Laissez le bon temp rouler!

Once again driving home from Ojai after a pleasantly busy day my brain was all aflutter with ideas for dinner....I was rounding the turn at the 33 and 101 when the light bulb that resides in my brain went off and I remembered that I didn't HAVE to cook! It was American Idol night at Mom & Dad's and Mom was making dinner for us.

So I mentally relaxed and stopped by my house for a nice bottle of wine and had visions of me sitting at the counter with a glass of wine writing my blog while mom slaved over the stove making delicious din din for all of us.

Not so much.

Miss Mom had to go and get herself a facial today which meant when I showed up that she wasn't there...neither was her laptop or camera. So I did what a good daughter does and I started cooking for her. Fortunately for me she left the recipe out and I started chopping, dicing, slicing and sauteing.

And what are we having tonight you ask???

Gumbo Z'Herbes For Luck, Feasts and Fasts

As yesterday was Fat Tuesday and for the last few weeks New Orleans has been celebrating not only making it to the Super Bowl for the first time, but then winning it, I thought it appropriate to write about a Cajun dish that focuses on celebrations. I have it on good authority from friends and clients that there has been a parade every day since January 23rd somewhere in the city of New Orleans. Good for them...that city needed some love. :) I kind of wish we had that many parades....we all could use a little more celebration in our lives.

Gumbo Z'Herbes is traditionally a spicy meatless dish served during Lent...but most cooks can't help but add in a ham hock or chopped up ham to it. Mom and I use the smoked turkey legs that can be found in most grocery meat aisles-this offers up a fraction of the fat and all of the flavor. The greens are fairly interchangeable, you can use just about any combination of collard greens, mustard greens, spinach, watercress & parsley. If you are short on one, just increase quantities on the others. When served on Good Friday this dish is believed to bring friendship and good luck...for every different green that is added to the stew, a new friend will be made that year.

Cheers, Salud, Slainte, Cin Cin and Prost....here's to health, luck friendship and love in this next year!

Gumbo Z'herbes
Makes 10 servings

1T tablespoons Vegetable Oil
4 C 1/2-inch cubes smoked ham or smoked turkey (about 22 ounces)

2 T Butter
6 C Sliced Leeks (white and pale green parts only; from about 5 large)
2 C Finely Chopped Celery
2 C Sliced Green Onions (about 8)
1 C Chopped Fresh Italian Parsley
5 Large Garlic Cloves, Chopped
3 T Filé Powder*
1 T Chopped Fresh Oregano
3/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
8 C Sliced Collard Greens (about 8 ounces)
8 C Sliced Mustard Greens (about 8 ounces)
4 C Fresh Spinach Leaves
Note-Buy the pre chopped packaged ones from Trader Joes....too easy!

1/2 tsp Sugar

10 C Low-Salt Chicken Broth, divided
3/4 C Butter

3/4 C All Purpose Flour

Cooked White Rice

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy extra-large pot over medium-high heat. Add ham/turkey; sauté until browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer to bowl and reserve. Melt butter in same large pot over medium-high heat. Add leeks and celery. Sauté until vegetables are soft, about 8 minutes. Add green onions, parsley, and garlic. Sauté until onions wilt, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add filé powder, oregano, and cayenne pepper. Stir 3 minutes. Add collard greens, mustard greens, watercress, spinach, and sugar.

They start out like this....

And end up like this :)

Toss to combine. Add 2 cups broth. Cover and cook until all greens are tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Remove pot from heat.
Working in batches of 2 cups, puree greens in processor, scraping down sides occasionally.

Or if you are fortunate enough to own an immersion blender (top 10 kitchen gadgets!) you can do like we do and dirty one less thing...

Transfer puree to bowl.

Heat butter in same pot over medium-high heat. Add flour; whisk until smooth. Cook until roux is peanut butter color, whisking often, about 7 minutes. Whisk in remaining 8 cups broth and bring to boil, whisking often. Add greens puree, then ham. Simmer gumbo 10 minutes to blend flavors. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly; chill uncovered until cold, then cover and keep chilled. Rewarm over medium heat before serving.)
Mound 1/4 cup warm rice in center of each bowl. Ladle gumbo around rice.

*A powder made from ground sassafras leaves; available in the spice section of some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores.

All about me

Have you ever had one of those days where you want to be entirely selfish? Do what you want, when you want and with the people you want? I am sure you have. :) You've turned off your phone, ignored emails, disconnected with the world and perhaps gotten in your car and driven to the beach, the mountains or to any number of random spots where you didn't have to interact with anyone unless you wanted to.

My job lately has been interesting in the least.....changeable by the hour, intense, challenging and it has kept me busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. Still, I am grateful and happy all the same. Not only to have a job when I know there is a ridiculous amount of folks who don't have on, but also to love what I do. There is definitely something to be said for time off though.

Almost every week within my Facebook community I see posts on Wednesday that read "halfway there!" and on Friday "TGIF" and the like. Being in the hospitality industry, weekends are generally not considered time off for me and my fellow hotel/restaurant/chef peeps. We tend to get Mondays off as a rule, sometimes paired with a Sunday and more often than not, our days off are split like the pins in my last bowling game. :(

So it was no surprise that when this weekend rolled around and found me with not only a Saturday off, but also the Sunday I was a little bit excited about it. Not just excited for the time off, but also because I had nowhere to go and nothing to do, except for whatever I came up with.

No surprise, I started off the morning with a beach walk with my Mom. The insanely full moon last night brought on a tide higher than I have ever seen in Ventura. The waves were breaking over the promenade , soaking the unaware walkers and dogs, San Jon Road was closed due to flooding and the beach was littered with cobbles, driftwood and even a telephone pole (possibly leftover from the storm?).

The people watching is awesome, the sea air invigorating and I even got to see my buddy Surfer Bob and catch up with him for a few minutes....great therapy!

Stop number two was the Ventura Farmers Market on Palm Street and Santa Clara...we cruised looking for the best deals and for things we had a craving for or that were in recipes we planned for the week. I think I might have some sort of dirt fetish because I went heavy on the root vegetables....celeriac, beet & potatoes and rounded it out with some fennel, gorgeous baby brussels sprouts, leeks and broccoli rabe.

Lunch was light and enjoyed solo with a book and a glass of wine (yes, I drink at lunch...what of it?). And to make it even better, I got carded when ordering my wine! Yay! And then homehomehome for a nap on my couch.

Oh yes, today was lovelovelovely.

I had several options for dinner this evening based upon Brocks plan for hunting the elusive wild pig. He has unfortunately not been able to bring home the proverbial bacon this year but is very committed to doing so and has gone out several nights in a row. So I remain flexible and optimistic and figure that tonight is an opportunity to make something simple and tasty and test it out on myself before serving it to my sweetie.I got my new Bon Apetit this week and though this sounded terrific....and it was. AND I didn't change it at all. :)

Linguine with Bay Scallops & Fennel

8 ounces linguine
3 T olive oil, divided
1 medium fennel bulb, halved, very thinly sliced, plus 1 tablespoon chopped fennel fronds
1 medium onion, halved, thinly sliced
1 pound bay scallops
1 6-ounce container cherry tomatoes, halved if large
1 T Pernod or other anise-flavored liqueur (I used Ouzo-leftover from Greece trip!)
4 T chopped fresh parsley, divided
1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sliced fennel and onion; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until wilted but crisp-tender. Using slotted spoon, transfer to medium bowl.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to skillet. Add scallops and sauté until just opaque in center, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to bowl with fennel-onion mixture. Add tomatoes to skillet and sauté until heated through, about 2 minutes. Return fennel-onion mixture and scallops to skillet. Mix in liquor.

Add drained pasta to skillet; toss to coat, adding reserved cooking liquid by 1/4 cupfuls if dry. Stir in 3 tablespoons chopped parsley and 1 tablespoon fennel fronds. Transfer to large shallow bowl, sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, and serve with lemon wedges.

This was sooooooo yummy. AND if you use less pasta and a little more fennel you can lighten the carbs and it turns in to a lighter dish even though it is still pasta.

Cheers, here's to being selfish!

Back on track!

I truly wish you could see what goes through my head on my half hour drive home from work daily. If I haven't already picked out what to make for dinner the inside of my head resembles the interior of an exotic butterfly aviary with colorful winged creatures fluttering to and fro....do I go with spicy, exotic and colorful? Savory and solid? Light, fresh and tangy? What to do, what to do?

I spend a good portion of my day at work taking other peoples food orders, creating custom menus, talking about food options, detailing out menus and parties and watching them get produced, so it is not big surprise that sometimes I come up against a stumbling block and the butterflies in my head turn in to a rainbow tornado that I can't control. At which point I call Brock and ask him what he wants for dinner. His standard reply is "I'm easy!". Which he is.

And he isn't. But that doesn't help when this scenario comes about.

Every once and a while he does give me a straight request as referenced in my previous post of chili & cornbread. But most nights he leaves me to my own devices and imagination which range everywhere from take out pizza on a lazy night to insanity in the kitchen where every dish, pot & pan I own is dirtied somehow.

But he is open to trying just about damn near everything I make as long as I stay away from a few taboo foods....that in itself is priceless. :)

After my insanely good but not so dietetic chili the other night I have been trying to eat leaner and cook lighter. Some days it works and other days not so much. But after a visit to the gym I found I was down another pound (yay!) and that made me want to amp it up again and do my damnedest to keep the LB's comin' off.

I was also not really up to going to the store after a long ass day that started off with only about 4 solid hours of sleep on the books.

Thus begins the mental inventory of what is in the fridge, freezer and pantry and then trying to wrap my head around what cuisine/continent I wanted to channel. Do I go Italian, American, Asian, Mexican, Southern or fusion???? Good lord there are too many things jumping around in my brain for me to even focus on this.


FOCUS!!!


FOCUUUUUSSSSSSS!!!!


And then????


Ding!! Dingdingdingdingding!!!!


Trader Joe's Potstickers...frozen and waiting for me to add them to tasty broth with veggies.


Oh good lord was that a freaking relief!


Veggies are solid, I knew I had a few snow peas hanging around, carrots, green onions & celery and some crimini mushrooms would round it out nicely.

For the broth I thought I might have to resort to using my stash of "Better than Bouillon" chicken flavor, but was stoked to find a bag of chicken wing tips (from the hot wing post-oh yeah!) and a bag of frozen shrimp with shells on.


In to the pot goes.....



About 8-10 Chicken Wing Tips
Shrimp Shells from about 10-12 Shrimp
1 Onion, chopped
1 Carrot, chopped
2 Celery Stalks, chopped
6 cups water

Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer, skim off any foam that rises to the surface and discard. Simmer for about a half an hour and then strain.



While the stock is simmering, chop, slice & dice....

2 Medium Carrots, peeled-slice on the bias
2 Celery Stalks, sliced thin on the bias
4 oz Mushrooms, sliced
4 oz Snow Peas, sliced in 1/2
3 Green Onions, sliced thin

Slice Shrimp lengthwise in 1/2 and set aside

After stock is strained, return to the pot and add the carrots, mushrooms and celery, add a tablespoon or more of soy sauce to the pot depending on your salt preference. Cook for about 15 minutes and add in the snow peas, shrimp, green onions and 6-8 frozen potstickers (can be pork, shrimp or veggie). Simmer gently until won tons are cooked through and shrimp is pink.

Adjust seasoning as needed with soy sauce, Siricha hot sauce, sesame oil or even oyster sauce if you like.



Now your toes are going to hurt from all the weight falling off, right????

Family addiction

So I am not super in to television....in fact, my colleague makes fun of me a bit and is super impressed when I actually recognize a TV personality or tell her that I couldn't drag myself away from the latest episode of Glee! I went without TV for almost 10 years and probably wouldn't have it now if it weren't for Brock. I do enjoy having it in the house, but if I didn't have it, would probably not miss it much.

Except when it comes to family night.

Mom, Dad, Brock and I convene weekly (or bi-weekly) at my parents house and root for the best teams during football season, watch DVR'd episodes of yesterday's Jay Leno because we can't stay up that late and when American Idol starts, we have a standing dinner date for the day after it airs. (No commercials thanks to DVR....helloooo!)

I know we are dorky, but I love us all the same. And you know that in some way you have the same addiction somewhere...be it Grays Anatomy, Dirty Jobs or any of the other shows that are totally escaping me because I don't pay attention to TV. :)

Tonight finds us a few days after the first two hour episode of American Idol in Moms kitchen....sun setting, wine glass full (the whole "on the wagon" thing just wasn't working for me...) and a pot of Feijoada on the stove.

Yeah, you read right, that is not a misspelling....pronounced fay-zhwah-duh...it is a Brazilian Black Bean soup that is filling, comforting and pretty healthy when made as listed below. You can of course fatten it up if you want, but as most of us want to slim down instead of fatten up I am guessing and hoping you will follow my lead.

There is a little bit of bacon in it, which is not considered healthy by some (whatever!), but it is an integral part of my existence so just deal with it....or replace it with turkey bacon if you are super against using the pig variety (Really??? Turkey bacon? How does that work??? Have dissected turkey and found no bacon!). But remember, your body does need fat in your diet to absorb vitamins, so consider this little bit of bacon fat a vitamin bearing visitor....you just need a little time on the StairMaster to make it go away. :)

Brazilian Black Bean Soup
~Mom's Feijoada~

6 Strips Thick Sliced Bacon, diced
8 oz Turkey Smoked Sausage, diced (has less fat than regular LITE Kielbasa!)

1 1/2 cups Onion, chopped
3 Cloves Garlic
1-2 Serrano Chiles, diced (depends on your heat preference)
2 tsp Chili Powder

2 Cups Black Beans, drained & rinsed
5 Cups Chicken Broth or Stock

6 Cups Collard Greens, stemmed & chopped
2 Cup Tomatoes, seeded & diced

1 1/2 Cups Cooked Rice (preferably brown basmati)
Fresh Orange Wedges

Saute bacon in a soup pot or dutch oven until crisp, remove and drain. remove most of the bacon fat and brown kielbasa in remaining drippings. Remove and drain. Wipe the pot clean.

Add a little olive oil to the pot and saute the onions for a few minutes and then add the garlic and serranos, stirring so the garlic does not burn. Add in the chili powder and saute until all veggies are soft.

Stir in the beans and mash a bit, start adding broth a cup or so at a time, scrape up the browned bits from the bottom. You may not need to add all the broth depending on how thick you want the soup....Add in the bacon & kielbasa and simmer for a bit.

Meanwhile in a big saute pan, heat a little olive oil and add the greens & tomatoes little by little until the greens are wilted.

Add the greens & tomatoes to the beans and season to taste with salt. Serve with the orange wedges on the side.,,,the orange wedges are a MUST!

**If you want more kick, you can also add diced serrano chiles (more of them!) as a garnish.

Thinking Thin

After a couple of months of celebration I find myself in the position of once again beating myself up for overindulging in food and drink.

Last year I went on a pretty good diet....by pretty good I mean I not only went on a diet for more than a week, I stayed pretty true for closer to 5 months. AND I joined a gym. AND I actually went to the gym. More than once a week.

OMG...what they say is true...diet + exercise actually work. Who knew?

And I lost weight, more than I have ever lost before in any stretch of time. Which is good because quite frankly I have more weight on me than I ever have in my life. Not a good feeling just to look in the mirror and not love what you see, but also not good to have your doctor threaten you with medication of you don't get your blood pressure/sugar under control.

So I made the change in my life and found that it did make a difference, the weight came off little by little, my clothes started bagging on my butt and I felt better about myself not only for the loss of the weight, but for the thought that kept rolling around in my head. "Holy crap, I CAN do this!"

And then the holidays came. I know this is a piss poor excuse, but I am using it and will probably use it in years ahead. The days are shorter and I felt less and less like skipping off to the gym with a big bottle of water and more like hunkering down on the couch in my cozy living room with a glass of wine and something that falls in the category of comfort food.

Every day I kicked myself for it knowing I was going to gain weight back and have to work harder to get back where I was at. And yet, I did nothing about it.

Until now. :)

Like most Americans at the beginning of the New Year I tend to set goals for myself that include diet, exercise and depriving myself of tasty adult beverages for a period of time. Most often I do 2 out of three as it tends to be a bit much for me. I don't really want to turn in to a cranky brat and my friends thank me for this. :)

I didn't gain as much as I thought I had, but it is just enought to piss me off and make me want to get rid of it and more ASAP. I am not sure how much fun my food blog will be this month since I am probably going to be eating a LOT of salad, but I will try to bring something fun to the table.

Tonight I made an old favorite of my family's out of LOTS of veggies leftover tri tip from last nights dinner. Very good diet food as it is heavy on the veggies, light on the meat and little or no carbs. Think Chinese omelet with savory gravy. It makes for a good breakfast too which is good because this recipe makes quite a bit! Note the positive words scattered throughout the recipe. :)

Egg Foo Yung

1 cup Bean Sprouts (Good DIET veggie!)

2 SKINNY Carrots, peeled and grated
2 Green Onions, chopped SMALL

1 Celery Stalk, sliced THIN (another good DIET veggie!)

1 can drained Straw Mushrooms, chopped in to SMALL pieces

1 1/2 cup Tri Tip, sliced THIN & chopped in to SMALL pieces

You can also use chicken, pork or shrimp...I tend to use whatever meat I have in the fridge that is healthy & seasoned well.

7 Eggs (preferably from HEALTHY chickens)

Beat and season with...
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix all together and pan fry in a non stick skillet, if needed, use Pan or nonstick spray. Should make about 8- 5" cakes.

I like to use a small omelet pan to help keep the shape so the egg doesn't leak everywhere.

LIGHT Gravy
1 1/2 cups Chicken Broth
1 T Rice Wine Vinegar
2 T Soy Sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne

Thicken with 3 T water and 3 T flour

Serve hot with gravy and keep thinking THIN!!