Saturday: Lobster Mac 'n' Cheese

I had plans for dinner with Shelby, but Noelle called me up and has tickets for a wine expo that's going on at the Shaw Conference Centre. She had two tickets, so we're gonna buy another and the three of us are going to meet up here for a glass of champagne, then go into the valley to the Shaw and take in the wine expo. Mucho free wine, nibblies, and gifts await!

Then it's back here, and I'm going to throw a Lobster Mac 'n' Cheese in the oven that I'll make in the afternoon and put in the fridge. I'm using Michelle's go-to recipe, probably sub cream of celery soup in for the mushroom, and add some of the lobster that's in my freezer. I've made it before and by using Michelle's "mother mac n cheese" recipe it'll be easy peasy.

Should be a fun night! I've got some ice cold Sauvignon Blanc to have with it. Should be spectac!

Friday: Shaun's Stag

Well, it's actually 5 of us going out for beers and a bite to eat to Original Joe's, a pretty solid pub/eatery in Glenora. It's actually a pretty cool place. I'm sick of the Hudsons/Brewsters blah kinda mass market pub.

There's a joint in my neighbourhood called "The Empress Ale House" which actually is AWESOME. They have barnyard skulls on the wall (how would I not love that) and dark recovered wood paneling and chandeliers. It's SUPER cool. They don't have food though. Although to satisfy the liquor code that says you MUST provide some kind of food - they'll nuke a Hungry Man TV dinner for you.

No, I'm serious. The place is THAT cool.

However we're not going there. We're going to Original Joe's.

Chicken Chili Sloppy Joes

Yeah, it's pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Some birdseed whole sprouted grain kinda bread with some hot chicken chili overtop.

Delish!

Haven't Really Been Cooking

Been super busy and lately I've just been bish bash bosh and chucking stuff together for dinner. Nothing exciting to report.

Tonight Matt is coming over with Vic (his lovely girlfriend) and we'll likely order something in. My day is CRAZY today so it might be pizza boys tonight. I'm kinda feeling pizza.

Tomorrow, Curt, Char, Shirley and Jay are coming over and I have a mellow day planned so I'll be cooking tomorrow night. I've got some cucumbers in the fridge because for some bizarre reason, long english cukes were 4 for $5 at Safeway this week. Oh right, those are the same cucumbers that nobody bought last week for $3.99 apiece. Fuckin' Safeway.

Anyway, I've also got a ton of fresh mint and those lobster tails. I'm half assed considering making vietnamese rice bowls with the lobster, but I'll likely buy some pork tenderloin and make those for tomorrow and fry up a giant pan of gyoza with some dipping sauce. Easy peasy, vietnameasy.

Shelby and I are getting together for dinner next week and I'll likely use those lobster tails for that. He lurrrves lobster. Then again, who doesn't?

Jambalaya? Meh.

It's okay. I did follow a recipe and put in too much thyme. This has happened to me before on a Ming Tsai recipe. But that one was a mistake.

This just has too much thyme for my taste. Oh well. I don't really care. When I go all out and work my ass off all day to have a party and cook and whatnot I typically don't even eat what I make. I know it'll be a big hit but I'm over it already and it's not even completely done. LOL

Oh well. Live and learn! Next time - no thyme.

Making Jambalaya

Last night I thawed my odds and sods of chicken, then just chopped them all up and sauteed in batches in a bit of peanut oil with a tiny bit of cajun seasoning. I never ever use the stuff but figured why not. I'm making Jambalaya so it'll probably work.

To be honest, I've never followed a recipe and made it. I've always just kinda pitched it all together and hoped for the best - to good results - but this time I'm going to do it more proper-ish. I think this is the recipe I'll use, but I'll adapt it to be a binary dish. I don't want the rice to cook in the jambalaya, I'm going to make it like a chili and let people scoop it over rice. That way if the rice fucks up - who cares. I'll put on some more.

Seasoning Mix (1/4 tsp Cayenne, 3/4 tsp White Pepper, 1 tsp Kosher Salt, 1/4 tsp Thyme, 1/2 tsp Rubbed Sage, 1/4 tsp Dried Basil, 1/2 tsp Black Pepper)

1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Diced Andouille
1/2 Cup Diced Onion
1/2 Cup Diced Bell Pepper
1/2 Cup Diced Celery
1/2 Cup Diced Fresh Tomatoes
1/2 Cup Tomato Sauce
3/4 Cup Enriched Long Grain Rice
1 1/4 Cup Chicken Stock with a Shrimp shell infusion (see above)
1 Tbsp Homemade Worcestershire Sauce
2 Tbsp Minced Fresh Garlic
1/2 Cup Diced Chicken (Cooked or raw)
1 1/2 Cup Medium Shrimp (I use Louisiana)
1 Tbsp Finely Chopped Italian Parsley
3 Tbsp Finely Sliced Green Onions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix together the Holy Trinity (Onion, Celery, Bell Pepper).
In a Cast Iron Dutch Oven, melt the butter over medium heat, add the Andouille and cook until it just starts to brown. Add 1/2 of the Holy Trinity, cook until the vegetables are tender (nothing smells better than rendering Andouille with the Holy Trinity). Add the diced Tomatoes and cook for 1 minute. Add the Tomato Sauce and cook for another minute. Add the Rice and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the Stock, the remaining Holy Trinity, Seasoning Mix, Worcestershire, and the Garlic. Taste the broth for seasoning, particularly salt. Add the Chicken, stir well and put the pot in the preheated oven. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes. After the twenty-five minutes stir in the raw Shrimp, Parsley, and Green Onions, place back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes, or until the Shrimp are cooked through. Serve with French Bread and your favorite Beer

I'm serving with a couple giant Italian pagnotta breads, a ginormous trough of "Hurricanes" and a biggie green salad. I have 3 different kinds of chicken skewers in the freezer which I'll set out as appies. I think there's some Indian ones, some satay ones, and some Hawaiian-esque ones with pineapple... In any case, I should have everything rolling by this afternoon, so literally I won't have to do ANYTHING but make the salad when my guests are here. That's the way I like it.

On another note, I've been feeling so amazing the last few weeks being back at the gym 5 days a week. This morning in bed I stretched a bit and fucked up my neck. Grrrrrrr. So I'll be enjoying my Hurricanes twice as much tonight as I'll also be on muscle relaxants. Woo hoo!

Happy Valentines!

Rediscovering Cinnamon Toast

Oh yeah. I'm serious.

Toast with margarine, sugar, and cinnamon.

Deal.

Saturday: Jambalaya

Sort of. At the fondue party at Scarlett's, I sort of committed to throwing a bit of a party for Valentines Day. That's cool, as I like the peeps who were there, so it'll be fun. I don't have Valentines plans anyway, so that's cool. Fun Saturday. Cool!

I've decided to do a sort of Jambalaya. Reason why, I emptied my freezer today, throwing out a few sketchy things and making room for the lobster tails. Ha!

Anyway, I have random odds and sods of chicken. Maybe 6 thighs, 2 medium breasts, 1 giant breast. Plus I have 2 ends of bags but still perfect prawns, and some smoked pork loin from farmers market in the summer, but it was cryovac'd so it's perfect. This is the base. Then I'll do the usual tomato base, with some tomato paste, tomato sauce, maybe a bit of both white and red wine *my recent discovery for depth in tomato sauces that aren't beef/red meat based* and the usual saute of onion, celery, peppers, and spices.. I'm thinking oregano, parsley, thyme, some worcestershire, chile, garlic, and of course a couple sausages rendered for the paprika flavored fat. Good times. I'll let that do it's thing and just add the prawns last minute... But it can cook in the dutch oven *from xmas* for a couple hours on saturday afternoon and get ridiculously flavorful...

I'll serve with mounds of fluffy jasmine rice from the rice cooker *no effort* and a gigantic fantastic salad my stylie. translation: lots of wild greens, rough choppy chop romaine hearts, some onion or shallot of some kind scrunched through lemon juice *thank you jamie oliver* and tomatoes, maybe some crispy onions or cornbread croutons and maybe some roasted pumpkin seeds with my vinaigrette....

That and a couple Italian Pagnotta's just chucked on the table so people can rip pieces off... and some chipotle butter or something...

I'm also going to make a giant trough of "hurricanes" which are these glorious rum and cirtus boozy filled cocktails... Should be awesome!

Will report back with review.

Lobster On Sale? WTF?

No, I'm serious. Our Safeway, for WHATEVER reason, had FROZEN lobster tails on HUGE sale! There are 4 medium sized ones in each pack. I got 2 packs. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I'm right chuffed that there's 8 lobster tails sitting in my freezer! YAY!

Climbing Shiraz

So, forgot to report back on the bottle of wine. It was really really good. We both enjoyed it a ton. I expected it to be a bit more of a fruitbomb, but it was a bit reserved - not typical of a new world Shiraz. But I looked at the region - and my suspicions were correct - it comes from a colder climate. That explains the fruit being a bit less explosive and the higher tannins. Surprisingly, I think this wine could age a bit. I'm going to pick up a couple more just to have around for impromptu nicer dinners that could use a biggie wine.

It was spectac with the beef dips. Ohhhhhhhh, those beef dips. My current obsession.

Shelby's too. So on Friday, he's making ME dinner! yay!

Beef Stroganoff Revelation

Okay, so I haven't had beef stroganoff since staying overnight at Laura and Ed's place when I was 14 years old and they took me to The X.... Probably because Mom and Dad guilted them into doing it for some reason. In any case, I got sick and threw it up all over their spare bedroom bed, rug, hallway, hallway rug, bathroom, and all fixtures in said bathroom. It was nasty. No, I'm serious.

Anyway, I feel that 22 years later, I'm finally ready to go down that road, but do it right. I made the beef stroganoff we ate on that fateful vomit fueled evening, but I think I'd choose to do my take on the classic again, instead of following that recipe that has long been blocked out for obvious reasons.

I'm going to revisit the stroganoff. I feel I'm ready. I'll report back when I take the plunge.

Comments with recipe suggestions welcome. Yes sisters, I'm talking to you.

Not cooking today.

Yeah not gonna happen. Lunch was a corned beef sandwich on birdseed bread and dinner will be some leftover stuffed pasta shells from a while ago that were in the freezer... Scarlett and Shaun and Shirley are coming over later to hang out but we're not doing dinner... I'll pick up some snacks to throw in the oven from M&M after the gym... *my dirty secret*

I actually like quite a few of their products.

This week may not be doing a ton of cooking as we're finalizing the flavour profiles for our sports nutrition drinks... Final tasting is next weekend then they go into manufacturing... yay! Finally after 3 years of conceptualizing and refining this project, our supplements are going to see the light of day....

Anyway, just doing laundry now and going to the gym later.

Saturday Afternoon

I got on a cleaning jag today. I totally emptied every cupboard and drawer in my kitchen, cleaned them out, sorted the contents, and threw out a bunch of junk I don't use. Over the years I've gotten some ridiculous kitchen gadgets but admittedly they rarely get used. I don't need a special tool for taking the eye out of a tomato. I use a paring knife. I probably chucked 15 gadgets I've never even used. I feel bad but at the same time - my kitchen is the size of a smart car. I really need to economize on space.

I also did the same to the bathroom, and also threw out a ton of crap. 1/3 full bottles of conditioner that have been under the sink for 2 years. Also, my head is shaved so I don't need that stuff.

Feels good to get rid of it. I'm also having a Brahma while I'm cleaning. Yay!

Beef Dips MY Stylie Again

Shelby's coming over later, and requested these sarnies. So we're having them again. I actually happened to find some tenderloin in the crisper! (Freezer, actually). Perfect. I was in the mood to have these again FO SHO. I can't tell you how delicious they are.

Sisters who may be reading this - I'll make these for you next time you're at my place for dinner. They really are sublime.

The lineup is the same as last time. Lightly garlicked and toasted baguette, layered slices of medium beef tenderloin, smear on carmelized onions, and a good whack of either just horseradish or smear on horseradish aioli.

Cut in half, and dip into hot bowls of au jus or demi loosened with red wine and stock/water.

TO. DIE. FOR.

No, I'm serious.

Oh, we're having this with a green salad. Gin and Tonics for cocktails, and a wicked looking Australian Shiraz named "Climbing". There's 8 VERY distinguished awards on the bottle, so I'm extremely excited to be trying it, as I've never even HEARD of it. It was $17something in the liquor store, so I'm really intrigued. I bought 2 bottles. Will definitely report back results.

Salad and Cheese Toast Redux

Thursday I did shopping but wasn't in the mood to make anything special. In my fridge was all the shtuff to make a greens and veg salad - including some of my vinaigrette, so salad was definitely going to make an appearance.

I had some frozen 145 grain baguette in my freezer, so I thawed it, sliced it in half, and smeared on some of the leftover toppings from homemade potato skins. Cheddar cheese, very finely diced red tiger's eye chile (so very, very hot - handle with extreme caution), chopped rotisserie chicken, bacon, scallion, and a bit of sour cream just to make the mixture sticky.

Broiled said bread and had with the salad. Okay, the bread was AWESOME. I'd prefer to make that for the bread itself and forego the potato skins.

Yum!

Chicken Chili

I'll admit, I kinda fell back into chili my stylie, but it ended up so bloody good that I'm gonna start following the Michelle route and experimenting with white chili, chili verde, etc.

I finely diced 3 huge chicken breasts, and sauteed them until slightly browned.

I then sauteed 1 onion finely diced, the insides of 2 celery hearts with all the good parts, and then added back the chicken, a can of black beans slightly drained, a can of kidney beans slightly drained, and a good couple 2 tbsp of chili powder and the same of crushed cumin seeds.

Then I added 3 cans of Aylmer Chili Tomatoes (they have like 5 kinds and this was my first foray into trying them)....They're AWESOME for chili. You get the deep flavour of a chili that's been simmering for hours - but in 20 mins max. They're killer. I'll use them all the time for the tradish style for sure.

Had that with some birdseed bread for dinner last night. Having it tonight as well. I'm really happy with this batch.

Superfast Soups

This link was off a CNN page or something if I'm not mistaken. I haven't looked through all of them yet, just the first 4 or so and they look great.

20/20: Superfast Soups

I'm gonna try some of these for sure.