Think. Eat. Blog.

Colorado Peach Burger

2011-10-23T18:26:00.001-06:00

I thought of this nifty little entree while wondering what I was going to do with the few peaches I had left towards the end of peach season. After giving it some thought, I hit upon this idea, and it was even better than I thought it would be. I liked the way the sweetness of the sliced peaches offset the savory burger and the sharp cheddar cheese; this is one I made more than once, much to my own pleasure and that of my family.

This goes well with fresh cut french fries seasoned with sea salt, and a good medium-bodied beer. :-)

COLORADO PEACH BURGER

1 lb. ground beef
1-2 fresh (not canned) peaches
cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Form the burgers into patties, season with salt and pepper, and place on the grill.
While the burgers are cooking, peel, pit, and slice the peaches. Be sure to slice the peaches vertically rather than into wedges.
The last few minutes of grilling, place the peach slices on the burger and cover with the cheese (the cheese keeps the peaches from sliding off), leave on just long enough for the cheese to soften and begin to melt.
Once the burgers reach desired doneness, remove from grill and let rest for 2-3 minutes.
Place on roll, add condiments (but do so lightly...remember, you want to enjoy the mix of the peaches and burger!) and enjoy!

Spectacular souffle!

2011-08-07T21:39:00.003-06:00

One dish that has always intimidated me was the souffle. In fact, until recently, I didn't even own any souffle dishes; fortunately that has changed.

Not too long ago, my son and his friend and I went to the D Bar Dessert Bar in Denver. My son tried the "Booz-flay," their Grand Marnier souffle (I sampled some...it was quite tasty), then during a recent episode of Master Chef, the home cooks were making souffles for a challenge, and my son asked me if I'd ever made a souffle (I hadn't), and why I hadn't. I really didn't have any good reason other than not owning the dishes, so I decided to remedy the situation.

I picked up the dishes at Peppercorn in Boulder, and pulled the recipes from The Joy of Cooking, my go-to resource when I'm making things I've never made before but for which I need a recipe. I decided to get over my souffle making phobia by making both an entree souffle and a dessert souffle for the same meal; I opted for the Cheese Cockaigne savory souffle and the chocolate souffle for dessert.

The instructions for both were straightforward and easy to follow, which was great. In fact, I realized that making a souffle is actually much easier than I thought it was going to be. My biggest concern was the possible effect that altitude might have on the souffles, but the elevation of Denver proved to have a negligible effect (had to cook them a bit longer is all).

Both souffles turned out light and airy and incredibly rich. I served the cheese souffle with a side of a bowl of organic grape tomatoes to balance out the dish and add some acidity to the meal. The next time I make a cheese souffle, I think I may tinker with the seasonings a bit, since I do feel the cheese souffle as it was written could have benefited from a bit of an "oomph," as it were. It wasn't bad, just a bit...bland (sort of). Some garlic or herbs would have done well.

The chocolate souffle was equally rich, especially when topped with the vanilla sauce as recommended in the book, which added a sweetness to it as well. Next time I make this one, I'll use a darker chocolate (this was almost milk chocolate) and perhaps a touch of cinnamon then top it with a whipped cream or the like.

So...the lesson here: while souffles are definitely temperamental and require careful attention, they aren't quite as difficult as they are made out to be, and they are definitely worth the effort.

Restaurant reviews: Snooze and The Crushery (Denver, CO)

2011-08-01T13:03:00.001-06:00

I recently spent a day touring local bookstores in Denver, and while I was at it, my fellow adventurer and I decided to make eating locally a part of our day, starting with breakfast at Snooze on Colorado Boulevard followed by lunch later at The Crushery on South Pearl Street.

Snooze is located various places throughout the Front Range of Colorado, with the most recent store opening on Pearl Street in Boulder. I like Snooze for its use of local food as much as possible. On the weekends, it's not at all unusual to find a line of customers waiting for a table, often with at least some of those customers waiting outside. I happened to visit on a Wednesday and got there at 9:00 a.m., so the line was nonexistent and the wait was minimal.

Snooze has a funky decor, somewhat reminiscent of a 50s style diner but with a touch of a George Jetson feel. The staff has been friendly and fun to talk with all three times I've been there (this was my third time, and my second breakfast there), and the organic, Guatemalan coffee is rich and flows freely and often.

I ordered the Breakfast Pot Pie, a rosemary sausage gravy served in a puff pastry with an egg on top and hash browns on the side.

Now I'm pretty fussy when it comes to sausage gravy, and it is a rare restaurant that does it right. (For the record, I have yet to find a hotel restaurant that does it right.) Too often the "sausage gravy" served in restaurants resembles a thick, heavy paste that might or might not have some flecks resembling sausage in it and is almost never seasoned properly. I am happy to say that Snooze does it wonderfully. The sausage and seasonings were in perfect balance, and the addition of veggies to the gravy in my pot pie were tender yet crunchy. The puff pastry was light and flaky; wasn't at all soggy, and the creaminess of the egg only added to the pleasure of the entree.

Unfortunately, not as much attention to detail was given to the hash browns, which resembled and had a similar texture to the frozen version found in most supermarkets. When done correctly, as is the case at Root Down, another Denver establishment that focuses on local food, the potatoes can be a wonderful treat on their own (see my review of Root Down here); the hash browns at Snooze seem almost an afterthought, and that's too bad. The potatoes were mushy and lacking in both seasoning and flavor, requiring a dose of sat and pepper with hot sauce or ketchup to rescue them from utter forgetfulness. My cohort for the day ordered the Ham Benedict, which he said was excellent and found the flavors and textures of his entree in a wonderful balance, but he agreed with my assessment of the hash browns, which also came with his meal.

Our hearty breakfast carried us over well until mid-afternoon (we were full without feeling weighed down or at all uncomfortable), at which point we found ourselves on South Pearl Street. Wandering down the street, we found The Crushery. Neither of us had ever been there but were both in the mood for something not expensive but good.

At first glance, The Crushery seemed to be your regular, cool sandwich shop, offering both paninis and bagel sandwiches of the breakfast and lunch variety, but a menu tucked under the sandwich menu quickly betrayed the uniqueness of this place: The Crushery is the first affordable restaurant to take advantage of the principles of molecular gastronomy, in this case with its offering of -321 Ice Cream, made-to-order ice cream using liquid nitrogen. There was no way I could resist this.

But first, lunch. As extensive as the ready to order menu was, it seemed lacking vegetarian options, at least on the panini side, and there weren't that many appealing options for an al a carte sandwich, so I decided to try the Reuben, another meal that is a favorite of mine but is hard to find done well. The Crushery's version was quite satisfying and tasty; the sauerkraut wasn't overpowering and the bread was crunchy and crisp. (Though the pickle that came with it was a bit on the soggy side.) The iced latte I ordered was well balanced, with smoky notes and no trace of bitterness, and as an added bonus, was served in a compostable cup. The ice cream was...well...amazing. I created a chocolate ice cream with cinnamon and sea salt combination that was far better than I thought it was going to be, and it was decadently rich with a texture that silk would envy.

The first step of the process is choosing the base, whether a traditional ice cream base, yogurt, sugar free, or vegan. After that, there is a plethora of options to add in: various syrups, spices and herbs, nuts, fruits, and so on; almost anything you can think of is offered. The ingredients are poured into a mixer and after things are thoroughly blended, the liquid nitrogen is added in, creating a wonderful "mad scientist" visual effect as the ice cream is created. Within minutes the frozen treat is done and served. According to the staff, the ingredients are frozen so fast that the ice crystals are super small, thus creating the aforementioned creamy texture. Quite simply, this was (is...I have since gone back) the best ice cream I have ever had, period.

Both of these restaurants are happily different from any establishment that offers similar fare, and both are very affordable. Ultimately, both only reinforce that eating at locally owned, independent restaurants is always (or at least as much as possible) the way to go.

Restaurant review: Root Down in Denver, Colorado

2011-07-18T00:34:00.003-06:00

I recently had the good fortune to not only go out to brunch for the first time (yes, ever...shh.), but also to enjoy quite a tasty meal at Root Down in the Highlands neighborhood in Denver.

Root Down is located on the corner of Osage and 33rd on the site of an old service station, and the part that was the service station has been cleverly incorporated into the building's design, including a separate section for families with small children. The overall feel and atmosphere of the restaurant is one that enables diners to feel equally comfortable in jeans and t-shirts or button down shirt and khakis.

The Root Down is a unique and interesting restaurant, from the setting and atmosphere to the menu, which changes seasonally and features local and organic produce (as well as meats, cheese, and coffee) as much as possible. Fortunately, while other restaurants charge a premium for local and organic food, the brunch menu at the Root Down is priced well within the budget of most people.

When we arrived, we were greeted quickly and told it would be a 30-45 minute wait for a table; the place was bustling for sure. We ended up waiting about half that time before being seated on the covered deck (the covering was a definite bonus today since it was 90 degrees and sunny).

Our server appeared pretty quickly, and was friendly and energetic. We didn't see her a lot, but I attributed that to the crowd there rather than slow service. We placed our orders and while my blood orange mimosa and coffee arrived fairly quickly as did my son and his friend's orange juice, the food was rather slow in coming out (again, I'm attributing that to the size of the crowd that was there).

The food was absolutely worth the wait. There were three of us in the group, and we all ordered something different and sampled each others (of course) before digging into our own.

My son's friend ordered the Hazel Dell omelette with goat cheese, mushroom duxelle, caramelized onions, sage sour cream with organic home fries. The mushrooms were cooked tender without being soggy or slimy; the onions added a nicely sweet tang to the fluffy and well-cooked omelette. (Comments on the home fries to come.)

My son ordered the house made chorizo omelette with smoke mozzarella, tomato compote, micro cilantro & organic home fries. I found the chorizo flavorful with a nice slow burn in the mouth, complimented nicely by the smoked cheese, and the compote was a sweet counterpoint to the spice and smoke.

Eggs Benedict has long been one of my favorite breakfast entrees, and I am a fan of shellfish, so I got the Avocado Crab Cake Benedict with Herbed-Creme Fraiche Hollandaise, served with lemon dressed greens and organic home fries. In three words: Oh. My. Gosh. The Benedict was wonderfully rich and ever so slightly decadent. The egg and crab blended well and the creaminess of the avocado added a wonderful layer of both flavor and texture. The greens provided a nice cleansing to the palate between bites, enabling each successive nibble to be as interesting and exciting as the first.

We were offered and accepted both ketchup and hot sauce for our home fries but ended up using neither. These were the first home fries I've ever had that were absolutely perfect just as they were. Crisp exteriors and soft interiors were joined with perfect seasonings that stopped them just short of french fries but put them well on the other side of your stereotypical home fries.

I had just enough room for a dessert, and after looking over the dessert menu, was glad I did. I decided to try the banana "creme brulee" pie with peanut butter-chocolate crispy crust and sweet whipped sour cream. The banana flavor was not overpowering, which can often happen with banana desserts, and the crunch of the crust offset the silky texture of the brulee and whipped cream perfectly. The green chartreuse I chose as my drink to go with the dessert didn't sour the flavors in my mouth at all, and in fact, offset the treat quite well.

The Root Down possesses a wonderfully casual elegance that makes for an excellent start to a weekend morning. The very reasonable prices for their brunch menu makes going to the Root Down easy on the wallet, and the presence of both the familiar and slightly exotic spins on favorites provides culinary interests for both the fussy eater and the enterprising foodie. Whether a local or a visitor to Denver, the Root Down is not to be missed.

Vegetarian Eggs Benedict? Yes, please!

2011-07-04T17:13:00.013-06:00

Eggs Benedict has long been one of my favorite dishes, and while normally I prefer it with Canadian bacon, I also like to take a break from meats once in a while. This tasty variation is a definite favorite of mine.

Vegetarian Eggs Benedict (serves 1-2)

Toast an English muffin
Place a slice of tomato on each half
(I added some sliced avocado as well since I had one and love avocado)
Top with poached egg: I used duck eggs from Rocky Plains Meat in Dacono.
Pour Hollandaise sauce over each half
I topped mine with fresh cracked pepper

Serve while hot and enjoy!

Tasty spring salad: grilled chicken with pasta, asiago, cherries, sugar snap peas and walnuts

2011-06-25T19:19:00.000-06:00

This quick and easy springtime salad is perfect for a family or a crowd, and the mix of sweet and savory, crunchy and tender makes it a pleasure to eat.

Grilled chicken salad with cherries, sugar snap peas, asiago, and walnuts

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 lb pasta: penne, rigatoni, or similar shaped pasta
8 oz. fresh cherries
8 oz. fresh sugar snap peas
1/2-1 c. chopped walnuts
1/4 c. freshly grated Asiago cheese
Fresh zest from 1 lemon
~1 c. mayonnaise
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Fresh spinach, lettuce or mixed greens

1. Lightly coat the chicken with oil, season the chicken with sea salt and black pepper, grill until cooked, set aside to cool.
2. Cook the pasta according to directions, set aside to cool.
3. Clean the sugar snap peas, trimming off stem ends as necessary.
4. Remove the stems and pits, from the cherries, then cut into quarters.
5. Dice the chicken breast, add to pasta.
6. Mix in cherries, peas, and walnuts.
7. Add mayonnaise, stir.
8. Mix in lemon zest and cheese.

Serve on a bed of greens (fresh spinach, lettuce, or mixed greens. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4-6

Asparagus awesomeness

2011-06-20T10:38:00.000-06:00

Spring/early summer is one of my favorite food seasons (okay, let's be honest here, I don't think I have a least favorite food season, but anyway....) because with it comes asparagus. Asparagus is a fairly new food to the list of foods I would eat, simply because until 3 or so years ago, the only time I'd had it, it was served to me rather mushy, slimy, and essentially flavorless. I was offered some by the ladies of Jay Hill Farm while at my local farmers' market a few years back; initially I declined, but then after talking with them about how to prepare it and basically being "dared" to try it again, I bought some, took it home, cooked it according to their directions...and went back and bought some every week after that until asparagus season was over. As with many foods in my diet, I generally only eat asparagus seasonally, which means I get it for roughly a month to a month and a half, so I enjoy it as often as I can.

Typically I either grill the asparagus or sautee it in Meyer lemon infused olive oil and butter with a little fresh ground black pepper, but this season I was given one recipe and came up with my own method of serving asparagus that have only added depth and dimension to what is now one of my favorite vegetables.

The first is a recipe that comes from the previously mentioned Jay Hill Farm. Asparagus with spring garlic and Asiago is simple, easy, and quick to make, and is a nicely complex dish to serve. The link to the recipe is here, the entire dish takes 15 minutes to make, which is a huge bonus when pressed for time at home, and the ingredient list doesn't necessarily require purchasing anything out of the ordinary, aside from maybe the Asiago cheese:

1 lb. Fresh Asparagus
1 bunch Spring Garlic
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Tbsp. Butter
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 to 2 Tbsp. Freshly grated Asiago Cheese

For this recipe, I picked up a small brick of Asiago and grated it myself, which I would definitely recommend doing, simply because there is a definite taste difference between freshly grated and pre-grated cheese of any sort. As you can likely tell from the picture, I did grate a bit more than the 1-2 tablespoons in the recipe, but I love Asiago, so I admittedly went a little crazy.

My next method of serving asparagus is a simple sauteed asparagus with hollandaise sauce and sliced fresh strawberries. I love the fact that asparagus season and strawberry season overlap, giving me the opportunity to have this sweetly savory side dish that I served with grilled pork chops. I would definitely not use frozen strawberries for this dish: the flavor and texture just wouldn't even come close to the same. My recipe for the hollandaise sauce comes from the ever-indispensable Joy of Cooking, a book that should be a staple in every cook's kitchen. I used the quick whole-egg hollandaise recipe simply for convenience and not wanting to deal with separating the eggs (I admit that I used an organic, bottled lemon juice for this recipe). NOTE: if you've never made hollandaise sauce before, it is HUGELY important that once you start, you don't stop until it is ready to pour onto the plate. Hollandaise requires constant stirring and will overcook and curdle quickly. If it does, you can rescue it by putting it into a blender, but it's better to not have to do that in the first place.

So what are you waiting for? Asparagus season is almost over! Get cooking!

My first restaurant (well, coffee shop in this case) review: The Laughing Goat, Boulder, Colorado

2011-04-09T19:27:00.000-06:00

One of the things I'm constantly in search of is a coffee shop that offers a tasty menu as well. This is actually a good bit harder than it might appear. I don't really want a coffee shop that offers a full menu, in fact, the food doesn't even need to be made on premises; I'd much rather the place focus on good, high quality coffee and good service. I'm fine with a light menu, after all, if I want a more full meal, there are plenty of restaurants that offer full fare. Tasty pastries, maybe a few sandwiches or some soup/chili are all that a coffee shop really needs to offer.

A place that offers both high quality food and high quality coffee is rare. Fortunately, Boulder's Laughing Goat Coffeehouse is one of those. Offering both locally made food and locally roasted coffee, "The Goat" as it's known by the locals, is located on the eastern end of Pearl Street, well out of the rush of the touristy Pearl Street Mall.

The Laughing Goat has become a regular stop on my Saturdays in Boulder. After running my various errands, I stop by there for a quick lunch or snack and cup of coffee. My favorite meal is a cup of Kaladi Brothers Coffee (one of four local roasts that I like out of the several roasters that exist in the Denver/Boulder area...more on that soon), a caprese sandwich, and a big old slice of chocolate pie. The sandwich and pie are made by Boulder bakery, Breadworks.

The coffee is rich, almost decadently so, and a splash of cream makes it perfect; no sugar necessary. The sandwich is light and offers a variety of textures and flavors from the chewy bread to the roasted tomatoes balanced out nicely by the cool pesto and greens, then finished off by the smooth mozzarella cheese.

The pie is...well, addictive, especially when paired with the coffee. Not too sweet at all, but speaking of rich, the pie is an absolutely perfect compliment to the coffee, creating an explosion of intense mocha in the mouth that comes dangerously close to short-circuiting the brain. Reasonably priced, there are very few ways I'd rather spend an early Saturday afternoon.

Scallops marinara

2011-02-15T20:11:00.000-07:00

Well, definitely not everything I cook has cheese and/or cream, or even bacon on it. (Hmmmm...bacon!) This quick and easy dish made for a tasty yet indulgent tasting treat for dinner tonight, and while scallops are a violation of my "local preferred" ethos, I do treat it as a "as much as I can" instead of a "only" type of guideline anyway.

At any rate, this plate of scallops marinara was quick and easy to make. I pan-seared the scallops in a bit of olive oil and garlic then served them on a bed of spaghetti noodles that were covered in a basic marinara sauce. The whole dinner took less than 30 minutes to cook, which is a huge bonus for me on a weeknight. I considered adding a few more scallops, but I didn't want to overwhelm the marinara sauce, so the balance ended up being just about right (I might add one more scallop next time.)

Healthy, quick, and tasty: this is one to be repeated for sure!

Breakfast sliders

2011-01-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

Thought up this tasty little treat last night. It's pretty much just a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, but I put it on slider buns this time around, washed down with a glass of milk. A nifty start to a Sunday morning!

Bacon cheeseburger casserole!

2011-01-26T20:32:00.001-07:00

I've pretty much come to the realization that whenever I get creative in the kitchen, it often tends toward "heart attack on a plate" land. Tonight's dinner was no exception.

My son and I both enjoy macaroni and cheese, and I've been making it from scratch (versus a box mix) for a few years now. I often add in various things from tuna to peas to chicken to tomatoes...whatever happens to strike my fancy and call it "______cheesy casserole."

While I've added in ground beef before and called it "cheeseburger casserole," tonight I decided to go the extra indulgence and added bacon....voila! Bacon cheeseburger casserole!!

It was amazingly simple to make. Start by making basic macaroni and cheese. While waiting for the water to boil and for the pasta to cook, brown the ground beef then cook a few slices of bacon. I cooked up a pound of pasta and a pound of ground beef, then a half pound of bacon.

After the cheese sauce is done, add in the pasta and ground beef, stir to mix well. Put in a two quart casserole dish, top with sliced cheese; break up the bacon and add it on top, then pop it all in the oven at 350 for about ten minutes. I topped mine with mesquite ketchup, which tasted more like barbecue sauce, so in essence I had a barbecue bacon cheeseburger casserole...or something like that anyway.

Simple, super basic comfort food (well, sort of). It may not be gourmet, but it sure was tasty.

2011: Off to a rib-sticking start

2011-01-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well, the goal of this blog certainly was not to wait months between updates. With luck, I will be able to be more faithful about it. In fact, if all goes well, I'll be updating almost weekly.

One of my resolutions for the year is to make one dish a week that I've never made before. This should help keep me from getting into a rut in the kitchen, which I hate doing, particularly since it tends to take the joy and fun out of cooking.

My first meal of 2011 started off with me doing just that. I'd never made grits before, even though I like them, and while I was in my local Natural Grocers/Vitamin Cottage, I came across a package of yellow corn grits. I bought them and the next day put my resolution to work. My first breakfast of 2011: grits with a touch of butter and Backyard Bees honey, bacon from Rocky Plains Meat, and Windsor Dairy eggs topped with raspberry chipotle salsa from Secret Recipes from the Corner Market washed down with a glass of Windsor Dairy milk and a cup of Silver Canyon Coffee right out of the French Press. Yum! Quite a satisfying start to the first meal of the new year if I do say so myself.

Making the grits was a lot easier that I thought it would be. Encouraged, I searched for a recipe for flan, which I absolutely love, but don't want to make with either condensed or any sort of processed milk. I found one, but then chickened out...for now...when I saw how much is involved in making it. The fact that I don't (yet) own any, let alone 12, custard cups was admittedly a contributor to my decision as well. Stay tuned for that down the road.

At any rate, I'm back, so stay tuned for more!

Take those tomatoes and stuff 'em!

2010-08-06T16:27:00.000-06:00

The inspiration for this dish came to me as I was thinking about tomatoes and various things people use to stuff them. I have a deep appreciation for both crab and scallops, so decided to use both for this really easy to make meal.

I picked up the tomatoes, lettuce, celery, and goat cheese from my local farmers market, and I used Monterey Jack cheese as well as the scallops and crab meat.

First, I cut the tops off the tomatoes and set them aside. Well, that's not completely true. I set some aside and ate the rest with a bit of salt on them. :-) While munching tomato tops, I scooped out the tomatoes then chopped up some celery which I had decided to add for both color and crunch. A dish like this definitely needed some texture, and celery came to the rescue nicely. I then shredded the Jack cheese and crumbled the chevre (goat cheese), then set both aside.

That done, I sautéed the scallops in butter with a touch of olive oil (olive oil helps the lycopenes in tomato become soluble and thus more easily absorbed into the body) and just a dash of white wine. Once done, I tossed in the crab, celery, and Jack cheese and mixed them together just long enough to warm the crab and slightly melt the cheese.

Next step was stuffing the tomatoes, which was easy. I added the chevre to two of the tomatoes just before popping it into the oven. Chevre is a creamy cheese that melts easily, so I didn't want to add it too soon and have it become too watery. I covered two of the tomatoes in shredded Monterey Jack and covered the two with chevre with slices of the Jack cheese simply so I could tell them apart since my son doesn't like chevre. I placed all four tomatoes on a stone pizza sheet and put them in the oven at 250 for about ten minutes... just long and hot enough to melt the cheese without softening the tomatoes too much. I cut the tops I hadn't eaten in half for garnish and served them on a bed of lettuce.

This slightly indulgent dinner was quick and tasty. I'm looking forward to making it again, though I'm considering other meats with which to stuff the tomatoes, perhaps ground beef with cheddar cheese and a little onion and green pepper? We'll see!

Grilled pizza!

2010-08-03T15:34:00.001-06:00

One of my goals every summer is to turn on my oven as little as possible. It heats up the house, which is the last thing I want in the middle of a Colorado summer. As a result, I spend as much of my summer as I can putting things on the grill. I'd heard about grilled pizza, so I figured, why not?

The recipes I found all involved making the crust from scratch, which normally I'd be all over, but by the time I decided I wanted to grill my pizza, I was way too hungry to wait. I decided instead to use a pre-made crust from Rustic Crust. It's a healthy, tasty crust, and it isn't all that pricey; a definite good thing. After that, it's pretty easy: first, start up the grill. While the grill is warming up, prepare your pizza. I started out with pizza sauce from Eden Foods. I like Eden Foods particularly since their cans are BP-A free (the only company with BP-A free cans).

After that came pepperoni from Applegate Farms, cheese from Organic Valley, onion from my local farmers' market, and some fresh pineapple. At this point, the grill was ready.

One thing to definitely keep in mind when you put the pizza on the grill is to not put it directly over the heat source. If you have a gas grill, turn off one burner and put the pizza over that burner. If you're using a charcoal grill, move the charcoal off to the side. You definitely don't want to burn the crust...burned pizza crust just sucks. Once the grill is ready, just put the pizza on the grill, close the cover, and let it cook for about 8-10 minutes, just long enough to melt the cheese and heat up the toppings.

The pizza itself ends up with a nice, crispy bottom and a smoky flavor you just can't get from popping it in the oven. It's quick, easy, and a recipe I plan to repeat.

Smoked ribs and tomatoes

2010-07-25T23:09:00.000-06:00

Sundays are the days I tend to get the most creative when it comes to cooking. There's something about not having to run around like a madman trying to accomplish 100 things in a day that gets my creative cooking juices flowing.

Today's dinner was smoked ribs covered in a wasabi lime marinade from O'Hara's Jams and Jellies in Durango, CO. I boiled up the ribs for a while to tenderize them, then put them in my smoker with chunks of hickory for a while to get them all nice and smoky. Halfway through I covered them in the marinade to let it soak in and glaze itself onto the ribs.

While waiting for the meat, I mixed organic basil with olive oil and brushed the tomatoes with the mixture. I sliced mozzarella cheese, put them on a pizza stone, and popped them in the oven at 250 for about five minutes; just long enough for the cheese to melt but not long enough to actually cook the tomatoes.

The meal wasn't super difficult to make: a few simple ingredients, but I often find that simple meals are often the ones I enjoy the most. There's something to be said for keeping meals simple. I think that could well be one of the reasons most people tend to avoid cooking: "it's too complicated." It doesn't have to be at all. Just a few simple things and you end up with a super tasty meal.

Thoughts, comments and reflections on Michael Pollan's "Food Rules"

2010-07-20T17:19:00.000-06:00

Food Rules

I recently posted a review of Michael Pollan's outstanding book, Food Rules, on Elephant Journal, and I thought I'd take the time to delve a bit more into the book and specifically address some of the points and "rules" laid out in the book. The book itself is a quick and interesting read, with some humorous touches tossed in here and there, keeping it from getting overly dry as well. Of the 64 rules presented in the text, there are some that definitely stand out for me.

Rule 11: Avoid foods you see advertised on television. This is one that comes back to my brain with every television advertisement I see about food... and there are A LOT of them. I notice them more now that I tend to adhere to this rule. Do I get tempted? Definitely. Some of those ads make the "edible foodlike substances," as Pollan calls them, look pretty tasty, but then, that is exactly what they are designed to do. As he points out, "more than two-thirds of food advertising is spent promoting processed foods..., so if you avoid products with big ad budgets, you'll automatically be avoiding edible foodlike substances." (25) Quite frankly, I've noticed that the more money a company has to spend on advertising, the less money they are spending on quality ingredients. No thanks.

Rule 12: Shop the peripheries of the supermarkets and stay out of the middle. The few times I do go to the supermarket (see rule 15 below), I try to follow this as much as I can... it's amazing how much crap doesn't end up in the shopping cart when I do this.

Rule 15: Get out of the supermarket whenever you can. This one is my hands down favorite, and is the one I follow the most closely. Thanks to the bounty of the Boulder Farmers Market and various other farmers and locations (see my links to the right), the vast VAST majority of my food comes directly from the source. There are still a few things I pick up from Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage (a Colorado-based grocery store), but by and large, my produce, meats, and most of my dairy are delivered directly to me via a farmers market, farm stand, or some other similar arrangement.

I've had it remarked that this makes my food more expensive... it does, but it doesn't. According to statistics, the average meal travels something like 1,500 miles from farm to plate. Along the way, valuable nutrients are lost (assuming it's not overly processed, yet another way to lose those nutrients), and as a result, not only is the food system itself unsustainable (WAY too much oil being used that way), but it's also less nutritious, so my body will often crave more of it, so I end up eating more. Locally grown foods are highly nutrient dense, so while I may pay more per pound, in reality I end up saving money because I'm eating less of it. Not only that, but I'm supporting a local business (big thing for me) versus a large corporate agribusiness, and my food just simply tastes better. Which brings me to...

Rule 44: Pay more, eat less. This rule addresses the quantity versus quality rule. The old axiom of "you get what you pay for" definitely applies to food, and it puzzles me why people are willing to avoid spending money on what is probably one of the most important expenditures of their lives (literally) but then will throw money at the next thing that comes along that they really don't need but have to have thanks to the consumer culture they have bought into so heavily. According to Pollan, "Not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is a literal shame, but most of us can: Americans spend less than 10 percent of their income on food, less than the citizens of any other nation. As the cost of food in America has declined..., we have been eating much more (and spending more on health care." (99-100) It's no secret that we spend more on health care in this country than the vast majority of citizens in other countries. The correlation seems pretty obvious to me.

In general, this is one of the better books on food out there. Short, simple, and straightforward, this is a book that I tend to recommend to just about everybody when I get in discussions about food (which is pretty often, really). If you haven't read it, do so. It'll give you quite a bit to chew on. (Pun intended.)

First food post: bacon +chicken = yum!

2010-07-18T20:13:00.000-06:00

Not too long ago, I found myself falling into a rut; a bit of my creativity around cooking had faded, and I found myself getting bored with cooking. This happens from time to time, and it's not altogether a bad thing, especially since it often leads to some fun experimentation on my part. Most of the time these little experiments turn out pretty nifty. Tonight was one of them.

I had picked up some pepper bacon, and I almost always have a chicken breast in the freezer; it's one of the most versatile meats out there... you can really do almost anything with it. Today I decided to combine the two to see what would happen. I wrapped the chicken in two slices of bacon and held the bacon in place with a couple of toothpicks. After that, the delicious little package was introduced to my grill.

The side was equally fun and experimental. I cut a red pepper in half, roasted it on the grill, then stuffed it with some steamed cauliflower. Once ready, both the meat and veggies got a little kiss of cheese sauce.

Between the bacon, the cheese, and the cream in the cheese sauce, it's probably pretty close to a heart attack on a plate, but it was all sorts of tasty. The spicy sweetness of the pepper complimented the earthiness of the cauliflower nicely, and the pepper-bacon and chicken made for a nice pairing as well. The creamy sharp cheddar cheese sauce added just the right finish to the whole thing. Definitely one for the books.

Okay, so why a food blog?

2010-07-18T17:39:00.003-06:00

A quick search on Google will show you that food blogs are plentiful, maybe too plentiful. So why am I writing one? Well, quite frankly, I figured, why not? I have a blog for my thoughts and reflections on teaching and other topics, but I also like to write about food. In fact, I like to write about it enough that it probably actually does warrant it's own blog. So here it is.

Where do I begin when it comes to food? Well, I guess I'll start out with talking about how I eat and why I eat that way. I'd pretty much always eaten healthily while growing up. My mother was a nurse, so was aware of the importance of a proper diet (and exercise), and my grandparents had their own garden, so fresh produce was a summer staple, and my grandmother did her own canning and preserving of food. I grew up in farm country, so farm stands and local food was generally a given for me. That being said, I also grew up eating fast food from time to time. I remember when McDonald's first arrived in my hometown, and trips to A&W were an special treat for us as well. When I became a parent, I made sure my kids ate balanced meals, but from time to time, we did find ourselves at one fast food place or another. All of that changed in 2001. That was when Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal hit the bookshelves. I picked it up and read it... and decided that fast food was most definitely not for me or my family. I began cooking at home almost all of the time, and started reading labels even more closely than I had been.

As time passed, I began to read more and more and more about food: what goes into it, what happens to it, and so forth. The more I read, the more I became both shocked, disgusted, and quite frankly appalled by what not only the fast food industry but agribusiness in general has done and is doing to our food supply. A few years ago I began shopping regularly at my local farmers market and I began to preserve my own food. Thanks to Catherine Friend's The Compassionate Carnivore, I avoid factory farmed meat as much as I can. I also try to keep most of my diet within 100 miles of home or at least within the state lines of Colorado... with certain exceptions: coffee, bananas, chocolate, oranges and the like simply don't grow here, and being a landlocked state, there's no local seafood to be had. But even then, there are local companies that I can choose to purchase what I need: spices from Savory Spice Shop, coffee from Silver Canyon, and so forth. My first choice is always independent and local, then Colorado-based (e.g., Noodles & Co., Chipotle, etc.) before expanding beyond into the "other" category.

The choices I've made have meant there are some things I do without; some foods that I've taken off my diet I truly miss, and I can't say I don't get tempted. I no longer eat shrimp after finding out that for every pound of shrimp harvested, 20 pounds of fish are discarded. To me, that is completely unacceptable. It's disrespectful, not compassionate, and it's downright wasteful. I love shrimp, but I just don't eat them. I see commercials on television, and I'll admit that the food looks downright tasty, but remembering Michael Pollan's admonition to never eat food advertised on television, I choose to pass or make my own version of whatever has tempted me. My life as a locavore is not without its challenges, I've written about it on Elephant Journal.com, but I've yet to truly regret my decision.

So what will I be writing about? Lots of things, all food related, of course. The impact of my food choices, the places I get my food, the food I cook... all sorts of things. Stay tuned, come back, and let's have some fun!

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

The Compassionate Carnivore: Or, How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old MacDonald's Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint, and Still Eat Meat