Tapa the mornin' to ya...a bday event!

I don't know what to say. We have such great friends and they all came together to celebrate jamie's 44th birthday this last friday night. Everyone was so kind in giving of their time in the preparation of these delicious tapas for the event. They also went around the table in the 'sable tradition' where we went around the table and everyone shared something nice about jamie. Jamie was really touched, even though he has a hard time accepting compliments...at least without defusing them with humor.

Endulge me for a moment. There's a lot of quirky history about the origin how tapas small plates came into being. Let me regale you with a few interesting tidbits about the evolution of its tradition...

First, how do you pronounce Tapas? When pronounced correctly, it sounds like [TAH-pahs]. If pronounced like a typical United States-er, like me, it might be heard as sounding like TAP-uhs... It's your choice!

Second, what is the definition of Tapas? Well, I browsed, and peeked and looked everywhere. This is the best tapas definition I could find.

Popular throughout Spain in bars and restaurants, tapas are appetizers that usually accompany SHERRY or other APÉRITIFS or COCKTAILS. They can also form an entire meal and can range from simple items such as olives or cubes of ham and cheese to more elaborate preparations like cold omelets, snails in a spicy sauce, stuffed peppers and miniature sandwiches.

Sounds absolutely like my kind of meal! I love anything "miniature". Including my food!

greg's kitchen-a review

Let me first begin by saying that Greg's Kitchen is certainly a worthy endeavor. This is the restaurant for young chefs in training and this place provides them with a venue to gain practical experience, usually to the enjoyment of those who come to eat. they are located at the McKay Events Center where the Culinary Arts students are hard at work all week to prepare meals for their customers on Friday nights. Make sure to reserve a table and come early.

Okay, on with the review. The first appetizer was a triangular dish with a lovely sauce, really quite a perfect balance between presentation and flavor. The appetizers included, Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce
(very good), Lettuce Wraps with Spicy Chicken Salad (okay, not so flavorful) and a Fried Spring Rolls with Sweet Chile Dipping Sauce (good). The Salad and soups came next. The Green Papaya Salad with Chopped Peanuts missed the mark with a lack of clarity in taste and consistency in the cuts made for a weak dish. The soups, Chicken and Coconut Milk Soup and Shrimp Soup with Lemon Grass were very good and perhaps by the book, but the intense flavors I generally associate with the coconut milk soup was lacking. The Thai Cucumber Salad was overtly sweet. For the entrees, the Green Curry Chicken with Thai Eggplant was good but the eggplant was incongruent and a 'bit weird'. The Pad Thai Rice Noodles with Shrimp and Chicken was good but not outstanding and the 'Pla Duk Tod Krob Phat' Fried Catfish in Garlic Sauce was quite nice, albeit a tad overcooked. But again, the sauces started out with a good base but then lacked follow through of flavor to give it some depth and the intensity usually experienced in Thai cooking. I this, most likely, can be chalked up to young culinary students following the recipes but lacking the integral understanding and importance of the underlying culinary statement behind each dish that craves to exert itself through the richness of exotic ingredients. I hope that these young cooks begin to understand that cooking is an art and requires them to constantly taste their food and trust their intuitive sense of taste. I got the feeling that they were 'flying blind' and didn't taste the food while they were preparing it. Often robotic impulses can overshadow appropriate culinary creativity within the bounds of a set recipe.

In fact these young culinary would be chefs, were more caught up in the presentation than the taste. This was especially true with the Mango and rice dessert. It was overcooked, starchy and the mangos were green (not sweet) and tasteless. The other desserts were much better. The problem was generally too much form and too little attention the the function; rich flavorful taste! I give the experience three out of five chopsticks.

Lynn's paradise Cafe-Reviewed

"One of the 100 best Lynn's Paradise Cafe was a wonderful little find! Wow, no wonder that Bobby Flay his Food Network friends have been swarming over this place! "neighborhood restaurants in the United States" stated the Bon Appetit magazine" and Esquire said of it,"One of the four most fun restaurants in America".

Well, I'm afraid that I over ordered and over ate! The most impressive side dishes were the Fried Potato Pancakes with Creamy Herbed Goat Cheese, "Fried shredded potato pancakes flavored with onions and herbs served with roasted garlic goat cheese dip made with Judy Schad's Capriole goat cheese." That dish was just amazing! As you can see, I had their Bleu Grass Burger "An 8-ounce Kentucky grass-fed beef burger dressed with bleu pimiento cheese sauce. The Hot Brown, which is a kentucky classic is made of "roasted turkey breast baked on sourdough bread, with Mornay sauce, bacon, tomato, Monterey Jack and cheddar cheeses. It is a heart attach waiting to happen. And then, their Fried Green Tomatoes—"Hand-breaded fried green tomatoes served with spicy remoulade." The atmosphere was laid back and fun and the food was stick to your ribs fanastic! I give this place 5 out of five spoons.

Lynn's paradise Cafe

After a taxi ride back from a lovely BBQ lunch at mark's Feed Store our friendly driver jumped at the chance to share the culinary secret of a place recently visited by Bobby Flay and Rachel Ray. He was smiling ear to ear and shared that I should have the Hot Brown. I told him I'd eaten that dish before, a Kentucky original, when he promptly corrected me. "Oh, no...you've never REALLY had one unless you've eaten it here! Oh, man, a slice of heaven.!" For those of you who don't know what a "hot Brown" is, here goes. It's a roasted turkey breast baked on sourdough bread, with Mornay sauce, bacon, tomato, Monterey Jack and cheddar cheeses. Mornay sauce is a gravy, I believe made from bacon drippings, sooooo very southern.

Mac n' Cheese Recipe
2 ounces butter, melted, plus extra for preparing the baking pan
1 quart evaporated milk
4 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons paprika
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon white pepper

1¼ lbs. shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese (preferably Vermont cheddar)
1 lb. dry elbow macaroni, cooked al dente

Crumb Topping:
½ cup dry sourdough breadcrumbs (or other firm-textured white bread)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 grindings of black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Butter a 13"x 9" pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together 2 ounces melted butter, evaporated milk, eggs, paprika, salt and white pepper. Set aside.

Make the crumb topping by mixing all the ingedients together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Layer one third of the cooked elbow macaroni in the prepared pan. Cover with one third of the shredded cheddar. Repeat the layers twice more, ending with an even layer of cheese on top.

Pour the evaporated milk mixture evenly over the entire casserole. With gloved hand, press lightly on the top so the ingredients are moistened by the milk.

Bake for 30 minutes, covered with foil. Remove the foil and sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the top. Continue baking for another 15-20 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to sit at room temperature 5 minutes before serving

Yield: Serves 12 as a side for lunch or dinner

Korea gives us the French fried-coated dawg!

We've been talking about having an 'american pop food' night, where we eat corn dogs (too quality, mind you) onion rings and such. Well, I just stumbled upon something too good to not share. The Koreas, who have us Kimchee now have out done themselves in producing, yes folks you couldn't have guessed it, French fry-coated hot dogs! (i've included some photos to prove it). The taste is said to be as obvious as it looks: " greasy but still crispy fries glued to a hotdog with a thick, neutral flavored batter". As It turns out. Seoul is packed full of artisan hot dog vendors dying to express themselves through the medium of 'the dawg'. (here i've included the various ends of these efforts). Vendors wrap them in bacon, mashed potato, corn batter or what looked to be seaweed then invariably deep fry them. You name it, they've done it to this coney island favorite.
Has the hot dog on a stick lost it's Seoul in these mutations and created an entirely new genus of culinary delight?

Louisville's good eats

I returned to Louisville and revisited Mark's Feed Store for it's great BBQ and the Mayan Cafe for meals prepared with personality, love and verve. I very nice culinary experience today after a terrible meal I consumed due to starvation the night I arrived late, due to multiple flight delays and running through Ohare airport. Ugh, that sentence is as awkward as was that awful salad! Yet, today....yum!

growing in in the monolithic food chain

At a recent birthday party i ran into my past, triggered by an innocent looking yogurt dipped pink cookie shaped like some kind of four legged animal (although only two were visible). My mother loved these circus cookies along with some white powdery cookie shaped like a small burial mount hinting of mild coconut flavors. This was the culinary home which forced me on my quest for the good meal. Breakfast consisted of two choices, as I recall. Pop Tarts, after all it's important to have a warm meal or the more 'healthy' choice of quaker oats instant cinnamon flavored cereal that conveniently came pre-measured in a packet that you poured into the hot water. Ritz crackers were a family favorite and I recall ( I hate to admit this) eating them with miracle whip. Yes, I know...but when you consider that my father's favorite night time snack was dipping tuna sandwiches into his hot chocolate, it doesn't sound so bad. Was my mother a baker? Well, honestly, she tried to casserole here and there and I recall her baking something called "mrs. good cookies". These things were...well, lets just say we didn't have much to compare them to and our cat, Muffin, sure loved to eat them! These came frozen, pre-shaped and already placed upon parchment paper...ready to slip into the oven. Of course you had to place them on a pan!

I recall that all the family had there own tv dinner trays, I think mine had a clever design from a popular cartoon show. TV dinners, yum! Salsbury steak with some kind of warm dessert thing with fruit?

You may have wondered in the past how I became so interested in the pursuit of eating good food. Well, this is where my food journey began...no wonder I have little tolerance for processed stuff. Is Processed Food Really "Food"?

let me introduce you to "tortas"

If you visit St. George Utah and happened to gas up at the Sinclair station, near the Walmart...you'll have the opportunity to eat the best "torta" in Utah. A torta is a Mexican sandwich, served on an oblong 6-8 inch firm, crusty white sandwich roll, called a bolillo or telera. Tortas can be served hot or cold. I recommend the Carnitas: (fried tender pork) or the Carne asada: (marinated steak). YUM!

lovely and lucious

What a gal! and What a cake! Don't you just love having friends that are sweet as agave and cook with it too? Here our dear friend, Ali, glances over her creation into the ever searching lens of the camera.

Whole Wheat Pizza

Chili con Carne pizza for the boys and a four cheese (fresh mozarella, fablygolens, parimisan retiano, and blue cheese) with fresh basil, yellow tomatoes, roasted orange peppers and artichoke hearts.

Small plates

We had a small gathering of friends who created a number of tasty 'small plates' or tapas...it was delicious!

Tapas [ˈtapas]) is the name for a wide variety of appetizers in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold, such as mixed olives and cheese, or warm, such as puntillitas, Andalusian battered, fried baby squid. In Spain (mainly in the southern half of the country), tapas are usually given for free to accompany a drink before lunch or dinner. In the United States and the United Kingdom, tapas have evolved into an entire cuisine; at Spanish restaurants, patrons may order many different small tapas, and combine them for a full meal.

Koko sutra

NO WAAAY! Chocolate Cake

(no gluten or refined sugar)

¾ C water ¼ tsp salt
1 C buttermilk 1 C cocoa powder
½ C butter 1 ½ tsp baking soda
¼ C canola oil 1 C brown rice flour (heaping)
1 C agave (or use xylotol or fructose) 1 C tapioca flour
3 eggs ½ tsp xanthan gum
1 or 2 tsp vanilla

Prepare 2 round pans with parchment on the bottom and grease with veg. oil.
Preheat oven 350 degrees.
Blend all the dry ingredients in large bowl. Set aside.
In large mixing bowl beat butter, canola oil, and agave until light and fluffy and creamy.
Add vanilla and eggs one at a time- whipping on high.
Add buttermilk and blend.
Add dry mix a bit at a time while mixing.
Pour into 2 round pans and bake for 25-30 mins. Cool- run knife around edge, turn out on racks

Chocolate Mousse Filling
1 ½ C whipping cream 1 tsp vanilla
4 Tblsp cocoa or more to taste 2 Tblsp agave or more to taste

Whip cream, vanilla and agave until a soft cream- add cocoa and whip stiffer. Use as filling between your two cake rounds.

Buttery Frosting
6 egg yolks ½ C agave
¼ C water 1 ½ cubes soft butter

Boil water and agave until soft ball stage-(not too long or you’ll make taffy).
Whip yolks on high and slowly add hot syrup mix- beat until outside of bowl is cool.
Add butter a little at a time. Flavor with any extract and color. IF you want a chocolate frosting add 1 Cup melted and cooled grain sweetened chocolate chips and or cocoa powder. Experiment with what you like and according to dietary needs. Cool frosting before spreading. (Refrigerating the whole cake before serving at this point is nice.)

Decorate top of cake with extra mousse, fruit, nuts, healthy candies etc.

Lemon Mousse

1/8 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup water
1/2 Tbl unflavored gelatin
dash salt
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3 egg whites

Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup agave nectar
zest of one lemon, for garnish

Mix the agave, water, gelatin, salt and lemon juice together in a
double-boiler to 150 degrees until all the ingredients are dissolved.
Remove from heat, and let cool in the refrigerator until almost set.

With a mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold into
chilled mixture.

To make whipped cream, mix heavy cream and agave together in a large
bowl with a mixer until peaks appear. Gently fold whipped cream into
mousse mixture. Refrigerate to develop flavors. To serve, garnish with
additional whipped cream and lemon zest.

Vintage ads

Hmmmm, processed food and meat...you're right in liking them.








I don't know about you, but there's nothing more exciting for Maribel and I than looking at dripping bacon.








Isn't it interesting how we seem, even today, to worship the mono-culture of processed food.











How can you argue with this kind of logic and strong use of imagery.

Funny Ad

Nice billboard...after reading the Omnivores dilemma I can better understand becoming a vegetarian.

A recipe from JoFU

As many of you know I am into whole grains (Brown rice, unrefined flours, etc) and no refined sugar. I have found this to be both healthy and liberating. If we are more conscious about what we put into our bodies we will also be more aware of our environment and our own place within it.
"So what the heck do you eat for dessert?", you ask. Surprisingly- the foods I have found are yummy and easy to make. I will post some of these recipes if there seems to be an interest. What I will say is the agave nectar is a versatile and delicious sweetener- I use it for ice cream, cookies, cakes and candies. I order it from Amazon to find a cheaper price than the local Health Store. My sister and I have been using it for years- long before anyone knew what it was or before Oprah made it a a more familiar name. Here are two recipes that can easily lead to more. Thankfully my children love it also.

CARMEL SAUCE

1 cup Whipping cream

1/3 C Agave

Tbls vanilla

Tblsp butter

Dash sea salt

Combine in nonstick saucepan- let boil until golden brown. This recipe can be modified with more or less of any ingredient- I never measure anymore.

BROWNIES

4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate

1 ½ sticks butter (3/4 C)

1 C brown rice syrup (found at Good Earth)

½ C Agave

3 eggs

1tsp vanilla ( Or more)

1 C flour (white wheat flour or ½ red wheat, ½ barley or br. Rice flour, Tapioca flour, combine any you like) I like using half Brown Rice and half Tapioca flour.

Chopped nuts optional

Melt choc and butter together, stir in sweetner (adjust to taste some prefer more of one than the other)- Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Add flour and nuts ( or grain sweetened choc chips). Spread intogreased foil lined 13by9 “ pan. Bake 350 for 30 min (give or take a few Toothpick should come out fudgy- don’t overbake. Cool and cut up.

Pour Carmel over it brownies and eat!

okonomiyaki too

this is something a colleague who I met in japan sent to help me make this dish.

let them eat cake!

This lovely cake is the creation of Ali and Jo, perhaps somewhat inspired by a recipe from the NYC Chocolate Bar.

okonomiyaki

Jamie ate some interesting food while at Hiroshima. Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き, Okonomiyaki^?) is a pan-fried Japanese dish cooked with various ingredients. Okonomi means "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked" (cf. yakitori and yakisoba); thus, the name of this dish means "cook what you like, the way you like". In Japan, okonomiyaki is usually associated with the Kansai or Hiroshima areas. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to region.

Kaitan sushi in Tokoyo

Kaiten-zushi is a sushi restaurant where the plates with the sushi are placed on a rotating conveyor belt that winds through the restaurant and moves past every table and counter seat. Customers may place special orders, but most simply pick their selections from a steady stream of fresh sushi moving along the conveyor belt. The final bill is calculated based on the number and type of plates of the consumed sushi. While in Japan on a Fulbright I took this photo at an upscale sushi place...I alot of fun.