Chaotic Kitchen

Don't get me wrong, I love the way a clean kitchen feels; BUT if I am cooking great food for a bunch of great people I expect my kitchen to be the epicenter of crazy. Thankfully I have the best friends a girl could ask for that are always asking and willing to help. Here is what we created this week!

Salmon Matecumbe  -This was a tasty recipe a made thanks to Dan's suggestion last week. I am trying to become a fish lover, one because of the Omega-3's and also because I think it opens up a ton of options for tasty food. This recipe proved reason number 2 to be true. I served with it some mildly mashed and buttered red potatoes, an eggplant feta salad with dressing made of garlic, red wine vinegar, chili powder, and olive oil. A friend also brought some toast for the side and someone else brought a tasty chocolate mousse to finish us off.


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Next up was my Smoked Ham: I used some indirect grilling and let that hunk of meat cook for a good 4-5 hours. About an hour and a half in I would sporadically brush it with this tasty Apricot Glaze (If I use this glaze again I'd lay off the mustard a little, or go for something a little more unique than the regular yellow stuff). The best accompaniment to this meal was the many people crowding around my little table.   There were some great scalloped and funeral potatoes that were brought and I grilled up some asparagus,  squash, and flat bread with a little help from my loyal partners EVOO, salt, and pepper.


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On Saturday some of my besties came by and we ate a delicious but simple meal. We grilled up some chicken breasts coating them with some Italian dressing along the way, made some more buttery red potatoes, and cooked some frozen peas and carrots. We ended the night with a lot of laughter and some mixed berry frozen yogurt.

Sunday morning I made some poppy seed muffins that came out a little weird looking and some toasted walnut brownies for my ward's recognition of future fathers day. We tied ribbons around empty plates and took them into priesthood (kind of joking that since they have no children they get no treats). Then we let them know that there was table, sure to make one slip into a diabetic coma, next to the kitchen where they could go load up their plates.

That's all I have for right now. If you are sick of reading about food you can either stop reading, find me another hobby, or even better find me a full-time job with benefits and I won't have the absurd amount of time to cook and blog anymore. Looking to the future I think I am going to make a tasty potato soup with my leftover ham bone and probably some stacked enchiladas because they sound really delicious.

My Palate is Pleased

It is two weeks into summer vacation and, well, I am  bored. There is only so many job applications one can fill out and I made a trip last week to Phoenix to let schools know who I am. Right now I check every morning if something new has posted and I wait. In the mean time I scour the internet looking for delicious food to make. (Note that I am living all by myself because my roommates left and I can only really cook two or three times a week because otherwise I am left with an immense amount of left overs)

Last week:
Alfredo the Dark x2
Cuban Pulled Pork Tacos with Guava Glaze, Sour Orange Red Cabbage-Jicama Slaw and Chipotle Mayonnaise on the Food Network
Bananas Foster Ice Cream and Homemade Waffle Cones

I apologize for the lack of pictures, Mom I will get out my camara next time-because all of these are worth making again and again.

A little commentary:
Alfredo the Dark is my absolute favorite dish from Oreganos. Mmm, I salivate just thinking about it. It is half alfredo/half white mac and cheese. About a week ago I decided I was going to clone it. Last night my friend Clary and I worked round three. It still needs some work but here are the basics. Toast 3/4 of a pablano pepper and 3 cloves of garlic in a skillet with some EVOO. Wait for a delicious smell to overcome your senses and then pour in 1/4 cup of stock. Proceed to pour in 2.5 cups of heavy cream and let it simmer until it reduces and becomes half of what it once was. Meanwhile boil some spiral macaroni noodles. Once your cream sauce is reduced add a soup bowl full of freshly grated "southwest cheeses" (I developed this recipe based on a menu description hence the quotations).*** I interpreted southwest cheeses to be Monterrey Jack, Queso Fresco, and a little parmigiana. I am still trying to figure out if it is the correct blend.*** When your noodles are perfect and drained add your sauce to them. Plate the meal by adding some shaved grilled chicken, roma tomatoes, and cilantro on top and serving with a really crisp and crunchy southwest garlic toast.
To create the full meal it is required to immediatly after indulge in a Pizzookie. When I have perfected this recipe I will clean everything up, add an ingredient list, and give you a picture. Right now it is a work in progress.

The Pulled Pork tacos were honestly the most beautifully grouped combination of flavors anyone could ever ask for. Bobbly Flay is my favorite food network chef and I love his recipes. The recipe is linked above. A few notes about this, I do not have a fancy roasting box, I have a grill, a disposable foil pan and  heavy duty aluminum foil. Set one burner of the grill on low and let it cook. Also I just used Simply Orange instead of Fresh Orange Juice. Oh and I used a loin instead of a butt, the loin was on sale. Yes the prep says 13 hours but 1. Most of the time you are not doing anything 2. IT IS WORTH IT. I would not eat slaw on its own, but on the taco it is dynamite. I can not express the explosion of flavor you will experience. If you will not make it your self, let me know and I will make sure you come to my house and eat it.

I fed the missionaries the tacos on Saturday and on Sunday I was talking to my friend at church about how great it was. I told her she could ask the Elders if she wanted another witness, she did. While discussing the tacos and all of the beauty of the combinations of flavors Elder B was pretty much drooling. He then stopped and said, "But is was nothing compared to the alcohol ice cream she served us." Tsk tsk, serving the missionaries alcohol. Absolutely not! I had made Bananas Foster Ice Cream earlier that week and asked if they wanted some. Then everyone asks, whats Bananas Foster. Answer: Bananas caramelized in a Rum syrup, aka delicious. For this I used Our Best Bites Caramelized Banana Ice Cream but added some rum extract to the butter when making the bananas and replaced part of the vanilla extract for rum extract in the ice cream part. When using rum extract it is important to remember that you only need a little. 1 TBSP of rum is equal in flavor to 1/2 tsp of extract. (I am also all about justifying the use of alcohol in cooking. Just so you know 1Tbsp of Vanilla Extract has about the same alcohol content as 1 Tbsp of a Premium Rum--yet for some reason nobody calls Vanilla Ice Cream, alcohol ice cream). It was really great.

This week I am smoking a ham (I have to clean out my freezer before I move) and probably grilling some salmon. For dessert I want to make a coconut cake I found on foodnetwork.com. If anyone has a great labor intensive recipe they want me to try because they are just to busy let me know. If you are in the Tucson area I will even invite you over to eat it.

Baseball: My New Favorite Sport

This is a shocker even to myself. Here it goes. Baseball is my new favorite sport. I will always be better at basketball, I will always enjoy basketball, and March is still one of the greatest times of the year; but baseball is a great sport.
There are several things that make it great.

6. It is in the spring (if you are watching college or training) so the weather in Arizona is fantastic. Nothing like a night game with a gentle breeze. I will admit that for the last 2 days the weather was not the greatest but it was worth all 9 hours of sitting in 103 degree weather.
5. The uniforms. I will openly admit that I enjoy baseball for the same reason many female fans do, this view right here. Nothing like them warming up.

4. It's slow. Previously I would have complained about how slow it was, but I now find it relaxing. I don't have to stand and cheer the whole game I can just relax, count the pitches, crunch some statistics, and enjoy nature and friends.

3. It's predictable and unpredictable all at the same time. The coaches (and myself, yes I am one of those fans) spend so much time analyzing the speed of the pitch, the weaknesses and strengths of the batter, trends during the game, what signs the other team is throwing. Do you check the guy at first, do you pitch for the ground ball hoping to make a double play, do you give it to your guys in the outfield trusting the batter won't be able to muscle it over the fence. In the end once the ball is thrown and the bat makes contact everything changes. It doesn't matter the signs because maybe he hit it of a different part of the bat, the wind caught the ball, the 2nd baseman got the yips, it flew straight to the SS glove. Anything can happen. I could continue for hours on end but I won't.

(Yes that is me on ESPN, looking at the dugout trying to predict what will be thrown, next to me is Rachael the stats girl)
2. It's crazy hard to hit a ball coming at 90 mph with a little bat. The sound of the contact echoing through stadium is true beauty. If you can get a hit 3 times out of 10 you are GREAT. I believe the greatest feeling in sports has to be a home run.
1. You have to finish the game. In football, baseball, and soccer you get a lead and play keep away. The time runs out and you win. Not in baseball, even if you have the lead you have to pitch to them. You have to get the outs.   

This blog is brought to you by my supreme happiness resulting from Arizona's weekend sweep of St. Johns and the resulting advancement to the NCAA championship series in Omaha. Let's play Ball.

Acknowledgments to Burke and Becky for introducing me to and teaching me about the game and how to love it. Also to Jett for being a great catcher and unknowingly being the victim of my lusting eyes. Rachael for her great score book keeping. The scouts that show us their radar reads and chat about the players they are looking at. Lastly to America for making it your pastime.