It has been a long time!

Yup I'm back and getting back at it here I was wandering just what I could do to set myself apart from a lot of other food blogs out there. I have worked my ass off. Literally. Over the past 6 months dropped close to 50 pounds and am two weeks away from running a half marathon. Hell just last night I logged in 13 miles now I just need to taper that down a bit and my race is on Labor Day. SO back to my blog and the direction that I want to take it........

I was thinking of chronicling my diet on the daily we will see if that is where I go.

I am also thinking that I may begin doing some research into what it takes to open a restaurant (it's still a dream) and logging all the trials and tribulations that come up along the way.

But as for now my diet is vegan my energy is grand as long as I keep running and my motivation remains Lara. For she is the one that I am totally willing to do all of this for.

Pomodoro Sauce & Turkey Meatballs

So I have been thinking about this sauce for quite some time now. But have not attempted it since I left Denver (for those of you that worked with me, I fully assume I got this wrong) This process took two days to complete. I remember Cesare using only Pellegrino water for the sauce because if you didn't use Italian water then the sauce would not taste right. Well I used tap water and it came out great.

I read on the back of the tomatoes about how you can make pomodoro in about 6 minutes. I can't believe it,  making any sauce is like reading a good book, there has to be character development and a big finish, you cant get a big finish in 6 minutes. It takes time to develop.

For the Sauce....

You will need

1 large sweet onion
1 clove of garlic
1/2 Tbsp crushed red chilis
1 tsp cracked black pepper
2  0.66oz packages of basil
water as needed
1/4 cup Olive oil
2 28oz cans of whole peeled tomatoes (use the good ones, you know the ones that are 3-6 dollars a can)

1. So get ready to cry unless your fast, cut your onion in half and peel the skin, lay the flat side down and slice as thin as you can. Place the onion in a heavy bottomed pot.

2. Slice the garlic clove as thin as you can and add to the onions put in the olive oil, black pepper, red chilis, basil stems, a couple of pinches of salt and about a 1/4 cup water.

3. Put your burner on its lowest setting the lower the better.  You will cook these ingredients for about 3 hours until the onions have lost all of there integrity. You will have to add a little water at a time through this process and make sure that you stir it about every fifteen minutes. what you are trying to get is very well cooked onions and no color at all on them.

4. After 3 hours add your whole peeled tomatoes even put in the juice form the cans.  You will be looking to cook this for an additional 3 hours uncovered. Keep it on low and stir it about every fifteen minutes.  When the sauce is about done, the tomatoes should begin to fall apart and the sauce should begin to thicken.

5. Now pull out your blender (you know the margarita maker) you are going to want to be very careful with this because the sauce is hot, put about half of the sauce in the blender and blend until smooth following with the remainder of the sauce.

6. Let it chill overnight in your refrigerator.

7. The following day pull out your blender and put about 3/4 of the sauce in along with the basil leaves you pulled off in step 2.  Blend until the basil is chopped into the sauce. Season with a little more salt if needed.

And your sauce is ready!

For the Meatballs

1 sweet onion
1 clove of garlic
1 Tbsp Crushed Black Pepper
2 Tbsp Italian dried herb mix
2.5 Pounds of Ground Turkey (extra lean ok)
1/4 cup eggs (egg beaters works fine)
1-1.5 cups of breadcrumbs
Salt to taste


1. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees

2.  Peel and chunk the onion, peel the garlic and put in your food processor. you want the onion and garlic to be pureed pretty much smooth.

3. You can do this by hand or in your handy mixer but mix all the  ingredients together until very well combined.

4. Tasting to adjust the salt of the mix should be done by taking a putting a small amount into a patty and cooking it in a saute pan.

5. Ball them up I used a 1/2 cup to portion them out but you can use an ice cream scoop or whatever you would like just keep them all the same size.

6.  Due to the size I baked mine for 1/2 an hour.

As soon as you pull them out of the oven crank the oven to 425

7. I then placed them in a large heavy pot and poured the Pomodoro over the top brought the sauce up to a boil and placed the uncovered pot into the oven. Bake for about 45 minutes.

Top your turkey balls with some grated Parmesan you can also serve with spaghetti if you like.

Choco-Mallows (AKA Coco Coconut Marshmallows)

So Yesterday I said to myself I want to make something I have never made before..... And decided on Marshmallows.  I love Mounds bars so I thought Chocolate and Coconut with them and here is what happened.  Beautiful little choco-mallows that I can't stop eating.

Oh wait what you can make marshmallow heck yeah you can it is simple.  This is what your gonna need.

3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 Cups granulated sugar
1 Cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 Cup water (tap is fine)
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
7 oz sweetened coconut
Coco powder, for dusting
A lot of patience

1st thing fire your oven up to 350 degrees lay the coconut out on a cookie sheet.  Put it in the oven and pay close attention to it once it starts toasting it goes quickly. Be sure to mix up the coconut during this process to promote even browning.

For the fun part.

1. place the gelatin in either a large bowl or the bowl of your mixer along with a 1/2 cup of cold water. 

Quick note:  This becomes really thick when beating you can do it by hand but it will take forever and your arm will probably give out before you get enough air in the mixture, you can use a hand mixer but you will need a helper that you trust or you can go out and spend some of your cash on a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer (make sure it is the professional / heavy duty one, the others have plastic gears)

2. Combine sugar, salt, corn syrup and the other 1/2 cup of water in a heavy pot. A thin one will cause your sugar to heat unevenly and can cause the your pot to warp.

3. The following process takes a bit. Essentially you bring the sugar mixture up to a boil, then boil the water out and then continue boiling until the mixture reaches 240 degrees.

4. Now you want to turn your mixer on low and begin pouring the sugar in slowly. The hot sugar is why you need a friend you can trust if your doing this with a hand mixer. 

5. As soon as you have all the sugar mixture added to the bowl, crank it up to high and give it about 15 minutes the mix should begin growing and adding a lot of air.

6. Take half of the coconut (hopefully you didn't forget about it till now! If you did it is overdone!)  and spread it evenly in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish and pour the marshmallow mixture over the top of the coconut. 

7. Moisten your hands with water and press the mixture even (the water will prevent sticking).

8. Sprinkle the rest of the coconut on top of the mallow.

9. And now the patience, let the mallow mellow over night uncovered

10. When you have awoken you can begin cutting, using a cup filled with hot water and a small paring knife cut the mallow into two bite chunks. You will need the cup filled with water to dip your knife in every once in a while to prevent the mallow form sticking.

11. Dip the sides into the coco powder. this will prevent sticking and add some great flavor.

12. Enjoy the Choco-Mallow!!!!

Pancakes with Macerated Strawberries

I know right, you walk into the grocery buy a box of Bisquick or other pancake mix, add milk and maybe an egg and you have pancakes almost everyone has done this.  But my question to you is why? Why would you do this? It is a simple batter that can be thrown together for minimal money and be done in a very short amount of time.  I think the only slightly expensive thing on the plate here is the berries but they were on sale!

For the strawberries: This is a very simple trick takes about 30 minutes and comes out stellar. First thing you want to do is slice the berries about a 1/4 inch thick and put them in a bowl. Sprinkle them with granulated sugar and for a twist I put a pinch of cayenne pepper in. Then let it set, stir it when you have a chance and let it marinate.

Before

After

Ok now to the hot cakes

Simply put sift your dry ingredients together, combine your wet ingredients and then add the wet to dry.  Why this method you ask? This way it will limit the lumps you have in your batter.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp granulated sugar

1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 Tbsp butter melted

Like I said, combine the first 4 ingredients form a well, combine the last three ingredients and pour into the well then mix until smooth.

Heat up a nonstick pan over medium heat, add some sort of oil; vegetable, butter or pan spray (a little goes a long way) and start adding the batter to the pan.  1/4 cup for each pancake will make smaller ones than mine but I am an adult and can put away some cakes.  Cook on the first side.  If you are wondering when to flip I would say when they are ready. You ask, "When are they ready to flip?"  when they have started bubbling and the edges loose their gloss. (I tried to photograph this but I am not sure it shows it right (I'm new at this photography stuff))

When the other side is brown they are ready.  Now quit spending money on pancake mix and make your own it is simple I swear!!!

Just a couple side notes, one idea make a few Ziplock bags of the dry ingredients and keep them in the freezer. That way you can throw these together even faster! The other is this batter is pretty thick if you want a little thinner cake then add just a touch more milk.

Bacon Cheddar Scones

This is the first of many recipes I will log here.  Scones can be either sweet or savory.  this one happens to be savory as I have been a a bacon kick lately.

Please Read The Destruction's Before Throwing This Together:

4 Cups All Purpose Flour

8 Tbsp Baking Powder

1.5 tsp Salt

2 tsp Coarse Ground Black Pepper

8 Tbsp Butter

4 Tbsp Shortening

1.5 Cups Heavy Cream

2 Eggs

8 Slices Bacon diced raw

1.5 Cups Cheddar Cheese

1 Bunch Green Onions

First things First Pre Heat your oven to 375 degrees....

Be sure to use Butter and Shortening that has been thoroughly chilled (overnight in refrigerator should do)


1. Dice the shortening and butter into small cubes and place in freezer
2. Render the diced bacon in a heavy pan (I used Cast Iron). For those of you that need a quick lesson, Heat pan over medium heat and put in your raw product, watch closely as the fat will begin to render out as shown.

continue cooking until crisp then strain off the fat it should be nicely brown and crisp

Let that stand and drain until later.

3. Combine the dry ingredients in a food processor for about 10 minutes to be sure that the ingredients are combined.

4. While the items are being blended whisk the eggs and add to them the heavy cream and put back into refrigerator.

5. Take your butter and shortening out of the freezer and add all at once to the food processor. Run the processor until the butter and shortening begin to break up.  This only takes a few seconds it is important that the butter and shortening still have substance and are not completely gone.  After this is done transfer the mixture in the processor to a large bowl.

6. Put you bacon, green onions and cheese on top of your processed ingredients and build a small well in the bottom of the bowl.

7. Pour in you wet ingredients and begin by pulling the inner edges into the middle and working you way out. the dough should seem dry,  You would think you need to add more liquid but it is perfect.



8. Dump the mixture onto a floured counter top and separate into two balls.

9. Press the dough into two elongated bars and cut into triangles.

10. Place on two (I crowded my pan) cookie sheets and bake for 20 minutes (be sure to rotate halfway through)

11. let cool for a couple minutes and enjoy!

So we went out to Milagro in Kirkland for dinner Monday night, the dining room is dimly lit but to my surprise the menu was easily read just a coincidence I am sure. The service was attentive and everything we ordered was simply delicious. We started with a bottle of Sauv Blanc and had the Ceviche app. Eating along with the wine it was incredible light simplistic clean and crisp flavors. The shrimp nor sea bass was overpowering and it went down very easy. We then got our entrees myself, I indulged in two of from what I can remember 10 different tacos. I had the beef tongue and the vegetarian. Now I have not had any tongue since I left culinary school so the flavors brought me back to charcuterie class. It was very fresh tasting (which concerns me when ordering organ meat as this is not the most popular). Braised perfectly and topped with just a sprinkle of perfectly small diced onions. The vegetarian one had butternut squash and cactus very carefully blended topped with a lime cream. Oh and the tortillas were outrageous! Made in house, the only way to go! I also had the Arroz verde, a green rice that is served in a small cast iron pot. although the rice seemed to be slightly overcooked. Lara got a salad (surprise) with fresh greens radishes and prawns while I am sure that it was delicious I didn't try it so plus Lara couldn't fathom eating the vinaigrette that came with it and instead doused the greens with salsa! We finished the meal with the mushroom quesadilla, of course it has shrooms also pressed within with the cheese was fennel it added a slight liquorice flavor but did no overpower the focus of mushrooms. Overall a great meal, and I look forward to returning again!

So this week I am going to make some savory scones bacon and cheddar to be precise. And maybe whip up few other things as well.

It has been a while

Damn I really need to step this up.... let's see, This week Mobes and I went down to the Public Market in Seattle, I picked up some poblanos, english peas, fingerling potatoes, some colosal shrimp (which Mobes balked at) and a whole red snapper. We then shot back up to Capitol Hill and stopped by The Lookout.

I have been searching all over Seattle for some decent wings and have yet to find any, but The Lookouts were not bad at all just not great. I will find some that are big, juicy, crisp and tasty.
Besides that I had a couple Hales Cream Ales they were great! And finished it all off with a grilled cheese with swiss pesto and fresh tomato and some very good Jo Jo's

Sunday was fantastic Roasted fingerlings, Seared Snapper, and a english pea coulis. Absolutley had a great dinner with some Piinot Gris and Finished with a Zinfandel for desert.