cleanse time again

No butter for the butter lady?!? What? No coffee, dairy, red meat, pork, booze, cigarettes, hookers? I know it sounds crazy but I do this twice a year for two weeks just to rid my body of my own toxic life style.  I figured new year, new city, new job, new show in February, sounds like a good time to get a fresh start.  It can be delicious at time.  I just made salads for my roommate Diba and I.  Arugula and mixed greens with olive oil and garlic seared chicken, flax seeds, and balsamic vinegar.  Simple and delicious.  With the future fast approaching (always) I am determined to learn moderation, while it may not be a daily practice for me it should be something I am capable of.   I will try to find a delicious detox/cleanse recipe to post for you (the seven readers of my blog).  I also promise not to blog about the colon cleansing process details for you.

Also come see the show February 13 at Chez Bushwick.  It is going to blow your mind!

Lets see if I can give you some recipes.

I started the preparations for my New Years dinner at around 2:30am. I started the pork roast around 3:00am and made hummus until about 6:00am. Started back up around 1:30pm, serving dinner around 7:30pm. Libations included lots of Prosecco, beer, and Jameson. I will try be as clear as I can be in my recipes, but remember, I never use timers or measuring devices, and don't plan on starting anytime soon. Common sense is your best friend when cooking.

Roasted red pepper hummus:

Photo cred shout out goes to: Ashley Mathus

1. Roasted red pepper
1 12oz can chickpeas
3 heaping table spoons tahini
Juice of 1 lemon
3 cloves garlic - chopped
dash cayanne pepper
dash kosher salt
few cranks black pepper


1. Drain Chickpeas except for a few table spoons of liquid which you will use to thin the hummus.
2. Put in blender or food processor with rest of ingredients.
3. Blend on high until smooth.

Garnish with olive oil or chili oil.  You can roast the red peppers yourself in the oven by halving them, brushing then with olive oil and cooking them at 450 for about 20 minutes.  Warning: If your oven is dirty (as mine always is) your kitchen will get smokey, as mine did, at 5:30 in the morning.



All Night Pork and Sauerkraut:

5.5 lb de-boned pork shoulder
one large package sauerkraut
16oz Newcastle or any good brown ale
ground coriander
brown sugar
paprika
jane's krazy mixed up salt
kosher salt
black pepper
whole grain mustard
flour
butter

1. Rub pork with flour, several generous shakes of paprika, several generous shakes of coriander, Kosher salt, jane's k.m.u.s., and black pepper.
2. Brown pork on all sides in a skillet with about a tbsp butter
3. Put Sauerkraut in bottom of crock pot, juices included
4. Sprinkle brown sugar and a generous amount of all seasoning
5. Lay pork on sauerkraut fat side up
6. Rub with whole grain mustard
7. Pour beer over the pork
8. Put lid on and cook on high for about an hour. Turn down to low and leave for at least ten hours

This recipe is great for left overs. Pork and sauerkraut sandwiches are so delish!


Roasted New Years Day Get Rich Stew:

Southerners say that eating black eyed peas on new years day brings wealth.  Never hurts to try.


24 oz dried black eyed peas
1.25 lb spicy Italian Sausage (I used turkey because Nicole doesn't eat pork)
1 large yellow onion
4-5 sweet potatoes
8 cups chicken stock (homemade is best or low sodium chicken broth works too)
1 large yellow pepper
1 large roasted red pepper
Paprika
Onion powder
Jane's k.m.u.s
Black pepper

1. Rinse black eyed peas and put in giant pot with enough water to cover them bring to a boil
2. Peel and cube sweet potatoes
3. Check if peas need more water, sometimes they absorb it really fast, make sure they don't dry out
4. Add sweet potatoes and 1/2 chicken stock
5. Cut sausage into chunks brown in cast iron skillet
6. Add to soup
7. Juliane onion add to skillet that sausage was just cooked in sautee until browned. add to soup.

8. Add julianed yellow pepper to skillet sautee til browned. add to soup
9. Chop garlic, sautee til brown. add to soup
10. Add rest of chicken stock
11. Add roasted red pepper and a generous amount of all seasonings
12. Let simmer for at least and hour; several makes it richer (pun intended)

Hipster Chicken 

1 4lb whole chicken
1 can PBR (or other canned beer)
butter
paprika
kosher salt
black pepper
jane's k.m.u.s.

1. Brine chicken for at least an hour in fridge.  disolve half cup kosher salt in water and submerge chicken. Kosher chicken is already brined, so if you have a kosher bird skip this step
2. When done brining rinse chicken in cold water and pat dry with paper towel
3. Shove a few pad of butter under the skin, this will make your chicken so moist it melts
4. Drink half your beer
5. Set beer upright, spread those chicken legs, and ease the chicken onto the can
6. Put in roasting pan
7. Add water to the bottom of pan, I also usually and an onion or garlic for aromatics.
8. Rub bird with paprika, salt, pepper, janes k.m.u.s.
9. Put in the oven at 450 for about 10-15 minutes
10. Baste and turn oven down to 350 for an hour or an hour and a half basting regularly.

great things are never easy, but sometimes funny

So I decided the best way to celebrate the new year would be a feast with some great friends and some traditional "good luck" dishes. I love a good reason to cook a large meal and invite people over and celebrate hedonism together. That, and since I had to work on New Years Eve I wanted a  reason to party. I decided this a few days before NYE, and realized the only time I would have to shop would be before I went to work on NYE day.  Don't worry, hilarity will ensue (or at least it would have if you had been following me around with a camera during the shopping trip). I decided the night before what I was going to make, and wrote a list of necessary ingredients to get in Williamsburg the next day. I sleep a little later than I intended to on NYE - and then I don't know something happened. I tried to figure out where I was going to get a pork shoulder while chugging a cup of coffee.  Found some place that looked good off the Lorimer stop on the L train, figured I would be able to walk around and find the rest of the groceries I needed. Good thing I didnt write down the address of the place I was looking for, and couldn't remember the location.   I found a natural food store and decided to start there. I got about half the items I needed there, figured that I would happen across a butcher at somepoint. Nope.  I must have walked in fifteen different concentric circles when eventually the bags started to weigh me down, leading to settling on some grocery store that looked pretty big, gracious and fresh and mentioned something about carrying natural foods. It's pretty much a typical Brooklyn grocery store, vaguely hispanic but holding a few more natural and organic products. Cool, I get the rest of the shit I needed home, including a 5.5 lb deboned pork shoulder (my neighboorhood only had bone in and I refused to ever try that again without a deboning knife). Ok, I think I can handle carrying these groceries, but I had forgotten how far I walked from the train. "Naw man!" I tell myself, "Every day is a work out!" I slugged back to the train, took a small break and tried to get myself together. Figured there had to have been a place that sold those old lady grocery cart things around. Still ambling, I found a hardware store and the lady said she has them, however, none happened to be assembled. My new BFF then tells me that it is easy to assemble a cart made of plastic and poles, and, desperate at this point, I buy it (massively overpriced I might add). I start trying to put it together in the store, and it happened to be as easy as putting together a piece of Ikea furniture, which I am a miserable failure at. Getting more pissed off by the minute, I'm about to tell the nice clerk to "take this fucking piece of shit back and give me back my money.  I will take a cab" Here enters the very nice employee, trodding over to my pile of bags and offers to put it together for me. He does it in about five minutes flat.  Thanking him, I head out the door to the Sicilian Bakery.

I get to the train and carry my heavy-ass cart down the two flights of stairs and try to fit my cart through the metrocard entry. That was an embarrassing failure, as I almost got myself stuck between, in and around the revolving bars. Realizing that there is no attendant existent to open the gate for me, it hits me that I will have to sludge to the other subway enterance.  Aggressively grabbing my heavy, awkwardly shaped, mediocrely crafted, expenisve cart back up two flights of stairs, down two blocks, down two more flights of stairs, I get to the bottom of the platform and the attendee tries to tell me he doesn't let people through the gate to go upstairs and cross the street. I almost cry and he must feel bad for me because he gets up and goes through the exhausting process of unlocking the door with his keys instead of staying in his glass office and pushing a button. I am kidding. I appreciate this guy not making me carry the cart back up and down. I only have one more flight down and three flights up when I get back to my stop. Awesome! Why do these carts exist? They dont float up and down stairs. They don't carry themselves. They only work well when if where you are going is in walking distance, and if that was the case, I would've been able to carry it by myself. I guess that is why you only see old ladies and fat people with them. A co-worker of mine once said her life was "like a slow motion epiode of Benny Hill." Never has that line applied to my life as much as it did today, and that shit would have been even more hilarious if I could have sped it up for you, and you and you.

Welcome to the future

Holy Crap! Its 2010!!!! I am excited to be living in the future even if I don't have a wristwatch that doubles as a phone, a robot that follows me around and cleans up after me, or health insurance. I do have a cell phone that tells time, a gay best friend who sometimes follows me around and cleans up after me, and a hope to get on medicaid in New York state. I also have big plans to make all of my dreams come true in the next decade. That being said I know a few people liked and followed this blog, and it is a good way to encourage more cooking in 2010, and the production of my direct to internet television program "Get Stuffed with Mary Jo". So here we go into the future together.

finally!

Grocery co-op to open in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood

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using up stuff in the cabinets

I wanted to have Stephanie and Laura over for dinner, but my funds were low. So I looked though my cabinets and realized that there sure was a lot of random food in there and all I needed was a few ingredients and I got myself a nice ol' casserole that is sure to feed 4. I had some whole wheat veggie Armoniche ( crinkly cylindrical spiral pasta) that I never used because Demetrius is not a fan of whole wheat pasta, some cream of celery soup that Jill got for me to eat after I had my wisdom teeth out ( but cream soups on there own i find kind of gross), frozen peas, and a lot of leftover swiss cheese from a weight calculation snafu at the grocery store (the true catalyst for the dinner), a pretty solid base for an awesome casserole. We just went down the street to the local grocery store to grab a few supplemental ingredients. I got some chicken breast and some prosciutto for protein, and some fresh leaks for flavor. Putting everything together proved to be pretty quick and easy. I sliced then marinated the chicken in some garlic, white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, herbs de Provence, and a few other spices for a couple of hours just to keep the dish flavorful, I then sauteed the chicken in olive oil adding the sliced leeks. Once the chicken was browned I added the pasta, about two and half cups of swiss cheese, one can of cream of celery, cooked peas, and the prosciutto. Stirred it until the soup was warm and threw it in an oven safe dish covered it with layer of shredded swiss on top and baked it at 350 for about 30 minutes. The casserole came out lighter than I expected which was nice. The peas played off the proscuitto perfectly and the leek complimented the flavor nicely without overpowering. The only thing I would change is the pasta. I just found the whole wheat too mealy after baked. Maybe even a risotto would work. There is always next time.

did you know that gluttony is the gateway sin?

I learned this and many other fun facts at Ina and Jacob's Easter potluck brunch. I never realized my friends were all so creative in the kitchen. Every type of baked egg dish from strada's to quiches were well represented along with delicious pasteries and desserts. Ina was also stationed at the blender for a good part of the afternoon whipping up batches of her mother's peach mimosa's which were sweet and bubbly. I made an onion casserole, which is my grandmothers recipe. It is made from butter, onion, swiss cheese, cream, egg and ritz crackers, a yummy heart attack in a pan. I am going to ask for the rights (from my dad) to the recipe before I post it, it might be a secret Bono family thing. One thing that I am definitely stealing from this brunch is the amaretto strawberry shots. A really fun way to "do shots" without the unfortunate falling off the barstool, waking up with a headache, getting into fights with strangers type side effects. They only require light preparation and three ingredients: strawberries, amaretto and whipped cream. Just cut the top off of the strawberry and hollow out a small hole for the amaretto, top with whipped cream and enjoy.

i will never stop being a groupie

I have realized this now because this week has been filled with chances for my inner groupie to shine. Most times it was related to dance because Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has been in town and one of my best friends from high school has been dancing with them for the past 5 years, but...
My inner foodie came out on Friday night when I took my sister to Graham Elliot for her birthday dinner. It was only slightly selfish seeing as I have been dying to try GE since I read about Cheez-it Risotto. There is no way that is not delicious. We had a fantastic meal with great service all around. Our waitress was knowledgeable and not overbearing in anyway. We started with some cocktails while we decided on our dinner. Morgan started with the split pea bisque with a lavender marshmallow and I decided to try the crab risotto with spring onion, mascarpone cheese and fried basil. Morgan's bisque was great, the marshmallow gave it a great texture and the subtle lavender was refreshing. My risotto was really nice, I always love basil and mascarpone together, and the risotto was much lighter than I was expecting. We moved on to a bottle of Raptor Ridge Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley Oregon to go with our main courses. Morgan had the Colorado lamb, and I had the crispy sea bass. The pinot was fantastic, bright fruits and just enough acid to cut through Morgan's lamb. The lamb was served grilled on a bed of refried chickpeas with fava beans, dandelion greens and a pomegranate yogurt. My bass had fried pancetta, fidelhead ferns, braised artichoke and and orange puree. Super fresh and light and I always love fidelhead ferns. For desert we went with the deconstructed strawberry shortcake and the floral sorbet quartet (chamomile, jasmine, rose and hibiscus). The sorbet was AMAZING. I am still dreaming about the rose and Morg loved the chamomile.
The best part about the whole night was when my camera batteries died, for real. Our lovely waitress (whose name I either never got or the wine buzz erased ) sent someone over who offered to take our picture and give us a tour of the kitchen! It was crazy to have something like that happen completely unsolicited. It was exciting for me to see the inside of his kitchen, having worked in so many different styles of restaurant I like to compare and contrast. This kitchen reminded me of a combination of Barcelona restaurant in Columbus and L20. It was meticulous like Laurent Gras' kitchen, but there seemed to be more of a laid back kind of vibe. It was also cool that Graham Elliot introduced himself to us and asked how everything was and joked around for a bit. It is refreshing to see such a talented chef not taking himself too seriously. I wish I could afford to eat there more often, but it will be my go to special occasion spot from now on, I am definitely a Graham Elliot groupie.

sometimes obvious is delicious

Yesterday, being the first day off after a series of gut wrenching doubles, I laid in bed and drank coffee and read while Demetrius made me a delicious brunch. An hour or so after he got back from the bodega, I set down my book (naked - david sedaris) and ventured into the kitchen to see what was going on. I walk in and my heart sunk and my hungry stomach growled. Demetrius had gone overboard, he was marinating the bacon, using english muffins to make french toast, squeezing blood oranges for god knows what! See the thing is, I have never had marinated bacon, smoked is about as fancy as bacon can get, and english muffin french toast, that seems like a whole lot of pretentious europe and it seems that if it were good it would be as common to see on menus as brioche or challah.
Well I could not have been more wrong.
He marinated the bacon in red wine and herbs, which just tamed the salty over load that bacon can sometimes be. The french toast was fantastic, flavored with bourbon vanilla, nutmeg and blood orange topped with REAL MAPLE SYRUP (there is no substitution, imitation syrup is absolutely disgusting). Luckily I had a bottle of Rosé Prosecco in the fridge so we had some yummy mimosas as well. All in all I win, I ate a great meal and I did not have to lie to Demetrius about liking it.

Margaritas

Okay so we re-did fish taco night to try to make it better. My tacos came out basically the same, but Demetrius made a delicious mango beef fajita thing that came out awesome (but slightly overcooked). The real thing that I was trying to perfect was my margaritas. I followed the recipe for lemon sour that we use at my restaurant ( 2 parts lime juice to 1 part simple syrup and 1 part water). I bought 5 pounds of limes at Stanley's and still only came out with about a pitcher! Yikes, with the way my friends drink next time I am going to be juicing limes until my arm falls off. Honestly drinking margaritas while sitting on a patio is the best way to do it, but most of those places do not use their own mixes and I end up with a sour mix stomach ache. I have heard that Salud tequila bar has a really good margarita so I am going to have to check that out, and keep looking around town (luckily i have many kind friends who are willing to go on these research trips with me).

fish tacos (stop giggling)

Last Sunday I woke up to a beautiful and warm spring like day, so obviously I was dreaming of tequila. As is a custom in my kitchen I planned the meal around the libations, and fish tacos and fresh margaritas sounded like the perfect combination. Luckily I had no idea how to make either of these and decided to be completely stubborn and not look either up on the internet. I mean don't get me wrong, I can make a mean margarita, but in terms of making fresh sour I was clueless and don't even own a hand juicer (luckily i do own a boyfriend with strong hands). Regardless we made do and I bought orange peach mango juice to add to the mix. I didn't use grand marnier in the margaritas because I figured the juice would be enough (and i was being cheap) . Surprisingly the margaritas were not the best part of the night, the fish tacos came out pretty good.
I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew that I wanted a lot of bright veggies and fresh flavors. I bought green, red, yellow and orange bell peppers, red onion, and some frozen organic sweet corn. I also got about 2lbs of dover sole filets frozen from Trader Joes. I defrosted this and then marinated it in fresh oranges, white wine, a few dashes of cholula hot sauce, salt, pepper and a few other random spices.
I (laura) diced the bell peppers and red onion, and I boiled the corn to al dente and sauteed it all together for about ten minutes. I served it over corn tortillas with rice and black beans and a whole lot of condiments (white cheddar, guacamole, fresh salsa, sour cream, limes).
The meal itself was pretty easy to make, but depending on how much you do from scratch can be time consuming. My friend john is the sous chef at an upscale taqueria and he has promised to teach me how to make a variety of salsas and guacamoles from scratch.
I am making another version of this dinner tomorrow night for more people (last time there were only 8 or 9 of us who ate) and I am going to focus on making some really badass margaritas.

come on spring just get here already

The few warm days last week really spoiled me. I got excited for spring and summer in logan square. I love my 'hood, but in the winter I forget how much I enjoy just about anything other than my bed (my mom got me one of those memory foam thing - awesome!).
Friday Demetrius and I celebrated the ability to walk down the street in spring jackets by having lunch at Lula Cafe before I had to go in to work. I had one of the best sandwiches of my life, and that's saying a lot because I love sandwiches. It was braised beef shortrib with gréyure, tomato remoulade, arugula and a fried egg! It was served on a mini baguette with roasted redskin potatoes and a small mixed green salad. The sandwich was just about perfect, melty braised beef shortribs against the crusty bread. The only thing that I would have changed was the egg was fried overhard, to me a perfect fried egg is over medium, so that some of the drippy yolk can cover the sandwich. I got really accustomed to adding an egg to hamburgers or steak when I was in Europe, and I have never looked back. The sandwich was so filling that we probably should not have split a half order of the special french toast for dessert, but it just sounded soooo good. Brioche toast stuffed with rhubarb covered in a pistachio cremá - HEAVENLY! I have no regrets, even if I did feel like I was going to vomit for the first hour of work - totally worth it.

Other "springtime forays" included Polish Dinner hosted by Laura's polish cousins who were in town visiting. Yummy sausage and sauerkraut with choice of mustards. The only thing that made this spring like is that I was able to walk there and back in relative comfort. Danny and I also made a fun night out of going to the whirlaway lounge for drinks served to us by logan square's communal grandmother, and La Puebla for 24 hour mexican food served in a restaurant designed by the Golden Girls. Now all I need is for the trees along Kedzie to start blooming and I will be happy as a clam.

corporate picnics in winter

Okay so there was no picnic, seeing as it is winter, and it wasn't corporate as it was my kitchen in logan square but the menu certainly screamed "have you tried deb's famous potato salad?". I needed to have a brainstorm sesh with my farceytail productions partner stacey, and decided it was a great reason to bake up that whole chicken that was sitting in our freezer. Of course having two days off in a row, and spending the morning hung over in my apartment, I felt the need to turn this into a giant to-do. The menu was baked bbq chicken, macaroni salad, mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli and corn bread. A random summertime meal in midwinter. Nothing about the dinner was exceptional, except the chicken.
I decided to try baking some of the chicken with bacon wrapped around it. I always think that bacon will ruin a meal (which makes no sense salt and fat are my two favorite flavors), so I was not brave enough to try it on all. As usual I was wrong, I should have double wrapped everyone of those bitches! Bacon wrapped meat is always delicious, and bacon on burgers with bbq sauce is awesome, why wouldn't bacon barbequed chicken be fanfrickentastic? It was, and it was really easy to make.

Dredge chicken in seasoned flour ( salt and pepper for sure, I also used paprika, cayenne and some other random spices)
Wrap in raw bacon
Place in buttered pan
Cover in foil and bake at 400 for 45 minutes
Smother in favorite bbq sauce
Bake uncovered for another 20 minutes

My friend danny brought over a case of PBR and I think that it was a perfect pairing, but any light hoppy beer would go well.

chicken sausage is not turkey bacon

This morning I woke up slightly regretting the bourbon and belgian style beer combination from last night. I knew the headache would only go away if I ate a good meal (which if i had done last night i would not be feeling like this in the morning). I decided to make my favorite breakfast sandwich of late; chicken apple sausage, egg and swiss.
I have always been a big fan of chicken sausage- it is versatile, tasty, and good for you. The thing about chicken sausage is that it is not a substitute for pork sausage, it is its own entity. Once you embrace chicken sausage's independence you can truly love it.

This sandwich is easy to make and delicious. I use whole wheat bagels, but whatever breakfast sandwich bread you like best should work. I cut the chicken sausage (i use the trader joe's apple chardonnay ones) in both length wise and...umm...gurth wise? And pan seared them in butter for about 5 -7 minutes. Meanwhile cook the eggs whatever style you like in a sandwich (i like over medium, but demetrius won't eat eggs unless they are scrambled) Toast the bottom half of your sandwich bread and top with sausage, egg and swiss cheese. Put in toaster oven (or regular oven) for about 5 minutes or until cheese melts. Toast the top bread, I usually add horseradish mustard and mayonnaise, garnish with mixed greens. I paired this meal with tropical flavored emergen-c and a cup of coffee (i didn't have the fixins for a bloody mary).

Another favorite breakfast using chicken sausage is a basic egg scramble with spinach and feta sausage and some sharp cheddar cheese. Super easy and tasty.

soapbox please

ok so, i am not going to use this blog as a cathartic platform for me to complain about annoying customers. So i am just going to put out my blanket "things you should know if you are planning on eating out in a restaurant" now and get it out of my system.

1. 20% is the standard tip for good service. None of this 15% crap. I know that that was the standard but times have changed, and a 15% tip makes me ask "what did I do wrong". The reason for the increase is necessary because not only do servers make well under minimum wage, but also we have to tip out so many people, bartenders, hosts, food runners, busboys, party planners, ect.

2. Food taking a long time is usually not the servers fault, so please don't take it out on them. Same goes for drinks from the bar.

3. Trying to talk to your server while talking on your cell phone is absolutely uncalled for.

4. A note to all large parties. Patience. Seriously. You are a big group and everything is going to take a little longer. Please don't all shout at once, and please don' give attitude about your twenty specialty cocktails taking ten minutes to get to the table. There is nothing that anyone can do. Also when you see that 18% gratuity added ask yourself, is that really enough? Remember that added gratuity is taken before the tax and that usually if you are a large party two servers were taken off the floor to service your group. If you liked your servers and nothing catastrophic happened you would only be helping your karma to leave a little extra to say "thank you for dealing with us and cleaning up our mess".

5. A restaurant is not your living room. Please don't sit at a table for 6 hours on a busy Saturday night, you are literally taking money out of your servers pocket. And do not think that because you tipped 20% that it is ok. If you spend a couple of hundred dollars then sure camp out and let me bring you more wine, but it you and your friends want to sit at my table and have me refill your waters please go somewhere else. I know it is unfair, but think about it from the servers prospective, we are all just trying to get by.

6. Reservations are not a perfect system. People show up for their reservations late and then act like the people described in #5. Be patient on the weekends.

7. Restaurants being out of things is sometimes a good thing. It means that they dont over order and let food sit, they probably get fresh items in more often, or that they get more highly allocated ingredients.

8. Please stop drinking diet coke, or at least dont act like a crack fiend if your glass is empty for more than twenty seconds.

9. Free bread is not a guarantee, please dont demand it.

10. When the host brings you to a table, please dont ask to move, there are reasons they brought you there, server rotations, reservation spread ect...

11. Most servers aren't uneducated morons, so please dont speak down to them or assume that you are better in anyway.

A good server will never let you know if you are breaking the unknown rules, or being an asshole, so please try to keep yourself in check.

toot toot

That is the sound of me tooting my own horn, which is what I am going to do in this post.

So two of my friends turned 25 this past week, which was cause for celebration and a great dinner. Well none of us really have the money to go out and celebrate the way we normally would, so I decided that I would cook dinner at my house so that we could all eat and drink and have lots of fun and not break the bank. In all the dinner that served five including wine cost a little over $60 in raw materials. It sounds expensive, but that is just $12 a person and well worth it. The dinner turned out was better than I expected so I am going to post the menu and a quick guideline for how to throw it together.

The menu was an asain style surf and turf. Pan seared New England scallops served on a bed of sesame bok choy with a ginger carrot orange reduction, served alongside a sesame horseradish marinated filet Mignon on a bed or garlic redskin mashed potatoes topped with steamed asparagus.

Ok so if you are big into following recipes you probably won't be able to follow this because I do not measure or time anything exactly-and I tend to ramble.

I started out by defrosting the scallops in a bath of cold water. This can take a few hours. I also marinated the steaks for a couple of hours in red wine, fresh horseradish, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, sesame seeds, liquid aminos (soy sauce works as well) and black pepper. While waiting I started the Ginger carrot reduction. I used about a cup and a half of carrot orange juice, a cup of white wine and a small ginger root. Just grate the fresh ginger into the juice and wine and boil down until it has a thick consistency, it took about an hour and a half this time. Meanwhile my friend laura (if i cook you dinner, you can expect to chop vegetables, i hate chopping vegetables) washed and cut the potatoes. Boiled them down til the were ready for mashing. I made the whole bag because laura went a little nuts on the cutting, but leftover mashies are always useful. Mashed them up using a little over a stick of butter, half and half, splash of milk, a tablespoonish of chopped garlic, kosher salt and black pepper. Just keep sticking your finger in and tasting til you get the mashed potato flavor balance to your liking. I then broiled the filets following the time guidelines on the package- it came out a little well done for my liking, but my guests seemed ok with them. I would say check them at ten minutes. Before broiling I poured some of the marinade over the steaks and into the broiling pan. I then coated them in sea salt and sesame seeds. I soaked the scallops in milk, salt, and pepper for about 30 minutes after they defrosted to take some of the "fishy" out. This step is optional. I coated them lightly in flour and pan seared them in butter about 3 minutes on each side. The bok choy only takes a few minutes, saute it in vegetable oil for a minute, add a few tablespoons of water and cover for about two. Toss with a dash sesame oil and sea salt. Serve the scallops on top of the bok choy with the ginger reduction on top of the scallops.

I don't know if anyone will go out and try to make this, but it was pretty easy and came out all fancy tasting. I paired it with a bottle of "The Stump Jump" which is a Shiraz, Grenache, Mouvedre blend from D'Arenberg wineries in McLaren Vale, Australia.

casserole the restaurant

Casseroles are delicious, and a great vehicle for hiding ungodly amounts of butter. Mmmmm. Everyone loves casseroles and rightly so. I have heard of casserole clubs, basically weekly casserole potlucks, which sound awesome, but I want to take it one step further. I want to open Casserole the Restaurant. The theme is apparent, but it could be really fun and creative. With the right chef and a constantly changing menu, mom's lazy dinner can be turned into delicious fair. Certain staples would have to remain, green been casserole, Bruce Bono's famous onion casserole with a Ritz cracker crust, Nana's homemade mac and cheese, but the entreé casseroles could be changing with the seasons. My concept is that there would be entreé casseroles, side casseroles and dessert casseroles all with a whole lotta butter. I mean sure it would have a niché market but I sure would love eating there. I looked on Google to see if anything like this already exists, there is a restaurant in Montreal called Le Casserole, but thats all the way in French Canada, we need one here.

so i hate people who try to get things for free, but...

Okay as a server my biggest pet peeve is when people ask to have things comped off of their bill, but if something goes wrong, and they don't act like a jackass about it, I make sure that they get taken care of. Whether I send the manager over to smooth things over, and send them a drink or dessert just so that they don't leave mad.
I won't mention the name of the restaurant because I have had many great meals there, I am hoping that this was an isolated incident. I brought a group of six in for brunch on a sunday morning because it is a relatively new place and not everyone knows how awesome their brunch is yet. This was already a weird morning because I didn't recognize anyone working and didn't see the owner there. I go there a lot and know a couple of the servers, the owner usually sends out dessert just because I am always there. We are just getting coffees served when the server spills hot coffee all over three of us at the table, and I mean all over, my jeans were soaked, my sweater was soaked, my friends winter coat covered in cream. We moved tables and the server seemed embarrassed and no one was going to be rude about it- at this point I am covered in coffee - what could be done. We all joked at the table about the times we spilled on tables and how embarrassing it was and blah blah blah. After we move tables the service from this guy just keeps getting worse. I don't know if he figured he had already lost our tip or what, but when the bill came the coffee was the only thing taken off. I was shocked. I mean did they want me to scream at them about how he burnt my crotch, or how I had to sit through brunch in a white t-shirt with no bra underneath? I didn't really want to get anything for free, but the manager wasn't even sent over to check in. It was all just really weird, and I guess it put me in the angry patrons shoes for the first time in my life.


UPDATE: I found out from a friend that works there that our server was fired that week, nothing to do with out table, so at least I know that I was not overreacting.

making the most out of the recession/ why i love trader joes.

So no one has money right now, which means people aren't going out to eat as much, which means as a server I make less money and therefore go out less. It is a bad cycle considering over the summer I must have gone out to eat at least five times a week, it begs the question "if I'm not going out to eat who is?". Luckily recession brings out the boozers in all of us, so bars and restaurants will survive (and hopefully Oprah won't make anymore comments about tipping 10% either so servers can survive as well).
As much as I love going out every night I have been embracing this economic meltdown to spend some more quality time at Trader Joe's. I am not just saying this because I would love to work there, I would love to work there because everything there makes me happy all over. I was and am still all about Whole Foods for a lot of the same reasons I love Trader Joe's ( focus on local and organic products, socially responsible companies, and they treat their employees extremely well) but man I can no longer afford to step foot in there. Trader Joes has somehow perfected the art of affordable healthy natural food. The pre-made frozen food is really good, and keeps me from ordering take out on a lazy night. The fresh meat and produce selections may be limited, but the frozen selection of both are above average. The frozen New England Bay Scallops are awesome, and I am from Boston!
And the wine...
Don't get me started. The days of "Two Buck Chuck" are far behind me, but there are really drinkable wines starting at $3.99. You wont have to pay over 8 bucks for a bottle of Yellow Tail ever again. I will say of what I have tried I would stick to Italy, Spain, Australia, and South America if you are looking for wine for under $10. As I sit here I am drinking a glass of the "La Boca" Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina. $3.99 and delicious.
It may sound like I am writing an ad for Trader Joe's, but really I just love that place.

foodie does not need to be a pseudonym for douchebag

i know it seems like most "foodies" that you meet are kind of weirdo/nerdy/socially awkward elitists, but there is something to be said for eating really good food. that is what i am here for, to show you that foodie is just the new black.