At least my friends liked it.....

Unbeknown to me, there are more than one species of pine nut....who knew? From continent to continent they vary slightly in taste, texture and chemical makeup. And only very recently (since about 2001) has a syndrome known as "pine mouth" come to light.

I personally think it should be called "crap mouth" as damn near everything you eat tastes like crap. But that's just me.

It doesn't matter if it is sweet, salty, fatty or bland. Once in your mouth the food takes on a flavor that I can only describe as a handful of pine needles combined with the pith (white bitter part) of an orange. It's seriously enough to make you not want to eat anything.

Which for me, sucks.

Seriously.

I researched the web and found that it can last from just a few days after eating them, to up to 2 weeks. It eventually goes away, but there is little you can do about it. Some acidic foods can minimize the effects so I thought I would try some citrus juice at work. I grabbed some OJ out of the fridge and it was pretty good, although I am not much of a juice person.

When I got home I figured it couldn't hurt to add vodka to my OJ and see what happened (since wine tasted like ca ca, boo hoo!). And you know what?

It tasted pretty damn good!

I was cooking dinner for my friends that evening and had the whole menu planned out....my citrus and salt baby back ribs, German potato salad and orange bread pudding for dessert. (Friend was bringing salad....no worries, we got our veggies!) Naturally while making the potato salad I had to test the bacon to see if my taste buds were really THAT effed up (please God, no!). And fortunately I found the second thing that didn't taste like poop....bacon.

Go figure.

So I am thinking.....how can I survive on bacon and screwdrivers for up to 2 weeks????

As it turns out, probably pretty well if I didn't have to work or drive.

I made dinner half sloshed on vodka (as I rarely drink it and had no lunch to speak of) and my friends assured me that it was delicious. They even went back for seconds, so I know I did OK. I think it tasted OK, but am pretty sure my taste buds were worn out from the vodka, so I'll have to take their word for it!

The German Potato Salad recipe is from my Nana, labeled on a recipe card, "My" German Potato Salad. It is everything I remember of her...warm, a little sweet, a little tart and very sassy.

Nana's German Potato Salad

6 Cups Red Potatoes, Cooked and sliced in to 1/4" slices

3 Scallions, sliced thin

6 Slices of Bacon (or more if you are feeling the need)

3 Hard Boiled Eggs, 2 chopped, 1 sliced for garnish

1/3 cup Water

2/3 cup White Vinegar

1/4 cup Sugar

2 T Flour

Salt & Pepper

*Optional

1/4 tsp Dry Mustard

1/4 tsp Celery Seed

Fry the bacon until crisp and reserve 3 T of the fat, chop the rest of the bacon and set aside.

Mix sliced potatoes, scallions, chopped egg and bacon together in a bowl.

In a small pan, mix together the rest of the ingredients and cook slowly until the dressing is thickened, season to taste with salt & pepper. Pour over potatoes and mix thoroughly. Put in whatever serving bowl you plan on using and garnish with the sliced egg.

This should be served relatively warm, I left it in the stove while I was cooking everything else and it was the perfect temperature. You can also microwave it briefly if it isn't warm enough.

Messing things up and making them right again

You already know I am not a rookie or first timer in the kitchen....That I have the experience and know how to make fabulous meals for myself or for a crowd. I can make simple food or over the top crazy food and I can bake like a Mo-fo or put up 5 gallons of tomatoes in cans for the winter.

But even I make mistakes. Examples as follows.....

• 
  
  Burning Caramel Sauce because I was signing invoices. More than once.
• 
  
  Forgetting to add water to steamed vegetables because I was making homemade puff pastry for Beef Wellington. Oops.
• 
  
  Reversing the measurements for salt & sugar in scones because I was rushing to get all my assignments completed before break. Yum!
• 
  
  Burning 5 sheet pans of bacon because it was 5am and I was quite possibly still inebriated from the night before. Crap.

And there are many many more....my point is that any time any of us effs up in the kitchen there is always an excuse. I was distracted, tired, rushed, drunk, not paying attention or any number of other fun reasons.

The crummy part about tonight is that I was REALLY looking forward to my dinner and I effed it all up.

Thanks to some help from Zack. An ex-boyfriend and old friend from a gazillion years ago who I was happily catching up with while sauteing, stirring and pan frying my dinner.

Yep, sorry buddy, I am sharing the blame with you just a little because I was too busy chatting with you on FB to double check my sand dabs before pan frying them. So they got fried with their organs still in them. Note to self....don't believe the fish guy when he tells you they are "ready to cook".

Blech. Seriously Blech. In the trash and out the door...as fast as possible so I didn't barf.

But on a positive note I still got to enjoy my fabulous sweet corn risotto cake and sauteed spinach for dinner because I did watch out for those, thank you very much! And had about a three hour chat session with someone who I really needed to talk to.

I'll share the corn risotto cakes because they were the star of my dinner tonight. I made the risotto a couple of nights ago for my lovely girlz who came over for food and wine therapy. That night they were paired with seafood and truffle oil (fabulous!) and I made an overabundance of the risotto so I set some of it aside without the seafood and oil for future use. And damn if they werent twice as good with a crispy crust.

Sweet Corn Risotto

2 Shallots, Chopped

1 T Olive Oil

12 oz Arborio Rice

1/2 Cup White Wine

2 Ears White Corn

4 Cups Corn Stock*

1 T Fresh Thyme Leaves

Salt & Pepper to taste

2/3 C Parmesan Cheese

*To make corn stock, shave off kernels of corn in to a bowl and then scrape the cobs with the back of a knife to get all the juice and pulp left in the cob. Add the corn kernels and pulp and juice to 6 cups water and boil until it is about 4 cups in volume. Add salt to taste.

Saute the shallot in olive oil until soft and add rice. Stir for about 5 minutes or until opaque. Add wine and stir until all wine is absorbed. Add the corn stock about 1 cup at a time stirring constantly. When adding the last cup of stock, add the thyme leaves. Stir until rice is tender, if you need to add more liquid, use water or chicken stock. Add cheese at the last minute.

If you want to add a protein, this is the time to do it....sauteed shrimp, scallops & calamari is what we opted for with just a drizzle of truffle oil. You could do chicken as well or add mushrooms for an earthy flavor.

For the Risotto cakes, start with cooled risotto, best if refrigerated. Melt a little butter in a nonstick skillet. Shape risotto into a cake about 3/4" thick. Pan fry on both sides over medium heat until crispy. The might fall apart a little, just nudge it back together....it'll hold. :)

Just like I found out tonight that some things, no matter how far apart they have fallen, can come back together and hold.

Meat & Puddin' for two

Oh what to do....got meatloaf & gravy, but no potatoes to mash and serve with it.

This was my quandary a few nights ago as I conjured up a meal from ingredients I had in my freezer, fridge & pantry. This is something I do often as I generally have enough food in my home to cook for a family of 4 for a week. I didn't want to go to the store this night and challenged myself to suck it up and get creative. Not wanting to go to the store is a fairly common event in my life as I am a self admitted food hoarder. I buy things because they look good, are on sale, are interesting or because I think that I might be out of them and God forbid I run out. At one point I had 5 jars of julienned sun-dried tomatoes from Trader Joe's in the pantry. I think this is when I realized I had a problem.

My half hour drive home from work definitely has its benefits...I can unwind, enjoy the solitude and conjure up what to make for dinner. This particular morning I defrosted a package of bone in country pork ribs (stocked up when they were on sale!) and thought about a dozen different ways to make something tasty...and then it hit me. Pork Meatloaf. With bacon in it. (Pork fat rules!!) And some other stuff mixed in . And maybe gravy. Got green beans (yay!). And then I hit a wall.

The man I love's face popped in to my head with a sad face because I had not tackled the starch/carbs yet. Knowing I had no potatoes and only Fried Rice a Roni in the house for easy substitutes, I racked my brain to find an alternative.

Thanksgiving on the brain helped, because as my thoughts went from meat & gravy to starch and to my plate at the table...and what is always dressed in a little in gravy at the table in late November? My moms awesome stuffing! I mentally patted myself on the head because I had a beautiful loaf of Challah left over from a recent shopping/hoarding expedition that I had yet to put to use.

Mental inventory of the kitchen revealed the lack of sausage, which is a key ingredient in stuffing in my house.

So my thoughts turned then to a bread pudding type side dish with no sausage (sniff), but with the fresh eggs from my Papas chickens, wild mushrooms and caramelized onion cheddar. Can you say winner winner???

For the meatloaf....first I trimmed out the meat from the bone, it was about a pound and a half piece, good for 2 people :) Then we hauled out the Kitchen Aid mixer with the grinder attachment and ground up our meat. If you are grinding this yourself, it is best if the meat is chilled to the point of being almost frozen when grinding.

Take the trimmed bone, add water enough to cover it (about 3 cups), chop up a small onion, 1 carrot & 1 celery stalk. Simmer for about a half hour - an hour, skimming any fat off the top. Strain and set aside.

Then we cut up:
1 small onion, fine dice
1 carrot, fine dice
1 garlic clove, minced
3 strips thick cut bacon, chopped fine

Saute in olive oil until tender, add 1/2 cup red wine and simmer until almost all the wine is evaporated. Let cool and add to the ground meat.

Add 1 egg, 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs, 1 1/2 T salt or salt based seasoning (i.e. garlic salt, Lawrys...whatever your preference) and crack some fresh pepper in to it.


Mold in to a log and bake for 45 minutes at 375. The loaf should read 160 degrees internally when you bring it out. Let the loaf rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing.

For the Puddings....

Dice up 1 1/2 cups stale bread-can be egg bread, challah, sourdough or whatever you have hanging around.

Whip together:
1 large egg
2/3 cup Milk (can be any % fat you want, it will just be richer with a higher content)
1/4 cup grated cheese (I used the caramelized onion cheddar from Trader Joe's)
About 1 T salt
dash of white pepper
1/2 cup chopped wild mushrooms (re hydrated and squeezed dry or if fresh, saute for a few to release the water)

Drench bread in the milk mixture and let it sit for a few minutes to let the bread absorb everything. Stir around if needed. Butter 2-4oz ramekins and scoop bread mixture in the ramekins. Bake with the meatloaf for about 30-40 minutes. They will hopefully look like this!

And then the gravy.....

Homemade gravy is not really that hard to make and sure beats the heck out of any package mix I have ever opened.

If you have fat drippings from the meatloaf (you should have a little), scoop or drain that in to a small sauce pan. Add about 3 T butter and 4 T Flour. Stir together over low heat until it is all blended and starts to smell a little like peanut butter (I am not crazy, I promise, it will). Start adding your homemade stock a little bit at a time, whisking the mixture to blend it and make it smooth. It should thicken up as it hits a boil. Season with salt and if it is too light (pork gravy tends to be), add a little Magi seasoning to make it more "meaty".

And the gravy absolutely goes on the bread pudding...decadent yes, but oh so tasty. I do hope you enjoy!

Labor Day food love

Holiday weekends just to me scream food...they beg for us to eat, drink & be merry amongst our friends and family. To celebrate the folks that are fallen, the fighting, the working and the fact that we are here, healthy & happy.

Having held a job in restaurants, bars, catering companies & hotels since I was 18, holidays tend to mean that you are working your rear off serving the folks that actually get the days off. This is one of the first Labor Day weekends I can remember that I have not really had to work. Sure, I went in this weekend for a few hours for a couple of sites...but no huge weddings, no events that require me to miss out on the multiple nights of family and friends gathering to celebrate the holiday.

I've been invited to Mom & Dad's house for three nights running, and beyond some kitchen wench assistance & clean up duties I have pretty much been spoiled with awesome meals all weekend long. After posting my Friday night meal on Facebook and getting responses from friends like "My invitation must have gotten lost", "If it wasn't for Chinese takeout, I'd be knocking on your door" and "Can I move in with you?" I decided to share the whole darn weekend and include a few recipes of Moms' since they are so darn awesome. :)

** means the recipe has been shared :)

Friday night-Mom, Dad, Brock & I

Fried Green Tomato Salad with Grilled Shrimp & Ancho Chile Mayo **
Grilled Ribeye Steaks
Emerald Double Stuffed Potatoes **

Saturday night-Same, + Uncle Brian, Aunt Laura & Awesome Cousin Delany

Kick a** salsa & chips
Cheetos-both crispy & puffy (family tradition, we can't not have them at a party)

Cucumber Mint Mojitos **

Bratwurst & Sauerkraut
Sweet Bi Color Corn from Underwood Family Farms
Green Salad with Dad's Tomatoes & Avocados and Hearts of Palm
Angel Food Cake, Sliced Strawberries & Whipped Cream

Sunday night-Mom, Dad, & I + "The Gang". Couples my parents have been friends with for 30+ years, considered part of the family. As you will see it is a communal effort as everyone contributes!

Cocktail Hour (or two)
Prosciutto Wrapped Melon
Balsamic Glazed Mushrooms **super easy awesome hors d' oeuvre
Terry's 50's style Spinach Dip
Ron's House Smoked Salmon

Dinner

Gourmet Burgers on the grill with ALL the fixing's (MJ & JB's Tomatoes-gorgeous!)
Potato Chips
Riki's Crunchy Asian Cole Slaw
Susans "to die for" Rocky Road Cake **No recipe included, it takes about 2 days to make so I will let her keep making it for us :)

Obviously not all the recipes are needed as they are everyday items that you will find in almost every household on Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends. The ones that I am sharing are the out of the norm, fun and different and I hope you enjoy them as much as we do! If there is something you want that I neglected to share, feel free to ask and I will share it with you!

Cheers, hope your weekend was as great as mine!

Fried Green Tomatoes with Grilled Shrimp & Ancho Chile Mayo
Serves 4

2 Medium-Large Unripe Green Tomatoes, sliced about 1/2” thick
(should give you about 2 slices per person)
16 Medium Shrimp
Field Greens

About 1 cup Dixie Fry
2 Eggs, beaten with some water for egg wash
Cornmeal
Vegetable Oil for frying

Dressing-mix it all together
1 C Mayo
1 T Lemon Juice
½ T Paprika
¾ tsp Ancho Chile Powder or Cayenne Pepper
¼ C Honey

Dredge tomatoes in Dixie Fry, then egg wash and then cornmeal (all on separate plates/bowls) and fry in a large nonstick skillet until lightly browned. Drain on paper towels (I recommend you keep them warm on the BBQ while you grill the shrimp). Speaking of which….season the shrimp with S&P, spray a BBQ grill rack with non stick goodness and heat on medium. Grill shrimp until perfectly pink.

Place greens on a salad plate, top with tomatoes & shrimp and then drizzle, drop or plop some of the mayo mixture over the salad.

mmmmmmmmm………Baja meets the South courtesy of my Mama!

Emerald Double Stuffed Potatoes
4 Servings

2 Large Russet Potatoes, Baked and split in half lengthwise (do I need to tell you to poke them before baking?)

Scoop out the insides to a big bowl and add:

1/4 C Milk
1 T Butter
¼ C Non Fat Sour Cream or Non Fat Yogurt
6 Slices of Bacon, Cooked & Crumbled

2 Small Zucchini, Shredded Fine and Squeezed DRY
1 Green Onion, Chopped
1/8 T Dried Dill Weed or ¼ tsp Fresh Dill
1/8 C Parsley, Chopped Fine

Salt & Pepper to Taste

Mix everything together and refill the potato skins. Sprinkle with parmesan if you wish…we do because we love cheese. Reheat in a 350 degree oven. Super tasty and a great way to get veggies in to the diet in disguise.

Cucumber Mint Mojitos
Makes 3 or 4 depending on how big your glasses are. :)

Peel & Slice ½ of a Cucumber

Muddle in a bowl and then add:
2 T Sugar or Splenda
Generous handful of fresh mint on the stem

Muddle again
Add the juice of 1 lime
Add 1 cup of Rum (white)

Let this sit in the fridge or on the counter for a few hours

Strain into a bowl or cup and the squish the cucumber/mint mixture down so as to extract maximum flavor & alcohol from it.

Fill a rocks glass 2/3 with ice. Fill a martini shaker 2/3 with crushed ice and pour Mojito mix in to it and shake until super cold. Strain in to the glass leaving about an inch from the top. Squeeze in some lime juice & top with club soda. Garnish with peeled cucumber ribbons & fresh mint springs. Sooooooo refreshing!

Balsamic Glazed Mushrooms

16oz Buttom or Crimini Mushrooms
3 T Butter
¼ C Balsamic Vinegar (may need more to deglaze)
1/8 C Brown Sugar
Salt to taste

Sauté Mushrooms in a large pan (do not “crowd the mushrooms” a la Julia Child)

When the mushrooms start to release their water, add the Balsamic and stir over medium heat until the balsamic starts to get syrup-y. Add the brown sugar and stir until mushrooms are glazed, beautiful and shiny. If you need to add more vinegar to coat, feel free, the syrup will get a little less thick as the mushrooms continue to lose their water. Salt to taste and serve with nothing more than a toothpick.