First order of business

Hey All,

I'm finally sitting down to write. Its been a long couple of weeks, and that's OK. A lot of really fun and exciting, and some not so exciting stuff has happened. Work has been its usual drudgery with a couple of extra helpings of drama. I also got to judge my first regional science fair on Friday. That was a lot of fun and I'm really excited to see budding young scientists, and a few with an interest in food science....that's some cool stuff right there.

So before we start with the beef broccoli recipe, I found a photo from a while back I had to share. It was a scampi type affair I did and it was delicious. The mussels were from Global Supermarket and they were delicious....big, tender, and the flavor was that perfect subtle sweet that I've only had in New York City. It was all done in a traditional scampi butter with the addition of a couple of roma tomatoes. I've actually been pleased with the romas I've been getting lately. I associate romas with poor flavor and cruddy texture. These that I have been getting, although they do look a bit rough on the outside, have actually had good flavor and texture. They still aren't garden fresh tomatoes, but they'll do in the ends of winter when I need to remember brighter days are coming.

We also broke down and replaced the old green plates. Two of them are still running around, but the rest got broke. I've still got the yellow ones, that while they brighten up the kitchen nicely, they really do make for some unappealing looking photographs.

The Best Broccoli Beef Sauce Ever...

Hey All,

So tomorrow night will be broccoli mushroom stem. I had to go findthe best sauce recipe ever!

I'll work on getting the usual pictures up when we cook tomorrow.

Also, we've been eating well, I've just been running around like mad getting ready to go judge The Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair. It all starts a week from today....I'm excited as can be to be judging a feeder to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

We're not entertaining, a joint effort

Hey All,

So I promised some info about dinner last night. It was one of those that we tend to do in the summer(ish) months as an excuse to get together with friends, have a few drinks, and of course, eat good food. Its pretty typical fare for these kinds of get togethers....steaks, potatoes, and a salad.

So first up was starting the steaks. In my younger years, I would have drenched these in some exotic sauce and pretty well ruined the good flavor of them. Now-a-days, its simple marinades to enhance the flavor. One of my favorites, is equal parts balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce with salt and pepper. Its pretty much no fail and I've never had it ruin a steak on me.

On an amusing side note, Lushus gave me a bad time about my pronunciation of Worcestershire. I abbreviate it, "werk". I was informed the proper way to pronounce this, since no-one I cooked with until now could pronounce it, is "wusrt-a-shure". OK, so now I have a fancy way of saying, "Damn, my cooking is easy and it tastes good :P"

I also did some foil packets, one of onions, one of mushrooms, to throw on the grill (top rack), to go over the steaks. We also scored more blue cheese for pennies at NPS.

Up next was the potato prep. Husbear and I have been doing variations on this for years....in foil for camping, in a dish in the oven for at-home, you get the picture. Start with a healthy dose of olive oil in the bottom of the dish.

Then a layer of medium to thin sliced potatoes.

After that, some garlic, onion, mushrooms, salt, and herbs. One of our guests doesn't care much for fungus, so we left about 1/4 of the dish without any mushrooms. The herbs can vary. Last night, we did basil, oregano, and thyme. A touch of rosemary is always nice, but I couldn't find it, so we left it out. About midnight, I remembered its not in one of my bags or fancy jars, its in a can....duh!

Then another layer of potatoes. Some butter....what's left of any of the onions or anything else.

Then one last layer of potatoes, a sprinkle of olive oil, and we gave it a dusting of Sunbird Mongolian Barbeque shake on.....just for a little bit of smokiness.

Cover with foil and into a 350F oven for 60-90 (or longer) minutes.

Lushus and (oh, hell, we need a good nickname for him, let's call him Mr. Corvette) arrived with a spinach salad. She's forwarding directions for her candied pecans. She couldn't find any at the store, so she set out to make her own. These were better than any I've ever had....perfect texture, that when you bit into them were buttery and rich with just the perfect hint of sweetness. I think the only thing that could have improved upon them would have been a bit of cayenne for heat....then again, I like a bit of spice in all my food, so this is really just semantics. The salad was wonderfully simple, spinach, pecans, and dried cranberries, all tossed together with a raspberry vinaigrette.

Grilled the steaks perfectly, to a just on the rare side of medium-rare and we had an awesome dinner. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the plated meal...it was a mountain of food, and it tasted GREAT!

For dessert, it was the last of the truffles. Lushus assures me, that although they aren't the prettiest things; the flavor is better than the most expensive she's ever had. OK, so I'm letting Ina off the hook for the disaster that was the recipe. I'll suffer with waiting for 2 days for the ganache to set if it garners that kind of praise.

I hope you all are as excited about the summer months as I am. A friend of a friend passed along the word that it was "...time to come out of my cave..." Ah, yes, it is, time for the warmer days and good times!

The Burning Man Meal Prep part 2, my first blog video

Hey All,

So I'm hanging out in the kitchen with Lushus, listening to great music and FINALLY, after 4 softwares, a bit of learning, and 57 minutes of rendering, the video for how to seal up a Burning Man meal is ready.

So here it is:



The notes, are that the crazy blue strips are from Vac N Save, Jim and Nancy over there have an awesome thing going. Their bags are very affordable compared to the brand name ones. I take it one step further, because I'm a vacuum sealing whore, and actually purchase my bags from U Line. I got a major deal on their 4 mil bags last year.

I'm also using a FoodSaver V2040. I used to use the crappy Seal-A-Meal....um, no never again! Spend the extra $40 and get yourself a good FoodSaver.

I'll have lots more to come from tonights dinner. We had friends over and did the good ol' tater log for the oven....some steaks, and Lushus made an awesome salad with homemade candied pecans that melted like butter in your mouth. I'll post more tomorrow :)

Mike Delinquent

Hey All,

So keep your eyes peeled for Mike Delinquent........he's got a hot remix of Adele. That be some cooking music! Its unreleased as of yet, but it was hot on Annie Mac tonight.

Porkschnitzel...Beat that Meat!

Hey All,

Dear sweet Jesus, I've been blogging up a storm. Its actually become a very healthy and fun addiction.

So I showed you how to get a meal started for Burning Man. It just dawned on me, those meals are the longest to prep....what 6 months? LOL!

Husbear promised when he scored big on the pork that we'd make a German dish out of it. And tonight, he delivered on the goods. His paw is still in rough shape, so I helped a lot and we took all kinds of fun pictures along the way.

First up, POUND THAT MEAT! Since we used pork steaks, instead of a cutlet or scaloppini, we had to beat them a bit.

Dry the meat off....then an egg and flour dredge. Plenty of salt and pepper in the flour. This is kinda important, that's where most of the flavor comes from in this one.

Then into a pan with medium-hot oil. Since this one is pork, you don't want to cook it quite as hot as you would a meat that you can serve rare.

So after that's done, drain out the excess oil. I also always brown the bits a bit more....I like the darker flavor.

Then in 2 cups of beef broth with 2 small cans of stems and pieces mushrooms. Husbear insists its better with fresh, but we didn't have any handy. Salt and pepper, and about 1/4 cup of beer. I like the cheapest, crappiest lager I can find...PBR usually fits the bill.

And now one of the best tricks I have in my cupboard. You know how mixing in cornstarch (3 Tblsp in this recipe) is a real bitch and your gravy will lump if you aren't careful? Put the cornstarch in a small jar add some water...and shake, ShAkE, SHAKE. You can stir this into the gravy directly...keep the gravy stirring until its thickened...and viola, no lumps and its easy as can be.

So to go with that some spaetzle. I like the frozen stuff, but you can find all sorts of takes on it. Instant, canned, frozen, etc. I still contend homemade has the best flavor, but that would take this out of the realm of weeknight food to all damn weekend food.

Plate that up...and another relatively quick (took us 20 min) and easy meal.

Finally, some Burning Man Prep....Ravioli 3-way

Hey All,

One of the cuties over on Gay Burners reminded me that I got a bit tipsy a while back and was pimping my blog over there. I've been meaning to get to posting my helpful tips for wonderful cooking on playa, alas my camera was being a flaky the other day and corrupted a whole disks worth of images....but I digress.

So in reality I've got 3 dinners packed already. Some Mac 'n Cheese, leftover from that adventure, and some lasagna from one of Husbear's cooking adventures. The premise is pretty much the same, package meal, seal meal, freeze meal, and on the day you want to eat it, solar-cook meal. Solar cooking is lots of fun surprisingly safe if you are using a well-designed oven, and super easy if you don't want to have to worry about cooking when you get home from a day of play. Just realize that on the hottest of days in Black Rock, your oven may reach temperatures in excess of 350F. That's probably not so good for the plastic bags, so I try to stop by at some point in the day and see if the oven is exceeding 250F. If it is, I open it for a bit and let it cool to just below 200F. On my inspired days, I'll put out some sun tea in the morning and use that as my excuse to check in...."Gee, wouldn't a nice glass of iced tea be great right now?" If you are feeling truly inspired, try some mint, or one of my personal favorites, Jamaica (its actually hibiscus flower, but I guess its trendier to call it by its Mexican name). With the Hibiscus, I've found adding spices, cinnamon, clove, and a touch of anise is quite nice.

A quick note about the safety of solar cooking. Make damn well and sure you have a well designed oven than can sustain temperatures above 160F for more than 40 minutes. These are basically pasteurization temperatures and should kill off any nasty bugs. Vacuum sealing also helps, but it isn't fool proof. The best way to check on a homemade model is to hang an oven thermometer in it....that's what we do with ours.

So here's how I do the Ravioli 3-way. Its always a favorite.

First up is a note about packages. In my experience, having uniform, "bricks of food", makes packing the freezer/cooler much easier. So you'll notice I'm using the same sized containers for all of these:

So portion out the meals. This makes it super easy for everyone to have their meal, when they want it, and you don't have to mess the with the drama of scheduled meal times. The one thing to keep in mind, these essentially turn into casserole type affairs, so plan accordingly.

The off to the freezer they go. Tomorrow (or, quite frankly whenever the hell I feel like it) I'll post about the vacuum sealing.