Wasabi Prime

Mixed Plate: Put Down That Stick of Butter and Nobody Gets Hurt!

2012-01-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

Paula Deen has diabetes. It wasn't so much the shot heard round the world but the self-satisfied guffaw of “I told you so's” and whispers of Food Karma from the Peanut Gallery that followed. As far as breaking news, it had as much impact as a big ol' "no duh," so why even bother to weigh in on this after so many armchair quarterbacks have snarked their way through this news? Because the only

UnRecipe: Enter the Dragon

2012-01-23T00:00:00.001-08:00

I know we just rang in the new year on January first, but now you get to ring it in again, twice as loud, with three times the food. And I'm especially excited as it's literally my year, along with many other lucky little Dragons out there. It's Lunar New Year, and it's Year of the Dragon, baby! Get your dumplings on, it's New Years! - Photo by Wasabi Prime I don't really do a big Chinese New

UnRecipe: The Meals That Just Happen

2012-01-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

If you've been sticking with my ramblings for this long, you'll know that this blog isn't so much about the intricacies of complex dishes or the following of recipes to the letter. Definitely not about recipes -- if I were on the Lewis and Clark expedition, we'd have found ourselves several miles down the Nile River after making a wrong turn in Albuquerque. Don't ask how that would happen, but

Mixed Plate: Feast of the Beast

2012-01-16T00:00:00.001-08:00

I could have used that age-old Prince reference and say we were partying like it was 1999 when the year came to a close, but it was more like, it was around midnight when the Meat Sweats kicked in. For whatever flash of temporary insanity my court-appointed lawyer would insist I plea to, a brief moment of madness is all I can come up with to explain why our New Year's Eve became a carnivorous

OMG a Recipe: Fond Adieu to Boring Beef Stew

2012-01-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

Never fear, I haven't really given up on beef stew, I just liked the title because it rhymed. But I do admit to being tired and bored of the same ol' winter beef stew. There's nothing wrong with it, I appreciate a classic staple that's easy to make without a lot of fuss. My standard stew is basically a slow cooker riff on Beef Burgundy, with a few basic spices, a sinewy cut of beef, and root

UnRecipe: Cocktail Party Quickies

2012-01-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

Are you sick of holiday foods/tips/tricks/ideas yet? Despite the post-holiday time, they're still getting listed on cooking/lifestyle magazines and websites, begging for you to use them and throw a cocktail/post-new years/football party of some sort every weekend. So why not -- let's make you insane with a few more ideas?! How about some bite-sized party foods that take on an Asian theme? Like

UnRecipe: Pardon Moi, Monsieur

2012-01-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

For all the Tastespotting/FoodGawker food porn bloggery perfection, cooking is a constantly evolving experiment. Nothing ever comes out perfect on the first try, there's always push and pull when you want to try something new, even if it's something simple. So, to heck with perfection, I wanted to share a work-in-progress dish I was playing around with: a Croque Monsieur casserole. Oh, and by the

OMG a Recipe: Great Balls of Drunken Fury

2012-01-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

It's 2012! And the last thing you probably want to see is something about alcohol, as the jackhammer crew and expert demolition team are still bomb-voyage-ing your braincells into oblivion from your New Years Eve debacle of a weekend. Or maybe that's just my head, you could all be totally clear-minded and bushy-tailed for the new year. If so, good for you, you bunch of stinkin' goody two-shoes

Mixed Plate: Home for the Holidays

2011-12-28T00:00:00.001-08:00

There's no season I love more than Christmas. For all the complaints about how early it starts, with a kickoff from the retail industry, decorated trees up as early as September, I still look forward to the time of year. As a child, it was of course about Santa and getting the equivalent of the Red Rider BB gun without shooting my eye out, and then in my late teen/early twenties, I lost sight of

UnRecipe: Upgrading the Classics

2011-12-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

We're still in that home stretch of holiday meals, meaning rich complicated feasts that take days to prepare. Even with Christmas out of the way, we still have New Year's Eve coming up, and in between the festivities, it's good to do something simple and cozy like our good old friend, the humble pot roast. Feelings of comfort and home are what the holidays are all about, and we're still in a

UnRecipe: Holiday Wishes and Last Minute Gift Shuffle

2011-12-21T00:00:00.001-08:00

I know I said this before, if you weren't holiday gift-ready by the first couple of weeks of December, it's Game Over by now. Hey, the Prime doesn't pull punches when it comes to the holidays! Procrastinators, abandon all hope, ye who enter these waning days before December 25th. But I've got one final bit of last-minute holiday gift inspiration! Homemade vanilla extract, easy-peasy 1-2-

OMG a Recipe: Harvest Delight

2011-12-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

One of the best things about the holidays is the eagerness to get together with friends. Not that we don't do this throughout the year, but it feels more appropriate -- almost with a sense of urgency -- to spread the good cheer, lest Santa downgrade you to the Naughty list. Again. And so we had some friends over for dinner one chilly Sunday night. Nothing fancy, just evening spent 'round the

UnRecipe: Tips for Holiday Baked Gifts

2011-12-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

I realize we're only at the halfway point of December, and Christmas isn't for a couple of weeks, but if you're on true Holiday Time, you know it's the home stretch for getting gifts prepared and mailed off or ready to give away at the next holiday party. By the time the dwindling days of December's early twenties hit and Christmas Eve is just around the corner, I hate to say it, your holiday

FoodTrek: Christmas in Seattle

2011-12-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

I know we're not supposed to say "Merry Christmas," because we're supposed to be nondenominationally-sensitive to all cultures, religions, etc. At the risk of turning the holiday spirit upside down - forget that noise, Christmas is here, and I'm ready to jingle bell rock-it all the way till December 25th. Grrrawwwwrrr - It's Christmas, so deal with it, Political Correctness Police! - Photo by

FoodTrek: Holiday Cheers to Winter Beers

2011-12-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

The sunny days of summer are long past, replaced with a distinct chill in the air. We're all looking for ways to get cozy and seek out the rich flavors that seem to call out with a rebel yell in the wintery season. We start to think of hot mugs of steaming coffee, bittersweet nibbles of chocolate, and... beer?! Well of course. It's Seattle, after all! Raise a glass and toast the holiday season

OMG a Recipe (Book): Get a Real Taste of Aloha

2011-12-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

This is generally how the conversation would go when I would say I'm off to visit family: Me: "I'm going to Hawaii to visit my family for a few weeks." Person I'm Talking To: "Really? That's so great -- are you going to be sitting on the beach every day?" Me: "Nope." Person: "But you'll be drinking Mai Tais and eating everything with pineapple on it, right?" Me: "Not really. I'll be eating a

OMG a Recipe: Takeout Cravings Made at Home

2011-11-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

Everyone has really specific food cravings. For some, it's a big juicy hamburger, all the fixin's, with a side of crispy fries. For others, maybe it's an ooey-gooey cheese pizza, straight from the oven. Thankfully in our modern delivery-friendly times, we can order almost anything to be sent straight to our door or zip past a drive-thru and receive instant gratification. My cravings are a little

Mixed Plate: Thanksgiving Eats, Sugary Sweets and Poultry Fight Club

2011-11-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

My family was never one for big Thanksgiving celebrations, due to the fact our family wasn't particularly large (just me and my parents), and we lived far from aunts, uncles, cousins and the like. But for my childhood years in California, my parents had a lot of friends in the Los Angeles area who were in a similar situation as they were -- transplants from Hawaii, too far to go over the river

Mixed Plate: Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

2011-11-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

Gobble, indeed. And I'm not talkin' turkey. As we enter the home stretch of Thanksgiving, and the imminent tryptophan-laced food coma to come, I started to flip through all the random photos I've taken in the last few months at various meetups with friends and events. It made me feel very thankful to have such a diverse group of friends and associates who are nice to invite me to gatherings and

UnRecipe: Just Beet It... Just Beet it...

2011-11-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not wearing a sparkly glove on one hand and Moonwalking my way through the kitchen. But man, I sure wish I was! Sham-ON! Apropos of nothing beyond the fact that we wound up with some late-season beets, it's yet ANOTHER beet post. I keep hoping there's some subliminal message that will get through to Mr. Wasabi's brain that beets are not, in fact, gross. All we are saaaaaying... is give

UnRecipe: Yes, Virginia, There Can Be Too Much of a Good Thing

2011-11-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

You know you have these mental pictures rolling around in the ol' noggin, culinary creations that combine ingredients and flavors that in theory should work really well? Let's just say those good intentions often lead towards the Dark Side of indulgent culinary desires. My stomach said yes, but my diastolic BP said hell no - Photo by Wasabi Prime It was a simple enough notion: let's make a

UnRecipe: They Call Me Pasta Feelgood

2011-11-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

Well, it's official. Baby, it's cold outside. Not frozen, icy streets cold (yet), but nippy enough to where we can pull our favorite comfort food recipes out, and nestle into that favorite set of sweatpants and oversized sweater. If in space, no one can hear you scream, during winter, no one can see the muffin top from beneath all that polar fleece, right? But when the dour weather comes

UnRecipe: Dinner With the Divine Swine

2011-11-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to countless food-related television shows, pork has been the protein du jour for a good while. And really, why not? Hosts wax poetic over the various parts, the crunch of the crispy-fried skin, the richness of the belly, even the gnawing of its wee-wee curly tail. It's one of those animals where you can pretty much eat it from rooter to tooter, which is probably why it's such a popular

Mixed Plate: Baked Goods for Goodness Sake

2011-11-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons the Seattle area is such a special place is not only is it full of incredibly multitalented and creative people, those same creative and multitalented people like to get together and activate their Wondertwin powers for good. Case in point: you need sweet stuff, the new Cakespy book, Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life is FULL of sweet stuff, and for even more sweetery

UnRecipe: It's Always Sunny in Chimichangaville

2011-11-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

What insane crazyperson would be inspired by a TV series where one of the main characters gained an unhealthy amount of weight and walked around an episode with a black garbage bag full of fried fast food, foisting it on all his friends? Answer: this crazyperson. The Prime is just a permanent dweller in TV Dinner-land, and it's time for Chimichangas. Meals inspired by the Sunny funny bunch -