished and no one will really know the difference (except me of course).

Saturday I got sick and we were planning on going out to eat anyways, so I stayed in the room and ate dinner rolls left over from the soup night. Something has been wrong with my stomach for the last few weeks and I think that the amount of fresh fruit I was eating was doing funky things to me. Whatever it was it was not pleasant.

Sunday was the pot roast. Once again using Dan's magic crock pot bags, I threw in a 4 pound roast along with the rest of the carrots, some more chopped celery, and another chopped onion. For the spices I forget the mixture I used but if you are really in need of pot roast, just about anything will do as long as you don't add to much salt which will dry out the meat as you cook. After eating it I once again longed for a salt and pepper shaker (which I wasn't smart enough to go to any fast food place before I ate and partake in their condiments bar) but I still enjoyed it. A pretty good end to my little experiment. I plan on going camping pretty soon and hope to employ some of the lessons I learned on this trip as to preparing better and knowing your cooking environment.

Later today I will write up what my wife cooked up last night. Since starting this site she has been pulling out her A-game because she has been afraid of a bad review on here. All these great meals are going to make me one very happy fat man.

Posted by Gordon at 09:16 AM | Permalink

Well yesterday marked the second year of my marriage to my amazing wife. We celebrated by going to Vegas over the weekend and then going out to dinner last night.

In Vegas we dined at several places but only one is worth mentioning. The Crown and Anchor was a place that was recommended to me by a friend at work and we went there for lunch on Saturday. Apparently this is the place to see soccer matches when you are in Vegas and we got lucky and were able to avoid that spectacle.

The food is authentic English food and according to the locals, they have the best fish and chips around. Jenn and I have had a few bad experiences making our own fish and chips so we have been leery of ordering it. Jenn ordered Bangers and Mash (sausage and mashed potatoes for you Americanized folks) and I got the Lankenshire Hot Pot. The hot pot was pretty much a stew with gravy in it to thicken the broth along with beef, carrot, potatoes and celery. Looking back now, it might not have been such a good idea to order a hot stew when the temperature was over 110 degrees out but I really enjoyed it. I was able to eat a lot of Jenn's leftovers as well and hers was really good as well. The sausage was real sausage made from intestines and the beans were homemade as well. Really good stuff and I would suggest it if you ever find yourself in Vegas.

Monday we got dressed up and headed to 555 East in Long Beach. Jennifer really wanted Lobster and neither of us wanted to go somewhere like Red Lobster. I found this place through CitySearch and they got really good reviews and seemed to be the most reasonable priced place with lobster. Jennifer ordered the Australian Lobster tail and I got the Filet Mignon. My steak was amazing. It was really soft and practically melted in my mouth. I had a little of Jenn's lobster and it was really good as well. I'm not a big fan of shellfish so I wouldn't have ordered it myself and am happy I had the steak.

For dessert we had the chocolate soufflé. It was really good and I am going to have to find out how to make one. When I was eating it I told Jenn it was like the most kickass brownie I had ever had. Good stuff and I will keep you all informed on my progress in tracking down a recipe for something similar.

Jennifer surprised me after dinner with tickets to the Green Bay Packers when they play the Chargers in August. Really good tickets as well. So all in all I had a really good anniversary. After Comic-Con we should be able to get back to having a normal menu and we will try some new recipes.

Posted by Gordon at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Erg. It's hard to start a new blog the same month you have all sorts of things planned. Finding time to write just seems to be harder and harder. Luckily I work during the day so I get to slack off for 8 hours.

Either tonight or tomorrow I will write up my reviews of the places we went for Jenn and mine's 2 year anniversary. We went out to Vegas and ate at an English Pub called The Crown and Anchor and tonight we are going fancy and heading to 555 East in Long Beach.

Also later in the week I am heading off to my 10th annual trip to the San Diego Comic Convention. Since I am on a budget I am going to try and cook some of my meals in the hotel room via my kick ass crock pot. I should be able to save a few hundred dollars alone just on food bills. I will post those recipes when I get back next week and review what worked and what we ended up throwing out the window.

By the way, Vegas in summer is not a good idea. We went there during their biggest ehat wave of the year as well so it felt like we were the ones that were going to be served on a platter. Next year were are going to Greenland were it is cold.

Posted by Gordon at 11:53 AM | Permalink

Well I guess I hit my first bought of writers block. Actually last week was so hot that I was in no mood to write anything and I was in Victorville with my family for the weekend.

Last Monday Jenn made some cornish game hens. Game hens are immature chickens that you can buy in the frozen foods section and are great if you are cooking for a smaller crowd. Jenn and I usually split one of them between us and we don't end up with as many leftovers as we would if we cooked up a whole chicken. Plus I get her to make it all the time because then I know she will make the corn bread stuffing which is one of my favorite things taht she cooks. Here is the recipe that she uses (she worte this down from memory too so you can tell how often I ask for this meal).

Rock Cornish Game Hens

Ingredients:
1 Cornish Game Hen
2 Tbsp. Cooking Oil
1 Tsp. Paprika
1/2 Tsp. Cumin
1/4 Tsp. Salt

Preheat oven: 350

1. Cut the game hen in half cutting with kitchen scissors up the spine and up through the middle of the chest area.
2. Clean out the excess blood and membranes.
3. Dry the bird halves with a paper towel.
4. Lay the halves of the hens in a casserole dish with the skin side facing up.
5. Mix together Cooking Oil, Paprika, Cumin and Salt and brush over the game hens. (Make sure to get the brush under the skin for flavor).
6. Put game hen halves in the oven covered for 35 minutes. After the 35 minutes take out of the oven and uncover the game hens and add the stuffing.

Corn Bread Stuffing

Ingredients:
2 Cups Crumbled Corn Bread
1/4 Cup Chopped Green Onions
1/4 Cup Chopped Sweet Bell Pepper
2 Tbsp. Dried Currents (or raisins)
1/2 Tbsp. Ground Sage
1 Tbsp. Melted Butter
1/2 Cup Chicken Broth

Cornbread tip: You can either buy your cornbread pre-maid, but if you want to go all out with cooking it by scratch. Make sure to get the white corn meal and to follow the sweet cornbread recipe on the side of the box.

1. Mix together crumbled corn bread, green onions, sweet bell pepper, dried currents and sage.
2. Drizzle on the melted butter and slowly add the chicken broth making sure not to dump into one place.
3. Gently toss the mixture and set in a casserole dish.
4. Bake this uncovered for 25 minutes.

Stuffing Tip: Orange Bell Peppers are probably the best for this recipe, they tend to be the most tender and sweetest and go perfectly with the sweet cornbread and the dried currents.

We have made the corn bread stuffing for just about any occasion and goes well with everything from BBQ to Christmas ham. The birds themselves are always moist and tasty. I believe that because of the size of the bird and the amount of bones that there isn't much of a chance for it to dry out like most poultry does when you cook them. Also be prepared to get your hands messy when you make this because there is no easy way to eat a piece of chicken that small.

Posted by Gordon at 02:06 PM | Permalink

Seems odd to blow things up in celebration but that didn't stop me from lighting off a good portion on my friends Nate's 4th arsenal. Fire is fun!

Speaking of fire, for the Fourth BBQ that we went to, I got to cook up some chicken. As I always do, I went to Plowboys to see what selection they had for grilling. I didn't really feel like shelling out for beef and I've never cooked pork on a grill, so chicken it was. They had leg and thigh pieces for about $1.25 a pound so I was able to get three of them for about $4.00. They have a pretty good selection of pre-marinated meats as well but I decided against that because I did just start a food blog and it wouldn't look to good if I wasn't at least trying to find new recipes to make.

To prepare the chicken parts, I brined them for an hour and a half. The brine consisted of 6 cups of water, 6 Tbs. of kosher salt and 3/4 of a cup of brown sugar. This is a pretty basic brine that you can use on any poultry or pork or just about anything you want to. For those of you that don't know what brining is, basically it's a way to add moisture and spices into pieces of meat that will tend to dry out when it is cooked in high heat. Chicken and pork really do well after brining and I have yet to hear a complaint. The only thing you want to watch out for after brining is that you don't want to add to much more salt to the meat because it has already absorbed a lot of salt through the process and nobody but my wife likes a lot of salt on their meat.

After that came the marinade. I tried looking up some poultry rubs but had no success online. Seems everyone likes to add a lot of hot spices to rubs and my wife can't eat really spicy food so my only option was to make one from scratch. I started off chopping some fresh oregano, parsley and a bit of rosemary and mixed it together with some ponzu (Japanese citrus vinegar) and mirin (Japanese rice wine). I was trying to get an asian flavor because I've eaten enough BBQ chicken that I really need to experiment more so I don't end up hating chicken. That tasted all right but could have used something extra so back to the drawing board. I just started adding things to the marinade and seeing if I could improve the flavor. I added paprika (my eternal secret ingredient, don't tell anyone), ground ginger, sugar, and a touch of hoisin sauce and that was the final mixture I went with. There was a lot of adjusting of the flavors by what I was tasting so I don't have the exact amounts of what I put into it. I dumped all of that into a freezer bag as well as the chicken and refrigerated it until we left.

Once the chicken was on I mixed together a BBQ glaze that Jenn had heard about somewhere on TV of Hoisin sauce (Chinese BBQ sauce) and marmalade. I mixed 2 parts hoisin sauce to 1 part marmalade and that seemed to be a pretty good balance of the flavors. I glazed the chicken about 5 minutes before it was ready to be pulled off of the grill and let the sugars caramelize a little. From experience, you don't want to add the sauce onto a piece off meat until you are about ready to pull it off of the grill. You just burn off all of the flavor and end up using more sauce in to get that flavor back. Save your money and wait to sauce your meat.

I thought the chicken was really good. The meat was really moist and the sauce really went well with it. I'm thinking about using that sauce in the future as a dipping sauce for other things such as egg rolls or chicken tenders. I had cooked up some corn as well and it was very sweet and went well with everything we were eating.

Other people at the party brought food as well that I was able to sample. I tried the asparagus, beans and chocolate pie and enjoyed them all. We had a really fun fourth and enjoyed hanging out with friends and good food. It was great as well to beat the heat and jump into the pool.

Jenn cooked up some Cornish Game Hens the day before and I will try to write about that later tonight when I get a chance.

Posted by Gordon at 10:42 AM | Permalink

Friday Jenn and I decided to go out to eat. Just coming off going to The Taste of Anaheim (see last post) we had a few new choices on places we could dine at. The only one that really stood out was Catal Restaurant in Downtown Disney, so off to the land of mouse we went.

We got there after seeing Superman and the place was pretty much empty, yet they still asked us to wait. We got to our seat and had to wait another 7 minutes for a waiter to take our drink orders. We weren't in a rush so neither of us really cared. The menu selection was pretty good. There were at least 5 things I was thinking about ordering. I settled on the lamb shank with moroccan spices. Oddly enough, so did Jenn. We don't really get to eat lamb much so I think that is why we both settled on that choice.

The meal came and it was a pretty good chunk of meat. It was very tender and I think it was braised. The moroccan spices seemed to be nutmeg and cinnamon which I always find odd things to put on meat. But having said that I really enjoyed it. It was very tender and neither of us really needed knives.

All in all I like Catal but I was hoping for something a little more Mediterranean. The price was a little on the expensive side so it might be a special occasion thing. Also if you go, try to get there at 9 and sit outside. The firework show goes on at 9:30 and it was really nice to watch it while we were eating.

So if anybody knows any good greek or arabic places in Orange County please write a comment. I haven't had good falafel in awhile and Daphne's just isn't doing it for me in the greek department.

Today I played some subliminal mind games on Jenn. I really wanted to eat BBQ today and I had a couple of BBQ cookoff shows taped on my tivo, so when Jenn woke up she watched them with me. A couple of hours later she was suggesting to me that we go get some BBQ. Yes I'm evil but I did confess everything to her.

We had just seen a commercial for The Tulsa Rib Company in Orange and we went there. I was thinking about cooking myself but it's been so dang hot that I figured since I've been suffering from heat exhaustion the last few weeks that I had better lay off the open flames for at least another week.

As a rule, if a place has the name of one of the items that they serve in there restaurant name, I have to order that item. Example: If I went to a place called the World Greatest Bagels, I'm not going to order doughnuts. So I got the rib combo splitting between the spicy and smoked ribs. The ribs were really good and fell off the bone, the sign of good BBQ. I couldn't really differentiate between the spicy and smoked ribs though. I think I was supposed to add the sauce on the side that they gave me and that would make the ribs spicy (which it didn't). This has been the first place I have been to that has had really good ribs and I will be heading back there if I am ever to tired to BBQ again.

Posted by Gordon at 08:35 PM | Permalink