Category Archives: Food

Food

Hell’s Kitchen – 1st Episode

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So I watched the first episode of the 4th season of Hell’s Kitchen. I am a die hard Gordon Ramsay fan so I couldn’t wait to see what was in store for me. In a nutshell, it was ok.

The contestants had 45 minutes to prepare their signature dish (which is the opener every season). There were some standout losers. First up was Craig who wears a tall chefs hat that looks taller than him (which of course, Ramsay made fun of). He made this odd dish of Jerk Seared Chilean Sea Bass with a Rum-Raisin Risotto. I am not a chef but… Fish is a delicate flavor, regardless of type, and that can’t handle that kind of sweetness. Maybe if it were a venison or even prime rib, maybe. Rum and Raisin?? That is really sweet.

But that wasn’t the worst. Ramsay said that this next dish was the most disgusting ever and threw up (but I think he throws up once during this part every season;). So if you have a delicate stomach skip the next little bit;). Matt. the “true culinarian”, came up with a tar tar of venison and a tar tar of scallops. Mix into those 2 separate tar tars were capers, pickles, ketchup and white chocolate. I don’t see how any mix of those flavors could be good.

Once again this season the kitchens will be girls versus boys and this time they started off with captains. Both sides did horribly. There wasn’t any food served for over 45 minutes and Ramsay shut it all down before a single entree was served. Now, I am just a mom but you are in a prepped kitchen. How can no food come out for 45 minutes? I can walk into my kitchen with nothing ready and have dinner done in 45 minutes. If I had a prepped kitchen and recipes made for quick restaurant recipes who knows how speedy I could be.

On the boys’ side Bobby, the “black Gordon Ramsay”, stepped up for leadership saying that he could jump in and help others if needed. Wow, did he over sell. Not only was he a bad leader, he was a bad team member. The guys floundered horribly in just starting appetizers. Not only did Bobby not help, he went to far as to say that he didn’t want to jump in because “you got it over there”. Ramsay de-captained him and appoint Lou Ross as the captain. He did a much better job but the guys didn’t even get out all the appetizers. Dominick kept ruining scallops and Jason at the appetizer station couldn’t get any of it right.

Over to the girls. They did better but not great. Their captain Vanessa wasn’t visible in the beginning of service. Ramsay eventually reassigned captain to Rosanne. Then things went smoother. The girls got out all the appetizers but not a single entree.

Bottom line, boys lost and Lou Ross put up Stay at home Dad Dominick and ex-captain Bobby. I was shocked that Jason, who was in charge of the appetizer station, wasn’t put up. Dominick was sent home so I guess we have to endure Bobby and his ego at least one more week. I think it is the reality show contract to keep the jerks around as long as possible. Otherwise, Ramsay really should have kicked Bobby to the curb.

I will see you all next week as I am sure that the action will heat up!

Technorati Tags: Hell’s Kitchen

Food

Freezer Friday:Broccoli Mac and Cheese

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Welcome to Freezer Friday. The goal here is to make our lives easier. Due to the fact I have 4 little ones and homeschool, I need all the help I can find. Simply post a recipe that can be made, frozen and then later reheated(thawed, etc) and consumed. Make sure that you include freezing and reheating instructions in your post. Then come here and add you post (not your blog) into Mr. Linky.
Now for some disclaimers:
If it isn’t a recipe, I will delete it.
If it can’t be made ahead, I will delete it.
If you don’t have a family friendly site, I will delete it.
Now onto the food fun!

Broccoli Mac and Cheese Gratin

This is an adapted recipe from Cooking Light. I like to double and even triple this recipe. The key is to not to crowd your boiling water.

Ingredients

1 pound of uncooked medium seashell pasta
6 cups broccoli florets (about 1 pound)
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 3/4 cups 1% low-fat milk or 2% milk, divided
1/3 cup all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 ounces)
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded fontina cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Asiago cheese (Parmesan will do)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Dash of ground nutmeg
Cooking spray
2 (1-ounce) slices white bread or 1/4 cup preseasoned bread crumbs or panko crumbs

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

Cook pasta in boiling water 8 minutes; add broccoli. Cook 3 minutes or until pasta is done. Drain.

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic to pan; cook 45 seconds. Transfer garlic mixture to a small bowl; set aside.

Add remaining 1 teaspoon oil to pan; stir in onion. Cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; stir in 3 cups milk. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine the remaining 3/4 cup milk and flour in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture to onion mixture. Return pan to medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a whisk; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute or until thick, stirring constantly with a whisk. Remove from heat; stir in the cheeses, salt, black pepper, red pepper, and nutmeg. Add pasta mixture to milk mixture, tossing gently to coat. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish (or 2 8×8) coated with cooking spray.

Combine garlic mixture and bread in a food processor; pulse 15 times or until fine crumbs measure 1 cup. Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture over pasta mixture. Bake at 400° for 18 minutes or until the top is brown.

Makes 8 very generous servings

To Freeze: I freeze it before baking in 8×8 baking dishes, covered well in aluminum foil. Then I cook defrosted for 1/2 hour or frozen 1 hour.

Technorati Tags: zucchini, Freezer Friday, Make Ahead

Food

Food Network Challenge Princess Cake

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So of course I watched this with all the little nerdlings. It was a crowd pleaser in our house. It was a good watch. So onto the critique…. With these kind of challenges they bring in special judges and it was made clear that it was all about the princess, not the story. Not everybody paid attention to that and it was clear.

Kate Sullivan: She did a Belle inspired cake and I was under whelmed. It was basically a 3 tiered cake (standard) with a bust on top and some of the characters from the movie on the sides. I really thought that it looked like those Barbie heads we had as kids to practice hair on, if it had been done well. Which it wasn’t really. I think that it was shown that time constraints are not her foray.

Flora Aghababyan: She had a Cinderella inspired cake and it lacked focus and detail. She did a large castle with some detail but a big part of the visual impact was the towers. They appeared to be made of just a cone of paper so that didn’t take a skill per say (a judging element). Then she added some small figurines but Cinderella was the worst. After talking to the judges she said that to do a great Cinderella and a dress would have taken 7 hours. I think that would have been a better use of time. She spent so much time on the rest of it but had an itty bitty Cinderella. Even if she would have been done great, Cinderella would have just melted in to the background.

Elizabeth Hodges, 3rd place: She did a tall Jasmine cake and it was iffy. It was iffy because Jasmine was just barely balanced on the top of a very nice pile of pillows, carpets, etc. She had to use wire and skewers (and they were visible) in order to keep it from falling. It seemed that she didn’t account for the proportions in Jasmine.

Norman Davis, 2nd place: He did a really cool concept. It was a coral reef with Sebastian and Ariel. Ariel was a substantial size and a good portion of the composition. I think that if Ariel’s head hadn’t had some balance issues he probably would have won. He pinned it back and “disguised” it with a necklace and some flowers. So it looked a little odd there.

Mary Maher, 1st place: She did a large 3D Snow White in a forest setting with Dopey. I have to say that the eyes looked odd in both the drawing and in the execution. She really focused on doing a great princess and I think that is what won this for her. Part way through it didn’t seem that she had enough time to finish anything but Snow White but she pulled it together and did an adorable Dopey. All and all it was pretty good.

There is my break down for what it is worth!

Technorati Tags: Food, Food Network, TV

Food

Easy and Cheap BBQ Chicken Thighs

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Ok, here is another easy and delicious recipe for the summer. Now I need to preface it with the fact that the Nerd Family is not the biggest fans of BBQ sauce. So I have needed to employ other flavor and moistening techniques. So I take cheap boneless chicken thighs(preferably with the skin) and marinate them in just plain old bottled marinade (I use Lawry’s Garlic and Herb). Now before everyone starts sreaming about dark meat being bad for you. Because dark meat has a little more fat it doesn’t dry out like a chicken breast. Also you can get thighs at a fairly low cost. So leave this to marinade and go heat up your grill. When it is nice and hot take a old dishcloth or cheesecloth and roll it up lengthwise so you have a nice bone size towel. Then dip it in a little oil and use your tongs to rub it on the grill. If not the thighs will stick pretty badly. Cook about 7 minutes on each side (checking for doneness). During that time you can make Quick and Easy Aspargus and put a little bread on to warm. Voila, you have a great and easy meal that didn’t heat up you house!

Food

Freezer Friday: Chocolate Chip Zucchini Loaf

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Welcome to Freezer Friday. The goal here is to make our lives easier. Due to the fact I have 4 little ones and homeschool, I need all the help I can find. Simply post a recipe that can be made, frozen and then later reheated(thawed, etc) and consumed. Make sure that you include freezing and reheating instructions in your post. Then come here and add you post (not your blog) into Mr. Linky.
Now for some disclaimers:
If it isn’t a recipe, I will delete it.
If it can’t be made ahead, I will delete it.
If you don’t have a family friendly site, I will delete it.
Now onto the food fun!


Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Now that spring is on its way so is all the fresh produce. Here is a good way to enjoy it and hold on to it for the future. This recipe is very easy to double, triple or more.

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup AP Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Mini Chocolate Chips

Wet Ingredients:
2 Eggs
1/4 cup Oil
1/4 cup Applesauce
1 cup Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Grated Zucchini (unpeeled; if frozen do not drain)

Process:
Mix all dry ingredients together. Then beat eggs until frothy and mix in all remaining wet ingredients. Mix in dry ingredients. Dump batter into greased loaf pan. Bake for 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry (except chocolate chips). Let stand in loaf pan for 10 minutes and then cool the rest of the way on a rack.

Make ahead directions:
You can just wrap tightly in plastic wrap and aluminum and place in the freezer. Then just sit out to thaw. If your freezer is full you can store the dry ingredients in a freezer bag on the shelf and freeze shredded zucchini.

Technorati Tags: zucchini, Freezer Friday, Make Ahead

Food

Top Chef 3/26/08

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I finished the 3rd episode this season and am the only person a little disappointed with this group? So if you haven’t guessed, I have a lot of grousing to do. First off, I am so sick of Andrew and his smack talk. Can he please be the next one to go?

This week’s quick fire challenge was to make fine dining tacos. Not many of them seemed to really branch out in order to make tacos into fine dining. But Richard seemed to impress Rick Bayless (this week’s guest judge) with a jicama shelled taco. Richard seemed to deserve to win because he seemed to pair traditional flavors with a cool twist.

The chefs got to split themselves into teams for this week’s challenge and I thought that in itself was very interesting. This week’s elimination challenge was to cook for a block party and to get the food from the neighborhood’s own pantries. So the chefs go door to door to get food and some of them thought that the people who be wary about letting in strangers. This was a huge block party and there was TV vans and cameras on the block. I have a feeling that all the neighbors were warned prepared to have their doors knocked on. Then the red team went to a house with a woman with a large well stocked pantry and seemed shocked. Maybe this just strikes close to home but come on, your a chef. You have a well stocked kitchen, don’t you?

Nikki is really get on my nerves also. She wasn’t sure about how she could melt down Velveeta in a sauce and it not dry out. Is she really a chef? Then, for a 2nd week in a row, she is trying to camouflage another bad dish and fails. Luckily for her she was on the (narrowly) winning team. Richard, who had immunity, was called on the carpet for making a dish that wasn’t paella and then calling paella. I think that the only reason the blue team won was that fruit crumble with the sweet wonton that Stephanie came up with. Let me just interject here, a sweet wonton was so impressive? I have been making those and variations upon them for 2 years, yet I digress.

I found the pompous nature of the red team galling. I understand thinking that you were better than the other team but they couldn’t come up with one single reason that they were in the room as the losing team. They already knew that their corn dogs were soggy even if they didn’t realize that their Waldorf salad wasn’t crisp and that their pasta salad left something to be desired. I was applauding (on the inside, I had napping kids) when Tom told them that if they didn’t taste anything wrong with their food that they all had bad pallets. Then Andrew (I believe) said that if he was kicked out that security was going to have to take him out and that this was his house. I was blown away that someone did say something to him much less that they didn’t kick him out.

But, alas our corn dog maker, Erik, got kick to the curb and didn’t seem surprised at all.

Technorati Tags: Bravo, Top Chef

Food

Hamantaschen

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Since Purim is tomorrow, I thought I would post my Hamantaschen recipe (or the one I use;). You make a cookie dough, then the filling dough, then you assemble. That is how this recipe will be formatted.

Cookie Dough:

Ingredients

2 cups AP Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
1/2 cup Sugar
8 tbl (1 Stick) Unsalted Butter, cold and cut into small cubes
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
1 tbl Lemon Zest

Process

Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Work butter into dry ingredients (with forks or a pastry blender) until a consistent pebbly texture. The add the eggs one at a time while mixing with a pastry blender. Then add the lemon zest and form into a ball. Then refrigerator for 1 hour.

Poppy Seed (Mohn) Filling

Ingredients

1 cup Poppy Seeds
1/2 cup Honey
1/2 cup Milk
1 tbl Lemon Juice
2 tsp Lemon Zest
1/2 cup Raisins

Process

Mix it poppy seeds, honey and milk together in a saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. The mixture will thicken. Then stir in remaining ingredients and set aside to cool. Take care to not over cook because it will cause a dry filling and therefore a dry cookie.

Assembly

Ingredients

Cookie Dough
Filling
1 Egg beaten with 1 tbl of water

Process

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Then roll out dough to about 1/8th an inch. I roll between 2 pieces of parchment, wax paper or silicon liners from my cookie sheet. Then cut dough into 3 or 4 inch circles depending on size of you cutter or glass. Place a tsp of filling in the middle and fold dough around it into the shape of a triangle. Then brush dough and bake about 20 minutes. They will brown when they are done.

Makes about 30.

Technorati Tags: Hamantaschen, Purim

Food

Top Chef 3/19: Live Blog

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I will date the episodes based on when they are first shown (I Tivo is and watch it when ever I want;). I am doing this in the “as it comes to me” format so forgive lack of flow.

So the contestants had 30 minutes at the farmers market in Chicago. Was anyone else surprised at how rude Mark was at the market? Maybe they all were but the show showed him. So it didn’t surprise me went he left his bag behind and no one called out to him or caught up with him. As someone who shops with kids and everything, I have had people at markets make sure I have my stuff. It would shock me to see a vendor with it on his wrist and not call out to me but, when you don’t treat the vendor with respect?? I was also shocked that Whylie gave Mark credit for working around a forgotten item. But I saw Mark as complaining so that food must have been really go to win the Quick Fire.

(23 minutes in)Team Bear worrying about decor at the store? Focus on the food!

(About 25 minute in)Erik not knowing about all the cool tech toys? Watch more Food Network, I know about immersion circulators and I am a home cook.

(26 minutes in) Valerie is really crowding the pan, I don’t think those blinis will turn out for immediate consumption much less transport. They already look to thick and a little over done for transport.

(27:27 minute in) Those are nasty looking Stuffed Mushrooms. While food can taste good even if they look bad, I won’t even try it if I don’t know the person cooking. That would be a taste risk I wouldn’t try;).

(28 minutes in)Wow, it looked like no one was ready for time to be up.

(34 minutes in) Antonia is totally separating herself from Valerie’s blinis but she was willing to jump in and help fix Stephanie’s dish with her own idea.

(36 minutes in) What was that penguin on the table made from?

(37:20 minute in) I want that Moroccan Lamb Meatball.

(38 minute in) I think Nikki offered that Mushroom just to put Dale up for that bad dish. It would have been easy enough to just tell the judges that they got pulled.

(50 minutes in) It is like no one thought that a “garnish” would effect the taste. It was pecorino cheese, in addition to the cheese flavor there is a lot of salt in that.

(50 minutes in) Is it obvious to anyone else that this batch is going to fight for themselves in judging?

Technorati Tags: Top Chef, Reality TV, Food TV

Food

Food TV

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For those of you who don’t know that I love food television, especially reality food tv. So I have decided to blog on it here. Especially since I tend to get some great technique from the shows. So stay tuned!