Foodie in Training

CSA=fresh food and creative cooking

2011-05-23T21:42:00.009-04:00

What does CSA stand for?

Good Question! It stands for Community Supported Agriculture.

What is it?

A "share" of fresh ingredients from a local farm.

Ryan and I have been wanting to do a CSA for a few years now, and this summer we decided to take the plunge! We did a lot of research (614 magazine had a great article about CSA's a few months ago) and decided to purchase a our CSA with Green Seed Farm in Westerville, OH. For 20 weeks we will get a bundle of fresh, local veggies, herbs, and farm fresh eggs. It changes every week because it depends on the harvest. So far we have received three bundles of goodies, and it's been great! The harvest has been a little light due to all the rain we've gotten, but the bundles are starting to get more plentiful.

Here's a snapshot of our shares for the first 3 weeks! We are splitting the CSA with our friend Thad, so every week I separate a third of the bounty and we use the rest.

Week One:Farm fresh eggs, radishes, rosemary, oregano, Russian kale, butter lettuce, swiss chard, and homemade salad dressing.

Week Two:Lettuce, farm fresh eggs, green onions, cucumbers, swiss chard, collard greens.

Week Three:

Farm fresh eggs, radishes, green onions, lettuces (2 kinds), kale, basil, sage, and rosemary.

The farm fresh eggs are FANTASTIC. They have a wonderful, rich taste. Much better than grocery store eggs (that travel many miles before you eat them!) It's been so much fun trying the veggies I never think to buy at the store. This CSA forces us to be creative and resourceful with what we get each week.

I'll leave you with a recipe for the kale chips I made last week. I've seen a few recipes for kale chips on the blogs I read and on recipe websites. It is so easy! And they really have the crunch of a potato chip. Don't get me wrong, potato chips taste better..but for a healthy alternative to on of my favorite salty snack, this hit the spot!

Kale Chips
adapted from many recipes (mainly Smitten Kitchen)

1 bunch of Kale (I only had about 1 oz) with stems and ribs cut out.
1 tsp. of olive oil
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Rinse and dry kale leaves. Cut of stems and cut out ribs of kale. Lightly toss with olive oil. Lay on a baking sheet and Sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake from bake for 15-20 minutes. Mine only took about 12 minutes, but I only had a small bundle of leaves. If you have a big bundle of leaves, it may take longer.

Enjoy! We did. :)

Having a meal at home? What a novel idea!

2011-05-16T11:05:00.015-04:00

Ryan and I have been bad. Over the past few months we've been really busy, on vacation, and let's be honest, a little lazy. We have only cooked a handful of meals at home. Many of them consisted of our now famous "fend for yourself night" where we are both on our own for figuring out dinner. Those nights usually mean leftovers, turkey sandwiches, or eggs (and to be honest, a little karate chopping and faux-boxing). So we've been slacking.. We both enjoy eating out but it's definitely a little harder on the bank account and not very healthy.

Why am I telling you all of this? Airing out our dirty laundry? I would only reveal some of our bad habits, if it meant revealing one of our good habits! We are pretty good cooks. And we enjoy it. Yesterday on a rainy Sunday, we cooked a pretty good meal. Nothing fancy, nothing over the top.. just a nice, home-cooked meal. And we actually ate at the table. (gasp!) We have a new dining room table and it's oh so pretty. So pretty that sometimes I don't feel like setting it up for dinner when Ryan is having eggs and cereal and I'm reheating leftovers.

What started our journey back to home cooking? The grocery store(s)! Yes, this past Sunday we went to three "grocery" stores (that's a whole other post). We stocked our fridge and we were feeling inspired.

A few weeks ago I had seen a post on Smitten Kitchen (my favorite food blog) and she made a Martha Stewart dish called a Crispy Potato Roast. Deb over at Smitten Kitchen was making it for Seder as an alternative to the creamy, gloppy, gratins that are tradition. Don't get me wrong, I like a dish with cream and cheese and other tasty ingredients..but I like to save that for special occasions.

So I broke out the ole' mandolin and got to work thinly slicing potatoes and shallots. Smitten Kitchen adapted her recipe a bit from the original Martha Stewart recipe, and I adapted mine as well. To start off, I cut the recipe in half and it was more than enough for the two of us. I also added one sweet potato into the mix because it needed to be used (sneaky thing had been hiding in the bottom of the drawer).

The original recipe called for thyme, I used 4 stalks of rosemary. I also added some Old World Seasoning. Old World Seasoning is my best friend. I got it in gift basket of spices and it use it in almost everything. It has paprika, pepper, salt, parsley, turmeric, caraway, dill, and more! It's a lovely Central European blend of spices that adds a little extra something.

When it was finished baking, sprinkled some Parmesan cheese over the top. Other garnish options that would be fabulous: crumbled bacon, blue cheese, feta cheese, and green onion.

For the pork chops, I kept it simple. I lightly seasoned each side with salt, pepper, lemon zest, chopped fresh rosemary (dried will also work), a little lemon juice, and a little olive oil. I wanted to grill them outside..but Ohio weather pretty much sucks right now. So we sauteed them in a pan. To garnish, I added some fresh rosemary and a chopped lemon slice (rind and all, my mother-in-law will be proud).

For minimal money and effort, we had a tasty meal!
I am promising you all (and myself) to not get in a such a lazy cooking rut. It's just silly!

Homemade Tater Tots: Fact or Fiction?

2010-04-26T15:48:00.011-04:00

Who doesn't love tater tots? They are one of my favorite foods. Never mind that they are probably over-processed, full of chemicals, fried, and frozen. They.Are.Awesome. To be honest, if I have the opportunity to eat tater tots, I'm not really concerned with their ingredients and what makes them so good. What I'm concerned about is ordering and eating my freakin' tots..fast! :)

It's kind of rare to see tots on a restaurant menu. I will order them at any and all restaurants that have them on their menu, no matter what. It's definitely not very foodie-like but I don't care!

A few weeks ago, while enjoying some happy-hour adult beverages, Ryan, our friend Thad, and I were discussing Tater Tots and if they could be made at home. A few questions arose from this very serious discussion:

1. How would you go about making a tot?

2. Is it worth it?

3. Is buying the frozen, bagged kind the only way to go?

I've done a little investigating and there isn't a lot of information on how to make Tater Tots. There are Tater Tot casseroles and Tater Tot bakes, and OMG there is such a thing as Maple Bacon Wrapped Tater Tots....but very few homemade tot recipes. And by very few, I'm saying that I only found like two seemingly legit recipes.

So, my good foodie friends, I'm on a quest to find a homemade tot recipe (Or make one up if it comes to that) and make me some tots!

Any thoughts on some good resources? I'm going to consult some cookbooks and do some online sleuthing and see what I find. This is just the beginning, I wanted to get you all involved so this quest can be truly appreciated and hopefully victorious!

Best Tacos Ever: Black Bean Tacos with Feta and Cabbage Slaw

2010-04-19T16:44:00.010-04:00

Seriously. I'm not being dramatic, I'm not being biased. These tacos are the best ever.

I found the recipe on my FAVORITE food blog, Smitten Kitchen. Normally, this is a vegetarian dish, but we decided to add ground beef this time. The recipe says to mash the black beans (we just use a fork) so it thickens into a bit of a paste. Once the ground beef is cooked and the fat drained, we add the black beans. The heat softens the mashed beans and makes the ground beef and bean mixture thick without adding one of those taco seasoning packets. The recipe calls for cumin and we also added cayenne, garlic powder, and taco seasoning (which is just a mixture of paprika, onions, more cumin, oregano, and allspice). In the past I have also substituted the taco seasoning for chili powder, or Hungarian hot paprika.
The star of the tacos is the feta and cabbage slaw. I could seriously eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's fresh and crunchy with a little bite from the lime and hot sauce. And, it's one of those things that just gets better the more it sits in your refrigerator. I recommend buying a large cabbage and making a big batch because you'll want more after the tacos are gone. Smitten Kitchen's adaptation of the recipe calls for about 2 tablespoons (or more) of lime juice. I'm on the "or more" team. I use the juice of about 2 whole limes..or more. I really like a ton of lime juice. I think it enhances all of the flavors and also provides a nice contrast to the feta cheese.

As you can see in the photos, we did not make our tacos crispy. The first time I made them, I pan fried each tortilla in a little olive oil and man was it good. I definitely recommend it. But, if you are feeling lazy or just short on time, regular soft tortillas are fine, or you could use the store bought hard tacos. This recipe is so user-friendly, you can do whatever you want.
Oh black bean tacos, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1. You are so easy and fast.
2. The recipe is very simple and wide open for being creative and adding your own twist!
3. Wallet friendly- black beans, tortillas, cabbage, lime, feta, cilantro, a bit of olive oil. These are the main ingredients..trust me, they don't add up to very much $$.
4. You go so well with a tasty adult beverage...especially of the Mexican variety.
5. You are even better the next day! (If there are leftovers)

20 Minute Meal!

2010-04-06T20:11:00.017-04:00

I have a new work schedule. Two nights a week, I work 5 p.m.- 9 p.m. It's been an interesting adjustment. On said days, I try and eat before work..but I'm not hungry for dinner at 4. I usually have just eaten lunch at 1 or 2. If I don't eat, I'm famished when I get home at 9:30 and proceed to snack my way through the girl scout cookies, chips and salsa, pickles, etc. Pretty much anything in site and that's not really a meal. Is it? So anyway, now I'm trying to eat a light meal before work and then have a small snack in the evening.

I was getting ready for work the other day and trying to decide what to eat. The clock said 3:40 and I had about a half hour to make dinner, eat, and head to work. I decided to use a spaghetti squash that had been collecting a little dust in my pantry and throw together a fast, healthy, filling meal that also makes plenty of leftovers for later!

Spaghetti Squash with Tomato and chickpea sauce:

Twenty minutes and 6 easy steps. The clock says 3:45...Ready..Set..Go!Step 1:

Pierce spaghetti squash with knife about 6 times all over the squash. Put in the microwave for about 10-12 minutes (depending on the size of the squash). Rotate about 3 times during the microwave process. I usually just lay the squash on a few paper towels, but we were out, hence the plate.

Step 2:

Chop one red onion and saute with olive oil on medium-high heat until soft. Add chopped garlic after about 3 minutes.

Step 3:

Chop and add any ingredients you want. This is the fun part!! You can get real creative and use common items in your pantry. I always use canned tomatoes (usually two cans) and a can of beans. I've used garbanzo, black, and cannellini beans. Tonight, I had one zucchini and some canned mushrooms so I threw those in! In the past I've also added green pepper and carrots.

Step 4:

Let all the ingredients cook and get to know each other in the pan. I also start adding some seasoning at this point. This is another way to be creative! I LOVE cumin. I can't get enough of it. And it seems to work really well with my base of ingredients. So I always add cumin and some hot paprika. Salt and pepper are always a must. For a little color and some fresh flavor I usually go with parsley. Fresh is always best, but dried will work.Step 5:

When the spaghetti squash is done, remove from the microwave, let it cool for about 5-10 minutes. Because I was on a time crunch, I let it cool just enough so I could handle it and I sliced it in half. I scooped out the seeds and then proceeded to spaghetti the squash. :) The great thing about spaghetti squash is once you slice it in half, all you have to do is comb the fork along the squash half and it comes out in spaghetti-like strands..Hence the name.Step 6:

Plate! See how many leftovers this makes? Ryan had some of the leftovers for dinner later and we finished it off the next night and served it with grilled steaks.

And what time is it!?

I mean, how quick and easy is that? It's healthy and filling too. I even had time to clean up and I made it to work with time to spare!

Move over Rachael Ray! This is a 20 minute meal...beat that! Actually...Rachael..you can just go away. (She bugs the crap out of me)

Spinach-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

2010-02-25T21:52:00.008-05:00

I was going through some boxes in the basement and came across a few cookbooks that never got unpacked. I mentioned in the Valentine's Day post that we have a lot of cookbooks. When we moved to Columbus, I decided to leave an entire box of cookbooks packed and in the basement and just display the few we use the most. Anyway, I started looking through an old Self Magazine full of recipes. It is titled "Self Dishes" and it came out in the summer of 2007. I've made many yummy recipes from this magazine and they are usually pretty easy recipes and healthy too! I'm always trying to eat healthy. Sometimes I'm successful, sometimes I'm not. Right now, I'm on a healthy-eating kick. I had the day off on Tuesday and I had just gone grocery shopping, so I decided to make Spinach-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms from my Self Dishes magazine.

This was super easy to make. It's basically just mixing all the ingredients in a bowl, spooning them on to the mushrooms caps and baking it for 25 minutes. I had this for a late lunch and it was filling and really tasty. I definitely plan on making this again because most of the ingredients are already kitchen staples.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove mushroom stems and chop the stems. Place the mushrooms smooth side down in a baking dish.

2. Next, mix thawed spinach, cottage cheese, shredded cheese, dill, and scallions. The recipe called for cheddar, but I used mozzarella. I also did not have any sour cream on hand, so I just added an additional spoonful of cottage cheese and shredded mozzarella. It still turned out great.

3. Spoon mixture on the mushrooms creating a mound. Cover with foil. (I just re-read the recipe and realized I totally forgot to cover my dish with foil! oops. But, now we know it's not mandatory. ) Bake for 25 minutes.

Here's my uncovered mushrooms cooking away. See, they look fine without the foil. No worries.
The cottage cheese binds everything together and the spinach and cheese flavors complement the meatiness of the portobellos. This dish can also be doctored up a bit! Next time, I plan on adding garlic and lemon zest. I also think adding a spoonful of breadcrumbs would add a nice texture. I love recipes that act like blank canvasses. They have a few staple ingredients and then you can be creative and add other ingredients to make it your own.

This is really a great dish. Not only is it easy, it's really satisfying and very tasty. It can be a nice vegetarian main course, served with a salad and some crusty bread. It also could be a nice side dish to accompany fish or chicken.

Two stuffed mushrooms is only 200 calories. Bonus!

Carrot Ginger Soup

2010-02-22T20:11:00.007-05:00

A few days a week I am on my own for dinner. Usually I am lazy and I make a grilled cheese or reheat leftovers. Occasionally I get motivated to be creative and make myself a nice meal. When Ryan isn't around for a meal I like to make something that he wouldn't be crazy for, or something vegetarian. Ryan and I have lived together for about 3 years now and I learned real quick that a meal without some sort of meat or seafood is not really a meal. (Or it at least means a late night snack for a hungry husband) Before I lived with Ryan I would go a week or two without meat and not think anything about it. Sometimes, it's nice to a take a break from being a carnivore.

On this particular night I didn't have much in the fridge but I knew I had some homemade chicken stock, carrots, and a bit of fresh ginger that I need to use up before it starting growing things in the fridge. A few weeks ago Adam Roberts, the Amateur Gourmet, had "The Great Soup Battle of 2010". In this epic battle was an intriguing recipe for Carrot Ginger Soup. I've never had carrot soup before but the more I thought about it the more my mouth started to water. And, I had the major ingredients. So I started looking on some of my favorite recipe web sites (Epicurious and My Recipes) for additional inspiration. Although the recipe form AG's Soup Battle sounded tempting, the winning recipe was from Bon Appetit from 1997 that I found on Epicurious.

I sauteed onions, garlic, and ginger in butter until soft and then added the carrots and tomatoes and lemon zest. Look at how pretty!I let that cook for a few minutes then I added the chicken broth. Once the broth had come to a boil, I reduced the heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes. (The recipe said 20 minutes or until the carrots were soft). I used my favorite kitchen tool, my hand blender, to blend the soup. I'm not a huge fan of smooth and watery soup so I only blended mine until there were a few chunks of carrot and tomato for texture. But that's just me. When you make your ginger carrot soup, you can do what you want. :)So the soup was blended, but it still tasted a little bland to me. So, I added a little cilantro, cumin, and a bit of Siracha (Thai hot sauce) for heat. When the carrots cook they get very sweet, so I added the heat for balance.

While the last of the spices were simmering away to perfection, I tore up some wheat bread and put them under the broiler and made little "poor man" croutons to serve on top of the soup. I also added some crumbled blue cheese and chopped scallions for texture and color. Not bad for a lonely Wednesday night?

So if you are cooking for one or just tired for the same old grilled cheese or PBJ for dinner, try this soup or any recipe that inspires you. You might end up with some tasty results.

Valentine's Day Dinner

2010-02-16T17:19:00.011-05:00

For the past few years Ryan and I have ditched the traditional night out on Valentine's Day and cooked at home. Two years ago we celebrated Valentine's Day with Mario Batali and last year we stayed in and cooked steaks with roasted vegetables. It's not that we don't enjoy eating out, but we figure we can make a pretty fancy and flavorful meal ourselves for less money and more fun!

We have A LOT of cookbooks. And we actually use them when we are looking for our regular, weeknight meals. For a special occasion like this, we like to pick a recipe that is a little more complicated and has different ingredients. (Or at least ingredients that aren't on the normal grocery list)

We decided to ask Mario Batali to be our valentine again because we chose two recipes from his cookbook Molto Italiano. Our menu included:

1. Duck Scaloppine with Dried Cherries and Grapa
2. Red Cabbage Braised in Vinegar
3. Goat Cheese Ravioli's fresh from the North Market in Columbus.

Now, I said above that we try and pick a recipe that is a little more complicated and has different ingredients..but for the Duck Scaloppine we actually had all of the ingredients except the duck, cherries, and scallions. We figured it was meant to be. We thought it would be a good opportunity to use the Grapa we purchased on our honeymoon in Italy. I personally do not like to drink it, but it was great to cook with.

The duck recipe was fairly easy to make, we mainly had to concentrate on pounding out the duck breasts as thin as we could (which was kind of difficult because we were out of saran wrap) and timing the dish so it was ready with the rest of the components.
Since there is no recipe link for the braised red cabbage, I'll give you the step by step process. In his cookbook, Mario recommended we serve the duck with braised red cabbage. We couldn't say no to our valentine, so we obliged.

1. Slice 1 medium red onion (we mixed 1/2 red and 1/2 white because that's what we had). Heat olive oil in large pot over med-high heat until smoking. Add onion and caraway seeds. **We did not have caraway seeds so we used fennel seeds instead- it worked perfectly!**

Cook until onion is soft 3-5 minutes.

2. Add cabbage, sugar, red wine vinegar and stir well. Cover and cook until cabbage is tender, about 20 minutes. We ate our cabbage warm, but Mario also says you can cool the cabbage and have it on sandwiches, or "sammies," as he called them.
Here is a shot of the final presentation: I'll admit there were a few uncharacteristic kitchen meltdowns on my part. I almost burned the red cabbage and a tore open a few of the ravioli's when they were cooking. When we sat down to eat I thought I had ruined our meal. But, it turned out wonderful!! The duck scaloppine was really tender and perfectly cooked (thanks to Ryan). The grapa and dried cherries provided a tartness that complimented the flavor of the duck and the scallions added a nice crunch. The braised cabbage turned out very flavorful. The fennel seeds worked just fine instead of caraway seeds and provided a nice anise flavor that worked well with the red wine vinegar.

We didn't do much to the ravioli's. Like I mentioned above, we got them from Pastaria Seconda in the North Market. They were stuffed with goat cheese so we wanted to keep it simple. We sprinkled some dried Italian herbs and Parmesan cheese over the ravioli and drizzled some olive oil to finish the dish.

I was really happy with our Valentine's Day meal. If we would have gone out and tried to get a meal similar to this, we would have spent a lot more money. Mario Batali can be our Valentine anytime!

Oh yea, here is our other Valentine. :)

A Blink of an Eye..

2010-02-15T19:47:00.003-05:00

Soooo, man it has been a while. A little over a year in fact. Where does the time go? We are really sorry that it's been so long between posts. A lot has happened in the past year so I'll give you all a quick update.

Last year we were sporadically posting about living in our hometown at Ryan's parents house. I'm very happy to tell you all that we moved to Columbus, OH in July of 2009! We have a cute little apartment in the Grandview Heights neighborhood. We are happy to be back in a big city (Sandusky and Huron were making me a little nutty) and it's nice to be on our own as a newly-married couple. Another bonus is we get to use all of our wonderful wedding gifts. We have new dishes, cookware, bake ware, serving platters, appliances...you name it! It makes cooking at home all the more fun. And living in a new place also means an entire city of restaurants to explore!

In other news, I completed grad school in December of 2009. I'm so happy to be done, not only because I have my master's in library science, but I have more free time to cook real meals!

Notice the new design? A few months ago I changed it up and added a pretty picture of the best pizza I've ever had (in Italy of course).

It's a new year, a new city, a new look, and new recipes! I hope you will all stop by again because we are back and excited to be cooking and blogging again.

Quick Steak dinner for 2 and good beer.

2009-02-12T11:13:00.008-05:00

Cooking for two is much different than cooking for six. For the past few months, Erin and I have been living in my parents' house and on any given night there can be as few as one and as many as six people eating dinner together. Usually, my mom takes over most of the kitchen duties (which helps explain our lack of activity on FiT- that's Foodie in Training, for those not paying attention). Every now and then Erin and I will make dinner for everyone. Or my brother Greg and I will come up with some creation (our cavatelli with chunky tomato sauce and diced chicken was awesome).

But the last week, my parents and brother have been out of town, leaving Erin and I cooking for two, like we did quite often in Cincinnati. When cooking for two some things aren't as practical: huge roasts, baked pastas, casseroles, etc. We've made those things before, its just that you end up with more leftovers than dinner, and we get sick of the food before it spoils. Instead, our go-to meals usually involve a small package of some sort of meat and smaller sides.

On Tuesday, Erin and I bought a couple small steaks. They were pretty thick and lean top round cuts. Being so lean, and not the highest quality, I wanted a lot of flavor. I used salt, lots of pepper, oregano, parsley, and some "Mrs. Dash" seasoning blend (basically some dried onion, more pepper and oregano). I also added a drop of olive oil. Once my grill-pan was smoking hot with some Pam, I added the steaks, searing the pepper-heavy seasoning into the meat, creating a bit of a crust. (Caution- if you try doing this, make sure you are prepared for lots of smoke and your smoke detector going off. If, say, you are cooking at a home that has an alarm system that will call an alarm company and ultimately the fire department whenever a smoke detector goes off, you may want to disarm the system before you start cooking). I then turned the heat down a little and cooked the steaks to medium.

Erin made some spinach with lots of garlic and lemon (which is, again, my favorite vegetable side dish), a salad and a little brown rice. I also sauteed some onions and baby bella mushrooms for the steak and rice. The mushrooms and onions cut the peppery steak nicely. A nice little meal, just for two.

Beer: I tried a hI.P.A.- Magic Hat Brewing Company's extremely hoppy IPA. This is a beer made for hop-heads, and I fall into that category. There is a bit of a fruitiness, but your hardly can find it under all the hops at both the front and the back of the taste. I love IPAs, and one of the reasons is how well they stand up to hearty food, like steak. hI.P.A. is Magic Hat's spring seasonal, and let me tell you: I'm ready for spring. I've already had Great Lakes Brewing Company's spring varietal: Conway's Irish Ale. And, pitchers and catchers report today! IT IS SPRING!

Touche'

2009-02-01T15:45:00.008-05:00

As far as trendy and new restaurants, our options may be limited in little Sandusky, Ohio, but I have been happily surprised several times. Zinc, Red Gables and Nagoya being some of them that come to mind.

This weekend we found another great place in North Central Ohio: Touche'. It is a Martini Bar operated by Chez Francois, a highly regarded French Restaurant right next door. The menu at Touche is highlighted by appetizers and comfort food with a stress on high quality and French ingredients.

Friday nights is Martini night. My father-in-law (John), my dad and I all have an affection for a good martini, so we went, with our wives to enjoy the discounted martinis and good company. The three of ordered vodka martinis up. My dad's was dirty with anchoive stuffed olives. John and I had vodka martinis with blue cheese stuffed olives. Awesome.

I ordered a meat plate that had a good sausage, a thinly sliced ham, and smoked salmon. There were large shavings of parmesian cheese, the perfect salty compliment to the meats. There was also a large assortment of olives and a bunch of gigantic whole capers. This all surrounded the best part of the plate- a bunch of artichokes, sun dried tomatos, and a really spicy cherry pepper, all perfectly marinated.

Erin and I then split a ham and cheese sandwich. It had the same, high quality ham that was on my meat plate with melted gruyère cheese. It was served with a spicy giardiniera, dijon mustard and a plate of more olives and other pickled vegetables (including a green tomato).

My second martini was the same, but dirty. The three martini guys, after dinner, had a shot of Knob Creek on the rocks. A sofisticated and strong whiskey with a bite. A great finish to a great evening.

Smashed chickpea salad

2009-01-27T12:30:00.004-05:00

In my quest for healthy recipes, I came across this recipe on Smitten Kitchen (one of my favorite food blogs) for smashed chickpea salad. She adapted her recipe from a sandwich she had at Tom Colicchio's restaurant Wichcraft. I took her recipe and adapted it to what I had in my fridge and also my new healthy lifestyle.

This recipe is sooo easy and you can really just throw whatever you want in there, whatever you think would taste good! I'm kind of obsessed with it and find myself craving it for meals. It's kind of like a deconstructed hummus (that's how Smitten Kitchen described it and I agree) in that you mash the chick peas with a potato masher or fork to get a thicker consistency but not the thickness of hummus.

Here is my adaptation of the smashed chickpea salad, inspired by Smitten Kitchen, which was inspired by Wichcraft:
1 can of chick peas, drained and rinsed
zest of one lemon and juice of one lemon
diced carrot (add as much as you like, I diced about 4 carrot sticks)
about 1 or 2 tbsp. diced red onion (add as much as you desire for this as well)
1 tsp. of capers1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (the first time I made it I only had dried parsley and used about 1 tsp.)
salt and pepper (to taste)
a few glugs of olive oil
a dash of White Balsamic vinegar (optional)

1. combine all ingredients
2. mash together with potato masher or fork for desired consistency
This is a really relaxed recipe, based on your personal tastes. If you want it more tangy, add more lemon juice or the white balsamic vinegar. If it seems a bit dry, add a little more olive oil. I just kept tasting until I felt it was right.

I've eaten this a few different ways- on toasted bread with spicy mustard, as a dip with crackers, and straight out of the container. :)

Four Things You Should Know- "The Angry Whopper"

2009-01-22T21:05:00.005-05:00

There are four things you should know about Burger King's Angry Whopper.

1.) Makes you feel like ass. (I woke up at 3 AM, enough said)

2.) Makes you fat. (over 800 calories, over 50 grams of fat)

3.) Too expensive. ($6 with a drink)

4.) Does not taste good.

Spicy, Tasty and Healthy!

2009-01-11T20:37:00.005-05:00

Ok- so like everyone else in the world, I have a New Year's resolution to get healthy and eat right. Very unoriginal and un-foodie-like I know, but, what can ya do.. So lately I've been scouring the Internet and cookbooks for healthy and tasty recipes to make and this past week I requested a healthy meal when we were dinner guests at my parents house. My mom came across a recipe for vegetable and pork stir fry that was featured on The Biggest Loser and made by Rocco DiSpirito.

My mom and I made it on Thursday evening and it was really good. My parents didn't particularly like it, but Ryan and I loved it so we made it last night for Ryan's family and it was a huge hit! The combination of the ginger, orange, red pepper flakes and peanut butter make a surprisingly complex sauce. You could add any vegetables to this and in fact we added carrots. I would love to try it with an Asian medley with broccoli and baby corn and all of that good stuff, but Ryan is not a fan of broccoli so maybe I'll have to make this just for me someday. This is also a fairly quick and easy recipe, which is nice for busy weekday nights. We served this over brown rice.

Vegetable and Pork Stir Fry

Rocco DiSpirito

serves 4

Ingredients:

cooking spray

1 lb. lean pork loin cut into bit size strips

Salt

4 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger

1 large red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 pound snow peas*

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

2 tablespoons natural peanut butter

2/3 cup chopped fresh basil

heat a large nonstick skillet, spray cooking spray, season pork with salt and add to pan. Stir fry until golden brown and cooked almost through, about 3 minutes. Remove pork and set aside.

Spray cooking spray and add ginger, cook for one minute. Add onion and season with salt and cook for about 4 minutes. **We added one clove of garlic, finely chopped, for some extra flavor**. Add snow peas and continue to cook until tender. Remove vegetables from the pan. Add orange juice concentrate and red pepper flakes and bring to a boil. Whisk in peanut butter and return to a simmer. Toss in pork, vegetables, and basil to combine. Adjust seasoning if needed and serve!

****To make this dish even quicker, we used frozen carrots and snow peas and partially cooked them, and then added when instructed.

**Not to drill home the whole diet/new years resolution thing, but this dish is only about 300 calories per serving.

Holidays

2009-01-05T01:37:00.004-05:00

Erin and I had some great food while celebrating the Holidays. Some of the best:
1.) Filets at the Stookeys, Christmas Eve:
Erin's parents made some delicious filets. **So sorry I don't have a photo..I'm so mad, because they were soooo good!!
2.) What the heck is a stratta?
Turns out, it is some sort of quiche dish. It made for a pretty tasty brunch

3.) Nonna's Christmas spectacular:Similar to last year's, my grandma made a Christmas dinner for the ages. This year, we had Steak Sciscliano (prounounced SHISH-lee-ano). A very good cut of meat sliced into thin steaks, quickly seared on each side and soaked in olive oil and garlic and some italian seasonings. We had a lightly breaded and then baked shrimp; Pazella (italian style peas); homemade ravioli (with homemade tomato sauce)- they took my grandma something like 6 hours to hand make over 100 ravoli. They were the highlight of this wonderful meal. We had some nicely seasoned and spicy rappini (an Italian vegetable- a cross between spinach and broccoli).

4.) New Years Eve dinner: steaks at Red Gables Mesquittttte grill
We went to a small steakhouse in Sandusky with my brother and a couple friends on New Years Eve. The planning of our evening was very last minute, but we didn't complain. In fact, Erin ended up with the best steak ever. She got the filet, I got the ribeye. Both were perfectly cooked, high quality, and rubbed down with bold amounts of pepper and flavor. I tried a bite of Erin's- amazing.

**Also, sorry no photo, I guess the holidays=eating=Erin and Ryan's forgetfulness. I now have a New Year's resolution to remember to take photos of all this awesome food!

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to everyone!

Warmer Days: New Sandusky Fish Company

2008-12-22T21:41:00.007-05:00

So, the temperature has been in the single digits the last two days. It was 1 last night when I got home. The windchill was -25. Now, having grown up in Northern Ohio, I'm sure that I've been in colder weather, but I don't remember it. Driveways are covered in jagged, uneven ice, making every step to the car a potential sprained ankle and a concussion.

Yesterday was the first day of winter. I love the changing seasons. I won't ever live in a place with a year round 80 degree climate. But when its this cold, you need something to look forward to. I know Chirstmas is a few days away, but the busy shopping and the snow covered Christmas lights weren't doing it for me.

I was reading a baseball article about the Indians new closer, Kerry Wood. And the article mentioned in passing that in just 52 days pitchers and catchers report!!! That day in late February when pitchers and catchers begin gearing up for the coming baseball season is my signal that Spring is here.

It reminds me of a warmer time. A time when you could enjoy the outside. Walk along the Lake in Sandusky, and eat a perch sandwich.

Yellow Lake Erie Perch (which is what I mean by "perch" in this post- not to be confused with some crappy European "White Perch", or Perch from a different great lake, which is certainly not as good as from Lake Erie) is best in the late summer and throughout the fall. When I moved back to the north coast in September, it was perfect time for eating lots of tasty perch. Now, there isn't a lot of variety as to what people around here do with perch. They catch it. They clean it. They bread it. They fry it. That's it. Perch has a distinct flavor to it, and I'm not sure how it would play in other preparations. Yellow perch is meaty and a little different in texture than a boring flaky piece of white fish. It has a little bite of distinct flavor, not fishy, but definitely fresh. Perch fillets are probably too small to make an appetizing dinner in anything besides their fried "fish and chips" type form.

I've caught perch a few times out on the lake. If you are on a boat and with someone that knows where to go you can spend a couple hours and catch dozens of them on a given October day. Getting someone to clean them can be a challenge, but then you can have your own fish fry. Just dredge and pan fry in plenty of oil. I'll save the details for next summer, when I'm sure we'll have a fish fry.

For now, I want to focus on my favorite place to get fresh Lake Erie Yellow Perch in Sandusky: The New Sandusky Fish Company. This little shack right on the Sandusky Bay is the perfect place for a perch sandwich or to get fresh perch by the pound to make your own. The back of the shop is usually open and in the summer and fall months, you can often see the boat loads of perch being dropped off. There is the guy scaling and deboning the fish and then they are brought to the kitchen where they are battered and fried- fresh to order. I perfer mine with a little tartar sauce and some lemon juice. A little coleslaw or fries, and you have yourself a great little meal to sit and enjoy on a park bench as you enjoy the beatiful Sandusky Bay. Just mind the bees and the seagulls!

A tasty disaster

2008-12-16T20:00:00.001-05:00

Last year I made Holiday Biscotti for friends and family for Christmas and they were a huge hit!

I made two flavors: the holiday biscotti with pistachios and dried cranberries and chocolate chip and anise seed. Everyone raved about the pistachio and cranberry biscotti so I definitely wanted to make those again but I wanted to try a different recipe for the second kind of biscotti. I came across this espresso biscotti recipe and liked all the different ingredients and the espresso flavor. Now, I did not use the base recipe for the espresso biscotti, I used the ingredients and instructions for Giada's holiday biscotti. I also change it up a bit, I used a shot of espresso (not the powder) and mixed that in to the wet ingredients.

The espresso biscotti turned out really tasty, I love all the flavors so every bite is a combination of something different, the tart of the dried cranberries, crunch of almond, and sweetness of the apricot and chocolate. And of course the cranberry and pistachio biscotti turned out great!

The end result was tasty, but man was my kitchen a DISASTER! I swear, I could do nothing without spilling. I made the biscotti in the Kelsey's kitchen, which is great, but I wasn't using my kitchen tools so I got all flustered and made quite the mess in the kitchen. Last year everything went so smooth, that I guess I was due for a kitchen disaster.

I only made a batch of each because I was having such a hard time, but they turned out so tasty I plan to make more before Christmas. They make great gifts!!

Cranberry "sauce"

2008-12-13T14:32:00.005-05:00

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think when most people think of cranberry sauce they thing of something that comes from a can. Something that is like some weird jello texture molded into a can shape and then sliced into red discs that sit in a lonely bowl at Thanksgiving, never to be touched or heard of again.
Well, when I think of cranberry "sauce", I think of a delicious citrus-y and slightly chunky version that my mom makes. She hasn't made it the past couple Thanksgivings.
Well, this past week she bought a bunch of fresh cranberries and after making cranberry muffins and cranberry bread, she decided that she wanted to make her cranberry "sauce". Now, I keep putting "sauce" in quotes when referring to my mom's version because it is technically cranberry relish that she makes. Cranberry sauce really is supposed to be cooked and molded like a jelly: at least according to Alton Brown.
My mom's version comes from an old party cookbook. For a good large bowl full, here is the recipe from McCall's Illustrated Dinner Party Cookbook (copyright 1970!):

You need: 2 large navel oranges, 1 large red apple, 1 lb fresh cranberries (4 cups), and 1 1/2 cups sugar.

1. Grate the peel of one orange into a large bowl. Remove peel and white pulp from both oranges.
2. Quarter and core unpeeled apple. Cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Wash and drain cranberries, removing any stems. Coarsely chop cranberries and oragnes. Add fruits to the large bowl with the peel.3. Add sugar stirring gently until dissolved. Refrigerate, covered for several hours or overnight.

Now- my mom adds only 1/2 the sugar the recipe calls for. This is pretty much my mom's MO- she hates sugar. I think her version is plenty sweet and allows the tart cranberry flavor to come through, but maybe you would prefer it sweeter than we do. Also, she just puts all the ingredients (save the sugar) into a food processor or blender to really make everything into a fine relish. You don't want it to be liquid or mush, but you want everything to be in small bits- think the consistency of store bought pickle relish (though a bit thinner). The sugar should be folded in at the end, evenly mixed, but not in the food processor.

What's the end product good for? Well, it is wonderful with turkey breast, be it store bought lunch meat or on freshly carved off a holiday bird. It is also good on toast or muffins. I like it as a way to liven up any boring meat and potatoes type meal as a little side dish.
NOTE- Erin should add the pictures from my mom's cranberry sauce soon. **photos are posted, enjoy!**

Best Asian Cuisine on the East Side of Cincinnati

2008-12-05T15:44:00.001-05:00

I started this post months ago and totally forgot about it. But I found it and decided to finish it today.

Once again, "Best" really means "our favorite". Another quick disclaimer, Asian is a really broad category. For purposes of this post, "Asian" means Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. It does NOT mean South Asian (e.g., Indian- that gets its own post.) For better or worse, "Asian" gets thrown into one category for the purposes on this post and in American cuisine generally. At every Thai place, they have curry on the menu, at every Chinese place, there is sushi. It makes me wonder, in Tokyo is there a Italian restaurant that also has Greek Gyros and German sausages on the menu? I hope not.

BANGKOK BISTRO, Hyde Park: Probably our personal favorite, and likely the single restaurant we miss the most from Cincinnati. The biggest reason is that we simply don't have much Asain variety up here in Northern Ohio, especially in our small town of Sandusky. Bangkok features Thai food. Some great Pad Thai and varities of spicy Thai flavored noodle dishes. If you ask for 10 of 10 on their spiciness scale- you'll get it. Hit my threshold pretty spot on, in a good way. Erin enjoys a seafood noodle soup with a wide assortment of whole seafood in a perfectly seasoned broth.

DOODLES, Hyde Park: A chinese place that specializes in noodles. I enjoyed the Fiery Flat Rice Noodles and Cantonese pan fried noodles. Not nearly as spicy. Unlike generic chinese Restaurants, everything tastes so fresh and seasoned to order.

DANCING WASABI, Mt. Lookout: Little sushi place within walking distance from our old apartment. I enjoy sushi, but more as an appetizer than a meal. Although I never did it, I liked the idea that I could walk to a Sushi place from my apartment and order a spicy tuna roll at 3 AM. Just made me feel like I lived in a vibrant area; which Mt. Lookout was.

TEAK, Mt. Adams: Another Thai place. It is a little more pricy and elaborate than Bangkok Bistro. And their menu is even more vast and "pan-Asain" than the others.

Wild Ginger, Hyde Park: I think it started as Vietnamese, but has added dishes from all over Asia, especially Japan. They have also expanded since we left Cincinnati, I believe they now have Japanese steak house style seating along with a bigger sushi bar in addition to their normal seating.

Pomegranates = Mesmerizing

2008-12-03T19:47:00.005-05:00

Last week I bought two pomegranates and now I have a favorite fruit!! I've always loved pomegranate juice (when I can afford it) but had never bought a pomegranate and ate the seeds and used them in recipes. I think pomegranates are the most beautiful fruit ever. They are like bright, beautiful little jewels. I'd almost rather wear them as jewelry then eat them!!

I was a little nervous to get the seeds out without creating a huge mess or staining myself with the juice. But I watched a few videos on You Tube and then felt comfortable. And actually, it's really very easy. I think they are just intimidating because they are very different than other fruits. First you cut off the top little stem and then cut a little off the bottom (so it will sit up and not roll over). Then, score the pomegranate as if your were going to cut it into quarters. The pomegranates skin is very thin and the inside is just the pith so you easily rip open the pomegranate after it's been scored without breaking a lot of the seeds.

To prevent a big mess, fill a large bowl with water and submerge the pomegranate while separating the seeds from the pith. The white parts you can't eat will float to the top and the seeds will float to the bottom!!

We mostly just ate them by the handful, but once, we added them to a salad with sliced fennel, green onion with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Oh yea, and they are sooo good for you. Filled with vitamins and antioxidants.

Happy Turkey Weekend!

2008-11-26T10:07:00.004-05:00

Ryan and I are heading down to Columbus for the Kelsey Thanksgiving. Since we are still considered "kids" in the family, we don't' have to provide a dish. We do have to bring some donuts and juice for breakfast the next morning, but all of the big Thanksgiving dishes are the grownups responsibility.

In a way I wish I could contribute a dish because for the past few weeks all of the food blogs and web sites I check have been focused on Thanksgiving. I think it would be cool to host Thanksgiving and I know my day will come soon enough. I know it's a lot of work, but it's kind of like the Super Bowl of meals. I so enjoy cooking for family and friends and to cook Thanksgiving for family would be like the ultimate meal!

The Kelsey's have great Thanksgiving traditions, including the annual Turkey Bowl football game and shopping on Friday. It's also a HUGE group! Like 40 people. Which is a far cry from my family Thanksgivings which can be as large as 20 people but usually top out at about 8. I always miss my moms stuffing (it's the best) and my family during this holiday but the Kelsey's are fun and welcoming (I'm one of the newest official family members). :)

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and long weekend!

Lola Bistro

2008-11-23T21:18:00.010-05:00

I loved the idea of Michael Symon. A Cleveland guy who loves his hometown, loves cooking (his slogan is "live to cook"), despises vegetarians, and is passionate about all things meat (especially pork.) He's become somewhat of a celebrity- winning the Food Network's "The Next Iron Chef" and now a regular on "Iron Chef America". He also did a season of "Dinner Impossible" and soon will have his own show featuring farmers and their food. He was also featured on the Cleveland episode of Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel. He has two restaurants in the Cleveland area, Lola Bistro downtown on E. 4th St. and Lolita in the Tremont neighborhood. he also recently opened a Restaurant in Detroit called Roast. As much as I love the idea of Michael Symon and admired his personality and talents on TV, I've never tried his food. So when Erin asked where I wanted to go for a celebratory lunch on a Friday a few weeks ago, I said, without hesitation, "Lola".

Why were we celebrating? As Erin mentioned, I passed the bar. The simple fact that I passed a test that about 1,000 other people in Ohio passed isn't too exciting. (That's right, 1,000 new Ohio lawyers). Even considering it was a grueling 3 day essay and multiplechoice test, the mere fact that I passed was not the reason I was so happy. I prepared for the bar by taking a class for 1 month and then studying all day every day for another month. When I saw my name on the Ohio Supreme Court's website, the reason I couldn't stop grinning was because I didn't have to do any of it again. Ever. I was done with standardized tests. I finished a journey of becoming a licensed lawyer in Ohio that took the better part of 4 years of my life. Just to think starting in October of 2004, I have:

- studied for and took the LSAT- applied to about a dozen law schools and accepted into a handful
- endured 3 years of law school- applied for the bar exam: which lasted a full year and a half, including a detailed background check to every place I've lived, worked, and any run-ins with the law
- graduated law school
- studied for the bar
- passed the bar.
I honestly believe anyone could do any and all of these things. But it is one hell of a commitment, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone that wasn't certain they wanted to go through it.

Enough about that. Onto Lola:

The Restaurant has a trendy and sophisticated feel. Yet, still casual. The sleek decor lacked the pretension that could easily be associated with an "Iron Chef's" flagship restaurant. The kitchen was wide open, surrounded by a bar, allowing diners to watch their creative and inspired food cooked before their own eyes. The waiters wore jeans and buttondown tops in Symon's signature solid and cool black with simple ties.

Erin and I started with Beef Cheek Pierogies, a Michael Symon staple, served with a horseradish mushroom sauce. Basically, this was the most delicious ravioli I've ever had. It was a doughy noodle-like savory pastry stuffed with tender beef cheek. We also had the charcuterie of the day. It was plate of cured and smoked meats, featuring some homemade salumis served with homemade pickles and onions and mustard.

I probably could have ordered anything on the menu and been happy, but I decided on a Pastrami sandwich for lunch. The meat was cured right there and topped with more of those homemade pickles, onions and mustard on rye. Simple, yet far superior to your average deli

sandwich. Erin got a seasonal cauliflower soup and a salad*. With a reasonable bottle of pinot grigio, we were both happily satisfied and ready to continue to celebrate, which we did. Now, we got two appetizers and a bottle of wine, but a filling lunch for two at Lola could cost about $20.

It was a great lunch. Still, it only made me want to go back and try more of Michael Symon's food. Next time we'll go for dinner, if we can get a reservation. And we'll be sure to blog about it.

*Hey all, I could resist talking a little bit about my meal at Lola. My cauliflower soup was amazing! Beautifully simple, the soup was silky and smooth with a little nutty flavor and every now and then you would get a sweet bite with a golden raisin. My salad was also great, nice and light. The greens were dressed in a tangy vinaigrette with a nice crunch from the red peppers.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

2008-11-23T19:59:00.008-05:00

A few weeks ago when fresh and local peppers were in abundance at Mulvin's, the local farm stand in Sandusky, I decided to make a red pepper sauce. I found the recipe from a new blog I'm reading Bounty of the Western Reserve. It was a bit time consuming, as I had to peel the skins off each grilled pepper, but it was worth it because the sauce was really good, very fresh and sweet tasting. Even though it was time consuming, it was really very simple to make.

Here's the quick version: Place 8 large red bell peppers on a hot grill and let them blacken on all sides and until soft. Then remove them from the grill and let them cool. I placed them in a large bowl with saran wrap over it so the steam will help separate the skin from the peppers. Pull off the blackened skins from the peppers and cut in to large pieces. Coarsely chop 2 medium red onions and add to a large put with 2 cloves of minced garlic. Liberally season with salt (sea salt preferably). Once the onions have softened, add 3 coarsely chopped tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Turn the flame down to low and add red pepper pieces. Cook covered for about 25 minutes. Once slightly cooled, transfer mixture to food processor and pulse until you have the texture you want. Then you're done!

I originally thought about add some sort of stock to make a soup, but decided to just use this as a sauce for pasta or pizza. This is also something you can freeze easily and pull out in the winter when you're crazing something fresh and summery!

We had it the next day with spinach and cheese ravioli's and it was really good! (photo above)

Braised Cabbage- cold weather comfort food

2008-11-18T22:22:00.006-05:00

I read a lot of food blogs daily. I always seem to stumble upon more great food sites that give me ideas and tons of recipes to try. Amateur Gourmet (written by Adam Roberts) is one of my favorites and I've tried many of the recipes from the blog (like this, this one here, and oh yea..this one too).

A few weeks ago I read a post where the Amateur Gourmet made braised cabbage. It sounded so good and so cozy and comfort food-y that I had to try it. And it was so good that I made it again and tweaked it a bit to make it more "Foodie In Training" and less "Amateur Gourmet".

I also wanted to attempt the recipe because at Mulvins (the local farm stand in Sandusky), they have beautiful cabbages about the size of a small child. I swear, they are seriously about twice the size of your run-of-the-mill grocery store cabbage. Anytime I can try a new recipe AND buy locally..it's all systems go for this gal!

So, did I mention that this recipe is also super easy? It takes a bit of time in the oven, but other than that it's some chopping of vegetables and that's about it. Adam from Amateur Gourmet got this recipe from Molly Steven's "All About Braising" cookbook so my first attempt I followed his adaptation of the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 325

Oil a 9 x 13 baking dish (I just drizzled a bit olive oil into the baking dish)

Cut green cabbage (about 2 lbs.)* into 8 wedges

Lay wedges in dish

scatter one thickly sliced yellow onion over the top along with a carrot (I used 2 smaller carrots) cut into 1/4 inch rounds

drizzle 1/4 olive oil over the top and 1/4 cup chicken stock or water

season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes

cover tightly with foil and in the oven it goes for 1 hour.

after an hour, remove cover and flip wedges and recover for another hour

Once cabbage is tender, remove foil and boost heat up to 400 degrees for about 15 minutes (or until top is browned and crispy.

Season lightly with salt and it's ready to serve!!

*Erin used about a 4 lb. cabbage..seriously it was huge

My first time making it I decided to add two cloves of garlic (I'm beginning to think I can't make a dish with adding a little bit of garlic..it make EVERYTHING good). I unpeeled it, but left the garlic whole more for flavor than texture or bite.

My second time making the braised cabbage it was a windy, blustery day- just perfect for a warm and comforting meal. THIS time I decided to turn up the volume and add some different ingredients. I had some fennel in the fridge, so I coarsely chopped the bulb and scattered that on top of the cabbage. I also didn't have any yellow onion so I coarsely chopped half a medium red onion and scattered that on top as well. The addition of the fennel was key, the flavor was great and it worked really well with the cabbage. And the red onion also was really nice because it turned a bit sweet and was a nice compliment to the spice from the red pepper flakes.

The dish has been a hit both times so I recommend you try it. It's great when it's bitterly cold out with a bowl of hot soup, but I think it would be good in any weather. Happy braising!

Salsa! Salsa!

2008-11-16T11:48:00.010-05:00

I found my camera cord!! I searched EVERYWHERE and I finally found it. What a relief, I was almost out the door to buy a new one when I looked once more and there it was. Thank goodness! Ok, so few weeks ago my Mom's friend Sharon gave us a huge bag filled with beautiful hot peppers. Her and her husband have a backyard garden of peppers and tomatoes and they can there own salsa and tomato sauce. They picked one of there last crops and gave some to us knowing how much Ryan likes spicy things.

What a variety! I still am not sure of all the types of peppers, but I know for sure there are jalapenos, hot cherry peppers, and habaneros.

Here is the base recipe we used for the salsa, we made three batches so as we got more comfortable with the process we added a few things here and there.

Fresh Vegetable Salsa

8 Jalapeno peppers

7 cups prepared tomatoes (7-8 Med-large or 2 lbs.) *We used canned tomatoes

2 cups coarsely chopped onions

1 cups coarsely chopped green peppers

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 can tomato paste *12 oz. size

3/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro

1/2 tsp. cumin

Combine all the ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a boil gently about 30 minutes or until salsa reaches desired consistency.

Our first batch we kept the the ingredients and instructions of the recipe. I did all of the chopping but I made sure I wore gloves when chopping the hot peppers. The first batch was super spicy, so spicy I didn't even taste it (I know I'm a wimp) but Ryan and his parents (our tasters for the evening) said it was spicy even for them so I know I probably wouldn't enjoy it.

The second batch was my batch (non-spicy) and we added black beans to the recipe. I love salsa with black beans and corn but I accidentally bought creamed corn instead of regular corn. Boooo.. so that was a bummer, but we soldiered on and just used the black beans. To make a non-spicy version I didn't' use any of the hot, hot peppers, I just used the green bell peppers and one jalapeno just for flavor.

The third batch was another spicy version but we toned down the spice and a bit and added black beans. Ryan added paprika to this batch for a bit more heat and we also added the black beans.

The salsa turned out great and it was a great to use fresh peppers from a local garden. In fact, all of the ingredients were from local farms in Sandusky. Yay for buying local!

Ugh..

2008-11-11T22:58:00.003-05:00

So...I think I lost the camera cord, which really stinks because that means I can't upload all of my beautiful photos of the awesome dishes I've been making and the great restaurants we've been to... Don't worry, I will find it (and in the mean time meticulously clean our bedroom) and when I do I can tell you about the red pepper sauce I made a few weeks ago, the Indian-spiced cauliflower we had the other day, and the awesome lunch we had at Lola (amazing!) and my birthday dinner at Baricelli Inn in Little Italy.

It doesn't seem like we've been up to much these past few weeks, but I must tell you, we are kind of "foodies in limbo" (if you will) and living in our hometown and basically eating with our parents most meals. Don't get me wrong, it's great and we are eating some great dishes, but we aren't cooking as much.

Stay Tuned!

oh yea...and Ryan passed the bar!! wahoo!!

Homemade Applesauce

2008-10-20T20:52:00.003-04:00

Growing up I LOVED applesauce. Especially the way my mom prepared it, which is how she had it growing up, which is also how my grandma had it growing up. We had applesauce a lot for dinner because my and my sister liked it so much (my sister was/still is a picky eater). We called it "special" applesauce and the reason it was special is my mom added vanilla extract to the jar of Mott's. It is so good...and whenever I have special applesauce it reminds me of my childhood. It also reminds my mom of her childhood, my grandma used to make it that way for her and my grandma's mom would make it that way for her! I love special recipes such as these that are passed down and loved by generations. So, for my grandma's birthday last week I decided to make her homemade applesauce. I've never made applesauce before but after doing some research, it didn't seem to hard, and apples are so good right now!!

I went to Sandusky's local farm stand, Mulvin's and asked Mrs. Mulvin how she makes her applesauce and what kind of apples she recommends. She recommended the Macintosh apples and she advised only using one type so you get the pure taste of the apple instead of a mixture. Mrs. Mulvin and her husband have been farmers for their whole lives so I took her advice and bought about 15 gorgeous Macintosh apples to make my applesauce.

It turns out, making applesauce is super easy.. you basically peel all the apples (I used a paring knife and Ryan used a carrot peeler), core and cut all the apples and put them in a large sauce pan. I added about a 1/4 cup of sugar and about 1 1/2 cups of water, a pinch of salt and 3 lemon rinds (I read it brings out the flavor of the apples) to the pot and let the apples cook on medium/high heat. The apples cooked for about 15-20 minutes while I stirred them occasionally. Once it seems the apples were soft, I took a large slotted spoon and smashed the apple slices against the side of the pan to make it saucier but still a bit chunky (the way my grandma prefers it). In a lot of recipes it said to use a food mill or a food processor, but I found my slotted spoon method to be very effective and I didn't have to dirty another dish. The applesauce turned out awesome! It was very simple and clean-tasting, it wasn't super sweet and you could really just taste the sweet/slightly tart flavor of the Macintosh apples. Eating warm applesauce is also a treat! It would be perfect spooned over a scoop of vanilla ice cream..

My only goof was I forgot the vanilla! I've always seen the vanilla added at the end once the applesauce was already prepared (after we poured it out of the Mott's jar) so I didn't know to put the vanilla in during the cooking process...Duh! In the end I decided to leave out the vanilla and it still got glowing reviews from my family and the birthday girl. :)

The next batch a make I'm going to use the vanilla.

Apples are in season right now so it's a great way to try new apple recipes and new apple types.

I'm currently OBSESSED with Honeycrisp apples. They are similar to a Fuji in that they are tart and sweet and they are always really crunchy. I seriously am eating at least 2 a day, sometimes 3. They are so good. What is your favorite kind of apple?

You asked for it!

2008-10-15T17:47:00.005-04:00

I few people asked for some wedding photos, so here a few. Enjoy!

Ryan just had a bite of cake so his mouth is full, but I love this photo! (note the cake on my nose, Ryan had a bit of fun)

Cantuccio's!!

2008-10-02T21:15:00.008-04:00

It's no secret to the people who know me...I LOVE pizza. I could eat it every day if I could. I've had a lot of great pizza in Sandusky (Cameo and Chet and Matt's are my favorite) and I love to make pizzas at home. The pizza in Italy was amazing and my favorite place was just a short drive from our villa, called Cantuccio's. Recommended by people we met staying at our villa, it was a true local pizza joint. There menu was huge! It had so many pizza varieties it was hard to choose.

We went there twice, but here is a photo of my pizza from our second night at Cantuccio's-

It didn't have any marinara sauce, just olive oil and garlic and herbs. It had fresh and melted mozzarella, shaved Parmesan cheese, fresh arugula, and warmed cherry tomatoes. This combination of ingredients was heavenly. The melted and fresh mozzarella combined with the salty bite of the Parmesan was soooo good and the warm cherry tomatoes were a great sweet surprise (I thought they were going to be cold). Even though there was no meat on the pizza, it was hearty! I could barely finish it. Ryan had a simple prosciutto pizza which was also really good.

Cantuccio's has a special place in my Italy food memories, it was such a warm and family place that made us feel very welcome.

My Favorite Meal In Tuscany

2008-10-01T21:03:00.012-04:00

We spent 10 days in Northern Italy and Tuscany for our honeymoon. It was AMAZING. We had a great time and ate so many wonderful meals. My favorite meal of our trip was in a small hill town in the Chianti region of Tuscany. We stopped in Montefioralle on our first day in Tuscany, arriving on a wind-y Tuscan road to the top of a hill where we parked near a vineyard and walked in to the town. It is a small, sleepy town (we didn't really see any locals when we were walking around) with narrow stone streets with colorful doors and shutters. So cute! We walked around the town and noticed an open doorway with a menu displayed. The menu looked simple and rustic so we decided to try it out. It didn't open for another year so we walked around a bit more, took lots of photos of the amazing views and then walked back to eat.

The restaurant was a typical enoteca in Italy. We saw nonna (grandma) in the kitchen cooking while the rest of the family waited and served the customers. The minute I walked down the hallway to the restaurant, I had such a warm and homey feeling from this place. I knew it was going to be a good experience. And our view was amazing! The open air restaurant overlooked a vineyard and the Tuscan hills were in the backdrop.

OK- now to the food... we started with a bottle of Chianti Classico (we were in the Chianti region) and it was a great start and one of my favorite wines (and believe me, we drank ALOT of wine). For antipasti we shared the special of the day, fresh figs from their garden and prosciutto. The figs were juicy and sweet and worked so well with the saltiness of the prosciutto.

For the first course I had a panzanella salad and Ryan had picci pasta with a traditional tomato sauce. Panzanella has many different variations, but the common factor is day old bread. My salad has bread, tomatoes, cucumber, sliced red onion and fresh basil. They gave me olive oil and red wine vinegar to dress my salad how I wanted. The panzanella was so fresh and light. The tomatoes were so ripe and gorgeous and the bite of the red wine vinegar brightened up the whole dish. Ryan's picci pasta was so rustic and simple. Picci pasta is similar to regular spaghetti, it is just a little "fatter" and I believe it is made with semolina instead of eggs, so it is a little heavier than regular spaghetti. We had picci pasta several times in Italy and it was always cooked to perfection. The tomato sauce that topped the picci pasta was simple and tasted amazing.

We both chose very hearty dishes for our main course. I chose Italian sausage with a side of Tuscan white beans and spinach and Ryan chose short ribs and a side of the beans and spinach. My Italian sausage was amazing. It is hard to describe but it was juicy and a little spicy. The presentation was so rustic and authentically Italian. The Tuscan white beans and spinach were also a lesson in simplicity. Both perfectly cooked, they were seasoned with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and a little lemon.

The meal was absolutely perfect, the view, the tastes, the wine, the family serving us. Montefioralle was my favorite Tuscan town and I think this restaurant is a main reason why it holds a special place in my heart.

We're Back!!

2008-09-29T20:34:00.003-04:00

Hello faithful readers, I hope you didn't forget about us. We're back...and married....with lots and lots of stories to tell! We got married September 6 (an absolutely perfect day) and the next day headed to Italy!! We had an amazing time and took photos of everything we ate. Stay tuned for photos and stories because they are coming soon.

Ciao!

Erin and Ryan

Blueberry Crumb Cake

2008-07-30T09:02:00.004-04:00

I've been finding really great deals on fruit lately. Last night I was at the grocery store and blueberries were only $5 for 2 lbs. Great deal! I knew I could not eat 2 lbs. by myself but I couldn't pass it up. I thought about making more jam, but I didn't have enough jars so I scratched that idea. Before I went to the store I was reading my food blogs and Smitten Kitchen had a recent post about her blueberry crumb bars. Smitten Kitchen has the most gorgeous photos of her food and cooking process, you can even buy prints of her photos on their web site. I definitely recommend her site.
So anyway, I decided to run with the crumb bar idea and even though I had to go back to the grocery to buy eggs and more butter, it was really easy to make. I'm not much of a baker so I think next time I try this I will make the dough more crumbly. Mine was definitely not the same as her pictures and it still tastes good, they are just little dry.
I just used her recipe that she got from www.allrecipes.com. She modified it a bit so I just followed her lead.

I'm going to try and stop copying off fellow food bloggers because what's the point of that!? It's not fun to have the same post on 2 different food blogs. But these just looked so good.
And they are! A photo is to come, I only took one of the finished product.

Jam Session: It's all about timing

2008-07-28T22:32:00.009-04:00

One of my favorite food blogs is Amateur Gourmet. You may have seen the link on our blog and I definitely recommend checking it out. Adam Roberts is the blogger and he documents his cooking adventures and most recently his new gig on the Food Network. He had a great post a few weeks ago about making jam and he made it seem so easy. Easy enough for me to want to attempt it!

So when I was at Findlay Market in Cincinnati a few weekends ago and there were beautiful cherries at the market for very cheap - like 2 lbs. for $5 cheap - I had to buy them and instantly thought of using them to make jam. So the next day my friend Mo came over and helped me make cherry jam. To make this quicker and easier I decided to buy a cherry pitter. What a great idea! Who knew for like $11 you could have such a fun kitchen tool! The pitter stabs into the cherry pit and shoots it out the bottom...and also creates a kind of gory splash of cherry juice that resembles a blood bath. So Mo was in charge of pitting the cherry's while I sterilized the jars. I decided to do what Adam did when he made jam and I cleaned the jars with soap and water and then put them in a large pot filled with water and brought the water to a boil to sterilize.

When Mo was done pitting all of the cherries I roughly chopped them and put them in a large pot and cooked them on medium to high heat with the zest of one lemon and the juice of one lemon. This is one of the instances in jam making when it's all about timing. We cooked the cherries until they released their juices and became sloshy. The smell was amazing! An intensely sweet cherry aroma filled my tiny kitchen and we were getting excited. Once the cherries are sloshy, it's time to measure how much cherry slosh we had because that is how you know how much sugar you need.

I'm not much of a mathematician but this is pretty easy. If I can figure it out..you can. You measure the cherry slosh and you multiply that by 3/4. We had about 2 1/2 cups of cherry slosh and after we dumped the slosh back in to the pot (sounds appetizing right..sorry for my choice of words) we added about 1 1/2 cups of sugar. We cooked the cherry slosh and sugar over medium heat and this part is where timing is crucial. As the cherries and sugar cook it will begin to bubble up and foam and you have to stir often so it doesn't burn on the bottom.

I was nervous about overcooking it so we tested the jam way to early, but I'm glad we did because you can always put jam back on the heat to cook if it needs more time, but you can't save burnt, overcooked jam. To test, it's really simple. At the beginning of the jam-making process put a small plate in to the freezer and when you are ready to test, put a drizzle of jam on to the cold plate. Wait for it to set and then push the circle of jam and if it wrinkles when you push it, it is ready. If it's slippery and gooey still, put it back on the heat and keep stirring.

Since we cooked it on medium heat, we cooked the jam for about 15-20 minutes before it was ready. Once the jam was ready we ladled it in to the jars and let them cool to room temperature before putting them in the fridge.

The jam turned out really tasty!! Next time I am going to chop the cherries a little smaller but other than that the flavors are great. I've gotten some raised eyebrows and giggles when I told friends and family I made jam. My sister had the best comment though..she called while I was making the jam and when I told her what I was doing she said "God Erin what else you are doing, churning butter?" haha..we are so different it's funny. :) Making jam was so easy I definitely want to make it again and with other fruits. It's definitely better than my Smucker's jam I've bought before and they also make great gifts!

Read book and blog ASAP

2008-07-17T14:33:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone, just a quick post to inform you that I've added a new link to the food blogs. Anthony Bourdain has a blog through the Travel Channel and it is fantastic. It is all things food and travel related. No one puts words together like Bourdain and I'll leave it at that. Just check it out.

I'm currently reading his book Kitchen Confidential and it is fantastic. It definitely shows a different side of the restaurant and food industry. I'll do a book review when I'm finished but I'd recommend it to anyone.

That's all for now. :)

A Study Break with Bobby Flay

2008-07-14T21:42:00.004-04:00

Debates on the merits and legitimacy of Bobby Flay's career have run rampant recently between Craig, Ryan and me. Being the wonderfully optimistic person (who always looks for the good in people) that I am, I always give Flay a break. Yes, he's over-exposed.. sure he frequently loses Iron Chef America and Throwdowns... of course he sounds like he's always reading off cue cards.. but gosh darnit, he seems like a nice guy who and he actually went to cooking school!

Ryan and Craig on the other hand, are not in the Bobby Flay fan club. Ryan displays a distaste and disgust for Bobby that is surprising and makes me want to ask "where is this coming from?Was Bobby Flay someone who bullied you in middle school? did he steal your girlfriend?" I think Craig just grows tired of the Flay overexposure on the Food Network and gets fed up.

So our conflicting views on Mr. Flay has let to many debates and even an outburst from me last night where I basically said "will you both relax! Yes, he's constantly on the Food Network but he's a legitimate chef who is obviously successful and knows how to cook!"

Well, today at work I decided to Wikipedia Bobby Flay just so I could back up my rants with some facts. After learning quite a bit I wrote an email to Craig and Ryan including some fun facts. Here are a few facts I bet you didn't know about Iron Chef Bobby Flay:

1. He has been married and divorced twice and is currently married to an actress on Law and Order: SVU

2. For a long time, Flay was known to hate lentils. As The New York Times reports, "An early draft of Bar Americain's menu had a beet and goat cheese salad with lentils, but Mr. Flay rejected it before the restaurant opened. "When I go on vacation, they run specials on lentils, " he said. In 2007, Flay stated that he had "made peace" with lentils. (phew)

3. He dropped out of high school at age 17 after he was expelled. (what a rebel)

4. Flay received a degree in culinary arts at the French Culinary Institute and was a member of the schools first graduating class in 1984.

5. In addition to his restaurants and cooking shows, Flay has been a master instructor and visiting chef at the French Culinary Institute.

6. In 2000, when the original Iron Chef America show traveled to New York for a special battle, he challenged Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto to battle rock crab. After the hour battle ended, Flay stood on top of his cutting board and raised his arms in premature victory. Not realizing that cutting boards and knives are sacred in Japan, he offended Morimoto who criticized his professionalism, saying Flay was "not a chef". Flay went on to lose the battle.

7. Flay challenged Morimoto to a rematch in Morimoto's native Japan. In this battle, at the end of the hour, Flay threw his cutting board on the floor and stood on the counter yet again to raise the roof with the audience. this time, Flay won.

8. Jeopardy featured a special "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" category during the March 12, 2008 episode, in which each of the clues featured Bobby Flay.

Hopefully we've all learned some important tidbits about Bobby Flay. These are kind of random, but you already know he has 8 million shows on the Food Network. You already know he is the "grill guy" and you already know he has a line of cookware at Kohls.

Are you ready for a Throwdown?

love youuuu Bobby

Subscribe: it's the right thing to do...

2008-07-13T23:16:00.003-04:00

Hello readers. I'd like to call your attention to a new item on our blog. If you scan all the way to the bottom there is a new link to subscribe to our feed so when we have a new blog post, you will be notified! No more worrying about checking the blog for new posts, no more sleepless nights...no more stress. So really, it's the right thing to do. For you, for me, for all mankind. :)

Ok, it's not really that deep. But it will be a good way to keep on top of the Foody in Training excitement!

I bought a new cookbook yesterday and I'm exciting to look through it and pick out some new recipes to try. It is called The Organic Seasonal Cookbook by Liz Franklin. It is all about cooking and eating locally and it also talks about the importance of sustainable farming. The book is split up in to 4 sections (seasons) and goes through what foods are in season in the fall, winter, spring and summer and then provides recipes for the seasonal ingredients.

I paged through it a bit this weekend and I think it's going to be a nice addition to my ever-growing cookbook collection. I'm trying my best to eat locally and utilize farmers markets for my groceries instead of the supermarkets and over-processed foods. I also just finished a book "French Women Don't Get Fat" which was a fun read and the author talked a lot about the European way of cooking and eating seasonal foods. It reminded me how I want to try and adopt that mind set when grocery shopping and planning meals. It takes a little extra effort to eat locally and seasonally in Cincinnati, but it's definitely doable. Cincinnati has a great local market Findlay Market and summer time is a great time to visit all of the area farmers markets.

Happy Summer eating!

Fine Dining on Lake Erie: Restaurant Review of Zinc Brasserie

2008-07-09T21:33:00.011-04:00

Our beautiful hometown of Sandusky, Ohio has a beautiful and tasty new restaurant, Zinc Brasserie. Located downtown, a stones throw from the picturesque Sandusky Bay and Cedar Point, Zinc Brasserie opened last summer. Sandusky has a lot of wonderful, local places to eat (and a lot of boring chain restaurants too) but there has never been a restaurant quite like this in Sandusky. The menu is seasonal with elegant and gourmet ingredients (duck confit, blood oranges, and artisan cheeses are rare on menus in Sandtown) and the decor is chic

Now, don't get me wrong I love my local Sandusky restaurants, there are some great family-owned, local restaurants that have great food and a wonderful, hometown charm. But that is a post all in it's own.Maybe after my parents read this they might say "Erin, this isn't the FIRST fancy restaurant in Sandusky...I remember when.. etc., etc. etc" but at least in my memory, I don't remember there being a restaurant like Zinc Brasserie.

Ok- now about the food. My parents, Ryan's parents, and Ryan and I all ate at Zinc Brasserie to celebrate a weekend home, wedding plans and because we're all going to be a big happy family soon! :) Our waitress was really nice and helpful, their late spring menu was full of choices and then there was a chalkboard full of specials they change daily. Zinc also has a great list of cocktails so after we ordered the cocktail and wine, we were ready to order.

I started with the ruby red beets and blood orange salad, which was AMAZING. I have been really loving beets lately so once I saw this salad on the menu, it was a done deal. For some reason as a child and until about 6 mos. ago I never liked beets. Maybe it's because my mom used to eat them cottage cheese and that I thought that was weird or maybe it's their very deep, dark purple color that turned me off, but man have I been missing out!! Beets are so good for you and so tasty. But, I digress.. The salad was really good, the combination of the rich goat cheese truffles with the tartness of the blood oranges and the sweetness of the beats was a heavenly symphony on my taste buds. I think I could have just ate like 3 plates of that salad for dinner but I finished my salad very satisfied and excited for my dinner.

For dinner I ordered one of the specials which I believe may have been an appetizer.. I chose the mussels in a white wine sauce with a spicy sauce in the broth. The mussels were delicious and the broth was very light with a few cherry tomatoes for color and a wonderful sweetness. It all worked so well with the flavor of the mussels. I really liked the spicy kick in the sausage and it provided a little extra something special and spicy to my meal.

Here are Ryan's salad and dinner. He might make an addition to the post and talk about it. I know his salad was something a little different for him and he also chose seafood which is not the norm for Ryan but he thoroughly enjoyed them both.

I definitely recommend Zinc Brasserie to anyone from Sandusky or just passing through. It is a great restaurant with a nice atmosphere and when you walk outside, the view is beautiful (the photo at the top is the view). I also recommend taking a walk around downtown before or after your done. Sandusky is a great city and the more people who spend time downtown the more it will grow in to the great city it has so much potential to be.

Best Burger on the East Side of Cincinnati

2008-07-06T20:23:00.006-04:00

A good burger is one of those foods that I just crave sometimes. I have a couple of favorites in my little corner of Cincinnati. I think they are the best:

- Zip's Cafe, Mt. Lookout Square. They have won Best Burger awards from all the local publications several times and for good reason. Their burgers are simple and delicious. Not too big, not too small. The toppings are pretty standard: lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, catsup, mustard, mayo. I get mine with everything except the mayo. There isn't a lot of variety: Zip Burger, Zip Burger with Cheese, Double Zip Burger. They also have a girth burger that includes a split mettwurst with the burger, I haven't gotten that one... yet. (I think they have some sort of veggie or turkey "burger", but I don't count those as burgers, they are more like gross sandwiches). Anyway, with such a high quality of burger you don't need much else. It is my favorite burger in Cincinnati, hands down and thats mainly because of its taste and simplicity. Also, they have great chili and you can wash it all down with good selection of beers on tap. Usually a Great Lakes variety and a 7 or 8 English or Irish beers. Or cheap megapitchers of Bud Light. Zip's has a great atmosphere. Its a dark tavern, casual place. There is a toy train that goes around the restaurant along the top of the walls. There is a small bar in the back, "The Code Room", that you might not even know was there unless you are from around here. In the bar there is a huge plasma tv with HD service- seems out of place in this comfortable place- but I love it. When I first moved out to Cincinnati, before I had cable, I would hang out with the bartenders and watch baseball all day and night there. Zip's is one of the places I will miss the most when I leave Cincinnati.

- Arthur's Cafe, Hyde Park Square. Arthur's is a great place to go with a group of friends for food and drinks. They always have cheap pitchers of beer. The outside patio is perfect for a summer evening, but be prepared to wait for a table outside. Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays are Burger Madness nights. You can get a burger with any and all toppings. The options include jalepenos, grilled onions, mushrooms, a bunch of different cheeses, chili, and anything else you would normally put on a burger. Its a good deal. The atmosphere, inside or outside is very casual. I don't know what a "neighborhood bar" really means, but this is it.

- Terry's Turf Club, Linwood. I've only been to Terry's once, but it is in the running for Best Burger on the East Side. The atmosphere is like a weird 50's diner with all kinds of neon signs and decor. It tries hard to be overly casual with overly exotic, yet small, menu. I like the concept, and I think eventually it will get better. I got a burger with burgundy wine with wild mushrooms and truffles. It was tasty, very home-made tasting. Very greasy. I liked it fine. I would like to try the foie gras on my burger and maybe the goat cheese. The beer selection was great. It included a small variety of Bavarian-style brews. I forgot the name brand, but I had a light wheat heffeweizen style. There was a lot of texture and flavor. The burgers were served on a paper plate and the only knife was a large chef knife borrowed from the kitchen. This is why it seemed to be trying too hard to be casual. A real plate and silverwear would have been better. Overall, I will go back, and probably soon. After writing this post, I'm hungry for a burger.

Runners Up:
- Hyde Park Tavern, Oakley Pub and Grill

Stay away from:
- Mt. Lookout Tavern, Mulligan's

Busy Foodies

2008-06-24T15:37:00.005-04:00

hey all, we have been super busy these days!! Between working and wedding planning and studying for the bar, it's been eating out and quick meals for us.
Don't fret...We've got some great posts in the works including some fine dining in our hometown of Sandusky, OH and tonight we are having a dinner party with some of Ryan's classmates! Should be a great night and I will definitely post about our dinner.

FYI- for all Cinci people- every Tuesday at Fountain Square there is a really great open market!! I went during my lunch hour today and it was a great way to spend my lunch. There were about a dozen booths set up and the vendors ranged from fresh lunch choices, bakeries, African Shea Butter, goats milk products, flowers and fresh produce! There was also a wonderful herb booth where I got some great herbs- Herbs De Provence, a Tandoori spice rub, and a Moroccan spice blend. The vendor was so knowledgeable and very friendly. He was even wearing a t-shirt that said "Foodie." on the front which won me over right away. All of the fresh produce were well-priced and looked very tasty. I came back to work with a few ears of sweet corn, my 3 herb packets, and fresh sugar snap peas..All for about $7. Not bad.

Tuesday is normally not a very exciting workday but now it can be!! I believe the market will be going on every Tuesday from 11-2 until the end of August.

Have a great day everyone, stay tuned for photos from the dinner party.

dinner thrown together-success!

2008-05-28T21:55:00.004-04:00

Tonight I played in a softball game with my coworker Sheila so I didn't have a lot of time for dinner. I was starving because I had a light lunch so I wanted to have a filling, but healthy dinner, so I threw this meal together. I guess I would call it my version of an on the run seafood scampi? Who knows, but here's what I did:

I bought a bag of frozen shrimp, scallops and calamari from Trader Joe's and the bag was almost gone, just enough for a single serving, so I put the frozen seafood in a colander and let cold water slowly run on it to defrost. While that was defrosting I diced half a shallot and added that to a saute pan with a little olive oil. Once the seafood was defrosted I added them to the saute pan to cook. When the shrimp, scallops and calamari were about halfway cooked I added a spoonful of diced garlic. I also seasoned the seafood with salt and pepper, dill, and fresh basil and when the seafood was completely cooked I added a couple splashes of white wine and a squeeze of lemon wedge and turned the heat down to let it simmer.

While all of this was going on I decided to make a different kind of starch to accompany my seafood dish. I didn't really have time to make pasta and I didn't feel like rice, so I decided to try something new, quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah") it is a similar texture to couscous and has a light, nutty flavor. It's also really good for you. I bought a box at Trader Joe's a while back and after I saw that it can cook in the microwave for 6 minutes (there is also an option for stove top preparation) I knew it was meant to be!

When the quinoa was done, I poured it in to a bowl and then mixed in the seafood and sauce and I was ready to eat! I also squeezed a little more lemon juice before I started to eat.

For a meal I prepared in about 10 minutes, I was pretty impressed. The seafood was really good and the mixture of the white wine and lemon worked really well with the seafood. And of course garlic makes EVERYTHING better. :) I also really liked the quinoa, I'm excited to make some more recipes with it, because it is a nice alternative to pasta.

Sorry no photo..no time!

Ryan Graduated!

2008-05-22T22:38:00.007-04:00

Hey all, these have been a busy few weeks, lots of wedding stuff and school stuff. Ryan is done with law school! (besides that pesky bar exam) Last weekend Ryan's parents, grandparents and twin brothers (and Stephanie!) and my parents made the trek down to Cincinnati to celebrate.
Graduation was really nice and after that was over everyone headed back to our apartment and we had some appetizers. Ryan's mom brought shrimp cocktail and champagne for celebrating and my mom brought some cheese and crackers and grapes.Sorry for the photo with almost empty platters, I forgot to take a photo earlier..
We decided to make panne con zata which is a garlic-type bread that I think I've mentioned before. I bought a loaf of french bread and sliced the bread horizontally (like a sub) and then score each piece and drizzle with olive oil. You can season it with whatever you want, but I kept it simple. Salt and pepper to start, crushed red pepper and oregano. I just started growing fresh herbs again so I clipped some basil leaves and added those to the bread. I also added sun dried tomatoes to half and then sprinkled mozzarella cheese on each side. Then I wrapped the bread in foil and it bakes at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes. After 10 minutes I recommend checking to see if the cheese is melted.We also decided to make prosciutto wrapped asparagus which is a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis' first cookbook Everyday Italian. Ryan made this for me a while ago for my birthday and it was a great appetizer, and it was definitely a hit at our party! It was very easy, basically just seasoning the asparagus with salt and peper and a little bit of olive oil and bake it for 12-15 minutes. Once you take them out of the oven, let them cool and then wrap each spear in prosciutto and there ready to serve!After appetizers we relaxed for the afternoon and then had a great dinner at Bella Luna, a wonderful Italian restaurant in Cincinnati. Everyone seemed to really enjoy their dinners and besides the room being a little loud, I think everyone had a great time.

My dinner was great, I ordered the seafood stew, it was shrimp, mussels and scallops over a bed of pasta and the sauce was an olive oil sauce with diced tomatoes and a lot of spice to it! The sauce seemed to have a definite flavor of pepperoncini's. The last time I ate at Bella Luna I had a the mussels appetizer as my meal and the sauce was flavored with pepperoncini's and had them diced in the sauce. So maybe that's their thing. Either way, it works because both were tasty!
Another recommendation is to get the calamari appetizer. It's not the fried calamari that has become pretty standard on menus, it is cooked calamari in a spicy diced tomato sauce that is wonderful with the fresh breadsticks they give you.

It was a wonderful weekend full of wonderful food..and here is a photo of some of the fun that went on after dinner at the bar. :)

Code Cracked: Bangkok Bistro

2008-05-13T21:44:00.004-04:00

Tonight Ryan and I had a nice evening, we were productive before dinner and got the tuxes ordered for the wedding (check that off the list) and then we headed to dinner. We were in Kenwood/Montgomery area, and folks if there is a great, local restaurant in this area of Cincinnati, please tell me, because all we ever seem to see is chain restaurants and the mall food court. I'm sure there have got to be a few, but Ryan and I have even tried asking someone last time we were at the mall, and they had no idea where to send us, besides Max and Erma's or Macaroni's across the street. Don't get me wrong, those restaurants are just fine and dandy, but I can eat there any time in any city in America. We wanted something local and non-chainy.

So we headed back to the Hyde Park area. Of course I was wanting Thai food so we decided to go to Bangkok Bistro. This is not our first time eating at Bangkok Bistro and I have always had a great meal here. They have really good Paad Thai and pretty decent sushi. Our dinner tonight was really good, we had a fun waiter, which is always nice and a few great things happened...1.) i had an awesome duck noodle soup that made me realize that Thai and Asian soups are my new best friend and 2.) I have cracked the code when it comes to ordering spicy food on the spice scale. ha!

I'll start with my soup, I had the duck noodle soup which is new on the menu at Bangkok Bistro, and in this wonderful soup contained noodles, duck (duh, and duh) cooked lettuce, onions, tons of fresh parsley, and bean sprouts in a tasty beef broth. The aroma of the soup when it was set before me was amazing, the fresh parsley brightened every bight and the duck (although a little fatty) was really tender and delicious. I only wish I could have gotten a photo of it...but I forgot my camera. I've been very good about eating healthy and not going overboard because I'm trying to watch what I eat. I've come to the conclusion that Asian soups are a really great option if you are a watching your diet.. I know the broth was probably super super high in sodium, but I ate my soup with chopsticks so by the time I was done (and stuffed) I still had 3/4 of the broth left in the bowl. So, the other ingredients are not that bad for you and very filling!

OK- so here is the big news...Many blogs posts ago, Ryan blogged about the plight of the white man and spicy food. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to go about getting the really spicy food that he so loves...Well, I told you about our fun waiter, Ryan asked him what he recommended and our waiter told him he really likes spicy food. So he recommended the Drunken Noodles and Ryan challenged him by saying "10" spice level. The waiter was like, "are you sure" and Ryan said yes and I added my two cents by saying "give it to him good!" The gauntlet was laid.. When Ryan got his dish he was pretty impressed, it wasn't so spicy that it wasn't enjoyable for him, but it had enough heat to satisfy his taste buds. so yay!

But here is where the code was cracked, I heard the waiter talking to another table about spice levels and he said that if you want it really spicy and the spice level is 1-10, say you want a 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15, therefore challenging the cooks and letting the waiter know you mean business. If you say 9 or 10, they might take it easy on your thinking you can't handle it...Another suggestion the waiter made is ordering a 1o spice level and then asking for more sauce on the side, so if it's not spicy enough, you can always add more.

Quite a productive evening I must say!! So next time we are at an Asian or Indian restaurant that has spice levels, I want Ryan to test this code... I'll let you know what happens.

Vegetable Orzo creation

2008-05-12T23:18:00.003-04:00

One night last week Ryan and I were throwing dinner together and it didn't seem like we had much food in our pantry. We had some pork chops and Ryan was in charge of those (that can be a separate post) and I took the challenge of figuring out the side dishes. We had a few bags of frozen veggies and I found some orzo in the pantry and an idea was born!! It was a very quick and easy meal. While the orzo was cooking according to the package instructions I roughly chopped a shallot and some fresh mint. When the orzo was almost finished I put the veggies in the microwave (it was the Steamfresh veggies bag, Asian medley). Once the orzo was done, I drained the orzo and the added the veggies and orzo back in to the sauce pan along with some olive oil. I added the shallots, lots of garlic and mint and stirred everything together. After I drained the orzo, I turned the burner down to low heat so all of the ingredients could warm together. Then I just started playing around with flavors, I added about a 1/2 cup of white wine, salt and pepper, crushed red pepper, and parsley. After I added all of that and stirred everything around it tasted pretty good, but it definitely was missing something. Next time I might try adding lemon juice and maybe some lemon zest, but we were fresh out of lemons, so instead I added some white wine vinegar and it brightened up the entire dish. The dish turned out really great and it has been really good for leftovers! The mint was a nice addition, it really added a nice fresh flavor to the dish and the white wine vinegar is a must. Next time I want to use fresh veggies, but the frozen veggies made this a quick and easy weeknight meal.

I like spices

2008-04-30T22:45:00.007-04:00

Ok, remember that post where I vowed to be more bold? Well, I've taken that to heart and really tried to order dishes at restaurants that really catch my attention and are different than the things I normally order. I've also been a lot bolder when it comes to spices. My dinner tonight was definitely bold and very different for me. I was leafing through another issue of Cooking Light and I found Coconut-Chile Snapper with a Caribbean bean puree. I was very intrigued by the recipe ingredients and the Caribbean bean puree..the fact that black beans and banana was on the same ingredient list was really interesting to me so I decided I had to try it. Normally, any dish with jalapenos, I veto it, but this dish was really not that spicy for me. It was more of an underlying heat and a level of flavor than crazy-spicy-sweating-eyes watering spicy.
This was another dish I made for one so I had to adjust the amount of each ingredient. If you know me, you know I'm not good with numbers, so I think the consistency of coconut chili sauce was a little different, but all in all it turned out really wonderful.
I started by mincing shallots and then adding them to a sauce pan with a clove of minced garlic. After that softened I added thinly sliced bananas and let that saute for a minute or two. The smell was actually amazing at this point with the sweetness of the banana and savory smell of the garlic and shallots. When that was softened I added black beans, vegetable broth, lime juice and cumin and salt. I covered the saute pan and let that simmer until all of the liquid was absorbed. (Just so you know I'm not being specific about measurements for the ingredients, because I really eyeballed it and measured it out for one person). When that was finished I poured that in to the food processor and pureed it up! It doesn't look appetizing but it tasted amazing. The sweetness of the banana combined with the garlic really worked together and the hint of lime juice made it really pop. According to the article in the magazine, the sweetness of the puree is supposed to compliment the spice in the fish and it really did.After the puree I started on the fish which did not take much time at all. Even though the recipe called for snapper, they did not have any at the grocery store so I bought tilapia instead still worked great with the ingredients. I combined coconut milk, shredded carrot, minced jalapeno, chili powder and salt in to a sauce pan and brought it to a simmer. Once it was simmering I added the fish and covered the pan and let it cook for about 10 minutes. I realized later that I should have turned the heat down once it started simmering because the pan got too hot and the sauce cooked into the fish, which really wasn't a bad thing, just not how the recipe described it.
But as long as it tasted good, who cares!! Once the fish flaked when I stuck a fork in it, I knew it was done and ready to eat. I poured the remaining sauce over the fish.
This meal turned out really good...and I mean really good. The bean puree was awesome and really complimented the heat in the coconut chile sauce. The chile sauce was really not that spicy, I think next time (and there will be a next time) I'll add more chile powder and (gasp!) more jalapeno.. But even though it wasn't that spicy, the fish and coconut-chili sauce was wonderful. The carrot and jalapeno worked really well together and the chili powder gave a great layer of heat. The coconut milk also really complimented the spicy flavors. I wasn't able to find light coconut milk, but I wasn't using much anyway, so I don't think it really mattered (calorically speaking).Once again Ryan was not here to join me, but I'm definitely making this for him because I think he will really like it (especially the spicy part) and he's been apprehensive about buying and cooking fish, so now I have 2 great fish dishes for him to taste.
I'm really proud of myself for doing something different and upping the spice level a bit. I'm getting obsessed with finding new and different recipes so hopefully May will be full of them.

I Win, Ryan Loses...

2008-04-30T21:58:00.006-04:00

I'd like to say that I'm the winner this month for posting the most. Ryan can get very Nazi-like always telling me "post! post! post!" "we need so many posts this month" but hmm..I don't see him much on the ole' blog. :) I'm just giving him a hard time. Another reason Ryan loses is that I've made a few dinner for 1 the past few nights (Ryan has been busy with school) and I don't want to brag, but they've been pretty darn tasty.

Last night I made Pesto Halibut Kebabs with steamed spinach and it was a quick and healthy meal. I got the recipe from Cooking Light magazine, I've been perusing this magazine a lot since I've been trying to eat healthy and I'm able to keep track of what I'm eating a little easier because they provide nutrition information. This recipe probably took a grand total of 15 minutes, it was so quick and easy. I bought a 1/2 lb. halibut steak and the fish in to 1 inch cubes. I chopped up 1/2 a red bell pepper in chunks and put the fish and pepper in a bowl and added 1 tbsp. of pesto and a couple splashes of white wine vinegar and some salt.
Now, you are probably asking..did you make your own pesto? And the answer is no..I didn't. I've never made pesto before and I know it's not difficult I honestly just didn't feel like it and the basil didn't look so hot at the grocery. So I bought a jar of prepared pesto. I coated the fish and peppers with the basil and vinegar and then alternated fish and pepper on my skewer. Off it went in to the broiler for 8 minutes. While that was broiling, I just steamed fresh baby spinach in a vegetable basket and when that was done I seasoned it simply with salt and pepper and lemon juice. When the kebab was done I seasoned it with some lemon juice and it was ready to eat! I really liked the dish, the white wine vinegar really complimented the halibut and brightened the whole dish. The pesto was also really great, in retrospect I probably could have added more because in some parts it was a little sparse. The red bell pepper was crunchy and sweet and the white wine vinegar also worked really well with the pepper. My spinach was really simple and wonderful and complimented the kebab really well.Doesn't that look pretty?
It would have been great to have Ryan join me for this meal, but I think this will definitely be a great summer meal where we can be creative and try other veggies and types of fish on the kebab.

I am a Grill Master

2008-04-20T22:34:00.008-04:00

So, I'm a grill master...it's official. I got off work early the other day and Ryan was super busy with school so I decided to cook him dinner. We have a little market in Mt. Lookout Square and I went in a while ago and wasn't really impressed. The market has a hodge podge of things from frozen dinner, to deli meat, to fresh veggies and wine. It also smells a little weird, but I think it's the combo of ingredients they carry. Anyway, I digress, I decided to try it out again and see what they had. The veggies they had left were a little banged up, but I found the best zucchini and yellow squash yet and 2 butterfly pork chops.

When I got home I told Ryan to continue studying and I would handle everything. I seasoned the pork chops with with salt and pepper, lemon pepper seasoning and a little red pepper flake. I sliced the yellow squash and zucchini in long strips and drizzled with olive and added some salt and pepper.

We had tons of pasta leftover from the last post so I just reheated that and also used the leftover balsamic dressing from the last post. We also saved the grilled onion from the last post and I put that in a saute pan with a few whole cloves of garlic and softened them up. The garlic helped them season it a bit more and we also added the balsamic dressing to the onions.

I rarely operate the grill (that is usually Ryan's department while I work on another part of the meal) but I have to pat myself on the back, I did a really good job. The pork chops were well seasoned and very moist and the grilled zucchini and squash were amazing. After I took them off the grill I poured the balsamic dressing over it and they just absorb all of the dressing and create a wonderful dressing. The pasta reheated very nicely too.

My dinner turned out really good, Ryan really enjoyed it and was happy not to have to help so he could work on his studies.

Some Good Things, some bad things

2008-04-20T21:46:00.007-04:00

A few weeks ago when it FINALLY started to get warm out, we bought some steaks and we were ready to get the grill going. We also bought some shallots at the store and I wanted to use them in some sort of pasta dish. I'm not trying to be mean, but the steak and the grilled onion did not turn out very good, but the pasta dish was actually pretty good especially for totally winging it.
Ryan seasoned the steak with a lot of things, too much seasoning which was the reason it wasn't very good. Some of the seasoning was jerk seasoning I bought in Jamaica and other spicy things. It was waaayy to spicy for me so I didn't eat much of it. The other thing we made was grilled red onions. We have done this before and it is really good, grilling the onion brings out all of the sweetness and I swear it's better than any fried onion ring I've ever had. We made the mistake of just cutting the large red onion in half and grilling it. We made a balsamic dressing to pour over the grilled onion, but that couldn't save it either. It didn't cook all of the way and I don't really enjoy chomping on raw onion, so I didn't really eat much of that either....
My "winging it" shallot pasta actually turned out really well. I started by sauteing shallots in about a 1/3 cup of olive oil and once those had softened a bit, I added fresh garlic, minced. I did a trick that Ryan does when seasoning a sauce, I added crushed red pepper flakes to the hot oil and let the red pepper flakes flavor the oil instead of just having every other bite be spicy. Once the shallots and garlic were nicely cooked I added about a half cup of white wine and I also added basil and lemon zest. After the penne was finished cooking I drained it and added it straight to the saute pan to combine with the olive, shallots, wine and herbs. I added a little more wine and some lemon juice and let that flavors heat through a few minutes and it was ready to serve! Once in a serving dish I grated some Parmesan cheese on top. I must say, the pasta turned out great, it was a light sauce but the flavors of the white wine, lemon juice worked really well together.

We also made some green beans and just seasoned it simply with salt, pepper and olive oil.

We learned some lessons in this meal and proved that we are still foodies in training.

A favorite restaurant

2008-04-20T20:49:00.007-04:00

Did you miss us?
Many moons ago, my friends Mo, Mary and me went to Kona Bistro for drinks and a few appetizers. Kona Bistro is a great restaurant in Oakley Square in Cincinnati. I have eaten there quite a bit over my three years in Cincinnati and I've always had a great meal. The atmosphere at Kona Bistro is really friendly and bright and cheery. They have bright murals on the walls and a funky decor. The food is fresh and eclectic and they always have great daily specials featuring ingredients that are freshest of the season.
We just had cocktails and 2 appetizers, the Mediterranean munchies and steak and Gorgonzola crostini's.
The Mediterranean munchies platter was really good, it's homemade hummus and baba ghanouj with pita wedges. They also put fresh tomatoes and spinach and feta cheese. The hummus is a basic recipe but it is really good and with a little kick to it (I think they add hot paprika). Baba Ghanouj is not my favorite, but combined with some feta and tomatoes, it is not bad.

The steak and Gorgonzola crostini was also really good and quite filling for an appetizer. Each bite had a bit of all the ingredients; flank steak, Gorgonzola cheese, tomatoes and red onion. The steak was a little hard to bite sometimes but I really liked the combinations of flavors. The Gorgonzola was really creamy with a sweet bite from the onion and sweetness of the tomatoes mixed withe crunch of the bread. I think it would be a great thing to serve for a party of company.

After our appetizers at Kona, we actually went to a party where there was even more food. The pictures from the party actually get a little crazy (flip cup in a friends basement) so I only put up one. :) By the way, the little guy we are holding up is Flat Stanley, a school project for a Mo's little cousin.

broken promises

2008-04-18T10:51:00.003-04:00

hey everyone, sorry about the lack of posts. these past few weeks have been crazy for both of us. I know we promised you 2 posts a week and while we haven't been documenting on the blog, we've still been doing some great cooking. This weekend we'll get caught up. For an update, I have started a new diet program so you will be seeing healthy meals and smaller portions (at least on my plate). So far the diet has been great and I've been successful.

Here is a quick rundown of what I made last night and I overcooked it a little bit, but the flavors were great! I bought a 1/2 lb. of sockeye salmon last night and coated it with a little bit of olive oil. I added about 1 tsp. of lemon zest, dill, 1 tsp. of minced garlic, and salt and pepper. I also put 4 thin slices of lemon with the ingredients, tossed it all together and set the salmon in the foil and put the lemon slices on top. I tightly closed the foil and put it in the oven at 500 degrees for 15 minutes. In retrospect I should have cooked it about 5 minutes less. I was going by a recipe that called for a larger quantity of salmon than I used and the cooking time reflected that, so I should have decreased my cooking time. But it turned out pretty good. I served the salmon over a handful of baby spinach and squeezed fresh lemon juice over the top. Can you tell I'm on a diet? haha. But really, it was a tasty meal that was light and perfect for a warm spring night. You can also do the foil packets on the grill which I will try next time, it was just too dark by the time I got around to eating.

We'll be doing some cooking this weekend, stay tuned for some posts! We won't break our promise this time. :)

Book Review: Julie & Julia

2008-04-06T22:03:00.005-04:00

I just finished a good book with a foodie twist; Julie & Julie: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen by Julie Powell. The book is about Julie Powell, a 29-year-old secretary living in New York who was at a crossroads in her life. She was feeling pressure to start a family, in an uninspiring job and living in a small apartment in Queens. It starts when she is home visiting her parents in Texas, she picks up her mothers battered old copy of Julie Child's first cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking (MTAOFC)and it calls to her. She decides to start a project called the Julie/Julia project where in the span of one year she will cook every recipe in MTAOFC. She did this project in 2002 and actually blogged about the experience and created quite a following. By the end of the year she was interviewed by many newspapers (including the New York Times) and appeared on CNNfn. In the book she documents the year of making all of the recipes with a lot of stories about her daily life, working at her job and all of her crazy friends. She cooks everything from Potage Parmentier (potato soup) to making everything from the aspic chapter. MTAOFC is a staple of French cooking but it is bit outdated. She lived in New York City and still had trouble finding some of the ingredients. Throughout the year she cooked all of the recipes and had many meltdowns, but as corny as it sounds, she kind of found herself and what she really enjoys doing. She realized that if she could accomplish this, than the skies the limit.

After Julie completed the project, Julia Child passed away and I think she sums up her experience well in the blog post after Julia's death: "I have no claim over the woman at all, unless it's the claim one who had nearly drowned has over the person who pulled her out of the ocean." The project was life-changing, she is no longer a secretary in a dead-end job, now she is a writer. Overall, I really liked the book, there were times when I wished she talked more about the recipes and less about her friends and random stories, but I think it really speaks to how powerful food and cooking can be. Julie was not a professional chef, nor did she have a lot of fancy gadgets or expensive cookware. It also doesn't seem like she had a lot of space in her cramped Queen's apartment, but by sheer determination and passion, she created beautiful dishes(and a many disasters) in her quest to complete the Julie/Julia project. Grade- B+

It almost makes me want to take on a similar project, maybe Ryan and I will vow to complete the entire Mario Batali cookbook in one year. Maybe next year...

Come on Erin and Ryan, be bold...

2008-04-04T20:08:00.004-04:00

This is what I said after our dinner we had tonight at Wild Ginger. This is our second time at Wild Ginger, a great Vietnamese bistro in Hyde Park in Cincinnati. I have been really craving Asian food lately, I think I've had it 3 times this week so when Ryan asked where I wanted to go for dinner, I decided on Wild Ginger. The place is always busy and the decor is very modern and "green." For example, our chairs are woven with recycled seat belts and bamboo.

Ok, back to our dining experience.... The menu at Wild Ginger is really large so it took us forever to decide what to eat. My method for deciding what to eat is to pick my top 2 or 3 favorites and then close the menu until the server comes back. When they ask me I want I just decide spontaneously between my choices, that way I feel like I get what I really wanted all along. I had my choices narrowed down to vegetable stir-fry with shrimp, Pho or the fisherman's hot pot. Pho (pronounced F-uh) is a Vietnamese dish with white rice noodles in a light beef broth with thinly cut steak garnished with onions and bean sprouts and other seasonings. I've not had it, nor am I very knowledgeable about Vietnamese dishes, but I read a post on Amateur Gourmet about his experience with Pho and I was very intrigued. I was very close to ordering this, but I chickened out and ordered the vegetable stir fry with shrimp. And don't get me wrong it was good, but pretty standard. The same with Ryan's dish, he ordered the spicy shrimp stir fry (with a 10 spice level) and it was good, but pretty standard. And, according to Ryan, not spicy at all (the plight of the white man continues). So when we got home I kept thinking, "I should have gotten the Pho or sushi, or something new!" I was getting angry at myself for not being more adventurous. Especially in light of the fact that we do blog about food and it would have been a much more interesting post if I talked about a new dish or a new sushi roll I tried. blah. Next time I vow to be more bold!! What have I got to lose!?

Easter Feast

2008-03-27T20:55:00.004-04:00

Ryan and I made a lamb feast 2 years ago for Easter for our friends and it was a hit, so we decided it was time to for Easter Lamb: Round 2. This lamb recipe is from Ryan's mom so it was a nice way to bring family aspect to our Easter away from home.

We needed about a 10 lb. leg of lamb for the recipe and lamb is pretty expensive, especially around the holidays. So I decided to be the meat investigator and call around to various grocery stores and butchers to see who had the best price per pound. The butcher on the west side of town was definitely the most expensive, but they probably had the better quality leg than say, Kroger who had the cheapest. In the end it didn't really matter because when we went to go out and buy the lamb and other ingredients (we were out a little late Friday night and didn't get moving right away on Saturday) and Kroger and Bigg's were both out of lamb legs. Luckily, Fresh Market had plenty of lamb legs left and we were able to get a 6 lb. leg that worked out perfect for our Easter feast.

I'm going to let Ryan take it from here, he was the chef in charge of the lamb and I of course, was the sous chef, beautifully chopping the onion, potatoes and LOTS of garlic.

What's up, its Ryan...
So the lamb recipe is my Nonna's, given to me by my mom. I remember the tender, meaty, delicious lamb every Easter sunday, usually in Florida at my Nonna's home. Basically, its a meat roast, but it puts all the pork and beef roasts ever cooked to shame. We had the butcher at Fresh Market cut the leg into one inch thick "steaks". This allows you to get that tender, delicate texture without having to cook it for 6 hours. I cut away alot of the fat from the steaks once at home.

With Erin's cutting skills we lined a large roast pan with celery as a bed, then added the meat, potatoes, a couple cans of crushed tomatoes, some garlic (a couple cloves diced, a couple whole), onion, capers (chopped), and fresh mint (this was not in my grandma's recipe). I seasoned everything with some salt and pepper and cooked the roast at 400 degrees for about 1.5 hours. While we were waiting we had some panaconzata.

It came out pretty good. The lamb was pretty tender and very flavorful. The ingredients worked awesome together. It wasn't quite as tender as my grandma's. The other slight problem was that some of the potatoes could have used a few more minutes.

We had some friends over to help us eat this feast and celebrate Easter with us. Craig brought beer, JJ made a tasty green bean caserole, and Mo a great peanut butter pie. We also made a salad. The simple oil and vinegar dressing (really it was just some cheap balsamic, extra virgin olive oil, salt, and freshly cracked black pepper) that I learned from my mom was a hit.

We even had an Easter egg hunt... Erin won.

Happy belated Easter. Sorry this post is so late, we have had busy week. Check back soon for more posts. I'm going to guarantee 2 posts per week!

Mediterranean Cole Slaw

2008-03-19T21:17:00.004-04:00

Tonight Mo and I had dinner at Whole Foods. I know you are probably wondering why I had dinner at a grocery store, but they have an awesome salad bar, soups, sandwiches and lots of interesting salads that they let you sample. We were just eating quick before running a very exciting errand (I picked up my wedding dress!) so I got a salad from the salad bar. It started off simply with mixed greens and veggies but then I got a little crazy and started putting small spoonfuls of all of the different salads so by the end of my trip around the bar my plate had a little bit of everything. One of the sides was Mediterranean cole slaw and it was definitely my favorite!

It was very light and not like your typical cole slaw because it was in a light vinaigrette. It was just a great blend of traditional Mediterranean flavors and I wish I would have put more on my plate.

I just got off the phone with Whole Foods to get the ingredients because I feel like it would be really easy to recreate. I don't have the actual recipe with the amount of each ingredient but I think with a cole slaw you can just improvise. The ingredients are as follows: green cabbage, green peppers, cucumbers, feta, diced tomatoes, diced red onion, kalamata olives (ew, I picked those out), feta cheese and the dressing is red wine vinegar, lemon, oregano, basil and olive oil. Sounds pretty simple and it's now on my list of things to make.

It's not a typical place to eat out for dinner but I recommend it because you can try a lot of things you would not typically eat. Oh yea, and Mo had a shrimp enchilada that she enjoyed and she also bought some figs.

Stay tuned for our Easter dinner, we are making lamb for our friends!

Struggles of a White Man

2008-03-16T11:51:00.000-04:00

Last night Erin and I had dinner at Bangkok Bistro in Hyde Park. It is a very good and always busy Thai restaurant that isn't too expensive. I am actually impressed at Cincinnati's offerings for Asian food. There are a bunch of Indian options across the city, my favorite is Ambar India in Clifton, but Erin isn't big into curry. We also have our local Chinese places: Doodles and China Gourmet. Both are a step up from a fast food place you get your Moo Goo Gai Pan that sits in a shopping center or in the food court at the mall. But those places all deserve their own posts.

My complaint is the spiciness scale. After you order your Pad Thai, Chicken Jalfrezi or General Tso's chicken, the Asian person taking your order will ask "How spicy?" They will give you a scale: 1-5, 1-10, or like the shady, yet delicious Krishna Indian restaurant across from my school, maybe the scale is 1-6. Now, I'll eat the spiciest thing you can find, and I'll love it. but, for a whole meal there is a line, I want it to be outrageously spicy, but not so much that I can't enjoy the flavors. So, my initial response is usually to go one step below the highest: 9 of 10, or 4 of 5.

Now, I'm going for that comfortable eating sweat that should accompany eating hot wings or Asian food. Yet, I'm often disappointed at the mildness of my meals from these places. So, I've been erring on the side of my tongue bursting into flames recently. Last night I ordered a 10 on a scale of one to 10 (Erin ordered a 1 for her seafood stirfry). Once again, I was disappointed. Yet, I know that these Asian cooks have the ability to bring me the spiciness I crave, so what's the deal?

My only rational conclusion: I'm being discriminated against because of my race. My friend Craig, a lover of all things spicy and Indian food particularly, is a firm believer in this theory. And I now join him. I think the people taking my order see me and think "sure, this white guy thinks he wants a 10, but he can't really handle it, we'll go easy on him." It might be even more explicit, when they go to the kitchen, it wouldn't surprise me if they say, "one chicken Pad Thai, spiciness 10, its for a white guy though."

The solution? I'm not sure. I think I'm going to stop recognizing the number system. Instead, when they ask how spicy, I'll answer "as spicy as you can make it". Or, I'll just say, "pretend you are cooking it for your father, make it that spicy". Or, I just need to make some Asian friends that I can take to dinner so I can gain legitimacy at my favorite Indian, Chinese and Thai restaurants.

Chalk Food + Wine Part 2

2008-03-15T16:58:00.000-04:00

I'm so glad Cincinnati local restaurants decided to do a restaurant week. I had heard of other cities doing the same thing and always thought it was such a great idea. In Ryan' s post her said that the $25.08/person was not a really good deal, but I kind of disagree. For some of the restaurants that participated, it was not the best deal to do the tasting menu, but for many of the pricier Cincinnati restaurants, I think it's a great deal. It's a great way to experience a restaurant you might not normally go to every Saturday night for a reasonable price. And it's always good to support local restaurants.

I liked Chalk right away. I thought the atmosphere was modern with a little bit of a quirky touch. I wore my favorite red shoes and the hostess complemented me on them when we walked in and then our waitress did too. That put me in a great mood right off the bat. :) Our server was really great, she was very knowledgeable and fun and very attentive. Before I get in to the post out my meal, I want to talk about the wine I ordered. I decided on a red wine and saw on the wine list a natura carmenere. I was intrigued so I asked the server and she informed me it was a South American wine and the grapes are all organic. She said because it was organic, you could really taste all of the flavors. I decided to try the natura carmenere and it was so good! It was a really flavorful wine, not too dry. I definitely want to try and find a bottle of this next time I am at a wine store.

Ok- now about my meal. Ryan talked about our calamari appetizer and I thought it was good, I liked that it was 2 takes on calamari, but the dish wasn't really memorable compared to the rest of our dishes. The first course of my tasting menu was a potato and beet salad. The salad had fingerling potatoes chopped in small pieces, diced beets and walnuts lightly tossed in a walnut vinaigrette. On top was a little bit of lettuce and a crispy chip. There was some of the vinaigrette artfully presented on the side and a small segment of what I think was grapefruit. The potato salad was excellent, I loved the pungent flavor of the beets and the crunch of the walnuts. The vinaigrette was not heavy at all and was a nice complement to the ingredients. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to eat the little segment of grapefruit with the salad or if it was just a garnish, but it brightened up the salad when I did have a bite with the grapefruit.

Second course I chose the butter poached cod. It was served over carrots and green lentils and there was a light buttery sauce surrounding the meal. You can see in the picture that on top are some blue flecks, that is salt! I just tried doing a little research to see if I could figure out what kind of salt it is, but I am still a foodie in training, so I'm really not sure. I think it might be crystalline sea salt. Anyway, the cod was really good, wonderfully cooked and it paired well with the carrots and green lentils. The light buttery sauce was also really nice and not very heavy, which I like. The bites with the blue salt definitely had a salty kick to it, but it really enhanced the flavor of the fish.
My third course, dessert, was just pure sin in the form of a double chocolate cupcake. It looked so pretty when our server laid it in front of me I almost didn't want to eat it, but that didn't stop me from immediately taking the chocolate piece from the top and taking my first bite of rich (and I mean rich) chocolaty goodness. I'm not really a chocolate or dessert person, but this cupcake was like the mother of all cupcakes. It was a chocolate cupcake with a layer of ganache and then a 2 inch layer of chocolate mousse frosting with chocolate chips, sprinkles and the chocolate piece on top....whoa. Needless to say it was amazing and I only ate about half of it because it was so rich and I was getting full.

I would definitely go back to Chalk, I really liked the atmosphere and the back patio looked like it is probably a happening place when the weather is nice. My grade: A

1/2 Restaurant Review: Chalk Food + Wine

2008-03-09T17:23:00.000-04:00

This past week was Cincinnati Independent Restaurant Week. A group of Cincinnati restaurants that are locally owned and operated each offer a three course tasting menu for $25.08. It's not an incredible deal, but it was a good excuse for Erin and I to try a new restaurant in the area. She will be posting her experience separately, to talk about her choices on the tasting menu.

We considered our many choices and all the Jean-Robert restaurants sounded good. Jean-Robert is a local French chef who runs several restaurants in the Cincinnati area. Neither of us have been to any his restaurants, but he has a reputation as one of the most refined chefs in the area. His flagship restaurant is Jean-Robert at Pigall's. But, they weren't offering the restaurant week special, so we decided to go to one of his newer ventures: Chalk Food + Wine.

The concept of Chalk is comfort food with a fine dining flair. Regardless of the food and the menu, the atmosphere as you walk in to Chalk is modern and fun. The front of the restaurant is a sleek wine bar with several high top tables. We were sat in the back dining room, and got a glimpse at a small rear patio, which I'm sure would be fun in the summer. There was certainly a casual and cool feel to the menu and the wait staff, who were dressed in t-shirts and jeans. The menu was separated into familiar categories with different names: Starters, Hand Food (sandwiches), Eat Us (entrees), Friends (sides), and Sweets.

We decided on an appetizer, calamari steak prepared two ways, to supplement the modest tasting menu. The duo was a nice start to the meal. The first was more of a traditional calamari- breaded and fried with tangy tomato-based sauce. As a "steak" it was a little thicker and tougher than I like, but still great flavor. The second presentation was a salad of onion, cucumber and carrots in some sort of Asian type of sweet and sour dressing. There were some big chunks of calamari and the dish was very fresh and flavorful.

For my first course, I chose the barbecue chicken and sweet pea salad. It was as elegant as fried chicken and peas could be presented. There was a small piece of fried chicken placed on a neat pile of green peas. It was topped with a little barbecue sauce and a delicious onion ring. The highlight of the dish was a garlic puree. It was a mild, with the flavor of roasted whole garlic cloves and went really well with the peas.

My main course was lamb porterhouse. It was a small piece of lamb leg, complete with bone. It was cooked perfectly, just barely medium with a simple salt and pepper seasoning. It was served with some mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms. The natural juices of the lamb and mushrooms made for a great sauce and a hearty dish.

My dessert was a peach bread pudding. It was served with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. I'm a big fan of bread pudding and it was a nice finish to the meal.

Just glancing at the regular entrees and the rest of the menu, the prices seemed very reasonable. The atmosphere was modern, but still relaxed, and it is in an underrated part of town- Covington. Great service and very good food, made for an overall very pleasant experience. I don't know if its the place to go for gourmet fair, but for your favorite comfort food with some flare at a unique place, Chalk Food + Wine is great choice.

Grade: A -

Mom's Meatloaf with a twist!

2008-03-03T21:53:00.000-05:00

So tonight was meatloaf night at the Kelsey/Stookey estate. :) For some reason ever since I bought eggs over the weekend I've been obsessed with making my mom's meatloaf. My mom's meatloaf was a favorite of me and my sisters growing up. When my sister and I were home over Christmas, we had meatloaf for our Christmas dinner (upon Megan's request) and I was reminded of how great it is! My mom's recipe is very simple, but I think that is what makes it so good, it is always very moist and I like the ketchup drizzled on top. Here is the recipe for mom's meatloaf:

1 lb. ground beef

1 egg

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 of small onion chopped or 1 tsp. dehydrated onion

salt and pepper

combine ingredients and form in to loaf. Place in either loaf pan, 9 x 13 pyrex baking dish or baking sheet. Make sure you spray cooking spray so it does not stick.

bake at 350 for 1 hour

My mom told me that the process and ingredients is not exact, it's a very organic process. If the meat seems dry, add another egg or ketchup. If it seems to wet, add more bread crumbs.

I decided to consult some other recipes on Food Networks web site and came across Mario Batali's recipe for meatloaf. I didn't follow either to a tee, but I took my mom's basic recipe and used Mario's for some spice ideas. I bought about 1.6 lbs of ground beef so I used:

1 egg,

about 1/2 cup of seasoned breadcrumbs,

1/2 onion finely diced

3 sun dried tomatoes finely diced

salt and pepper

a couple shakes of dried oregano

about a 1/2 tsp. of crushed red pepper flakes

about 3 tbsp. of ketchup

about 3 tbsp. of Olive oil
1 clove minced garlic

I mixed everything together but I think what is really important is to not over mix the ingredients. I formed it in to a loaf and put it in a greased baking dish and let it cook for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

While it was cooking it smelled amazing

and I could hear it sizzling and cooking while a did my exercise video (talk about motivation to work it out and get it done, with such great smells in the house).

When it was done and I was cutting pieces to serve, the meat loaf fell apart a bit and I'm not sure if it was because I didn't add enough bread crumbs or egg to hold it together, or if it was just super moist. It didn't really matter that it fell apart because it tasted amazing! It definitely tasted like my mom's meat loaf but some bites had a little kick because of the crushed red pepper and some bites were a little sweet from the sun dried tomato. With the meat loaf we made some green beans and seasoned them simply with salt and pepper and olive oil.

Overall I was really satisfied with my meat loaf. I can't wait for leftovers tomorrow!

Surf and Turf for 2 for under $15

2008-03-02T19:04:00.000-05:00

Yes, this is our third post of the day. We have been making lots of good food lately and today was the culmination. We were planning our Sunday meal on this beautiful March afternoon. I really wanted to make meatloaf. I bought eggs the other day for brunch and I wanted to use some of the eggs for the meatloaf. Ryan was inspired by the 60 degree sunny day and suggested something to cook on the grill. He stayed home and studied while I went to the grocery. While I was at the grocery store, I saw there was a special on scallops, but I thought that might be too difficult so I passed them by. When I shop for meat I always feel overwhelmed, I never know what cut is good or bad or if the price is good. So I went up to the butcher counter and saw there were boneless New York strip steaks on special. The strip steaks were huge cuts of meat and I knew that I could never eat a whole one by myself so I had the idea of just buying one and then going back to the seafood counter and buying a few of the scallops on special and doing a surf and turf. I got a few other essentials at the store and headed home to see what Ryan would think of my idea.

When Ryan saw the steak and scallops he was definitely on board and we got to cooking. Ryan was in charge of the steak (of course) and I was in charge of the scallops. I'll let Ryan talk about the steak, but first I'll talk about the scallops. They were still a little frozen so I immediately got them in a collander and turned on the faucet on icy cold and a very slow drip to slowly defrost them completely. I found a really simple recipe in the Cooking Light Italian cookbook we got from my parents for Christmas, sauteed scallops with parsley and garlic.

Once the scallops were defrosted I patted them with a paper towel to pull out some of the moisture and salted and peppered them on each side. When the steaks were almost finished, I heated a sautee pan on medium-high heat and added olive oil to the pan. When that was ready I added the scallops and let them cook on each side for 2 1/2 minutes. When they were done I removed them from the pan, lowered the heat and then added 1/2 tbsp. of butter to the same sautee pan and let it melt. Once the butter melted I added fresh garlic and dried parsley and let the garlic cook a little bit. Once the garlic was cooked, I put the scallops back in the pan and tossed them in the butter/garlic/parsley sauce. They turned out absolutely amazing and they were a great complement to Ryan's awesome steak. I'll let him take it from here...

What up my fellow foodie wannabes? So, like Erin said, she brought home a beautiful piece of meat. A classic N.Y. strip. It looked so good, and Erin's recipe for scallops were so simple, I decided to keep it simple when cooking the steak and making sure to let the great ingredients speak for themselves. I rubbed the steak down with some olive oil and seasoned each side with a bunch of salt and freshly cracked black pepper. I added the steak to the grill on medium-high heat, for about 4 minutes on each side. The high flame seared and blackened each side with all the olive oil, salt and pepper forming a wonderful crust. Another key was to let it sit for about 10 minutes before cutting it. I cut it in half and it was cooked so that the center was bright pink, but the outside was crusted with flavor: perfectly medium cooked. I could have even gone medium rare, but it was delicious, hearty and pretty tender.

Like Erin said, the scallops and steak made for a perfect combination. While the steak was red, salty, juicy and hearty; the scallops were light and were so buttery with a light garlic sauce and a hint of lemon that was fresh and delicate. We finished the meal with a simple baby spinach and onion salad, some good French bread and some corn: an absolutely perfect Sunday meal.

Saturday Night Dinner in 30 minutes

2008-03-02T15:14:00.000-05:00

Ryan and I made a great dinner on Saturday. I'm going to go ahead and take credit for the recipe because I went grocery shopping Saturday morning and picked up a few things and came up with this meal: Sweet and Spicy Chicken sausage with baked redskin potatoes, zucchini and squash over fresh spinach. yum!

I have posted the baked redskin potato recipe before (click here)and I mistakenly said they were roasted redskin potatoes, but they are, in fact, baked. Anyway, they have to bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, so we started prepping. I washed and scraped out the eyes of each potato and quartered them and put them in a large bowl. I usually make this with peppers and onions, but I thought I'd mix things up a bit and so Ryan chopped yellow squash and zucchini and added it to the bowl with the redskin potatoes. Ryan also chopped 1 and 1/2 white onions and added them to the bowl. My only tip for preparing this dish is to make sure all of the ingredients are chopped in to equal size pieces so everything cooks evenly. I coated the ingredients generously with olive oil and added a lot of diced garlic, salt and pepper, dried basil, dried parsley, and crushed red pepper. That went on a foil-lined baking sheet and in the oven at 425 degrees for about 2o minutes. Another tip for this recipe is to make sure the potatoes, squash, zucchini and onion are spread out on the baking sheet. Check after about 10 minutes and stir the ingredients a little so each side can be baked.

After we checked on the potatoes and vegetables and stirred them, Ryan started on the chicken sausages. We have had a variation of these before, and I think they are nice to have every now and then. There are so many kinds of gourmet sausages and it's fun to try them out. Ryan cooked the sausages on a grill pan for about 15 minutes until they were browned slightly on the outside and warmed through.

While everything was cooking I came up with the idea of serving the baked potatoes and vegetables over fresh spinach. To add another kick of flavor, I drizzled balsamic vinegar over the "salad" and also added some lemon juice. The sausages were incredibly moist and I really liked the sweet and spicy flavor. The salad was a nice surprise, the balsamic paired nicely with the potatoes and zucchini and squash. It was a great Saturday night dinner that only took about 30 minutes to make! Take that Rachael Ray...

Nothing like Mom's cookin'

2008-03-02T14:34:00.000-05:00

My mom is a great home cook. Seriously, I was very spoiled to have her cooking for me as I was growing up. She made some American family classics like tuna casserole, we had a Mexican night every now and then, but the go to was pasta or anything else Italian. Sunday dinner was always something special. A couple weeks ago Erin and I were home and my mom had us and Erin's parents over. My grandpa was there too. Whenever there is company, my mom kicks it up a notch.

Her menu started with a great spread of appetizers. There was some sliced pepperoni and sausage, pepperjack cheese and some very good swiss. She also prepared one of her classics: smoked salmon. The salmon is store bought already smoked and laid it over some chopped romaine lettuce. She topped the salmon with finely sliced onion (I think she would have used chives if she had them), capers, salt, pepper, lemon and extra virgin olive oil. I like to eat some of the salmon on some crunchy toast or bread: a great salty, light appetizer. As if this weren't enough for appetizers, my mom also made some classic tomato bruschetta.

For the main course, my mom prepared one of her standards. Penne with garlic and olive oil as a "sauce" cooked with strips of chicken breast, artichokes, and sun-dried tomatoes. She sautes the garlic with olive oil and onion as a base for the sauce. Then she adds capers (one of her favorite ingredients), artichokes and sun dried tomatoes. Once the pasta is nearly cooked, she adds the previously cooked chicken breast, chopped about the same size as the pasta, to the garlic and artichoke mixture. Finally, you mix the pasta with the sauce. She served it with asparagus that was boiled and seasoned with olive oil, salt, and crushed red pepper.

For dessert, Erin's mom made a Giada recipe: panna cotta with fresh berries. It was a nice light dessert, and tasty end to a big, great meal.

FN Dish

2008-02-27T20:28:00.000-05:00

A few posts ago, I wrote a book review for the Amateur Gourmet and how much I enjoyed the book. The author, Adam Roberts, who has a great food blog with the same name, has been very busy because he now has a web show called FN Dish. The premise is for Adam to go behind the scenes of the Food Network to talk about food news, events and he even gets to interview the famous Food Network chefs...basically any Food Network fan's dream.

He just got back from the South Beach Food Festival and I've watched a few of the videos from the weekend. He got interview Mario Batali and a very pregnant Giada de Laurentiis and he got to attend a panel about childhood obesity and interviewed Alice Waters and Rachael Ray afterwards. The think the web show is great and Adam does a great job asking good questions and tries not to look too starstruck. Adam's story is pretty cool because he found his love for cooking while he was unhappy at law school. He started his blog a few years ago and has turned it in to quite a career! Pretty inspiring.

I definitely recommend checking out the FN Dish and Amateur Gourmet.

BRAT Diet

2008-02-26T18:42:00.000-05:00

Ryan and I have not been feeling well lately, we both have been suffering from the stomach flu. Ryan is feeling much better now, but basically since Thursday, one or both of us has been surviving on just toast and 7up. So needless to say, there hasn't been much cooking going on lately. My mom told me to stick to the "BRAT" diet which is an acronym for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast. It's pretty sad when the highlight of my meals today will be applesauce and rice, but I hopefully tomorrow I can start eating some normal food again. I think when we are both feeling better we should cook a foodie meal to celebrate!

Paula Dean's Heart Attack Burger

2008-02-23T18:38:00.000-05:00

I'm not the biggest fan of Paula Dean's recipes, but her Southern hospitality and twang and bubbly personalty makes her shows fun to watch. It seems like all her recipes start with a pound of butter and are finished with a jar of real mayonnaise. But this morning Paula had a show about brunch and I saw the most disturbing single dish on Paula's show, or anywhere for that matter.

It started innocently enough: a 1/2 pound juicy hamburger made with ground beef and lots of parsley. To make it brunch-like she added a fried egg- a little ridiculous, but not off the charts... yet. Then came three strips of fatty bacon. Wow, this was one hell of a burger. She had a big basket of English Muffins, and naturally I thought she would use this for the bread of this monster burger. But, next to the basket of muffins, there sat 1/2 dozen large glazed donuts. I thought there was no way... but, she took one of the donuts, put in on her plate, and placed the burger, egg, and bacon on top of it. Unbelievably, she then took another large donut to complete the sandwich. Her and her friend each had a bite before it went to commercial. I had seen enough. At one point in my life, I think I might have to try this thing, but maybe not until I have a chronic illness or something.

She called this thing "The Lady's Brunch Burger"--- yikes.

Some quick calculations from FitDay.com: 1269 Calories, 90g Fat

Mario Batali was our Valentine

2008-02-14T22:54:00.000-05:00

Cute shoes, right? Alright, I wore them to Law Prom last weekend but I thought the red shoes were Valentine's Day Post appropriate. :)
Instead of getting all dressed up and going out for a fancy Valentine's dinner, we decided to choose a few recipes and make a great dinner. And that we did. We didn't start cooking until late in the evening but it was so worth it. We weren't sure where to get a good cut of veal, I wasn't sure if Kroger or Bigg's would carry it, so we decided to go to Fresh Market. Fresh Market is a very upscale grocery store, that I happen to love. It is not a place where we do our regular grocery shopping, we tried to do that once and ended up spending $6 on Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese. Anyway, I like it because it is a true departure from your normal supermarket, they play classical music, they have really high quality ingredients, an awesome meat and seafood selection and interesting things like making your own peanut or almond butter. We were lucky to get the last few cuts of veal and the rest of our ingredients for our fabulous dinner.

Here is the menu:
-Saltimbocca alla Romana (Roman-Style Veal Cutlets with Sage)
- Braised Baby Fennel
- Carmelized Onion Toasts
It was absolutely delicious. Just as good as any restaurant meal we could have had. Ryan was in charge of the veal so I will let him explain.

Veal Saltimbocca. The First time I remember having the dish was when I was 19 years old in St. Louis. I was visiting some friends during my first year of college and we went out to a nice Italian restaurant--- I can't remember the name. It was a nice piece of veal with a light sauce, but then there was the kicker- it was stuffed with prosciutto and cheese. It might have been the single most delicious bite I ever had up to that time. Since, I've had veal saltimbocca at many restaurants. Sometimes the prosciutto was on the outside, sometimes the veal was stuffed, sometimes there was cheese, sometimes not, but it was always a great dish.

This was the first time I tried to make veal saltimbocca. We bought some veal scallopini, and added some sage leaves. I think the sage was one of the keys to the dish, that and of course, the prosciutto. Prosciutto di Parma is a dried, cured ham, with a salty and spiced flavor. It is sliced razor, razor thin and is makes for the most incredible sandwiches ever made- and by sandwich, I don't mean the crap I have for lunch everyday- tasteless American honey ham, american processed to hell cheese and mustard on flimsy white bread- I mean real a real sandwich with prosciutto on some hard ciabatta or french bread, a little provolone cheese, maybe a roasted red pepper, and some salt and pepper. Really, prosciutto is one of my absolute favorite foods in the world.

Anyways, I ended up wrapping the veal, pounded pretty thin, and the sage in freshly sliced prosciutto. I lightly dredged them in seasoned flour and cooked them in a butter olive oil mixture for less than 5 minutes. I removed the veal and added some white wine to de-glaze, seasoning and some more oil to create a light sauce, in which I finished cooking the veal. The result was a salty veal dish packed with more flavor than one could think possible by the few ingredients used. Really, it was just sage, prosciutto, white wine, and veal plus some butter, oil, salt and pepper. The light wine sauce was just enough to cut the intense flavor of the meat. In all of Mario's brilliance, he suggested serving with lemon wedges. The lemon added a freshness and brightness that truly completed the dish. This was probably the best, most restaurant worthy meat course I have ever made. Mario Batali is awesome.

I (Erin) was in charge of the braised fennel and the carmelized onion toasts. Fennel is a very new ingredient for me to cook with so I had to do some research on how to cut and prepare it. This recipe called for just using the bulbs, so I chopped and julienned the fennel bulb and boiled it until fork tender in a large pot of water. In the mean time I started the carmelized onion toasts. I chopped 3 onions and sauteed them with 2 tablespoons of butter, salt and pepper and basil. The onions didn't carmelize very well because we did not use the recommended amount of butter (in an attempt to try and make it healthier). So the toasts were not as sweet as they could have been. To remedy that, we drizzled some balsamic vinegar over the finished toasts and it really added a lot of flavor.
To finish the fennel, I put 1/4 cup of olive oil in a saute pan and heated on low/medium heat. I added garlic, chopped anchovies and red pepper to the heated olive oil. Once the garlic was slowly cooking and the anchovies were starting to disolve, I added the fennel and let it saute for 5 minutes. When it was done, I added some fresh orange zest, salt and pepper and it was ready to serve.

The dinner was absolutely fabulous and the aromas in our small apartment were intoxicating. The fennel had a really great flavor, the natural anise (black licorice) taste of the fennel mixed with the orange and garlic flavor was a great combination. Everything was great and it turned out to be a great Valentine's Day Dinner!

Edamame

2008-02-12T23:17:00.000-05:00

This post is dedicated to a one of my favorite snacks edamame. Edamame is a green vegetable more commonly known as a soybean. It is harvested at the peak of its ripening. You can buy it in many different forms, I usually buy a bag of frozen, pre-cooked edamame (the best price I can find is at Trader Joes) so when I want a snack, all I have to do is thaw a bowl full and then I can pick the edamame beans out of the pods and snack away! Edamame is high in protein and has been used in East Asia as a major source of protein for over 2000 years. If you can find them at a good price, I definitely recommend trying them.

Edamame has many uses besides snacks. I have seen a lot recipes recently with edamame added to pasta dishes. I've also had them in salads and stir fry's and it adds a great flavor and of course, your protein.

I've had a bag and a half of frozen edamame in my fridge for months so I finally decided to use them. I put them in a large bowl to defrost and tonight I decided to make edamame hummus with my big bowl of edamame. The recipe was really simple, it was basically my chick pea hummus recipe with edamame substituted. The only thing I did differently than the recipe was I added an extra clove of garlic and instead of coriander I used hot paprika for a little kick. I read some of the reviews of the recipe and the majority of the reviewers raved about the recipe, but a few said it was a little bland. The hummus has a beautiful, bright green color and I'm excited to give it a try tomorrow after all of the flavors have settled overnight.

Since we got our new food processor I've been making hummus about once a week because we eat it so fast. I dip a lot of things in my hummus like crackers, carrots, cherry tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and celery. I also use hummus on my sandwiches and wraps instead of mustard. I intend to use the edamame hummus for the same things.

We've been making some great meals over the past few days so once we get the photos loaded on to the computer, there are posts to come! Also, we are cooking a nice dinner for Valentine's day so you'll definitely get to read about that. Stay tuned!

Book Review: The Amateur Gourmet

2008-02-07T21:01:00.000-05:00

I'm back!! I realize it's been a while since I've actually written a post, but I've definitely been busy in the kitchen helping create the tasty dishes Ryan has blogged about.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I was couch bound for a weekend and I was able to get some good reading done. I sat down and read this book in one day, it was a really great, quick read. The title of this book The Amateur Gourmet (How to Shop, Chop and Table-Hop Like a Pro) might look a little familiar because it's one of the cooking links on the blog.

Ryan got me this book for my birthday and I finally got around to reading it. He picked it out because the author, Adam Roberts, developed his love for cooking while he was miserable in law school. He started his blog a few years ago and journals his experiences in cooking and dining. The book is a really easy and funny read. With each chapter, Roberts writes about what he thinks are important lessons and helpful tips to becoming comfortable in the kitchen. Each chapter is laugh-out-loud funny and about a different aspect of cooking, from learning how to master the farmers market, a lesson about knives, and the book ends with him cooking a lavish, 6-course meal for his family. There are also some really great recipes! I definitely recommend this book for anyone, but especially the amateur gourmet or foodie in training, because it calms a lot of anxiety that comes with being a newbie in the kitchen.

I also recommend checking out his blog, it is definitely one of my favorites!

Happy cooking. :)

tuna pasta salad

2008-02-04T22:25:00.000-05:00

This quick meal falls into the category of: "shit, its 6:15 and we have no food at home, but we can't afford to go out, what can we make?" I had the idea of some sort of tuna salad as a few cans of tuna was really all the protein we had in our apartment. I also thought we could make some pasta with some of our tomato sauce. Erin had the brilliant idea to forget the tomato sauce and combine a tuna salad on top of some pasta.

As we boiled the pasta we started with the "tuna salad". Erin chopped a few green onions, some celery, dill pickles, and baby carrots and added it to two cans of tuna packed in water. We added a few chunks of asiago cheese and some alfalfa sprouts and then I began to season and dress the salad. I added a couple tablespoons of olive oil, juice from 1/2 of a lemon, and a healthy splash of white wine vinegar. I seasoned the salad with salt, black pepper, lemon pepper, hot paprika, and oregano. It tasted pretty good. We added this salad to 1 pound of cooked wheat pasta and finished the dish with some parmasean cheese and a little crushed red pepper. It was a delicious, quick and easy meal.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, didn't think about blogging about this meal until well after the fact and how satisfied I was for such a last minute thing. Also, I know this is just a food blog, and it will continue to just be a food blog, but I really think that you should watch this music video inspired by Barack Obama's "Yes we Can" speech from New Hampshire about a month ago. Anyone waiting for our generation's JFK or MKL, well, here you go:

Orzo stuffed peppers

2008-01-30T12:56:00.000-05:00

First, a big thanks to Dan and Jude, two of our newer readers, pictured above. Whats up guys?

I love roasted red peppers. I love their sweetness and their texture and they are a great addition to a variety of dishes from pastas to pizzas to salads. They are great just on a piece of toast. I've never roasted my own peppers, but my grandma has and they are even more wonderful than the ones you can buy in a jar. Hers were served simply with some olive oil and they were roasted with whole cloves of garlic that end up tender and delicious yet surprisingly sweet and mild.

Still, I've never really thought that a roasted pepper could be the star of a meal. But, that changed this week when Erin and I made orzo stuffed peppers. We got the recipe from a Giada episode. Orzo is a rice shaped noodle that is common in soups. Now, fresh bell peppers are not really in season, but we were able to find a few at our grocery store that would do the trick. We hollowed them out and started on the mixture for the "stuffing". It included zucchini, orzo (cooked in chicken stock), mint (the Greek's basil, according to Giada), garlic and parmasean cheese.

After we stuffed the peppers and put them in the oven, we had a lot of left over stuffing. Of course, we tasted it- it was delicious. The mint was a great touch along with the cool simple tomato and pasta mixture. I think cooking the orzo in stock added so much depth and flavor to the dish and of course the garlic just brought everything together. In the hour it took to cook the peppers, we had eaten all the leftover mixture, it made for a great cold pasta appetizer. The last 15 minutes of cooking, the peppers were uncovered and sprinkled with extra cheese that formed a nice crust. We were going to a little piece of meat to our meal, but since we had already had a lot of food and the peppers looked so good, we decided to have in just with a salad.

The peppers were tender, but probably could have used another half hour to really get the roasted flavor. Still, I think we will probably be trying more varieties of roasted and stuffed peppers.

Comments

2008-01-23T13:17:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone, I just wanted to announce that I have changed the setting for posting comments on the blog. You no longer have to create a Google account to make a comment. Hopefully this makes it a little easier for everyone. We love to read the comments and feedback from you all so keep it up!!!

Roast Beast

2008-01-20T23:12:00.000-05:00

Over the past few weeks Erin and I have made a pork loin roast and a beef sirloin roast. I got the pork loin roast idea from my mom. While I was home for Christmas break she made a great tender pork loin roast that was bought already seasoned with garlic and lemon. She slow cooked it in a crock pot for 6 hours and added potatoes, onions, carrots and celery and some water. It made for an easy and great dinner. The pork was so tender you didn't need a knife.

Erin and I tried to recreate it. It didn't work, but we aren't sure why. I think the pork that I bought was about the same as my mom used, preseasoned and everything. I even consulted her before cooking. She said to just be creative and use what we have and cook it on low for 6 hours or on high for about 4 hours. We cut the loin in half, added carrots, potatoes, onion, apple, sun dried tomatoes and a hot red pepper; we set the crock pot on high for about 4 hours. We seasoned with salt and pepper, parsley, garlic and a bay leaf.

I think the flavors worked ok together. But, the pork ended up a little dry and tough. The potatoes were ok, but the apples were just mush.

In one of the funniest cooking moments we have had together, Erin took a big bite of what she thought was a sun dried tomato. But, it was the hot pepper. Erin isn't the biggest fan of spicy stuff, although she is starting to come around. But, the look on her face after biting into that pepper was of pure horror. She immediately ran into the kitchen and asked what would help cool her mouth. I told her milk and bread. She shoved a slice of bread into her mouth as her eyes welled up with tears. She laughed/cried in anger and pain. I poured her a glass of milk as I tried to keep from cracking up. She kept mumbling with the piece of bread in her mouth and looked oh so helpless. I kinda wish I had the camera out, but I don't think she would let me post a picture even if I took one. Anyway, the meal overall wasn't a big success.

Last week, we decided to go for a beef roast. I saw a Giada episode where she made roast beef with a spicy tomato sauce. Here's the recipe. As a bonus, she used a food processor for the sauce, and we are still looking for every opportunity to use our new kitchen machine. We bought a top sirloin roast from the grocery. We seasoned the meat with lots of salt and pepper and seared the meat on all sides.

Then we put it into a roasting pan and dumped a can of diced tomatoes and put in the oven for about an hour. Our only semi-mistake was that I only put the oven on 300. I wanted it to be medium or even medium rare, but I should have kept to Giada's suggestion of 375 for 30-40 minutes.

As I sliced the roast beef, it was a little rarer than we were going for, but it looked great. The sauce was pretty easy, we stayed pretty true to the recipe, adding some dried parsley to the little fresh parsley we had. Some how Erin's home grown parsley had survived the cold of winter up til January, but we didn't have enough. We also added the tomatoes that cooked with the roast, red wine vinegar, olive oil, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper. The food processor did its work and we were left with a great smelling, if not the most appetizing-looking sauce.

We finished the meal with a simple salad with a homemade vinegar and olive oil dressing that we tossed with the lettuce, sunflower seeds and croutons. The meat was flavorful and tender. It was a good cut of meat, even though it wasn't too expensive (I think it was about $4/pound). The star of the meal though was the sauce. The vinegar and tomato combo really "popped" in your mouth. Erin has since named it "pop sauce". We should have invited some one over for dinner, it was far too much food for Erin and I. I cut the rest of the roast in to pieces about 3/4 inch thick and they made for good steaks for dinner and sandwiches the rest of the week. All in all it was a very good meal. Here is the finished product:

Breaded Pork Chops and Sauteed Veggies

2008-01-18T10:13:00.000-05:00

I made a really great dinner for Ryan and I last night. I found the recipe in a Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine and once I read it, I instantly new it was would be really tasty. The recipe originally calls for fennel as the veggie, but when i went to the store, the fennel bulbs were really small and didn't look worth the $3 they cost, so I picked up some zucchini and squash and grape tomatoes and figured I could sautee those up instead to accompany the pork chops.

What drew me to this recipe is that the pork chops were breaded but they are not dredged in egg and flour, which can add calories and makes the breading have a little bit different consistency. To start, I combined 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs and the zest of about 1/2 a lemon. To season the pork chops, I salted and peppered the meat and then coated the pork in the breading, lightly pressing the breading in to the pork so it would stay coated.

Now, I did make a cardinal mistake while cooking the meat and this is because I am usually the sous chef, doing all of the chopping (because of my superior chopping skills) and Ryan is usually in charge of preparing and cooking the meat. The pork chops were pretty thick and Ryan thought that it was going to take a lot longer than the 1 1/2 minutes/side that the recipe indicated. So in a large sautee pan heated on medium/high heat, I added some olive oil and then added the pork. Everything was going fine, but I got a little too anxious and flipped the pork chops too soon! It took much longer to cook them then if I would have waited about 7 or 8 minutes and then flipped to the other side and waited 7 or 8 minutes, but these are the lessons your learn as a foodie in training. :)

Anyway, once the pork chop situation was fixed and they were done, I removed them from the pan and covered them with foil so they could sit. Before I started cooking the pork, I had chopped up 2 yellow squash and 2 zucchini in to small slices (so they would cook faster) and I chopped half an onion, and Ryan chopped a red pepper. After removing the pork, we added more oil to the pan and added the veggies. I also added some salt to bring out the moisture in the veggies. They sauteed for about 8-10 minutes and when the veggies were getting a little soft, we added a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic (we like garlic :), the grape tomatoes, and some lemon zest. When the veggies were done we put them in a large bowl and then added the juice of about 1/2 a lemon.

All in all the pork turned out really well and the breading was really good, especially when you got a bite of lemon zest in the breading. The veggies were fantastic and all it took was some lemon juice, and then salt and pepper! I definitely recommend this recipe and next time I want to use fennel.

Sorry there is not a photo of the meal, but here is a photo of our dog Lucy, who loves to try and get a bit of whatever we are eating for dinner. Have a great weekend!

Sorry!

2008-01-17T13:53:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, sorry for the absence of posts....this week has been a really eventful and busy week for Ryan and me. But don't worry, we have some exciting posts coming up including a really tasty meal we made last weekend and a book review! Stay tuned...

Ryan's Restaurant Review: Via Vite

2008-01-11T11:29:00.000-05:00

Last night Erin and I went to see Wicked, the Musical. It was really good. Before the show we wanted to eat a Palomino downtown because we had a gift card. However, we didn't make reservations and they wouldn't have been able to get us in before the show. So we decided to go across the street to Via Vite. The restaurant is located in Fountain Square, downtown Cincinnati and was opened by the owners of Nicola's, an Italian restaurant in Over the Rhine.
Erin has been to both Nicola's and Via Vite, but this was my first experience.

As you walk in there is a beautiful open bar area with views of some of the kitchen. We were seated immediately in the small, very modern (post-modern?) dining room. I was surprised to see that we were one of only 4 or 5 tables seated, but by the time we left the restaurant was packed and there was a wait for tables (to the extent that I heard a host tell the bus staff to "clear this table immediately and set it for two!" right as we stood up from our table). I had the feeling that we were about to be treated to a fun dinner with creative dishes and presentations. The waiter lost a little bit of the atmosphere as he stumbled through reading his spiel about the specials. Plus, he quickly got on my bad side when he forgot my vodka tonic for several minutes.

We decided we didn't feel like a heavy dinner so instead decided to start with the "Assortment of bruschettas". It was 6 or 7 toasted crostinis with a different topping on each one. They were all delicious. There was a traditional basil and tomato; crab salad; pesto with an anchovie; olive tapenade; chicken liver patte; and roasted pepper and garlic. Erin liked the traditional the best. The crab salad was clean and amazingly fresh. The pesto one was very good with the salty anchovie. The olive tapenade was hearty and delicoius. The chicken liver patte was good and, well, it was liver. My favorite was the roasted peppers. The meal was off to a good start.

For our next, and final course, Erin decided on the Inzimino described as a traditional Tuscan stew of calamari and spinach. I went with a salad with Boucheron goat cheese, spring mix of greens, raspberry vinaigrette and pistachios. We also shared the mussels alla marinara with garlic crostone. The Inzimino, was, in a word, bad. It was cooked in a dark sauce(?) and came in one mushy dollop in the middle of a bowl. The calamari was almost nonexistent, just one step away from mush. It was incredibly overcooked and lost all flavor of the octopus. Both Erin and I are big fans of calamari, and I have never seen it prepared in such a way to make it totally lifeless and bland. The spinach was also cooked so much that it tasted like nothing.
Erin actually asked our waiter what sort of "broth" it was cooked in and he said it was prepared for hours with a lot of red wine. Well, the lesson learned here is that calamari should NEVER be slow cooked for hours and that it is crucial to let good, fresh ingredients shine.

My salad, on the other hand, was very good. The pistachios added a perfect contrast to the yummy raspberry dressing and the creamy, melted goat cheese. It also was a nice compliment to the mussels which were prepared with a light, diced tomato sauce with just a touch of garlic. The mussels were perfectly cooked, not too mushy and not too rubbery. I thought the sauce could have used either some more garlic or some lemon. Near the end of the meal I actually asked for some lemon, but I never got it.

All in all, the service was disappointing, but it was noticeable that the waitress taking care of the table next to us was much better prepared and professional. As Erin said, we were 3 for 4 in good dishes. And even though that stew was almost unforgivable, I would be willing to go back, if for nothing else to try some of their bigger entrees. Grade: B.

Cooking for friends

2008-01-07T19:53:00.000-05:00

I always enjoy cooking for friends and Friday night I got another chance to try a new recipe, linguine with Shrimp and Lemon Oil. Ryan and I were going to cook for our friends but he came down with a bad cold (that I now have, thanks Ryan) so I went over to my friend Mo's to cook at her place for her, JJ, Mary and Mary's friend Eric who was visiting for the weekend.
This is actually a recipe my mom made for Ryan and I over the holidays and it's a meal she whips up for her and my dad all of the time. We also made panaconzata which I think we have mentioned in other posts, it is a wonderful Italian garlic bread that we have at Ryan's family gatherings.

To start, I put Mary to work making the panaconzata. For how tasty this bread it, it is surprisingly very simple and easy to make. Mary started by taking a loaf of Italian bread and slicing it horizontally (like a sub sandwich) and scoring the bread. After scoring the bread, she drizzled olive oil on each side and added salt and pepper and all kinds of spices including parsley, oregano and a little bit of crushed red pepper. The great thing about panaconzata is that you can add whatever you want, like sun dried tomatoes or fresh basil. Then she added shredded mozzarella cheese to each side of the bread and put the bread back together and wrapped it in foil. It's as easy as that! Then you pop it in the oven at 425 degrees and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Here is Mary enthusiastically making garlic bread:

While Mary was making the garlic bread, I got busy making the lemon oil which is very easy, just zest 1/2 a lemon and add 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil to the bowl and let sit (you'll add it to the pasta at the end). I also put a large pot of water on the stove to bring to a boil for the pasta. Now, the recipe (which is copied below) calls for shallots but I used the red onion I had instead. So I began by sauteing onion in a large pan and salting the onions to bring out their moisture. Once the onions have cooked for a little bit I added some garlic and once the onion was translucent, I added the shrimp.

Once the pasta is done cooking I drained the pasta and added it to the large saute pan and mixed it with the shrimp, onions and garlic. I also added lemon juice and the lemon oil I made earlier and mixed it well. Then I added a few handfuls of fresh baby spinach and tossed it with the hot pasta until it wilted. I thought the meal turned out pretty well and my everyone seemed to like it. (JJ was able to get his vitamins and minerals for the day :) It's always fun to cook for friends and I'm glad I was able to try this great recipe for them. It is really simple and fast to make (moms are always right), a great meal to make any night of the week.

Put everything in a pot...

2008-01-02T20:53:00.002-05:00

So Ryan and I wanted to cook our first dinner of 2008. Problem was, we didn't have much left in our kitchen. (see left for some of our initial ingredients). Ryan thought that we could make a soup using some of our tomato sauce and the chicken stock as a base. Pre-blog, I made a chicken tortilla soup using a similar base and we had seen Giada make a seafood soup with this base as well. Referencing several of our cookbooks we settled on a ratio of roughly 4 cups of stock to 1 cup of tomato sauce. Here is how it all went down.

We started with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and cooked down 1/2 of a large red onion and three teaspoons of minced garlic. Taking a tip from Alton Brown's Good Eats we cooked a bag of frozen mixed veggies in the microwave (this particular mix had broccoli, carrots, snow peas and baby corn) and added it to the onion and garlic. Then in went the chicken stock, about 1/2 cup of white wine, and the homemade tomato sauce. We brought the soup to a boil and considered adding some acini di pepe pasta, but decided to use some beans as a starch instead. We used one can of cannelloni beans and one can of red kidney beans.

Ryan (in his new red apron) seasoned with a bay leaf, dried rosemary, lots of salt (maybe too much), ground black pepper, crushed red pepper, and dried parsley. We also smashed some of the beans and added some tomato paste to thicken the broth. We let it simmer for 15-20 minutes as I made some grilled cheese sandwiches with American and mozzarella cheese. Just before dinner we added what was left of a small bag of frozen, pre-cooked shrimp.

We finished it with some croutons. Ryan liked it with some tobasco sauce and I even put a drop of that in mine. The soup was a little salty, but otherwise very good. The veggies held up and didn't get too mushy (which I was a little worried about) and the rosemary didn't overpower the rest of the spices and ingredients. Overall, it had great flavor and the beans and shrimp gave it some good heartiness. If I had to compare it to a well known soup I would say minestrone. I was so proud of us.

Ratatouille

2007-12-26T22:55:00.000-05:00

I'm a big fan of the Disney Pixar movies and I just finished the latest to come out on video "Ratatouille." Because of it's popularity I'm sure many of you have seen the movie or heard about the plot. I thought it was a really cute movie and the reason that I am adding it to the blog is because it is food related. I really liked the message the movie portrays which is "Anyone Can Cook" which is also the name of the cookbook of the famous Chef Gusteau and the central theme of the movie because Remy the rat is a wonderful cook. After watching the bonus features with the creators of the movie, they reiterated the theme of the movie well by saying, "Anybody can cook, you just have to have the desire and determination to make something that you are going to feel proud to give somebody." I know it might some corny but that really resonated with me because I (and I can probably speak for Ryan too) really enjoy cooking and trying new recipes and I especially love sharing those recipes with family and friends. And now with Foodie in Training, I feel even more motivated to try more recipes so I can share them on the blog. Ryan and I got few great gadgets and cookbooks that we are going to put to use after the New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday and if you haven't already, check out Ratatouille, you might get inspired to cook! (and maybe get some rat traps. ) :)

Christmas

2007-12-26T13:43:00.000-05:00

In the world of food, Christmas is a dynamic time for Erin and me. First, since we started to get into the world of food many of our gifts from each other and others are based on things for our kitchen. Second, my grandma makes several of her most incredible dishes every year for my family and it is probably my favorite meal of the year.

As far as gifts go, between Erin and I we got several cookbooks, including and Cooking Light: Italian and Essentials of Italian from Williams-Sonoma. We also got our first food processor! We are both very excited to use it. The possibilities are endless. It seems like most of our favorite cooking shows use food processors each episode, and it just seems like it will save a lot of time chopping and the like. Finally, we got a new digital camera, so you will start seeing lots of pictures here on Foodie in Training.

Now, on to my grandma's Christmas dinner. For appetizers we had pannacunsata (Sicilian cheesy garlic bread, a family dish), roasted sweet red peppers and garlic; and some traditional antipasta meats and cheeses (including delicate and delicious fresh mozzarella). For dinner my grandma made a giant prime rib; lightly breaded baked shrimp; green beans with garlic; broccoli rabe; pazella (green peas with onion seasoned with olive oil and sugar); lasagna.... For desert we had some fresh panettone (pronounced pan-a-ton-eh); chocolates; espresso; and some fruit. We then had some fresh fennel and sparkling water to help us digest the wonderful meal. Each of these dishes probably deserves their own post and as Erin and I attempt to recreate them, we'll write more about them.

P.S. Erin's biscotti were a hit, they were awesome!

Holiday Biscotti

2007-12-20T21:35:00.000-05:00

I am not a baker but this year for the holidays I decided to attempt to make biscotti for my coworkers gifts. At first, I was a little intimidated by the recipe and the whole baking process, but after reading over the recipe and the steps for Holiday Biscotti and Chocolate and anise seed biscotti I realized it was easier than I thought and I decided to give it a go. I thought the Holiday Biscotti with dried cranberries and pistachios would be fun and festive for Christmas presents and I chose to make a second batch (assuming all went well with the first) of the chocolate chip and anise seed for Lisa at work who is a picky eater and I knew she wouldn't like the cranberry pistachio combo. For some reason I could not find the recipe for the chocolate and anise seed on Food Network's recipe but I got it from Giada De Laurentiis' cookbook Family Dinners. Basically, you can use the holiday biscotti recipe and replace the pistachios, cranberries and lemon zest with 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 tsp. ground anise seed.

I began by combining the flour and baking powder in a large bowl and in a separate bowl I beat room temperature butter, sugar, and lemon zest with an electric mixer. After mixing the sugar, butter and lemon zest, I beat in the eggs (1 at a time) and then added the flour. Once all of the ingredients were combined to form a sticky dough, I added the cranberry's and pistachios (get it, red and green for the holidays!) and mixed it all together. Then I formed the dough in to a long, flat log on a lined baking sheet and baked at 350 for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Then you have to let it cool about 30-40 minutes and then you cut cookie into diagonal cuts and lay then cut side down on the baking sheet and bake for another 15 minutes. Once they are done, you just set the pieces on a rack to cool completely and you are all done! The great thing about biscotti is that as long as you keep them in an airtight container or ziplog bag they last a really long time. They turned out really well and I had fund making them, so much fun that I made 2 more batches the next evening and I plan on giving them to all my family for Christmas. I hope everyone has a great holiday season with lots of great food and great times!

Simple Tomato Sauce

2007-12-17T13:51:00.000-05:00

Tomato sauce is one of the fundamental creations of Italian-American cooking. Every Italian family has recipes that have passed down through the generations. My mom's side of the family is 100% Sicilian, my mom's generation being the first born in the US. Most of my interest in cooking and food derives from watching and helping my mom prepare both quick and intriguing food for dinner almost every day while growing up. If we didn't eat at home, we were eating at my Nonno's (grandpa's) restaurant, where I would watch and help my grandpa create all his traditional dishes.

In my mind there was three types of tomato sauce: my Nonno's; my Nonna's (grandma') ;and my mom's. Nonno's sauce is a spicier and more flavorful version, my favorite. Nonna's sauce is more true to the main ingredient: tomatoes- very simple, and perfect for a variety of uses from delicate homemade ravioli to spicy Italian sausage to a plain plate of spaghetti. My mom's sauce is a perfect combination of both: a little chunkier, with a little kick, but toned down from my grandpa's version.

Since moving away from home I have cooked a lot of sauce, but never a real simple classic tomato sauce. Usually my basic sauce was a can of diced tomatoes cooked quickly with onion, olive oil and seasoning: ready in 15 minutes and very simple and spicy- great for a quick dinner. Well, that quick chunky tomato sauce deserves its own post for the usefulness and diversity that you can add 15 minutes before you want to eat dinner. But, I never actually simmered a big pot of smooth tomato sauce, and this past weekend, that changed.

I eventually want to mimic my family tradition, but for this first go round I was going to do it from memory, from my intuition, and a little help from Mario Batali. Consulting his cookbook so I didn't forget anything major, I, as usual, adjusted for my style and ingredients I had at home.

Erin and I started our tomato sauce with a healthy bit of extra virgin olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan, once that got hot we added about a cup of diced onion and salted them, then three healthy tablespoons of minced garlic (out of a jar). We cooked the onions and garlic on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Then we added some shredded carrots and a couple tablespoons of capers. I added more salt and some crushed red pepper to infuse the oil. We let the carrots get soft and then added 3 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes. The main ingredients we were missing was basil and a bay leaf. Erin's fresh basil had died in the cold weather and we were out of the dried stuff. I seasoned with a bit more crushed red pepper, salt, fresh ground black pepper, parsley, a dash of sugar, a little oregano (not too much). We brought it to a boil, stirring frequently, and then reduced to a simmer for about 40 minutes.

The result: we were left with a huge pot of delicious, smooth, mild tomato sauce. we quickly boiled some pasta and had a beautifully simple lunch. We stored the rest in the fridge and the freezer, ready for us to use in one of our future cooking endeavors. Pizza, soups, breads, sandwiches, sausage, meatballs, pasta, the possibilities are endless for simple tomato sauce.

DIY Popcorn

2007-12-17T10:35:00.000-05:00

I will never have a bag of popcorn again...the homemade stuff is just too good!! Ryan and I have recently started making our own popcorn instead of buying the Smart Pop or Orville Redenbacher bagged popcorn. It is so much better and you can add all kinds of different seasonings to make it different every time. And it's a lot healthier for you too. I just buy the cheap popcorn kernels at the grocery (usually located at the bottom of the shelf under all of the bagged popcorn options) for about $2 you can get a bag of seeds that will last a long time because a little goes a long way!
You need a large sauce pan, and pour about a 1/4 cup of oil (vegetable or canola) into the pan. Put in a 3 or 4 kernels at first and once they pop you know the oil is hot enough to pour in the rest. Ryan is usually in charge of the popcorn because the one time I tried to do it I burnt it..he eye balls the amount of kernels to pop, but I think it is about 3/4 a cup. Once you put the kernels in the pan, constantly move the pan back and forth to keep the kernels from sticking to the bottom and burning (that is where I got in to trouble), basically once you stop hearing the popping noise the popcorn is done and ready to eat! We usually just add a lot of salt and parmesan cheese, but last night we added grated asiago cheese on top for an extra kick. It was a great late night snack. Not the most foody-ish thing to make but it's easy, fast and tasty.

Comfort Food

2007-12-14T09:25:00.001-05:00

I just got back from a work trip to sunny Jamaica! I has been a long and stressful few days with travel delays and airports so I was really craving some comfort foods. Ryan is also in the middle of finals so I thought it was the perfect time to make home made mac n' cheese, the ultimate comfort food! I found a healthier recipe from Self Magazine's web site. I know I have mentioned the web site before and I definitely recommend it, they have tons of healthy and tasty recipes and they provide nutritional information which is also nice. While at the grocery store, Ryan and I modified the recipe a bit by skipping the Velveeta light because a.) the grocery did not have it, and b.) Velveeta creeps me out..I ended up getting a reduced fat block of Cheddar cheese and then slicing 3 oz. of that in to thin slices. I also added some reduced fat mozzerella. I was in charge of the meal from start to finish, I let Ryan relax, and I think I did a really good job! The only thing I think I would do differently was a let the cheese become a little smoother before adding the macaroni, the consistency was not as creamy as I would have hoped. But it was still was pretty good! I accompanied the meal with pork chops seasoned with some jerk seasoning I got from Jamaica, Cumin and salt and pepper. We bought 4 small pork chops so I seasoned 3 with jerk seasoning and one with lemon pepper seasoning because sometimes the jerk can be too spicy for me. For a vegetable we had peas seasoned with some olive oil, salt and pepper and a little sugar. I'm not usually the chef in charge when we cook and it was fun to cook Ryan a good meal after a long, stressful week.

Restaurant Review- Martini's in Columbus

2007-12-03T15:58:00.000-05:00

Friday night I traveled to Columbus to visit my friends Claire, Lauren and Hillary, we had plans to have dinner and go out Friday night and Christmas shop till we dropped on Saturday. Claire picked Martini's Italian Bistro which is located in Columbus' short north, which is a great part of downtown Columbus with a variety of great restaurants, bars and eclectic shops.
When we arrived at the restaurant it was very elegant but with a twist, with beautifully painted murals on the wall and soft lighting to create a romantic atmosphere (great for date night or girls night!). Made obvious by the name, they are known for there martini's but none of us felt like starting off the night with a strong martini (girls nights can get pretty crazy) so we just ordered a bottle of the house Pinot Grigio and began pouring over the menu. The menu is big but not too overwhelming and Claire recommended her favorite that she always gets the Salmone alla Campania, so I decided to go with that and a Martini side salad.
The Martini salad was excellent and a perfect way to start off the meal, not too filling, the salad had field greens lightly tossed in balsamic vinaigrette with sweet sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts and gorgonzola cheese. When our dinners arrived, the smell of my salmone alla campania was intoxicating. The salmon was beautifully pan seared with topped with two lemon slices and over a perfect portion of spaghetti, grape tomatoes and sliced asparagus. I immediately dug in and was not disappointed. The salmon melted in my mouth combined with a bite of the pasta, asparagus and grape tomato it was a perfect blend of very simple, yet delicious flavors. The pasta had bits of pancetta which I thought made the dish a little too salty, but the salmon was so good that it didn't make that much of a difference. What I also liked and appreciated about Martini's was that the portion sizes were not outrageous, it was just enough food so I did not feel overstuffed. Everyone finished happy and full and read to continue our night at the bars of Cbus! I definitely recommend Martini's when in Columbus.

Global House Salad

2007-11-30T12:13:00.000-05:00

Since I'm on a health kick these days, I wanted to try this new salad I found in the Self Dishes magazine. Self Dishes is a whole magazine of tasty, healthy and easy to make recipes from Self Magazine. After my exercise class I came home and whipped up this salad in about 15 minutes and it was so good!! I added mushrooms to it and I thought it worked really well with all of the other flavors. All of the ingredients really compliment each other, and I even used the Sriracha sauce. I was pretty proud of myself because I normally don't like spicy things, but it only calls for 1/8 of a tsp. so I figured I could handle that. It wasn't that hot, but I could definitely taste that layer of heat underneath the sweetness of the pear and tanginess of the balsamic dressing. This was also a very filling salad considering it did not have any protein. I think the walnuts helped. I did toast mine in a little bit of honey, but looking back I think they would be good plain as well. I definitely recommend the Global Salad.

GLOBAL HOUSE SALAD
Serves 2

INGREDIENTS
SALAD
1/2 cup walnuts
1 tbsp honey
1 Anjou pear
4 cups mixed baby lettuce
1/4 cup blue cheese

DRESSING
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp honey
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp Sriracha sauce (Thai hot sauce)
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION
Heat oven to 350°. Mix walnuts and honey in a shallow baking dish. Bake until golden, about 10 minutes. Remove; set aside. Cut pear into thin slices. Combine nuts, pear, lettuce and cheese in a bowl. Whisk dressing ingredients in another bowl. Divide salad between 2 serving bowls; drizzle each with 2 tbsp of the dressing.

Beer and Me: Natty Light to Christmas Ale

2007-11-30T10:33:00.001-05:00

Over the last couple years I have increased my knowledge and appreciation for wine. I would love to go to wine country in California or Europe (or even Chile or Australia) to explore the varieties and learn more about the drink of choice for most foodies. I even enjoy many of the wineries that I have toured and sampled in northern Ohio, the Lake Erie Islands and Canada- but that is for a different post.

I also go on lengthy vodka/martini kicks and whiskey kicks throughout the course of the year.

Sill, my alcoholic beverage of choice is beer. Maybe its because I feel like I was raised on the stuff. My dad used to have a couple beers every night. It was usually Molson or Labatt, maybe Michelob or Heineken. It's not that I ever was allowed to have more than a sip, but more that I just wanted to be like my dad. Now my dad is an all out wine-o, but this a recent development, after my formative years. Later, in high school, I started drinking. Natural Light, aka Nattie, was the beer of choice for me and my friends. "Good beer" was Busch Light or maybe even Bud Light. Then came college. I could actually have a couple beers on a week night, just like my dad. Still, it was all about quantity and not quality. The best value was Beast. Milwaukee's Best Light was really cheap, really prevalent on University of Dayton's Ghetto and dorms, and it went down like water- probably because it was about 95% water. You could drink a ton of it, and we did. Every now and then we'd splurge and get a sixer of something good. Honey Brown, Sierra Nievada, etc.

I studied abroad in Ireland one summer and I started appreciating Irish and English beers and began to understand different styles. Ciders, Stouts, Red Ales, Lagers, it all started making sense to me. Hell, at "tree fif-ty fiive" (As my favorite bar tender said when asking for 3.55 euros), Guiness was cheaper than a Budweiser, the only prevalent American beer in Dublin bars.

After college, I started really getting into good beers. A good friend of mine, Craig, is somewhat of an expert in the area and he would talk to me about the finer points and pointed me to some of his favorites. Being crazy for all things Cleveland, Great Lakes Brewing Co. was a natural start for me. I fell in love with their Commodore Perry IPA and really like Conway's Irish Ale. Their beers are expertly made, and each of their beers stays true to the Great Lakes quality and flavor. As a bonus, they are each named for something in Cleveland lore or history. Also, I encourage you to go through their website as they do a nice job explaining the origins of their different styles, descriptions and listings of the awards they have won for each style, and their impressive environmental commitment.

In addition to Great Lakes' 6 or so year round brews, they also produce some delicious seasonal beers. I am quickly falling in love with all seasonal beers. I love changing seasons and certain beers traditionally or practically fall nicely within different seasons: Bock's in the spring, Oktoberfests in the late summer and early fall, hefeweizen and wheat beers in the summer. My favorite, and, more impressively, one of Craig's favorite seasonal beer, is Great Lakes' Christmas Ale. It is a perfect blend of Christmas spice and honey backed by a strong ale that can stand up to the sweetness and spiciness. I urge anyone to try it regardless of their experience with beer or how much they like it generally. The only problem with it is its limited production. They only make it once a year, in a smaller batch and whenever that runs out, usually in less than the planned 3 months (November through January) you are left waiting until the next season. The Plain Dealer wrote about the supply demand issue with Christmas Ale, which I found pretty interesting.

I still like the cheap stuff (though that means Bud Light now, not Beast or Natty). I enjoy beers of all qualities and usually in large quantities.

Merry Christmas. Celebrate with a good Christmas Ale, Great Lakes, if you can get your hands on it.

Foodies on a diet

2007-11-27T15:44:00.000-05:00

As Erin mentioned, we are making an effort to eat healthier, lose some lbs and get into shape. Well, doing all that while eating interesting and delicious things is not impossible, but it is an added challenge. General rules of thumb include eating less cream/cream sauce (which I generally avoid because I think they are gross), cheese, fatty meats, cut down on portion size and snacks, and generally reduce complex sugars and fat. One thing I have found effective was keeping track of the fat and calories that I eat.

Many websites can assist you in this, but my calorie calculator of choice is FitDay.com

Also, Men's Health has a good compilation of several restaurants' nutritional information:
Nutrition Facts - Men's Health

So, over the next several months if you see us substituting skim milk cheese for regular cheddar or ground turkey for ground beef, you will know why. And while it might not be the foodie thing to do, we should be pretty successful at making these healthier options just as delicious.

Maybe Ryan has a point..

2007-11-26T11:48:00.000-05:00

I had so much great food this Thanksgiving weekend that I still feel full.. I would blog about all of my meals I had around the state of Ohio (3 cities in 4 days) but I'm only going to choose one meal to talk about and only because it's kind of funny.
Sunday night Ryan and I went to dinner with his Grandma and parents to Marconi's, an awesome family-owned Italian Restaurant in Huron. I ordered one of the specials, Fontina Chicken. The description said, spinach and artichokes over chicken with fontina cheese. When I got my dish it looked amazing and it was very tasty, but about half way through I looked at my plate and I saw, spinach, artichoke and cream sauce..basically the ingredients for Spinach and Artichoke dip on my plate. This was a little different because it was a pasta dish, but maybe Ryan has a point about how overdone spinach and artichoke dishes are in restaurants..ugh, I hate when he is right. :)
Anyway, the dish was actually very good, I just didn't realize it was going to be a heavy cream sauce, something I am not used to getting, but it was a nice treat to end a week of great food. Ryan and I are starting new, healthy eating plans today so there will be no more cream sauces for me!

Quick and Easy Salsa

2007-11-21T10:52:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, it looks like this is going to be a combo of mine and Ryan's blogs so hopefully there will be more posts on a variety of topics!
The day before Ryan's amazing Brazilian chicken I made some quick and easy salsa that we had as an appetizer to the chicken dish. I had leftover corn and black beans from a previous meal I made and some leftover green pepper. So I added that all together and wanted to add some diced tomatoes...well, I opened the wrong can (we didn't have any diced tomatoes)and so I had to work with the can of crushed tomatoes that I opened. I just added a few tablespoons of the crushed tomatoes to add the tomato flavor but not make it too juicy like the jarred salsas. I also quartered some grape tomatoes and added those. Next came the purple onion (which we had to buy and add later and it made such a difference)and for seasonings I put a lot of salt and pepper, tons of cilantro, lime juice and orange juice and then Ryan made me add a lot of Tobasco sauce. I'm not a huge fan of spicy things and at first the salsa was way to hot for me, but after I let it sit for a day and let all of the flavors blend, it turned out to be a great salsa!
It lasts for a while and I like to add it to other dishes because it can really pump up an otherwise ordinary dish. For example, you can always just eat it with tortilla chips, but I like to add it to eggs for a Mexican omelet and I've also added it to top burgers. Now that I think about it, it would be really good added to a grilled cheese.
Yum, now I'm hungry!

Brazilian Chicken ala Ryan

2007-11-20T16:49:00.000-05:00

I'm quickly becoming a fan of amateurgourmet.com. The author is a former law student who started cooking in his third year to stay sane. He critiques restaurants, mainly in New York, tries recipes and generally discusses all things food. Actually a similar format to this blog, but honestly, I never heard of the Amateur Gourmet until a few weeks ago when I got his book, "The Amateur Gourmet: How to Shop, Chop, and Table Hop like a Pro (Almost)" for Erin's birthday. Maybe someday one of us will have time to review the book on here.

Anyway, last night I wanted to cook dinner for JJ and Erin. I had some chicken breasts and Erin made some fresh salsa over the weekend that I wanted to try, but I didn't really have a full meal in mind. After searching around the internet, I went over to amateurgourmet.com and found this post about Brazilian Chicken with Olives: http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2005/10/if_i_were_perky.html

Here is the link to the simple recipe:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/106216

Now, I had to adjust for Erin's dislike of olives and what we had around the kitchen. I ditched the olives idea and added some lime zest and lime juice to makeup for the lack of orange peel. Also, we didn't have yellow rice, but a packet of Litpon's Spanish rice worked ok. Lots of garlic, cilantro, lime, and orange juice was the keys to flavoring the chicken and rice. It turned out really well. Cooking with orange juice added nice flavor throughout the rice and chicken and it was highlighted nicely with the lime and garlic. I might just use plain rice the next time so the individual flavors don't compete with the flavoring of the Spanish rice packet.

This dish creates a great base to be creative and adapt to flavors and what you have around the kitchen. We could have added capers, olives, artichokes, tomatoes, really whatever flavor combination you feel like, or have the ingredients for, could work with this garlicy and juiecy chicken and rice base.

Overall, I think it was a big success. It went nicely with the fresh salsa and really any green salad or veggie would make a good meal. I'd give the recipe an A-.

hmmm..

2007-11-15T14:27:00.000-05:00

So..it's quite apparent that Ryan and I had very different dining experiences at York Street Cafe, but I guess that happens when a person does not like their entree. To defend my critique I think that atmosphere can definitely sway me one way or the other when I think about a restaurant and food. I loved the feeling I got at York Street Cafe, just very cozy and cool and like Ryan and I both said, eclectic. I think the restaurant has definite potential and it all comes down to what you choose from the menu. I think when I go back I want to try new things on the menu and critique them again and I encourage Ryan to do the same. :)

P.S. Ryan does not like broccoli, therefore I do not think he is a good judge of it. I also had no idea how jaded he was about spinach and artichoke dip. Learn something new everyday!

Ryan's Restaurant Review: York St. Cafe

2007-11-14T19:30:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone, this is Ryan, I’m Erin’s fiancée and I’ll be guest bloging every now and then with some restaurant reviews and thoughts on food shows and recipes.

Last week, Erin and I went to the York Street Café in Newport, KY for dinner. We were celebrating Erin’s 25^th B-day. I found the place through some while looking for a restaurant in Newport, but away from the Levee scene. We wanted to go to a movie, but I didn’t want to eat at the cliché places that the Levee has to offer.

York Street Café appeared to fit the bill. To call the atmosphere eclectic would be an understatement. The dining room walls were filled with bookshelves containing everything form 1940’s football helmets, to old random family portraits, to small collectables. Our waitress somehow fit right in with her obviously over-dyed hair, short skirt, high argyle socks, and long black boots.

We started with one of their “conversation boards,” basically an appetizer/salad combo to share. We decided on the Toastie Sampler, which included “toasted pitas” with a couple different toppings and a cherry salad. It was ok, but besides the layout, did not inspire much conversation. The pitas were just mini-pizzas and I enjoyed the one topped sun-dried tomato, eggplant, roasted red peppers and provolone. The artichoke, spinach topping on the other “pita” was ok, but I am bored with the cheesy creamy spinach artichoke dip that is on every menu in the discovered world. The highlight of the dish, and maybe the entire meal was the cherry salad. A nice mix of fresh greens was complemented with dried cherries, toasted sunflower seeds and some feta. The dressing was a dijon vinaigrette that beautifully combined the kick of vinegar and horseradish with a smooth and mild mustard.

For our entrees, I chose the Pork Tenderloin, while, Erin smartly went with the York St. Fresh Catch, Halibut. The Tenderloin was just ok. Instead of being “seared to perfection” as portrayed on the menu, it was overcooked, and more importantly tasted as if it had sat under a hot lamp since the afternoon. The Asian sauce was pretty good, but there isn’t enough sauce in the world to make up for a dried out piece of meat. The “garlic” mashed potatoes had no garlic, or garlic flavor to speak of, and they were seemed to be sitting for some time before being served. Finally the season vegetable was a lone broccoli sprig, overcooked and mushy with no seasoning.

Erin’s dish had its flaws, but was overall a success. The fish was cooked nicely and served with some nice basmati rice, and the same sad broccoli sprig. Unfortunately, the fish was smothered in a spinach artichoke sauce that was probably the same that they used for the appetizer. It overpowered the fish and made what should be a nice light dish heavy and creamy. Erin enjoyed it, but it could have been so much better.

Overall, I thought the meal was disappointing and the atmosphere can only go so far to save average food when you are paying $20 a plate. It was fun though, and I’d probably recommend York St. Cafe for a “conversation board” and a bottle of wine with a group of friends, though probably not for dinner. Overall grade: C

I did take a couple things from this meal: Spinach/Artichoke is overdone and I am over it and sunflower seeds are a tasty, crunchy addition to a salad. Cheers, Ryan

York Street Cafe

2007-11-14T17:44:00.001-05:00

For my birthday last week Ryan took me to a great restaurant in Newport, KY, York Street Cafe. What a great place, you walk in and instantly it feels homey and comfortable. The restaurants was filled with antiques and knick-knacks and everything had a very eclectic feel to it all the way down to the collection of pez dispencers lined up behind the bar. Some of the smaller tables made for two had mismatched, really cool club chairs that looked really comfortable and added to the unique decor of the restaurant. Ryan and I started off with one of their "Conversation Boards" all of them looked great and at first we thought it might be too much food for 2 people, but the waitress said they are good for 2-4 people to share. We got the Toastie Sampler and it was delicious! It was mini slices of pizza one with spinach and artichoke topping and the other with sun-dired tomatoes. They were served on a beautiful platter and in the middle there was a tasty salad filled with mixed greens, sunflower seeds, feta, and craisins. The dressing was a homemade, really tangy balsamic vinaigrette. I decided on their catch of the day which was halibut grilled with a spinach and artichoke crust (I couldn't get enough spinach and artichoke). The fish was cooked well, but the artichoke spinach crust overwhelmed the fish and I didn't really taste much of the fish, but it was still wonderful! On the side was 2 large, bright green stalks of broccoli, which is my favorite vegetable and tasty basmati rice.
York Street Cafe is a unique place with a unique menu and I definitely recommend it to anyone. It was a great birthday!

Giada

2007-11-07T12:28:00.000-05:00

I'm going to take a few moments to write about my favorite cooking show...if you are Food Network savvy you know that my blog title "Giada" is the host of Everyday Italian. My favorite kind of food is Italian so that is a huge reason I love the show. All of the recipes I have tried from the show or one of Giada's cookbooks are delicious and very easy. She uses just a few ingredients and lets them speak for themselves.
I also really like the look of the show and how they style the food. Giada used to be a food stylist for Gourmet so I think that is why everything always looks so beautiful and stylish. Some of my favorite and easy recipes from Giada are lemon spaghetti, grilled vegetables, stuffed shells, and chicken piccata. Yum!

I think her show is on in the mornings and then in the afternoons around 4 p.m. Check out the show and try a recipe, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Redskin potatoes cont.

2007-11-06T10:15:00.001-05:00

I realized in my haste to post something I forgot to tell you the most important part of the redskin potato dish..how to bake it.. I use a cookie sheet covered in foil (easy clean up) and spread the potatoes, onions and green peppers on the cookie sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes. Half way through, stir the ingredients a bit so the potatoes turn over.
Dinner last night was very yummy. Ryan was in charge of the steak and it was tasty! He seasoned it with cilantro, chili powder, salt and pepper and olive oil. The juices from the steak made an awesome jus!
Tonight is a study night so I think I'm just going to make those whole wheat cheese ravioli's with red sauce, quick and easy!

This is not food related, but don't forget to vote today!