Wednesday, May 21, 2014

My Go To


This is my Go To meal.  On any given night I usually have some type of green in my fridge.  I ALWAYS have garlic, shallot and Parmesan.  And I USUALLY have some type of fish or chicken.

I love fish.  But have been kind of discouraged lately by all the farmed fish I see in the grocery store.  I don't want farmed fish.  I realize that farmed fish may be the future of fish, but while we are still able to eat wild fish, I want wild fish.  A long time ago I watched a documentary called Food, Inc.  If you haven't seen it, check it out.  It may or may not make you want to throw up.  I didn't.  It did however make me want to know where my food is from.  And it did impact me in a way that I never want to eat farmed fish.  At least, farmed fish that are fed corn.  That would be like eating deer that was fed catfish.  I don't want to eat deer that tastes like fish.  And I don't want to eat fish that tastes like corn.  I want to eat animals that eat what they are meant to eat.  Not fed food that is not natural to their habitat.  And so that is my long ass rant about why I won't buy farm raised fish until I absolutely have to.

So I found this delicious piece of Corvina at Costco today.  And I must say, I've eaten corvina in restaurants and always liked it.  But it tasted better when I made it.  I think it's just the challenge of cooking something new.  But this is an excellent fish.  I highly recommend it for those a little sketchy about fish, as it has a really mild flavor.

Anyhow...back to my Go To dinner.  The easiest, most delicious way for me to quickly cook up fish or chicken is to saute it and then make a shallot, lemon, caper, butter sauce and add some mixed greens.  Dinner in 15 minutes.  This time was Corvina.

Here's What I Did: 
(This is one of those meals where I don't measure anything, so bear with me) Preheat oven to 400.  Wash and dry your fish.  I cooked 2 fillets.  Heat a skillet over medium high heat and melt 2 tablespoons of coconut oil.  Get your oil super duper hot.  Yes, that's a cooking term.  Super duper hot.  Salt and pepper your fish and add it to the skillet.  Cook for 4 minutes without touching it.  Don't shake the pan.  Don't disturb the fish at all.  When 4 minutes are up put your fish (in your oven proof skillet) in the oven.  Set a timer for 7 minutes.

In the meantime, chop up a shallot and cut a lemon in half.  Chop some parsley and get a tablespoon of butter ready.  Also, have some chicken broth nearby and your capers.  In another skillet add about a tablespoon of olive oil.  Add in the shallot and cook until soft.  Add in the juice of 1 lemon and about 1/4 cup of chicken stock.  Add in 2 tablespoons of capers.

By now your fish is ready.  Take it out and plate it by flipping the fish so that your browned side is face up on the plate.  Add in your tablespoon of butter to your sauce and your parsley.  Top fish with sauce.

There you have it.  Wild corvina with a butter, caper, lemon sauce.  Saute up some greens with some garlic and crushed red pepper, sprinkle with some Parmesan, and you're set.

My Go To dish that will please anyone.    

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Waste Not, Want Not


I have a confession to make.  I am a food waster.  It kills me.  It gives me guilt.  It makes me hate myself.  But I do it a LOT!  I have really tried to be more conscious about my food planning so that I DON'T waste, but sometimes I just mess up and have to throw away food that I've let go bad.

I have done a few things to stop this terrible habit.  One thing, is I bought a juicer.  So any veggie or fruit that is about to spoil goes right into my juicer and I drink up the tasty, near rotten beverage (I kid...If it's really rotten, I toss it).  The other thing I've started to do is just cook everything in my fridge and put it all on a plate.  Like this little concoction that actually turned out to be a really good deconstructed Cobb Salad.

Here's What I Did:
Boil some eggs (Put eggs in a pot, cover with water and turn on high.  Once water begins to rapidly boil, turn off the burner and let eggs sit in the water for 15 minutes.  Peel and cut).  I cooked bacon (Heat oven to 400 degrees and cook bacon in the oven until crisp).  I sauteed mushrooms (melt coconut oil over high heat.  Add sliced mushrooms and cook until browned, about 8 minutes.  Salt & Pepper).  Then slice up any veggies you have (tomatoes, cucumber, etc.)  Add some greens dressed in a little olive oil and some vinegar (I used balsamic).

And there you have it.  A delicious lunch or dinner, hell, even breakfast.  And nothing went bad in your fridge.  And now you're happy because you're not wasteful.  Waste not, want not.  
 






Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Poke Doke


Raw tuna is probably one of my top 5 favorite foods.  It's just so freaking delicious.  Take me to a sushi restaurant and try to make me order a sushi roll.  I don't need all that filler crap.  Just serve me up a filet of raw tuna and set me free!  (Here's another tuna recipe I made awhile back)

I first discovered tuna poke (prounced Po-Kay) on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. This dish is so easy to make and so rewarding.

Here's What You Do:
Go to a GOOD grocery store that you trust (Whole Foods or Fresh Market), or if you're lucky to live by the water, go to your local seafood shop and purchase a hunk of sushi grade tuna.

(And here's where sometimes it sucks to write a food blog.  You see, I try to provide you all with the information I like to know about food.  So in writing this particular blog, I looked up what parameters fish must fall under to make them "sushi grade" because I was curious myself.  And what I discovered was this.  There are none.  Nope...it's a marketing scam.  No one regulates it.  So go with my first recommendation of buying fish from somewhere you trust, like Whole Foods or Fresh Market.  Just look for a deep red color and make sure it smells like the ocean, but isn't fishy) 

Next, cut up your tuna into small squares.  Slice some green onion and cube some avocado.  I know you're not going to like the following, because there are no measurements, you just do it to your liking.  Just remember not to go overboard with any one ingredient.  What I did next was just sprinkled a little soy sauce, a little sesame oil, a little lime juice, some toasted sesame seeds, the green onion and the avocado over the raw tuna and lightly tossed it.  Now just give it a little taste and adjust the seasonings if necessary.  I like mine to be a little more on the sesame oil side, so I usually add in a little more.  If you want to spice it up you can add in some jalapeno or some sambal oelek.  You can also add some chopped cilantro for an extra layer of flavor.

Then, serve it on lettuce cups, or if you're like me, just break out some chop sticks and eat it right out of the bowl.  Yet another thing you can create at home that will be MUCH cheaper and more delicious.  I actually paid $12 for two healthy sized tuna filets.  So I made this Poke one day and I made some spicy tuna burgers the next day. 

Do it.  Fish-o.

Friday, March 07, 2014

Tuna Nooner


This, my friends, is probably my favorite comfort food of all times.  Tuna Noodle Casserole.  You either love it, or you hate it.  But for me, it's poor man's food at its finest.  It's noodly, creamy, cheesy, mushroomy.  My mom used to make it at least once a week when we were kids, and we looked forward to it.  We'd beg for her to make tuna nooner.  That's what we called it.  My sister secretly awaits for her hubby to go out of town so she can make this dish because he hates it.  When I'm having a bad day, it's the only thing that can pull me out of my funk.  It's good the old fashioned way.  But these days, with my refined taste buds (haha...that's a joke...there's nothing refined about me), I like to take it to another level.  Rather than open a can of cream of mushroom soup, I make my own cream of mushroom.  And I top it with breadcrumbs so that it has some crunch.  Because I love crunch.

Here's What You Need:
Package of egg noodles
2 cans of tuna, drained (I like tonno, packed in oil)
1 8 oz. package of button mushrooms
1/4 cup of flour
4 tablespoons of butter
2 cups of milk
Cheddar Cheese (as much or as little as you like, I like a lot)
Salt & Pepper
Breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons of olive oil  (and a little extra to drizzle over breadcrumbs)

Here's What You Do:
Preheat oven to 350.  Cook your noodles according to the package.  In a large sauce pan saute mushrooms in olive oil until browned.  Add the butter and flour to the mushrooms and coat everything evenly.  Cook flour for about 2 minutes.  Add in the milk and whisk like hell so you don't get any chunks.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add tuna, noodles and cheese and stir until everything is combined.  Place mixture into a greased baking dish and sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top.  Drizzle olive oil over breadcrumbs and bake for about 25 minutes until everything is brown and bubbly.

Then put on a pair of your comfiest PJ's (unless you're already in them).  Get yourself a big ol' scoop of Tuna Noodle casserole, and chow down while watching the smuttiest, mindless, crap you can find on tv (shouldn't be too hard).  If you need another helping, take one.  And I promise all your worries will tuna-melt away.  

 

Monday, March 03, 2014

Thighsman Trophy


I think I'm in love with chicken thighs.  And I am a total freak when it comes to chicken.  Before I make anything with chicken, I do minor surgery on my piece of meat.  I cut off weird tendons, skin, veins.  I throw away the majority of the piece of chicken before I cook it because it grosses me out.  I know, it's gross.  Chicken scares me.  But I'm not afraid of slow-cooking chicken thighs.  And I'll tell you why.  When you slow-cook chicken thighs, all of the things that freak me out about chicken disappear.  And they become tender pieces of delicious, flavorful meat that melt in your mouth.

And since I bought the bulk package of chicken thighs from Costco, I needed another recipe to slow-cook them, other than Coq au Vin.  So I tried this one.  If you are unfamiliar with the Pioneer Woman, I will say this about her.  I'm not the biggest fan of her show, just because it's a LITTLE cheesy for me.  But I love the way she writes and I LOVE her recipes.  Haven't met a bad one yet.  This one in particular was so good.  I love olives.  I love Spanish style food.  I put it over some couscous, another new obsession of mine, I had a delicious and healthy little dinner.

HERE'S WHAT I DID DIFFERENT: 
Rather than use a whole chicken, I used chicken thighs.  I didn't have a green pepper, so I used my organic red and yellow peppers from my Bountiful Basket.  I didn't have wine, so any reference to wine was substituted with chicken stock.  Instead of your regular run-of-the-mill olives, I used California green olives.  I'm obsessed with these too.  They have such a unique flavor.  Really meaty and buttery and not as olive-y as the ones with pimentos, although, I'm sure it would be delicious with those too.  I've never met an olive I didn't like.

Really great dish.  Lots of flavors.  Definite comfort food.  

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Coke O Van

(Believe me, this is an amazing dish...as in dinner party, impress your friends, dish)

Coq Au Vin.  Translation?  Cockerel (Chicken) in wine.  Pronunciation?  Coke o van.  There's your French lesson for the day.

My step-mother, Sue, is an amazing cook.  We are actually a lot alike in the kitchen.  We both like simple foods with great ingredients.  We both find cooking to be therapeutic.  We both keep clean kitchens.  We both love food.  We both like a glass of wine in our hand while we cook.  And I can't speak for her on this, but I would bet that her favorite room in the house is her kitchen.  I make a few of her recipes on a regular basis.  Many of them are my "go-to's" 

There's one dish that my dad ALWAYS raves about that she makes and it is Coq au vin.  I have never tried her coq au vin, but knowing her cooking, it is delicious.  And knowing my dad, he wouldn't talk on and on about something if it wasn't outstanding.  So luckily when he was here, we went to, yep you guessed it...COSTCO and he bought us some chicken thighs.  And so wanting to actually experience this coq au vin I have heard so much about, I decided to make it for dinner.  So I asked her to send me the recipe and she told me that it's actually an Emeril recipe.  And I love Emeril.  I have eaten at 3 of his restaurants, so if his name is attached to a recipe, I'll try it.  And if Sue swears by this recipe and uses it as one of HER "go-to's", I trust that it is wonderful.

Here's The Recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/classic-coq-au-vin-recipe.html 

Here's What I Changed:  
First of all, I halved the recipe.  Instead of 2 whole chickens, I used 5 chicken thighs, skinless.  I left out the shallot, just because I didn't have one.  Which is strange, cause I usually have a shallot sitting around.  Seriously.  I used crimini mushrooms instead of white button mushrooms, cause that's what I had. I used a Cotes-du-Rhone, cause it's one of my most favorite wines.  And then instead of serving it on egg noodles, I served it over mashed potatoes, cause I had a potato I needed to mash.   

It was beyond delicious.  The sauce is so rich.  Not heavy and gravy rich.  Rich in flavor.  This is a must try.  And a definite crowd pleaser.  So thank you, Sue.  Feel free to share more of your "go-to" meals!  I have yet to find one I didn't like!       

 

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Bountiful Baskets - Good for Memphis


So...A dear friend of mine turned me on to something GOOD!  Something REAL GOOD.  And I'm here to tell you about it.  It's called Bountiful Baskets.  It's a food Co-op that offers produce baskets, organic produce baskets, artisan bread, sandwich bread and tortillas every other week.  The goal is to offer more produce to families for less money.  And who doesn't like that idea?  It's a great idea.  Look them up.  Sign up.  And fill up.  This is what came in my first organic basket.  Look at those carrots!  And that kale!  And those heirloom tomatoes!

I was so excited when I got my basket home.  When I picked it up, I didn't really take the time to look at what I got, I just threw it in my bag and went home.  But I was pleasantly surprised when I unpacked it and found delicious heirloom tomatoes, kale, butternut squash, peppers, strawberries, apples, bananas, Brussels sprouts and a rutabaga.  Yep.  That rooty looking white veggie on the right is a rutabaga.  At least that's what I think it is.  And so that's how I treated it.

Here's What I Did:  

I peeled the so-called rutabaga.  It wasn't easy mind you.  That thing was a beast.  I then peeled a sweet potato that I had sitting around and I cut them both into 1 inch cubes and I roasted them with some olive oil and salt and pepper for about 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Meanwhile, I sauteed 2 pieces of bacon, cut up and set it aside when it was crispy.  Then I added some onion, garlic, jalapeno and mushrooms to the bacon grease.  Shut up.  Bacon grease is good for you.  At least it is if you tell yourself that it is.  I then added in my rutabaga and sweet potato pieces and sauteed them until everything was all nice and browned and crunchy.

Then I topped it with an over easy egg.  Yes, I'm obsessed with the over easy egg.  It's just so damn good.  And I need the practice on making them.  So give me a break.  Then I added in some green onion.  It was really good.  And thanks to bountiful baskets, I've crossed rutabaga off my MUST COOK list.

So thanks Bountiful Baskets!  Thanks for bringing such an amazing thing to Memphis.  Lord knows we need to introduce fresh fruits and vegetables at a lower cost to families in these parts!  Thanks for all you do.  Can't wait for my next basket of surprises!     


Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Snow Day Short Ribs

I know it's not the prettiest picture...but this is meat people.  Channel your inner caveman

Well hello there!  I hope everyone is having an excellent day.  Shoveling themselves out of snow storms, trying out the newest in rain gear.  It's been one hell of a cold year.  We haven't gotten much snow in Memphis.  But it's been cold.  And when it's cold I want comfort.  And comfort to me is slow-cooked meat.

My dad came to visit a few weeks ago.  Anyone who knows my dad knows that the man is an avid shopper at Costco.  I mean, he's their most loyal customer.  As in, he will be in an unnamed grocery store's cheese aisle and decide that he's going to drive 20 miles out of the way to go to Costco for THEIR cheese.  Never mind convenience.  Costco's cheese is more economical, and just tastes better.  Costco really should consider him as their spokesperson.  He is their biggest fan!

On one of our Costco trips, we decided to purchase the boneless short ribs.  After looking at a ton of different recipes online, I realized that I could combine a few different recipes and have the perfect storm.  Ok, fine.  The perfect short rib FOR the perfect storm. So for those of you who are experiencing the crazy weather we've been having...stay warm, drive safely if you have to, or just stay home!  And make short ribs. 

Here's What You Need:  

Whole Shortribs  (we used boneless, but you could use bone in, I just find bone in to be ridiculously overpriced)
Salt And Pepper, to taste
1/2 cup flour for dredging
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil 
12 cipollini onions, peeled and cut in half
1 package of baby bella mushrooms, cleaned and cut in half 
4 cloves of garlic, minced 
1 cup Red Wine (I used a Chianti) 
32 ounces, Beef Stock
5 sprigs of thyme
2 Tablespoons Minced Fresh Rosemary 
2 Tablespoons Grainy Mustard 
1 cup Heavy Cream

 

Here's What You Do: 

 

Preheat oven to 300

Heat olive oil in a heavy pot over high heat. Generously salt and pepper your short ribs. Coat each short rib in flour.  Sear all sides of the short ribs until nicely browned.  Remove the short ribs to a plate.

Add onion to pan and cook for about 3-5 minutes, just until they have a bit of brown on the outside.  Add in mushrooms and garlic and cook another 5 minutes.  Add in wine and beef broth and scrape up all the brown bits left behind in the pot. Add thyme and return short ribs to the pot.  Bring liquid back to a boil, then cover the pot and place into the oven for 2 1/2-3 hours.  I checked my short ribs at 2 1/2 hours and decided that they were tender, but another 30 minutes and they'd be perfect.  So I went the full 3 hours.
 
After they are finished, fish out the thyme sprigs and throw them away.  Stir in mustard, rosemary and cream and raise the heat back up a bit until the sauce has thickened.  It's not going to be a gravy, so if it's too thin for you, you can make a cornstarch/water mixture and add that to thicken it up more.

Serve short ribs over polenta.  I used quick cooking polenta and added in shredded Beemster cheese for an added treat (think really nutty parmesan cheese with an aged cheddar flavor - at least that's how I would describe it).  Another cheese my dad will travel far for.  Though, he lives in Pittsburgh, and he gets his cheese at the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company.  Which is about 20 miles from his house.  Maybe the man just loves his cheese.  Have cheese, will travel.  Love him.  Did I mention that he showed up on our doorstep with 5, YES, 5 blocks of amazing cheese (Stilton, Beemster, Asiago, Morbier and Piave - look em up if you've never had them)!   

Anyways, dad loved the ribs. And the best part?  The next day, you can make short rib tacos!  Here's to staying warm!  

 

Monday, February 10, 2014

This Blog May BUG You. Out.


I love you guys.  It's so flattering when people ask where I've been, tell me I need to write something, or encourage me to keep blogging.  I wish my blog was my job and I could devote all my energy into it.  But alas...real life calls.  So here's where I have been...for all of you who wondered.  And hey...thanks for wondering.  Makes a girl feel real special.  

I'm gonna tell you a little story.  It's a kitchen story.  It's a food story.  It's a terrifying story. And it'll bug you out.  But I'm here for you.  And so when I learn hard lessons, I like to pass them along so that you know what to do if you find yourself in my situation.   

It was a chilly Wednesday evening.  I had just gotten off work.  It was around 8:00 pm.  I was hungry.  No. I was starving.  I work in a pretty freakin' delicious restaurant.  And I'm surrounded by good food the whole time I'm there.  I've been there almost 2 years now and I still eat everything.  That says a lot.

Anyways...back to my horror story.  I was starving when I got off work.  So I looked in the fridge as I always do, and I assessed the situation, then answered the same question I always ask myself, "What can I make with what I have?"  Lucky for me, I love good food.  So I usually have some pretty good shit in my fridge.  And this particular night I discovered that I had everything to make some shrimp and grits. So as I always do, I looked up a bunch of recipes, picked out the parts I didn't like in each of them, and combined all the good parts to make a meal.

I'm in the kitchen, Alabama Shakes Pandora station playing on the JamBox.  I'm all clean and showered.  I'm in my pj's.  I'm drinking a tasty glass of red wine.  Life is pretty damn good.  I've got my mixture of chicken stock and milk boiling so I can add the grits.  I've got my grits measured out.  I glance over at the iPad and see this teeeeeeeny, wieeeeeene bug crawl across it.  So I smash it, wonder in my head, "Where the hell did that come from?", and then instinctively looked over at my grits.  And that's when the horror story begins, my friends.

There were VISIBLE bugs, teeny, tiiiiiny BUGS all up in my grits.  So I immediately throw the grits in the sink and run the garbage disposal, all the while running scalding hot water.  I wanted those suckers to DIE.  Once I felt I had run the disposal at the maximum kill time, I thought to myself, "Well, shit. Now I have no grits for my shrimp and grits.  SURELY, I have some more somewhere in my pantry." 

And that's when I searched my pantry.  And I found some more grits.  Yes.  Some more BUG FILLED GRITS, DAMN IT!  So what do I do?  Freak the fuck out.  In my pantry.  I ripped that bitch apart.  I looked in my flour...BUGS, my rice...BUGS, my pasta...my pasta that was an in air-tight (so I thought) container...BUGS!!!! They were in everything.  Everything except the spices, the sugar and the salt.

So I threw EVERYTHING away.  And I did a Google search on pantry bugs.  And I found a few different things that they could be.  Either flour bugs, pantry moths or weevils.  But whatever the hell they were, they are all gone now.  Like I said...I had to throw away everything!  They were in unopened boxes of food, EVERYWHERE.  So I tossed everything.  The whole time doing the freaky bug dance like a maniac and screaming here and there in complete terror!  I tossed everything in a trash bag, then took the trash bag out to the dumpster.  I bleached the pantry so much that my hands cracked from so much bleach use (remind me to get a pair of rubber gloves), I washed any appliance that was in the pantry once by hand, and once in the dishwasher.  I then re-bleached everything in the cabinet.  Then I let it air out, and I bleached everything again.  Then I put bay leaves everywhere in my pantry.  According to something I read, these pests don't like the smell of bay leaves.  And I was desperate.  I would have drawn a pentagram, lit candles and spoke in tongues if that's what I had to do to never be in this situation again.

And then I didn't cook.  For a LONG time.  Because I didn't want to restock my pantry just to throw everything away again.  Have you bought a spice lately?  They're fucking expensive.  And I had about 45 spices.  In my head, that's about 150 bucks worth of spices I had to restock.

You know what else I do now?  I freeze any pantry item I buy for 3 days.  You know why?  Because most likely, the reason I had this issue in the first place, is because bugs lay eggs in flour, rice, cereal, pasta, etc.  And then you bring said item home from the grocery store.  And if you don't use them quick enough, these bugs will grow and mate!  And freak you the fuck out.  I am having trouble writing this right now.  It's such a creepy, crawly story.  Can't stop itching.  

So here's your lesson.  The next time you buy an item from your pantry.  Freeze it.  For 3 days. Also, put bay leaves on all your pantry shelves.  While researching these bugs, I read serious horror stories.  Like such an infestation that you could see the bugs flying around.  I shudder to think.

I have restocked my pantry since this awful incident and so far so good.  And trust me, I examine everything with a microscopic eye before I cook it now.

Nothing like a good ol' bug infestation to ruin your life!        

   

Friday, February 07, 2014

Bitchin' Brunch


Sometimes I amaze myself.  I hit a major home run on this brunch dish.  This is how my brain works. 

The other day I bought some mushrooms to make sauteed mushrooms over polenta for dinner.  Then I started feeling pretty crappy and I decided that the only thing I had the energy to cook was a sweet potato.  So that was my dinner that night.  A sweet potato and a spinach salad that was already made.  

The next day I was Pinteresting and I found this recipe that was for sauteed mushrooms and Brussels sprouts with an egg over easy broken open on top.  It looked amazing and I made mental note that I would have to recreate this dish in the near future.

The day after that I wanted to try my hand at making a goat cheese souffle, so I went out and bought some goat cheese.  That night I worked and didn't get home until 2 am, so my dinner was a handful of almonds.  I know, Mom, that's not exactly a good dinner.  But sometimes life gives you rotten lemons that you can't do shit with.  Needless to say, when I woke up the next morning, I was RAVENOUS.  And so I decided to make a goat cheese and scallion polenta topped with sauteed mushrooms, onion, garlic, jalapenos and an over easy egg.  And because today I was craving country ham, I added that to the mix and here you have it.  The best damn meal I have created in awhile.  I mean, it was so good I'd put it up against some of the finer dishes in the best restaurants in Memphis.  NO JOKE!

Here's What I Did:
I made polenta using 1/2 cup of quick cooking polenta and 1 1/2 cups of milk.  Bring the milk to a boil and then slowly whisk in the polenta like a crazy person, avoiding the hot lava explosions that end up erupting when you make polenta.  Stir like a psycho for about 5 minutes, then add in one of those small logs of goat cheese.  Stir to melt the cheese and take off heat.  Add in 2 chopped scallions (aka green onion), green and white parts.

Next, I sauteed half an onion diced, a package of white button mushrooms, sliced thick, a small clove of diced garlic, and half a jalapeno pepper, diced.  I've been using coconut oil to saute things lately because it's much better for you and I have found that I LOVE the taste of mushrooms sauteed in coconut oil.  It's amazing.  Almost sweet, yet still savory. Salt and pepper the mushroom mixture then add in a little chicken stock, just a splash and bring to a boil.  Add in a splash of half and half and mix until sauce has thickened.  In another pan, cook your eggs over easy.  

Put a heaping scoop of your goat cheese and green onion polenta on your plate.  Top with mushroom mixture.  Then top that with your egg.  Sprinkle with a little parsley.  Then break the egg yolk levee and watch as the yolk floods everything on your plate.  Serve with a side of country ham, or whatever meat option you prefer, or nothing at all.  The dish stands on its own.  It really didn't need the ham.  Try it this weekend.  Would be perfect with a mimosa.         
   

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Food Fail


My sideways photo of banana chips.  Thank you, possessed computer.

Sometimes things don't work in the kitchen.  Like making your own banana chips.  I've been looking for a healthy banana chip, but keep finding that most of them are fried and sugared.  Or sugared and then fried.  But I've yet to find an all natural banana chip.  So what did I do?  I tried to make my own.  I cooked these for about an hour at 240 degrees.  And what did I find?  That homemade banana chips SUCK.  They just don't taste as good as fried, sugared banana chips.  They have a weird texture.  They're chewy and crunchy at the same time and just don't have much flavor.  But I won't be discouraged.  I will figure out banana chips.  I will go buy a food dehydrator if I have to.

Cheers to shit not working in the kitchen.  Don't let it stop you from trying new things. 

Followers