Kitchen Renovations

Ah my legions of blog followers, you might have been wondering what has been up with the lack of blog updates? Well, my kitchen is what is up. I moved into a new house but the new house's kitchen was crap. Crap full of crappy crap crapitude. OLD electric stove in which the burners aren't even level. Old refrigerator that will allow foods to get warm and then freeze them solid. Cabinets with flaking off wood paneling. Ugly. Sad. This is unacceptable for foodies like myself and my husband so we are doing a total kitchen remodel. Yup. Total. New floor, appliances, cabinets, counter tops. You name it, it's getting replaced. Here are the 'before' pictures of the kitchen.

The dishwasher didn't work. There is no garbage disposal. There's this weird desk thing featured in the picture to the right. In a kitchen this size, why oh why have a built in desk??? The back splash is a cream colored square tile...or maybe it's just dirty.

So what's the plan?

White shaker style cabinets

granite counter tops

a white farm sink

awesome gas stove

good side by side refrigerator

garbage disposal

new dishwasher

black wood slate floors

It's gonna be sweeeeeeeet. This weekend is the big demo of the current nasty cabinets and floors. The new floor is going to be installed early next week and then the cabinets and then the appliances. Can't wait!!! Stay tuned for the results.

Three Soup Sunday

The air is getting crisp, the sweaters are being brought out, and the farmer's markets are stuffed with brightly colored gourds, apples, pears, and jarred goods. It's the beginning of fall! In the fall, like most people, I'm attracted to spicy scents, warm liquids, and rich comfort foods. Thus why I spent Sunday making three different soups: carrot with fresh ginger, roasted red pepper, and beet and fennel.

Carrot and Fresh Ginger Soup

Ingredients
7 cups chicken, or vegetable stock
2 pounds fresh carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed

1 yellow onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 tablespoons butter
1 (3-inch) piece fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pint heavy cream (optional)

I found this recipe on foodnetwork.com but I made some changes. The original recipe called for 3 leeks instead of 1 onion. I've made the soup both ways, and I can't tell the difference and leeks are expensive and a pain to clean. I also use vegetable stock with this recipe and I think that allows the carrots to be front and center instead of sharing the spotlight with chicken. Also, the time before this that I made this soup I managed to clog up our pipes so badly with the carrot peelings that my husband had to take apart the kitchen plumbing. Now I use baby carrots and viola, no peeling and no cussing pissed off husband covered in water, God knows what, and carrot peels.

Peel and chop all of your veggies into one inch cubes or so and saute with 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet with salt and nutmeg until veggies are softening and acquire some color. I actually had to use two large skillets, there are so many veggies and after 10 minutes to get some color on the veggies, I put the lids on to aid in softening for another 10 minutes. Add your grated ginger at the end and don't stir it around because it always falls to the bottom of the skillet and burns, so I just leave it on top for a couple minutes. Bring stock to a strong simmer in a large stock pot. Add veggies and simmer for 30 minutes or until veggies are really really soft. Allow this to cool and then transfer the soup to a blender. Now I know what you are thinking. "Why should I allow this to cool? I'll just be careful." Okay, this stuff is napalm right now. Imagine sloshing it over the sides onto your hands, the sweet potatoes sticking to your skin...ow! Plus, half the time I blend stuff, it overflows. This is not the time to see how much pick up your Bounty paper towels actually has. Okay, so we all together on that 'let it cool' bit? Good. Once you've blended this stuff in batches (it won't all fit in the blender together), mix it back together in your stock pot and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a splash of heavy cream.

I freakin' love this soup. I've made it at least 5 times now. It's actually really easy-saute, simmer, blend. It also freezes perfectly, just leave the cream out until you've thawed it and are ready to eat. It's also good without the cream if you are out, but who ever is without heavy cream in their fridge?! Certainly not I! Also, this is a fantastic homemade Soup-At-Hand. Because it is blended, you can simply drink it on the go!

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Ingredients:

4 red peppers, seeded and chopped

1 yellow or white onion, chopped

2 large carrots or 10 baby carrots, peeled and chopped

4 stalks of celery, chopped

1-3 tablespoons olive oil

1 can crushed tomatoes

2 cups chicken stock or veggie stock

2 tablespoons basil

2 ounces vodka or 1/4 cup dry white wine

pinch red pepper flake

salt to taste

1 pint heavy cream (optional)

Heat your oven to 400 degrees and line a 12X8 cake pan in foil. Toss in your red peppers, onion, carrots, and celery and drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. Toss to coat. Roast veggies for 45 minutes. Add the canned tomatoes and roast for another 15-30 minutes. Veggies should look soft and have some brown around the edges. Remove the veggies and add them to a large stock pot and heavy over medium heat. Add the vodka or wine CAREFULLY. (Whenever adding something with an alcohol content, be aware that shit is flammable, and the more alcohol content you have, the higher the risk of a flame up. So, if you are cooking on gas, turn off the fire until the alcohol is safely in the stock pot. Always keep a fire extinguisher around and always keep the lid of the pot around for quick flame snuffing. Just remember to be smart enough to keep yourself off of the msnbc website..."Woman Lights Self On Fire Making Soup!" Not a good way to get your 15 minutes of fame.) Allow to simmer for a couple minutes. Add the stock and the red pepper flake. If you like spicy soup, add a little more, if you like mild soup, add a little less. Take the pot off the heat and allow to cool before transferring to the blender. Toss your basil into the bottom of the blender and pour in the soup. Blend until smooth. Add salt to taste. Serve with a splash of cream.

I'd just like to note that I made this recipe all on my own. Yep. It's a Linda Original and it is damned good. Best roasted red pepper soup I've ever had, if I say so myself. And I do say so myself because it's my blog and that's the point of blogging.

Beet and Fennel Soup

Ingredients
3 medium beets
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onions, sliced
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 large fennel bulbs (sometimes called anise), sliced thin

1/4 cup water
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup apple juice or apple cider

Peel the beets and wrap in foil and bake at 400 degrees for about an hour and a half. Take out and allow to cool to the touch, then chop.

Slice onions and cook with the vegetable oil and fennel seeds in a large stock pot over medium high heat until onions start to soften, about 5-10 minutes. Add sliced fennel bulbs and water and cook covered until fennel is very soft 15-20 minutes, stirring often. Add the stock and the beets and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes and add the apple cider. Allow to cool and then transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Serve with an optional splash of cream.

I got this recipe on foodnetwork.com but I made some changes. I used apple cider instead of orange juice and I cut down the portions because, damnit, one bulb of fennel was $3.50 and the original recipe called for THREE! I don't have $10 to put into one ingredient!

Okay, so I don't like beets. I made that clear in a past posting but beets are So Pretty! The color is gorgeous, deep rich red so dark it's practically purple. They are the jewels of the veggie world! So this was my final try to like beets. I like fennel. I like apple cider and onions and every other ingredient. So the verdict...ehhhhhhh. It's okay. The soup is just okay. If you like beets, I bet you'll love this soup. It's a little sweet to me but I think it'd be a delightful starter for a meal. A cup of beet and fennel soup with a splash of cream, yum. But I doubt I'll make it again for myself.

So there you have it, three soup Sunday. What are your favorite soups?

Quick Tip

It's tomato season!!! Very little excites me more than tomato season-except maybe the idea of a threesome with Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart-but I digress.

As noted before, I'm busy busy busy. Refinishing floors, play practice, work etc. Food remains a high priority for me and I've had to get really creative to eat well because all of my cookware is packed in a POD on my front lawn. It's terrible. I miss my tongs! Yet nothing will stop me from enjoy tomato season. NOTHING! Here is a nice little tip for a lunch salad. In the morning, slice some tomatoes into bite size pieces (I really like using cherry tomatoes and cutting them in half for this application) and place in a small plastic baggie. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Pack up some salad greens into a Tupperware container. By lunch, the salt will have pulled some of the tomato juice from the tomatoes, creating a lovely little tomatoy-olive olivey syrup in the bottom of the baggie. Pour the tomatoes and the syrup over your greens. Enjoy!

I love the simplicity of greens, tomatoes, salt, pepper, and olive oil, but if you like a few more flavors, add some of your favorite herbs- rosemary would be nice, and/or some vinegar of choice to the marinade.

Since it is tomato season, I'll also give you my aunt's recipe for oven roasted tomatoes. I use this every time I have too many tomatoes and I need to get them into storage.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

8-15 medium sized tomatoes, cut into chunks and lightly squeezed over the sink to remove most of the seeds and some of the juice

1 onion, sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 315 degrees. Toss all of the above into an 8X12 casserole dish, stir to combine and evenly distribute. Bake 2 hours or until a good deal of the juice has cooked out and the tips of the veggies are slightly darker. Allow to cool. Pour into a freezer bag and label and freeze.

You can add any flavors you like to this. Toss in a red pepper! Add basil! More onion? Less garlic? No problem. This is a customizable recipe if ever there was one. Also, you might like it baked longer or shorter, experiment with temperatures if you like. It's easy easy easy.

During the winter, I mainly use this as a sauce for pasta. I'm sure it would be good in chili, stuffing for meat, spooned over chicken...the sky is the limit.

Long Time No See

I have been in the middle of moving. I will return in a few weeks! Sorry to my legions of loyal readers!

Here is a quick soup recipe that I made last night.

Lentil Soup

3/4 cup of lentils (color isn't important, but I used green)
4 cups chicken stock
2 carrots chopped fine
2 cloves garlic chopped
1/2 yellow onion chopped
3 slices of bacon chopped
couple sprigs of thyme
handful of spinach

In a large sauce pan or stock pot cook bacon until starting to crisp over medium to medium high heat. Add in your onion and carrot and cook for 5 minutes or until veggies start to get soft. Add garlic for another couple minutes. Add lentils and allow them to cook for a minute or two. Pour in stock and toss in your thyme. Simmer for 30 minutes or until lentils are soft. Remove thyme stems. Throw in your spinach and take soup off of heat. Mmm Mmm Good!

A Good Rant

I was inspired by a blog that I sometimes follow. While I disagree personally with the food philosophy behind the blog, I'm all for whatever works for people. The blog can be found here: http://tastesgreatnofat.blogspot.com/ The blogger references a great article found in the New York Times by my favorite food writer Michael Pollan who authored The Omnivore's Dilemma. Here is a link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/magazine/02cooking-t.html?ref=todayspaper

The article gives a lot of facts, such as the average American spends 27 minutes a day on food preparation. We average somewhere around 4.5 hours watching TV a day. 27 minutes?! There is so much emphasis on time saving. I remember deciding that I wanted mashed potatoes and I was shocked to find out that it took to make mashed potatoes was boiling some potatoes, adding milk, butter, salt, and pepper and smashing them. But surely it's much more difficult! There are boxes and boxes of instant potatoes, containers of pre-made mashed potatoes that cost $3.50 for 2 servings! Surely we wouldn't be spending so much time and effort on avoiding something so easy and simple! Alas, this is the case as evidenced by frozen PB and J sandwiches. Really? Really?! It's that hard to slap some peanut butter and jelly on some bread?! How much time are you honestly saving?

People will say "I don't have time to cook". That's untrue. The truth is that you chose not to have time to cook. Yes, it might take a little planning ahead, but you do have time. Like any new habit it can be hard to get into, but you can do it just like you stopped chewing your nails in 11th grade. It can be done, but you have to want to do it. Reference to my last blogging post, right now I'm spending 40 hours a week working, 12-16 hours a week in rehearsal, coordinating selling a house and buying a house, and I'm going to be moving in 3 weeks. I work from 9:00am until 6:00pm and then go straight to rehearsal from 6:30pm until 9:30pm. No time to cook right? My only option is fast food, right? WRONG. Last night I made my Crazy Good Veg-tastic Pasta for dinner and made enough for 3 additional meals. I made zucchini muffins for snacks and breakfasts. Last week I made 6 servings of carrot soup and froze it. I also sliced up cucumbers, carrots, and watermelon and put it in baggies for a quick snack. I bought lunch meat, cheese, and rolls for on-the-run meals or snacks. It takes some forethought but it's 100% possible to be busy and still cook for yourself.

People will say "It's cheaper to eat out". Bullshit. Plain bullshit. I even saw a commercial for KFC where a family of 4 were trying to make a fried chicken dinner for less than what they could purchase it for at KFC. Usually when you cook you have leftovers which are good lunches for the next day, so boom, so calculate in the $6.50 you'd normally spend for a Wendy's number 1. Plus, the cost to your health is unmeasurable! How much would you pay me if I could magically whisk away 20 pounds of fat off of your body? $100? $500? $1000? People spend $50 a month for Alli, a weight loss pill that makes you shit your pants if you eat fat. Why not spend that $50 on some damn broccoli? Plus, the increased health care costs you are going to pay over the course of your life, not to even mention pain and suffering from health problems! Eating poorly is hugely expensive when you take into account the entire cost of it which includes health care costs, time off of work, medications to lower your skyrocketing blood pressure and cholesterol, etc. Eating at home is not expensive. A bag of apples costs around $2.50 and can be eaten raw, simmered with some butter, sugar, and cinnamon to make dessert or a side dish, or minced and stuffed into chicken or pork. Bananas are less than 50 cents a pound. A carton of eggs can be purchased for under a dollar. You can shop the chicken sales like I do and freeze the chicken you can't get to this week.

You think about the energy people spend on keeping themselves germ free- the antibacterial soaps, gels, foams, paper covers, etc., and yet people will shove Taco Bell into their mouths?! Taco freakin' Bell. You KNOW that shit is going to make you sick, but golly make sure to wash your hands before you eat it.

My absolute favorite response is when people say "I don't cook" as if this is some sort of feminist statement or something to be proud of. Cooking is beneath these people. I get it if someone says, "I don't like to cook". I don't like to clean, but like cooking, it simply must be done in order to live well. I know lots of people who enjoy cleaning, but I HATE it and maybe someday I can pay someone to do it for me, but right now I have to do it myself. The same with cooking. Why are you buying into this idea that a corporation can feed you better than you can feed yourself? Why is what goes into your body such a low priority to you? What can possibly be more important than keeping yourself strong and healthy and whole?

I understand when people say "I don't know how to cook" or "I'm a bad cook". Practice, practice, practice. How did I learn to cook a chicken breast? I tried it and did it. How did I learn to chop onions? I picked up an onion and a knife and I pressed the knife against the onion again and again. Are some people better at cooking than other people? Yes. Can any adult with an average IQ learn to cook many different dishes adequately? Yes.

This is my favorite passage from the Times article: "The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower its rate of obesity. In fact, the amount of time spent cooking predicts obesity rates more reliably than female participation in the labor force or income. Other research supports the idea that cooking is a better predictor of a healthful diet than social class: a 1992 study in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that poor women who routinely cooked were more likely to eat a more healthful diet than well-to-do women who did not." I feel like I'm in a black church choir-HALLELUJAH! PRAISE JESUS! PREACH IT BROTHER POLLAN! Can you be healthy and eat out a majority of the time? I don't know, but if it is possible, it's going to be really hard and really expensive.

If you read the article, one thing I disagree with is the vilifying of Food Network. I'm one of those people that Pollan says don't exist- I learned to cook watching Food Network. More than that, I learned to be passionate about food watching Food Network. Growing up, cooking consisted of opening a can of corn and "zapping" it in the microwave. I had no idea you could grill corn. I had no idea peas were actually delicious, not the sad mush that comes out of cans! Watching Food Network showed me that cooking is real, do-able, fun, and accessible. I'm inspired by Iron Chef. I love that 30-Minute Meals exist because that is Real Cooking despite what Pollan says. She chops her own garlic, sweats onions, and makes her own salad dressings. If everyone would make 30 Minute Meals the world would be a better place-or at least Americans would be less fat.

Or maybe this is my favorite passage which perfectly sums up a big part of food philosophy. “I have the diet for you. It’s short, and it’s simple. Here’s my diet plan: Cook it yourself. That’s it. Eat anything you want — just as long as you’re willing to cook it yourself.”

What to do with all of those ^(#"&%@ zucchini!

First, allow me to apologize. I've been MIA lately. I've got a lot going on. I've been to NYC and back, sold a house, purchased a house, in the process of moving, in a community theatre musical, helping a young girl move into college, and helping 2 people with wedding planning. Oh, and working. I have still been cooking but I haven't been good about taking pictures or blogging about it.

Okay, that's out of the way. My CSA has been very very interesting. I've gotten about 8 cucumbers and double that amount of summer squash-zucchini, yellow squash, and some bizarre white squash that is round with scalloped edges. I've gotten lots of other stuff today, but today we are focusing on the summer squash.

Summer squash doesn't have very much taste all on it's own. It's crisp, watery, fresh and green tasting. It's great in veggie trays, but other than dipped in Hidden Valley, what else can be done with it?

Marinated Zucchini

2 zucchini cut into 1/2 inch thick disks

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cloves garlic minced

2 tablespoons dry white wine

couple large pinch salt and pepper

handful of herbs chopped- I used rosemary and flat leaf parsley

Marinate for at least 20 minutes or up to an hour. If you want to marinate longer, leave out the salt and pepper until the end. Grill zucchini over medium high heat for about 10 minutes per side, or until desired softness.

Okay, okay, I'll admit, this recipe is kind of my Go To method for cooking veggies that I don't know much about. I mean, come on, olive oil, wine, garlic, and herbs- what can possibly go wrong???

This would also be amazing with balsamic vinegar instead of white wine or using yellow squash or the freaky white crazy squash.

Crazy Good Veg-tastic Pasta

1 medium zucchini or yellow squash or freaky white orb squash chopped into 1 inch cubes

2 bell peppers of any color (I like red) chopped into 1 inch squares

1 yellow onion chopped into squares

3 cloves garlic minced

1 pound of penne pasta

4 ounces of pancetta

1 jar of marinara sauce

2 ounces of heavy cream

pinch red pepper flake

salt to taste

Start some water boiling in a stock pot over high heat. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat with olive oil to coat the bottom. Cut the pancetta into 1 inch squares and add to the pan. Once the pancetta starts to crisp, add the onions and the peppers to the pain and soften for 10 minutes or so, or until the onions start taking on some deeper color. Add the garlic and the squash. Drop your penne into the boiling water after adding a healthy pinch of salt. Pour the marinara sauce over the veggies and stir to combine. Allow sauce to simmer while pasta cooks. When pasta has 2 minutes left, add the heavy cream and red pepper flake. Toss cooked pasta with sauce and serve.

I love this pasta. I usually add some chunks of mozzarella and grated Romano to the top. Delish.

Zucchini Muffins

1 box bran muffin mix (I used Kroger brand) that is around 14 oz-19 oz

2 egg whites

1 1/4 cup shredded zucchini

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

3/4 cup apple juice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup dried cinnamon-sugar apples (I found them in the baking section with the dried cranberries and raisins on the top shelf in little individual packets...awesomely delicious.)

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Dice up your dried apples. Combine all of the ingredients and mix well. Prep your muffin tin either by using muffin papers or by spraying it with Pam. You should get 12 muffins out of your batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean from the muffins.

This recipe I found on foodnetwork.com http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/semi-homemade-cooking-with-sandra-lee/moist-zucchini-bran-muffins-recipe/index.html with 2 exceptions that I made. One, I used Kroger brand bran muffins instead of Sun-Maid because Kroger didn't carry Sun-Maid bran muffin mix. The Sun-Maid muffin mix was about 18 ounces and my Kroger brand was 14 ounces, so I only used a half cup apple juice and it worked out very well. Second, I used dried cinnamon apples instead of raisins. Use whatever dried fruit you think sounds good. My cinnamon apples were amazing but I bet plain dried apples would be good too. These muffins are going to be breakfast all week long.

I feel pretty good about my uses of summer squash so far. Now to tackle those cucumbers. Any ideas?????

What to do with all of these #%*@$ greens!

Something deeply disturbing and unexpected has happened. I am growing sick and tired of greens. Any greens. Greens to be wilted, slow cooked, eaten raw, sauteed, boiled, or baked...my eyes are turning green from the over abundance of greens in my life. And yet my refrigerator remains stocked full of greens-swiss chard, beet greens, salad mix and heads of lettuce. Who is to blame? My CSA...or perhaps mother nature. The weather has been such that my farm is mainly producing greens. I have also gotten some onions, beets, and radishes.

Okay, so what to do with all of these greens? I got a little creative...

Chicken Rigatoni
1 large chicken breast
1/2 pound rigatoni pasta
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup chicken stock
1 pinch red pepper flake (or to taste)
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 large bunch beet greens with stems
1 medium onion sliced thinly
2 ounces pancetta diced small
parmigiana or Romano cheese

Start water in a stock pot set to boil. Pan sear chicken breast in olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper. Cut into bite sized chunks and set aside. In a large skillet render the fat from the pancetta over medium high heat, once pancetta is close to crispy, add the onion and saute until soft. Add the minced garlic and saute a little longer. Deglaze the pan with the white white and loosen the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken stock and red pepper flake and bring the sauce to a simmer. If you have reached a boil on your pasta water, this is a good time to drop the pasta. Chop the stems from the greens into inch long pieces and add to the sauce and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Roughly chop the greens and carefully fold the greens in. It will look like you have far too many greens but they will wilt down about 80%. When the greens are starting to wilt, add the chicken back in to warm it up. The sauce will not be a thick sauce. It will be thin but super flavorful. Add salt to taste. Toss with the cooked rigatoni. Top with lots of Romano or parmigiana cheese. This served 2 people with leftovers.

This is a super delicious pasta that I probably would have never come up with if necessity hadn't forced me along the path to creativity. The beet stems are sweet and crisp and the greens are just a little bitter in a way that plays well with others. You could also use spinach or chard or some other wilting green, but then you wouldn't get the stems. Speaking of chard...

Italian Quesadilla

4 burrito sized tortillas (I used flour but I think sun dried tomato or spinach would be awesome)
2 yellow onions
1 splash of balsamic vinegar
1 small to medium tomato- seeded and thinly sliced
2 handfuls of mozzarella or fontina cheese- grated
1 small bunch of swiss chard
8-10 leaves of basil

Caramelize the onions in a tablespoon or so of olive oil. I am picky about caramelizing my onions. I do it low and slow, attempting not to get any cooked brown spots on them, but attempting to make the sugars warm and cook inside the onions. Stir often and be patient. Remove the stems from the chard. Also remove the spine but folding over the leaf and slicing it out of the middle. Roughly chop the chard. When the onions are golden brown, add a splash of balsamic vinegar and some salt and pepper. Fold in the chard and allow to wilt down. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and place one tortilla in it and spoon in a thin layer of the onions and chard. Top with thin slices of the tomato, ripped basil, and half of the cheese. Place other tortilla on top of the mixture. Cook long enough that the bottom tortilla is golden brown in some places and flip carefully or else the mixture will come tumbling out! Brown the second side and repeat for the second quesadilla.

I think this would be delicious with a little Italian salsa...maybe some diced tomatoes, olive oil, basil, parsley, red onion, black olives all chopped up fine with some salt and pepper. But that's not how I served it. I served it plain and it was still delicious. Lots and lots of very rich full flavors.

That has been the method to my green madness. Any clever ideas from my legions of loyal readers?

par-tay sushi style

Each spring I think to myself that this summer I won't let it pass me by. I'll do all of those things I think about doing in the winter. I'll do yoga outside in my yard. I'll go paddle boating on the canal. I'll have parties at my house. This year I actually did number 3. I did number 1 too, but it was terrible. The mosquitoes feasted on downward facing dog, flies buzzed in my ears when I was attempting inner peace. It was terrible, take it from me, do yoga inside. Back to number 3; I had a sushi party for my camp girls and a few other people. My camp girls are the girls I met when I was, oh, 12 or so at summer camp and we've been friends ever since.

The theme of the party was make your own sushi. I provided sushi fixin's:

1 pound sushi grade tuna

1/2 pound cooked salmon grilled on a cedar plank and shredded

1 chicken breast cooked with ginger and soy sauce cooked and shredded

soy papers instead of sea weed

carrots cut into matchsticks

avocado thinly sliced

cucumber cut into match sticks

spicy sauce (I actually made my own spicy sauce. I couldn't find it pre-made and the woman at the asian market told me how to make it myself. It takes about 1/3 cup asian mayo, 2 tablespoons rice cooking wine, 5 drops sesame seed oil, and 2 teaspoons what looks like dried asian red pepper flake spice mix...the writing on it is Chinese, so I can't tell you the name.)

I wanted to have some sides, so I made a goat cheese and tomato tart. Okay. It totally goes against the theme but who cares? It's a goat cheese and tomato tart! I got the recipe from food network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/tomato-and-goat-cheese-tarts-recipe/index.html

My friend Michelle was also so kind as to pick up a couple orders of crab rangoon from the nearest Chinese strip mall carry out. Why do all of those places have the exact same menu? Does it worry anyone else? I have visions of a Chinese mafia scheme...

Oh! And the beverage of the evening! How could I almost forget to talk about the alcohol?!

The Perfect Mojitos

(to be made in a pint glass)

2 shots of white rum (I use bacardi)

1 cup of club soda

the juice of 1 lime with half of it cut into wedges and tossed in the glass

5-10 mint leaves torn

cane sugar simple syrup to taste (to make a simple syrup simmer 1 part water with 2 parts sugar. I used cane sugar or raw sugar for my mojito syrup)

serve over ice

These are damn good mojitos, damn good.

The sushi was amazing. I thought that maybe sushi restaurants had some ancient asian wisdom magic to make it so delicious. I man, it's so simple. soy paper, sushi rice, veggies, fish, and maybe a sauce. I made myself some spicy tuna rolls and it is as good as anything I've had in any sushi place. Okay, maybe it wasn't as pretty and maybe it kind of fell apart when I dipped it in my soy sauce and I had sushi soy sauce soup, but it was incredibly delicious. The tomato-goat cheese tart was also delicious and very impressive looking as well. It was very very rich and I might use half of the amount of goat cheese and double the tomato. Take note, this may be the first time in my life that I actually reduced the amount of cheese in something.

Dessert was a chocolate ganache cake. I baked it myself. Totally. Seriously. I did. I swear. I also purchased a cake box to put it in and I made a dark chocolate square to sit in the middle of the cake, and I painted the words The Fresh Market in white chocolate. I also printed off a fake price tag to stick on the box. Yep. I slaved over that cake.

Sieze the summer before it's gone and it's cold and nasty and all you want to do is eat pig fat fried in pig fat while watching CSI reruns.

Shanghi Lil

I can't think of too many things that makes me feel happier than a good meal with my husband. Not so long ago Brian was what we might term 'a picky eater'. According to his mother, he would eat little more than hot dogs, mac and cheese, and Honey Nut Cheerios. While I did not start his epiphany into the wonderful world of food, I fancy myself a catalyst in the way gasoline might be considered a catalyst to a fire. I would have burned his ass up had he not expanded his palate. Now he uses words like 'mouthfeel' and 'layering of flavors', and other sexy phrases. We enjoy eating together and discussing the food and dare I say it-trying new things.

I pass Shanghai Lil on my way to Kohl's for the world famous Kohl's Extravaganza shopping trip with my mom whenever one of us get the 30% off coupon in the mail. For some reason I had the impression that Shanghai Lil is really expensive, and compared to strip mall takeout Chinese places it is, but considering the level of the deliciousness that far exceeds any General Tso's chicken, it is a bargain.

The interior of the restaurant was lovely and was devoid of the faux gilded plaster of paris wall hangings, and other standard Chinese restaurant decorations that I can't decide if are actually part of the Chinese culture or are simply used because we westerners think they are part of the Chinese culture. Our waiter was full of personality, offering a critique of our order (we changed it to reflect his recommendations), and stories about his mom making him a special soup when he came home on college holidays. We surmised that our waiter is the son of the two owners. If you prefer waiters to simply take the orders and bring drink refills, this young man would not please you, but I liked him.

Brian and I ordered from the Dim Sum menu, which is a lot like Spanish tapas-small portions meant to share, and you are meant to order many different items. We ordered pork dumplings, spicy Thai soup, stuffed eggplant, a scallion pancake with sliced steak inside, and sweet rice cooked inside a banana leaf. We also ordered jasmine tea.

Dim sum=yum yum. The only item I didn't like was the pork dumplings. They weren't spiced or flavored much so it was basically a hung of ground pork in a dumpling wrapper and steamed. The stuffed eggplant was sublime, and was also one of our waiter's recommendations. When in doubt, ask your waiter. The eggplant was wrapped around a mixture of pork and veggies, breaded, and then fried. So flavorful. The scallion pancake was also delicious. The soup was an incredible bargain. It was loaded with slices of steak, noodles, a rich beef broth, and noodles, and was very very good. My one complaint was that the tea wasn't as good as the food. I generally like jasmine tea, but it was strangely mild like maybe it was a tad stale, or maybe it is traditional tea and I'm just unaccustomed.

We were unable to finish all of the food and had ordered 5 items, so I'd recommend 2 items per person. We took the food home and it all heated up in the oven really well. Quick tip for you, it's totally worth it to spend the 10 minutes preheating the oven, and the 10 minutes it takes to reheat food if that food has any crispiness at all in it's first cooked state. The microwave makes a soggy mess out of pizza, french fries, fried anything. Protect your investment and use the oven not the microwave. The cost was so reasonable, so maybe I was wrong that it was expensive in comparison to strip mall Chinese. It was about $30.00 for our dim sum feast.

I'm sure Brian's mom is jealous of me for getting to enjoy Brian's expanded food palate. "He ate eggplant??? And liked it?!" But I'm jealous that she got to enjoy grounding him and smacking him around when he was bad, which she never took advantage of, I might add. Talk about wasted opportunities. We all have our burdens to bare, for example I have to discuss things in a calm rational manner with Brian when he irritates me. I'm not allowed to make him go pick out his own switch from the tree and beat him with it. See? Life is hard all around.

I absolutely recommend Shanghai Lil. It is located across from the fashion mall at Keystone and the Crossing. 8505 Keystone Crossing. Try the eggplant, you'll love it.

Harry and Izzy's

Harry & Izzy’s

I had dinner with Payton Manning. This statement means very little to me as I was a little foggy on who exactly Payton Manning was, but apparently this is very exciting to some people. I'm also exaggerating a little. I had dinner a few tables over from Payton Manning. I didn't sit with him at his table, and frankly had I been invited, I would have declined. Of all of the people in the world I'd be breathless to meet, Mr. Manning isn't one of them. No offense. I'm sure he throws a real good football, but the ability to get a ball over a certain line means nothing to me.

This event took place at Harry and Izzy's, the sister to St. Elmo's Steakhouse. In a word:disappointing, and not just because it was Payton Manning there instead of Kristen Chenoweth. St. Elmo's is kind of a big deal. It is often featured in national magazine articles about America's best steakhouses. Harry and Izzy's was named after the founders of St. Elmo's, only a little more casual and the menu a little more expansive.

The decor is inviting and warm. I was a little surprised by the boxing stats on the wall, and the fact that it seems to be trying to be an upscale sport's restaurant. As you can probably guess, sport's places are not my cup of tea. The menu featured steaks, some salads, pasta, pizza, and sandwiches. They have a decent sized bottle wine list but a small glass wine list, and none of the wines were under $9.00 a glass. I ordered a pear martini and my husband ordered a vodka martini with a lemon twist. We ordered a cheese and fruit plate for an appetizer. None of the entrees really caught my fancy so I ordered the roasted beet salad and a bowl of the soup de jour-lobster bisque. My husband ordered the rack of lamb.

The fruit and cheese plate was kind of...lack luster. I've got to tell you that I got a better fruit and cheese plate at Deano's Vino in Fountain Square. I would have expected that the sister restaurant to St. Elmo's cheese plate would be transcendent and far superior to a cheese plate from a place with a name like Deano's Vino, but I was sorely mistaken. The cheese were less rich and flavorful. The aged Gouda was mild and I've never had a mild aged Gouda. The fruit was nice and fresh.

My beet salad was next. I must make a full disclosure. I don't like beets. Prior to Harry and Izzy's, I've never had beets at anywhere except MCL when I was 8 and I got them because I thought they were so beautiful, but I found that the beauty belied a nasty inner nature that tasted like burnt manure, much like a chick named Tina at my school who was beautiful but a bitch. Beets=Tina. I thought to myself that I should try them again at a fine dining establishment like Harry and Izzy's, because if I was ever going to enjoy beets, my best chance was having them prepared by a real chef. I don't like beets. They are still beautiful, red-purple jewels nesting in among vibrant greens...lovely but still have the inner nature of Tina. I was easily able to eat around the beets and enjoy the rest of my salad-orange slices, goat cheese, candied walnuts, all with the sweet inner nature of yours truly. The salad was delicious, but frankly something I could and would make at home (sans beets).

The description of my husband's rack of lamb was food erotica. "Lamb rack pan seared with orange zest, rosemary, mustard and red wine". It arrived on the table and looked fabulous. My lobster bisque also arrived, thick and rich in the bowl. The soup was lovely, but again lacked something. I can't tell you what but it just wasn't It. The lamb was perfectly cooked to medium rare but the orange zest was bitter and fought with the red wine for dominance. Again, it just didn't hit the mark.

We didn't get dessert. Maybe dessert would have been so good that I would have forgotten all of the not-quite-rightness of the meal.

We could blame my high expectations for my disappointment. When I go to a restaurant prepared to spend over $100 for two people, I want to be wowed, I expect to be wowed. I expect that when I take that first bite, my eyes will be compelled to shut and I will chew slowly, and my inner foodie will stretch and purr like a contented cat. I expect that each bite will fill my mouth with joy. I didn't have that experience.

I have heard from others that Harry and Izzy's make a great place to have lunch. The pizzas are great and the steak sandwiches are really good too. I doubt I'll go back, but if I did, it would be for lunch.

Oh, and Payton. He was kinda tall and kinda wide. He was wearing jeans and a blue and white button down shirt. He was with a group of guys-like 3 or 4 that I didn't recognize. I didn't hear or care to hear what they were talking about. A woman did approach Mr. Manning and ask for a photo. I didn't see if she got it or not. I didn't see if he was polite or not. I did spare a moment to feel sorry for him that he can't go out with his buddies without being approached, but then I remembered that he makes a bajillion dollars a year playing a game. Mo' money mo' problems Payton, remember that.

Keeping it local for 5 days...

I'm always interested in those people who take challenges to eat locally for a certain period of time. A great read for those of you who are interested in such things is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Kingslover. She and her family eat locally for an entire year. As I said, it's very interesting...but I don't want to be one of those people frankly. First of all, I don't garden. I have a black thumb and I don't like to get dirty, buggy and hot. Nothing sounds more horrible than being on my hands and knees in July weeding some 10X10 piece of rock hard dry earth pulling weeds while gnats fly up my nose. Yuck. (My lack of desire to actually tend the garden may just be why it dies, shocking though I know that is.) I'd rather go to a market and simply purchase my produce from someone who obviously has a passion for gardening or farming. Second, I'm kinda busy. I have hobbies and friends and TV to watch, I don't want to take the sheer time it would take to eat 99% local! Third, I do enjoy certain foods that I don't think Indiana can produce, like good peaches and limes.




All of that being said, I do see so much value in eating locally. There are many reasons and I won't bore you with a long lecture but I will bore you with a short one. First, nearly 20% of all of the oil used in the world is used for farming and transporting food. Imagine all of the pollution that our earth endures to get you some Argentina strawberries in January. However, if I get my strawberries from a farm the next town over, that amount of fossil fuel used is much less. Second, a few years ago I had a staff infection that got out of control. I was on tons of antibiotics but eventually had to be hospitalized to receive 15 bags of IV antibiotics. I rarely take antibiotics so I know it wasn't ME who made my body resistant to the life saving medications. 25% of the antibiotics produced in the USA go into our food animals. In turn, these go into us. If animals are allowed space and their natural food source, they don't need those antibiotics to stay healthy. Third, if my money stays in Indiana, it enriches the economy that I live in. Okay, I could go on, but I will spare you because I promised it would be short and I always keep my promises.

My goal is to have 20%+ of my food to be from a local source. I think this is a pretty darn reasonably goal. Let's see how I did.




Sunday- Pan Roasted chicken legs with herb butter, sauteed greens, and strawberries.

• local- chicken legs, herbs, greens, strawberries



• not local-olive oil, butter, salt, pepper

Monday- The Perfect Salad (salad greens, strawberries, goat cheese, candied pecans, balsamic vinaigrette, balsamic chicken).

• 
  local-chicken, salad greens, strawberries



• not local-goat cheese, candied pecans, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, olive oil, salt, pepper

Tuesday- Chipotle pasta in a cream sauce with red peppers and chicken

• local- pasta (I got it at the farmer's market...I have no idea where the pasta maker got the ingredients), chicken, red pepper



• not local- cream sauce (it was from a jar), Mrs. Dash Chipolte Seasonings, salt and pepper, olive oil

Wednesday- Red pepper pasta in a tomato-cream sauce with red peppers, onions, fresh mozzarella.

• local- pasta, red pepper, onions, garlic, tomatoes



• not local- cream, red pepper flake, mozzarella, Ramano cheese, salt and pepper

Thursday- Fried chicken breasts, sauteed greens, salad

• local- chicken, garlic, greens, salad greens

• not local-olive oil, bacon, balsamic vinaigrette dressing, salt and pepper

So I think I'm doing pretty well. I have learned that the work comes in shopping for the foods. Once you have them in your kitchen it is natural to use them. I think what stops most people is that you can't decide what you are eating before shopping because if you are eating seasonally, what if what you decided upon isn't around? My strategy is to go to the market, see what's in my CSA (I pick it up in the market), go off to the side and plan a couple meals in the head based on that information. Most of what I make isn't terribly fancy-just a few ingredients.

A quick word on the financial cost of eating locally. The produce is pretty much on par with Kroger prices, often cheaper (since you aren't trucking it in from Assbackwards God Knows Where). Meat is a different story. Meat is significantly more expensive. I know I can get Tyson boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale at Kroger for $1.97 a pound. I've not seen the same product for sale by a local farmer for less than $5.00 a pound. I've found it is the most cost effective to purchase whole roaster birds and break them down yourself. Keep the bones so you can make chicken stock to offset some of the cost. I've gotten roasters from Kroger for $6.00. Most of my roasters from the farmer's market are $13.00+. A dozen eggs from Kroger is under a dollar. A dozen eggs from a local farmer is $3.00. It is more. However, when I add it all up, it costs us about $50.00-$75.00 more a month to buy ALL (and I don't buy all local meat. I really like my steaks to have been never frozen, and I haven't found decent local bacon...and you know how I loves me some bacon...) local meat. That's a lot to me, but it's less than my husband and my cell phone bills. It's less than what we pay for cable TV. In the end, it's worth it to me to know that the animals lived happy healthy lives and were killed humanely, and to know that my meat is safer to eat.

Salad Days

I got my first CSA bag! It contained mostly salad greens which just makes my day. I freakin' love salad. It's gotta be one of my top 5 foods. Is there any other food that humans eat that bring us so close to nature? "When we're eating salad we're behaving a lot like herbivores, drawing as close as we ever do to all those creatures who bend their heads down to the grass, or reach up into the trees, to nibble on plant leaves. We add only the thinnest veneer of culture to these raw leaves, dressing them in oil and vinegar. Much virtue attaches to this kind of eating, for what do we regard as more wholesome than tucking into a pile of green leaves?" (The Omnivore's Dilemma). My bag of leaves...I mean 'salad greens'...got me to thinking about my favorite salads.


The Perfect Salad

Mixed greens
1 chicken breast
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
1 dollop of Dijon mustard
6 or so strawberries (if strawberries aren't in season, dried cranberries are also awesome)
an inch or so of goat cheese
a small handful of candied pecans (Trader Joe's has the BEST CANDIED PECANS EVER)

Pound out your chicken flat. This is really easy to do. You can use a meat tenderizer (the smooth side) or the bottom of a skillet. Wrap the chicken loosely in plastic wrap. This prevents tiny raw chicken pieces or chicken water splattering everywhere. Then pound away until the chicken is about half as thick as it was. This is a great stress reliever. Your boss Mr. Benson make you angry? Name your raw chicken Mr. Benson and POUND POUND POUND! Eat that Mr. Benson. Place your flat chicken into a baggie and add 2 tablespoons of balsamic, 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil (depending on how strong you like your balsamic taste), rosemary, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Marinate the chicken for at least 20 minutes.

Mix the remaining 2 tablespoons of balsamic with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the dollop of Dijon mustard and a pinch of salt and pepper. Shake to combine.

Heat a skillet to high and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan and add the chicken. The chicken is super thin and can be cooked really fast. Brown each side of the chicken on high and then turn down the heat to low and caramelize each side. I discovered this trick when I was trying to hold this chicken for a late dinner guest. I almost blackened the chicken on each side and then I left it in the pan on low and all of a sudden this amazing thing happened...dark carmel liquid was coating each side of the chicken. Apparently the sugars in the balsamic were melting and becoming this amazing sweet coating on the chicken. So. Good.

Slice the chicken and let cool while you assemble the greens, sliced strawberries, crumbled goat cheese, and candied pecans. Drizzle with your homemade balsamic vinaigrette and top with the warm chicken. Why did the chicken cross the road? To get in this salad.


Whenever I hear someone say that they don't like salad, I think to myself 'they've never had my salads'. I think many people picture salads as those sad iceberg lettuce Titanic nightmares that have almost frozen cherry tomatoes on the side, two wedges of cucumber and the entire frightful thing is drowning in Hidden Valley Ranch knockoff dressing. Enter salad number two.


Bacon Lettuce Tomato Goat Cheese Carrot Egg Tomato Salad (also known as the BLTGCCETS)

3 strips bacon
couple handfuls of the greens of your choice
Tomatoes (I love cherry tomatoes slice in half for this, but you can also chop up a full sized garden tomato)
1 carrot peeled and cut into matchsticks
1 inch of goat cheese
1 hard boiled egg
drizzle of your favorite tomato vinaigrette salad dressing

Cook your bacon and crumble it over the greens. (You only need 2 strips for the salad, the third strip is for munching on while you finish the rest of the assembly. You can thank me later for this little tip because if you're like me, you'd finish the bacon before the salad is ready. Oooohhh bacon, my loins do quiver for you!) Toss on tomatoes and carrots, crumble up your goat cheese and egg over the salad, and drizzle with the tomato vinaigrette. If you want to make your own dressing, be my guest. Here's a link to tell you how: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,171,155168-245193,00.html but I'm using the stuff I bought. Let me know how the scratch turns out.

I wondered where the term 'salad days' came from and I found out that the origin is from a Shakespeare play in which Cleopatra refers to her 'salad days' meaning that she was green, carefree, youthful and inexperienced. I always assumed it meant something about trying to stay thin. Damn this body obsessed culture of ours! Salads are fun, carefree and youthful. Here is a whimsical salad that reminds me of how fun salads can be.

Brie and Champagne salad

5 thin slices of the creamiest brie you can find
a couple handfuls of your favorite greens
1/4th of a green apple sliced waffer thin
2 tablespoons champagne (my favorite is prosecco, but Trader Joe's has a bottle of Asti that's like $5...who can resist $5 champagne?!)
2 tablespoons of your favorite honey mustard dressing


Combine the champagne and honey mustard dressing. Arrange the brie and apple slices on top of the greens. I do a pretty spiral pattern, but I guess that's masturbatory. Top with the champagne-honey mustard dressing. Creamy, dreamy, crisp...good.

Salads don't have to have lettuce greens in them of course. Salads can be any food mixture tossed with a moist dressing. Ewwww. I hate the word 'moist'. Okay, I like the word when in conjunction with the word 'cake; but other than that, it creeps me out. Moist. Moist. Moist. Moist. Moist. Moist. Moist. See, it's weird isn't it? Anyway, we all know there are fruit salads and macaroni salad etc etc. Here is my favorite non-lettuce salad.

Tomato-Mozzarella-Basil-Balsamic salad

Garden fresh tomatoes (any in-season fresh tomato will work. Do Not Attempt With A Rock Hard Crap Tomato From Your Megamart In December. It. Will. Not. Do. It. Justice.)
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh basil ripped or chopped
a golf ball size chunk of mozzarella (This is the stuff you find in the cheese section of your deli. The stuff in water, not the pre-shredded stuff by the pull-n-bake cookies. God those cookies are good. Damn them for making cookies so delicious and easy!)


Simmer the balsamic until it is reduced into a syrup about the consistency of maple syrup. When it cools, it will get thicker...so watch out. Chunk up your mozzarella into bite sized pieces and place in a bowl. Chop tomatoes and place in the bowl. Lightly salt and pepper the tomatoes. Top with the basil. Pour the balsamic glaze over the entire thing. Eat with a spoon and try not to moan so loud you wake the neighbors.

So there you have it. My favorite salads. What are your favorite salads?

Roast a Roast

It's my five year anniversary! You know what that means, right? It means lots and lots of good food. Celebrations give us permission to eat the way we'd like to eat all of the time-trying new possibly pricey restaurants, and making new meals with exciting ingredients and more time consuming and involved. Brian and I have gender typical food preferences. He likes very meaty meals, and I like vegetable heavy meals with lots of sauces and herbs. I love to try new things, so it's mostly me making the compromises on what we eat, and tonight especially we made a Brian-friendly meal: a rosemary crusted roast with sauteed sugar snap peas and salads.

3/4 cup panko crumbs

1/4 cup grated Romano cheese

2 cloves minced garlic

2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary

1 tablespoon olive oil

pinch salt and pepper

2 tablespoons or so of Dijon mustard

2 pound beef roast of your choice. (I think this would be rocking with lamb too. You are looking for some nice marbling through the meat because you are roasting it and you want it to be juicy. Sirloin roast or a rib roast would be good. Eye-of-round or top round will be okay if it's good quality but otherwise might be a little dry. The more regular and even the roast is shaped, the better it will be, so it isn't rare in the thick part and overcooked in the thin parts.)

Preheat oven to 375. Heat a medium skillet to rippin' hot. Put down a vegetable oil with a high smoke point, like sunflower oil or canola oil (olive oil will smoke if you do the oh so scientific heat of rippin' hot) and brown the roast on all sides...get some nice color going. Mix up the top 6 ingredients in a bowl while the roast rests and gets cooler so you can touch it without crying for your mommy. Whatever you do, DO NOT wash that skillet yet. We are going to use all of those nice brown little bits for a dipping sauce. Brush the roast with the Dijon mustard and pat your bread crumb mixture on to make the crust part of the crusted roast. If you have a roasting pan, pop it in the rack and into the oven. If you don't, you're going to have to deal with the fact that you just aren't going to get crust on the bottom of the roast. Put it in a cake pan and into the oven. Bake until it is between 125 and 130 degrees. You have to rest roasts for around 10 minutes and during those 10 minutes, it will continue to cook and you will get to 140 to 145 degrees. Beware the carryover! I used to forget and pull the roast out when it was medium rare and it would carryover to medium well! Noooooooooo! It was such a let down to cut into what I thought was going to be one of those perfect bright red roasts covered by a layer or delicious brown crust and instead I got a greyish-pink roast...but it was still covered by delicious brown crust.

Now to get a crack at that dipping sauce. I do so love dipping sauces. I love condiments of almost any type. French fries are vehicles for ketchup, mayo on chicken sandwiches should be so thick it's dripping off the sides. I make so much sauce for Mongolian beef that it's almost like a soup and I eat it with a spoon. YUM.

2 heaping tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 shot of Cognac

1/4 cup of half and half

Wisk all of those ingredients into the pan drippings over medium heat to combine. Taste for needed salt or pepper. Okay kids, a little safety lesson. We all know that alcohol is highly flammable right? Right. So when you add the Cognac, turn OFF the flame until it's mixed into the other ingredients and the proof will be lower and less likely to flame up. Also, have a large lid available and always have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. Duh. Make sure to scrap all of the drippings off of the pan into the sauce. This sauce is beyond good. I pour it on green beans, sugar snap peas, sop it up with bread... This is also the sauce I use to pour over plain steaks...I mean, how could it not be good? It's got cream, mustard, and alcohol. Done and done.

The sugar snap peas are so easy and versatile. This is one of those dishes that you make over and over because of how delicious and easy it is.

1 pound or so of sugar snap peas

3 cloves garlic diced

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a medium sized skillet over medium high heat. Add the sugar snap peas and saute until almost fork tender. Add the garlic and toss to combine and cook until fork tender. Season with salt and pepper. I KNOW! So easy! I also do this with fresh green beans. Yum yum yum.

Brian and I have very different salad styles. Brian always has the same salad: greens, Romano cheese, olive oil, salt and pepper. I like to have more going on on my salads. My favorite salad is as follows: greens, sliced strawberries, goat cheese, candied pecans, and balsamic vinaigrette.

So there you have it, my anniversary meal. We served it with a lovely bottle of spicy Spanish red wine. Sangria has been my downfall many an evening and now I've discovered the wine! Oh you naughty Spaniards!

Biscuits

Ah Sunday mornings. The birds are singing, the sun is shining, and my favorite yoga class of the week is at 11:00am on Sundays...but I went to Biscuits with Brian. Instead of down dogging, I'm downing french toast. Hey, in my defense, we had serious yard work to do today, hauling around 60 million pounds of mulch and I needed the carbs.

Biscuits is easy to overlook located in a strip mall in Broadripple at 1035 Broadripple Ave. It's across from the Kinkos. The place fascinates me because it has traditional American breakfast foods, like pancakes and bacon, and it also has authentic Mexican food like burritos and chile rellenos. It's a breakfast/Mexican place. I can't attest to the Mexican food part of Biscuits because I have only gone there for breakfast.

This place feels and looks like a traditional diner, with the classic diner chairs and tables. There is a small seating area outside, which is always a nice option. I ordered a diet coke, and it tasted kind of funny, like the soda/syrup mix was off. Hmmmm. Screwing up diet coke is not a good sign, and I was so hopeful because of the crushed ice it had. I love crushed iced. I ordered breakfast combo 7: two pieces of french toast, two eggs, and your choice of breakfast meat. I asked for my eggs to be scrambled and my meat to be bacon. Oh bacon, how I love thee...especially covered in maple syrup. I've been known to put a piece of bacon in the middle of my soup and fill the soup with maple syrup and suck it down like soup. Try it, you'll LOVE it. They had lots of good combos to chose from and they all cost $6.50 which I think is very affordable. Brian got combo 3 which was hash browns, eggs, toast, and bacon. Again, only $6.50. Contrary to the diet coke experience, the food was really good. Basic diner fare, nothing surprising or dazzling, but solidly good, which is exactly what you want sometimes, you know? I don't always need to have some hidden ingredient or elaborate presentation. Brian's food was exactly the same way-solid, dependably good, and predictable.

The waitstaff must divide their work differently than most places because I think we had three different waitresses at different times. It was fine, they all were like the food-solid and good. Refills came at good times, we were asked if we needed anything, the bill came quickly, I have no complaints.

Biscuits is a good place to go if you are looking for a classic diner/greasy spoon breakfast. If you are one of those people who think the best handover cure is a big breakfast full of simple carbs and breakfast meats, this is the place for you. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw some people there who were struggling with the morning after oh-god-jagermeister-is-evil look on their faces, and I even saw some people nipping off of a Budweiser at 10:30am. Hair of the dog, anyone? Which reminds me, yes, they do have some bottled beer. I've never looked at it because beer before 5:00pm is a little sick-making to me, but hey I won't judge you (much) if you enjoy a Corona at 9:00am.

The only thing I feel a little sad about is that I didn't try the biscuits at Biscuits, but there's always a next time.

Actually Mmm Mmm Good!

A few days ago I contracted the swine flu virus. I realize I probably should say that due to legal liability crap since I don't actually know that it was the swine flu and the actual probability of it being the swine flu is minuscule to none, and it's not even the "swine" flu, it's h1n1 or some such nonsense, but I just really wanted to say I had the swine flu even though my symptoms didn't match the h1n1 symptoms or anything, but it just sounds pretty badass. Plus I just love to mock the hysterical reactionists out there who hear a handful of symptoms and suddenly think the world is coming to an end. Oh God! PIG FLU WILL KILL US ALL! Loyal readers, I found the cure to swine flu, dog flu, cat flu, hamster flu, and even parakeet flu (but not guinea pig flu...that's a tougher nut to crack) and it's my homemade chicken noodle soup.

We've been talking a lot about chicken and chicken stock, and this is a perfect application for your homemade chicken stock. It's the circle of life for a chicken; be born from an egg and grow into a roaster, be roasted with TWO butters, and then be made into chicken stock. Of course chicken stock has many applications, but the most obvious one to me is chicken noodle soup.

2 cups chicken stock

1 small handful of egg noodles

1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped OR 1 teaspoon dried parsley

Optional: 1 large carrot peeled and chopped into thin disks, 1 large rib of celery chopped thinly, fully cooked chicken scraps, lemon slice

Bring your stock to a simmer and add your optional veggies and chicken. I use carrots only. I don't add extra chicken and I don't really like the stringiness of celery. Simmer veggies with lid on the pot for 5 minutes. Add egg noodles and cook for as long as the noodle package says to cook. If you are used dried parsley, add the parsley 3 minutes before cook time is up. If you are using fresh, then hit the soup with your herbs about 30 seconds before cook time is up. A squeeze of fresh lemon over the top of the bowl right before eating makes everything bright and fresh.

This meal is a food hug. If you make it for someone else, it shows how much you love that person and that you want them to feel better. I felt better after making it for myself, because self love is the greatest love of all.

Zest!

I've driven past Zest many times on my way to Locally Grown Gardens, which I blogged about in March. Today my husband Brian actually suggested we go there. The shocking part is not that he suggested going to Zest, but that he actually suggested a restaurant.

Zest is located at 1134 E 54th Street. They have a large outdoor seating area, and a surprisingly large indoor seating area. The decor is warm with original art on the walls. The inside tables were clothed in paper and crayons were at each table. The little kid in me adores being entertained by drawing on my table while I wait for my food. The menu was pretty normal sized and you could get breakfast all day, which is very exciting to me. I was there around 11:00am on a Sunday, so while I didn't get any alcohol, I did look at the menu. The beer list looked great, and featured many local brews, which you know I love. Zest seems to embrace a community partnership, what with serving local beers and having local artist's creations on the wall. It just shows why eating local and independent is so important- you aren't just supporting the restaurant, but also every local business that restaurant utilizes. Oops! Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now!

I looked over the menu and I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to eat, everything sounds so good. I finally decided on a half order of biscuits and gravy and coffee to drink. I ordered it because in the menu, it said that many people claim that these biscuits and gravy were the best they'd ever tried. I'm a sucker for the idea that this might be The Best, the culmination of everything that is good about biscuits and gravy, so I had to try it. My husband decided on the creme brulee french toast and a side of eggs. I realize this is a matter of preference, but my coffee was entirely too dark. I think it was called El Dorado or something equally earthy and black, but gah, it tasted like sucking on coffee grounds. I know plenty of people who prefer a rich Black Thunder or some such pornographic sounding nonsense, but I like light roast coffee. Something with the description of 'sparkling' or 'bright'. I used two whole little cream pitchers to get it to a nice cafe au lait color and it STILL tasted bitter to me. I mean, I drank it, but yi yi yi, I thought my tongue would grow fur.

I had a mental imagine of what our food would look like, as I'm sure you do. I thought my biscuits and gravy would look like an opened halved biscuit with some white gravy poured over it with brown crumbles of sausage. I thought my husband's french toast would be a couple slices of bread soaked in an egg mixture and cooked with some syrup over top. WRONG! Zest's full name is Zest! Exciting Food Creations, and they live up to the name. My biscuits and gravy were in a bowl and the gravy was orange. I thought they might have melted cheddar in it, but once I tasted it I realized it must be orange from the seasoning in the sausage. My husband's french toast was more like a bread pudding or a french toast casserole; squares of custard with chunks of bread suspended in it. Both were very good. I could tell that my gravy was freshly made, and the sausage was high quality-not scary hot dog meat reject meat. It was savory and filling and comforting. But I've got to tell you, it wasn't the best I've ever had. The best I've ever had is at Ollie's, which is a bar located at St. Clair and Illinois. Now, granted, I only get these when I've been drinking so perhaps their ridiculously strong drinks add to the otherworldly amazingness of those sublime biscuits and gravy, but people, they are the shit, the shiznit, boss, and the cat's pajama's all in one. I could go on and on, but this entry is about Zest. My husband's french toast was amazing. It was beyond rich. It tasted like it was probably around 1000 calories per square, and he got two with his full order, creamy, silky, pillowy, sweet but not too sweet, with hits of vanilla and carmel. The only problem was that it was a lot like a very rich dessert. Now kids, I am not against dessert for breakfast. Is there anything better than pie before 10:00am? No, I think not. And what are toaster strudels or pop tarts if not desserts for breakfast? It was just a tad rich as a main course, that's all I'm saying. It is also featured on their dessert menu, which I think is the perfect place for it.

I plan on returning to Zest. They have many very creative sounding meals that I'm interested in trying. Get to Zest for food that thinks outside of the box.

Roast Bird

A few weeks ago I wrote about making your own chicken stock. Well, an integral part of making your own chicken stock is having the chicken bones to begin with. That brings me to roast chicken. I do so love roast chicken. I admit, I used to be a boneless-skinless chicken breast girl until I got a taste of crispy, salty, yummy chicken skin. Yoza that's good stuff. The best way to get quality chicken skin is to roast up a whole chicken. It's pretty darn easy as long as you have one very special piece of equipment...a thermometer. You can't do it without one. Sorry. Oh, I realize in the olden days they used to roast up chickens and they didn't have thermometers, but let me remind me that the average age of death was 42, and that was probably due to salmonella. They also used to use leaches to suck the poison from the blood, how crazy were those...oh wait, we still sometimes use leaches? Never mind... ANYWHO, if you have the thermometer, you are set! You don't even need a roasting pan. Crazy? No! I'll show you how.

1 roaster chicken

1 stick of butter at room temperature

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 small handful of fresh herbs chopped OR a couple teaspoons of dried herbs-I really like thyme and rosemary, but sage, parsley, or many others would be good too.

a roasting pan OR an 8X11 cake pan-if you are using a cake pan, you will also need a couple carrots, some onions, apples or other random hard veggies to line the bottom of the pan

First, dethaw your chicken fully. I use roaster chickens because they are the exact right size for roasting, hence the name. This process of dethawing takes FOREVER. Either stick the bird in the refrigerator DAYS before you want to cook it, or put the bird in a bowl and stick under a trickle of water for a couple hours. Then allow the bird to dry on some towels. (Remember to wash the towels. You don't want to be patting your hair dry and realize you have chicken hair. Nobody likes chicken hair.) Make sure there are no random chicken parts still inside the chicken. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.

Next make your butters. Yes, butters, as in plural. I know, right?! Anything with two types of butters has got to be good! Cut the stick 'o butter in half, and put each half into a small bowl. In one bowl add your garlic and a couple pinches of salt and pepper. In the other bowl add the chopped up herbs and no salt and pepper.

If you are using your roasting pan, stick the bird on the rack in the pan. The whole point of a roasting pan is to keep the bird out of it's own juices so the skin can get crispy and golden. So if you are using a cake pan, your job is to arrange the veggies in a kind of bed so the bird will stay pretty dry on the veggies and the juices will flow down to the bottom of the pan.

Next, use your fingers to get in between the skin and the meat of the bird and loosen it up. Do this all over the bird and then grab your garlic butter and start cramming great wads of it into those pockets that you made. How ingenious is that? Butter UNDER the skin?! The skin will keep the butter on the meat, making sure all of the goodness is absorbed as much as possible. It won't matter if this is pretty or not, just cram in it in and smoosh it around until the butter is even. Then take your herb butter and give the outside of the bird a nice little massage. Oh yeeeaaaaah, rub it down, both sides, top and bottom. If your bird isn't dry, the butter won't stick. After the bird is evenly coated, give it a hit of salt and pepper all over.

Place the bird in the middle of the oven and set your timer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, flip the bird over and cook for 15 minutes for. After the next 15 minutes, drop the oven temperature down to 375 degrees, and set the timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, flip the bird back over and cook until the internal temperature of the meat is at least 170 degrees. This will take at least 30 minutes more, if not 50 minutes or more. Make sure you take the temp. of the bird in both the breast and the thigh in the middle of the meat. The skin should be dark golden brown and delicious. Let the bird rest for 10 minutes or so before serving.

I usually serve this with the homestyle basics, mashed 'taters and boiled carrots, and an apple pie for dessert. When you cut into the chicken, you will find little islands of garlic from the garlic butter, it's like finding the prize in the bottom of the Cracker Jacks again and again! So yummy.

Save those bones for stock by sticking them in a freezer bag and freezing until you are ready to make it.

Oh MAMA! Carolla's, that is.

I have no idea why it took so long for me to get to Mama Carolla's. I've heard good things, smelled good things, and thought about it dozens of times, but last Saturday it finally came to be. This will not be the last time that Mama and I make a night of it. First, I love the building. It's all stucco, ivy, and cast iron. The inside is lovely with exposed wooden beams and wooden floors. There is a large patio on the outside, but my husband and I sat inside.

My husband and I arrived around 7:30pm on a Saturday and were seated immediately. You get bread and olive oil on your table. I always think bread and olive oil makes appetizers arbitrary. Besides, is there anything better in this world than fresh bread dipped into olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper? I have to be careful not to eat the entire loaf and ruin my appetite for dinner. To drink we ordered a bottle of wine: Principessa Gavia Gavi. The Gavi grape is super fragrant, full of flowers and fruits and the flavor is fruity and crisp. It's a really nice alternative to pinot grigio. My husband ordered the chicken rigatoni and I ordered the pasta carbonara. I got a bowl of the soup de jour- Italian wedding soup, and my husband ordered the Caesar salad.

The bread was good-a crusty white bread. I guess I would have liked a bread with a twist-maybe a nice rustic wheat or rosemary or something- a little better, but it was darn good. My soup was savory and comforting but the real star of the first course was the Caesar salad. Oh. My. God. So creamy, decedent, perfect. It might have been the best Caesar salad I have ever gotten a few bites of. Brian was hovering over his salad like our dog Honey with her bone. Grrrrrrr, snarl! I'm lucky I didn't get a fork in the back of my hand as I reached across the table to snag a bit while he was checking out our waitress. No wonder women are evolutionarily superior. I'm sure back when we were developing our brains some woman got a couple extra bites of the protein because the guy was checking out the brow ridges of the neanderthal next door.

Then the main courses came out. You know it's good when both of us take a bite, close our eyes, and moan. My carbonara was super thick, creamy, and decedent. It's an egg-cream sauce made with prosciutto, peas, and mushrooms. Basically it's a savory custard. I'm salivating right now as I write, it was so good. Brian's pasta was big thick rigatoni with lightly battered chicken chunks in a thin spicy white wine prosciutto sauce. He was in heaven. I was in heaven. The wine went very well with both of our meals as well. You'd think we planned it instead of just ordering whatever wine sounded good on the menu. There was very little talking during the meal, just chewing and sighing. I took half of my pasta home, but my husband finished his. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when my coworkers ask what I have for lunch. "Oh, just a little pasta carbonara from Mama Carolla's...". HA! IN YOUR FACE!

The waitress asked The Big Question, "Did you save room for dessert?". No, but we want some anyway. We split the tiramisu, and I felt like it was everything tiramisu is supposed to be. There is the creamy mascarpone cheese, and the bite of the alcohol soaked lady-fingers. From beginning to end, this was a wonderful meal. The prices are pretty reasonable. This isn't a cheap night out, but the prices are only a buck or two more than Olive Garden, but comparing the difference in taste and overall experience is like comparing Dollywood to the Steppenwolf theatre. The wine was only $27 for the bottle, which is pretty darn reasonable for a bottle you would pay $14.00 for in a store.

This is a super versatile restaurant. This would be a fantastic romantic dinner for two, but the food is accesible enough to take the in-laws when they are in town. Who doesn't love pasta? I mean, really.

Check out Mama's, you'll be so glad you did. It's located at 1031 E. 54th Street (it's between Keystone and College).

You can pull my pork any day...

Ah, summer. When summer hits suddenly I stop making soups and start tossing salads, but the way you really know if it's summer is if I start making pulled pork. I realize this may be a perfectly acceptable winter meal, but to me it hints at being outdoors, OFF bug spray, and Corona Light. I only drink Corona Light in the summer. Pulled pork, how do I love thee, let me count the ways. Way one, I use the crockpot. Crockpot cooking is the best kind of cheating...feeling like you cheated but didn't actually cheat. It's like in 7th grade Mrs. Phipps class during spelling tests. I would write the words really lightly on my desk in pencil but in my cheating anxiety I forever imprinted the way to spell these words in my mind and I never had to reference my desk. Crockpot cooking feels like getting food delivered because it's all ready when you get home from work, but really it was working while you worked. Like RonCo. says "set it and forget it!".

2.5-3 pounds Boston butt pork

2 bottles Corona Light

2 jalapenos

1 large onion

1 18 oz. bottle Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Chipotle BBQ sauce

Slice the onions and halve the jalapenos and discard the seeds. Add all of the ingredients except the BBQ sauce into the crockpot. If you are cooking it for 5-6 hours, set the pot on high. If you are cooking it for 7+ hours, set it on low. My crockpot only has high or low. After the cooking time, and if the pork is cooked all of the way through and is falling off the bone, then comes the only real work associated with this meal. You have to fork your pork. No, that wasn't a typo. You have to chunk up the pork and then shred it, and the easiest way to do this is by pulling the pork in two different directions with two forks until it's in little shreds. This is the 'pulled' part of 'pulled pork'. Combine the shredded pork and the onions from the crockpot in a bowl and douse liberally with your favorite BBQ sauce and mix to combine. Discard the cooking liquid and the jalapenos.

"But Linda, you proclaim to be a kitchen diva, with a proclivity in all things culinary! Why aren't you making your own BBQ sauce?"

Um. Because I don't wanna. I like the texture of bottled BBQ, which I am sure is some sort of processed corn product like xathan gum, which goes against my entire food philosophy, but sometimes a girl just has to open a bottle of BBQ if you know what I mean. Anyway, I haven't found a homemade recipe for BBQ that satisfies that finger-lickin' backyard cookout taste that I want from a sauce. Plus, this sauce is the boss! The label doesn't lie! This is delicious stuff and entirely worthy of a place in my pantry.

How do I like my BBQed pulled pork? I like it on a good wheat kaiser roll, topped with cold slaw and dill pickle potato chips. Oh yeahhhhhhhh.

Oh, and if you are wondering why I don't have a picture of my pulled pork, it's because everyone ATE it before I could get my camera out. I can assure you that my pulled pork looks exactly like everyone else's: brownish-red shredded pieces of meat. Here's a picture, and it looks pretty much like mine. Only mine's better.