Turkey Burgers.

I think I liked these turkey burgers better than a regular hamburger, but then again I haven't bought good ground beef in a while either! To start i mixed the ground turkey up with some salt, pepper, and a few teaspoons of paprika, made patties and just cooked them on the stove top. While they were cooking I made an aioli, I diced a carrot, some red and orange peppers, and some garlic and sauteed them in olive oil and mixed it with some mayonnaise. On the side fresh green beans that I cooked with a little butter and quatre epices, literally just four spices, it is ground pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. No salt. Very unique combination of flavors. The burgers are topped with Muenster cheese. Simple post this time. I gotta get back in the flow of doing these once a week again! until next time, Happy cooking!

Eggplant Parmigiana!

While we were in Omaha Jillian's parents gave us some eggplants and a bunch of other veggies so I made some eggplant parmigiana. It was my first time having eggplant and a new culinary endeavor for me. It was quite easy actually just a little time consuming. First you slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch slices and layer them in a calender salting the top of each layer. Once you have all the slices in the calender weigh them down with some plates for two hours, this drains the moister from the eggplant. While you are waiting for the eggplant you'll want to prep your tomato sauce. You may use your favorite bottled sauce or you can make you own. In a food processor pour a can of peeled, whole tomatoes, some olive oil, a few fresh garlic clove, your favorite choice spices, and some salt and pepper. I also roasted some red peppers and threw them in there as well! Secondly heat a pan of olive oil up on medium-high heat, then dredge the eggplant slices in flour, then dip them in an egg-wash and toss them in the oil, browning both sides. When the eggplant is all done pour enough tomato sauce to fill the bottom of your pan and top with a layer of eggplant, fresh mozzarella slices, fresh parmesan cheese, and some more tomato sauce, repeat this step until your ingredients are all in your pan. Top with the remaining tomato sauce and parmesan and bake on 375-400 for 30-45 minutes all depending on the thickness of you slices and your dish, you're going to want to keep an eye on this. Let sit for 10 minutes and serve with your favorite pasta. Baked, saucy, vegetarian delight!

Chorizo Sammie!

Sorry about the hiatus, I'm back though. Living in the Puerto Rican area has it advantages, like fresh, spicy, veggies. I went to the local mexi-mart and picked up some jalepenjos and hebanjeros, an onion, an ear of corn, some apricots, queso fresco and some chorizo. I boiled the corn and cut it off the cob, then I sauteed the veggies, with cumin and paprika Then I added the chorizo, when that was done I added the corn and the apricots just for a minute. In the meantime I crumbled the queso fresco on the buns and put them in the toaster oven to melt the cheese. Lettuce optional. It was really nice to create a new recipe again, it was very tasty.

Sushi!

I made very simple sushi, just some veggies. I wish I had the money to put some tuna in it or something! First I prepared the rice, Some sticky Botan Calrose rice, just because I like it and I didn't have sushi rice, then stick it in the fridge. While that is cooking I blanched some asparagus and zucchini in different pots just for a minute so they are still crispy, run them through an ice bath, then stick them in the fridge. I seeded some of the little red peppers in the jar. I love these things, I'll post a picture of them in next new food blog. Now grab all your chilled ingredients and seaweed wraps. First on a sushi mat, if you don't have one layer 3 or 4 paper towels and lay a peice of saran-wrap on top, lay your seaweed wrap down then press a layer of rice down evenly, leaving about 1/2 an inch of seaweed uncovered at the bottom. Then make a row of your veggies in the middle to wrap the rice around it. grab the top of your roll and pull it over the veggies and tuck it in. Keeping it tight, continue to roll it until you reach the uncovered seaweed and rub some cold water across it so it will stick. You'll need a sharp thin knife to slice these into rolls, and you may have to dip the knife in cold water if it won't cooperate. Kampai!

Pizza Time!

It's been a little bit since I've cooked or posted! So here it is, a veggie pie. The crust isn't fancy at all, it's just the store bought mix with water kind. The sauce is a little bit of tomato paste, tomato sauce, and a small diced Roma tomato. Then I sauteed some garlic, onions, and habaneros. Then add it to the tomato sauce mixture. Pour a little bit on to your crust. Slap some cheese on it! I used mozzarella and a tiny bit of cheddar. Broccoli, Hot House tomato slices and some red peppers for the topping. Voila, Mama Mia, Pizza Pie!!

More salads!

I made another salad with homemade dressing. The salad was some Romaine lettuce, black beans, cheese from the whole foods bargain bin, and some croutons and almonds. The dressing I used the same method as before but I switched the ingredients up. I used some of the brining vinegar from these amazing little chili peppers from a jar, I also cut a few of them and put them in the dressing. Some Olive oil, half a lime, salt, pepper, and a generous helping of cumin. I've been on a little cumin kick lately, I like it. Whip it up really fast with a fork and pour it on your salad. Yet again, Spicy and delicious! Light and healthy! Thanks!

Jillian's first steak dinner, in four years.

The same asparagus, broccoli, and zucchini. The mashed potatoes have fresh garlic that I sauteed in Spanish basil olive oil. And the steak is a Petite Tender cut, it's a shoulder cut that is very lean, tender, and small. Very good, look for them fresh in the meat dept.

She asked for it, She got it!!

Lite Lunch.

I made a really tasty salad and dressing with the stuff that was going to go bad in the fridge. I had a carrot, half a lemon, a few blackberries and strawberries, and just enough butter lettuce left. The salad is just the lettuce, strawberries, and carrots with a little bit of salt and pepper. The dressing is super easy to make, the juice from half of a lemon, about double the amount olive oil, parsley, sugar, salt and pepper for taste, and a handful of blackberries. Smash up the black berries and with a fork just stir everything together quickly. Quick, easy, tasty, and healthy. Enjoy.

Fire up that grill!

For dinner last night we had some friends over. I sparked some coals and cracked open some beers, outside for the first time this year! I made the same crispy zucchini, broccoli, and asparagus I always make. Then I made Baked potato mashed potatoes. When I mashed the potatoes I added some milk, a lot of butter, parsley, sour cream and real bacon. It tasted just like a baked potato. And for the chicken I split the breast, stuffed it with garlic, Fresno peppers, Serrano peppers, Habenejro peppers, jalapenos, and a wedge of lime. Threw them on the top rack of the grill and cooked them slowly for about 30 minutes, flipping them occasionally. It was a spicy treat let me tell you!

Spring, please come quicker.

We made a fruit pizza, and it was great! It could have been much better if the birds were singing, the heat a blazing, and the fruit, in season and ripe. Anyways we just used prepackaged sugar cookie dough, flatten it out. Bake it following the directions. Then I made a cream cheese frosting while Jillian cut the fruit. The frosting was just cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. then you arrange the fruit to your liking!

Afternoon drinks with Bobby and Jillian.

Little brother Bobby came over the other day with a bottle of Hendrick's gin and A bottle of Canton. We made some pretty good cocktails and shots. My mom bought me a really sweet glass shaker for my birthday so first we made martinis with some strawberries, limes and equal parts Canton and Hendrick's, shake the life out of it. Good martinis should have a nice balance of sweetness, alcohol, and water. The melted ice tames the drink and makes straight liquor drinkable. Second we made Hendrick's recipe gin and tonics. I shook two parts gin with some grated cucumber and ice, strain over ice, add one part tonic. Cucumber slices for garnish. These were both delicious and we all had a nice little buzz!

http://www.domainedecanton.com/
http://www.hendricksgin.com/

More snacks.

The best snack ever is an onion bagel with melted brie cheese on it!!!!

Snacks.

The other night Hailee and KaCee came to hang while I was at work. I guess they were watching something about shrimp and Hailee really wanted some shrimp so I told them I'd cook it for her. They brought back a thirty dollar bag of shrimp!! Cool with me, right. Mike has this great cook book, that I found this shrimp recipe in it, called "5 spices, 50 dishes," and the spices are basically what comprises curry spice. It would have been amazing with fresh, not frozen, shrimp but it turned out nicely. Precooked frozen shrimp usually has a salt content in it already I thawed out the shrimp and marinated it for only like 30 minutes, shrimp doesn't take long for flavors to stick like beef or chicken. The marinade was some olive oil, lemon juice and zest, fresh parsley, cayenne, curry powder, salt, pepper and paprika(not the exact recipe, but I never do.) Then you throw it all in a hot pan with a little bit more olive oil. On medium-high heat put a lid on it so your shrimp don't dry out. Sautee them until there is no more water and a few crispy edges. Enjoi!

Cheese Plate.

We went to Whole Foods again, and for Jillian and I that means fancy cheese. Alton Brown had a cheese show on his food science show and we always make cheese plates, so I figured I would post one. You gotta have a base. I cut some ciabatta bread in half and squared it, a little parsley, pepper and some Spanish basil infused olive oil. I pressed them in the panini maker and made them extra cripy. And fruit also goes great on a cheese plate, but all we had was an apple, but it was surprisingly delicious! Then clockwise from the apples, 1. A three milk blend, sheep, goat, and cow, it's hard with a sweet finish, grates nicely. 2. An aged English white cheddar that's Hillary's. Actually she always buys it, it's soft and sharp. 3. A Rubusto dutch cheese made from pasteurized cows milk. It's soft and spongy kinda like muenster. I love it, probably my favorite cheese on the plate. 4. An unpasteurized raw milk with vegetable in the middle. Veggie ash can be used for making thin rinds and protecting the cheese from the elements, or like here a line of it in the middle creates a visual contrast, and a unique taste. 5. In the middle, and the loose two next to the apple (must watch my plating before I take pictures!) is an Aged Gouda that was aged for 1,000 days. This is a very unique flavor as well, it has crunchy bits in it and it's very hard, but yet again very tasty. Go Cheese!!!

Ginger

I had big plans for some ginger. I was going to make this cool salad with spinach, carrots, pimentos, candied ginger, and a creamy lemon squash dressing. I made the candied ginger a few days before. you start by skinning, works best with a tablespoon, slice thinly. Then you need a non-reactive pot, like glass or stainless steel, add the ginger and fill with water, bring to a boil for ten minutes. Now your going to repeat this step, this time when its done boiling for 10 minutes you then add, 4 cups of sugar, and a pinch of salt. Turn the heat off and let it sit for at least two hours, I then strained all the juices into a bottle and then I sliced the ginger up julienne style and tossed it in a bunch of sugar in the raw. It was pretty tasty, and the simple syrup, I took that to work and we made a ginger mandarin martini with a little bit of Cantone, and ginger Manhattan, they were really good with some Pitch Pizza. Lets not talk about the salad. Have a drink instead. Thanks.

Tarragon.

Its actually part of the wormwood family, which is the hallucinogenic ingredient in Absinthe. Both delicious. I made a Lemon-Pepper and Tarragon pasta, with zucchini, squash, carrots, tomatoes, just in some olive oil. Boil your pasta. Then I sauteed the zucchini, squash and carrots in olive oil and lots of fresh cracked pepper and a few whole peppercorns, some fresh lemon zest and some tarragon, I used dried spices but I'm sure fresh ones would be much better. Oh! the carrots, they are great cooked in pasta dishes, they add a well balanced natural sweetness to your dish, and they're colorful. Then you add pasta, some more olive oil, and fresh tomatoes. The tomatoes add another great bright, sweet flavor. I made some Garlic Ciabatta bread, and a spinach salad (I miss my garden, bag spinach tastes like dirt.) Little bit of wine, Jilli's white was much better with this. A really flavorful, light, happy lunch. Thanks again!!

Presents.

For valentines day Jillian bought me a really sweet Nakiri Bocho knife! It's pretty awesome, it's sharp and heavy and shiny and it will cut many vegetables in its lifetime!

Vegetable Curry.

Ok so I decided to post the vegetable curry anyways for educational purposes. I used the Botan Calrose rice again cause its delicious, and hillary brought me back some spices from a market in London. One was "rice spice" it basically made it taste like rice pilaf without the almonds. Then I started the veggies, first heat up some olive oil, probably a lot less than I did. Curry is a side dish and a sauce its a compliment to your main, rice or meat or whatever, so by using to much oil it made my sauce separate and not be creamy. Fail. But anyways you cook the veggies to your liking and then I added curry paste that hillary uses and this english curry powder that she brought back from L-town. You wanna break it up and and mike it really good. This is the magic, while stirring pour about half a cup of evaporated milk into the mixture and mix it up really well. It turns a really great yellow color that was kind of unexpected for the color of the paste and spices. Pour it over your rice and فويلا ! I also made some hummus that I got from the Mediterranean store on 84th and Blondo but I ruined that too, I put too much lemon in it. So you could try this or just ask Hillary.

Can I have a free 'naner???

So Good!!!!

We made veggie curry the other day. I'm not very good at it yet, its too oily. So i haven't decided if I'm gonna post it. But the dessert I made afterwards was amazing. I put a spoonful of peanut butter and a couple of drops of some vanilla extract in the middle of the plate. A scoop of ice cream (chocolate chip to be exact.) Then I made some tempura batter and put a little bit of vanilla, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in the batter. I then chopped a banana that was getting a little past its time, coated it in flour and the tempura. Fried them up. I put a few drops of honey and powdered sugar for a garnish. This seriously took me like 3 minutes to make and we all devoured it even though we were all full!!! Fried bananas will be a new staple in dessert someday! Thanks again everybody.

CucBerry Cous Cous.

This is an archive from the summer. When there was sun, and warmth, and fresh fruit and veggies, and fresh seafood. But besides the point. This was probably to date my favorite meal so far. I made a cup of tomato flavored cous cous (CC) and a cup of spinach flavored CC. Sauteed some Veggies I had in the garden last summer, some zucchini, spinach, and peppers. In the mean time I washed some black berries and cut the cucumber into little cubes. and put a light coating of sugar, let them freeze for 15 minutes take them out, shake them in some more sugar, freeze for like 5 more minutes and coat them with sugar one more time. Also in the meantime I grilled some fresh salmon filets that I got from my parents house. Mix the veggies and the CC, top it with a piece of the grilled salmon. Then again in smokin' hot olive oil toss the blackberries and the cucumbers oil and when they start to caramelize and get crispy a little just pour the surgery oil and fruit and veggie mix over the top. So insanely delicious I really encourage anybody to try and make this. You will love it!! Thanks again. DoniDNGR!

MeatFest!!! Part II

With the left over pork loin that we had the other night I sliced it up and made a little marinade with it. It was the ultimate fridge and condiment left over sauce, there was a little bit of BBQ sauce, a little bit of that schezwan sauce (I think i might be addicted,) some dijon, honey, soy sauce, ketchup (to make Jillian jealous, she addicted,) sugar, choice spices, a left over jalepeno, a carrot, half a yellow bell pepper, some garlic, and a little bit of olive oil!! That is a modge-podge of stuff! I mixed it up, covered it up really tightly and put it in the fridge to await Hillarys arrival. Jillian bought this fake-meat, pulled pork BBQ, so Jilli had FakeMeatFest!!! I tried it, it was really soft but kinda firm like imitation, and it was really sweet. Basically it sucked and she didn't even eat it. I heated everything up on the stove, and made some home made french fries. I got some take and bake ciabatta bread from HyVee and put it on those, they're really good. And then with the left over cabbage from the chinese food, I made some olive oil smokin' hot, a little salt, throw them around so their a little crispy (I wish I had a Wok.) But nonetheless it was a tasty sandwich.

MeatFest!!!

Hillary's mom took her grocery shopping and she got a pork loin mmmm.. except it had some hormel marinade that was onion garlic and it was pretty strong. We had MeatFest nonetheless. I made some asparagus, zucchini, and broccoli that turned out amazing. I just sauteed them in a little bit of super hot oil, with salt n pepper until they were crispy on the edges. And I made some Rosemary Mashed Potatoes with some yukon gold potatoes. Ciabatta crispy guy and a zorba roll crispy guy(I don't know, they looked good at HyVee. They are.) Ice Cold Butwiper. Good ol' fashioned home cookin'. DNGR!

P.S. MeatFest Part II in the fridge..........

It ain't easy bein' cheesy.

At Pitch everyones favorite special is the comte mac and cheese, Comte is a hard cheese with a nutty and sweet flavor. Jillian loves it. So I made my own fancy-mac. Any noodle with any kind of pocket of such is the best for mac-n-cheese for maximum cheesiness, I used spirals. After the noodles are done, strain the remaining water and put them back in the pot. Add about a cup of milk a few Tbsp. of butter and as much cheese as you would like. Process cheeses works the best when you need to melt them down. I used half a block of Velveta, some habanero process cheese, and a bunch of smoked gouda. The creamy, spicy, smokiness was awesome. A few choice spices. Viola!

Another thing Jillian loves, Fried pickles. When ever we go eat at a bar if they have fried pickles, we must get them. Jimi D's has great fried pickles. I used the same Tempura batter that I fried the fish in. We just got a jar of Vlasic pickles, they kinda sucked, I'm sure you could find some better brand pickles to make these even more delicious. An important part of making anything taste great is seasoning every step of the way. Salt n pepper in the flour. Spices in the batter. Quality oil to fry it in. You'll have a more well rounded bite. So you dust the pickles with some flour, dip them in the batter, and fry them until golden brown. For the dipping sauce I made a chipotle aioli kinda like Jimi D's, if you had it. Aioli is just a mayonnaise based sauce. So, a little Mayo, some chipotle flavored tobassco, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and a few other spicy seasonings. Oh yeah and I threw in a little bit of the schezwan sauce from the chinese food to give it a little bite. Another successful meal. Thanks for checkin it out!! DNGR!