Weekend Frittata

You ever have those weeks where you are just craving the same thing again and again?  It's been that way for me and eggs this week.  I have no idea why.  Tuesday I had a slice of quiche for lunch out with coworkers, Thursday on my day off I made eggs Benedict, and this morning it was a frittata.  I had to share the yumminess.

Frittatas can be made with pretty much anything you have, and I've written about my love of a margharita style, but this morning, I wanted to use some sliced baby bellas I had in the fridge.  Building off that, I chopped up an onion and sauteed them together, then added some chopped deli ham.

I whipped six eggs with a couple tablespoons of shredded colby-jack with a few dashes of salt and pepper, and poured it over everything else in the skillet.  Just let the eggs cook slowly in the pan until the edges start to get set, about 8 minutes or so, DON'T STIR!  I sprinkled about a 1/4 cup more colby-jack, then put the whole pan in a 425° oven and let it bake for 7 minutes.

When it came out, it was puffed, slightly golden and delicious!  Now I have yummy leftovers for a light lunch today, or breakfast tomorrow, as well!

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Ever find that one thing at a restaurant that you absolutely LOVE, but don't want to go broke eating there all the time?  Yeah, I'm like that at nearly every restaurant.  But usually, it's just not the same making it at home.  Once in awhile though, you get lucky.

That's how it is for me and my homemade lettuce wraps.  I fell in love with the flavor of the wraps from Yang Kee Noodle at Oxmoor Mall here in Louisville, so I decided to give it a shot at home.  I haven't done a side-by-side taste test, but regardless, these are pretty darn good!

Louisville Food Geek Lettuce Wraps

1 lb. ground turkey/chicken
2 t chopped ginger
1 med. onion, chopped
1 can sliced water chestnuts, chopped
2 T lime juice
2 T stir fry sauce
1 t garlic powder
4 T Ken's lite Asian Sesame dressing, divided
1/2 t ground ginger
Iceberg lettuce

Sauté onion and chopped ginger in cooking spray until almost translucent.  Add lime juice and 2 T dressing.  Stir.  Add water chestnuts and meat and stir until cooked through.  Add stir fry sauce and remaining dressing.  Season to taste with garlic and ground ginger.  Serve with lettuce leaves.

If you can't find the dressing in the store, you can make do with 1 T Hoisin sauce, 1 t fish sauce, 1 T soy sauce, and 1 T oyster sauce and increase the chopped ginger a bit (just taste it, you can't really go wrong).  I mix up 1 T lime juice and 1 T soy sauce in a small ramekin as a dipping sauce.  This will make a large meal for 2 people, a normal meal for 4, or a perfect appetizer for 6-8.

What hell feels like...

Here in the midwest, there have been multiple illnesses going around.  Everyone has gotten either the flu, a cold, a 24-hour stomach bug, or strep throat.  It's unavoidable.  If you live within range...you WILL get sick.  Some lucky people I know, including my brother-in-law, pulled a double-header with flu AND strep.  That's gotta be fun!

For me, it was the cold.  As far as things go, you think, "hey, that's okay, it's a cold.  No big deal."

Yeah.  Right.

This was the MOTHER of all colds.  Feel like you've been run over, can't breathe, can't think, hacking your head off then wondering if you even still HAVE a head, cold.

I can deal with all that.  I got to watch a lot of TV and have valid reason for laying in bed all day.  Cool.

But, you remember where I said "can't breathe"?

You also remember your elementary school science class where they discussed the majority of taste is in smell?

No smell = no taste = Food Geek HELL!

After a week I was feeling okay.  At least starting to feel human.  Not completely cleared up, but hungry and wanting something yummy and flavorful that would cut through the tastebud lockdown.  Quick backstory:  A couple weeks ago I had a spice cabinet avalanche, and the cap to my curry powder broke, filling my kitchen with the scent of curry, so I have been craving curry for weeks, but was out of coconut milk.  Fast forward to feeling human again, and I decided to stop on the way home from work for a can of coconut milk to make aforesaid curry.

Oh this is going to be wonderful!  Slowly saute the chicken, onions, and red peppers.  Add a little red curry paste, add the coconut milk, add a healthy dose of curry powder, steam some rice to the perfect consistency.  Serve, and prepare to enjoy the strength of curry power cutting through anything a cold can throw at you.

Uh huh.  I may as well have just eaten the rice plain.  Absolutely could not taste a THING!  Meanwhile, hubby is going on and on about how wonderful it is.  Yeah, rub it in.

Finally, a few days later, I could truly smell again and thoroughly enjoyed the leftovers, but I think another round of curry is close in my future.

Memories and "Monkey" Bread

I recently lost someone who was very close to me.  Teresita was my fellow Food Geek and best friend.  After struggling for 2 years fighting a rare form of lung cancer that hits non-smokers (!!!) she finally found rest.  And I miss her.  I miss her terribly.  She and I would sit and talk about food for hours, she would accompany me on my excursions and we would analyze what we eat...and I LOVED that!  Who else will go all geek-tastic with me about food?

The other morning I woke up with her on my mind (again) and decided to make a breakfast she would have loved.  I think I made it for her before, but there have been so many meals that I can't be certain.  I call it Monkey Bread, but I don't think it adheres to the traditional Monkey Bread recipe.  Mine is very simple:

Louisville
Food Geek
Monkey Bread

1 can refrigerated biscuits
Cinnamon sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup margarine/butter
1/4 cup chopped pecans/walnuts
Maple syrup to taste (optional)

Open the can of biscuits, cut each biscuit into 4 (make an "X" through the center). Roll the bits of biscuits in the cinnamon sugar. Put the brown sugar, butter, and maple syrup (if desired) into an 8-9" round cake pan while you heat the oven to 450°. When it starts to get a bit bubbly, take it out, stir it so all the sugar dissolves and the is coating the bottom of the pan well. Sprinkle the nuts on the glaze. Place the biscuit bits all over the nuts. They don't have to be packed in there, they'll swell as they cook. Bake for 10-12 minutes, remove from oven, invert on a plate, and serve. If any of the glaze and nuts sticks to the pan, just use a spatula to get ever last yummy bit.

I enjoyed it with a cup of coffee (Teresita's weakness) and thought about her. I want to be better about posting here. I won't set a requirement for myself, but I will try to post more often, because every time I sit down to eat, I think of her, and how much fun we had just eating.

Miss you, T!

Frittata with Basil and Tomato

To prevent my basil from going to waste, I made one of my favorite breakfasts.  Simply take three eggs, beat them well with a hand mixer, pour into a small skillet coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle the top with quartered cherry tomatoes and basil chiffonade.  DO NOT STIR!  Cook on the stove, on medium heat, until the edges are set and the bottom is starting to brown.  Then, place in the oven on the low broil setting until the center of the frittata is set.  Sprinkle the top with a few tablespoons of shredded cheese, mozzarella or a cheddar-jack mix, and allow to melt.  Slide onto a plate and serve.  Enjoy!

Fresh Pesto

My new garden has gone gangbusters this year, most especially the tomatoes and basil.  While my tomatoes aren't ripe yet, the basil was getting extremely large, and what else to do with a bunch of basil than make fresh pesto!

Louisville Food Geek Basil Pesto:

2-3 cups basil leaves
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup pecorino-romano cheese
1/4 cup walnuts
2 T lemon juice
A good-quality olive oil (I used Williams-Sonoma House Olive Oil)

I put the cheese through the food processor until it was well grated, then put the basil leaves, garlic, nuts and lemon juice on top of the cheese.  I processed it until it was well-chopped and incorporated.  Then, with the processor running, I drizzled in the olive oil until it was to the consistency I wanted.  I probably only used 1/2-3/4 of a cup of olive oil, as I like my pesto thick.  I cooked up some linguine and tossed it with a few tablespoons of the pesto.  Mmmmmm, great dinner!  And sooo quick!!!

I also have to note, if you haven't tried the WS House olive oil, go buy some, now!  It has to be the absolute best olive oil I have had.  It doesn't need cheese, pepper, or any other seasoning to be the perfect dipping oil.  If I wouldn't end up weighing 400 pounds, I would eat bread and oil at every meal.

Lemon-Blueberry Muffins

I decided to put some blueberries to use making lemon-blueberry muffins.  They turned out absolutely yummy and perfectly sweet.  I don't know why some of the comments on the recipe page says they aren't sweet enough, but to each their own.

I may have mixed the batter too well.  I dusted the berries with flour before folding them in and most of them still fell to the bottom of the muffins, but they were still delicious, so who cares?

Cake-tastrophe

I grew up watching my mom make wedding cakes and professional birthday cakes, so of course I have made a few off and on in my life.  I decided to try my hand at making a "topsy-turvy" cake for my soon-to-be cousin's bridal shower.  And I learned a few things.  1) Give yourself PLENTY of time, just in case.  2) Make sure your frosting is just the right consistency.  3)  Freeze the daggone cakes before trying to frost, because if you don't, they WILL fall apart.

Grrrr.

As you can see, got the layers frosted and put together just fine.  Even got the whole thing trimmed just how I wanted it to be.




And then, when attempting to frost the newly-trimmed cake...it decided to desintegrate.  I could have cried.  But, I kept my cool, and decided to attempt making "cake truffles."  A coworker brings them in regularly and everyone loves them.  As all this happened two days before the shower, I figured I had the time to make another cake, if need be, but that I should at least attempt to use up all the cake I had by making the truffles.

How do you make cake truffles?  Well, you take a cake that has desintegrated, with all the frosting you have made, and stir the hell out of it until it becomes a big blob.  Then you have to chill it thoroughly so the "dough" can be rolled into balls.  If you run a high body temp, like me, enlist the help of someone who runs a cooler temp to avoid making the newly-chilled dough into a sticky mess (thanks, Mom!)

After the truffles have chilled, dip them in chocolate and place on wax paper to harden.  I used Ghiradelli chocolate chips.  I've also had them dipped in candy coating, but I think the chocolate was better.  (shocking)  After they had completely cooled, I melted some white candy coating chips, colored it with frosting dye, and drizzled it on the truffles. 

As you can see by the picture, it turned out beautiful, and everyone LOVED it.  When life gives you cake crumbs, make cake truffles! 

Experimenting

Friday night I decided to give a recipe found on a whisk and a spoon a try. Raw asparagus, pecorino, and red onion salad. I absolutely love asparagus, but had never tried it raw. Which is odd, since I tend to love all my veggies raw, or just very lightly steamed. I want some serious crunch when I take a bite.

I started chopping up the asparagus and tried a raw piece. YUM! Crunchy and bright, and the salty pecorino I just knew would complement it well. I followed the recipe and let the salad sit for awhile in the fridge before spooning up my dinner and I think I would only change a few things when making it again. I'll cut back on the onion a bit, either the one I used was too potent or I used too much, it overpowered the asparagus. Also, I might add something to give it a little sweetness. It just wasn't as balanced as I would like it to be. Maybe a vinaigrette made with the vinegar, oil, and a bit of honey to give it that sweetness.

I paired the salad with a twist on my normal meatloaf. Instead of just mushrooms, green peppers and onions mixed into the basic combo of beef, egg, and breadcrumbs, I used chopped artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, garlic, and sliced baby portobellos. I topped it with spaghetti sauce rather than my usual barbeque sauce. I also had some green onions given to me by a family member that I wanted to try sauteeing.

The outcome? The meatloaf was good, I think I like the original better, but my husband loved it. The onions were horrible. Way too hot and they got tough rather than tender. I'll stick to sauteeing regular old white or yellow onions. I also used what remained of the container of mushrooms and sauteed them in the same pan as the onions with a little soy sauce and some spicy-sweet mustard I had on-hand, and those were perfect. All-in-all, it was a delicious dinner, and I'll definitely make the salad and meatloaf again.

First Time for Everything...

Obviously, I haven't posted in quite awhile. Studying for an MBA while working full time and having a 45-minute commute (one way) doesn't lend itself to much culinary experimentation! :-) I haven't been anywhere new recently. The times I have been out in the last few months have been unmitigated disasters nearly every time, so I decided to try something new at home.

A couple days ago I decided to try my hand at paella. Having never attempted it, I was a little nervous, but nonetheless, decided to give it a shot...on a weeknight...after being at work for 10 hours. Maybe not the best plan to start with.

Searched for a recipe online and decided to go with Tyler Florence's "Ultimate Paella" recipe. It seemed realistic, so I stopped by the grocery to pick up the ingredients, took them home, and started in on it.

Sauteing the chorizo, garlic and onion went perfectly, browning the chicken was a little tough as the chicken stuck to the pan, but this being my first true foray into using my stainless steel skillet, I kinda expected that. But then, it started getting dicey. I didn't read the recipe clearly and forgot to drain the tomatoes before adding them. whoops. So it didn't caramelize like it should, but I figured it would be okay after the rice soaked up the excess liquid, I would just not add all the water called for.

The rice cooked as it should, and then I added back in the chorizo and chicken...soooo...there are special paella pans for a reason. A large skillet was NOT big enough. Slopping over the sides and much frustration followed. Proceeded to let it cook for the requisite time...check the chicken, and it's still raw. Really raw. 2 hours have already passed, 9 o'clock is swift approaching, and knowing that there was no way to cook the chicken any faster without destroying the rice and everything else in the pan, I decided to give up the game.

So what did I learn? To either roast the chicken while the rest of the rice and everything else was cooking, to just use boneless chicken breasts instead of on-the-bone chicken, or to boil the chicken and shred it and add the already cooked chicken to the paella.

Maybe I'll try it again. When I do, I will cut the recipe in half to prevent the Mount Vesuvius of paella from swamping my stove.

Live and learn.

Wild Eggs part deux and dinner at home

I warned you I loved Wild Eggs...so when hubby came home today from a business trip, I once again dragged him there. This time we visited the Dutchman's Lane location rather than Westport Village. As usual, a somewhat lengthy wait, but well worth it, as always.

I decided to continue my culinary excursion around the menu rather than going to my fave Border Benedict. I toyed with the idea of partaking of one of the sweet treats, such as stuffed french toast or Bananas Foster waffles, but my final choice was between the Breakfast Burrito, $8.95 for a flour tortilla stuffed with scrambled eggs, chorizo, cheddar jack cheese, poblano pepper and onion, topped with queso fundido, sour cream, pico de gallo, avocado and green onion, served with skillet potatoes and black beans; or the Mexico City Maria's Chilaquiles, $7.95 for a Mexican-style breakfast casserole with corn tortillas, refried beans, salsa verde, queso blanco and a sunny side up egg, served shot of jugo de limon y chile. The chilaquiles won, but I chose to get a poached egg rather than the sunny side up simply due to personal preference.

When it came out, it looked absolutely delicious. It didn't disappoint. The corn tortillas were layered with beans and salsa verde and the queso and poached egg were perched on top. I liked that they didn't overdo it with the cheese, the beans were perfectly creamy, and the salsa verde had a nice crisp bite to cut through it all. As ususal, the poached egg was perfectly done and I only used a bit of the "jugo de limon y chile," translation-lemon juice and chiles, which is exactly what it tastes like! :-) It gave even more of a bite than the salsa verde, as well as a serious kick in the spice level. The menu fails to state that you also get a decent serving of skillet potatoes with this dish and today's were spot on!

My husband had his usual Farmers Market Skillet, ($9.95) a skillet full of bell pepper, onion, zucchini, yellow squash, wild mushrooms, skillet potatoes, broccoli and oven roasted tomato, melted cheddar jack cheese, topped with two basted eggs. Of course, him being him, he got it minus the bell peppers and tomatoes, but he loves it and, I have to admit, every time I take a nibble I think it's delicious. Overall, yet another perfect trip to Wild Eggs and the only reason I don't rate it "Out of this world" is nothing beats the Border Benedict...yet!

After leaving my heaven on earth, we ran errands and shopped at various stores throughout the day and decided to have a nice, quiet dinner at home. Being the chicken lover he is, my husband requested my chicken stroganoff, which is unbelievably easy. Take one large chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces, and sautee in butter-flavored cooking spray over medium-high heat until golden brown. While it's cooking, cook one full bag of extra-wide egg noodles in a pot of boiling water, open and drain two small cans of sliced mushrooms, and mix two packages of McCormick stroganoff mix into 2 cups of water. When the chicken is almost done, add all the mushrooms and allow to cook with the chicken until they are sizzling well. Dump the stroganoff mixture into the chicken and stir. As it cooks, the sauce will start to thicken. When the chicken is thoroughly cooked, turn down the heat and add 1-2 cups of sour cream (I use light.) After mixing well, pour the mixture into the cooked, drained noodles. This is good comfort food and it took less than 30 minutes! If I were to fix this for company, I would use fresh mushrooms instead of canned and rather than pouring all the stroganoff into the noodles before serving, I would place the egg noodles onto dinner plates and spoon the sauce and meat on the top, or, alternately, cook one chicken breast for each person and keep it intact, finishing off with a little chopped fresh parsley on top of the sauce. Sure to be a tasty hit with just about anyone. Enjoy!

Weekend Cooking

Still enjoying my culinary exploits sans husband. Last night I fixed myself a beef tenderloin from Kroger's. Just one of those pre-packaged ones, with au jus flavoring. Simple, but good. With that, I made roasted vegetables (squash, zucchini, mushrooms, and red onions) and roasted red potatoes with rosemary. I opened a bottle of Gnarly Head Old Vine Zinfandel to have with it, absolutely yummy and inexpensive at less than $10 a bottle! Because the tenderloins are so large, I have some wonderful cold steak salads and sandwiches in my future!

This morning, I put some fresh basil a coworker brought to me to use. Three eggs, beaten well and poured into a small skillet, topped with basil chiffonade, diced cherry tomatoes, a dash of salt and a sprinkling of mozzarella. Let it cook on med-high heat, WITHOUT STIRRING, and when the edges are set, put it in the oven on the low broil setting until the top is set as well. Congrats, you just made a frittata! This is enough to serve two people if you include a breakfast meat and hashbrowns or another side with it. Or, it could be just for you on its own...keeping it all for yourself is perfectly understandable. :-)

Cooking for one...

The hubby being out of town isn't always a bad thing. I get to branch out in what gets prepared in my own kitchen! Tonight, I feasted on seared scallops, risotto with asparagus and peas (I also added a 1/4 cup shredded mint), and cucumber and tomato salad. I also picked up a bottle of Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc. I have to say, I learned my lesson about preparing the scallops in a non, non-stick pan! Stainless steel is NOT the way to go. Either that, or I did something really wrong. :-) While the risotto didn't turn out as creamy as it normally does (I dumped too much broth in on the last addition, destroyed the perfect consistancy I had going) it was still really, really good. The mint may sound like a weird addition, it was excellent.

Catching Up

I obviously have not written in awhile. Pursuing my MBA and being more conscientious of what I’m eating have put a damper on my epicurean habits. However, I do still have wonderful meals from time-to-time, and I firmly believe that low-fat does NOT mean low-flavor! So, off we go for more reports on what is worth eating in Louisville…but, fear not gentle viewers, I refuse to make this a diet blog! Food is where it’s at!

To start off, I saw a true food geek movie last night. Julie & Julia. I highly recommend for any fellow foodies. If you don’t walk out of that movie dying to try to make the bœuf bourguignon talked about, you are no foodie, begone from this blog! :-) I told my husband I want a copy of Julia Child’s cookbook (yes, I’m ashamed to admit, I don’t have it) and start cooking away. I also thought I wanted a copy of Julie Powell’s book until I went to Amazon and read the comments, as well as the first ten pages. Not so much now. In her book she seems a little…snotty…among other adjectives. But in the movie, Amy Adams is absolutely adorable and makes the character lovable. My wonderful mother came with me to see this pre-screening and we had a simple dinner of Penn Station before the show. OH MAN, their fries I could eat for days. Peanut oil and skins left on just make them for me. We both had the artichoke sandwich, but I added onions to mine. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! However, with as good as that was, their Philly cheese steak remains my favorite. While I may be a food geek, I greatly appreciate the finer points of our fast-food establishments.

I made myself an excellent dinner the other night. Roast a piece of cod in the oven at 475° with pepper and a little chili powder. While cooking, mix a tablespoon of olive tapenade (made with kalamata rather than green olives), ½ tablespoon butter, ¼ teaspoon dried basil, and a full tablespoon of Dijon mustard together. It sounds weird, but when that fish was done and hot and I spread the mixture on it…it just melted…mmmmm…I’ll never use tartar sauce again (well, maybe that’s not true!) I also boiled some red skin potatoes and steamed green beans. I tossed the potatoes with a little olive oil, salt, fresh cracked pepper, and dried rosemary. That was by far the best meal I’ve fixed myself in a loooong time. The hubby really needs to learn to expand his horizons on the eating front. I swear it is one of life’s cruel jokes to be such a food geek and marry a man that only eats chicken fingers…ARRRRGH! Luckily, he’s out of town, so tonight I plan to make myself another feast. What will be served? You shall soon see!