After an Extended Period of Absence...

Wow! Its been a MONTH since my last post! As you can see above, I have been cooking, just not posting... at all. For which I must apologize... to myself mostly. This site is pretty much showcasing my efforts toward learning the culinary arts. I give any prospective employer in food service the address to this site so they can see I actually have SOME ability. But I just have not updated because I have been very busy... which is a great thing.

I continue to search for work... which, if done right, can become pretty much a full time job. And it has paid off. I have had many interviews here and there, and I actually have had a few prospects lined up. One of these still looks very promising, in fact I am pretty much hired, just waiting to hear from the chef about the schedule.

That's right, a job in the kitchen. Hopefully it pulls through. Until then I have also had a few electrical side jobs here and there, and I continue to work at the ongoing project at Dan and Jackie's. 

So as I said, I've been pretty busy. Still, I want to try and keep this up. So now I'll showcase the main dishes I prepared over the past month...

... First I actually want to discuss a new facet to my culinary inspiration: Food Network. More precisely, Alton Brown. This guy knows what he's talking about. Watching his show, "Good Eats," is fascinating. Having never been to a culinary institute, I may not know much about what I am saying, but this show is so packed with valuable information, it seems to me that it is the closest you can get to actually attending without spending loads of money you don't have.

That is, if you can catch all the information that suddenly and quickly flies out of his mouth, right in the middle of and in between recipes. Thank you DVR. Call me cheap, lame, retarded, whatever... but I replay those large doses of information over and over to take notes.

Reading the forward of his book, "I'm Just Here For the Food," Brown admits that although most people are content just knowing how to do something, and not bothering with the why, for him to truly understand how something is done, he must first understand why it works. 

This is very interesting to me, as this is how I have always thought. Once I understand why something works the way it does, I know it will always work the same way, and I also understand (as with flavors and recipes) how I can manipulate the outcome.

So, long story short, Alton Brown rocks. To me, he's a great mentor on the beginning of the road to culinary expertise; Aptly nicknamed "the 'Bill Nye' of cooking."

Alright so I'm going to list no directions today... just ingredients, pictures, and a few remarks for the meals I've made; The first being the Stuffed Tomatoes pictured at the top. I'll leave it to you to figure out exactly how to recreate them... I can't remember. There's just way too much going on.

Stuffed Tomatoes
Tomatoes
Cilantro
Oregano
Olive Oil
Onions
Avocado
Lime Juice
Red Pepper
Egg
Bread Crumbs
Ground Beef
Salt and Pepper
Chedder Cheese

Spinach Salad With Bacon

Beef Bacon
Onion
Red Wine
Salt and Pepper
Boiled Eggs
Goat Cheese
Spinach

Lexie Rates this a 9 out of 10. Its pretty simple. Basically you fry the bacon and then fry the onion in the fat. Add the wine and seasoning and then reduce a bit. While still hot, add the rest and pour it over fresh spinach.Top with cheese. Easy.

Now for some corn tortillas...

 

Corn flour, milk, and salt... rolled into little balls...

Flatten...

as thin as possible.

peel off plastic

no oil...

Don't smash in a fit of anger... try, try, again...

Chopped Steak

Ground Beef

Cilantro

Oregano

Cumin

Salt

Black Pepper

Arbol Chiles

Garlic

Lime Juice

Flatten into thin steaks with holes in the middle. Fry onions and bell peppers and lay steaks on top. Leave until cooked. Do not flip patties. They will steam cook through their holes. Lexie gave these babies a full 10.

Sorry, no more pictures. The camera was full. However, I am determined to keep this blog up at least until I have regular employment. So check back soon.

Herb Kissed Roast Beef

Well, as I said in my last post, I have been doing a lot of cooking, but not much posting due to the job search and construction. Over the next few posts I will be posting recipes I have created over the past few weeks.

In addition to not posting, Lexie and I have also not really had the time to document my cooking with pictures lately. So the next few posts will have fewer pictures. Some posts will have only the final picture, and some will have only a few step by step photos.

Lexie rated my roast beef a 6. She says its pretty average. Not bad at all, but not amazing. I would tend to agree on this, as I accidentally got involved in something else and left the roast in the oven for too long. Usually we like our meat medium-rare, but as you can see, its more medium well to well done.

I think the vegetables turned out pretty well. Lexie agrees with a rating of 9.

 Ingredients:

1 bottom round roast

1/2 onion, sliced thick

1/2 onion, chopped fine

5 cloves garlic, minced

4 mushrooms, sliced

4 carrots, chopped

1 teaspoon basil

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

thyme

salt

pepper

1/2 cup red wine

Preparation Instructions:

 1. Preheat oven to 350. At the bottom of a baking dish add carrots, mushrooms, basil, white pepper, olive oil, 1/2 tablespoon of thyme, and half of the chopped onion and garlic. Season further to taste with salt and pepper. Mix together.

2. Wash the roast with water and dry thoroughly with a towel. Next, rub the roast all over with salt, pepper, and thyme.

3. Place roast on top of the vegetables in the baking dish and rub the rest of the chopped onion and garlic into the roast. Pour wine over the roast and vegetables.

4. Cover and cook in the oven for 30-40 minutes, then uncover and cook for 10-30 minutes more, depending on how well you desire your meat to be cooked. Remove the roast from the oven, let it set for twenty minutes, and then serve.

Potato Pancakes with Steak, Eggs and Gravy

Alright, I am determined to show my mistakes as well as my successes. In my last post I mentioned a chicken dinner that went awry. I'm not sure whether my mothers oven was at all to blame, but after following the recipe for Chicken Ballotine precisely, the bird turned out to be a mess.

Well... maybe 'precisely' is not the proper term. As I have noted already in this blog, I ALWAYS have to change something. In fact, sometimes I change a lot; maybe even too much. The ballotine recipe called for the chicken to be served cold. That did not sound very appetizing to me. Along with that, I did not have time to refrigerate it a day, and I wanted to cook it that night. 

So I did some research and found that Chicken Ballotine can be served hot. Not in this particular recipe... but all I had to do was change the stuffing a bit so that it could be sliced hot and still stay together right?

Wrong. After painstakingly taking the time and effort to carefully bone the chicken without piercing the skin, it was all for not. The spinach, goat cheese, and breadcrumb stuffing, in the end, was delicious, but I overstuffed the bird, and as it cooked, the bird seemed to crap out the green substance. And perhaps I did not put enough breadcrumbs in the mix, because when the bird was sliced, the stuffing that was still inside went everywhere. That's not so terrible. But then, on top of everything, parts of the bird were undercooked. Each slice had to be nuked in the microwave before eating because it was impossible to stick the thing back in the oven. This gave the meat a rubbery texture. At least I can blame that part on my mom's oven, because I followed the cooking instructions in the recipe to the letter.

 

The only thing that came out well was the sauce I made to go on top of everything. It is a clone of Carrabba's "Chicken Bryan" sauce that I found on Robbie's Recipes. This site is excellent for finding recipes of this nature. I have used it many times in the past.

So that was my latest misadventure in cooking. Since I have spent most of my time in the past week packing and moving, I did not have any economic or job searching experiences worth sharing. So I thought I'd give a little insight into my cooking knowledge: I'm still learning. But I learn by taking risks and experimenting. Its fun.

Now for my latest recipe that was not a complete disaster. On the contrary, it was given a 9.5 out of 10 by my beautiful wife, Lexie, as opposed to 1 out of 10 for the "Chicken Bryan Ballotine." You win some. You lose some.

Potato Pancakes with Steak, Eggs and Gravy 

  This is very helpful for the use of leftovers for the common roast beef dinner, including mashed potatoes and gravy. Like most traditional American breakfasts, it is not the most healthy, but it is delicious. I made it at my mothers house again (as all my dishes are packed away). 

Ingredients: 

Potato Pancakes 

1 cup leftover mashed potatoes

1 - 2 cups plain flour
1 - 2 cups milk

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt 

Mushroom and Steak Gravy 
1 cup leftover beef gravy
12 oz leftover roast beef (or steak), chopped

4 tablespoons butter

6 oz fresh field mushrooms, sliced

1 onion, sliced

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons A1 steak sauce
1 cup milk 

Eggs 

10 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk

parmesan cheese, shredded

Preparation Instructions:

 1. Make the pancake batter by whipping all ingredients together in a large bowl. For thicker pancakes, use less milk or more flour. For thinner pancakes use more milk or less flour. After batter is free of large clumps, set aside.

2. On medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter  in a medium saucepan. Add meat and stir-fry until browned. Next add onions and cook until softened. Now add mushrooms and basil and stir-fry until starting to soften and brown. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Add red wine vinegar and allow to cook for 3 more minutes, continually stirring. Next add steak sauce and cook for 2 minutes more as you stir. Finally add the gravy and milk. Mix well, cover, lower the heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally until the meal is completed.

4. Beat the eggs and milk in a large mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper and mix well. Melt some butter in a large frying pan and scramble the eggs in batches. Transfer to a serving bowl and top with parmesan cheese.

5. On medium heat, cook pancakes, one batch at a time in a slightly oiled frying pan. When finished, remove gravy from heat.

6. Serve with eggs and gravy over the potato pancakes. Serves 4-6.       

 

 

 I also cooked ham slices to serve on the side. Each slice was rubbed with a pinch of ginger and a pinch of cinnamon. Lexie gives the ham an 8.5. 

Picadillo

Moving day is in less than a week. Having done all we can to remedy our mortgage situation, there are no other options. Fortunately we have good friends that have found a way to be able to help us by giving us a place to stay, while we, in turn, help them remodel their house. Having known them since I was young, their son being the best man at my wedding, the living situation should be pretty easy to adjust to.  Either way, it will be an adventure. But we're extremely grateful to have friends like them!

So in a way, I have a job for the next six months. I'm still going to be searching for an independent source of income, and my wife will continue to be looking as well. The majority of the remodeling work in their home will be in the the kitchen, so it will be interesting to see how this blog unfolds, with a temporary kitchen set-up. There may be a lot of grilling! I intend to continue writing about my adventures in the job market and posting recipes. Not that anyone is really reading this, but I at least will try to be loyal to what I started.

In other news, this past weekend I tried a new recipe and failed at it. I have the pictures on another camera, so I'll be posting it later. The sauce came out well, and the chicken stuffing tasted great, but the chicken... oh, the chicken... I weep for it.

Yesterday, however, I again tried something new. Every time I try a recipe I always have to change it. Sometimes I don't have a certain ingredient on hand. But many times I just feel the need to put my own spin on things. Having never tasted the original dish before, I presumptuously think I have a better way of preparing it and go ahead and change it, sometimes a whole lot. I guess I just like to put myself into my work.

So today I am posting the outcome. Lexie gives it an 8 out of 10. However, being Nicaraguan, she says she's stuffed with Picadillo. I think she might be a little biased. Yet, she does admit this is one of the best she's had.

Ingredients:

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1/2 green pepper, finely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, finely chopped

1 tablespoon fresh oregano, finely chopped

2 plum tomatoes, 1 finely chopped

3 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoons corn flour

1 pound lean ground beef

1 teaspoon cumin

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup asiago cheese, shredded (optional)

1 teaspoon dried basil (optional)

Preparation Instructions: 

1. Before anything else, chop your vegetables and herbs. Blend the second tomato in a food processor and then mix in a small bowl with the ketchup and corn flour.

2. In a medium saucepan on medium heat, brown the meat. Season to personal preference with salt and pepper. Continually mix and break up the meat into small pieces with the spoon. Once no more pink is visible, drain. 

 

3. Add the chopped onion, garlic, pepper, cilantro, oregano, and tomato and cook, stirring, at low heat for 5 minutes.

 

 4. Add all other ingredients except the asiago cheese, mix well. Cook uncovered for 5 minutes or until slightly reduced. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10-15 minutes.

   

 

 5. Serve over rice. Having some extra asiago cheese from making Asiagoburgers, I mixed it with some basil and sprinkled it on top. This is optional, although it adds a great flavor to the meal. 4 servings.

  

Asiagoburgers With Salsa

Asiagoburger

with Avocado Salsa

The job search continues. It is truly amazing how few jobs you are actually able apply for before the sunlight fails and the day is used up. I have walked through malls, industrial parks, and shopping plazas handing out resumes and filling out applications. You can visit every business in a decent-sized plaza in anywhere from one to three hours depending on how many applications were available to complete. Some managers only want a copy of your resume. This is perfect because I have at least a hundred of them printed and ready to go.

If your in the situation of my family, where both husband and wife are unemployed and searching, it can take a little longer. And if you have a one year old son, no money for a babysitter, and only one car, the task can become a never ending, tedious, loathsome chore.

First of all, experts on job market analysis say that you don't want to appear desperate (which can be difficult to accomplish in these times). I feel that perhaps Lexie and I are too busy trying not to look pathetic sometimes! We will drive to a plaza and industrial park and one of us will go and work our charm with business owners while the other tries to appeal to the better side of our young son's attention span.

Once the area has been covered (and at times, before that), Harrison usually decides its time for a break; most of the time with a cranky whine that won't be quieted until lunching or napping. Everything's an event for him. Every moment is either a nuance or a nuisance. Life is either great or horrible it seems. There's no in between. But its an adventure for him and I'm still learning too.

In the middle of the day Lexie and I switch responsibilities. In the end, a lot of time is lost and very little ground is covered. But at least we keep at it. That's the most important part for anyone who is unemployed. Don't give up.

When you're applying online (as is mandatory with more than half the jobs available nowadays) either you send your resume to every possible inquiry on craigslist.org and become the target of every scam artist imaginable, or you spend hours and hours applying for one or two jobs because the company's website keeps crashing in the middle of their lame application program which has 500 questions about your friends in high school and whether or not you missed a day of work in the past year.

But we all know how it goes. Things can seem to become too complex to handle sometimes. Which is why I needed a burger for dinner tonight. Not fast food. A simple homemade burger. We went to my sister and brother-in-law's apartment and I cooked burgers for everyone there. I designed a special recipe for this Friday night feast. Not as simple as I originally planned, but Lexie gives it a 10 out of 10, meaning it was simply delicious.

Ingrediants:

2 pounds lean ground beef
1 cup asiago cheese, shredded
3 tablespoons dried basil
2 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoon ground red pepper
1 onion, finely chopped
1 avocado, pitted, skinned, and chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 green belle pepper, chopped
1 lime, halved

Preparation Instructions:

1. Toss the asiago cheese with 1 1/2 tablespoons of basil until mixed. Next knead ground beef, chili powder, red pepper, 1/2 the chopped onion, and the rest of the basil in a mixing bowl with your hands. When thoroughly combined, separate into eight equal parts.

2. Divide each 1/8 section in half again, roll into a ball, and then flatten to about 1 cm thick patties.

3. For every pair, sprinkle a about 1 tablespoon of the basil and cheese mix on top of one of the patties in the pair. Leave an edge of at least 1 cm. Next, carefully place the other patty on top and seal the pair together at the edge. Refrigerate.

4. Preheat grill. Prepare the salsa by adding the avocado, tomato, green pepper, and remaining onion in a mixing dish. Squeeze the juice from the limes into the dish and mix well.

5. Remove patties from the refrigerator and grill for 5-8 minutes on both sides or until cooked through. Serve with salsa as a condiment along with any others desired. Feeds 6-8.