Woe is me!

SO there has been no cooking, no experimenting, no incredibly amazing dishes, no nothing in my new little apartment. I do have to commend myself on a very nicely done steak with pan gravy and mushrooms and onions. The problem wasn't with the food though, it was with the setting. Let's just say I don't exactly have a full dining set, it's more of a plastic plate set atop my dog's kennel! I know, I know at least I have a roof over my head.
But I do have to say that my love for cooking has not diminished, I am constantly on the search for that new and exciting dish that will make me go oh man!! The problem is, the setting and as any seasoned eater knows, the setting and the company are a very crucial part of the dining experience. So needless to say that since I dine on top of my dogs kennel, I don't invite too many people over for dinner. I think until I am done with this semester and can find something a little more permanent and a little bigger, HAHA, I will have to depend on others cuisines for my major eating and dining experiences.
I am planning on doing some mussels here in the near future, so you may just see another post from me shortly!

One Meal, One Family

So it finally happened last night!! My son ate the exact same thing that I ate, no difference whatsoever. I was ecstatic. He is finally developing those tastebuds for something more than chicken, broccoli and carrots. While there is nothing wrong with that, I just want him to have a good understanding of good food. I was making a new skillet meal, ground beef, mushrooms and tomatoes (seasoned accordingly of course). Jokingly, I asked if he wanted what daddy was eating and he looked in the skillet and said yes!! I couldn't believe it. I made some peas and roasted some red potatoes and he ate everything and kept telling me what a good cook I was. Now while I like the fact that his instincts are telling him to praise my culinary skills, I even more so enjoyed the fact that he appreciated a good meal. Of course I let him help me as I always do and I think that really helps, because that is usually when I get him to try something new at least once. Next is going to be fish, so I have to find a kid friendly fish recipe that hopefully won't have to be breaded in anyway. No more picky eaters in this house!!

Disaster

I failed. Well, I won't say that I failed completely but it was definitely not what I thought it would be. The chicken curry was to say the least very curry-y! I went off of a recipe that called for curry sauce and not knowing how much powder that would equate to, I just put in what I thought would be right, well it was ridiculously spicy. The curry overwhelmed everything. Now I do like spicy food, but I would have liked to have tasted the coconut milk and the other ingredients that I put in there. Those other ingredients included, eggplant, red pepper, onions and potatoes that I roasted first to try to bring out the full flavor of them. It was for sure a learning experience, and now I just want to try it again and make it even better. That's for another day though however.

Injecting a little love.

So I read an article today in Clean Eating that was entitled "Injected with Love." I found this very intersting, becasue the author was speaking to me, of this I was sure! I love to cook for people and have hours of preparation by myself in the kitchen, dissecting recipes and deciding on flavors. Now while I don't get to do this much, I plan on doing it more. Sometimes I feel that I will be the only one to enjoy the things that I come up with, but I have yet to create a dish that has not been enjoyable. I love cooking, I love family and friends and I love company over meals. These things all require a little love. So from here on out, even if the meal is just for me or for friends and family, I am injecting some love!!

I'm in!!

Well I recently moved into my new place over the weekend and got everything settled. I have been so excited to cook my first real meal in my own place that I have been submerged in cookbooks and recipes trying to find the perfect house-warming meal to myself. I know originally I said chicken curry, but I'm a little scared honestly. I don't want to mess anything up or do it wrong and turn myself off to it.
On second thought, that's what I'm doing!! Why deprive myself of my own experiments and skills (I'm humble I swear). I know I can do it and I will have pictures and taste descriptions to share.

Pasta n' Sauce

Thank goodness my family is blessed with either super fast metabolism (kids) or a lifelong membership to the gym (me). I say this because I don't think it would be possible for us to go a week, no even two days without eating some sort of pasta concoction. Now I cook healthy, I don't use store bought sauces, so our noodles are very much so a healthy contribution to our diets. That being said, I have always been a fan of alfredo, in fact I think I could eat it a couple times a week and not think a thing of it. Especially now that I have perfected my own recipe. Garlic, cheese, fat free half n' half, onions and wine made for the perfect noodle clinging ooey gooey goodness that was our dinner last night. I used a Pinot Grigio that I absolutely love. I pan seared a chicken boob and diced it then threw it in the pan with the sauce and the noodles to let it finish cooking in the liquid. So everything really pulled together. I have to say that I have made it before, but as the saying goes, "practice makes perfect!" And it surely did, I couldn't believe how amazing it was. I almost saved the leftovers for the next day, notice I said ALMOST!!

Desperate times call for desperate measures!

So I told you all how I was deprived of a heating unit. Well, in cleaning out the kitchen (still trying to stay in the general vacinity), I found in the back of my cupboard, an electric wok. A much under appreciated gift (at the time) from an ex-girlfriend. Now I am quite thankful to have something that provides any sort of heat to contact with my meals, besides the fire I tried to build in the front yard. So now I have successfully boiled water for pasta, whole skillet meals, and breakfast dishes in this odd contraption that plugs into the wall.
I will soon be moving in to a new residence and recieving one of my biggest desires, a gas stove. I have lived with electric stoves for a very long time and will be happy to return to the regulatable world of true fire. I have decided that my first dish back, will be curry of some sort. I am very excited.

Man vs. Food

Ok so this one is a general rant and rave about the so called entertainment that the Travel Channel has delineated to the public, called Man vs. Food. Not only is it a sad rip-off of Triple D, on the Food Network, but honestly who wants to see some guy every week see how much he can possibly eat and how fast he can destroy his GI track? I mean they already had their food paradise shows, which often had the feeling of stuffing your face, but then they went so far as to name one of the series episodes, All You Can Eat: Food Paradise. I mean, we all like to eat, but come on there is a line right. Besides it's not like he is finding unique food, well besides the shear size. There is no special uniqueness transcending from the heritage of the place or some hole in the wall with a gourmet, classically trained culinary student hiding in the back. Essentially what I am trying to say is, that I hope this show flops and soon! We don't need to be encouraging overeating, we need to be encouraging good food, tasty, homey, unique and well-made food. And of course the option of being health concious should come in at some point as well. I feel that in the spirit of supporting my favorite and the true culinary discovery channel, The Food Network, that I say that Man vs. Food is a ripoff and deserves any and all bad reviews of what it is at face-value, because it is simply nothing more than that anyway!!!

Bad Times!

Well the reason there have been no posts lately is because I have had no stove. No . . . I didn't forget to pay the utility bill, the element went out. I never knew how dependant on that thing I was until I didn't have it anymore! So what do you do in a time like this, make sandwiches and utilize the microwave. I have quite literally come up with at least ten variations in the last couple days on how to make a turkey and cheese sandwich. Canned soup has become one of my best friends and salads (I think God could have made me a rabbit and I would have been just as happy in this life). I have not dropped to TV dinners yet, nor am I going to the restaurants for my nutritional sustenance. I am however getting bored and have been seriously thinking about getting a single burner range. But hopefully my stove will get fixed soon and I can return to my "lab" shortly. Until then it's sandwiches and watching the food network and the sad excuse for a culinary show; Man v. Food on the Travel Channel. That show is very dissapointing and to say the least a rip off of one of my ofavorites, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (but that is a whole other post).
I have a feeling that this weekend I will probably pack up the family, get out of town and eat at some restaurant that has been calling me. I have however in this down-time decided on some must have meals when I get my lab up and running again. The number one meal . . . curry! The coconut milk, curry powder, saffron and turmeric have been yelling at me from my kitchen. So I can't wait to try my hand at a new international dish that will hopefully be a new favorite.

Who vants de stroganoff?

So I never realized that I liked certain types of food, dishes, whole culinary discoveries, because my mother, God knows i loved her, called everything by some odd Joy-ism (Joy was her name). Ya the basics we got but stroganoff . . . not quite what I remember it. MAybe that's because she knew me well enough that if she had told me that it was anything to do with mushrooms I wouldn't have gone near it. Well I sit here typing, remembering two nights ago when I shared one of the most amazing dishes that I have ever created with one of my best friends. He liked it too. When I invited himn over, I didn't ask what he wanted to eat, mistake, no I think not, this kid will eat just about anything, he is like me in a lot of ways. So I pulled out noodles, a bag of frozen peas that I have been wanting to eat and my stash of italian turkey sausage. Obviously the start to a great meal, but I was missing the connective tissue of this meal that would pull it together. My first thought was red sauce, garlic and basil. The stand by if you will. But this was a day to live outside the box. So in to the veggie cooler and the pantry I went. From the frig I pulled, mushrooms, green peppers and onions. From the pantry I found the key ingredient, yes the faithful, the everlasting and the oh-so easy undeniably wonderful can of mushroom soup, YES!! Gastronomical victory was at hand. I put it all together slopped it on some plates and poured acouple galsses of vodka and man were we set. Now I write slopped, only because my friend doesn't care about presentation or the like. For me though, not cutting the sausage and making sure that there were the right amount of peas atop my mountain of noodles was just as important as teh wonderous taste that accompanied this man-food! So we feasted we drank, then we played guitar hero . . . Rock on!!

A Tour of Italy!

Ok so I didn't go to Olive Garden! Nor did I get a new stamp on my passport, that actually has no stamps, ok I don't even have one! But none of that is the point here, I felt like I was in Italy with my family, without even leaving our dining room table. I had decided that last night would be a good italian dinner night. Well my first thoughts went to wine, I know I am a wine junkie (any excuse is good enough for me). So of course, my next step was to decide on a meal plan. Well when I think of italian food, I am very stereotypical, but who isn't really. Cheese, tomatoes, oil, bread and pasta, all the comforts of the boot shaped penninsula right on your plate! So my mind immediately ran to a dish that I had actually made once long before I began my culinary endeavors . . . Chicken Parmigiana. Once this crossed my mind I was immediately stimulated into full creative mode, side dish, appetizer, wine and sauce ideas all began floating through my brain. But then I thought well you know I want wine chicken and sauce, why all the extra stuff. Simplicity is elegance in my book. So I set out with some chicken, some sauce, cheese and dreadging components and had wuite possibly the best dinner that I've had the pleasure of eating in a while. I simply dredged, pan fried and finished the chicken in the oven. I decided that ribbon/egg noodles and a nice fresh salad would go well with the dish and not overpower or contrast too much with the dish. Now it was time for the wine, chianti was the most suggested wine that I could find, but that was simply too dry of a wine for some of the palates at the table. So instead I went with Yellowtail Shiraz. I have been wanting to try the Yellowtail brand and I figured why not, especially with a new wine as well. Well, let's put it this way, I hope that all their wines taste that good!!
So overall, great dinner, I had a very comforting warm dish that will forever be a part of my recipe arsenal. I discovered a new wine and we visited Italy, all from the comfort of our kitchen table.

Cranberries and apples and zucchini . . . oh my!

Well there were no Russian tea cakes this weekend. I had so many other things that I wanted to make and actually I was a little intimidated by them. I didn't want to mess them up and leave myself with a bad experience with them. I will for sure try my hand at them, so that I am not dependant on the holiday season to fatten up a little bit (haha). But I did however tackle other baked goodies, that I shared with others. My mom would very often bake all day and then give it all away, I never understood why, seeing as how it was so good, but now I understand. It was such an amazing feeling to see how happy people were to receive something homemade with love. I of course had my little helper, my youngest, Ayden, with me to help deliver the goodies. I made three different baked treats, two of which I had made before and the third was something that I had thought about and wanted to try, especially since I had fresh ingredients to aid the flavor. I made my mom's zucchini bread and honestly that was my favorite and I have to say that I am getting closer everytime to the perfect taste that she had. Surprisingly enough my little sous chef, Dominick, loved it. I have a feeling that if I had told him what zucchini was, he would have had no interest in it! Then I made an apple spice bread, I love apples and I love cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and the rest of the goodness, so it just goes together! It's a nice blend of sweet and savory. Now the cranberry cornbread was my prized creation. I still had the cranberries that my coworker had given me and I decided that they had been neglected long enough. So in to the batter they went. It was amazing! I held back on how many cranberries I put in there, fearing that it would mess with the batter consistency, and honestly the only complaint that I had, was not putting enough cranberries in there. Every bite was tart and sweet corny-berry heaven. I had lots of fun making, eating and delivering my loaves of love. I will take on the tea cakes, just when I build up some more courage.

The holidays are over, but I still wanna bake!

So oddly enough, I enjoyed everybody elses baked goods this Christmas and made nothing of my own. I am saddened, but there is only one thing to do that will remedy this underlying sadness. Let's get bakin'! My first baking adventure of course will be some quick breads. I really don't feel like I can turn on the oven without making some sort of lil' love loaf! With my newly acquired food processor, I will make quick work of the chopping and mixing!! Next my big one is a rediscovered love. My grandma used to make all kinds of cookies at Christmas time, I didn't know what each one was I just knew they were made with grandma love! Well, grandma isn't with us anymore (heaven is fortunate), so needless to say I have not had the pleasure of enjoying her baking delights. Recently though a good friend and sort of adopted grandma made some cookies and insisted that I take some home for the boys . . . they got chocolate chip and sugar . . . I discovered the lil' balls of heaven. Now there are names such as russian tea cakes, mexican wedding cakes, peppermint tea cakes and so on! All I know is that when I ate the last one the other day I had to find the recipe and get to work! So I will be adding that to my list of treats this weekend. I will have pictures and words of enjoyment come Monday!!

Happy New Year!

Well it's the time for resolutions and the time to get things going that you have been putting off. Now honestly I am not much of a procrastinator, but there are some things that I have been waiting to do . . . well no more! In this next year I plan on trying a new cuisine or dish at least once a month, I know not too terribly challenging for me HAHA!! My other personal resolution is going to be reading through the Bible in a year. I have been wanting to do it for a long time and feel bad that as a newly re-born Christian that I have never done it. My goal is to be fairly knowledgable about the Bible, but I think it will take more than once through to begin to even truly understand. Now onto the other thing, as I stated in an earlier post, with the holidays and family and some miscommunications, I have not been in the kitchen that much and have not been playing or experimenting like I usually do. I have even at times resorted to Hot Pockets, I know that is the culinary equivalent to grand theft auto! But with a very generous and appreciated Christmas gift my culinary aptitude and longing has returned! One of my favorite tasters and fellow growing foodie (I like to think) and someone very special to me got me a food processor, and a nice one at that, probably nicer than I would have gotten myself. So as one of my heroes, Alton Brown, always says it doesn't matter what tools you have to utilize in your kitchen as long as you get the desired results, but it does make it easier to have the RIGHT tools. So a big thanks to my benefactor! I foresee many processed and chopped things in my future! Salsa, guacamole, eggplant parmesan, dressings, sauces, purees, bread crumb toppings, ok ok I have to be done so I can go home and play in my command center of all things food!

Morning Soup!!

No I didn't have soup for breakfast. I made soup AFTER breakfast!! I, as always, got the sudden call to create something in my playland and decided it was a day for soup, but not just any soup. I have come to find that with soup I love flavors and textures of many different soups. The flavor of tomato soup, the creaminess of a good cheese based soup, the many flavors of a good minestrone and the chunkiness of potatoes in a soup. I love all those things, and suffice to say there really isn't a, "everything but the kitchen sink" section in the soup aisle. So what do you do when you want something that you can't find, you CREATE. You chop, dice, mince stir, caramelize and slow cook to perfection, exactly what YOU want to taste and feel in your mouth! So a quick run down of my, "All or Nothin'" soup: carrots, green pepper, potato, onion, broccoli, tomato soup and cheddar cheese soup. Spices and seasonings; sage, garlic and of course the ever versatile, salt and pepper. As I type this, I anxiously await having a bowl of it when I get home. I have found that I do indeed love getting everything together and putting it all in the slow cooker for later, that smell, the texture and of course the EASE of it! So I say not why not put everything you want in one dish, one way or another, because you get what you want, how you want and best of all, how much you want!! Soup's On!!

Famished for D.C.

Well I got an amazing Christmas present last week. My former boss, the Honorable Senator John Barrasso M.D., presented me with two tickets to the Presidential Inauguration ceremony and ball on the 20th of January. Now while I wish that it was John McCain that was getting sworn in, this is HISTORY plain and simple. I am just lucky and fortunate to be able to say that I got to witness such a momentous event in our country's history. Now, the other great thing about going to D.C. would have to be the cuisine. Being that it is a metropolitan area with so much diversity, my gastronomical experiences are sure to be enhanced. I can't wait to find some tiny little diner near Capitol Hill and have coffee and watch the comings and goings of the D.C. life. Finding some upscale restaurant is definitely on top of my list of things to do. I have been craving good sushi and some of the people that I worked with in the Senate office said there were some really authentic sushi places. I cannot wait to eat myself into a frenzy of palatable delight! I think the even better part about it, is that I cannot find these places here in Wyoming, my goal will to be to find wild and new things. I sort of built a list, so here goes: 1. Diner (D.C. local favorite) 2. Sushi 3. Really good wine bar 4. Cheese shop 5. A dinner that costs at least $50 (cuz I've never paid that much before!!).
I can't wait to share with everybody once I get back.

It's been a while!

Ok so with Christmas and family time, not only have I not had much time to get on here and share things, but I haven't had that much time to really experiment or get anything accomplished in the kitchen. I have wanted to but just no time. I have however ingested quite a bit of sugar. I had my first sugar high on Christmas eve in a long time! It hurt so good!!
This weekend is going to be a time for cooking and playing though. I have lots of things that have gotten pushed aside and now it's time to get back in the laboratory and "DO WORK SON!!"
I think the first thing I'm going after is going to be a sausage dish. I love it, but have been doing the same old stuff with it and need something to excite my palate.
One thing I have discovered is my love for red wine, and what better excuse than the holiday season to drink!! I love it and will continue to discover new varieties.
Until next time!! And hopefully I will have something culinary to share with everyone next time, I'm sure I will!!!

Aubergine Delight!

Well I know that most people know the bulbous, purple and delicious prize as an eggplant, but for the sake of this post, we are going to refer to the wonderful veggie by it's other name, aubergine. Now I love aubergine and I have found many ways to cook them. I think they are a very versatile addition to any meal. One of the first dishes that I made with an aubergine was late this summer, I attempted a sad version of a stuffed aubergine. I didn't really put anything in the stuffing mixture and for sure didn't cook it as well as it should have been. Well in experiencing that failure I went on to other ways to slice, dice and devour the aubergine. Well I have been dying to try it lately, and it just so happens that some of our favorite combinations are tomatoes, aubergine and for me sweet Italian sausage (soon to be liked by my dinner guest as well). So I pulled it together and really did it right this time. We even had a little red wine to go with our wonderful, elegant aubergines. So basic ingredients went in, scoop the "meat" out of the center, boil; brown the sausage, remove let cool; saute onions, garlic and red peppers. Then drain the aubergine "meat" mix all ingredients in a bowl with S&P, bread crumbs, basil and one egg. Oh and some kind of cheese, we used cheddar. Then stuff the hollowed out shells and bake for about 45 mins. Needless to say they were delicious, definitely something we will be doing again.

Travel

Lately I have been having this undying need to discover new things in the gastronomical world. I am tiring of trying to replicate the latest Tyler Florence "Ultimate" or making healthy what I read about in cookbooks. Don't get me wrong I love seeing if I can make even come close to resembling the pictures or descriptions. But the problem is, I don't know how it's suppose to taste. That saddens me. I just want to try a true New Orleans Gumbo (from a grandma's house) or a true Thai dish from Thailand, oh and the French and Italian dishes that need to be discovered by me yearning palate are endless. Duck confit, osso bucco, croque monsieur, and oh the desserts! I think that given the chance this summer, ok so probably next summer, I'm going abroad, I'm gonna discover the food world on my terms and find the roots of all the things that are eluding my naive taste buds.
OK so maybe I have been watching too much Andrew Zimmern and Tony Bourdain, but those guys are like my culinary discovery mentors. They know what's up and they do it on their own terms, I like that and clearly respect it.

Crocker . . . Betty Crocker!

Well in keeping with the cold weather and the season of warm, melt in your mouth, memory stirring and sweet treats, I have taken a real interest and liking to baking. It has however come to my attention though, that I don't like to bake for myself. I made the first couple batches of things that I liked and remembered from my childhood, but than I realized that was good. So when I baked this weekend it suddenly hit me why my mom always made so many batches, dozens and loaves of the baked goods. Having all this bread and sweets in front of me, suddenly made me want to share with people and give the gift of food. So I decided that I would bring some to my coworkers and of course, that special somebody! But more than that, I have decided to have a little baking party to gift away some things to people. I can remember when my mom did it and how happy people were to receive a loaf of homemade banana bread or Christmas cookies spread over a "Frosty" plate. It's a good feeling for everyone involved.
I hope that I can make people as happy as my mom did! Or they had better at least pretend!