12 July 2012

Exotic States Make Beautiful Meals Together

Meat wasn’t the only thing I ate in Hawaii. Fresh fish—like the fresh fruit I didn’t eat as much of as I should have—abounds, making it easy to access never-frozen cuts of tuna or ono that are literally straight off the boat. To fill my taste-buds’ desire to go back to that pescetarian paradise, I dipped into my stash of Copper River salmon. This fish hails from that other non-contiguous state, Alaska, and tastes oh so goooood that I wanted to add as little to it as possible to work with the natural flavors of this oily fish. Hawaii, meet Alaska. You’re going to make beautiful meals together…
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05 July 2012

Dear Watermelon, Thanks For Refreshing Me


I am newly obsessed with watermelon. I’ve been eating it lately as though I’ve never tried it before and it’s some new exotic food. Not that I didn’t like it before, but if given the option of other fruit I’d gladly take other fruit. I’ll eat melon, but it isn’t typically one of those “I can’t wait to eat more of THAT” foods. Until now. Either this summer’s watermelon crop has been super juicy and flavorful or my tastebuds finally just caught on to how refreshing (and re-hydrating) watermelon is.

As I mentioned in my last post, watermelon is 97% water. When ripe, it is the juiciest, meatiest, tastiest (in my opinion), of all the melons. Again, I’m not a huge melon fan so call me biased, but I think watermelon = best idea ever when the temps keep climbing. One watermelon can go a long way, so to make up for not posting in all of June I’ve included three, yes THREE!, no-cook recipes for you below that all utilize watermelon. One of ’em even has booze in it to boot. One watermelon is enough to make all three of these on different nights throughout the week…or have one watermelon-y themed dinner. Eat up, drink up, and cheers!
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01 July 2012

Went to Hawaii and all I got was 2 lousy pounds…

Eating this pineapple lamp is not the same as eating an actual pineapple.

You may have noticed that I managed to go the entire month of June without publishing a post. “Nicely done!” you’re thinking, unless it’s “Slacker!” Yeah. June = on holiday. The BF and I packed up and left Colorado for the garden island on June 15. Our dear friends who live in Kauai got married on the summer solstice.  So, I spent the first part of June planning and prepping for the trip and the later half being on said trip. But you can still think I’m a slacker. I know I do.

I ATE SO MUCH FOOD in Hawaii. And to be honest I ate so much meat! I may have eaten my weight in meat. Not joking. Seriously. There were two luaus, several days of tacos for breakfast, the rare times I remembered to eat fish, followed up by more meat in the form of flank steak, additional servings of pork shoulder straight out of the pressure cooker, and so on…

I did manage to work in some fresh papaya and mango, a few pieces of watermelon, delicious bananas straight off the tree and a lot of coconut. At the rehearsal dinner the officiant even grabbed a fallen coconut and hacked it open with a machete. Fresh coconut and the water inside puts a whole new light on “straight from the source.” But mostly, I ate a lot of meat. After conferring with Christopher Flower, a personal trainer at Form Fitness, my lean muscle mass is the same as it was pre-trip (must have been all that hiking and sea-kayaking) but I’m carrying a few new pounds that are either fat or water. I’m also jet-lagged and puffy and generally annoyed at having to come back to real life.
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31 May 2012

Chicken Soup, Tokyo Style

After the last post about eggs, several of you emailed me to say that you too, A) love eggs, and B) would love to find other new ways to prepare them. So it’s just perfect timing that not only was I craving chicken noodle soup, but that the only noodles I had in the house were udon noodles. Udon are wheat noodles and a staple in Japanese soups and cooking. Many udon soups feature eggs: a cracked egg on top or a boiled or pickled whole egg. I chose to soft-boil these eggs to add a creamy texture and taste. By adding some other Asian flavors, this soup combines the traditional udon soups with the classic American chicken noodle soup with wonderful results!
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22 May 2012

The Simple Pleasure of a Simple Dinner

Sometimes there is nothing so pleasing as a simply prepared dinner and there’s just something about a steak dinner that makes you feel like you’re celebrating something—even if that something is Tuesday! Flank steak is a very lean red meat option and it lends itself well to braising or grilling. When I have the foresight, I marinate mine overnight as the steak will soak up all the delicious flavors of whatever it’s left to bathe in. If you forget to marinate the steak, you can always make the marinade and brush the steak with it while it’s grilling. While the flavor won’t be as rich, it will still be oh so goooooooood.
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17 May 2012

Poached Eggs + Baked Risotto = YUM

My most recent obsession is finding new ways (or at least new-to-me ways) of preparing and eating eggs. Eggs—a protein which once seemed so simple—have now become a medium to experiment with. If you didn’t already know, for the past few years I’ve been helping a friend keep chickens. Now that I regularly eat farm fresh eggs from chickens I know and feed and chase after, I’ve branched out in how I use eggs in my cooking. Where it once seemed enough to know about scrambled, fried, and hard-boiled eggs, now I can’t help but crave the creamy taste of soft-boiled, poached, and baked eggs. I mean, after all, I gotta give those hens something to squawk about…
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09 May 2012

One Pot Meals: Chicken Corn Chili

One pot meals. Yeah! What? Where’s your enthusiasm? All right, so you could accuse me of being lazy. That’s fine. Point your bony finger in my direction. Sometimes saving time is a lifesaver. I’m a busy girl. A gal on the go. That shouldn’t be shocking to you. So. Here we are. With a gorgeous cast iron dutch oven that just begs to have soups and stews made inside in a moment’s notice. And nothing is more satisfying after a long or stressful or frenetic day than being able to throw a decent and delicious meal together. So put that bony finger back on the top of your knife and let’s get cracking sassy britches…
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06 May 2012

Greet Warm Weather With A Grilled Pear Salad

So. It’s May. Which yeah yeah means warmer weather. But you would think I live south of the Mason-Dixon the way the temperatures have been around here. It’s been in the 70s since March. March! Hell, it usually snows in May and no one can get plants in the ground til after Mother’s Day. Now we’re all kicking ourselves for not planting sooner to take advantage of the longest growing season Colorado has seen in some time. (Until it snows this week, of course, which is totally will now that I’ve written this).

Inspired by the increasing temperatures (and the sudden bevy of mosquitoes that have arrived months earlier than they planned to) I thought a nice salad with grilled accoutrements was the perfect way to celebrate our unexpected streak of sunshine. Hello sunshine.
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25 April 2012

Shrimp Fer Snackin’ Or Salad

I don’t know why I never thought about eating shrimp as a snack before. I mean, sure, cocktail shrimp totally has the snacking shrimp nailed, but I just never made the total connection. This recipe is good for snacking but honestly I think works best on top of a salad. It’s an easy meat to prep on Sunday and add to lunches all week long. And it’s SOOOOOO easy! And easy is a busy person’s friend.
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13 April 2012

Calling Cooks: Denver Bacon Takedown April 22


Fifteen pounds of Hormel Black Label Bacon. Twenty local cooks. One bacon tour bus. It’s the stuff of dreams: The Denver Bacon Takedown.

Matt Timms, the man of the hour and el hefe of The Takedown food competitions, is back in town next week spreading the blissful bacon gospel. Since 2003, Timms has been touring the country giving home cooks an opportunity to live out their very own Iron Chef fantasies. He’s the brains behind last year’s Avocado Takedown and past events––in cities like Austin, Boston, Chicago, Houston, and Seattle, to name a few––have allowed cooks to duke it out with original recipes involving cookies, fondue, salsa, and more.

Here’s how it works: Interested cooks contact Timms. Each contestant gets a massive amount of the key ingredient (in this case, 15 lbs. of pork belly product). Contestants come up with any dish their creative culinary minds can concoct. Winners get a bevy of prizes from such awesome peeps as Cuisinart, Le Creuset, and Wusthof. (I just swooned.)

Le sigh. If only I could be there. Oh yeah, that’s the craptacular part. I’ll be in Texas on other non-bacon related business. The word for that is BULLSHIT. The word for the Denver Bacon Takedown is AMAZING. When Timms hit me up my first thought was, “I should quit my job, clearly.” But no job=no money for bacon. So there’s that. So instead, I’m spreading the word about this truly awesome event.

Spectators welcome. It’s a mere $15 to watch the delicious carnage unfold. That feeling of needing to take your pants off after gorging on the salty smoky sweetness? Gratis.

The Denver Bacon Takedown takes place at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 22, 2012 at Casselman’s. For more information about the Denver Bacon Takedown, to sign up to compete, or to buy tickets, check out the website at thetakedowns.com.

Bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon. Yup.

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