coffeehouse-journal

Roasted Chicken

2012-01-06T11:40:00.000-08:00

Hello, everyone.
In an older post, I was telling you all that I now have a sweet new place to live, and we are starting a whole new year! My goal in this new place, and in this new year, is to cook better and eat better. I plan to use as little pre-made food or spice as possible. We will use some of the pre-made since I work a lot or am gone, and have 3 kids all being home schooled.

I am starting with roasted chicken, so simple for some, really challenging for others. So, as I have said many times, I love brining all my meat, and here is a picture of me brining two whole chickens. If you choose to brine or question the purpose, here is a link to the article I posted on Why Brine?

Regardless of whether you brine or not, after your chicken is ready to go into the oven, you need to season your chicken. You can season it with anything you like. As for me, I kept it simple and just used sea salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I did infuse many herbs into my brine, so that added flavor as well. I also rubbed my chicken down with olive oil before adding my seasoning. This gives it flavor and a crispy skin.

Depending upon what cook books or websites you read and visit to learn about roasting chicken, you will find everyone saying different things: 1)start with low heat and turn it up later, or 2)start with extremely high heat then turn it down. If you are unsure what to do or what way is best, then try them all and figure out what works best for you.

I like to pre-heat my oven to about 425 degrees and cook my chicken for about 30 minutes at that temperature. Then, I turn it down to about 350 degrees for the rest of the time. In order to tell if your chicken is done, you can use a thermometer, or wait until you see the juices running clear from the cavity. I don't use a thermometer at home. I pull it from the oven when I see the juices run clear. You can also grab the chicken leg and wiggle it; if it feels really loose and like it would pull out of the bird with little to no resistance then it is done. Usually these ways of checking come in time after making many chickens and getting a feel for them.

If you choose to use a thermometer, use a fast instant-read one. You can usually pick one up for $20.00 or less. They are digital, and they typically register in two second increments. Most people or recipes will tell you to have the temperature of the chicken at 165 degrees. I personally go for 160 degrees because there will be carryover heat. Carryover heat simply means the food is still cooking and will raise the temperature by about 5 to 10 degrees.

I know this is hard for many people, but after pulling the chicken from the oven, let it rest for about 20 minutes. This helps the juices in the meat to redistribute back into the meat. If you cut it right away, all the natural juices will run out and you will lose lots of flavor, and you may even dry out the meat.

Now, in my picture it is hard to tell, but the chicken is moist and juicy, not dry and overcooked.

After I carve my chicken, I save the carcass for chicken stock. Why let all those good bones get wasted? Chicken stock, and other stocks, will be coming in posts later in the month.

Lying in the Food Business

2011-12-29T09:14:00.000-08:00

A comment was left on the topic of olive oil being fake. This is what was said.

This article is kind of upsetting! There should be some US standards that ensure we get what we think we are getting. Now I'm going to be paying much closer attention when buying olive oil.

Sadly, these things happens all the time and in many forms. Over the years, Andrew Zimmerman has brought up a lot of what I will be discussing. You can find his blog here.
AZ Blog

Andrew has many times been vocal about lying in the food business; not just lying, but misleading people by what you say or don't say is quite common. I will mention some things I have seen as a result of the comment left. I only mention Andrew because he is well know and respected, where as I am not well known. I want people to beware of these issues and really give them some thought, though.

You will see some restaurants claim everything they make is "homemade". If you see a restaurant that says that and you like the food, then go and eat there. But, honestly, don't be surprised if something is not homemade. Also, places will advertise that something is made with only the "best" ingredients, or "real" butter or cream, or whatever. I know from experience that this is not true. I worked for a local family-owned restaurant here in the Twin Cities. They did and still are lying. Over 50 percent of their pastries are frozen or from a bag mix or out of a can or bucket, such as pie fillings and bread. Then, they claim to use real butter and cream in their caramel and cinnamon rolls. Yet, they use milk and margarine. That's flat out lying to the paying customer.

Now, here is another thing people never think about. Truffle oil, Truffle oil is pushed as something so great that it is really expensive. I was looking at a bottle of truffle oil and simply read the ingredients. There were only two listed: 1.) olive oil, 2.) flavorings. I thought, "Really? Olive oil and flavorings." So, instead of buying truffle oil, you're buying olive oil with flavoring. The worst part is that you don't know exactly what the "flavoring" really is. In reality, truffles come in black and white. The white truffles are far more expensive and are higher quality. You can spend up to $2000.00 per pound for good, white truffles. Black truffles can go as high as $500.00 per pound. Granted, the prices can go higher or lower depending of many factors. Now think about it. If you were to even pay $1000.00 for a pound of white truffles, just exactly how much oil do you think you would get from them?

I'm guessing maybe an ounce at best, since truffles are not naturally oily. So, if truffles were a $1000.00 per pound, then you would be looking at 1000.00 dollars per ounce of oil, but we all know they would raise the price to make money. A 14 ounce bottle would be more than gold, yet they sell them in stores, though the labels say, olive oil, not truffle oil.

To be fair, there are different brands and all contain different things. Some might have real truffle pieces in them. If you're in a restaurant, and they claim to be adding truffle oil to some food, it will cost a lot more for that dish. In reality, it is more likely to be olive oil with flavorings. Even if it is olive oil with truffle pieces, it will be so little truffle, the question is whether it is worth the price. If it is, then great, by all means buy it.

Another thing to be careful about wasabi. Wasabi is difficult to cultivate and that makes it quite expensive — as high as $70 to $100 per pound. Due to its high cost, a common substitute is a mixture of (western) horseradish (which normally costs less than $1/pound wholesale), mustard, and green food coloring. Although the taste is similar, they are easily distinguished. In Japan, horseradish is referred to as seiyō wasabi. Outside Japan, "real" wasabi is rare, and colored horseradish-based substitute is normally used instead; in the United States, wasabi is generally found only at specialty grocers and high-end restaurants.

Just be aware that you're most likely eating colored horseradish, and not real wasabi. If your thinking, "How can I find out about local restaurants, or foods or things of that nature?" It's really easy. If you have friends who cook in restaurants, ask them questions such as: "Do you know anything about said restaurant?" Read labels on bottles, or go to websites and blogs and ask questions. I know from all the restaurants I have worked in, we cooks and Chefs talk to each other. We share both good and bad stories about places we worked. We mention places we want to eat or work and places to avoid and why.

I just want people to be informed and know that they might not be getting what they pay for.

Fake Olive oil

2011-12-25T17:15:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, Well I have been super busy, really long story, the shortest version is, I moved into a new place. Been busy trying to move and finally have a sweet new place, 1700 square feet everything included for about a grand a month. Now that I have a new place and a big kitchen I plan to do more posts and better cooking as far as All from scratch and as little pre-made food as possible. Things will pick up more after the new year, I have my best friend visiting and he is in the military so we are hanging out before he has to head back on JAN 1st to California.

But for now here is an interesting article I found and I love olive oil, so I will be better prepared when I look for Olive oil.

Don't Be Tricked By Fake Olive Oil

Extra-virgin olive oil. It should mean pure, unadulterated, and good-for-you, right? According to Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, a new book by Tom Mueller, that bottle of "extra-virgin" olive oil in your pantry may actually be fraudulent.
As olive oil is a premium product, some producers want to undercut the market by putting low-priced, bad quality oils on the shelves. "Fifty percent of the olive oil sold in the United States is, in some ways, adulterated," Mueller told NPR's Fresh Air. That means consumers who purchase these imposters are missing out on the health benefits that authentic oil offers.
More From Delish: Mediterranean Recipes for a Masterpiece Menu

So how do you tell the difference between the real thing and the fake one? Any oil can have that mark "Made in Italy", but you need to be diligent about reading all that tiny print. It's true, olive oil is lower in saturated fat than most oils out there. But a bottle that touts being "low-fat" is likely also low-grade. Mixed blends are also a clear indication that it is not 100 percent pure oil from olives. Anything that says "extra light" is one to avoid.
What does "extra-virgin" mean anyway? Extra-virgin is a term that olive oil producers use to relay that the olives have been pressed only one time during the process and that the oil has not been altered by chemical solvents or refined in any way. So it's not possible for an olive oil to be "extra-light" or "blended" and also be "extra-virgin."

What about taste? Understanding oil is similar to understanding wine. On the nose, as they say, natural oil has a grassy aroma, and on the finish, has a spicy bite on your tongue. Professional olive oil tasters often pour a little of the oil in to their hands and then vigorously rub them together to bring out the aroma. Then they cup their hands around their nose to detect the sweet smell. After, they slurp it, wash it around the back of their mouths, and spit it out, just like wine. Of course, it's not possible to do this in the supermarket aisles.
And while your examining that bottle take note: A good olive oil doesn't have to come from Italy to be wonderful. Spain, Greece, and France have all been producing olive oil since the beginning of time. Remember, it's the key ingredient in the Mediterranean diet and those countries all hug that same sea.
Time to grab a bottle of olive oil and get to the kitchen!
Olive Oil Both Savory and Sweet

Kitchen Tools

2011-12-03T13:29:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone!
This post is nothing more than my mere thoughts and opinions. I want to talk about kitchen tools like knives and pot and pans. I was watching the Food Network and saw Guy Fieri advertising for a set of knives. His name was attached to them. I also have been seeing sets of pots and pans being sold in stores claiming to be by Paula Dean, Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay, and others. They really seem to be selling these harder for the holidays.

Here are my thoughts on these things. If you really want to buy them, then go for it. In reality, though, these people do not use their own brands in their restaurants, and other chefs don't buy these brands. I can tell you in all honestly, you will never walk into a really upscale fine dining restaurant and see them cooking with Paula Dean cookware, and the chefs won't be using Guy Fieri knives. Also, they act like if you buy these pans and knives, you will then be able to cook like the pros. I want to let you know in case you don't know already, you will not go from no experience or little experience to a pro just because you cook with Rachael Ray pans or Guy Fieri knives.

I have never cooked with these pans or used these knives, so I cannot say if they are any good or not. I can tell you from experience, I will only use the brands of tools we use in the kitchen. If your wondering, "Can a novice or non-pro buy these pans and knives in stores?" The answer is yes. Now if your wondering what brands we use, everyone is different. As far as knives go, most high-end kitchens require you bring your own knives to work.

Most kitchens provide pots and pans, blenders, and most tools. They just require you provide shoes, boots, or whatever shoes you feel most comfortable in, and smaller tools like tweezers, tongs, and things like that. Kitchens use very expensive blenders like Vitamix blenders. They cost, on the cheap end, about 500.00 dollars. These are worth the money, and I own one.

As for knives, you really do get what you pay for. You can buy cheap knives that run 20-50 dollars a piece or even a little more and think your buying a good knife. I own Shun brand knives; in my opinion, they are some of the best knives. They have thin blades for a cleaner cut. They stay sharp, if used properly, and they are razor sharp. They can be expensive. I spent $120.00 for just one knife.

You can Google Shun knives and find tons of information on them. When it comes to knives, many people don't know that most good knife stores and kitchen supply stores will allow you to handle the knife, and even provide things like apples or carrots and such to cut and see how the knives feel. If they do not, then ask, "Can I bring a carrot or apple or something to cut to see how the knives feel?" You really should test out knives before buying them. Some people I work with swear by the Global brand. They are really light weight, but I don't like the way they feel in my hand. I am just putting this out because the holidays are coming up, and people will spend lots of money thinking that since it has a chef's name on it, it must be good.

Something else you can do is find local high-end restaurants and call them, and ask if you can talk to the chef for a minute. Call during the non-busy hours and ask the chef, "What brand of knives or pots do you use, and where can you buy them?" Most chefs should not mind if you call and ask questions, as long as you call before the dinner rush. Typically, if you call a restaurant to speak to a chef, do it before 2pm.

As far as the pots and pans go, most places I have worked use All-Clad brand or cast iron. So, if you really want to cook like the pros, use the tools they use. If you're not sure what brands they use, simply ask them.

Coffee House

2011-11-22T10:59:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone.
Well, as you can see, I have a new picture of me in a coffee house. This coffee house is staffed entirely by volunteers. If no one volunteers to be there, then it is not open. The kitchen part of it is not up and running yet; some work still needs to be done. But once it is up and running, I will be teaching people how to cook and bake, and possibly running some private catering events from the kitchen. We can use the kitchen now for our personal use. I can make my spice blends in the kitchen. We serve both hot and cold drinks from the front and store things in the kitchen. We even do a open mic night every third Saturday in the coffee house.

They are allowing me to have my spices setting on the counter for sale at the coffee house. As a result of having my spices for sale there, I started using plastic bottles and can now sell them cheaper. One full bottle of spice in the plastic bottles weighs the same as a empty glass bottle. So, I will start selling my spices on my blog for 7.25 before it was 9.00 a bottle

If you happen to be in Saint Paul, MN or are planning to visit and want to check out the coffee house, here is all the information you need.

Sojourner’s Café
(651) 771-9614
1406 White Bear Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55106
info@sojournerscafe.org

If your wondering, "Will Rick be at the coffee house so I can meet him?" You can write me at iplayjudo1970@hotmail.com a few days in advance and let me know. If I am not working, I will be happy to meet up with you over hot coffee or a drink of your choice. Rick

Homemade Apple Cider

2011-10-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone. When I was growing up, my grandfather made his own apple cider. He had a huge, wooden apple press in his basement. Boy, was homemade apple cider the best ever!

Sadly, these days everyone sues everyone over every little issue, so no more good old fashioned apple cider. I have tried pasteurized apple cider, but I think it tastes more like apple juice. I looked at jugs of apple cider and apple juice, and they are both pasteurized and say in the ingredients list: apple juice. Well, they both cannot be apple juice. I googled apple cider vs apple juice. From everything I read, this is what I can find.

1. There's no difference at all.

2. The store-bought stuff is juice; the homemade stuff is cider.

3. Cider is made from apples that are picked early.

There is a debate among other people saying cider is not filtered, while apple juice is filtered. Many people seem to agree there is a huge difference in taste. So, I decided to try and make my own cider. I don't have my own cider press, so I used a blender.

My all time favorite apple is the granny smith apple, but you can either use a blend of apples, or your favorite apple. I cut them into quarters and cut the core and seeds out. Then, I cut them into small pieces so they would blend.

After the apples are blended really well, almost like apple sauce, I poured them into some cheesecloth.

After I pour them into the cheesecloth, I closed it up and started to twist it into a bowl. This forces the juice out. If you just let it set there, it would take hours to drain, so I use force. Be careful, though. The cheesecloth will break as you twist it tighter and tighter, and some apples will fall out.

After it is drained, pour cider into glass and enjoy!

After drinking this "real" cider, tell me that it isn't the best ever! I think the pasteurized stuff is crap.

Chipotle Pork

2011-10-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. I will try and post more as I can. I am still alive and around, so I will answer questions or take ideas if people submit them. I am really busy and have zero time to keep up as much as I would like.

Anyway, my newest post is a result of watching the newest show on the Food Network, called Heat Seekers. The show has two chefs traveling the country looking for the hottest foods they can find. The chefs went to a barbeque place, and they did pulled pork that was smoked with hardwood and covered in straight up chipotle sauce. People claimed it was so hot they had to dumb it down. Here is my version.

I bought two big pork shoulders and brined them overnight. I just used straight up salt water as a brine. No other flavors were added.

These were so big I just brined them in the sink. I scrubbed my sink clean first, then poured boiling hot salt water into the sink. I only put about 2 cups of water with salt into the sink, then added cold tap water and lots of ice. You don't want hot water as it will cook your pork. I added tons of ice so the pork would stay cold overnight, since I did not have a container big enough to hold all the pork.

After my pork brined overnight, I drained the water and poured real maple syrup over the pork. I poured a light coating over the pork shoulder. Then, I went to my grill and started burning real hardwood.

I closed the grill and kept the grill to a temp of 250 to 300. I tried to keep it as low as possible, but sometimes it would hit 300. I would add more wood as it burned out. I added enough wood to keep the fire burning for 7 hours.

As you can see, the pork is looking quite beautiful.

You can cook the pork longer, or even less, if you so choose. I brought the pork into the house, set it on a tray, and poured more maple syrup on it. I let it set covered for about 2 hours at room temp to cool and rest.

After it cooled, I shredded one by hand and took 3 cans of chipotles in adobe sauce and blended them in a blender. I poured that over the pork.

Now to balance out the fat from the pork, you need some acid. I took some apple cider vinegar, my favorite vinegar, boiled it, and poured it over shredded cabbage.

Now, that will be too strong for most people. Instead. you can either add some sugar to remove some sharpness from the vinegar, or serve with pickles or your favorite acidic food.

You can put it all on a bun or eat it without a bun, as I did. My friends and family were loving how good this was; it is the best. I left some pork plain for friends and family who cannot eat heat. I gotta say, I ate some plain pork after eating the Chipotle pork. Wow, what a bland and boring peace of meat! I could not eat it without some sauce or spice. The peppered pork was so good I just could not go back to the boring, old pork. Let me know if you try this and what you think.

Trying again?

2011-10-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone, Well I have just been super busy, But I am trying again to get on this years season of the "Chopped" Food networks TV show. I just submitted and online entry. If I get on, I will let you know, If I never say anything about getting on, then thats means I did not hear back. Rick

My new Job

2011-08-21T14:56:00.001-07:00

I have a new job! Well, sort of. I have been there for about a month now and wanting to make sure this is the place for me. Here is where I am working.
Fourpaughs I love it here. When I first went to check it out and do a working interview, the chef told me he has a bad temper, he will swear at you, yell, scream and do other things. He said if I could handle that, the job is mine. I told him I could, and the job was mine. He is living up to his promise. He is a former marine and if you have ever seen the TV show, Hell's Kitchen, it's like working for Gorden Ramsey. Now, the chef is not like that all the time, pretty much only when it starts to get busy, otherwise he is a pretty nice guy and really does take care of his cooks.

He spent two years working at one of the best restaurants in the Untied States. This is where he was working: French Laundry. He has also worked for other very high end restaurants. The chef really looks out for the cooks. We get fed a family meal every night, and a basket of fruit is set out so we always have something to eat. It's healthy and keeps us focused. We do a nine course tasting menu, plus ala cart menu. Some things require tweezers to put food on the plate.

We have a daily special, a weekly special, and we change the entire menu every 6 weeks. We buy as much as possible from local farmers and are working on getting everything from local farmers. We have our own herb grow room where we cut herbs as needed. We make our own sausage and bacon in-house. Everything is made from scratch and to order.

Also, the chef likes me so much and because I have a family, he has given me every Thursday thru Saturday off of work. I work 4 days a week, but I can be there up to 10 hours a day. Usually it is 8 hour days, and they do not allow any over time.

Why Brine?

2011-08-01T15:27:00.000-07:00

I said I would talk about brining meat. I brine almost all my protein, even baby back and spare ribs. Here is some brine I made for my ribs. It has chipotle peppers, limes, garlic, and other things.

I personally do not follow any recipe or formula for brining meats. Years ago, I did follow one and regretted it. Whenever I followed a recipe for making brines, I found them to be salty. All brines require salt. Salt helps draw out impurities in the meat and the brine enter. I have noticed at a few gourmet stores, they sell bags of brine mix. If you choose to buy this stuff, then I guess that is your choice. My thinking is, it is probably overly salty. You also don't really know what spices are in it. If you make your own, you can put in whatever flavor you want: lemons, limes, mangoes, rosemary, or whatever you like.

After I brined my ribs, I took some chipotle peppers and limes, covered my ribs, and grilled them. Then, I finished them with maple syrup.

These ribs were a huge success.

Here I have a picture of chicken brining in buttermilk.

You must have sugar and salt. What I do is take enough water to cover the amount of meat I will be using. I add salt and sugar, a little more sugar than salt, and I add brown sugar. I make sure to use just enough water to dissolve the salt/sugar by boiling it, then add cold water and some ice to cool down the brine before adding any meat. I add everything else: herbs, fruits, peppers, etc. I try to fit my brine to suit what I am making. Brines help add moisture and flavor; they also help to keep moisture in your meat when you overcook it.

If you decide to research brines and you feel that what other people say tends to differ from what I say, (like you need a certain ratio of salt to water, or you should only brine small pieces of meat for a certain number of hours) then do this: use trial and error. I really believe that trial and error is the best when it comes to brines. One thing I have done, if needed, is brine in the sink. I brined a turkey for Thanksgiving. It was so big I could not put it in the fridge, so I cleaned out the sink really well, filled the sink with my flavored brine, put in the turkey, added lots of ice to keep the turkey cold, then covered it with plastic wrap.

You can also put your proteins in a bucket, like a pickle bucket, then add ice or even ice packs so it stays cold.

Here are the pictures of the chicken I brined in brown sugar, salt, fresh mango, pineapple, chipotle pepper, ginger, and a few other things.

The chicken came out great! I made that brine up as a test for a marinade for an upcoming wedding where they want chicken with some of those flavors.

Here is a good article I found on why you should brine from a Prochef Brief I recieved. It really breaks down the reasons for brining.

So with all this culinary cred behind it, why is it that brining gets put to use in most home kitchens only once a year, if even that?

Chalk it up to a lot of misconceptions, say chefs.

Brining involves two basic scientific principles, diffusion and osmosis, which occur when meat is submerged in a saltwater solution. To maintain equilibrium between the substances, the brine is absorbed into the meat.

Once there, the salt unravels the meat’s protein cells, making even more room for the liquid to enter. Add in other ingredients — sugar, molasses, rosemary, vinegar, garlic, onions, etc.—and that’s when the fun really begins.

While the process itself may sound complicated, the actual work to make it happen isn’t.

“It’s one of those things that chefs do that is very easy for a cook to do at home,” says chef Paul Fehribach of Big Jones, 5347 N. Clark. “It could make their home cooking much more rewarding.”

For his Niman Ranch pork chop dish, sweet tea gets added to the brine mixture — about 4 ounces to 1 gallon of salted water — but he also recommends Calvados or apple cider vinegar.

“A little bit of acidity makes something more mouthwatering when it touches your tongue,” he says.

At the Bristol, a base brine of garlic, rosemary, black peppercorns and sugar in the saltwater mix is always in the walk-in cooler (tip: to help disperse the ingredients, Pandel brings the rosemary, peppercorns and garlic to a boil in some water, then purees them before mixing with the rest of the liquid).

Additional brines are made depending on the season, the meat, the cut and cooking method.

Liquid and protein

Most recipes require you heat the brine to infuse the ingredients. Rather than heating and then cooling the entire batch — an important step to prevent the raw product from spoiling — Huston recommends heating only, say, 1 to 2 cups of liquid with the flavoring ingredients. Then cut your additional water in half and add twice the amount of ice.

“That way you’re cooling and diluting it at the same time,” he says, a great time-saver.

Now, you need to decide what to brine. Paul Virant of Vie, 4471 Lawn Ave. in Western Springs, recommends first-timers keep it simple.

“Brine something that you are comfortable with. If that’s chicken breasts, just do that,” he says, adding that by using something you’re familiar with, the end results will be more dramatic.

Once you’re convinced brining is the way to go, you can experiment, says Levitt. His recipe for an Asian-style chicken, for example, would include a brine of soy sauce, fresh ginger, star anise and Sichuan peppercorns.

If refrigerator space is limited, that shouldn’t be a problem — you don’t need a huge container as you would when brining a whole turkey, just one large enough to keep the item submerged.

Keep in mind the container should be non-reactive; Tupperware would work just fine.

And, adds Virant, with Chicago winters there’s always the option of using coolers in the garage or under the deck “away from the critters” for your brining.

When cooking your brined proteins, there are two important items to think about.

First, be mindful of additional seasoning since brining does add salt. Second, if your brine includes a sweet component, that’ll affect the cooking technique.

“With any piece of meat you brine, you need to make sure your sugar content is appropriate depending on how you want to cook it,” says Pandel.

“If you are planning on pan-searing a breast with the skin on, you don’t want a ton of sugar in the brine because the skin will burn before the breast cooks through. But if you are going to roast a whole chicken, honey is perfect and it’ll caramelize well in the oven.”

Still not convinced of the advantages of brining?

“It’s really not any more work than marinating,” offers Goss. “People should open their minds and embrace the brine.”

3rd Private Chef Job

2011-07-24T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone.
I got set up with another private chef job, and it was poolside at the people's house.

I went to visit these people twice, brought the entire family, and sat down and talked about family and food. This family asked me for some ideas on food, and I told them just as I tell every family, "I don't want to write a menu for people." I want them to decide what they want to eat. Also, they know what their family and friends like better than I do. So, I tell people, "Go with what you like. I can provide recipes, if needed, or give ideas for sides or sauces to go with your food or maybe offer ideas on the best way to cook the food."

They told me they wanted ceder-plank grilled wild Alaskan salmon and chicken.

I suggested they brine the chicken. I will post information on brining meat in my next post. I suggested they have peanut sauce to go with the chicken and some homemade foccacia bread, some homemade rosemary crackers, grilled vegetable platter with balsamic reduction, and spinach and artichoke dip.

For the vegetables, I grilled asparagus, Portobello mushrooms, onions, and zucchini. I let them set out at room temperature till they cooled and took a bottle of balsamic vinegar and reduced it down till it was pretty thick. Then I added some white sugar and dissolved that and drizzled that over the vegetables and served them cold.

They took pictures of me working in their kitchen.

Here are pictures of the bread, crackers, and spinach dip I made.

Here is me grilling the chicken and salmon.

When the party was over, the homeowners requested a picture with me, so I said I would be more than happy.

They were so happy with all that I did that when they paid me, they gave me a tip. The homeowner wrote me up a sweet letter of recommendation and said he will be doing a few more events later in the year with his co-workers and more family events next year.

Below is the letter he wrote for me, The only thing I am not adding is their full names, phone number, and home address. They added all of that so if people want to hire me and want a reference, I have one. I will only give it out to people who are serious about hiring me, then they can contact these people. I don't want someone who knows me reading this blog and saying, "I don't like Rick," so they start calling and harassing these people just to try and get me in trouble. If you're wondering, yes it has happened. People have read my food blog and called my job site and tried getting me in trouble, so I remove names of people in cases like this and will pass them on in case of a possible job.

Here is the letter I was given:

Rick Beaudin

A Chef that really can Cook!

Our son was just recently married, and my wife Marilyn and I decided to host our son's Groom's dinner at our residence. Like many people, our clan enjoys grilled meats and vegetables. However, with nearly forty people in attendance, our choice of foods mandated that someone else would have to tend the grille, as it would take the full attention of someone who really knows what they are doing to simultaneously grille both of our choices of Teriyaki Chicken and Alaskan salmon.

Marilyn found Rick Beaudin through a referral at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts here in the Twin Cities. Rick stopped by our home a couple of weeks in advance to inventory our kitchen and cooking facilities. He gave us simple, but effective instructions ahead of his arrival on the day of the Groom's dinner this was very helpful. He personally prepared additional sauces, breads and dips for our dinner that nicely complemented the meats and salmon we had chosen. He also brought his own knives and chaffing dishes.

A huge concern for us was the preparation of our fish. The difference between a succulent filet of salmon or a hard, dry slab of fish is often only 90 to 100 seconds on the grille, as well as monitoring the correct temperature. Rick served our chicken and salmon at the same time to perfection. Not a morsel of either was left over.

He's a cheerful fellow but mostly invisible, you hardly know he's there. He also does a great job of cleaning up after himself. We highly recommend Rick Beaudin to anyone who wants perfect food for the perfect event!

Chad and Marilyn

Private Chef Job

2011-07-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the private chef jobs I did. I have only this picture of me at the person's house who hired me. I had permission to take pictures, but chose not to take a lot since it's not my intent to show off other people's houses.

If people decide they want to hire me, they can contact me at the email address on my blog. Many people took business cards and word of mouth has spread. We can talk prices and menus if you contact me. I also have the people I worked for as references, as needed, but will only give them out after talking with people. I won't simply toss out their numbers to everyone.

The dinner party menu for this person was: 3 types of pasta, 3 homemade sauces, homemade bread, grilled chicken, vegetables, homemade Caeser salad dressing, and desserts that the host provided. Some people at the party were so impressed they hired me on the spot for another job two weeks later. The menu was exactly the same. There are more pictures of that party since it was held at the State Fair grounds.

I grilled 30 pounds of chicken and removed the skin. I picked the meat off the bones. I also grilled fresh asparagus and 10 pounds of bacon.

Two of the sauces were simple red sauces. The other was a white sauce with bacon.

Here are pictures of me serving people and everything I set up.
We planned for 200 people, but it was around 300 that showed up. We ended up running out of food.

It was a lot of fun doing these events. I enjoyed every minute of it!

MISSING MAINE WIFE

2011-07-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

The day after his wife disappeared in a kayaking accident off the coast of Maine , a man answered his door to find two grim-faced State Troopers. "We know it's late, sir, but we have some information about your wife," said one of the Troopers.

"Tell me! Did you find her!?" the husband shouted.

The Troopers looked at each other. One said, "We have some bad news, some good news, and some really great news. Which do you want to hear first?"
Fearing the worst, the ashen husband said "Give me the bad news first."
The second Trooper said, "I'm sorry to tell you, sir, but this morning we found your wife's body in the bay."
"Oh my God!" exclaimed the husband.

Swallowing hard, he asked, "What's the good news?"
The Trooper continued, "When we pulled her up, she had 6 twenty-five pound snow crabs and 12 good-size lobsters clinging to her."
Stunned, the husband demanded, "If that's the good news, what's the great news???"

The Trooper answered, "We're gonna pull her up again tomorrow."

Work History.

2011-06-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone.
This is what's been going on. I helped cater a job at someone's house. They were so impressed, some of the people hired me to cater another job. I did that one and again they were highly impressed. It is looking good that more work will come my way. I handed out some business cards and was asked if I would travel. Some people asked me what the name of my company was and for information about me.

Here is the deal with me cooking and catering. As of this posting, I am 41 years old. I have been working in restaurants since I was 16 years old. I started out washing dishes and worked my way up. I worked for small little mom and pop places, a grade school cafeteria (You could say I was a lunch lady! LOL, hotels/resorts, truck stops, colleges/universities, corporate places, fine dining, and now being a personal chef working in people's homes.

This is a brief run down of my work history. I cannot recall every single restaurant and bakery I have worked in and many have gone out of business over the years.

Here is a link to a place I worked when I was maybe 17 years old. It's in Maine. It is called the Samoset Resort. Samoset Resort I worked in the bakery, and that was pretty much where I got my start baking.

I also worked for some small little places in Maine, little mom and pop bakeries. Then I worked in a few restaurants that ended up closing due to a bad economy. I later found a temporary job through a temp. agency working at the University of Maine. Worked here

I later moved to Chicago, stayed their for a year then moved here to Saint Paul MN. I went to Saint Paul Technical College for culinary arts, Tech College I graduated March 11, 1994 with my degree.

While Going to school there, I worked at a place called Custom Bakery, they were having problems so I left. They later closed and one Baker bought the recipes and equipment and opened Saint Agnes Bakery. I later went to work at the River Room Restaurant at Dayton's department store. Dayton's is now called Macy's but the restaurant still exists, River room

I left their and worked at a bakery/restaurant called Good fellows. I worked in the Bakery part, we later moved the bakery and opened our own bakery called Franklin street bakery. They have since moved and expanded. Franklin Street Bakery

I left them because I had a opportunity to work for whole foods market doing artisan sour dough breads, That would be a new learning experience that I simply could not pass up. Whole Foods

I left them to move back to Maine.
I worked at a place that is still open to this day. It's called the Sea Dog. Sea Dog I worked as the lead line cook. I worked for a restaurant called, the Green House. It was not fine dining, but more upscale. They were owned by the same people who own The Lucerne Inn which still is up and running. lucerne inn

I went to work at another local restaurant that also closed. Later, a Pizzeria Uno opened, so I joined them and helped them open and moved up to a "certified trainer". I still have my paper for that. That means only "trainers" could train people because we knew every aspect of the entire line.

I left Pizzeria Uno to yet again move back to Saint Paul, MN. Once back here, I worked in a bakery at Saint Olaf College. College

That was about an hour drive one way, so I transferred to another location because the cafeteria at Saint Olaf is run by a company called Bon Appetit. They are all over the United States and in other countries. Bon Appetit

I later left them to go work for Key's Cafe. Keys Cafe I was with them for 6 years. I later ended up going back to school at Le Cordon Bleu and earned my Associates Degree. While going to school I worked at Chianti Grill Chianti Grill. I was with them for a year or so. I left them because my schooling ended, and I needed to work for my externship for 3 months. This was unpaid and lasted for 3 months. I worked at the best restaurant in all of Minnesota, La Belle Vie La Belle Vie.

The Chef is the best! I love working there. They never hire interns, and I was not hired. But I did score a perfect 100 on my evaluation form that the chef fills out. I'm told I am probably the only person ever to do that. I have a good shot at a really sweet restaurant thanks to working here. I also took on the Pastry Chef from La Belle Vie at school when I was there in a Iron Chef Pastry Challenge. I got to work with her a little when I did my externship.

Iron Pastry Chef

Here are links to round 1 of the pastry challenge, and round two explaining what I did to end up going onto round 3. Round 1

Round 2

As a result of going to school, I ended up getting the private chef job. I have one more in the works on July 15th. I will pass out references to anyone interested in hiring me, and will post some pictures of the events later as I get time. We can talk over the phone and discuss information as anyone needs it. You can contact me for information about catering at: rickbeaudin@gmail.com

Above is not a full and complete list of every place I worked, but it covers many of them. I am well rounded in baking and cooking and now have a great chef backing me from the best restaurant in Minnesota. Rick B

Personal Chef/Caterer

2011-06-11T13:47:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone.

Here is what has been going on with me. As of today, I have two weeks left of my internship. So, since I have been working for free, I needed a job. I went to the school and looked at the job listings, and I found a job for a personal chef/catering job. I called about it and spoke with the person.

In the end, this is what happened. I met with the people, and then ended up cooking for them. They were planning on having up to 300 people coming over. They had a build-your-own pasta bar with 3 different pastas, 3 different sauces that I made from scratch, one salad dressing from scratch, and bread that I made from scratch.

It went so well that a person from the party hired me to do another event just like that one in two weeks. Three others have asked for my phone number to call me and do a party for them. I will also be doing another event in July. So as it stands, I will be looking to do this on a more long-term basis. I also have been given the phone number of the people that I worked for to give out as a reference.

As it stands, I will be posting recipes in the days to come. I will post pictures of jobs I do and promoting myself as an up and coming personal chef/caterer. These people were so happy with the job I did they said they will pass my number out to all of their friends. It is very exciting for me. We will see what comes of it! Rick

Update

2011-04-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,
Not really sure if anyone even reads this blog about food or not, But I am just letting everyone know I am done with school and now am working on my internship. I am at one of the best, if not the best restaurants in Minnesota. I am working their 5 days a week, one day alone in the pastry department. I work from 1:30 till 10:30 on weekdays and 1:30 till 11:30 on weekends.

Plus a 30 minute drive one way to work. All this is for free, My internship is not paid, so I am looking for a part time job on top of all this, so I am still around and am still selling spices. If you want to buy some or spread the word that would be great, I need the money for gas and bills. I will answer questions if people have any about food and other topics. My internship Goes from April 4th till June 24th. I will be looking for a job after that. Overall the internship is going well and I really like it. The Chef is a James Beard Midwest winning Chef and really knows his stuff and owns a few sweet restaurants. Rick

Happiness is.... Peppers and Dessert

2011-03-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to make a dessert based upon my "Happiness" spice for a long time now, and I finally did it. If I break down my "Happiness," it is 5 different types of hot peppers. I did not want to just make a dessert with my spice in it, but wanted to make a dessert using each spice, so here is what I made:

1. Habanero White Chocolate Ice Cream.

2. Whipped Cream with Jalapenos.

3. Chipotle Chocolate Cake in the form of a cone.

4. Cayenne Brittle.

5. Serrano Caramel Sauce.

6. Fresh Limes squeezed into water.

This is what it looked like plated.

I like to play around and do stuff like this because I like to be creative in cooking and baking.

I am not posting recipes with this one; this is geared more for trying to get people to think outside the box and get creative in playing with food and baking. Also, I want people to pair things they might think are strange. Some friends and family tried this. Some loved it, some thought it needed work, but over all everyone felt it was headed in the right direction.

I figure if you let everyone tell you, "It will never work," speaking of whatever it is your trying to make, (I call it the Eeyore mentality), then you will never venture out in anything you think of doing. You know Eeyore from Winne the Pooh? He is always saying, "It will never work." When someone tells me it will never work, I just ignore them and do what I want anyway. I figure I can either make it work or I will learn the hard way. I would rather try and fail than never try at all.

When I read cook books or books on baking, I always read about the chefs and pastry chefs that are considered the best of the best. I figure I would rather read and learn from the best and see what made them the best, than to look at people who are ok or are not sure of themselves. I know I am far from the best, but the only way to learn is work hard and play around.

Here are my thoughts on my dessert. I wanted all 5 main peppers, so that makes 5 items. I love lime and have lime in my dessert, so I added a 6th item. Now, I know that I have added things like tomato, Worcestershire, and other things, but I did not include them since I wanted the peppers to be the stars, and some lime.

I figure I had ice cream, whipped cream, and caramel which are soft textures and cake, again somewhat soft. So I needed something crunchy. That was why I made brittle. That was just too hard and gets stuck in your teeth.

I figure I am on the right track, so next time I will make a cookie or crisp of some sort. The whipped cream also seemed out of place, so I am still thinking of something else I could make. The other thing that I can easily change are the flavors. I can put the chipotle in the ice cream, for example. I just want people to have fun and not let discouragement ever stop them from trying something.

If anyone has ideas on this dessert and wants to offer up some ideas please feel free. I am open to all ideas. Rick

Chopped

2011-03-17T16:26:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would let everyone know, I put in my entry form to try and get selected for a spot on the TV show, "Chopped." From the very first day I saw that show, I have wanted to get on. The automatic reply was, "If they want to talk to you, they will." Otherwise, they will not get back to me. I am not sure if they do get back to me, how soon it would be. If I get on, I will be sure to post it.

It's the World's Strongest, Most Expensive Beer -- Inside a Squirrel

2011-03-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

This is crazy:

Our old buddies BrewDog have done it again. Not content with winning back the "strongest beer in the world" title last February with its Sink the Bismarck!, they've now upped their game with a new brew that is 55 percent alcohol by volume and carries a $765 price tag. It's called The End of History.

Oh, and did we mention that the bottles come in stuffed animals-like stuffed animals that were once alive? The 12 bottles have been made featuring seven dead stoats (a kind of weasel), four squirrels and one rabbit. James Watt, one of the two guys behind BrewDog, put it better than we ever could: "The impact of The End of History is a perfect conceptual marriage between taxidermy, art and craft brewing." Just like we've all been waiting for!

For those interested in the actual beer, it's a blond Belgian ale with touches of nettles and juniper berries -- and in order to achieve the brain-blasting alcohol content, it had to be created using extreme freezing techniques.

Here is a link to the website that has a video showing more about this beer.
Beer video

Caesar Salad

2011-03-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

Caesar salad is my all time favorite.

This one is served in a Parmesan cheese bowl. To make the bowl, buy fresh grated cheese or grate it yourself. Do not use the powdered cheese in the jar. I used 3/4 of a cup spread out on a sheet pan in a circle. I suggest using a silicone baking mat if you own one. I own one, but did not feel like cleaning it, so I used parchment paper. That worked ok. I don't suggest using any oil or anything since the cheese is greasy after it melts. After you put the cheese on the tray, bake at 350 degrees till golden darkish color.

After you pull the tray out of the oven, let it rest a minute or two and carefully wrap the melted cheese around a cold bowl. Lift it off as soon as it hardens.

After you remove it, prepare your salad. For the salad dressing, you can use any bottle dressing of your choice or make your own dressing. I personally love the real deal, so I make my own dressing.

* 1 large egg
* 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
* 1 medium garlic clove, crushed
* 1 pinch salt
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
* 1 1/2 teaspoons anchovy paste or 4 flat anchovies
* 1 teaspoon capers
* 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
* 1/3 cup virgin olive oil
* 2 medium heads of romaine lettuce -- outer leaves removed
* 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese -- grated

Crush the garlic. If you are using flat anchovies out of a can, mince one or two to make 1 1/2 teaspoons worth. Grate the Parmesan cheese. It's always better to grate it yourself if you have the opportunity.

Mix the Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, garlic, salt & pepper, anchovy, mustard and capers in a bowl. Crack egg and add to these ingredients. Whisk until smooth.

Slowly add the oil in a steady stream while constantly whisking until smooth. Reason: if you add the oil too quickly, the dressing will be separate and not emulsify.

If you're on a gluten-free diet, you can leave croutons off of your salad. You can add pork, shrimp, beef, chicken, or whatever you like. For mine I used shrimp.

Enjoy! Rick b

Glutton for punishment: 6 spicy dishes that will make you cry

2011-02-23T14:20:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I live in the Twin Cites (Saint Paul, MN). I am a hard core chili head. I love the heat. I was reading an article in a paper called, The Onion. They mention 6 fiery food dishes that will make you cry. If you a serious chili head and live near here or are visiting, here is a link to the article talking about these foods. I know for my birthday, I will be visiting one for sure.

6 dishes article

Review of my spices

2011-02-19T08:42:00.000-08:00

I have mentioned this before, I am a product reviewer for the website peppers and more. Peppers and more I sent some of my spice to one of the reviewers and this was the review he wrote up about my spice.

[caption id="attachment_6603" align="alignnone" width="514" caption="Rick Beaudin's Happiness & Eternal Suffering Hot Spice Blends"][/caption]

Peppers and More Reviewer Rick Beaudin makes some excellent Spice Blends.
I was fortunate to try 2 of them, and they did not disappoint !

Rick sent me a bottle of his Happiness Spice Blend, and a bottle of his Eternal Suffering Spice Blend.

Both are packaged in nice, reusable glass shaker bottles, and provide a very generous amount of spice blend for the price.

The Label of Happiness features a nice smiley face created from hot peppers, on a light gray background.

The Label of Eternal Suffering features a black background, with skull outlines surrounded by fire. It is a cool looking label, but, the text of the label is a bit small, and a bit difficult to read.

Looking through the bottles, we see that Happiness is a golden tan, and appears to be a very, very fine powder consistency.

Eternal Suffering appears to be of the same very fine powder consistency, but, is somewhat darker and more reddish orange in color.

When you open the bottle of Happiness, you are greeted with an aroma of Chipotle pepper, with a hint of Cumin in the background.
Looking at the ingredient label, we find:

Wow, that is a great list of peppers, and suggests that the sub-title on the bottle "Making Grown Men Cry," might be right on track !

When you open the bottle of Eternal Suffering, you are greeted again with an aroma of Chipotle pepper, followed with what the aroma of Cayenne pepper.

Looking at the ingredient label, we find:

Again, we find a great list of peppers, and we quickly notice the addition of the Bhut Jalokka pepper ! This could be a Serious Hot Spice Blend !

Well, I guess the only thing left, is to use both of these spice blends with some cooking.

I first seasoned twin Ham Steaks with the spice blends, and browned them in a iron skillet, then finished them with added vegetables, in the oven.

The finished product turned out well, with the Hot Spice Blends melting into the ham steaks, and crisping up a bit:

Next, I decided to try both of Rick's Spice Blends to season Jumbo Scallops:

After pan frying the scallops in a bit of butter, they turned out looking pretty darn good:

I guess you are all now wondering, just how did these foods taste with Rick's Hot Spice Blends ???

Well, they turned out great !

Both Spice Blends added a lot of Excellent Pepper Flavor and Heat to both of the dishes that I cooked !

Because of the peppers and heat level of these spices, they are Not For The Timid !

Both provide Great Pepper Flavors, and the really cool thing about them, is that you still get the various pepper flavors in a very distinctive way.
It is easy to taste the Cayenne, Jalapeno, Habanero, and Chipotle taste as individual, distinctive taste elements, sort of in layers, and not all blended together. I really like that element of these Spice Blends.

Happiness is Especially Wonderful in that respect, and should find its way into a lot of chef's dishes. It has serious heat, and Serious Distinct Pepper Flavors !
Anyone who likes hot and spicy foods, should have a bottle of this spice blend on the counter, right next to the salt, pepper, and garlic powder !
That is where my bottle of Rick's Happiness now lives, and I find myself using it on a daily basis. Rick has won first place awards with this spice blend.

As far as Eternal Suffering, well, the Bhut Joloka pepper heat really comes through. Perhaps a bit much, if it is used to season foods like the Pork Steak and Scallops that I used with it. I found it to be so hot, that it actually "turned off" some of the other savory flavors in the dishes. You could get around this, buy using much, much less when cooking with it. In reality though, I think that I will mostly be using Rick's Eternal Suffering when I cook dishes like Chili, or, in crawfish or blue crab boils, where the heat and flavor will add a lot to the dish, but, but, will be watered down a bit, and spread evenly through the whole dish. I think it is just a bit too hot to sprinkle directly on ready to serve foods, unless you are a super serious lover of heat, or, use it very, very conservatively.

Ricks Spice Blends are both Winners !

I like the Happiness the best.

Rick also makes a new Spice Blend called Sorrow, which should also be most excellent.

You can order Rick's Hot Spice Blends from his website / blog site at:

http://coffeehouse-journal.blogspot.com/

Just scroll down until you see the Hot Spice Blends on the right side of the page.
Also, while there, be sure you sign up for Rick's blog, and scan back through the past posts.
You will find a large number of excellent recipes that Rick has posted, and some great discussions on all sorts of foods, and some great reviews of a number of hot pepper sauces.

So, to sum things up, Rick has created some Amazing Hot Spice Blends !

I only have a couple of very minor gripes about Rick's Spice Blends.

One is that both of the spice blends are a very, very find power. Even though Rick has added a bit of Corn Starch to prevent caking, it just does not quite work here in the Georgia humidity. I find that I have to stir them from time to time, to keep them from caking. Shaking the bottles just does not accomplish keeping them mixed. If I do not stir them, then the spice blend tends to settle in distinct layers in the bottle, and the lower layer cakes together. Perhaps a bit coarser grind of the spices and peppers would solve this problem, for us southern folk who live in high humidity areas ?

My second minor gripe, is that the bottle of Eternal Suffering can not be read very easily. I think the product would show better on a store shelf if it were easier to read the text.

My third minor gripe, is that these Excellent Spice Blends need a separate page on Rick's blog. You have to scroll through a lot to see all that is written about the spice blends. Also, the photos that show the spices with the Awards that they have won, are so small, that you can not really read what the awards are. I would give them a much more prominent location on the web / blog site, where they "Jump Out" at folks, the first time they visit the site.

So Friends, give Rick's Hot Spice Blends a try. You will not be disappointed. They are both Most Excellent !

Best Regards
John Zegel

Happiness and Pork

2011-02-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

I have been telling lots of people who ask about my spices that "Happiness" mixed with brown sugar and rubbed on pork is the best. One guy said it tasted like eating heaven. I posted on my blog a while back that I was so confident that "Happiness" and brown sugar rubbed on pork was such a winner that I entered a jerky contest. I made pork jerky with brown sugar and "Happiness" and took first place. Here is a link to my post about the contest. contest

As far as the pork goes, I tell everyone I have no real recipe. What I do is mix the "Happiness" spice with brown sugar; you can add as much or as little spice as you like. It all depends on your heat level.

This is "Happiness" in brown sugar:

This is the spice mix rubbed onto country style pork ribs.

This is what the ribs look like after they came out of the oven.

The picture is not the greatest, but the ribs are juicy, sweet, and spicy. You can use "Happiness" on anything you like, but it really goes well on pork.

Whoopie Pies

2011-02-05T15:44:00.000-08:00

Whoopie pies have been around for a long time. Up in Maine where I lived, they were sold in every little mom and pop gas station around. They were wrapped in plastic wrap and sold in a little basket by the cash register. How they got the name "whoopie", I don't know. A friend of mine and his wife went to Maine to visit and came back telling me they saw some whoopie pies sold and thought they had something to do with sex.

He said they bought one and loved it; they raved about them. Maine is not the only place that sells them. They are sold in New Hampshire, and my Grandmother made them for my dad and his brothers when they were growing up. Now it seems whoopie pies are starting to make a huge come back and are starting to be huge everywhere.

Sadly, my grandparents both died a few years back, but my parents were given my grandparents' box of recipes. One of them was for whoopie pies. These, in my opinion, are the best recipe for an original chocolate and marshmallow whoopie pie.

Recipe:
6 Tablespoons shortening
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon real vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons cocoa

Filling:
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup marshmallow cream
3/4 powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

For the batter:
Mix everything together and drop, scoop, or pipe out small mounds onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. Cool on a rack and fill with the filling.

Pressure Cooker

2011-01-31T12:12:00.000-08:00

A while back I was asked if I would allow an "AD" to be posted on my blog. In return, I would receive a product for my payment. I decided I would get a pressure cooker, since my brother just bought one and was telling me how awesome it was. The pressure cooker is great, but it really is a learning experience. I have never used or owned a pressure cooker before. I will say, you must read all the directions and then just learn as you go. I would highly recommend buying one. They really are a huge time saver. I say they are a bit of a learning experience because, according to the directions, if you make beans you're not supposed to fill the cooker above 1/2 full. They have a 1/2 and 3/4 mark line.

I wanted to make some homemade beans, and I poured one bag in and it was only 1/4 full. So, I added another bag. It just barely made it half full. After adding water and seasoning, it was just a hair over half full. I started up the pressure cooker and after about an hour, I cooled it enough to open and check my beans. They were still rock hard. I put it on for another hour and cooled it enough to open it.

This time the cooker was full. The beans expanded enough that they were not cooking. I had to remove half of them. After that, they cooked fast and were really good. I plan on using it a lot more and highly recommend buying one. Next on my list is a bamboo steamer.

Coffee cake

2011-01-20T13:16:00.000-08:00

This recipe for coffee cake is, in my opinion, the best coffee cake I have ever had. I make mine with frozen raspberries and white chocolate, but you can leave out the chocolate if you like, and you can either leave out the fruit, or you can change it up with any frozen fruit you like. This time around I used frozen blackberries, since raspberries were very expensive. My recipe is large enough to fill a half sheet pan, and you need a pan extender.

This is a half recipe.
Directions:
Batter:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 12 ounce bag of frozen fruit
1 bag of white chocolate chips

Pecan Topping:
In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Add the butter and, using your fingertips, pinch the ingredients together into a sandy, crumbly mixture. Add the pecans and mix.

3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup chopped pecans, pulsed in the food processor

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 by 9-inch cake pan. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), cream the butter until smooth. With the mixer running, slowly add the sugar and mix. Add the eggs and mix until light and fluffy. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together. Working in batches, add them to the butter-sugar mixture, alternating with dollops of sour cream. Mix in the raisins. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the topping mixture over the cake. Bake until risen and browned, about 45 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes in the pan. Serve in squares.

CSN Store

2011-01-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

I have had one giveaway for CSN stores and reviewed one of their products, well here we are again. CSN offers everything from leather messenger bags leather messenger bags to some really nice cookware. Here is one of the pretty cool bags they offer.

CSN Has over 200 online stores and I really like the cookware. My brother bought a pressure cooker and has been raving about it, so I decided I will get the same one and write a review about it, so look for a review pretty soon here.

Blonde Cookbook

2011-01-11T11:24:00.000-08:00

Here is some humor for everyone.
Blonde Cookbook....

It's fun to cook for Don. Today I made angel food cake. The recipe said beat 12 eggs separately. The neighbors were nice enough to loan me the extra bowls.

He wanted fruit salad for supper. The recipe said serve without dressing. So I didn't dress. What a surprise when he brought a friend home for supper

A good day for rice. The recipe said wash thoroughly before steaming the rice. It seemed kind of silly but I took a bath anyway. I can't say it improved the rice any.

Today he asked for salad again. I tried a new recipe. It said prepare ingredients; lay on a bed of lettuce one hour before serving. He asked me why I was rolling around in the garden..

I found an easy recipe for cookies. It said put the ingredients in a bowl and beat it.. There must have been something wrong with this recipe. When I got back, everything was the same as when I left.

Saturday
He did the shopping today and brought home a chicken. He asked me to dress it for Sunday. I don't have any clothes that fit it, and for some reason he keeps counting to ten.

I wanted to serve roast but all I had was hamburger. Suddenly I had a flash of genius..I put the hamburger in the oven and set the controls for roast. It still came out hamburger, much to my disappointment.

GOOD NIGHT DEAR DIARY. This has been a very exciting week! I am eager for tomorrow to come so I can try out a new recipe. If I can talk him into buying a bigger oven, I would like to surprise him with a chocolate moose.

A blonde goes into a coffee shop and notices there's a 'peel and win' sticker on her coffee cup.

So she peels it off and starts screaming,
'I've won a motor home!
I've won a motor home!'
The waitress says,'That's impossible.
The biggest prize is a free Lunch.'

But the blonde keeps on screaming,
I've won a motor home!
I've won a motor home!'
Finally, the manager comes over and says,
'Ma'am, I'm sorry, but you're mistaken.
You couldn't have possibly won a motor home
because we didn't have that as a prize.

The blonde says, 'No, it's not a mistake.
I've won a motor home!'

And she hands the ticket to the manager and HE reads...

'W I N A B A G E L'

Battered Chicken and Fresh Cut Fries

2011-01-04T12:07:00.000-08:00

I like batter dipped food verses breaded. I use chicken thighs since dark meat stays moist versus white meat. I soaked the chicken in buttermilk. It gives the chicken some moisture and flavor. Soak the chicken for a least 30 minutes, if you choose to do this step. You can, if you choose to, soak the chicken overnight.

After you remove the chicken from the buttermilk, let the milk drain off the chicken and season the chicken with whatever seasoning you choose to use.

You can use your own tempura recipe or this one. There are many different ways to make it, but I like this one. This recipe is from Thomas Keller, chef of The French Laundry restaurant in California.

Tempura Batter
3/4 cup cornstarch
3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

If you cannot get cake flour, regular all purpose flour will work fine. After you mix the dry ingredients, you can store them in a plastic container or zip lock bag. When you want to use the batter mix, put some into a bowl and add water or beer or liquid of choice to make the batter as thin or thick as you like. I like the batter on the thick side.

Even though your chicken has seasoning on it, season the tempura batter with the same seasoning as on the chicken, otherwise, it will be a bit bland. Most people do not own a little deep fat fryer. If you do not own one, you can use a pot filled with oil and a thermometer.

Use a really big pot and pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a sheet pan with foil, and if you have a wire rack that you can put on the sheet pan, add that also.

Heat your oil to 350 degrees, then dip and add 2-3 pieces of chicken at a time. Cook till golden brown or even slightly dark.

The chicken will not be fully cooked in the oil. The thighs have bones, and tempura batter will burn before it is cooked. Remove the chicken after it is golden to dark, whatever you prefer. Put on the wire rack on the sheet pan and finish in the oven. You can temp the chicken to 165 degrees or simply cut into a piece and check to see if the juices run clear.

Any batter that is left over you must throw away, you do not want to re-use it or save it.

Now for the fries- you can either buy them or make them yourself. I made beer battered fries. What you need to do is cut the fries by hand. I used russet potatoes. Then, after you cut them, run them under cold water or soak them in cold water for 5-10 minutes to remove excess starch.

Make sure they are very dry. After they are dry, heat the oil to 325 degrees. After it gets up to temp, fry them in small batches and par-cook them. Cook the fries for about 7-8 minutes. A low temp will help cook the inside with out burning the outside. Use a low temp and double cook time for thick fries, but if your doing shoestring fries simply cook the fries once at 375 degrees. After you cook the fries once, drain them on a wire rack and let them dry off and cool. Then, if you choose to batter dip them, use the same dry mix, season it and make it a little thin.

Heat the oil to 375 to brown the fries, and put the par-cooked potatoes into the batter. Slowly add the fries in small batches; cook till golden brown. Put them in a bowl and season with salt. You can then put them on a paper bag to drain excess grease.

HINT
If you're not sure if your food will come out seasoned the way you like it or if the batter is too think or thin, you can take a piece of chicken like a chicken tender or cut off a small piece, season and batter it, then cook it and taste it. Adjust it as desired.
Enjoy! Rick b

Best Hot Chocolate Ever

2010-12-29T11:12:00.000-08:00

Below is a recipe for what I think is the best Hot Chocolate in the world. If anyone tries it and thinks theirs is better, please post it for us to try. This one really is like drinking a liquid pudding.

1 and a half cups whole milk

half a cup heavy cream

half of a real vanilla bean

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped
around 70 percent cacao

Combine in a pot: milk, cream, and vanilla bean - scrape out the contents of the bean.

Then. in a bowl, mix sugar and cocoa to help avoid lumps of cocoa, then wisk into milk, and heat over medium heat until hot. Do not boil.

Place chopped chocolate in a bowl, and pour hot milk mixture over chocolate, let sit about 1 minute. Whisk until smooth, and pour into cups.

If you alter this recipe by using skim milk or not using heavy cream, it will not be as good. You can use lighter chocolate or darker, but again that will change the flavor some. But for me, I am going to try and stir in peanut butter to the mix to try a hot chocolate and peanut butter drink. Enjoy. Rick b

Fun with Food

2010-12-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

A lot of people tell their kids, "Do not play with your food." I disagree. So, I am going to show you that it can be fun to play with food. I have decided to make it my

to play with food. I want to strip all the myths bare

because I feel this issue is very

I make

so I am going to share my

of wisdom with everyone.

I am so
that my parents allowed me to play with my food. As a result, I am now working in the restaurant business.

I now have lots of

in people that they will let their kids play with food. But as many parents know, if kids play with food they are sure to make a mess. If this happens then

with the kids, and tell them they must clean up after themselves and do the dishes. If you allow the kids to wash the dishes and you don't have to, then it will bring you great

and

knowing the kids are learning how to be responsible and clean up after themselves.

I really do

that by allowing your kids to play with food will cause them to want to go on to be a creative member of society and learn a good trade that pays very well. Then, maybe your child can take care of you later in life, and you can then retire with great

knowing you raised your child to want to work.

Now if your child is getting teased for wanting to cook and clean, or they don't want to get into a restaurant and cook, then give them a

and tell them to either open it up on the person teasing them, or tell them to get into the UFC and open the can there and teach those guys a lesson. Rick b

Roasting a Turkey

2010-12-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

I know Thanksgiving has passed, but here was the bird I did for it. I see many people either ruin a good turkey by cooking it in a bag, or they overcook it and it's so very dry. I personally hate turkey that's cooked in a bag. It's not roasted, it's steamed.

I have a double basin sink, so I cleaned one side out really well and brined the turkey overnight. If you don't want to brine the bird in the sink, you can use a 5 gallon bucket or some other big container. There are many recipes for brines, and I have tried a few. Every time I have tried them, they were too salty and not very good, so I have given up following any sort of brine recipe.

Next, I fill my container with cold water. Then, I take a pot, put in some water, sea salt, white or brown sugar, and heat it on the stove. After the sugar and salt is dissolved, I pour it into my container of water. Add sliced lemons, a bunch or two of fresh parsley, black peppercorns, and bay leaves.

I added enough of everything to make sure the water is very well flavored. Then, I add my turkey and add ice to keep the water cold. It can sit out overnight out of the fridge. After it sits overnight, I pull out the bird, dry it very well, and fill the cavity of the bird will all the lemons, parsley, and everything else.

Then, rub the entire bird with olive oil and sprinkle it with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, but you can season it any way you like.

Then, cover the breast of the turkey with foil. The reason is that the breast would overcook and dry out before the legs are done. I put the oven on 400 degrees and set the turkey on a wire rack. I put the rack on a disposable foil pan.

Now, I did not time my bird or even take the temperature. I cooked it at 400 for about 4 hours, then I pulled the foil off the breast, raised the temperature by 50 degrees, and cooked it till the breast was golden brown.

After I pulled the bird out of the oven, I let it rest for about 30 minutes to let the juices back into the bird. It was very juicy. If you want to, or need to, take the temperature of the bird, then stick the thermometer into the thickest part of the bird. That would be the thigh. Let the temperature hit about 160 degrees. The correct temperature needs to be about 165, but during the resting period the carry-over heat will raise the temperature from 160 to 165 or higher. Then, use the drippings to make a gravy. Never throw the drippings away or make a gravy out of a powdered mix.

Record breaking new chili pepper

2010-12-04T13:46:00.000-08:00

It is so hot weapons experts plan to use a couple in a spice bomb to incapacitate enemy soldiers on the battlefield.

But the world’s hottest chilli does not hail from India, Thailand or Mexico but from a small greenhouse in Cumbria.

It was created by crossing three of the hottest varieties of chilli pods known to man.

The Naga Viper rates an astonishing 1,359,000 on the Scoville scale, which measures heat by the presence of the chemical compound capsaicin

The result is a record breaking chilli that will make your eyes stream, throat burn, nose run and much, much worse.

The Naga Viper chilli packs an astonishing 1,359,000 on the Scoville scale, which measures heat by the presence of the chemical compound capsaicin.

Experts at Warwick University carried out tests on the chilli and officially declared it the hottest.

It beat competition from the ferocious Bhut Jolokia pod - the previous holder - to take the title of the world’s hottest chilli in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Creator, Gerald Fowler, a full-time chilli farmer for five years, said: ‘When they grow chilli in India or the Caribbean they’re used to the heat and the drought. When they’re grown over here I think they fight back against the harsher climate and produce even more heat.’

Dozens of customers at Mr Fowler’s village pub, the Engine Inn, signed a disclaimer stating they are of sound body and mind before sampling a curry cooked with Naga Viper. Only two managed to finish the whole dish.

He sells the chilli as a tongue-blistering sauce for curries but says he is getting a lot of interest from chilly growers keen to get their hands on the seeds.

Gerald Fowler with his Naga Viper chilli pods, the hottest chilli pods in the world

‘It’s painful to eat,’ said Mr Fowler, 52, who runs the Chilli Pepper Company, in Cark-in-Cartmel, near Grange-Over-Sands. ‘It’s hot enough to strip paint.

‘It numbs your tongue, then burns all the way down. It can last an hour, and you just don’t want to talk to anyone or do anything. But it’s a marvellous endorphin rush. It makes you feel great.’

The most popular chilli – Jalapeno – measures a pitiful 2,500 to 5,000 on the Scoville scale.

Mr Fowler’s Naga Viper is more than 270 times hotter and trumps the previous world record holder, the Bhut Jolokia, at 1,001,304.

The Indian Government has been examining ways of using the very hottest chillis such as the Bhut Jolokia to produce a spice bomb that would completely incapacitate enemy soldiers without killing them.

Earlier this year they created an 81-mm tear-gas like grenade which could be thrown by a soldier.

The mix of spices and phosphorous chokes the enemy’s respiratory tract, leaving targets barely able to breathe for a time.

It also causes severe stinging to the skin as well as streaming eyes, a burning throat and disorientation.

Mr Fowler crossed the Bhut Jolokia, with two other varieties, the Naga Morich and Trinidad Scorpion, and grew the plants in his 8ft by 16ft heated greenhouse.

He said: ‘The chef Heston Blumenthal gave a volunteer our chilli oil and monitored their brain activity on a CAT scan. It showed the part of the brain which registers heat was right next to the part of the brain which makes us feel happy.’

He said: ‘Some people have actually eaten the raw pods, because that’s the sort of macho thing that some people do, and posted it on YouTube. A couple were sick.’

Mr Fowler has sold chilli seeds to the Eden Project in Cornwall, to the Edinburgh Horticultural Society, and to farmers in Afghanistan, as a alternative to growing poppies for opium.

‘I’ve been growing chilli for 10 years, and doing it full-time for five,‘ he said ‘I was a website designer and just got drawn into it when my dad got a chilli plant

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1335043/Worlds-hottest-chilli-grown-tiny-Cumbrian-greenhouse.html#ixzz174736KTs

So What's It Like to Be on Iron Chef?

2010-11-30T11:11:00.000-08:00

I found this article and thought it was really cool.

Sous chef David Guas told us what happened behind the scenes on last night's episode of Iron Chef America.

By Anna Spiegel
Pastry chef David Guas is the owner of the just-opened Bayou Bakery in Arlington.

Pastry chef David Guas is the owner of the just-opened Bayou Bakery in Arlington.

Bell peppers may seem like a tame secret ingredient for Iron Chef America, but the battle last night between the newest top toque, Marc Forgione, and former Vidalia chef R.J. Cooper was anything but mild. Our hometown competitor’s team was made up of sous chefs Harper McClure—Cooper’s chef de cuisine at his soon-to-open Rogue 24—and Bayou Bakery owner and pastry chef David Guas. They transformed peppers into an accompaniment for sea urchin and fashioned them into a dessert that featured red-pepper gelée, goat-cheese mousse, candied peppers, and fried bacon. Despite high praise from the judges (the Travel Channel’s Adam Richman said, “Dude, wherever you cook, I’m comin’.”), Forgione took home the crown.

Cooper held a viewing party last night at Long View Gallery in the Mount Vernon neighborhood, close to Rogue 24’s space. The event doubled as a benefit for Chefs as Parents, a local organization dedicated to improving school lunch. Founders Cathal Armstrong and Robert Wiedmaier were at the event, as was Todd Thrasher, who served a boozy punch. Guas contributed bacon-spiked caramel corn, McClure put out a bacon velouté with Nantucket Bay scallops.

We sat down with Guas to talk about his experience in Kitchen Stadium, training for the match, and what he’d do differently next time.

Did the network tell you ahead of time what the secret ingredient would be?
“They gave us three possibilities: beef, razor clams, and peppers. Both of the other ingredients scared me. They tell you two hours before you go on what it is, and you can race through scenarios. You can have notes on stage, but they have to be tucked away.”

What would you have made with beef or razor clams?
“During our training we made a dessert with phyllo and stuffed it with candied fruit and rendered beef fat. The clams were hard. We made an ice cream with the liquid of the steamed clams and a bit of white wine.”

How did you and the other chefs prepare?
“We got together twice to train and race the clock. We created a menu based on the three possibilities and made five to six courses for each. We didn’t have a kitchen: RJ had left Vidalia, and I didn’t have my kitchen yet. Harper was still down in Atlanta. We ended up borrowing Weidmaier’s kitchens at Brasserie Beck and Marcel’s for four to five hours. We trained a total of eight or nine hours.”

Did the training come in handy when you got to filming?
“You can train all you want, but Kitchen Stadium is like a snake pit of wires, guys constantly in your face with a camera, guys coming up and sticking a microphone in your face. That’s the beauty of being a sous chef: I could keep my head down the whole time. RJ was the guy that needed to be more engaging and the entertainer.”

Do you watch much Iron Chef before going on the show?
“When it first started—years ago. I didn’t even know who the players were in the current season. I didn’t realize that Forgione was the new Iron Chef and that no one had battled him before.”

As a pastry chef, what was your experience in the competition versus that of the other cooks?
“The dessert is the last thing they eat. I didn’t think about it too much, but if it was a horrible dessert, it could be the reason RJ loses.”

What was the most challenging part of Kitchen Stadium?
“Being in an unfamiliar kitchen and not knowing where things were or how they worked. If the oven runs hot, that’s something you don’t know until you cook in it.”

Were there any funny moments?
“They called me Harper for 40 minutes. I don’t know when [host] Alton Brown figured that part out.”

If there was one thing you could redo in the competition, what would it be?
“More sleep the night before.”

Cherpumple?????

2010-11-23T12:39:00.000-08:00

This crazy dessert is the type of thing I dream of creating and making. I am always thinking outside the Box, No Pun intended. Well Maybe someday I will create something off the wall that will be noticed like this.

Turduckens are now American holiday fixtures, those Frankenstein fowl featuring a turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken. Last Thanksgiving, Charles Phoenix created the turducken of desserts.

Eyeing the remains of his family's meal, Mr. Phoenix noticed everyone took a sliver of each pie—cherry, pumpkin and apple—and some cake. "I was inspired," he says, "to combine all my family's traditional holiday desserts into one."

Days later, the 47-year-old Los Angeles resident created a "cherpumple," a three-layer cake with an entire pie baked into each layer—a cherry pie baked inside a white cake, a pumpkin pie baked inside a yellow cake and an apple pie baked inside a spice cake. He stacked the layers and sealed them with a coat of cream-cheese frosting.

Mr. Phoenix made a YouTube video of his experiment, and a star was born. "It both intrigues and horrifies people," says Mr. Phoenix, who collects photos from bakers who have attempted to make the cake. It "puts the kitsch in kitchen."

Julie Van Rosendaal from Calgary, Alberta, made one for an October dinner club with friends, where each was to bring a dish. The meal's theme was the seven deadly sins.

Her cherpumple was gluttony. "We had it on the table, and it just looked like a regular cake," says Ms. Van Rosendaal. But when the 40-year-old food writer sliced in to reveal the pies baked into each layer, she got "oohs" and some "eeews" from her friends. "People were not only disgusted by it, but wanted to eat it, too," she says. "I think it could totally catch on."

Diana Schubert of northern Virginia found that diners at a party she catered with a cherpumple "enjoyed the total spectacle," but few tried to finish a slice. "I think they just wanted to try to taste all of the different layers," says the 41-year-old podcaster and blogger, who uses the pseudonym Vivid Muse. Her husband finished a slice and says he got a bit of a stomachache.

Making a cherpumple properly can take three days, because each component must cool before being baked into another. The baker pries each cooked pie out of its dish and plops it into a cake pan, then smothers it in cake batter and slides it into the oven again. Mr. Phoenix suggests adding green or pink food coloring to the frosting to make it seasonal.

Pies are heavy and have little structural integrity in their mid-sections, so many cherpumples fall apart. "The physics of it provide a kind of 'will or won't it collapse' situation," says Mr. Phoenix. "But if your cherpumple does collapse, you can act like it was meant to happen and serve with spoons." When Mr. Phoenix, an author and humorist, made a cherpumple recently in Denver, the "cake collapsed into a big mound, kind of like a volcano with three different lava flows." He blames the altitude.

Getting the center of the top of each cake layer to bake sufficiently can be a challenge, since the inner pie blocks much of the heat. Laura Gudde, who works in sales for an ink company in Columbia, Mo., checked hers in the oven with a toothpick. "Everything looked normal," she says. "But when I went to get the cake out of the pan, it gooped up like it wasn't cooked all the way through....It made a pretty big mess."

The 24-year-old reassembled the pieces, threw them back in the oven and afterward fused them together with frosting.

There are variations on the theme, such as the cherberryple, which replaces pumpkin with blueberry. The Flying Monkey Patisserie in Philadelphia in October began selling a version without the top (and most unstable) cherry layer, dubbed simply the pumpple cake. Flying Monkey says its pumpple has 1,800 calories in an $8 slice designed to serve four. Owner Elizabeth Halen says she sells out in a few hours most mornings. Still, "numerous people feel the need to tell me how disgusting it is, too," she says. "I don't know why, and I don't care. I am a baker, not a health-food nut."
Other food artists have adapted the theme to their own work. Megan Seling, a 30-year-old Seattle writer, concocted a cupcake last Easter baked around a Cadbury Creme Egg. It landed on ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com, which chronicles high-calorie foods. Then Ms. Seling heard of the cherpumple from a friend. Making a whole cherpumple would be expensive, she figured, so she baked a miniature cherry pie into a chocolate cupcake. It was a hit with friends, so she set up BakeItInaCake.com, where she began posting recipes for cupcakes with baked-in treats such as tiny pumpkin pies, baklava and donuts.

"This is taking the cupcake trend to a ridiculous—but also, hopefully, delicious—level," she says. After inventing dozens of new cupcakes, Ms. Seling and her boyfriend each gained about five pounds, she says.

Many cherpumplers say they're drawn to the challenge of combining foods that don't normally go together. Brian Driscoll of Sandusky, Ohio, made a single-stack pie-cake recently and plans to go for the full cherpumple at a Thanksgiving meal with friends. Themed around layers, the menu also includes a turducken and a layered bean casserole. "Once we set our minds to something like this," he says, "we are going to see it through."

Meat Stuffing

2010-11-22T14:45:00.000-08:00

Growing up as a kid, my grandmother would make this stuffing for Thanksgiving. This is my favorite stuffing ever, and it consists of only 3 ingredients.

Cook up some hamburger, the leaner the better. If it is about a 90/10 blend, then you won't need to drain the meat, otherwise drain excess grease. Peel and boil the potatoes, and use equal amounts of meat and potatoes. So, were talking 1 pound of each, or 8 oz of each, whatever amount you want to cook up. After cooking the meat and boiling the potatoes and draining them, mix the meat and potatoes and mash them together.

After you mix the meat and potatoes, take poultry seasoning (buy pre-mixed), and add to taste and mix well. I use about 3/4 to 1 ounce to a two pound batch of stuffing. Poultry seasoning can be strong. Add a little and taste, and increase once you find the taste you like.

Serve fresh and hot. If you have left overs, you can pan fry it the next day in your choice of oil or butter. I really enjoy it that way, also. This can also be a dinner in itself, and not just a side dish.

Currant School Grades

2010-11-14T14:22:00.000-08:00

Here are my updated school grades for all who care.
Cumulative GPA: 3.72

Term Course Course Code Grade Credits Attempt/Earned Instructor Start

Date End Date

2009 Fall I College Succes and Career Portfolio LCBC100 A

1.00/1.00 Farley Kaiser 9/29/2009 11/6/2009 12:00:00 AM

2009 Fall I Preparatory Mathematics GE090 PD 0.00/0.00 Frederic

Stenborg 9/29/2009 11/6/2009 12:00:00 AM

2009 Fall I Food Safety and Sanitation LCBC105 A 3.00/3.00

Paul Bergsbaken 9/29/2009 11/6/2009 12:00:00 AM

2009 Fall I Culinary Foundations I LCBC110 A 4.00/4.00 Paul

Bergsbaken 9/29/2009 11/6/2009 12:00:00 AM

2009 Fall I Culinary Foundations II LCBC120 A 6.00/6.00 Walter

Wittwen 11/9/2009 12/18/2009 12:00:00 AM

Winter Term A 2010 Culinary Foundations III LCBC130 B

6.00/6.00 Jeremy Sledge 1/4/2010 2/12/2010 12:00:00 AM

Winter Term A 2010 English I GE100 A 5.00/5.00 Jeris Swanhorst

2/15/2010 3/25/2010 12:00:00 AM

Winter Term A 2010 Speech GE140 A 5.00/5.00 Sarah Reith

2/15/2010 3/25/2010 12:00:00 AM

Spring Term A 2010 Baking and Pastry LCBC150 A 6.00/6.00

Carrie Franzen 4/5/2010 5/14/2010 12:00:00 AM

Spring Term A 2010 Environmental Science GE280 A 5.00/5.00 Aaron

Wilson 5/17/2010 6/25/2010 12:00:00 AM

Spring Term A 2010 Cost Control and Purchasing LCBC125 B

3.00/3.00 Jeremy Sledge 5/17/2010 6/25/2010 12:00:00 AM

Summer Term A 2010 Catering and Buffets LCBC160 A 6.00/6.00

Randall Toenges 7/6/2010 8/13/2010 12:00:00 AM

Summer Term A 2010 Psychology GE150 B 5.00/5.00 John Kohagen

8/16/2010 9/24/2010 12:00:00 AM

Summer Term A 2010 Hospitality Supervision and Entrepreneurship LCBC215

B 5.00/5.00 Anne Loger 8/16/2010 9/24/2010 12:00:00 AM

Fall Term A 2010 20Th Century Literature GE225 A 5.00/5.00 Jeris

Swanhorst 9/27/2010 11/5/2010 12:00:00 AM

Fall Term A 2010 Nutrition LCBC135 A 3.00/3.00 Lindsey

Walder 9/27/2010 11/5/2010 12:00:00 AM

Deep Frying Turkey information

2010-11-08T14:15:00.000-08:00

Hello, everyone!
Well, it's the time of year again that many people try deep frying a turkey, but instead burn down the garage or almost kill themselves. To me, some things would seem like common sense, like not frying indoors or putting a frozen bird in hot oil. I am going to give out some basic information for anyone who either has never deep fried a turkey, or has, but caused a fire.

1. Make sure your turkey, if frozen, is thawed 100 percent.

2. If using a fresh turkey, then make sure all blood and any other liquid is dried on the turkey.

You want your bird dry inside the cavity and outside. You want to put your fryer on a flat solid surface far from your house. Do a test run a few days before you fry your turkey with water instead of oil. What you do this. Take the deep frying pot and put water in it, then add a turkey. You will do this as a way to determine how much oil you will need to fry your turkey. If you put in too much water, then add your turkey, the water will flow over. You will then know that hot oil would also run over. One thing that people don't realize is that hot oil expands. If you find out where the level should be by adding water, then when you add your oil, lower the level by about 4 inches. The oil will expand after it heats to the correct temperature. I hope this little bit of information helps you safely deep fry a turkey without burning down your house. Rick b

Chili Pepper information

2010-11-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

I'm a Chili head and love the heat, so here is some information on who created the Scoville untis test for heat, and a list of how hot are the peppers your eating.

Professor Wilber L. Scoville In 1912 a chemists by the name of Wilbur Scoville, working for the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company, developed a method to measure the heat level of chile peppers. The test is named after him, the "Scoville Organoleptic Test". It is a subjective dilution-taste procedure. In the original test, Wilbur blended pure ground Chiles with sugar-water and a panel of "testers" then sipped the solution, in increasingly diluted concentrations, until they reached the point that the liquid no longer burned their mouths. A number was then assigned to each chile pepper based on how much it needed to be diluted before they could no longer taste (feel) the heat.

"1,000,000 drops of water is rated at only 1.5 Scoville Units"
The pungency (or heat factor) of chile peppers is measured in multiples of 100 units. The sweet bell peppers at zero Scoville units to the mighty Naga Jolokia (Ghost Pepper) at over 1,000,000 Scoville units! One part of chile "heat" per 1,000,000 drops of water is rated at only 1.5 Scoville Units. The substance that makes a chile so hot is called Capsaicin (cap-say-ah-sin). Pure Capsaicin rates between 15,000,000 and 16,000,000 Scoville Units! Today a more scientific and accurate method called liquid chromatography is used to determine capsaicin levels. In honor of Dr. Wilbur the unit of measure is still named Scoville.

Below is a list of Chile peppers and their Scoville Heat Units. Due to variations in growing conditions, soil and weather, peppers tend to vary between the lower and upper levels listed, but can go beyond them.

Order: Dried Chiles Chile Powders Hot Sauce Hot Pepper Seeds

Scoville Units Chile Pepper Heat Range
Sweet Bell 0
Sweet Banana 0
Pimento 0
Cherry 00 ~ 500
Pepperoncini 100 ~ 500
Sonora 300 ~ 600
El-Paso 500 ~ 700
Santa Fe Grande 500 ~ 750
NuMex R Naky 500 ~ 1,000
Coronado 700 ~ 1,000
TAM Mild Jalapeno 1,000 ~ 1,500
New Mexico 6-4 1,000 ~ 1,500
Espanola 1,000 ~ 2,000
Poblano 1,000 ~ 2,000
Ancho 1,000 ~ 2,000
Mulato 1,000 ~ 2,000
Pasilla 1,000 ~ 2,000
Anaheim 500 ~ 2,500
Sandia 500 ~ 2,500
NuMex Big Jim 1,500 ~ 2,500
Rocotillo 1,500 ~ 2,500
Pulla 700 ~ 3,000
NuMex Joe E. Parker 1,500 ~ 3,000
Bulgarian Carrot 2,000 ~ 5,000
Mirasol 2,500 ~ 5,000
Guajillo 2,500 ~ 5,000
Jalapeno 2,500 ~ 8,000
Chipolte 5,000 ~ 8,000
Long Thick Cayenne 6,000 ~ 8,500
Hot Wax 5,000 ~ 9,000
Puya 5,000 ~ 10,000
Hidalgo 6,000 ~ 17,000
Aji Escabeche 12,000 ~ 17,000
Serrano 8,000 ~ 22,000
Manzano 12,000 ~ 30,000
Shipkas 12,000 ~ 30,000
NuMex Barker's Hot 15,000 ~ 30,000
De Arbol 15,000 ~ 30,000
Jaloro 30,000 ~ 50,000
Aji 30,000 ~ 50,000
Tabasco 30,000 ~ 50,000
Cayenne 30,000 ~ 50,000
Santaka 40,000 ~ 50,000
Super Chile 40,000 ~ 50,000
Piquin 40,000 ~ 58,000
NuMex XX Hot 60,000 ~ 70,000
Yatsafusa 50,000 ~ 75,000
Red Amazon 55,000 ~ 75,000
Haimen 70,000 ~ 80,000
Chiltecpin 60,000 ~ 85,000
Thai 50,000 ~ 100,000
\ Merah 85,000 ~ 100,000
Tabiche 85,000 ~ 115,000
Bahamian 95,000 ~ 110,000
Carolina Cayenne 100,000 ~ 125,000
Kumataka 125,000 ~ 150,000
Bahamian 125,000 ~ 300,000
Jamaican Hot 100,000 ~ 200,000
Birds Eye 100,000 ~ 225,000
Tepin (Wild) 100,000 ~ 265,000
Datil 1,000 ~ 300,000
Devil Toung 125,000 ~ 325,000
Fatalii 125,000 ~ 325,000
Orange Habanero 150,000 ~ 325,000
Scotch Bonnet 150,000 ~ 325,000
TigrePaw-NR 265,000 ~ 348,000
Rocoto / Manzano 225,000 ~ 350,000
Caribbean Red 120,000 ~ 400,000
Choclate Habanero 325,000 ~ 425,000
Red Savina Habanero 350,000 ~ 575,000
Dorset Naga 800,000 ~ 900,000
Naga Jolokia "Ghost Pepper" 800,000 ~ 1,041,000
Common Pepper Spray 2-3,000,000
Police Grade Spray 5,300,000
Homodihydrocapsaicin 8,600,000
Nordihydrocapsaicin 9,100,000
Pure Capsaicin 15-16,000,000

Carved Pumkins

2010-10-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

Artist Ray Villafane began carving pumpkins on a lark for his art students in a small rural school district in Michigan. The hobby changed his life as he gained a viral following online and unlocked his genuine love of sculpting. Here are images of pumpkin carvings Villafane created over the past five years.

Carmel Sauce

2010-10-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

I said I would post about caramel and here it is! There are two ways to make basic caramel, the wet method and the dry method. Over the years, I have read many cookbooks that mentioned making caramel the dry method way. Sadly, many of these cookbook authors make it sound like making caramel this way is the impossible mission. It sounds like your house will blow up and you will die if you do it wrong. Seriously, for years I never tried it because I thought it was going to be impossible. Well, one day, I was reading a book that called for making caramel the dry method way and said, "I gotta try this." It turns out that it is super easy, and I wished I never listened to the people that made it out to be so hard.

Here are the two styles laid out and why they are used.

1. The dry method.
You simply put raw white sugar into a pan, turn the heat on and let it melt. It will start to get dark around the edges and burn and smell like burnt sugar. You will need to stir it a little or even gently swirl it around, but you must wait till the majority is melted or it will clump up like little rocks and they will not melt. After this fully melts and you have caramel, you can add butter or heavy cream to make caramel sauce. Making the caramel this way is the fastest way to make caramel, but it makes for a really dark, almost burnt tasting caramel. Don't let the sound of "burnt" scare you, some people really like that strong flavor. Depending what you put it on, it will mellow out some. The draw back to doing it this way is you can go from no caramel to burnt, no good sugar fast, and you cannot control the darkness of the caramel.

2. The wet method.
This method is used for more than just making caramel. It is used for candy making because it allows you to cook the sugar to the different stages for making candy. If you're simply making caramel this way, you won't really need a candy thermometer. If you're looking for different sugar stages, then you will need one. I will lay out the different candy stages next.

Pretty much everyone has a recipe for doing this, so you can use my recipe or you can research many different recipes. I was watching a video from Ewald Notter, one of the world's greatest sugar master. He says that the amount of acid you use (ie. lemon or lime juice, vinegar, etc) effects the sugar. So, it can either make it too brittle, too soft, or a whole host of other problems. These problems are really only a concern if you're doing pulled sugar and sugar sculptures, not making caramel sauce.

I have seen and even used some great recipes for caramel sauce, like one from Gale Gand, Pastry Chef at Tru in Chicago. She makes a jelly flavored caramel. She makes carmel from just sugar using the wet sugar method. Once it is to the darkness she likes, she pours in red wine. This stuff is amazing; it tastes just like jelly.

Here is a really good caramel sauce from Elizabeth Falkner.

1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon cream of tarter or fresh lemon juice
1 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
1 Tablespoon butter
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Mix water and sugar, cream of tarter or lemon juice, corn syrup, in a medium size sauce pan. Turn heat onto medium high to high. Let it go for 5-7 minutes. It will start to turn a dark amber color. Remember, once you add the cream it will lighten it a little, so let it go till you get the desired color you want. Turn off the heat and pour in the heavy cream. Be careful as it will cause steam to come up. After the cream is added, whisk in the cold butter until blended in really well. Add salt.

There are many ways to make caramel. You can check out different recipes and then change things around. You can add beer, wine, some fruit juice, or various things.
Here are the candy-making temps.

Thread 223-235* F Glacé and candied fruits
Soft ball 235-245* F Fudge and fondant
Firm ball 245-250* F Caramel candies
Hard ball 250-266* F Divinity and marshmallows
Soft crack 270-290* F Nougat and taffy.
Hard crack 300-310* F Brittles and lollipops
Caramel 320-350* F Pralines

Just add water, sugar, and acid. Put it over high to medium high heat and add a candy thermometer. As soon as your sugar hits the desired temperature, remove from the heat. Stick the bottom of the pot into ice water quickly to stop the sugar from overcooking.

Burger toppings from A-Z

2010-10-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

I found this article that covers a wide range of burger toppings. Who knew so many existed, and I love burgers, so I thought I would post this.

Bet you're having a Fourth of July cookout this weekend, and I'm also willing to bet that burgers will be on the menu -- it's America's favorite food to throw on the grill, after all, so who are we to mess with tradition?

But that doesn't mean you can't shake things up by offering a few new toppings along with the squeeze bottles of Heinz ketchup and classic yellow mustard.

Just as the definition of what constitutes a "burger" has evolved over time -- today, home cooks are just as likely to stuff patties made from ground seafood, beans or veggies inside a bun as ones made from grilled beef or turkey -- so too has our idea of what tastes great on top.

Happily, you don't need a ton of fancy ingredients, or even a whole lot of time in the kitchen, to make a killer burger topping. Take the humble pickle, perhaps the quintessential cookout condiment. Why settle for a limp spear out of a jar when you can make your own crispy dill spears from scratch? All it takes is a handful of sliced Kirby cucumbers, a few spices and a cup of vinegar. Homemade pickled jalapenos and pepper sauce, which speak to America's growing love affair with the chile pepper, are similarly easy to prepare. Or maybe you'd rather add some crunch and color with a tasty Moroccan carrot salad (great on lamb burgers) or get your Latin groove on with a savory sun-dried tomato chimichurri.

Admit it. Doesn't ketchup and mustard suddenly sound boring?

This Independence Day is the perfect time to declare your independence from the same old, same old. To get the fireworks started, we offer an A to Z list of toppings for your favorite meat, seafood and veggie burgers.

Asian Guacamole

PG tested

* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 small red onion, finely shredded
* 1/2 teaspoon mild curry powder
* 2 avocados
* 6 spring onions, finely chopped
* 1 hot green chile
* Juice of 2 limes
* Handful of coriander/cilantro leaves
* 1 tablespoon sour cream

Heat olive oil in pan. Add red onion and cook 1 minute. Add curry powder, cook for 2 minutes, allow to go cold.

Cut avocados in half, remove the skins and stones. Place in blender, add the remaining ingredients (except the sour cream) plus the spiced onion mix. Whiz into a coarse puree, then fold in the sour cream.

Place in a bowl and refrigerate to allow the flavors to marinate for 1 hour.

Serves 4.

-- "Burgers" by Paul Gayler (Jacqui Small, 2010, $14.95)

Balsamic Onion Confit

PG tested

* 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
* 1 pound onions, chopped
* 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
* 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Preheat grill on medium-low. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan on grill. Add onions, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown (about 1 hour).

Add vinegar and cook to reduce to syrup-like consistency. The mixture should still be moist and resemble a jam. Delicious served warm or refrigerate and heat just before serving.

Makes 1 cup.

-- "All Fired Up" by Margaret Howard (Firefly, 2010, $24.95)

Caramelized Shallots

PG tested

* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 pound shallots, peeled and thinly sliced crosswise
* Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Melt butter in the olive oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots and cook until they have been reduced to a dark, sweet paste, 15 to 25 minutes; you will have to stir often. Lower heat as needed to keep from burning. Season with salt and pepper to taste. The shallots can be caramelized several hours or even a day ahead and refrigerated, covered. Let return to room temperature before serving.

Serves 4.

-- Planet Barbecue!" by Steven Raichlen (Workman, 2010, $22.95)

Dill Pickle Spears

PG tested

* 4 to 6 Kirby cucumbers, sliced lengthwise
* 1 cup white-wine vinegar
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 3 tablespoons coarse salt
* 1 teaspoon dill seed,
* 2 crushed and peeled garlic cloves
* 2 cups water

Place sliced cukes in a large bowl. In a medium saucepan, combine remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar and salt dissolve; pour mixture over cucumbers.

Use a small plate to submerge cukes in liquid. Refrigerate until cool, at least 2 hours. Pickles can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.

Makes 1 quart.

-- "Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast" from the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living (Clarkson Potter, 2010, $24.99)

Egg and Caper Relish

* 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
* 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
* 1 shallot, finely chopped
* 2 teaspoons capers, coarsely chopped
* 1 tablespoon fresh flat-leaf parsley
* 4 tablespoons French dressing

Mix all ingredients together, and leave to infuse for 30 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

-- "Burgers" by Paul Gayler (Jacqui Small, 2010, $14.95)

Fennel and Jicama Slaw

PG tested

* 2 bulbs fennel with fronds
* 1 small jicama (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into julienne
* 1/2 cup fresh chives, sliced 1-inch long
* 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
* 1/4 cup orange liqueur
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
* 1/2 teaspoon crushed red chile flakes
* Kosher or coarse sea salt
* Freshly ground black pepper

Remove the fronds from the fennel and chop enough fronds to yield 1/4 cup. Core the fennel bulbs and slice very thinly. Transfer to a serving bowl along with the chopped fronds. Add all the remaining ingredients, including salt and pepper to taste, and toss to mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Toss again just before serving.

Serves 6.

-- "Burger Parties" by James McNair and Jeffrey Starr (Ten Speed, 2010, $19.99)

Grilled Garlic Tomatoes

PG tested

* 1/4 cup mayonnaise
* 3 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese
* 2 tablespoons seasoned dried bread crumbs
* 1 large clove garlic, pressed
* 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
* 2 large tomatoes, cut in half crosswise

Preheat grill to high.

Cut 2 12-inch squares of aluminum foil and layer them with the dull side up to form a double thickness. Place sheets on a baking sheet and set aside.

Combine mayonnaise, parmesan, bread crumbs, garlic and lemon juice. Spread mixture evenly on the cut side of each tomato half. Arrange tomatoes on foil sheets. Slide sheets onto the grill.

Cover grill and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the tops of the tomatoes are browned. Slide foil sheets from grill onto a plate and serve tomatoes hot on top of burgers.

Makes 4 servings.

-- "The Kansas City Barbecue Society Cookbook" by Ardie Davis, Chef Paul Kirk and Carolyn Wells (Andrews McMeel, 2010, $24.99)

Hot Chile Pepper Sauce

PG tested

* 2 red bell peppers
* 1 green bell pepper
* 1 clove garlic
* 1/2 red onion
* 2 small red West Indian hot chile peppers
* 2/3 cup olive oil
* 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
* 1 standard pack fresh cilantro
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the peppers either on a hot grill or over a gas flame until skins have blackened, then put them in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to cool. Finely chop the garlic and onion.

Wearing gloves, remove stems of chile peppers, cut in half and discard seeds, then chop very small.

Peel the bell peppers and cut into small cubes. Mix together bell peppers, garlic, onion and chile peppers in a saucepan. Add the oil and vinegar and bring to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes. Strip the leaves from the cilantro and add to the sauce, then leave to cool. Refrigerate overnight and check seasoning before serving.

Serves 6.

-- "Barbecue" by Thomas Feller (Octopus, 2009)

Island BBQ Sauce

* 1/2 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
* 1/2 cup pineapple juice
* 1/4 cup rum, dark or light
* 1/4 cup liquid honey
* 2 tablespoons dry mustard
* 2 tablespoons lightly packed brown sugar

In a small saucepan over low heat, combine ingredients and heat until simmering, stirring often.

Makes 1 1/2 cups of sauce.

-- "500 Best Sauces, Salad Dressings, Marinades & More" by George Geary (Robert Rose, 2010, $24.95)

Jalapeno Salsa

* 3 large Anaheim or Cubanelle chiles, cut in half and stemmed
* 10 jalapeno peppers, cut in half and seeded
* 1/2 red onion, sliced
* 6 cloves garlic
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
* 1 teaspoon sea salt

Place chiles, jalapenos, red onion and garlic on prepared roasting pan. Brush with oil. Roast in preheated 400-degree oven until skins of chiles and peppers are darkened, about 20 minutes.

In food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse roasted vegetables 10 times or until desired consistency. Transfer to a bowl. Stir in lime juice and salt. Let stand in a covered container in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour for flavors to develop or for up to 2 days.

Makes 2 cups.

-- "500 Best Sauces, Salad Dressings, Marinades & More" by George Geary (Robert Rose, 2010, $24.95)

Kosovan Grilled Mushrooms

PG tested

* 4 tablespoons salted butter, at room temperature
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, tarragon or basil
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 pound mushrooms, such as chanterelle, cremini, portobello or button

Place butter in a mixing bowl. Add garlic and parsley and whisk until light and creamy. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside. Wipe mushrooms clean with a damp paper towel or dish cloth. Trim ends off stems and slice.

Set up grill for direct grilling, lightly oil grates and preheat to high. Lightly brush mushrooms with garlic-herb butter. Grill on hot grates until nicely browned and tender, 2 to 3 minutes per side, basting with more garlic-herb butter. (Don't apply too much or it will drip and flare up and make the mushrooms sooty). Alternatively, grill the mushrooms in a grill basket or shish kebab-style on skewers. Transfer mushrooms to a platter and serve at once, with any remaining garlic-herb butter spooned on top.

Makes 4 servings.

-- "Planet Barbecue!" by Steven Raichlen (Workman, 2010, $22.95)

LETTUCE

Go with a variety you've never tried before, such as butterhead or red leaf, or shred it for extra texture.

MarRakesh carrot salad

PG tested

* Juice of 1 lemon
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground paprika
* 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon honey
* 1 teaspoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil1 pound carrots, peeled and grated

Combine the lemon juice, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, red pepper flakes, and salt in a bowl. Mix well to combine. Add the honey, parsley, olive oil, and carrots. Mix well and refrigerate until serving.

Makes enough for 6 burgers.

-- "Burger Parties" by James McNair and Jeffrey Starr (Ten Speed, 2010, $19.99)

NOT SO SECRET SAUCE

* 1 cup salad dressing
* 1/3 cup sweet relish
* 1/3 cup French dressing
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 1 teaspoon dry minced onion

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, and stir well. Refrigerate at least an hour before serving.

Makes 13/4 cups.

-- cdkitchen.com

Olive, Cilantro and Thyme Tapenade

* 1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
* 1/2 cup olive oil
* 1 tablespoon mashed roasted garlic cloves
* 1 grilled red onion (3 minutes per side), chopped
* 1 cup nicoise olives, pitted and finely diced
* 1 medium grilled tomato, finely diced
* 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
* Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
* 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

In a large bowl, whisk the vinegar, oil and garlic together. Add the onions, olives, tomato and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Stir well, using your hand or a wooden spoon. Let sit for 20 minutes. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Return to room temperature and add cilantro just before serving.

Makes about 21/2 cups.

-- "Latin Grill" by Rafael Palomino with Arlen Gargagliano (Chronicle, 2010, $19.95)

Pickled Jalapenos

PG tested

* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 small onion, sliced thick
* 5 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
* 15 jalapeno peppers (about 1 pound), rinsed (and I sliced them)
* 1 pound carrots, peeled, rinsed and sliced 1/2-inch thick (about 2 cups)
* 1 1/4 cups cider vinegar
* 1 tablespoon pickling salt, plus more as needed
* 1 teaspoon ground Mexican oregano
* 4 bay leaves
* White vinegar as needed

Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute for 3 minutes, then add garlic. Continue cooking for another minute or 2 until onions are soft. Add 8 cups water and bring to a boil. Add jalapenos and carrots and cook 5 minutes, or until slightly softened.

Add cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon pickling salt, Mexican oregano and bay leaves and simmer for another minute. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Remove jalapenos, carrots and onions with a slotted spoon or tongs and place in glass jars. When cooking liquid has cooled completely, cover vegetables with liquid until jars are 3/4 full. Add a tablespoon of pickling salt to each jar and fill to top with white vinegar. Cap jars and keep in the refrigerator. Will keep for several months.

Makes about 1 1/2 pounds.

-- "The Tex Mex Grill" by Robb Walsh (Broadway, 2010, $18.99)

Quick-pickled Red Onions

* 2/3 cup vinegar
* 3 tablespoons kosher salt
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1 large or 2 small red onions, sliced into 1/4-inch rings

In bowl, combine 1 cup water with vinegar, salt and sugar, whisking to dissolve. Add onions, ensuring they are fully submerged. Let stand for at least 1 hour, or up to a week in the refrigerator, stored in the pickling liquid. Drain before serving.

Makes 1 1/2 cups.

-- "Veggie Burgers Every Which Way" by Lukas Volger (The Experiment, 2010, $16.95)

Roasted Corn Salad

PG tested

* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 3 cups fresh corn (from about 6 ears)
* 2 jalapeno chile peppers, minced (seeded or not, depending on your heat threshold)
* Juice 1/2 lime
* 1 shallot, minced
* Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In an oven-safe pan or skillet, heat olive oil. Add corn and peppers, tossing quickly to combine. Transfer pan to oven and roast, stirring occasionally, until corn is tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

In a large bowl, combine corn and peppers with rest of the ingredients. Serve on top of burgers hot, cold or at room temperature.

Makes about 3 cups.

-- "Veggie Burgers Every Which Way " by Lukas Volger (The Experiment, 2010, $16.95)

Sun-dried Tomato Chimichurri

PG tested

* 1/2 cup dry-packed sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes and drained
* 1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
* 5 cloves roasted garlic
* 1 cup olive oil
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a blender or food processor, combine softened tomatoes, vinegar, roasted garlic and olive oil and process until well blended. Season with salt and pepper. Let sit for about 20 minutes and serve. Or cover and refrigerate up for 3 days. Return to room temperature before serving.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

-- "Latin Grill" by Rafael Palomino with Arlen Gargagliano (Chronicle, 2010, $19.95)

Tomato Butter

* 3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
* 2 tablespoons oil from sun-dried tomatoes
* 1 teaspoon mild honey
* 1/2 cup red flame seedless grapes (substitute green grapes, if necessary)
* 2 tablespoons plus one teaspoon brine-packed capers, rinsed and drained
* 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine the tomatoes, oil, honey, and grapes in a food processor and process to a paste. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the capers and parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Makes enough for 4 burgers.

-- "Burger Parties" by James McNair and Jeffrey Starr (Ten Speed, 2010, $19.99)

UNCOOKED TOMATO SALSA

* 3 red, ripe tomatoes, cored and chopped
* 1/2 medium Vidalia onion, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, chopped
* 1 jalapeno chile, seeded and chopped
* 1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro
* Splash of red wine vinegar or a good squeeze of lemon juice
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mix first six ingredients in a large bowl, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Allow flavors to mingle for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Makes about 1 cup.

-- Gretchen McKay

Vidalia Onion Rings

* 1 large Vidalia onion, sliced
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 3 teaspoons salt
* 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 3 eggs, divided
* 2 cups milk
* 3 tablespoons salad oil, plus more for frying

Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Mix egg yolks, milk and salad oil in another bowl. Combine. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, then fold into flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Dip onion rings into batter and deep fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Serves 1 or 2.

-- Vidaliaonion.org

Watercress Salad

PG tested

* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
* 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
* 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
* Bunch of watercress, well rinsed and trimmed

Place salt, sugar, pepper, ginger and garlic in a bowl and mash to a paste with the back of a wooden spoon. Whisk in vinegar and sesame oil. Add watercress, and toss to mix.

Makes about 11/2 cups.

-- "Planet Barbecue!" by Steven Raichlen (Workman, 2010, $22.95)

X-TRA CHEESE

American, Swiss, provolone or Monterey jack.

Yummy HORSERADISH SAUCE

* 3/4 cup sour cream
* 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
* 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
* 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
* 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

In a medium bowl thoroughly mix the ingredients. Cover and refrigerate until about 30 minutes before serving.

Makes about 1 cup.

-- "Weber's on the Grill: Steak & Sides" by Jamie Purviance (Sunset, 2010, $14.95)

Zesty Chipotle- infused BBQ Sauce

* 1 teaspoon olive oil
* 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
* 1 poblano chile, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 dried chipotle chile, toasted and ground
* 1 ancho chile, toasted and ground
* 2 tablespoons tomato paste
* 1/4 cup light corn syrup
* 1/4 cup apple juice
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar
* 2 tablespoons honey
* 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
* 1 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce
* 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
* Salt and ground pepper

In saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add onions, poblano and garlic, and cook 5 minutes. Stir in the ground chiles and cook an additional 2 minutes, stirring. Add remaining ingredients and simmer. Cook for 20 minutes until thickened. Pour sauce into a blender, and puree. Season with salt and pepper, and let sit for about 30 minutes before use. Refrigerate up to 8 days.

Makes 1 cup.

-- Chile Pepper magazine

Vanilla Sauce

2010-10-11T15:12:00.000-07:00

I have posted a recipe for fudge sauce and will be doing caramel sauce soon. These are some really good dessert sauces. They are very versatile for putting on cakes, cookies, bars etc. Let me warn everyone, this vanilla sauce is very high in fat and not really diet friendly.

Recipe:

20 large egg yolks
8 cups of heavy cream
2 cups of white sugar
1 whole vanilla bean split

Whip the yolks in a mixer on high until light and fluffy. They will thicken like mayonnaise. Mix the heavy cream, sugar, split the vanilla bean, and scrape the seeds into the cream. Heat over medium heat until hot. Do not boil, but bring to a simmer and remove from the heat.

Turn the mixer on low. Carefully and slowly, pour the vanilla cream mixture into the yolks. Mix briefly until fully mixed in. Then, pour into a large bowl and put over a double boiler. Cook till thick. If you use a wooden spoon, it should coat the back of a spoon. When you run your finger across the sauce, it should run very slowly down to cover the line. It's nappe for the rest of you. After it is nappe, pour it through a fine mesh strainer and put it over an ice bath. It will thicken as it chills. Keep it in the fridge; it should last up to 7 days.

edible "dirt"

2010-10-02T08:53:00.001-07:00

I saw this article and wanted to post it because it is really cool. I like things like this because I believe I am creative, and I love to see how creative people can get.

A STILL LIFE PORTRAIT OF THE SPRING SALAD CREATED BY GILT Restaurant Executive Chef Justin Bogle, FOR THE RESTAURANT GILT IN NEW YORK CITY, September 10, 2010. Made with Baby Vegetables, Petite Greens, Elder Flower, and Mushroom Soil (crumble). The soil is made with o Dehydrated Hen of the woods o Porcini Powder o Almond Flour o Ap flour o Sugar o Salr o Butter o Walnut oil

Copenhagen's Noma, the reigning best restaurant in the world, according to the prestigious Restaurant magazine, has been dazzling diners since it opened in 2003 with unorthodox ingredients such as just-picked flowers and wild game. But the most intriguing item on the menu by far? Chef René Redzepi's edible "dirt."

Edible dirt--perhaps one of the strangest fads to hit haute cuisine since sous vide--is not actual dirt but rather dried or charred ingredients used to give menu items an extra-earthy kick. Redzepi, 32, makes his dirt from dried malt and beer and presents it in terra cotta pots, "planted" with a whole raw radish to accompany a seven-course tasting menu.

Redzepi may be the most celebrated proponent of edible dirt, but he's not the only one. Although edible dirts vary in consistency (some resemble ash, others sand or soil), they typically serve the same culinary function: to anchor their dish's vegetables and proteins. At Tel Aviv's Shakuf, Eldad Shem-Tov serves dirt crafted from chickpeas and topped with smoked quail eggs. At San Francisco's Marlowe, Jennifer Puccio's dried-olive soil comes with pickled radishes and whipped chèvre. Both mushroom soil and charred-onion ash can be found at Gilt in Manhattan; the former is part of a summer salad, the latter dusted onto Niman Ranch strip loin. And a dish of 30 seasonal vegetables served with dirt made from potato, parsnip and roasted chicory is on the menu at Manresa in Los Gatos, Calif.

It was foams, gels and liquids that defined the last crop of superchefs, molecular gastronomists like Ferran Adrià, whose El Bulli in Spain is a five-time holder of the title of world's best restaurant. Redzepi and company are trading those elements for a more grounded geogastronomy--celebrating the land directly on the plate. "These chefs are reminding people where food actually comes from," says Nathan Garnett, the awards director at Restaurant.

Still, edible dirt's real test isn't professional admiration but diner appreciation. "People are really wowed to see dirt on their plates," says Gilt's Justin Bogle, who is experimenting with "pebbles" made from frozen foie gras. "They're unsure at first, but then they realize it really tastes good."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2019612,00.html?iid=WBeditorspicks#ixzz11DX08zMP

Hearst Ranch Flank Steaks

2010-09-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

On my blog, in the side bar, I have something posted for the foodie blog roll. They have contests only for food bloggers. I believe that anyone can enter, but they only do food or food related giveaways, like cook books, coffee mugs, etc.

Anyway, they had a product giveaway. I was a lucky winner of the giveaway. They asked everyone to blog about a beef sample. I was sent a sample of beef from Hearst Ranch. Hearst Ranch The beef is grass feed. I was thinking the sample would be a little 5 ounce piece of beef or something, but to my surprise, they sent me two, twenty-two once flank steaks.

The meat comes frozen in a Styrofoam box with a dry ice pack sitting on top. It is shipped either overnight or 2-day shipping. They will let you know it is coming so you can be home to get it. Once it arrived and I opened it up, I noticed that there was enough room to put about 40 pounds of meat in the Styrofoam box. I think they need to find packages that fit the size of the order. They would save money and be able to lower the cost of their product, even if only by a few dollars.

I thawed out the beef and grilled some up without any seasoning so I could get the taste of the beef as sent.

The beef was really good and really juicy.

I cooked some up at a friend's place. My friends that tried it also really like it. You can really tell a difference from the meat that is feed grains or mass produced.

The meat is kind of expensive. The package I received cost about 63 dollars, not something I can normally afford. Over all, it was really good. Rick

Fudge Sauce

2010-09-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a pretty quick and easy fudge sauce, and it is really good. I was telling my wife I could put it all over... O wait, never mind, I cannot go there! LOL.

Anyway, it's that good.

Fudge Sauce:
4 ounces butter

3 c heavy cream
3 1/4 c. corn syrup
8 ounces choc.

1 pound 12 ounces sugar
1c cocoa.

First of all, you will want to use the best quality chocolate you can find. You do not want to use chocolate chips. If you buy it in a block, chop it up first.

Bring the heavy cream and corn syrup and whole unsalted butter to a simmer, then add the chopped chocolate. Melt the chocolate over very low heat; this will scorch and burn.

In a separate bowl, mix the sugar and sift the cocoa really well. Blend the two together. This will prevent lumps in the cocoa and help it blend into the cream mixture.
Then re-sift right into the chocolate mixture.

Cook over low heat until you can rub some chocolate between your fingers and feel no grittiness from the sugar. If it is smooth, then it is done.

After it is smooth, pour into a big bowl and set into a bowl of ice water to cool. Stir it to help it cool faster. It will thicken while it cools. This is really good on ice cream or any dessert. Or if you feeling frisky, then maybe on your.... O-wait! You can use your imagination.

You can add spice to it if you want some chili heat, or add mint if you want it minted. Enjoy.

Rick b

Remembering Chef Gil Gaitan

2010-09-21T14:08:00.001-07:00

Chef Gil was a friend of mine, I have known him and his family since about 1993 so about 17 years. The church where his funeral is being held is where I meet him back in the 90's. He helped me get a good job and we talked about food. I will miss him as will the students that he helped. for this post please do not post ANYTHING that does not pertain to this subject or I will not allow it, Thank you.

Students, we are all sadden by the loss of our beloved Chef Gil Gaitan. Chef Gaitan was a tremendous Chef, instructor, father, grandfather, husband and friend to so many people.

We have received a number of inquires as to his funeral service arrangements. Below is information regarding Thursday and the funeral arrangements.

If you choose to attend the funeral Thursday at 11:00 a.m. please work with your instructors. Tests on Thursday will be administered as scheduled by your instructors. You must notify you instructors that you will be missing class for the funeral. You will be marked absent but all possible accommodation will be made to not negatively affect your grade.

Also, if your class Thursday is difficult to reschedule or make arrangements for please consider honoring Chef and his family by attending the visitation Wednesday night.

The family has requested, and Chef Gil would have wanted, students to wear their best uniforms to the service.

Visitation Wednesday, September 22nd5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Funeral Thursday, September 23rd 11:00 a.m.

Bethel Christian Fellowship

(651) 645-1534

1466 Portland Ave, St Paul, MN 55104

We have placed some papers at the front desk and in the library for students to write notes to Chef’s family.

Kevin

This was the obituaries listing in the local newspaper,

Chef Extraordinaire Devoted Follower of Christ Age 57, of Inver Grove Heights, crossed the threshold to eternal life on September 20, 2010. Loving husband of Peg; dear father of Sierra (Matthew) Hegstrom, Gil, Samuel, David and Grace; proud bopa of Max and Gabe; beloved son of Gil Gaitan, II; big brother of Robert, Rosemary and Lorraine (Jose) Martinez; adored by many other extended family members and students at Le Cordon Bleu. Preceded in death by mother, Josephine and brother, Gregory. A celebration of Gil's life will be Thursday, 11:00 A.M. at BETHEL CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, 1466 Portland Avenue, Saint Paul. Visitation Wednesday, 5:00-8:00 P.M. and also one hour prior to the service ALL AT THE CHURCH. "He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love." Song of Songs 2:4 678 South Snelling Avenue 651-698-3878

Instructor Name: Gil Gaitan

LCB School: Minneapolis/St. Paul

School Current Position: Chef Instructor

Date Hired at School: 03/99

Education/Degree(s): Associate of Applied Science Degree in Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts

Other Positions Held:

* Chef de Cuisine — Outing Lodge at Pine Point, Minnesota
* Executive Chef — Pronto Ristorante, Minnesota
* Head Chef — Christos, Minnesota
* Chef de Cuisine — The Dock Café, Minnesota
* Sous Chef — Dakota Bar and Grill, Minnesota

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Churros

2010-09-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had a cream puff? How about a Paris Breast? Profiteroles? Croquembouche? Eclairs? Beignets?

Those items are only a few of the many items. They are not limited to sweet only, but also have savory items. These are all made from Pate a Choux paste. Who knew so much could be made from one dough?

Well, we're going to use this dough to make some Mexican churros.

1 cup water
4 ounces of butter
dash of salt
1 cup flour, high protein if possible
4 whole eggs

And if you want to make chocolate batter, add:

1/4 cup cocoa
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 extra eggs

Bring water, salt, and butter to a boil. Once it is boiling, stir in the flour. Keep the heat on high to medium high and stir till you have a dough. A wire whisk will NOT WORK for this.

Let the dough cook so it releases steam. You want as much moisture to be gone as possible. Some pastry chefs will dry their dough in the oven. After you cook your batter and remove some moisture, put your dough into a mixing bowl with a paddle and turn on medium speed. Let the dough mix to release the heat. Feel the bottom of the bowl. Once it is room temp. or cooler, you can add one egg at a time. Do not add more eggs or the liquid will overwhelm the batter; it will not be able to absorb the eggs.

After adding an egg and the batter looks like it has absorbed the egg, add another. Once all 4 eggs are added and the batter is mixed, lift out the paddle. If the dough slowly falls from the paddle in a (V) shape, you know it's done.

The science behind all of this is like this: You need the water to boil because the protein in the flour will absorb the water when it boils. But, if you remove the water by cooking it out, the batter will be able to absorb more eggs. The eggs are a liquid, so you are replacing one liquid for another.

Now, you want eggs because they give structure to your batter. After the batter is made, put it into a piping bag using a small to medium size tip. If it is too big, your churros will be so big they will not cook properly.

Now heat some oil up to 350-375 degree's, once the oil is up to temperature then CAREFULLY pipe long lines of batter into the hot oil.

Let each side cook 2-3 minutes or until golden brown, then flip and cook another 2-3 minutes.

You can then remove them and let them drain on a screen or paper towels. Sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar, and eat fresh - hot or warm. These will not last, so wait to make them when you need them. Enjoy! Rick b

B.B.Q Information

2010-09-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

I found this information about ribs here,ribs I highly agree with it because I HATE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Boiling ribs. I also like my pink smoke ring, but I have meet many people who claim it is under cooked and wont eat them. Tell me what you think with this information.
If you boil ribs the terrorists win

Myth #1: Boil ribs to make them tender

A lot of folks boil their ribs. Don't do it! You wouldn't boil a steak would you? When you boil meat and bones, you make flavorful soup. That's because water is a powerful solvent that pulls much of the flavor out of the meat and bones and makes the meat mushy. Boiling also removes vitamins and minerals. That's why the water is cloudy when you're done. Taste tests have shown that ribs are most flavorful when roasted. If you are in a hurry, you are better off steaming or microwaving ribs and then finishing them on the grill or under the broiler. Just don't boil 'em if you want max flavor!

Myth #2: The best ribs fall off the bone

Barbecue judges agree: Properly roasted ribs are tender but still have some chew, similar to a tender steak. They don't fall off the bone. If they do, chances are they have been boiled. Click here to learn what the experts think Amazing Ribs taste like.

Myth #3: Pink pork is uncooked

anatomy of BBQ baby back ribs. When ribs are smoked they get an incredible flavor and a pink smoke ring just below the surface. They're not raw! If they were, the pink would be in the center, near the bone. The pink is a by-product of the smoke and combustion gases.

Myth # 4: Soak wood before using it

When I soaked wood chunks overnight, they gained about 3% by weight. Chips gained about 6%. I cut the chunks in half and penetration was only about 1/16". DOH! That must be why they make boats out of wood! Wood doesn't absorb much water! If you toss wet wood on a hot grill, the small amount of water just below the surface will evaporate rapidly, negating any effect of soaking. On charcoal, the wet wood cools off the coals when it is important to hold the coals at a steady temp.

Home Made Pizza

2010-09-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

I like making pizza. I have a good bread dough recipe that you can use to make pizza dough or simply good bread. Many people when making bread wonder, "How long do I mix the dough?" To me, it not really making bread when you use a bread machine. You only need to mix the dough long enough for gluten to develop. First of all, gluten is nothing more than the amount of protein found in the flour. That's why some flours are referred to as "high protein" flours.

These are not good for making cake or pie dough. It will make your cakes and pie dough tough. You need the right flour for the right job. If at all possible, buy bread flour for making bread. If that's not possible, then use all-purpose. That's the next best thing.

1 cup water 90 degrees
3/4 ounce of yeast
3.5 ounces sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cups water 90 degrees
2 pounds 12 ounces bread flour
3/4 ounce salt

Then, mix these into the dough:
Grated Parmesan cheese
Fresh garlic
Dried basil
Dried oregano

Take the first cup of water and mix in the yeast and sugar. Let set for about 5 minutes. If the yeast is alive, then it should be really foamy and bubbly.

Add in the oil, flour, salt and 1 cup of water. As far as the dried herbs and garlic and cheese goes, I do not measure and never have. I just toss some in till I like what I see. Now, mix and add water as needed. Don't add too much water, or your dough will be really wet and sticky. Use just enough to form a firm ball of dough. Let dough mix about 10 minutes, then do the window stretch test.

After letting the dough mix for maybe ten minutes or so in the mixer, pull out a chunk of dough and carefully try and stretch it enough so you can see through the dough without tearing or breaking it. It should look like in this picture below.

That is called a "window" test. Some people and books will say that you can mix bread dough with out kneading it or bringing it this far. I guess to each his own. I'm not going to argue with them or try and change their minds. I would simply say, make 2 breads, one kneading it properly, and the other till just mixed and bake. Test the results yourself.

After the bread dough is mixed to the proper consistency, pour a light coating of oil into your bowl. Roll the dough in the oil so it does not dry out, then cover with a cloth or plastic wrap. Let it set in a warm place to double in size.

After it doubles in size, punch it down and re-ball it into a nice tight ball.

The reason you punch it down again is because you have yeast in your bread eating sugar. By punching it down again, you redistribute the yeast and sugar (food) for the yeast. Then, let it set covered to rise again. After it rises again, cut it into the size pieces you want for each pizza. You can make a small personal 8 oz pizza, or one big pounder pizza.

After you cut out the size pizza dough balls you want, set them aside like on a sheet pan or something. Cover them and let them rest and rise slightly.

If you just cut them and do not let them rest, the dough will be to tough to roll out and will shrink.

After your dough rests, roll out and top with your favorite sauce and toppings. If possible, bake on a pizza stone at 450. I made one sausage, one pepperoni, and a chicken with peanut sauce pizza.

Enjoy your pizza or bread! Rick b

Buffalo Jerky

2010-09-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

I was sent some of this buffalo jerky and meat sticks to review. I gotta say, I was thinking since this was jerky that it would be like all other jerky, really chewy and tough. Not that that's a bad thing, since I was raised on jerky like that, and I really enjoy it.

Now as you can see from this next picture, the jerky is thick and meaty. It is like eating little meaty pillows. This jerky is made with cranberries. We're not talking cranberry flavor or juice. It has nice big pieces of cranberry. You really know cranberry is in it.

They have another product called a Tanka Bar. This, to me, is pretty much a bar form of the jerky. It has all the same taste and texture, except it is like 4 pieces in one bar form. So, if you're not sure if you will like this jerky or not, this is a good way to find out. I let friends and family try these products and all were well liked.

The meat stick has wild rice added into it, which the bar and jerky do not. Over all, this is a very good product. I think people will really enjoy it. Here is the website for you to view their products. Tanka Bars

Enjoy! Rick b

Poop Coffee?

2010-08-26T14:59:00.001-07:00

Would you drink this? Have you and if so what are your thoughts?

Poop-coffee war pits purists vs. producers
Producers breed civets to harvest beans from their dung; Experts cry foul

A palm civet eats Arabica coffee cherries in Indonesia's East Java province
SIGIT PAMUNGKAS / Reuters
A palm civet eats Arabica coffee cherries in a coffee plantation owned by state plantation firm PT Perkebunan Nusantara XII, in Situbondo in Indonesia's East Java province.
By Olivia Rondonuwu

Lovers of the world's most expensive coffee, found half-digested in the dung of the wild civet, fear that its unique taste may be spoiled by planned farming of the animals.

Collectors hunt for the coffee cherries in the droppings of civets in Indonesian plantations to make a brew enriched by the bushy-tailed, cat-like animal's stomach that sells for as much as $770 a kg in London.

But as demand rises, producers have spotted an opportunity to increase supply by breeding the civets in cages and feeding them the coffee cherries. Production has started on a small scale.

Experts say the flavor relies on the civet's finicky feeding habits and varied diet to create the enzymes that enrich fermentation of the beans, so caged animals would produce a different coffee.

"I think wild civets offer more variants to the taste," said specialty coffee expert Edi Sumadi. "Inside the cage, the civets' diet is regulated, they're not free to pick following their instincts, so the enzyme inside their digestive system is monotonous."

Perkebunan Nusantara XII sells the civet coffee for $130 a kg from factories or $250 a kg in cafes on Indonesia's main island of Java, though the price multiplies as exports reach countries such as Korea, Japan, Italy and the United States.

"It's far tastier than any other coffee," said the firm's Danu Rianto. "To maintain high standards we have a standard operating procedure."

The coffee does not appeal to everyone. Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took some as a gift on a visit to former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, only to find local media dubb it "crappucino".

But now that Indonesia's highest Islamic authority has certified the brew as no longer "haram", or banned for Muslims, in the world's most populous Muslim nation — so long as the beans are well washed — producers, including Perkebunan Nusantara XII, are eyeing a bigger market.

In Jakarta's cafes, a cup of civet coffee, known as "kopi luwak", sells for around $9 to $11, and is attracting more interest.

"The taste is very smooth, the smell nice, and hey, it's not entirely haram after you wash it," said Andrea Guna, a first-time taster.

"The price is double that of Starbucks, but the taste is way more than double."

Food Lovers Companion

2010-08-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a must-have book for everyone who loves food. This book, brand new, costs $16.99, but you can pick up a copy for less at a used book store or on-line someplace. If your looking on-line, do not pay more than $16.99 for a used copy since that is the price of a brand new copy.

I say this is a must-have book because it is an A-Z reference with 6,700 entries. It covers pretty much everything imaginable. Did you know you can eat jellyfish? Who new? Well, this book talks about it. As a matter of fact, as a result of this book, I bought some jellyfish and tried it. This book does not have recipes or tell you how to cook, it just lists names of ingredients and tells you a little about them. This book is a true must-have for all food lovers. Rick b

Comic

2010-08-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

I found this funny and fits the ghost wing challenge.

Peppers and More

2010-08-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone.
As some of you know, I have been doing product reviews for the website Peppers and More. I have been promoted to head of the review team. I take this position very seriously and will be doing my best to see more and better reviews. Reviews that I do will be also posted here, but not every one of them. If you would like more exposure for your product and want to have it reviewed, please contact me at iplayjudo1970@hotmail.com.

I will have products sent to our awesome team of reviewers. We are also reviewing products that are not heat-related. It can range from beer and wine to nuts and popcorn, or pastas, sauces, and oils. This is a great way to get honest feedback and free exposure. Rick b

Ghost Wings

2010-08-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

I was talking to a co-worker a while back who loves hot food. He googled hot wings and found a hot wing challenge. The hot wings are made with Ghost peppers, and we both figured it would be very hot. I planned on taking the challenge on Thursday the 12th since that Friday was my 16 year wedding anniversary. I was not able to get that Friday off of work so we celebrated on that Thursday. We also went to the midnight showing of "The Expendables" movie.

Anyway, my co-worker took the challenge and wrote me and said it was going to mess me up! All the more I wanted to try, so here are pictures of my experience. Let me say that I live in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the only challenge I was aware of for the longest time was the Buffalo Wild Wings "Blazin' Wing Challenge".

The BWW challenge is pretty weak for experienced heat eaters, so if you think you can eat the heat, then your in luck. There is a challenge out there just for you! Here is a link to the restaurant's website: Girvangrille. Once there, you can click onto the "Ghost Challenge" section for rules and information.

I got to the restaurant and let them know I wanted to take the "Ghost Wing Challenge". They seated us and brought me a waiver to sign.

After I signed the waver, they informed me of the rules. I had 15 minutes to eat ten wings. Even if I eat all the wings in a minute or two, I must sit at the table for the entire 15 minutes. I cannot wipe my face or hands off. I cannot leave the table or drink anything. I told my co-worker that I could do the wing challenge in 8 minutes or less.

So I waited for my wings to arrive. When they did, I looked at them and knew they were HOT!

These wings were not saucy. They looked like they had spackle on them. The wings were not pure ghost peppers; it was a mixture of the ghost peppers, habaneros and a jalapeno sauce. From the looks of the mixture on the wings, they used dried ghost pepper spice mixed with the habanero and jalapeno sauce.

Now I'm ready to start.

The first 2 were not bad, but after that, the heat was off the charts. Boy! They were/are very hot. Seriously, this wing challenge is no joke. If you cannot handle the heat, do not take this challenge. I did complete the challenge, and I'm telling you this was hot. This was the second hottest challenge I have taken. The first hottest was the "Tongues of Fire" first round challenge. T.O.F Challenge

This picture is not a good shot of my face, but you can see me struggling.

Here is a picture of how thick and pasty the ghost sauce is:

This stuff made my eyes water.

While I sat there for the 15 minutes, the hardest part was that I could not blow my nose. That was torture for me. After eating the wings and sitting for the 15 minutes, a guy came out of the kitchen to congratulate me. I am guessing it was the chef.

So what did I win? I won this T-shirt, bragging rights, and my picture on the website saying I won.

Will I do it again? Probably not that challenge, but I will take other wing challenges of that heat level or hotter. I will take any heat level challenge at least once, even if it kills me. Rick b

Jalapeno Chips

2010-08-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

Many times you will see Jalapeno flavored chips, and honestly they are ok. Well now we have Jalapeno chips flavored with cheddar.

These things are GREAT. As you can see in the picture I have 7 bags of them, I did have ten bags but I gave two away they were so good. Here is the website, Deano

Ingredients: Jalapeno's, canola oil, cornstarch, whey, buttermilk solids, cheeses (cheddar and granular). whey protein concentrate, salt, sodium phosphate, citric acid, yellow 5 and 6, lacyic acid, enzyme.

These are crispy and crunchy, and have a great jalapeno flavor. I am really hoping they make a habanero chip. I could sit down and eat an entire bag no problem. If you eat them by the handful they have some heat, so if your not able too eat heat then dont buy these. if you have never had these, run to your computer and buy some of these, these really are on of the best products on the market now, and I really wish I thought of these.

The Punisher shares his thoughts on Brussel Sprouts.

2010-08-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

This video is very funny

Burger Jones

2010-07-31T16:28:00.000-07:00

My wife, some friends, and I went to Burger Jones. click here.Burger Jones This was the second time my wife and I had eaten here. This place is awesome for burgers, but even better are their beer batter-dipped cheese curds with smoked ketchup.

These cheese curds are the best I have ever had. I could go here just for the cheese curds. They are dipped in a very light beer batter and served with house-made smoked ketchup. The ketchup and curds go very well together.

The fries that go along with the burgers are fresh cut. That is the only way to do fries, in my opinion. These fries are rockin'!

One thing they offer is a trio of fresh cut fries, waffle fries, and sweet potato fries. No one tried those, but here is something we did try, and it was great. It was a plate of fresh cut fries with cheese curds, gravy, and bacon. "WOW!" was all we could say!

They have a good variety of burgers. The burger I ordered had hot sauce and a fried egg on top of it. The picture of the burger is with the fries up top. This next burger is blue cheese, mushrooms, and onions.

I highly suggest going here if your looking for a great burger and fries. Rick b

Ghost Chili, Chocolate Truffles

2010-07-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

My brother found this recipe online and passed it onto me. This is not overly hot, but does have some heat. I made these and brought them to the Tongues of Fire event, and they were a huge success. Over all, I thought they were pretty good, but I could not taste lime or much coconut. Down below, I will post some ideas on what I think would make them better.

1 1/2 cups coconut cream
2 Tablespoons corn syrup
4 3-inch long kaffir lime leaves, crumpled to bruise
2 2-inch long ghost chiles, top snipped off (handle with gloves or tongs)
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 pound semisweet or Dark chocolate, chopped
Cocoa powder for dusting

Place the coconut cream and corn syrup in a small sauce pan and heat to just under a boil. Remove the pan from the heat, add the kaffir lime leaves and ghost chile, cover, and let them infuse for 5 minutes. Using tongs or a gloved hand, remove the ghost chile, emptying any cream that is inside the chile into the pan before discarding. Let the lime leaves infuse for an additional 5 minutes.

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl.
Remove the lime leaves and return the coconut cream to the sauce pan. Heat it just until it is below a boil.

Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate, and let it stand for a minute or two. Once the chocolate begins to melt, begin whisking in small circles in the center of the bowl. As the ganache begins to come together, increase the diameter of the circles to incorporate more chocolate and cream into the mixture. If all of the chocolate does not melt, place the bowl over a sauce pan of hot water, making sure the bowl does not touch the water. Heat the ganache gently while continuing to whisk. Whisk or blend in the butter one piece at a time.

After I made the ganache, I put everything in the refrigerator to set up nice and hard. I scooped out little balls, while wearing rubber gloves, and covered them in cocoa powder.

I do not know of any stores that sell the ghost chili. Most people do not even know them by that name. They are called "Bhut Jolokia" peppers. You most likly need to know someone to get these or order them online. I was lucky enough to know someone who grew fresh ones, and he gave me a bunch. If you cannot get these online for some reason, maybe price or they are out of stock, you can find powdered Bhut Jolokia on line. Simply play around with amounts and start with maybe a tablespoon of dry Bhut Jolokia mixed into your cream.

I really love habanero peppers, so I will try making the truffles with habanero peppers. I am thinking to add more coconut flavor, I will toast some coconut and mix that in to the chocolate mixture along with some lime zest. If you do not like coconut, then you can use heavy cream instead. Remember, wear gloves when working with these really hot peppers, and do not give them to people as a joke if they cannot handle extreme heat. Rick b

2010-07-23T15:31:00.001-07:00

Hello, everyone. A few months ago, I did a product contest give-away sponsored by CSN Store. They are now giving me a product to test out and write a review on. CSN carries everything from a Dining room furniture,to cookware and home decor!

Here is a link to the previous contest I did, with the help of CSN. Contest

I will be doing a product review of a pasta maker. Once it arrives, I will post a recipe along with the review and photos of the pasta maker. Rick b

Tongues of Fire

2010-07-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

I was checking out some chili pepper websites a few months ago and found something called, "Tongues of Fire". It was located here in Minnesota and it was by invitation only. To be invited you need to write the guy and ask to be invited, so I did. He wrote me back and asked for information about myself, so I gave him some. The reason this is done is because the "Tongues of Fire" is being hosted and held at this guy's house. Summed up, it is pretty much a bunch of chili-heads and hot food-lovers getting together.

I brought some coconut, lime, Ghost chili, chocolate truffles and had a blast. The recipe will be posted soon. The host's name was Dean, and he was a really great guy. He and his wife have been doing this for years; this was number 9. Here is a link to the website, T.O.F. They will be updating the website to have this year's pictures posted soon.

Below are pictures of things I tried, people I saw, and me entering a fiery wing challenge. The first 5 pictures are of the "Hot Luck" (Pot Luck) tables. They are listed for Wimpy, Snappy, and off the charts hot. Everyone is required to bring some food to share; it can be mild to super hot, as long as it has heat in it.

Now, here is a picture of the back yard and all the samples from companies for us to sample to our heart's content.

Remember this sauce: the OTC. It will come up later, but check out the sauces heat level here. Sauce Once you click onto the link, scroll down to the bottom of the page to read about it.

Here are my spices set out for samples.

This was some Chili beer. It looked like a Serrano pepper in the beer. I tried a small amount, and it was not very good at all. At least I didn't like it. Many of the people did like it.

Ed K, we saw this outhouse and Shelli thought of you and the "Happiness" hot sauce experience! LOL

We had a hot wing eating contest. Here is how it worked. They had some Red Savina pepper bread. Red Savina's are the hottest of the habaneros. The bread was dark red and very dense. As if that was not hot enough, they took the OTC hot sauce (ranked at 2 million Scoville units) and smothered the cubes of bread in it. The Scoville units for OTC are double the heat of the ghost chili. Their was about 1-2 Tablespoons of sauce per person per two cubes. We were required to fill out a waiver and sign it, then eat 2 of the bread soaked cubes. If we could handle the heat and wanted to move on, then we could. Out of 10 people entering, 7 dropped out after eating the bread soaked cubes.

The next 2 pictures are me eating the hot sauce soaked cubes.

The guy in the white shirt is Dean our host, and he is passing out cups of milk to everyone. The kid next to Dean is the 3rd person to move on.

Dean came out with a face shield for the humor value. The wings were hot, but not as hot as that sauce.

There were 21 rules for entering, but here were a few of the ones I found very funny.

To qualify to be a contestant (or victim whichever title you prefer to use), you must eat a piece of "THE BREAD" dipped in OTC2 sauce.

Begging or crying for mercy are not allowed and will result in disqualification.

*rolling eyes*...if you truly want gloves because you don't want your poor li'l fingers to be exposed to the risks inherent in this challenge, we can provide gloves. We are not responsible for how others may perceive the wearing of gloves and any opinions thereafter formed.

Now here are a few pictures of me and the other two guys eating our wings.

The big guy at the table took first place, I took second place, and the young kid took third. We each won a sweet T-shirt. Below is a picture of the back of the T-shirt.

If you go back to the OTC Sauce website and click on the link for buying products, at the bottom of the page you can see a picture of the shirt from the front or even buy one.

Here are pictures of the many, but not all products I sampled.

All these next pictures are all the various hot sauces dean owns. He now also has my hot sauce and one dry spice added to his sweet collection. Just on the window sill, I counted 48, plus my two make 50. In his cupboard, he has maybe another 20.

If you can handle the heat, I believe you should try going next year. If you live in the Twin Cities and you have chili head meetings similar to this, please let me know. I will pass the word onto Dean. It was a great time! We thank you, Dean and Karleen, for opening your home to us. Rick b

Annoucement/Job

2010-07-15T12:42:00.001-07:00

I am happy to announce to everyone that I have been upgraded to one of the Peppers and More blog administrators. I have been doing reviews on this website. Due to my honest reviews and other things that I have been doing, I will be featuring many product reviews on my blog and posting them on the Peppers and More blog. I will also be looking for people/companies to help sponsor contests or food/products through both of our websites. If you're interested, please email me at: iplayjudo1970@hotmail.com.

Fun Blogging Experince (part two)

2010-07-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone. A few weeks back, I posted about how I received a copy of this book and was going to take the challenge of making a recipe and going to eat at the restaurant from which I made the food.

I choose the Barbacoa Burrito from Chipotle Mexican Grill. Let me start by being very honest in my thoughts of the book first. Over all, I am not super impressed with this book and here is why.

One of the restaurants is Ruth's Chris Steak House. The only thing for them is the creamed spinach. That place is super expensive and everything is a la carte, meaning everything is individually priced. In reality, no one is going there simply for creamed spinach and nothing else.

Some other problems are these: 1.) They mention Famous Dave's Rib Joint. There are Famous Dave's all over Minnesota, and I have been living here for the last 10 years. There are 3-4 things in the book that Famous Dave's does not sell and has not sold in the 10 years I have been here. Friends of mine who were born and raised here claim they have never seen these items. So, I do not know where those things can be found.
2.) One of the Famous Dave's copy-cat recipes requires you buy their sauce. Buying their sauce to make a recipe is not exactly a copy-cat recipe. The recipe is for the fire cracker wings.

Onto the burritos. The meat, by itself, was pretty good. I probably won't make it again, but that's just me. As for a copy-cat recipe, I would not go that far. Here's why.

Here is the burrito I made:

Here is the one I bought at the restaurant:

Unless you skip the beans, rice, and any of their sauces, and only get beef, cheese and lettuce, you are not able to make a copy of their burrito. Since I am only making their beef and nothing else, it's not exactly a copy-cat recipe. Over all, those are my thoughts on the book. If anyone else took the challenge, please let me know. I really am interested in your thoughts. Rick b

Ribs

2010-07-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

The biggest UFC friends and I have been waiting for was coming up, UFC 116: Brock vs Carwin. I made ribs; these ribs took a couple of days. I brined my ribs in a water, brown sugar, and salt solution. I let the ribs set for 24 hours and put in 5 pounds of ice to keep the water cold. As the ice melted, I added 5 more pounds. I ended up using 15 pounds total.

After the ribs set for 24 hours, I dumped out the water and it was nasty; lots of impurities were removed. That's a good thing. After the ribs were drained, I let the ribs drip dry for a few minutes, then I coated them with my "Happiness" dry spice.

After I coated them with my spice, I made my own brown sugar by mixing white sugar with dark molasses.

I rubbed down my ribs with my brown sugar, wrapped them up in foil, and let them set for 24 hours in the fridge.

After they came out of the fridge, there was a lot of liquid in the foil.

After setting for 24 hours, I slow cooked them over hardwood lump charcoal. I kept the heat at about 275-300 and cooked them for about 5-5.5 hours. I kept fresh coals heating so the fire never went out.

To help keep the meat moist I used a spray bottle and kept spraying the ribs down with apple cider vinegar. I went through an entire 16 ounce bottle over the five hours. If you're wondering, the vinegar does not flavor the meat. You do not get a real vinegary meat. I learned about using vinegar for spraying from Steven Raichlen, the B.B.Q. master.

As you can see from how much bone you can see the meat lost a lot of liquid. Even though these babies were tender and moist, the bones pulled out like nothing.

These were really good and tender. You can do everything I did, except you can spice them however you choose. After the ribs came off the grill, I wrapped them in foil and let them sit for 30 minutes to rest and allow the juice to settle back into the meat.

Haitian Love Rub

2010-07-05T19:06:00.001-07:00

I am a member of the ACF, (American Culinary Federation). At our monthly meeting, I was given a bottle of this spice. One thing that is really cool about this particular bottle of spice is that it was created as a fundraiser for the earthquake survivors of Haiti. I was checking out the website, and they offer 7 different spice blends all at a low price of $5 each. They also had this to say about this spice blend.

Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, which occurred while the chef was in the country on a mission trip, the chef created a shake dedicated to the Haitian people (and their unique style of cooking). A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this and all Plump Chef products will be donated to the Haiti Relief effort.

The blend claims to be MSG free, which is really cool since I get really sick from to much MSG. This is the list of ingredients is as follows:
Kosher Salt, Garlic Salt, Tomato Powder, Green Bell Pepper, Red Bell Pepper, Dried Chives, Cayenne, Gumbo File (Ground Sassafras Tree Leaves) Contains NO MSG.

When I opened up my bottle and looked at it, it looked like a bunch of the chives made it way to the top of the bottle so I dumped out some onto a paper plate and stirred them up, and looked at the spice blend. I saw the chives and the kosher salt very clearly, the rest of the spices looked good, but were small enough that I could not tell what ingredients they were. The ingredient list does not tell us what is in the gumbo file, but it looks like dried onion is in the spice blend and the main thing I could smell was sage. I am guessing sage was in the gumbo file.

I decided to bake chicken with my spice, so I lightly rubbed my chicken breasts with olive oil then coated my entire chicken breasts with the love rub. I baked them in the oven at a high temperature of 450 degrees. The entire house smelled really, really good. I was looking forward to eating that chicken.

Once the chicken was done and the family ate it, we felt that it was really salty. I'm not really surprised since the first two ingredients are salt and garlic salt. Over all, outside of the saltiness, it was a pretty good rub.

I would like to try the other rubs. If I do, I will post reviews for them too. I just hope they are not overly salty. Rick b

Beef Jerky Contest

2010-07-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

On the peppers and more website they were having a jerky contest, below were the rules for the contest.

1st Annual Jerky Challenge

Do you make jerky that you think outrivals the store bought variety?

Do you think your jerky is the best you have ever tired?

Do you think if there were a jerky competition you would win it?

Now you have your chance to prove yourself. Peppers and More is teaming up with I Love It Spicy, Hot Sauce Daily, Best Beef Jerky and Scott Roberts Web to sponsor a World Class Jerky Competition. If you want to step up and prove your jerky is the best around then you need to enter! There will be four categories to enter, and with every category there will be a prize. A $5 fee will be charged for every entry with all money to be reserved for the competition. You can enter as many times and/or categories as you wish. All entry fees will be paid through PayPal.

A jerky entry must be in a vacuum sealed pouch with the Category and Contestant # (to be given out after payment is received) clearly written on the pouch. All entries must disclose the sauce utilized ahead of time if one is used. The judges to be selected will know nothing more about the jerky than what their eyes, nose and taste buds tell them. It will be the sole responsibility of the contestant to mail the jerky to the respective four judges. All judges are on the top of their game when it comes to jerky.

The Categories:

Non-Spicy Beef Jerky – You can use any marinade or seasoning you like as long as it is not spicy. This category will include Teriyaki, BBQ or any non-spicy marinade.

Spicy Beef Jerky – This category is for all you spicy jerky makers. You may use any spice or level of spiciness as long as it does not contain chile pepper extract. Judges will be looking for great flavor as well as heat.

Extract Beef Jerky – This is a award that will be given to the best tasting jerky that uses extract. Any type of marinade can be used here as long as there is chile pepper extract in the jerky. A few of our expert judges can handle the heat, so let’s see if we can burn them…

Unique – Notice we said “unique”. There will be no beef used in this catagory. You may use any other meat…fish, poultry, venison or whatever…get the idea? As long as it’s not beef. Be creative!

There will be one winner for each category. Since there are four categories, each category winner will win a cash prize and a trophy, and will be entered into the chance to win the Grand Prize and be crowned the Champion of our Jerky Challenge. The Grand Prize winner will receive a brand new Excalibur Dehydrator (cash value of $350.00) along with a cash prize and trophy.

To register, please e-mail Doug from Peppers and More at doug@peppersandmore.com. The deadline to enter is April 30, 2010.

Update: Just a few things that we wanted to add to the contest. Many of you have been asking “When?”, “Where?”, and “How much jerky to send in”? All participants will be required to send one bag of jerky to each of our four judges. All bags should have two nice-sized pieces of jerky. If you want to send more, that’s up to you. After you have paid your registration fee you will be e-mailed the addresses of our four judges.

Well I have never made jerky in my life, I borrowed a food dehydrator from a friend and entered two of the four categories. I entered spicy and unique. For unique I used pork with brown sugar and happiness. Everyone tells me that pork with brown sugar and happiness is the best. well guess what, I took first in the unique category.

I would like to thank all of contestants for entering our first annual Jerky contest.As you may know the judging has taken a little longer than expected due to the fact of some late entries combined with our judges taking a little longer to make sure they give all the jerky the most accurate ratings.There are 4 categories in which all the winners will receive a cash prize of 25 dollars along with a bunch of goodies from all our sponsors.After going through all the spread sheets here are our winners….

Non Spicy……………… Marks Meats

Spicy……………………. Ed Carbury

Extract…………………. Bill and Sandi Kraft

Unique…………………. Rick B

Now for the grand prize winner.There was one entry that was highly rated in all of the categories.They won one category and where in the top of every category that they entered.The winner of our first Jerky Contest and the proud owner of new Excalibur dehydrator is…..
ED CARBURY

Congrats to all the winners.Please send me your addresses so i can send out your prizes….

Here is the Link to check this out, Jerky contest

School Grade Update

2010-06-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

Cumulative GPA:3.80 Cumulative GPA and Total Credits Earned amounts reflect the aggregate totals for all coursework taken at the institution.The actual CGPA and Total Credits Earned for the current program may be different for students who have transferred between two or more programs.

Term Course Course Code Grade Credits Attempt/Earned Instructor Start Date End Date

2009 Fall I College Succes and Career Portfolio LCBC100 A 1.00/1.00 Farley Kaiser 9/29/2009 11/6/2009 12:00:00 AM

2009 Fall I Preparatory Mathematics GE090 PD 0.00/0.00 Frederic Stenborg 9/29/2009 11/6/2009 12:00:00 AM

2009 Fall I Food Safety and Sanitation LCBC105 A 3.00/3.00 Paul Bergsbaken 9/29/2009 11/6/2009 12:00:00 AM

2009 Fall I Culinary Foundations I LCBC110 A 4.00/4.00 Paul Bergsbaken 9/29/2009 11/6/2009 12:00:00 AM

2009 Fall I Culinary Foundations II LCBC120 A 6.00/6.00 Walter Wittwen 11/9/2009 12/18/2009 12:00:00 AM

Winter Term A 2010 Culinary Foundations III LCBC130 B 6.00/6.00 Jeremy Sledge 1/4/2010 2/12/2010 12:00:00 AM

Winter Term A 2010 English I GE100 A 5.00/5.00 Jeris Swanhorst 2/15/2010 3/25/2010 12:00:00 AM

Winter Term A 2010 Speech GE140 A 5.00/5.00 Sarah Reith 2/15/2010 3/25/2010 12:00:00 AM

Spring Term A 2010 Baking and Pastry LCBC150 A 6.00/6.00 Carrie Franzen 4/5/2010 5/14/2010 12:00:00 AM

Spring Term A 2010 Environmental Science GE280 A 5.00/5.00 Aaron Wilson 5/17/2010 6/25/2010 12:00:00 AM

Spring Term A 2010 Cost Control and Purchasing LCBC125 B 3.00/3.00 Jeremy Sledge 5/17/2010 6/25/2010 12:00:00 AM

Recipe Challange

2010-06-22T15:07:00.001-07:00

Hello, everyone.
A fellow food blogger posted this in a topic for me:

Delirious said...

Rick,
Here is a recipe that my mother used. She was a terrible cook, but this was one of the few things that I liked. :) But right now it tastes like cafeteria food. I think the basic recipe is actually a good idea, but I think it could be improved greatly. I've had a couple of ideas swimming in my head today, but I am interested to see your ideas.

This was the recipe she wanted me to work over. Meat Rolls
My daughter has been ribbing me about this recipe ever since I made it, but I actually like it. This is something my mother made occasionally when I was young, and I most recently used my Aunt's recipe to make it for my family. There really isn't much recipe to it, but for those cooking challenged, here is how I made it.

First make biscuit dough. I have posted a recipe once before that you could use. Click here for that recipe.

Roll out the dough to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.

In a bowl combine:

About a pound of uncooked ground beef
About 1 can vegetable soup (concentrated)

I didn't have vegetable soup when I made it, so I used 1/2 can of tomato soup, and one can of mixed vegetables (drained).

Spread meat mixture on top of biscuit dough. Roll up and slice like you would if you were making cinnamon rolls. Bake at 325 degrees for about 25 -30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, melt about 2 tbl. butter in a pan. Add about 2 tbl. flour. When it is combined well, add about 1 cup of milk, stirring constantly. I also like to add about a teaspoon of chicken soup base or bouillion. You are making a white sauce. You can adjust the amount of milk if you like the sauce to be thinner or thicker. Serve the white sauce over the meat rolls.

My daughter asked if I was going to make meat cupcakes the next night for dinner. I don't think she could get past the cinnamon roll effect. My husband suggested I make individual meat loafs in a muffin pan. ;D

I used my garlic biscuit recipe, Garlic Cheese Biscuits What I did to make mine a little different was that I used equal parts of sweet Italian sausage and ground beef. I did not measure, but I think it was about 1 pound apiece.

In the recipe from delirious, she does not cook the meat first. This could make the biscuits greasy or keep the biscuits from getting crisp. You might also overcook your food trying to make sure the meat is cooked.

I cooked the meat first, then I used a slotted spoon to remove all the meat and kept the fat and any little sausage bits in the pan. I cooked the fat a little bit to make sure no water was in it, then added enough flour to the fat to make it about the consistency of wet sand. Adding fat to flour is called "Roux". After the flour was added, I slowly added enough half and half to make a thick gravy.

I do not make my gravy thin because this is supposed to be a fun version of a cinnamon roll. I like my cinnamon roll to have thick frosting. For added seasoning to my gravy, I added salt, fresh ground pepper, Worcestershire sauce, dill, nutmeg and a lot of chipotle Tabasco sauce. I added all the spices to taste, since I made my gravy thicker. I did not measure out the amount of roux I made, so you might have more or less when you make it. When I made this recipe, I did not go back and review the recipe I was sent and forgot to add the vegetable soup.

Even though I forgot the soup, it was really good. My family loved it and would gladly eat it again. I made my biscuit dough and rolled out the dough, spread on the meat and rolled them up and cut about 1 inch slices. I put tin foil on a sheet pan and sprayed the pan, put 9 per sheet, and baked at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes.

The 2nd Root Beer B.B.Q Sauce review

2010-06-19T06:02:00.000-07:00

This is the 2nd root beer B.B.Q. sauce I said I would review. If you're like me and you LOVE!!!!!!!!! Root Beer, here is a website that reviews root beers, the root beer website reviews root beers like we review hot peppers and hot food. This is an awesome website.Root Beer The website gives Sprecher brand root beer an 89 out of a 100 with 100 being the best. I agree it is a good root beer. As I said before, I do not like B.B.Q. sauces that list ketchup as the first ingredient, or list it at all. I tend not to buy them if they do, but this was one time where I did not bother reading the ingredients because I love root beer. After I got it home and looked at the ingredients, guess what? The first thing listed is ketchup. I know some people like ketchup-based B.B.Q. sauces. If you do, then despite what I think, give it a try.

The color is really good darkish red, and when you turn the bottle it looks fairly fluid.

After I opened the bottle and took a whiff, the first thing I smelled was ketchup. Actually, that was about all I could smell, not even a hint of root beer. Then, the finger in the bottle test. The first thing I could taste was ketchup, the next thing after that was onion. Those were about all I could taste.

Now, if I want a ketchup based B.B.Q Sauce, I will make my own. To me, it seems pretty easy. Pour ketchup in a bowl and add things to it. Anyway, here is a list of ingredients:

KETCHUP (Tomato concentrate, Vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, spices,onion powder, natural flavorings), BROWN SUGAR, ONIONS, ROOT BEER CONCENTRATE (Water, high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, raw Wisconsin honey, natural and artificial flavors, sodium benzoate (preservative), phosphoric acid, quillaia/yucca extract, sodium chloride, caramel color, vanilla, HOT SAUCE (red peppers, vinegar, salt, water, garlic) WATER, WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE (vinegar, corn syrup, water, salt, garlic powder, spices, tamarind, natural flavor) GARLIC, SALT, SPICES.

Now, if your wondering why some words are all in "CAPS" it is because that is the way the words are on the bottle.

Again, it has been raining here so much I think we could be the second Seattle, Washington.

I decide to bake the chicken in the oven. I added salt and pepper and baked the chicken, then after it was just about done I put some sauce on a piece.

Overall, I did not like this sauce because it tasted like ketchup, and to me that is not a B.B.Q. sauce. But if that is something you like, then you might like it. As for me, I might as well save the money, toss some root beer into a bowl of ketchup, and it might taste better. Rick b

Fun Blogging Experince

2010-06-14T13:37:00.001-07:00

I'm going to do this, will you join me?

July 6, 2010

THE GREAT AMERICAN TASTE TEST IS BACK!

On July 6th, Atria Books will be conducting the Great American Taste Test using recipes from the much anticipated second cookbook, MORE OF AMERICA’S MOST WANTED RECIPES by Ron Douglas.

Bloggers and participating websites from all parts of the country will choose different recipes from MORE OF AMERICA’S MOST WANTED RECIPES; make them and compare them to the actual restaurant dish amongst their friends and family. What’s different about the second cookbook in Ron’s line of restaurant recipe books is that he tells you how to make your favorite dishes, from the comfort of your own home, all for $10 or less! Once the taste test is conducted they will then blog about their experiences, all on the same day; July 6, 2010!

If you are interested in participating in this exciting event please read the guidelines below:

Guidelines for the Great American Taste Test:

1. If you are a blogger or a website and are interested in participating in the taste test please email your name, address and blog link to: Mellony.Torres@simonandschuster.com

2. You will receive a complimentary copy of MORE OF AMERICA’S MOST WANTED RECIPES by Ron Douglas, which doesn’t go on sale until July 6th and an email from Mellony with the photo jpeg of Ron and book jacket to post with your taste test experience on July 6th.

3. You may choose any recipe from the book. But must also purchase the “real” restaurant dish in order to conduct the taste test.

4. Taste test can be done with anyone; friends, family or strangers if you’d prefer.

5. After the taste test is done please blog about your experience. BUT the blog cannot be posted before July 6, 2010. It MUST be posted on or after July 6th at the very least.

Mellony Torres

Publicist

Atria Books

Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

(v) 212-698-1262

(f) 212-632-8083

Mellony.Torres@simonandschuster.com

Twitter.com/AtriaBooks

signature

www.simonandschuster.com

White Cake and Raspberry Sauce

2010-06-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone.
Here is the white cake recipe and raspberry filling I used for the wedding cake. This is a much smaller version and will make 1 (8 inch) white cake. I have been looking for a really good white cake recipe for years. I have tried making about 10 different ones. So far, I like this one the best, but have a feeling there is something better out there. If someone has a white cake recipe that they think is the best ever and is willing to share, please do.

1.
Cake Flour: 6.6 ounces
Baking Powder: 1 1/2 teaspoons
Salt: 1/2 teaspoon

2.
Shortening: 3 1/2 ounces

3.
Sugar: 8 ounces

4.
Milk: 3 1/2 ounces
Real Vanilla: 1 teaspoon

5.
Milk: 3 1/2 ounces
Egg Whites: 4 1/2 ounces
Sour Cream: 1 Tablespoon

If you can find cake flour, then use that. Otherwise, all purpose will work. Cake flour has a lower protein (gluten) amount. Over-mixing the protein will cause your cake to be tough.

The recipe has spaces in the ingredient list because that is how they will go in.
First, mix all three dry ingredients in the mixing bowl. Then, after they are mixed, add the shortening and mix just till blended. Scrape bottom of the bowl and the paddle.

Then, mix in all the sugar till it is just mixed in, then add your first batch of milk and vanilla. Once it is just mixed in, turn to medium speed and mix for two minutes. Scrape bowl and paddle, then add the other half of the milk, egg whites, and the sour cream. Once it is just mixed to the point that the liquid is blended in, then turn up to second speed and mix for 2 minutes.

Pour batter into a sprayed or greased pan with a parchment circle on the bottom. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. Check the cake by testing with a tooth pick. Once it comes out clean, it is done. Let cool about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the rim to loosen the cake and flip out onto a cooling rack.

The raspberry filling I made was pretty simple. I just used a 12 ounce bag of frozen raspberries and added about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of sugar. I cooked them in a pot over low heat so they would not burn, but release their juices. After they warmed up and were juicy, I blended them in a blender. Then I took a teaspoon of plain gelatin and put it in a tablespoon of cold water. That's called "blooming." Let it set for about 5 minutes and then re-heat to liquid and add it to the raspberries.

You do not want so much gelatin that your sauce is rubbery, but slightly thickened. If you do not add the gelatin, you can use it for anything you want, maybe put it over ice cream. Rick b

Charity Event

2010-06-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone.
There will be an up and coming charity event being sponsored by the ACF, American Culinary Federation. You can find more in-depth details here:ACF

Upcoming event information:
Taste of Art Double Tree Park Place
Date: 13 June 2010, Sunday

The count down has begun for our 2nd Annual Taste of Art fundraiser with PRI. Proceeds from this event will support the Chef's Scholarship Fund and services for adult with developmental disabilities at Partnership Resources Inc.

We are looking for volunteers to help cook and serve at this event.
We are going to have several action stations: salads & soups, pasta, carving, desserts, etc.
If your place of employment would like to be featured at one of the stations let us know.

We are also looking for donated items for the silent and live auctions. If you have items to donate for the auction contact Paul Booth.

Please register for this event here and help out with the great community event.

More information and online registration: Taste of Art

Best regards,
ACF Minneapolis Chefs Chapter

If you live in MN and want to help out with this, you can sign up to donate products for the auctions they will be holding. I will be donating two four-packs of my spices and newest hot sauce. Then, I will be helping out at some food booths, so you can show up and say hello, or even help out by buying food. They will have lots of things going on like: a sugar pulling station and a sushi building exhibit. I hope everyone can make it to help or watch. Rick b

A wedding cake "disaster"

2010-06-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

I'm going to share my experience of my 5th wedding cake, but before I do let me share this. I am a taste tester and product reviewer for peppers and more, peppers and more. I have made a few people upset because if I do not like a product I state why, now I hold myself to the same standards because I do not know everything and cannot do everything. I am not the kind of guy that thinks or says everything I do is the best and cannot do anything wrong. I feel if I am honest and admit I made something that bombs, then I can learn from my mistakes and people can take me seriously since I can admit I messed up.

Now, I say this because this 5th wedding cake I did just so happens to be the worst one I have ever made. I made this cake for a really good friend. I told her if the day ever comes that she gets married, I will not miss the wedding and I will make the cake at cost. Well, here it is 10 years later, she gets married, and I happen to have a bad week and make the worst looking cake ever. The cake tasted great, just looked horrible. I made a 3 tier along with an added 1/2 sheet. All but one cake was white cake with raspberry filling; the single cake was poppy seed cake with a lemon filling.

Let me break down what I did. For those who cannot bake, I will show how to assemble a cake. Part of my problem was that I am going to school full time and working 2 part-time jobs. I had classes and worked both jobs while trying to work on the cake. I first want to give a big thanks to Chef Carrie for allowing me to use her classroom to bake my cakes.

Now part of my problems were: one cake broke, I baked a new one at home, that set me back, and the half sheet broke, but I simply made the best of it. My kitchen was so hot, I put in a single window unit air conditioner. The room still never got below 70 degrees. Now a big thing for me is that I am bound and determined to make "EVERYTHING" from scratch, even the rolled fondant. I did make the fondant from scratch and found a new recipe that I like the best, the only problem is, it still needs to be made a few times to get the feel for it, so it is not too wet or too dry. Mine was too dry, and it made it hard to roll out.

Now after the cakes were baked, some people would simply take 2 cakes and put filling in between them. Not me, I split them in half so I would have 3 layers of filling.

You can buy a knife that has some bar that holds a blade sorta like a hacksaw, so this way you can slice the cake in half evenly, or you can do what I do and save some money. I run the blade all around the cake leaving a mark on the cake to make sure it is even all the way around, then start slicing through.

After you get all the cakes sliced through, then put one layer down and run a ring of icing around the cake to hold in the filling, then add whatever filling you are using. Add another layer, and add the ring and filling. Just make sure your very top cake does not get covered with any filling.

After your cake is done, put icing on the cake and just run a plastic bowl scrapper or bench knife or something around it so you have a real thin layer of icing. You do not need a lot and it does not need to be super smooth and perfect since you will cover your cake in rolled fondant.

Now before you put the fondant onto your cake, you need to insert wooden dowels or something like that. That will give your cake structure and support for when you stack them. For a really large base cake, like 14 inches or bigger, I would put 5 or more dowels into the cake. Anything smaller, you can use less. I insert them, then pull them out and cut them down to size, then stick them back in.

My friend wanted eucalyptus green, chocolate brown and a very light pink color, so that was what I did. I could not find eucalyptus green, so I had to do my best to make that color. Then, I put a border around the 1/2 sheet with pink. As much as I hated the cake and thought, "This is the worst cake I have ever made," the bride and her family thought it was great. I told the bride's mother that she was crazy.

I am always looking to learn and improve what I do. I was watching "Ace of Cakes" and while they do not go into detail on how they make their cakes and only show them putting them together, I was watching a little closer hoping to learn. I think, from what I could see, that they roll the fondant thicker than what I did. I think that was part of my problem. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to share your experience with me and any one else. Store bought fondant, and/or giving up, is not an option.

Below is a picture of me, Paula, my good friend, and her husband, Alex. Congrats to you, my friends!

In the days to come, I will post recipes for the two different cakes, the fondant, and butter cream. Rick b

The Olive Grove Store

2010-05-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

My family and I went for a drive and decided to see the new strip mall, how far along it has come, and the new stores that have been added. We saw this store and decide to go check it out. This place was awesome! I was so impressed I gave the owner a business card and told her I would post any info. she sent me on my blog. Her store web link is below, but they have various kinds of olive oils and vinegars to sample. You can drink them as is, in little tasting cups, or try them with bread. They had a 25 year old balsamic vinegar. Wow, was that ever the best thing I have tasted! I could have drunk it as is. Below is a letter I was sent and a website. If you're in the St. Paul area, or even in Minnesota for that matter, and you can visit this store, please do. If you do, let me know what you think. I get nothing out of this for posting this information for this store. I just love helping stores, chefs, and bakers, if it is a place that I would buy their products for myself or my family. I just want to share it with others. Enjoy the store if you can. Rick B

Hello, Rick

Thank you again for stopping in our store last week. As promised, I said I would email you with our website and store info. We’ve been open almost 8 months and having a great time so far. I call our store a European olive oil and balsamic vinegar bar. We carry 40 varieties of oil and balsamic, all of which come from award winning producers and the latest harvests. Because the products are so fresh, that is why they naturally have so much flavor to them, which after tasting the other day, you can probably agree. Below is our website where you and your readers can find more information about the store, our products, health benefits and a variety of recipes.

The Olive Grove

I’m glad you enjoyed tasting and hope to see you again.

Sincerely,

Natalie Jaeger

The Olive Grove

651-686-4710

Food Trivia

2010-05-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

Answers will be posted in the comment section.

1. What vegetable is known as the "pie plant"?

2. What is the name of a shellfish dish that combines Italian and English words to say the same thing twice?

A and W Root Beer B.B.Q. Sauce

2010-05-13T11:38:00.002-07:00

I love root beer, and I love grilling! Well, guess what? I found root beer flavored B.B.Q. sauce! Even better, I found two different brands of root beer flavored B.B.Q. sauce! I will review one for now and the 2nd one later.

The first one is A & W root beer. The label on the front says it is a thick and hearty sauce and is great for dipping. The picture on the label looks like a wooden barrel. The bottle is made of plastic, not glass, and is so full there is only a tiny small air bubble. It's hard to see how thick it really is. From what I can tell, it is on the thick side.

One thing I find really sad is that in the list of ingredients, there is no root beer is listed.

This is the ingredient list:

high fructose corn syrup, water, tomato paste, distilled vinegar, modified corn starch, salt, molasses, spices, apple concentrate, pear concentrate, grape concentrate, dextrin, maltodextrin, smoke flavor, natural and artificial flavors, caramel color, sodium benzoate (preservative).

Now here are the ingredients that are in the A & W root beer:
carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar, caramel color, sodium benzoate (preservative), natural and artificial flavors.

So, while "Root Beer" in and of itself is not listed in the B.B.Q. sauce, all the same ingredients are listed, so I suspect it is in there.

The color of the sauce is a nice dark red color, about the color of the beloved Sweet Baby Ray's. The smell right out of the bottle, the first thing I smell is molasses, then I faintly smell the root beer, and a slight smokey flavor, then you smell "spice." It's hard to tell, but I really do like the way it smells.

As far as the taste right out of the bottle, it has a sweet taste like french salad dressing. It is a nice sweet taste. If you like Sweet Baby Ray's, then I think from the taste out of the bottle you will like this.

It has been raining and cold the last few days here, so I decide to try this on baked chicken instead of grilling it.

On the chicken, it had a really nice sweet flavor, but that is to be expected because of the root beer. I really liked it. If you like Sweet Baby Ray's, I think you will like this. But the funny thing was, I found this in a chain hardware store, Menards. Prior to stumbling upon it, I had never seen it before. Over all, this is a good choice if you're a lover of Sweet Baby Ray's and cannot find any. Rick b

8 Cheese and Bacon, Mac and Cheese

2010-05-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

I like homemade macaroni and cheese and decided to make my own. I have tried making it various times and different ways, but here is one that seemed to work pretty well. It is a 8 cheese and bacon macaroni and cheese. The 8 cheeses were: Brie, mascarpone, Havarti, muenster, parmesan, Gouda, monterey-jack cheese, Le Gruyere.

When I bought the cheese, the packages did not weigh the same. There might be one or two ounces difference in weight. I tried keeping them all as close as possible. You can change up the types of cheese if you want to, or cut back on one or two also. I bought bacon, but you certainly can leave that out if you do not eat meat or do not like bacon. I bought a 12 ounce package of bacon. If you follow the guidelines I used, I would suggest using twice as much, since the bacon was not really noticeable. Cut up the bacon into the size pieces you want and fry them as crisp as possible.

After the bacon is cooked and drained, put all the shredded cheese into a pot with about 4 cups of heavy cream, no this recipe is not diet friendly and do not use skim milk or low fat cheese, if you must then do not bother making this. The really soft cheeses like the Brie and mascarpone can just go in as is. Toss in all the bacon as well. Add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and cook over very low heat to melt the cheese.

While the cheese is melting, cook the pasta. I used the big spiral pasta noodles, and I used a 12 ounce box. Use plenty of salted water to cook the pasta. You should figure about 1 gallon of water and enough salt to make it taste like the sea. Cook the pasta to your liking, then drain. Do not rinse the pasta; you want it to stay hot and have the starch on it.

Mix everything in a bowl or pot that will be big enough to hold it all. It will look a little soupy, but that is okay. It will firm up after it gets cold. If possible, for easier clean up, use a tin foil roasting pan.

Spray the pan with pan spray, then pour everything into the pan. I put a bag of crushed plain kettle chips on top of mine for some crunchy texture then back at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

This really makes a lot of food. This would be good for a party. If you have a small family, then I would suggest cutting this in half. You simply cut the cheese pieces in half and same them for later. This firms up pretty hard after sitting overnight in the fridge, and just is not the same re-heated. It is no longer creamy, but it still is good. My version was pretty greasy. I'm not sure if it was because the bacon was not cooked long enough, or if it was from all the cheese, or both. Everyone liked this overall.

If you cannot eat gluten, then you can use gluten-free pasta and have a gluten-free meal. Rick b

Huffin and a Puffin sauces

2010-05-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

I received two bottles of hot sauce from Huffin and Puffin. The first one was the original and the other was roasted. website

On the website they really do a good job hyping up their hot sauce. This is a portion of what they had to say about their hot sauce.

You take a taste... the flavor is immediate and very satisfying.. And then comes the heat... it starts out slow and then ramps up to a heat that can only be experienced and barely described. And still the flavors remain, packaged in the heat like a well shipped UPS parcel...

Next comes the physical effects. The tongue burning.. the sweat, eyes watering, nose running.... face turning red.. Ideas of what you can do with this sauce immediately flow through your brain. You will want to try it on EVERYTHING.... ice cream is probably not a good idea.

Have a recipe for chicken wings? They will never taste better than when you use our sauce.

To our mind ( which is clinically insane ) there are four categories of hot sauce: Why Bother, Amusing, Just Right, and ARE YOU INSANE? We are NOT in the INSANE category. This is not a contest to see how much pain we can inflict on you.. if you want pain, then hammer a nail through your forehead. Or eat burning sawdust.

We are in the JUST RIGHT category. A generous taste on the tongue will produce heat and flavor that will last well beyond the mass produced "Why Bother" you will find in the grocery store.

See our SAUCE page for more information... and why we set out to create the finest habanero hot sauce in the world.

I posted what they said because my thoughts were different about the sauces. When I looked at the sauce in the bottle, the color of the original looked kind of pale like an under ripe tomato, and I am guessing they used orange habanero peppers, plus carrots. That probably adds to the orange color.

The color of the roasted sauce is a nice dark color. It has a natural look, and they do say their product is 100 percent natural. I like the color of the roasted much better. I see in both sauces lots of seeds and pulp. That tells me that they ground up the entire pepper in the sauces, so I would think that these sauces would be hot since they have seeds and pulp from the peppers.

The picture on the bottle is ok. It's a picture of a puffin bird with flames coming out of its mouth. The picture is the same for both, the original and the roasted.

The list of ingredients are the same for both bottles, original and roasted, and they are exactly the same and in the same order: vinegar, carrots, sugar, spices, and the love of a sick mind. Oh yea, and habanero peppers.

I love the bit about the love of a sick mind. I had my brother and best friend over along with my wife to watch the fights while trying out both sauces on chicken wings. I decided to try the sauces out on wings since that was one of the ideas they gave for using the sauces.

Aroma for the original: Right out of the bottle, I thought it smelled like onions were in the sauce, even though they were not listed. My wife felt it smelled like taco sauce. I was a bit surprised by the fact that the sauce did not smell strongly of vinegar since that was listed first, and that it did not smell hot since they claim it is pretty hot.

The smell of the roasted sauce has a little stronger smell of vinegar, and a really nice roasted smell.

Taste and heat right out of the bottle: I can eat serious heat and my wife cannot eat the kind of heat I can, so I will give my thoughts for a heat level and my wife's thoughts for heat level.

If for some strange reason you felt like drinking the sauce right out of the bottle, I would give the heat level a 4 out of 10. My wife gives it a 5 out of 10, so to me that's not as hot as they make it out to be since my wife does not feel it's very hot.

The roasted sauce was not as hot, I would give it a 1 out of 10, and my wife gave it the same. The roasted one pretty much has no heat at all.

The flavor of the original sauce on the wings was pretty much non-existent. After using almost an entire bottle on wings, the heat level was a 3 out of 10 for me, and my wife gave it a 5 out of 10 on the wings. The sauce was slightly sweet and had a little heat, but other wise it was really bland. My friend said it needed salt, I agree with that. Outside of the sauce being a little sweet, there was really no flavor so speak of. It was nothing impressive and sadly, I cannot say, "You gotta go buy this sauce."

I really would like to know if anyone other than the people who created this sauce, has tried it and what their thoughts are. Otherwise, I really was not impressed by the original sauce.

The flavor of the roasted was better, it had a nice natural roasted flavor. It was not nearly as sweet, but the heat was not there at all. I am not sure if roasting took the heat away, but on the wings I would give the heat level a 0 out of 10 and my wife gave it a .5 to a 1 out of 10. I would say if you looking for a sauce with a decent flavor but no heat, try this sauce.

Overall, the makers are correct, this does not have a heat level set up to hurt you. On the other hand, there is pretty much no heat at all either. My wife, as I said, cannot eat heat. She has never been a heat eater and can handle this like it was nothing. Also, out of the 4 of us who tried both sauces, we all felt they were sweet with next to no flavor, the roasted had some, but the original was bland. Rick b

Thai Peanut Sauce and Sticky Rice

2010-05-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

This is my brothers recipe

Thai Peanut Sauce
Boy howdy, have I got the goods for you today! This is it right here, folks. This is The One. I'm fairly certain that no matter what I happen to come up with after this, even if I live to be a hundred, it will not be as good as this stuff. And it's not so much the peanut sauce itself, although it is excellent, as what you're going to do with it when it's ready. More on that later. For now, though...

It all started one day many years ago when I was living in Chicago...
Ah, y'know what? Never mind all that. Let me just sum it up-

Years ago, I discovered Thai Peanut Sauce (and sticky rice!).

And for a long time I used store-bought peanut sauce. This stuff, to be exact-

And it's actually very good. The only downside is that it's quite expensive- $4+ for about 11 oz. So after awhile I tried looking online for a recipe to make it at home, but I really couldn't find one. I mean, I found a bunch, but none of them sounded any good. Try it- do an online search for "Thai Peanut Sauce" and see what comes up. I think you'll be as disappointed as I was. Not to worry, though, you've come to the right place this time! And I even have an actual recipe for it, although as always, I encourage you to use it as a guideline only. The only reason I even worked one up is because at Sweeney's, where I work, they have a Thai Chicken Pasta dish- basically just chicken and linguine tossed in a peanut sauce- yeah, I know, "Thai" in name only. Anyway, shortly after I started working there, the boss tried my peanut sauce and liked it much better than the one they were using (no surprise there) so he told me to come up with a recipe that we could use at work, or else he'd fire me and I'd have to go back to working in those culinary coal mines known as franchise restaurants (yes, I'm thinking of you specifically, Ruby Tuesday, with your pre-cooked chicken!*). Ok, he wasn't quite that blunt about it, but I didn't want to take any chances, y'know? Sweeney's = good, franchise chains = coal mines in the 1800s.
So anyway, here's the recipe we use at work:

10 T garlic
10 T ginger
12 c coconut milk
12 c peanut butter
1 3/4 c packed brown sugar
1 1/2 c fish sauce
chili garlic sauce
juice from 3 limes + 1/2 c tamarind juice

Ok, let's break it down a little. First off, I know this is a lot. But I didn't resize it for several reasons- 1. I'm really bad at math. (And it took me a really long time to come up with those measurements specifically for work so I figure since I put so much effort into it, it should stay as is, y'know?) 2. You'll want a lot of this stuff on hand, believe me. 3. It keeps for quite awhile in the fridge, but even better, it freezes well, so you can just make a whole lot at once and not have to worry about it again for awhile. There's a few more reasons too, but that should suffice for now.
Ok, remember, this recipe should only be used as a guideline. At work we need a recipe for the sake of consistency. And because I can't really get the guys there to grasp the idea of "this is how it should taste, so just keep adjusting it until it tastes like this". It never seems to work out very well. So we use a recipe. (Or, they do. I do it my way, which is better.)
To start things off, I usually use more garlic and ginger than what's called for; usually around 12 Tbs. Also, at work we use water instead of coconut milk (that's what I used originally, but coconut milk is sooo much better. Don't skip it if at all possible.) Mince up the garlic and ginger nice and fine (make sure to use fresh garlic, not the stuff in the jar!) and heat it in some oil over medium- sesame oil is best for this. But you don't want to saute it- i.e. don't cook it till it's brown, just till it's nice and fragrant. Then add the coconut milk, fish sauce, peanut butter, chili sauce, and brown sugar. Heat over low. And I mean low. Peanut butter will overcook very easily, and when it does the oil separates and it looks all nasty and can't be made to look un-nasty, so take your time with this. If you're using an electric stove, be sure and set it on the lowest setting. Also, if you use a wire whip to stir it, it will blend up nice and smooth in no time. Just keep cooking over low until it's as thick as you'd like it to be. It doesn't take long at all. I usually make mine to about the consistency of a thick ketchup. (Keep in mind that you'll be adding lime and tamarind juice at the end.)
About that chili garlic sauce... I use, and highly recommend, this stuff-

made by Huy Fong Foods. It's fairly readily available, even in small-town stores. How much you use is totally up to you. I didn't include a specific amount in the recipe because at work we use crushed red pepper, but I really, really recommend that you don't skip using this. It's too good. (I buy it by the gallon.) Luckily for me, I live in a town with one of the largest Hmong populations in the U.S. so Asian food stores are more common than Starbucks around here.
As for the brown sugar- when the recipe says "packed", it means packed- as tight as you can get it in there. And here's a tip- just pack it once and then weigh it out, then next time you make it you don't have to bother with all that cramming into the measuring cup! (I believe 1 3/4 c weighs about 14-16 oz.) I also prefer dark brown sugar to light.
As for the fish sauce, the main thing to look for is a minimum of ingredients- water, fish, salt. A lot of brands have sugar added, but in my experience, it's not very noticeable in most. The online Asian store ImportFood.com mentions 4 they like a lot. I found Three Crabs brand to be very sweet. I'd avoid using it, at least for this recipe. I personally don't like it at all (supposedly it's quite popular, though) and it's pretty expensive which is another reason I don't use it. I've used both Squid brand and Golden Boy a lot and can definitely recommend both.
Once you get the peanut sauce to the thickness you'd like, turn off the heat and add the juice of 3 limes plus 1/2 c. tamarind juice. How do you get tamarind juice? Chez Pim has a tip near the bottom of her post on pad thai. In a nutshell, you take a block of Tamarind Paste-

and soak it in 4 cups of hot water until soft, then strain. If you have to, in a pinch you can use cranberry juice- it's taste is pretty darn close. Just don't tell Pim I said that- she's kind of a purist and all and might rip me a new one. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe you should tell her. After all, she's kind of a big name in the food blog world and if she rants about me on her blog... (even bad publicity is still publicity, is all I'm sayin'.)
Also, I find that adding just a little o.j. to the mix at the end really adds a nice touch.

I think that about sums things up. If you can't find any of the ingredients in your area, ImportFood.com has everything you need, and there are other online Asian stores as well.

Now, on to the real star of the show- sticky rice! If you've not had this before, you really need to add this to your list of Things To Do Before I Die. And then get to it ASAP. Not just any ol' sticky rice from any ol' asian restaurant, though. Try it my way first. Seriously, if you could scoop up all of Heaven and plop it in a bowl to eat, it would taste like this. I am not lying or exaggerating. Not even a little. The name "sticky rice" is kind of a misnomer, though; it's not really "sticky" in the sense that you think of when you picture regular rice that's been overcooked. "Chewy rice" would be a more accurate way to describe it. But I guess that doesn't sound as cool, does it? Yeah, let's stick with Sticky.

I'm going to try and sum this up quick. (Or you can look Here. I swear I'm not trying to plug ImportFood.com- it's just a convenience for me, since they're the main one I'm aware of, but there are other Asian food sites online to order from as well. I encourage you to check them out.)
Sticky rice is also known as "glutinous rice" and "sweet rice". When it's dry, it looks kind of like a smaller version of puffed rice cereal-

When cooked, it becomes more translucent-

(it won't have that pinkish hue- that's just from the light in the room,
and I never got around to correcting it in Photoshop)

You don't have to cook it in a bamboo steamer, or if you want to get really food-nerd about it, one of those sticky rice steamer baskets (which I have, of course). You can use a regular colander and pot. You will need some sort of cheesecloth-type fabric to line the basket with, though. I've found regular cheesecloth to be too porous and flimsy, so I use a couple cloth napkins that I got at Target or something for not a lot of money.
My instructions are basically the same as those on the other site, but slightly rearranged- I soak mine first- for a solid 8 hours. You might get away with 6, but in my experience 8-10 is better. Then I rinse the rice, usually more than the 2-3 times they call for. You want the water to run fairly clear (it probably won't get totally clear, though). Also, I don't think it takes 45 minutes like they say- mine's usually ready in 25-30. Once you've made it a couple times you can usually tell by looking whether it's done or not, but you can always taste it while it's steaming to find out. You'll know when it's done. It won't separate too easily with a fork and will be nice and chewy (and translucent). When it's done, if you take it off the stove and immediately flip the whole thing over into a large mixing bowl, most, if not all of it, will just plop right out of that cloth and into the bowl, leaving a nice easy-to-rinse-clean cloth. You'll want to cover it though, so it won't dry out. Now comes the fun part- take as much as you want and put it into a very large bowl- (I tend to just leave it all in that same stainless mixing bowl and eat out of that) then add the following-

peanut sauce
fine grain sea or kosher salt
granulated garlic
chili garlic sauce

the order isn't super important, but I usually go wet before dry- makes it much easier to mix. Even the amounts aren't all that critical. I once made this for a friend and added by sight only- didn't taste even once to test it before handing her the bowl. The result? Success!

Heaven. In a bowl.

That's what you've got right there, my friend. Heaven in a bowl, I kid you not.

Taming the Heat

2010-04-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

Many people love eating hot foods, but then some people overdo it and need to tame the heat; they run for milk, beer, bread, or whatever. The Capsaicin is what brings on the heat. Many people will tell you if you over do the heat drink something high in fat like whole milk, or eat bread to absorb the heat.

Let me say first off, Capsaicin is a fat-soluble, meaning any non-fat liquid like water, beer, soda, etc. will only spread the burn. Eating something like bread or things of that nature will not work because the Capsaicin opens the pours in your tongue and gets embedded in your tongue.

The things that work to some degree are high-fat liquids like heavy cream or whole milk. Instead of drinking it, just pour in a mouthful and let it set. But remember, this is not a 100 percent cure. You will still have some burn that needs to go away on its own. Now, I'm writing this because I just heard that pineapple juice works really good. Honestly, I do not know if this is true or not, and even if it is, I do not know why or how it works. That part was never explained.

I love the blistering heat. The hotter the better! Many novices try and eat the heat, then cry about the pain. So, I am putting this info. out as a public service announcement to help the novice work their way up. Rick b