Cheesy Breakfast!

Cheese Omelet
4 eggs, cheddar cheese-done!
Hash-browns;
4 cut potatoes, cheddar cheese-done!
Bacon;
done!
Toast, and two strawberries per plate!
Simple easy, ready to eat. 

Further instructions;
Whisk eggs in bowl, salt and pepper, pour in greased frying, flip, add cheese fold, add more cheese. Cut taters in small cubes, fry in pan, place in pan cover with cheese place in pre-heated oven. Fry bacon in pan until desired color, remove from pan. Take strawberries remove top, (fanning optional). Wha-la, happy girl (or boy) friend! Full belly, my job is done!

Good-bye Hellish Kitchen, Hello L.A.

Yesterday I packed up my knives for the last time, well not the last time but the last time in this kitchen! So my life is once again in flux, things are happening, and I have no clue what tomorrow will bring! I'm excited and nervous, but happy to be done with my job, in this tiny, tiny, one man kitchen. If you've never been a one man army, I recommend it! It's grueling to be cook, prep cook, dishwasher, and handy-man. I've done it many times before and will no doubt do it again! I slaved in this hole for ten months, now it's off to La-La Land for the next exciting chapter in my life! Don't know how much I'll be posting over here for the next two months but if you're interested in what the hell I'm doing down there check the links to the right, I'm sure I'll be posting something at one of my other blogs. Wish me luck!

Spicy Asian Fried Pork w/ Vegetables and Rice

I don't normally try Eastern dishes outside of work, there are my weak point. Yet on this day I had a craving for some of those tiny little pieces of corn (how to they get so tiny), water chestnuts, and spicy pork. So I ran up to the nearest grocers and picked up a few things.I didn't feel up to cutting a bunch of veggies and using only half of them, plus it would have cost three times more, so I just picked up a pack of pre-cut onions, red peppers, broccoli, and snap peas. It was called an Asian medley or something. 

I chose some boneless rib cutlets, marinated them in some chili garlic sauce (found on the Asian food isle of you local supermarket) after giving them a nice rub down with some Perfect Pinch, Savory All-Purpose seasoning. A little white wine, and Louisiana hot-sauce just because! And let that sit while I prepped the veggies.



I stir fried the vegetables with the remainder of Chili Garlic sauce, salt and pepper. I also put on my rice around this time. Adding nothing but salt, pepper and plenty of butter. That's the southern boy in me!

I cooked the meat in a separate pan at the same time. Making sure to toss it periodically so it didn't burn on one side.To know when their done just remove the fattest piece and slice it open. If it's white and not pink then it's done and if the biggest one is done then their all done. Providing that your pan heats up evenly! Which it should unless you're using an old gas burner that hasn't been properly cleaned in a while.

 

This is kind of a sloppy presentation but you get the idea. Mix your veggies and meat and dump it on top of the rice. Then mix it all together with your fork (or chop sticks) and chow down!

Old-School Spaghetti!

Speaking of simple yet, delicious here's an old favorite in any household; Spaghetti! Good old-fashion and easy to spice up with a few tweaks. Now when I was a kid my mother would throw this together with some ground beef and sauce out of the jar and we would love it. But as I got older I started to experiment with adding my own little flourishes. Nothing too outrageous, but I can say that I have a fabulous recipe for my own sauce that takes about ten hours to prepare. This is not it. I had received a few extra cans of peeled tomatoes by accident when I ordered groceries from Safeway, so I had to put them to good use. They will undoubtedly turn up in some future dishes if you monitor this blog. I added them here to about half a jar of Barilla Spicy Marinara, apple cider vinegar, a dash of cayenne, and of course salt and pepper. I mashed up the toms after letting them heat up for a bit, then placed the lid on the let her simmer, while my angel hair pasta boiled.

For the meat, I started off by sauteing a red onion, normally I'd throw in a green pepper, but I didn't have one so I just added in the meat and seasoned it with some basil and oregano for that authentic Italian flavor. A little minced garlic too (I almost forgot). As an added measure I poured a few shots of whiskey on, because I believe in cooking with booze. I've probably mentioned this before but I come from the Justin Wilson school of cooking ("A little wine for the turkey-a little for me! I guarantee!). Once the meat is thoroughly cooked I layer each component and serve. To keep with the traditional, old-school vibe, I made some red Kool-Aide much the way my grandma used to make; thick as syrup so thick it stains the glass.

I gotta get my camera fixed~!

Roasted Chicken w/ Garlic Potato Wedges

Okay, okay, so I'm horrible with updating this blog, but judging from my utter lack of comments I think it's safe to say that no one cares and this is solely a vanity project. I've been pretty busy lately but I'm going to try and write a few blogs at once, stagger their publication and hopefully that will sate my invisible audience. 

First up, we have Roasted Chicken with Garlic Potato Wedges! I don't have any pics of the process for this one so you're just going to have to take my word for it.  I slathered them both in tons of butter and garlic, a little rosemary on the chicken, some salt and pepper, a dash of lemon pepper on the chicken put them in some foil lined pans and popped them in the oven which I had pre-heated at about 350 then cranked up to 400. I put the wedges in first of course and I also poured a little red wind over the chicken so as not to dry it out. Then about 30 to 40 minutes later pulled them out and wah-la! I added sour cream to the taters for a little extra color. Simple yet delicious, a fancy time saver that would cost you about $35 bucks  in some snooty restaurant down town. Which (BTW) would have removed the skin and trimmed the yummy fat off the chicken leaving you with less flavor. I do believe in trimming some fat from meat, but that's mainly in the case of poor cuts, when you select the right piece of meat you are more likely to have no need to cut the fat. Despite what they say in magazines or the doctors office, some fat is good. It defiantly enhances the flavor of food and adds a natural oil when cooking. The absurd health-food craze that has overcome this nation in the last two decades has done almost as much to destroy good food as YELP! But that's another rant for another time. Toodles!~

Pineapple, Rum, Stuff Pork and Shrimp Jamborie!

I'm not sure what I want to call this dish. I'm thinking Shrimp and White Meat in honor of Tim & Eric. Perhaps I'll call it Pineapple & Rum Stuffed Pork Sirloin with Sauteed Shrimp in a  light Garlic Butter Sauce! Too descriptive? I'll think of something! Step One; I marinate the shrimp and pork along with the pineapple in some cheap rum my girlfriend brought with us to see that cheesy Topher Grace flick Take Me home tonight! I drank most of it but what little I had left over went into making this! I added some Louisiana hot sauce, minced garlic, white wine vinegar (although I would have used Apple Cider if I had any), a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper (exact measurements depend on your hand size).

$4.99 was too much for this Rum

As the meat marinates I focus on a few other things, like the laundry, smoking a bowl, and oh yeah, my side dish. Now I know it seems like I include potatoes on a lot of dishes (and I do), but this time it's because I bought too much. I got a 5 pound bag when I meant to get a three pound bag. I didn't want to do mashed potatoes again, or a baked potato, so I pealed and cubed the taters and julienne some onions and baby carrots and set the to boil. You could if you like substitute the onions and carrots with celery and red peppers. My grandmother used to make hers that way. I then enjoyed a cheap rum and vanilla Coke, which was quite good.

While the potatoes did they're thing, I carefully stuffed the pork with some Peppadew Goat Cheese. Which is Goat Cheese with roasted red peppers mixed in it. I used my titanium pairing knife that I love soooo much!  cut a slit deep into the pork and inserted the delicious, delicious cheese, yum! You don't want to over stuff, but remember that the cheese will melt and become a lot smaller than it looks when you stuff it. so you want to have a good amount but be sure you can close it after wards.

 

I placed the pork in a pan and then poured the Marinade it had been soaking in all over it with a little more rum and vinegar. I also rubbed the meat with a mixture of salt, Cayenne, black pepper, and cumin. Now at this point the oven had been preheating for close to an hour at 400 so I drop it down to 350 and pop in my pork sirloin. Feel free to take this time to smoke another bowl, watch wrestling and put the clothes in the dryer. Also feel free to julienne some more carrots and some cucumbers, and onions. I made a dressing to from some honey mustard, salt, black pepper, vinegar, and olive oil. When it gets about half an hour in check the pork and if need be add more rum and pineapple juice. You should by now have checked your potatoes as well and if they're done to  your liking take them off the stove pour them into a strainer and remove all water. I added a small amount of blue cheese dressing and tossed the potatoes. Now at the 1 hour mark you want to take a lump of butter in a sauce/frying pan and once it melts pour the shrimp and the rest of your marinade in add a little more minced garlic and let simmer. Place a lid on it to speed up the process. I also cut a little extra onions to toss in the mix too. Turn the oven down to warm and wait ten minutes, then plate and serve. You can go over or under with the shrimp it depends on your taste. I chose over for mine. Now my girlfriend doesn't care for shrimp (she's not allergic, just doesn't like it), so her plate was made available san's shrimp meaning I got a little more than I would serve for one person. Well wah-la, The Pineapple-Pork Express! Huh? No, well I'll keep working on the name!

 

Stuffed Pork with Cheesy Heart-Attack Sauce and Baked Potato

This is a simple dish that looks great  and taste even better. I created it when I worked at the Del Mar Lounge in St. Louis. It's a simple pork loin cut open and stuffed with a mixture of Goat Cheese, Smoked Gouda, and fresh bacon bits. Then baked till a nice medium well and topped with melted blend of the above mentioned cheeses along with some butter and a little bit of cream. Served here with a baked potato equally drowning in cheese and sour cream. It's the stuffing that get's you! When you bite into the pork it explodes with cheesy heart-attack inducing goodness that will have your doctor shaking his head. I also season the pork with A Cayenne/Cumin, Salt/Pepper mixture that adds an extra bite to the whole shebang!