Two "foodies" dine out

Last night we had the blissful pleasure of having a family meal out with friends. This is such a pleasure, mostly due to the fact that we rarely do this as a family. Budget and common sense often plays a role in the fact that we don't eat out very often.

As a practice when I want to have a "date night" I will purchase some wine, fresh salad, and create a masterpiece meal with the prime rib steaks that I have in my freezer. These steaks are usually purchased 1-2 times per year, Christmas and 4th of July (or a 3-day weekend). Typically you can find these fabulous steaks on sale for $4-6 per steak. So when we eat our date night meals, we have the comfort of home, great food and meal that would typically cost $60 for the family, all for $20.

Did I ever mention that sometimes I am waaaay too practical?

Last night our adventure took us to the Burlington Cafe, which was our local Costco's business of the month. As the business of the month I swiped a menu to check-out, and viola they have cajun food!! Now unless I want to drive to Everett and eat at Alligator Soul (great bisque btw) Jason and I have not found a local Cajun restaurant that we have enjoyed. It has been since college and Mama's Cookin' Cajun in Ellensburg that we have found such fantastic down home Louisiana cookin'. The Burlington Cafe seemed like a good prospect to us.

We called up some friends, and made the plans to dine out. Now at first glance the cafe looks very retro, and doughty, even as we were seated in the back room (the Cafe at 5:30 was mostly empty) I was having my inner doubts. Trying to "be in the moment" I let it go and waited for our friends. Now as an area of growth (as we teachers call it), the cafe should invest in some dollar store crayons and coloring books for the kiddos, this is something that is needed for sure.

With a fresh coat of paint, and some great mardi-gras motif the Cafe was fun and entertaining. The kiddos dined on chicken strips and french fries, which were good but nothing spectacular. My friends ordered chicken fried steak with gravy, it came with corn and garlic mashed potatoes. As a fan of Chef Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares, the first thing that I thought of when I saw the chicken fried steak was that they were serving them two meals. The portions were so large that I would have easily made 2 meals out of it. Chef Ramsey believes and I tend to agree that if your food is good enough and of quality ingredients you can sell smaller portions and people will buy them. The cafe could learn a thing from this lesson.

Jason and I ordered a "Cajun Hot Pot" that was essentially a Cajun bouillabaisse, with mussels, clams, craw fish, shrimp, scallops and andouille. This was served with fried okra, that was outstanding, and cornbread. After mass consumption of the Hot Pot here is the general gleen of what we decided about our dinner.

The soup was good, it had full body, and many layers of flavor. All of the seafood was fresh, except for the craw fish. I had only one scallop that was over-cooked, and the rest of the seafood was melt-in your mouth good. The shrimp was not over cooked and chewy, over all a great eat.

So go for it!

Moose Spaghetti ala Low-Carb

As a fabulous kitchen diva I love to cook, eat and bake. From time to time my beloved husband likes to throw me a curve ball or two about what I cook in the kitchen. Most recently he has decided that he wants to eat "no-carb", but as a educated kitchen diva I do realize that none of something is only a temporary solution.

In order to appease my husband I offer low-carb solutions. When I do this I like to focus on higher fiber, smaller portions and overall healthier eating. Last night was one of those nights.

I keep a standard of home-made spaghetti sauce in the freezer for just such a night. For my princess daughter I boil regular spaghetti noodles, and for the husband I steam a spaghetti squash for 20-35 minutes in the microwave. This is a healthy solution to my husbands new diet, we also had Moose Italian sausage in the mix this time as well. Why moose... well it was what I had in the freezer that was easily accessible.

I was the one who made the Italian sausage, what with a little garlic, fennel, salt, pepper and vinegar, you can turn almost any ground meat into sausage. It was delicious and easy to make.

Me and the Ginger genie

So today I had a little more time at home to work on dinner than usual. With a ham thawed I decided that it is springy enough to create one of my culinary favorites. Baked ham with Raisin Chutney!!

As far as the ham goes, I simply placed the ham into an oven bag and let-er-rip. Those oven bags are phenomenal, and with the fabu-l-ous Chutney that has all of my family asking for more I knew that glazing was over-rated!!

Now once upon a time, when I had TV, I was watching one of the cooking goddesses on the Food Network. This goddess explained that when you buy ginger, if you have left overs peel it and freeze it. It supposedly grates easier, and will stay fresh until you need it.

Well my problem is that I always forget what I have in my freezer, thus I end up with three or four "nodes" of garlic in my freezer. Peeled and ready to grate, mind you I have never actually attempted grating frozen ginger, but today is the day.

So I gather up the ingredients for my Chutney, happily chopping onions, and getting out my trusted IKEA grater, the fine one. Now while you could grate into the plastic bowl that is too huge for this particular job, I opt for a standard serving bowl. Please let me share why I love the grater from IKEA the most...

1. It came as a two pack, and I shared one with my Mommy!!
2. It has fine and coarse grater.
   
3. You actually grate into a container, that comes with a lid. All the extra cheese or whatever is easily stored for later.
4. It's dishwasher safe
5. It is a simple design... I hate it when food gets stuck in cracks and crevices of fancy graters.
6. It was under $10!!
   

As you may learn I hardly ever like to spend a fortune on my kitchen gadgets, and I like to make sure they are multi-use!

Back to the Ginger... so I have the grater out, and the bowl ready. I retrieve one of my gingers, from the collection in my freezer. I choose to rinse it off, this particular one had ice in the baggie. Then I start to grate, which starts out going wonderfully. About 10-15 grates into the process I realize something... the ginger is flippin' cold!!! Too cold for my wondrous hands, so I do what any sensible kitchen diva would, I grab a paper towel and wrap the ginger. Being careful not to shred the paper I continue to grate, and guess what... the Food Network Goddess was right!! It worked!! The ginger grated like a dream, when wrapped in a paper towel. So go for it... grate your frozen ginger, just remember to wrap it for insulation!!

A little bit of Heaven - low carb

Last year I attempted to create a little bit of heaven when I was on vacation at Whistler. I attempted eggs benedict, this was my very first attempt at poaching eggs. Needless to say the eggs were pathetic, over cooked and my dear sweet sister scrubbed a pan for a good 1/2 an hour after this attempt.

Tonight I re-attempted the Eggs Benedict (sans the bread), and after a few mishaps created Heaven!!

Here is what I did:

1. Get all ingredients out and ready, it comes togethor quickly.
   
2. Fry up the ham, then keep it warm while you make the Hollandaise Sauce.
3. Use a non-stick pan for the poaching of the eggs, this cuts back on the scrubbing that will ensue later.
   
4. Watch a video on about.com on how to create beautiful Hollandaise sauce.
   

Hollandaise Sauce Ingredients (from about.com)

To make Hollandaise sauce, you'll need:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• dash of cayenne pepper or hot pepper sauce
• 2 tablespoons hot water

Warm the Butter

Begin by warming the butter in a saucepan until it's foamy. Medium heat should be enough. It's critical the butter doesn't cook too long. If it browns, you might as well start over.

Mix the Ingredients

While the butter is melting, crack the eggs and separate the yolks. In a bowl, either beat or whisk the yolks with salt, lemon juice, and your preferred hot stuff.

Continue beating and move back to the stove. Turn to low heat and gradually add your mixture to the warmed butter.

Still stirring, pour in the water a tablespoon or so at a time. This way, the sauce doesn't become too thick. You should get about two thirds of a cup.

A nice, pale yellow color is the objective.

Customize the Hollandaise Sauce

Tinkering with this recipe is simple, as you flavor to your own taste. In fact, that's how ritzy Bernaise sauce came about, as wine, vinegar, tarragon, and shallots are cooked in a Hollandaise base.

Serve the Sauce

Although it will keep for 30 minutes, serve Hollandaise sauce as quickly as possible. Pour it atop Eggs Benedict or pool around warm meat. It's an easy way to add a little elegance and history to your main dish.

Making sure that you don't cook it too quickly or too hotly. I really babied my sauce, it turned out great, and it does start to seperate after about 30 minutes, so re-whip when your husband is a little late home!

And now for the poaching of the eggs....

I used a non-stick saucepan filled 2/3 of the way full. Add a dash of vinegar (I used red wine) and bring the water to a gentle boil.

Now... you want to keep the water between 160 and 180, for this feat I grabbed my old meat thermometer and held it into the water. When the tempretaure reached 180 I swirled the water into a gentle tornado, then I cracked the egg and (gently) dropped it in. I set my timer for 3 minutes and prayed. After 3 minutes, gently lift the egg from the water and place on a plate. If you are unsure of the doneness of your egg, gently poke it with your finger. I "sunnyside up" will have squishyness and give, medium will be firmer (with a little give) and hard will be firm. Stick with 3 minutes for sunny-side... After 6 eggs here is what I learned:

• When the egg is in the water, leave it alone. By creating a little tornado you help the water create a gentle space for the egg to set up. If you "tend it" with a spoon, you will end up with egg tidbits that will make it look like egg drop soup.
  
• Non-stick works - when I was done I washed the pan immediately in hot soapy water, and voila... no scrubbing!!

Good luck with creating your little piece of heaven.

First ever blog posting

Well, as a teacher I am a fan of sharing what I know with other people, and as an avid home cook I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of cooking within reason.

A little background about me, I am a married teacher who, while being a devoted mother and wife, loves to work off my stress in the kitchen. I am NOT an English teacher, and I am no where near perfect, so if you read this and find errors (errata) just remember that we are not all perfect. This is a chant that I have to do often, especially during the challenges of the dinner rush.

Some of my favorite foods are Sushi, Italian and Southern food. I hope that you enjoy reading, and I hope that my adventures in cooking are enough to blog about.