Dinner and a Concert

It's been a while. Food recap

2011-06-21T10:13:00.000-04:00

Hi Folks,
It's been awhile since I've spent any time on this blog but that doesn't mean I've stopped cooking. All sorts of things can happen in a year and they did. So... I've even been taking pictures of the food I make. Here are a few highlights. And a look into what I hope to be a bunch of future posts. Also just for fun I've begun designing a restaraunt menu and have a bunch of crazy good ideas but they need to be tested. Oh and I have just the place to tell you about how they come out.

Quesadillias.
I've made a bunch. But they are the BEST vehicle for leftover proteins. Shrimp, Steak, Chicken, Pork, Emu, Whatever! Look at this prep work. LOOK at that medium rare leftover steak!

I'm not really sure what this is... A hopped up chili-mac? a bolognaise? Oh well... I'ts making me hungry.

Pizza. Man I love pizza, learned a bunch of new methods for cooking/grilling them too.

It seems I'm constantly smoking habeneros. See previous posts.

Stuffed Poblanos. What was in those again? Meat and potatoes. Cool.

Just the awsomest appetizer spread ever. It needed it's own table.

Haloween.
Not really something I cooked... But I can still be proud of it.

Aiiiiiiieeeeeeeeaaa

Music and food. Together at last. Please ignore the "Great Value Chips"

Springtime and refreshing salads full of omegas is the key. Planked honey and whole grain mustard salmon over greens and veggies. Yum.

Talapia, baby herbed potatoes, heirloom beets and beet greens, speckled lima beans. Phew I was busy that night.

Oh man. Country Fried Turkey medallions around a lemon and arugula linguini topped with Parmesan cheese.
I might make that tonight.

Brewing gear that the boys have been taking over. Look at this thing. Maybe we'll throw in some beer recipes as well. Just for those of you who are adventuresome.

OK. So to recap... Pictures of food, snarky commentsl, I'm back and I'm going to try to get more posts again.

Not your mom's fruit salad

2010-07-12T12:12:00.001-04:00

So I decided to go on a fruit kick the other day and a GIANT bowl ended up lasting only 3 days with this amazing versitile fruit salad.

You will need

Blackberries 2 pints
Blueberries 2 pints
Cherries 1 lb
Strawberries 2 pints
Pineapple 1
Grapefruit 2
Triple-sec 1/4 cup

So no instructions really needed. Just cut everything up and toss it together. To get partiular make sure there is no white pithy stuff on the grapefruit because it is bitter. and for the cherries I cut them in half and pulled the seeds.

Yum.
Oh and if you get tired of eating this salad (which I bet you wont) throw it in a blender with some ice for a smoothie or with ice and rum for a ________. Fill in the blank, what would you call it?

Shredded Chicken Enchaladas with Roasted Tomatillio sauce and Habanero Salad

2010-06-25T13:31:00.002-04:00

This is a quality recipe. Many thanks to Ash from A Year in the Kitchen for posting her enchalada casserole which was the inspiration for this recipe.

You will need

Jalapenos
1 or 2 Onions
Dozen or so Tomatillios
4 Cloves of garlic
1 whole chicken
Adobo seasoning
Corn Tortillias
1 Habanero
Scallions
Roasted Corn Salsa
Cheese (mexican or cheddar or manchego if you're super fly)

So let's start with the chicken.
Pictures of me hacking apart a chicken aren't entirely pleasant so I'll just tell you what I did. I quartered the chicken into 2 leg/thingh pieces and two breast/tender pieces. Throw those into a pot and cover with water. Just enough to cover all the chicken, Add 2 tbsp adobo seasoning boil for 30-40 minutes.

Crank your oven up to 350 after you have the chicken going and wash and roughly cut up 1 onion 2 jalapenos, 4 cloves garlic and tomatillios.

Throw those in the oven and let them bake 15-20 minutes till the tomatillios are tender.

After they come out of the oven we go right into a blender and that is our salsa verde.

After your timer goes off for the chicken we are going to pull it off the bone. It'll be hot so I use a pair of tongs to get everything separated you want just meat no skin or bones/cartilage.

Save your stock!
Shred the chicken with a fork and add some of the remaining liquid from the pot you boiled everything in until chicken is moist and juicy but not swimming.

After you have all the ingredients prepped we can go into assembly mode.

Put a little of the salsa verde in the bottom of the pan to prevent burning.

From right to left.

Tortillia
Green onion (largepieces)
Shredded Chicken
Roll
Place in pan in a vague geometric shape (a row)

Now you're ready to cover with the rest of the salsa verde. Top with shredded cheese and bake for 20-30 minutes until the cheese looks nice and pretty.

I made a little habanero salad to go along with the dish because I like it HOT.

Thinly slice habaneros, onion and scallion.

I was cooking at night so the artificial light did not help the pics but the salad was beautiful orange white and green.

To plate put them on the plate top with roasted corn salsa and habenero salad.

Enjoy!

Yum.

Roasted Corn Salsa

2010-06-23T10:46:00.000-04:00

Let have some Mexican food!

We'll start with the salsa and move on from there tomorrow.

You Will Need

4 Large ripe tomatoes cubed
1 bunch scallions sliced thin
1/2 bunch cilantro Chopped rough
2 Jalapenos diced
2 ears fresh sweet corn
juice of 1 lime
1 sweet yellow onion (diced)

So you'll want to roast the corn first. Throw it in the oven or on the grill husk and all for 20 minutes on 400 degrees. The husk will start to brown that is perfect.

While the corn is roasting let's chop up everything else.

The scallions.

The Cilantro...

The onions tomatoes etc... and toss into a mixing bowl where they will all be happy together.

Hmm... I'm forgetting something.

The Corn! Cut it off the cob and add.

Just mix and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight for the best flavor.
Serve with corn chips :)
Yum.

Boiled Peanuts

2010-06-21T14:51:00.002-04:00

Hi folks!
Having just spend the weekend down on gulf shores and seeing the oil on the beach for myself I wanted to tip my hat to everyone who is (actually) working towards a solution to all the nastiness that the BP well is spewing. Here's a cheap easy snack that will keep you going. Peanuts are full of good stuff that will keep an active person active.

Boiled Peanuts
Makes 15-20 servings

You will need

5 lbs raw peanuts
1 cup salt
1 large pot and some water.

So fill your pot up 1/2 way with water.

Add salt.

Add peanuts.

Did you really think i was going to be hard?

OK so for the gourmet at heart it's all in the timing. I like to retain the peanut's natural flavor and not just make mushy over boiled slimy crap like you get in the gas stations that have been in the water for weeks.

Taste them as you go and after 3 to 4 hours they will be perfect. Let cool then remove them from the water do not dry! Bag wet and freeze for a ready microwave snack any time.

Easy but still yum.

Summer Harvest String Beans and Tomatoes

2010-06-17T09:39:00.000-04:00

So here I am with all these veggies just dreaming up different ways to cook them only to find out that people have already done them. Sometimes it feels the same way with my music. But then all you have to do is realize that anything you do has you in it and can't be copied. So here are my beans. Uniquely mine and uniquely delicious.

Serves 10 as side dish
You will need

1 lb. String beans (strung)
4 or 5 large ripe tomatoes
Fresh Herbs
Crushed red pepper
Salt
Oil

Start this one like many of my recipes in a large cast iron skillet. For my regular readers you may be beginning to understand exactly how much stuff gets cooked in this skillet. After you string the beans and cut up the tomatoes you can begin heating it up. Throw some veggie oil in the bottom and wipe away the excess with a towel.

When the oil gets smoking hot add your beans and cover with a splatter guard.

Stir pretty consistently until they are starting to get some pretty little brown spots.

Turn down the heat to med.

Next you add all those tomatoes. All those pretty pretty tomatoes. Let those stew with the beans constantly stirring until they start to break down.

Now it's time to add some herbs. You want about 1/2 a cup of various fresh herbs like these.

Only I want you to chop em up fine and only use half of them at this point.

well we're almost there. You can add a little water or checken stock if the pan gets dry. The beans should be simmering in a bit of liquid.

That's

Basil
Thyme
Oregano
Parsley

Now you just serve it up in a nice bowl and pour the beans and tomatoes in. Top with the rest of the herbs and some red and black pepper.

Yum.

Zen and the art of burgers

2010-06-16T11:09:00.001-04:00

Bow down to the Better Burger.
It towers above your head.
It's not idolatry. I promise.

Makes 3
You will need

1 lb. Ground Beef (between 10-20 percent fat)
Apple wood Smoked Bacon 6 pieces
Pickapeppa Sauce
2 Tbsp Ground Pepper
Buns
Lettuice
Tomato
Vidalia Onion
Ketsup
Mayo
OMG I almost forgot the Extra Sharp White Cheddar

So everyone knows how to cook a burger. The thing that gets ignored most often is picking out the right ingredients. Get the freshest most beautiful things you can find and cook the burgers over real coal at high heat. Beyond that, it's pretty simple.

Make sure your tomatoes are ripe. I'd really be best if you grew your own.

Lettuce should be CRISP and BRIGHT.

Onions should be from Vidalia Georgia. So sweet and juicy you can eat them like an apple.

Bacon Should be THICK and smoked.

So cut up your veggies. However thick or thin you like.

Heat up the grill to HOT. I went ahead and threw my bacon on some tin foil on the side. If you don't like grease fires maybe use a pan. Personally I think the little burnt edges make for some really delicious stuff.

Add 3 or 4 tbsp Pickapeppa sauce and your pepper to the meat and mix .

Make 3 balls with a pound of meat and flatten with your hands right before you toss them on the grill.

Hiss sizzle and flip.

Halfway through side 2 add your cheese and watch it melt!

Stack artfully.

Don't forget the Ketchup and Mayo.

I could describe the order order of operations for the toppings but let's just leave it at this.

Keep the sauces away from the bun and put them on the meat lettuce or onion so the bread stays dry and together while you are scarfing this thing down.

Also if you can eat this burger without putting it down. You'll be one step ahead of the competition.

And unlike the competition. My burgers actually look like this in real life.

Yum.

Collard Greens, Southern Style

2010-06-15T13:36:00.001-04:00

For some greens you need just a little time. For others, you just kill `em.
In the southern tradition I'm just gonna kill `em.
These collards remind me of family and football. It's always on the menu down in Dublin Ga for Thanksgiving Holiday. Props to all my culinarily gifted family down there.

Collards

You will need

Collards, 2 big bunches
Bacon (smoked)
Chicken Stock

So take those bad boys and wash any dirt off. Next we're going to cut up the Collards.

Cut off the last 2 inches of the stalk and then cut about 2 in strips down the middle and then across so 2 inch squares is about right.

Cut up 3 or 4 strips your bacon into approx. 1 in squares Toss in the pan. cook on med high till they start to brown nicely.

Throw in your collards and bang pow pop then you can add your chicken stock about 6 to 8 cups. It should come up about 3/4 on the greens. Reduce heat cover and wait.

In about 2 or 3 hours they will be tender and delicious. Add as much salt as you want and enjoy.

Yum.

Slow Cooked Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Rosemary and Garlic

2010-06-10T09:50:00.000-04:00

This is a triumph.
A masterpiece!
Basically this sh*t was awesome.

Here's' how I did it.

You will need

Leg of lamb (shoulder?)
Fresh Rosemary
Fresh garlic 6-7 cloves
Sea Salt
Butter
Cotton Cooking twine

So you want to be a millionaire? Or maybe you just want to eat like one. Here's how.

Take your lamb, remove the bone, and do some butterflying with your knife, fat side down. You know long slits designed to expose more of the surface of the meat.

Anyway trim up some of the hangy bits and pieces but leave the layer of fat on the side.

Take your garlic and chop it up. Next add 1 tbsp salt and keep chopping till you have developed a paste. Rub it on. Rub it in. Wash hands... Um.. anyway strip the branches of the rosemary reserving any of those little pieces of wood for later and add the leaves to the meat as shown.

Throw in a couple of pieces of butter. (keeps the inside from drying out not to mention makes it buttery) Now you want to tie the sucker up.

Let's do that.

Notice how you can make individual loops if you go under the previous loop. That's the secret. Make sure you cut a 4 or 5 foot legnth to make sure you have enough.

Repeat and tie it tight. You don't want the butter to escape do you?

It should look like a masochist when you're done.

So now it's time to cook it. I did it on the Big Green Egg. You can do the same, but only if you have one. Stefanie was coming home late so I kept the thing between 200 and 300 for about 5 hours.

For your sake lets say 2 hours in the oven at 350 or until, according to Alton Brown) the internal temperature is equal to 135 degrees. From that same recipe I learned the rosemary branches, nay, the entire plant can be smoked. On the smoker. For more flavor.

So here it is. Fat side up over a pan so all the juicy drippings have to make their way over the meat and around before dropping off into the pan.

When it's done, cut off the cotton and get down to business.

Yum.

Red Lentil Curry and Onion Cakes

2010-06-09T10:38:00.002-04:00

So here's a side dish that I found online one time (a long time ago) and have never been able to find since. So I decided to give it another try. Lentils are an amazing food nutritionally and are really dynamic as far as things you can do with them. Be looking for the main dish tomorrow. Here's a hint. It's a stuffed leg of lamb.

You will need

Red lentils (1.5 Cups)
1 Onion (Medium Chop)
2 Tbsp Curry Powder
1 Tbsp Garlic Salt
1 Egg
4 tbsp Flour
Veggie oil

This one's pretty simple and can be used as the main course in a vegetarian dish or vegan if you sub 1 tbsp ground flax seeds 3 tbsp water for the egg. Thanks to theppk.com for that.

Start by soaking the Lentils for a couple hours. Careful about the size of your container they will double in size.

Throw them in the food processor for a couple of turns until they are chopped but not a paste, like so.

Transfer to a mixing bowl and add your other ingredients.

The egg, flour, onion, and spices all can go together and then give that a good stir.

Now you're ready to make your pancakes.

Heat your skillet over medium heat. Add some oil to the bottom of the pan it will start to lose viscosity as it heats. That's how you know it's ready. Smoking oil is probably a little too hot.

Make a patty and gently lay it in the pan. Remember you are cooking with hot oil, which was used as a weapon in the middle ages becasue it HURTS when you get it on you. Please be careful.

Keep your eye on them till they look good. Like this.

Throw a little salt on them and enjoy!
Yum.

They're pretty good cold too for picnics and the like.

This recipe probably makes 10-20 depending on how big you like your cakes.

I'm entering this dish in the side dish showdown on Cinnamon and Spice and Everything Nice which is a great blog that makes me drool every time.

Jambalaya done the right way

2010-06-08T11:17:00.000-04:00

So I came across this recipe for jambalaya from Jerry Odum down in Louisiana. I decided to whip some up and here's what happened.

You will need

1 lb smoked sausage ($3.00)
4 chicken leg quarters ($4.50)
1 lb uncooked shrimp, mussels, clams, crayfish, oysters or other seafood of your choice
Jasmine Rice (4 cups)
Bayou Blast (Emeril's spices) 4 tbsp
3 Large stalks celery (diced)
4 large sweet onions (large chop)
2 bunches scallions (green onions)
2 red bell peppers (diced)
1 qt fresh chicken stock

So I started this one out by heating up my cast iron skillet over an open flame. Luckily I have a green egg so this was not that difficult. I put some Rajun Cajun Spicy smoked sausage on the edge and let it smoke some more (twice smoked sausage anyone) while I heated up the pan. (to about 300-350 it has to be cast iron)
I recommend de-boning the leg quarters. If you need help learning how to do that leave me a comment and I'll post it.

First prep your veggies like a good sous. Or be like the professionals and have someone else do it.

Put a drop of oil on the pan and spread it around with a paper towel. Start them skin side down after making sure there are no little bits of cartilage or gristle on the non skin side. Let them brown in the pan for a while 5-10 minutes then flip.

Like so.

Ok now set all that stuff aside and add in the onion and celery. Leave the grease in the pan. That is bayou culinary gold.

Now Jerry Odum makes this astute observation "[about the onions] Don't burn them or the whole recipe is screwed." I agree.

So this will cook for maybe 30 minutes or so while the onions get nice and soft and yummy.

You can use this time to cut up your chicken and sausage.

When the onions are ready add your meats and chicken stock till it just about covers everything. Let that simmer for another 15 minutes and you can add your other veggies.

Oh man. I just love these pictures.

Let that simmer for another 15 minutes before adding the rice and the shrimp/seafood.

Editor's note: when I made this I had to take 1/2 the recipe out of one pot and put it in another because I overflowed. You need a Large pot. This recipe will probably feed 10.

Make sure you get the pot off of direct heat after you add the rice or you will end up with crispy rice. Which is fine if you like that sort of thing.

Cook for 15 minutes until the rice starts looking good and then flip everything in the pan so that the rice from the top is buried. Add stock if necessary.

That's a lot of jambalaya.
Yum.

BBQ Pulled Pork Quesadillias

2010-06-07T10:15:00.001-04:00

So I was out late one night playing a show and they didn't even feed us. Can you believe it? Well regardless I was pretty starving at 2 a.m. so I wanted to make something that was quick and easy.

Not to mention gooey and delicious. Soooo

You will need

Flour tortillas (I like Mission brand)
Cheese (I used Cheddar, Monterrey, and Jack)
1 sweet yellow onion
2 Hot peppers (I used a jalapeno and a Serrano)
1 bunch Green onions
Some leftover pulled pork
BBQ sauce
Sour Cream

OK so the hardest thing to get there is the leftover pulled pork. You can substitute cooked shredded chicken or you can try the frozen stuff they have in the store. I've never tried it so I can't vouch for it.

So give all your veggies a nice small chop and remember to wash your hands after you handle the peppers. We don't want you rubbing your eyes with all that spicy stuff on there.

Grate up your cheese next. We'll get everything prepped up first `cause these things cook in no time.

So after that throw the pork in a plastic bag (or leave it there if that where it is) and add your bbq sauce. I used a vinegar lemonade based Tennessee sauce that worked out great.

So now you get out your well whatever pan you like to make quesadillias in and heat it up with a super thin layer of oil in the pan. Medium heat will work for these.

Put in your tortillia and layer it with cheese, then veggies, then the pork, then more cheese and top it off with tortillia number 2.

The other way to do this is to just put stuff on half of the quesadillia and then fold it over.

So flip it once it gets golden brown. I'm not going to tell you a time so don't leave it alone. It took me a while not to mention some ruined pans and smokey kitchens to learn not to cook these on high heat.

Looking good...

Lets have us a little bite eh?

Cut in half 4 times to get 8 pieces like a pizza.

Serve with salsa and sour cream if you have any around. Don't worry about it if you don't.

Yum.

Bacon, Cheddar and Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos

2010-06-03T10:44:00.001-04:00

Hmmm. What are those? Well they used to look like this.

Yup. Let's take a trip down jalapeno lane.

Bacon, Cheddar and Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos

You will need

Jalapenos (let's start with 20)
Cream cheese (1 block)
Shredded Cheddar (2 cups)
Apple wood smoked bacon (1 pound chopped and cooked till you have bacon bits)
1/4 cup bacon grease
6 eggs (beaten)
breadcrumbs

So you start this one by putting on gloves.

These things are spicy and if that spicy gets on your hands you could be signing up for some pain. Anyway all that aside cut all the jalapenos in 1/2 length wise and remove all the white stuff and seeds. (A spoon usually works best for that task)

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These things can run you from $30 to a couple hundred. Regradless, you need one.

Throw in the bacon at the very end so it retains it's bacony goodness. At this point you can probably just fold it in with a rubber spatula.

OK now the fun begins. Get a good friend and get to work.

You will need to take a spoon and put a dollop on each jalapeno half. Don't skimp. These are going to end up round like a jalapeno but only half of one is in there.

Then while one person is stuffing the other is shaping them and ||: putting them through egg wash, then the breadcrumbs. Then on a rack to dry. An oven rack works just fine. :||

So those of you who are musically inclined know what ||: :|| are... Repeat signs!

Let the japs dry for 30 minutes and put them through the egg and crumbs again.

Do it again.

And FREEZE!

These after they are frozen are ready to be fried at 350 degrees.

For a dipping sauce you can do ranch OR you can take Hot Squeeze and add tons of orange zest.

Yum.

There's no picture of the finished product because they didn't stay out long enough for me to snap one. Oh well.

Memorial day Meat

2010-06-02T09:53:00.000-04:00

So the salad didn't do it for you...

Well take a look at some of these pics.

Salsa smoked chicken

Take 1 onion, 4 tomatoes, 4 spicy green chilis, 1/2 cup ketchup. Mutilate (cuisinart), Marinate, and Smoke for 1.5 hours at 300 or so. Reapply salsa until you run out.

Butt

Take 1 full Boston butt rub 1/2 cup salt and coarse ground pepper to outside and smoke it with apple wood for 14 hours between 250 and 300 degrees.

You know it's done when you can pull the bone out clean.

Ribs

Smoke for 7 hours at 300 degrees. Start applying sauce after 5 every 30 minutes for a nice glaze.

Did I mention these were spare ribs. Super cheap and some of the best I've ever had.

Please take a minute and share this with your friends if you would like to help. Facebook, twitter, word of mouth and all that is great.

Also let me know if you are interested in doing some guest blog posts.

Party Chopped Salad or Tuna Salad Salad

2010-06-01T11:40:00.002-04:00

So I looked in my fridge the other day and realized that I had a few extra heads of lettuce.

Oh crap. what in the world am I going to do with all this lettuce. Wait wait... It's memorial day weekend, I'll be going to parties and cooking out all weekend! Why don't I attack these veggies like Vince Shlomi and see what comes out.

You will need (and I'm not putting amounts this time, however much you want is how much you should chop up. Otherwise I'd end up with a recipe that serves 40) :P

For the Salad

Lettuce
Carrots
Celery
Tomato
Vidalia Onion (it's just sweeter)
Yellow Pepper
Chick Peas
Sunflower Seeds
Croutons See the bottom of the tomato soup post on how to make these

For the Tuna Salad

Canned tuna (I like the albacore)
Celery
Carrot
Scallions
Spicy green pepper (Jalapeno or Serrano or both)
Red wine vinegar
Mayo
salt/pepper

For the dressing

1/2 cup Olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic
handful fresh herbs
handful toasty nuts (whatever you like)

Ok so some more knife skills practice. Chop the lettuce up into 1 - 1.5 inch squares. Don't try and be anal just cut lengthwise a few times and then chop the other direction.

You're going to want to cut up all the veggies into generally bite size pieces. Basically nothing bigger than 2".

I shaved up some carrots with the peeler I mentioned on the other post. You can cut them however you like

Cut up everything put it in a big container with a lid and shake to toss.

Ok. So it's time to whip up the tuna Salad.

Take the tuna out o the can. For this recipe I used 3 cans of Albacore tuna.

Squeeze the juice out of the can so we can get the tuna to absorb some of the other flavors we will be working with.

Chop up into tiny bits some of all of the following.

Carrots
~~Shallots~~ Scallions (whoops)
Celery,
Hot peppers.

It should look something like this.

Now you can put together the wet ingredients. You need about a cup of mayo (feel free to substitute 1/2 cup with yogurt for less calories) 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, Salt / pepper. And mix.
Taste it. Yum. Now what does it need? I dunno. you make the adjustments you ninny.
So, last but not least

For the dressing
Chop all your herbs, Toast and chop all your nuts and combine with the oil and vinegar in a jar with a lid. Shake pour and enjoy.

Here's what it ended up looking like...

Yum.
And here is a picture of me and Stef and what we ended up looking like before the party on Saturday.

Woah.

Tomato Soup (forget the can)

2010-05-31T11:03:00.000-04:00

Happy memorial day! Coming soon... pork. Lot's and lot's of it.

So I came across a recipe for some tomato soup and thought, this has some potential. Here is what I came up with.

Um can I just say... naw I'll wait till the very end.

You will need

8-10 Roma(plum) tomatoes
Fresh basil (a couple sprigs)
3 Shallots (or 1/2 onion is ok)
1 carrot
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup half and half
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic
Chicken or Veggie stock

For the croutons

1/2 a loaf french bread (stale is fine, a little better even)
fresh parsley
butter
olive oil
3 cloves garlic

So for the soup let's start off with.
The veggies

I did it. I mean it looked so amazing. The best peeler I'd ever seen in action. And guess what. It is. As seen on t.v.

This is the free extra thing that came with the peeler and it shreds carrots and whatever else you have just as good as a mandolin and for a lot less.

So here's an ad if you want one. Hey wait. That's even less than I paid for mine. Ah well.

Where was I?

Ok so cut up the carrot shallots and basil and toss them in a pot with enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot.

Let those go for 10-15 minutes on med low heat while you peel your tomatoes. btw the aforementioned peeler can peel tomatoes. Otherwise you are going to have to drop them in boiling water until the skin cracks an then peel them by hand.

Chop em up nice and add them to the other veggies after you're done.

Like so.
Make sure that you get all the good juice from those tomatoes into the pot. That stuff is liquid gold... or liquid um... tomato.

Let that go for another 10-20 minutes or until fairly mushy. This would be a good time to start the croutons *(see below).

Add enough stock to cover the veggies while not drowning them.

I almost stopped here it looked so good. But I must persevere.

I used an immersion blender to mix everything up till smooth. Any old blender will do but that stuff is hot. So I recommend an immersion blender and a high walled pan (to avoid splatters and burning pain).

The last step is to mix up all those other strange ingredients.

The half and half, egg yolk and vinegar all get mixed together and put aside.

Wait till the soup cools down to not boiling. Steaming is fine.

Right before you serve.
Add the cream mixture. Crutons and a sprig of basil. Be careful not to boil after this point or the yolks will do some funky stuff.

Yum. There I said it.

Garlic butter Croutons

You will need

baguette
butter
olive oil
garlic
parsley

These are super easy and can go an anything you want croutons on. I have trouble staying away from them plain.

Cut up your bread into crouton size

The butter mixture is fairily easy.
melt 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp olive oil together. Add tons of finely chopped garlic. As much as you can stand. That's it.

Toss it over the bread.

Toss in a little handful of chopped parsley.

Bake for 30 minutes in a 325-350 degree oven until crunchy. 30 minutes? Depends on the oven and temp.

Or until this.

Turns into

This,

Yum.

Habanero Garlic Roast Beef

2010-05-28T11:43:00.000-04:00

Woah! That'sa onea spicy roast beef sandwich.

You will need

1 large piece of beef suitable for roasting (this is a sirloin roast)
4 or 5 Habaneros
5 or 6 large cloves or garlic
Salt
Pepper
Cooking String
Baguette (toasty)

Yup that's it. Oh, and a really sharp knife.

So let's get this show on the road. First you'll need to trim some (not all) of the fat off the beef. This was my first attempt at a sirloin roast and you can see some of that really tough stuff running through it. So I just cut it out after it was done. Once I have a solution to that I'll let you know.

Anyway I cut along the fat patterns until the roast has pretty much unrolled. Then you can trim some of the fat and any gristle you see as long as you don't cut the roast into pieces.

Next go horizontally across the meat to basically butterfly it. Be careful that you don't go all the way through.

Now thinly slice the habaneros and be careful to wash your hands after handling them.

Also with a stout knife, smash the garlic flat. You can do this with the skin on and the peel will come right off.

From cute little peppers to devilishly hot diabolical green goodness.

Whack! Press scrape place.

So the inside of the beef should look nicely covered in all the stuff. Then you'll want to roll it all up. Like a so.

keep going.

Looking good.

Tie it together. I just used one string. One thing you can try and do to keep it all together better is tuck the edges while you are rolling.

Ok now that the hard part is over crush up some pepper. Grab some kosher salt and rub the outside of the meat. You gotta love a good crust.

just put it in an appropriate pan and bake for 2 hours at 325.

Or until internal temp reaches 245

After the timer beeps.

Take it out.

Wrap it up

When you unwrap there will be a bunch of jus.
DO NOT THROW AWAY.
Pour it over the beef right before you serve over crusty baguette bread.

Slice it thin.

Scarf it down.

Yum.

HOT Italian Sausage Pasta

2010-05-28T10:04:00.000-04:00

Mi piace davvero.

It's time to get down on some sausage pasta.

What you will need

Hot Italian sausage
1 large onion
8 Roma tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
Parmigano / Pecorino
Crushed red pepper
Olive oil 2 tbsp
Red wine
Fresh or dry oregano

So I like to start off by grilling up the sausage and getting some lines on it. You can do this in a pan or cast iron skillet if you have to.

This will really just help firm up the sausage so that you have pieces instead of ground pork in the pasta. If you prefer remove the casing and just saute in the pan for a ground pork pasta.

Anyway after these are done cut them in half lengthwise and cut little half moons. Like so.

Ok, so now that your hands are all greasy pour a couple glugs of olive oil into a dutch oven and heat on high. When it starts to get nice and hot, right before it begins smoking, add the pork and sizzle and stir. Don't worry if some of the stuff gets stuck to the bottom of the pan we'll get it off later.

Once everything is nice and browned add 2 tbsp red pepper plakes and stir for 30 seconds then add
1 roughly chopped onion to the mix.

When the onion starts to brown add 1 cup red table wine. Really whatever you're drinking is fine. What? Then go open a bottle and pour yourself a glass. Anyway at this point you can use a wooden spoon to scrape all of the stuff off the bottom of the pan.

Let that go for a while till 60% or so boils off.

Now you can add your roughly chopped tomatoes. And any tomato parts you might have left over from pasta salad.

let them go for about 10 minutes and add 1 can of tomato paste. I prefer the organic kind because it tastes better. I hope that ad
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Well, we're almost there.
Now feel free to turn down the heat and add some oregano from the garden. Or from the garden from last year in my case.

Let the stuff simmer.

Now go ahead and boil up some rotini pasta. You want to subtract about 2 minutes from the cooking time on the box because we are going to finish it in the sauce and let the noodles soak up all the goodness instead of just water.

If the sauce gets too dry just add a scoop of pasta water. When your noodles are almost aldente strain but reserve some of the pasta water just in case. place the noodles in the pot, stir to coat evenly and put a lid on it! Right. 2 minutes later and check for doneness. If it tastes good go with it. If not salt and pepper to your taste.

Top with cheese and some fresh parsley.

Yum.

Springtime Vegetable Confetti Pasta Salad

2010-05-27T10:57:00.002-04:00

Mirror mirror on the wall, what is the freshest pasta salad of all.

This salad is really tasty and has more veggies than pasta when you finish so maybe this is a veggie salad with some pasta. All of the veggies that I list are recommended but as always if you don't like something or thin of something else that you want to add, you are the boss in your kitchen.

You will need
Veggies

Carrots
Celery
Vidalia onion
Broccoli stalks
Green/Red pepper
Roma tomatoes
Fresh corn

For the rest

Ditalini Pasta
Mayo
Plain Yogurt
Red wine vinegar
Salt / Pepper

So this recipe really lets you work on your knife skills. In other words, be prepared to chop some major veggies. After you wash every thing and peel what's appropriate. Toss your broccoli stalks in a steamer and let them go for 5-7 minutes.

They need to be peeled around the outside to avoid any really tough bits.

Besides cooking the pasta, that is the only other thing you will need to cook for this recipe. The rest is raw. (Raw=Healthier)
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So cut up all your veggies the same size as the pasta that you are using so that every thing will be farily consistent throughout. I use Barilla Ditalini because it is well... perfect for this salad. You can boil the pasta whenever you want, keep it nice and aldente would you? Rinse in cold water when it's done. Set aside.

So a couple of cups of each veggie is going to do you right for this recipe. There is no perfect ratio or anything. Cut more of what you like it will start to look like fun stuff in no time.

For the tomatoes, seed them with a spoon so you are only cutting up the outer flesh.

This will keep the pasta from getting soupy. This will also give you some tomato ammunition for any pasta sauce that you want to make in the future. (foreshadowing?!!)

So now that we have all our veggies cut and the pasta ready to be thrown in.

I really just wanted to get to these pictures.

Looks pretty good to me.So all you need to do now is dress it. How about 2/3 cup mayo 2/3 cups yougurt and 1/3 cup red wine vinegar. 2 tbsp pepper and 2 tbsp salt. Himalayan sea salt is the shiznit but sea salt or kosher salt will work just fine. Mix that all up and add it to the salad. And there you go.

Yum.

I entered this side dish in the side-dish showdown on Cinnamon and Spice

2010-05-20T12:29:00.000-04:00

So this will be my first Concert posting for Dinner and a Concert. I have the great joy of presenting you all with the first look at a couple of videos that we shot live at the Hard Rock Cafe here in Atlanta. Much thanks to downtown sounds and Eric Newcomer, and Ali for getting us in the door.

This is a little one called

Come Together Machine

And for an original
Beautiful

Meatloaf for a lazy day.

2010-05-19T11:17:00.002-04:00

So I really didn't feel like doing a whole bunch of work yesterday, so after a quick perusal of the deep freeze I settled on some ground beef. Lets make some meatloaf.

You will need

1.5 lbs ground beef
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 sweet (preferably Vidalia) onion diced
fresh thyme chopped
fresh rosemary chopped
your favorite steak sauce 1/2 cup
ketchup
2 eggs
kosher salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil

So it's pretty easy like I said. I had some potato salad and cole-slaw sitting around so I had the sides already taken care of.

Lets get all these ingredients into a bowl. Add together the

beef
eggs
breadcrumbs
steak sauce
rosemary
thyme
onion

Ok now wash your hands and mush it all up till just mixed.

Stefanie makes a great hand model eh?

OK now I shape it into a giant burger like loaf and set it on some wax paper.

The fancy onions can be done of left off. I just like playing with my food.

Now just heat up a large cast iron skillet and at the same time pre-heat your oven to 350. Put a little oil in the skillet. I also put a thin layer of kosher salt down, 1 tbsp, in the spot where I'm going to put my meat. This does 2 things. One you get a nice salty crust on the top, and two it makes it really easy to get the meat off the pan when you flip it.

After about 5-6 minutes on the hot skillit you should have some nice browning going on. and this is the hard part. You have to flip it over. After you flip the sucker add a nice layer of ketchup and it is ready to go into the oven. 30 minutes later. you have your delicious meatloaf.

Yum.

Broccoli and Corn Casserole

2010-05-18T11:33:00.000-04:00

OK I didn't know if I was going to post this one but it turned out to be a really good brunch item and later on as cold side it was goooood so I'll share it.

Broccoli Corn Casserole

You will need.

Broccoli 2 bunches
Corn 4 ears
Red Onion 1/2 roughly chopped
Cheese (pecorino, parmigano, cloth aged cheddar)
Sour Cream 1/3 cup
Mayonayse 1/3 cup
Plain yogurt 1/3 cup
2 eggs
Saltine Crackers
Salt/pepper

So start off by blanching (boil for 3 minutes and toss in an ice bath) your broccoli. Make sure you get some good stalk action going in there as well. All you need to do is trim the hard outer layer off of the top half of the stock and the good crunchy bits will come to you.

Cut the corn off the cob.

Make Cheezy goodness,

In order that is the Cabot cloth aged cheddar, Pecorino and Parmigano

Ok now you just combine all the wet ingredients, the eggs, sour cream, and mayo, and add the cheese. Add the wet to the broccoli corn and onions and give it a good mixing with your hands or a wooden spoon.

Pretty colors.

Put it into a glass baking dish with a top and cover with crumbled up saltines.

Then you can just toss it in the oven on 350 for 45 minutes.

Remove the top and cook for another 15-20 or until the saltines start to brown real nice.

Yum.

The Best Tortilla Soup EVER

2010-05-17T13:07:00.000-04:00

I had some fun over the weekend... And I got to cook. Here's The Apostles grooving on the stage at the Oakhurst Globe Trot.

Oh, and if you ever want to play music for a charity event for free in front of a restaurant (The Matador) that is profiting off of sales you bring in. Don't expect to be fed or given any beer or sodas. Suffice it to say they are not musician friendly it is recommended that you avoid this place. Sorry, had to rant. Otherwise the show was pretty fun :)

This is an adaption of Eva Longoria's tortilla soup. It's pretty obscure and I had to make some improvements to the presentation. Anyway this stuff is pretty awesome. I'll be making it again REAL soon so get your spoons ready.

Tortillia Soup

You will need

1 roasted chicken I usually get the Mojo variety from publix
2 carrots
2 onions
2 stalks celery
Some fresh garden chilis. Pick a couple hot and a couple medium eg. 2 jalapenos, 2 poblano
4 tomatoes the freshest reddest most delicious that you can find
4 Cloves garlic
2 Qt Chicken Stock
1 bunch fresh cilantro
Oil for Frying
Corn tortillias
2 avacados
Sour cream
salt/pepper

So I'm a big fan of making my own stocks, which is probably why I'm more of a fan of soups than most people. They just tend to taste better with fresh stock.

So get you carrots and celery and onion. AKA Mirepoix so you can sound fancy.

Fill that pot up with some water and wash the veggies break them into a few smaller pieces and toss them in. Don't worry about trimming or peeling except for maybe the onions as dirt can get in the roots and under the skin.

Wash your hands and pull all the meat of the bones of that chicken that you picked up. Throw the bones and skin into the pot with the veggies and let that go for about an hour. 30-45 will be ok if you are in a hurry. It will look not very appetizing. Like so.

Or you could go buy some stock.

While that's going on you can prep up some of the other things that will go into the soup. Depending on the heat of the chilis that you have you may want to blanch them to remove some of the heat.

Once you do that combine the tomatoes onion chili's and garlic in a food processor. Spin Wheeeeeeeeee. Till everything is blended. If it's thick add a splash of chicken stock. (or pepper stock (see above) if you're adventurous)

Throw the blended mixture into a pot along with your beautiful fresh chicken (2 quarts) stock and let that simmer and share flavors for about 30 minutes.
OK. You've got 30 minutes to kill at this point so why not prepare the tortilla part of the tortilla soup.

You need to heat up some oil in a pan. About an inch, inch-and-a-half should do it. Heat that up to around 300-350 degrees and add some tortilla strips. How do I make tortilla strips you ask? Just cut the corn tortilla into strips and ta-da!

Drop them in but not all of them. It took me 5 batches or so to get them all. Otherwise you are going to be looking at a big oily mess all over your stove. You can remove the strips when they turn golden brown and stop bubbling. Place them on a plate with paper towels on top.

OK after the chicken broth/veggie combo has done it's thing you can toss in the cilantro, Chop up the bunch roughly stems are fine in this recipe and may even add a little of extra texture to the dish.

The soup will be done 5 minutes after you add the cilantro so it's time to plate. (this is the cool part)

Start with some chicken in the bottom of the bowl.

Add 2 slices of lime and 2 heafty slices of avocado and some black pepper.

Next come the tortilla strips and sour cream
And this is how it should look if you are cooking for guests. Bring out the soup separately and Gently ladel around the edegs of the dish.

I know I already showed you this picture but I think we need to see it again after this super long post.

Yum.

Note. If you keep the ingredients separated into containers you can do like I did and enjoy this same dish a couple of lunches in a row.

Hibiscus Tea

2010-05-11T17:14:00.002-04:00

Something to drink?

How about a nice refreshing summertime

CRAZY Hibiscus Tea?
All you need is

Hibiscus flowers (dried) 1 cup
Cinnamon (true if you can find it) 1 stick
Honey 1/2 cup (or however much you want)

Fill a pot up with 2 quarts water and boil it.
Bring the temp down to low and add the stuff.

Wait 30 minutes.
Add the honey
Stir.
Strain into pitcher.
Enjoy hot, or my favorite, over ice.

Thanks to The Atlanta Brewing Company for the cool pint glasses. This is the logo for their laughing skull beer.

A note on cinnamon. A little wiki help please...

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum, synonym C. zeylanicum) is a small evergreen tree belonging to the family Lauraceae, native to Sri Lanka,^[1] or the spice obtained from the tree's bark. It is often confused with other, similar species and the spices derived from them, such as Cassia and Cinnamomum burmannii, which are also often called cinnamon.

We mostly get Cassia in the states and it works. The flavor is more akin to a red hot than true Cinnamon and it doesn't have the depth of flavors. That being said you can use either, just never buy powdered because you lose 90% of the flavor. It is kind of a pain to do it yourself but the rewards are amazing.

Roasted Potatoes With Shallots

2010-05-11T12:57:00.001-04:00

Here is an amazing side dish that gets requested all the time. It beats the hell out of french fries!

Roasted fingerling potatoes with shallots and garlic

Start off with assorted fingerling potatoes. You can usually find these at your local grocery store in a small bag around the potato section. Or if you have access to a farmers market that would work too.

You will need

Potatoes 1 lb.
Shallots 3 or 4
Garlic cloves 8 or 9
Olive oil - Some glugs (2 -3 tbsp)
Paprika - 1 tsp
Oregano - 1 handful fresh or dried
Salt and pepper to taste

Wash and cut the fingerling potatoes in half and put in a bowl. You can find all you need to know about fingerling potatoes here.

Cut up your shallots to potato size pieces like so.

Throw them into the bowl too.

Add the peeled garlic.

Toss in the olive oil and add the spices a few at a time to get an even coating all over the potatoes.

I found some really cool spices from the savory spice shop in Boulder Co. This particular paprika actually adds some flavor as well as color to the potatoes.

Ok you're basically done.

Just throw all the stuff into a glass baking dish. Cover it if you want a faster cooking time, don't if you would like things a little more crispy and let them bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. Stir it about halfway through so the stuff on the top can get some of the oil action in the bottom of the dish.

Yum