2 Course B&B Style Fruit & Oatmeal Breakfast

—First Course—
Pineapple juice 1 tbsp

Water 1 cup

1 Peach

1 Apple

1 Pear

Brown Sugar

Cinnamon stick

Slice up each fruit to your liking. Pour the water and pineapple juice in a bowl. Now dip the apple slices, pear slices, and peach slices in the mixture and place on a serving dish. (This prevents the fruit from browning.) Put the serving plate with the fruit in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Usually three slices of each fruit per person. But that is up to you.

(Serve when you are halfway through preparing second course.)

When you are ready to serve, take a cinnamon stick, lightly and finely grate it over all the fruit on the plate. Then take a pinch or two of brown sugar and shower it over the fruit. Then serve.

 

— Second Course—

1 tsp brown sugar

1 large pinch of cinnamon

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 pinch salt

1/2 cup golden raisins

2 cups water

2 cups milk

1 cup steel-cut oats

1/2 cup apple juice

Bring the milk and water to a boil in the sauce pan. Then add the steel cut oats and salt. Stir occasionally until it becomes thickened. Now reduce the heat to simmer for 30 minutes while occasionally stirring. Keep an eye on it to make sure it is at the desired thickness before removing the pan from the heat.

While the oats are cooking, bring the apple juice in another sauce pan to a boil. Then add in the raisins. Let them boil for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat.

While that is going, get a (electric) mixing bowl and pour in the heavy cream, cinnamon, and brown sugar. Whip this up until it becomes stiff and then chill it in the refrigerator until oats are finished.

(This is where you usually serve the first course.)

When oats are finished, serve hot in a fairly large bowl. Sprinkle the raisins over the top of the oats, spoon on one heaping tablespoon of the whipped mixer you put in the refrigerator. Then serve.

Kirstyn’s Tomato/Basil/Sriracha Sauce with Sausage & Angel Hair Pasta

This last week I had a deep yearning to cook something new but I didn’t really have any time of course. I also didn’t want to randomly think up something. I racked my brain for what I wanted for a week and when I found out I would have some time (last night) I still couldn’t decide. I then remembered that I know an AWESOME cook. So I asked her online ( her name is Kirstyn ) if she had a good pasta recipe. Kirstyn then laid out the plan for the following hot-cha-cha dynamite dish.

This recipe will make 1 to 2 servings.

–

3 to 4 tbsp Grapeseed Oil

Sea salt

1 tbsp oregano

1tbsp thyme

5 fresh cut leaves of basil (for sauce)

10 fresh cut leaves of basil (for pasta)

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

Fresh ground pepper

1/8 cup grated carrot

1 large red tomato

1 or 2 off the vine yellow tomato / es (depending on how big they are)

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp sundried tomato purée

1 tbsp kale & basil purée

1/2 tsp puréed garlic

1 tbsp Sriracha sauce

Parmasean cheese

1 Fully cooked store bought Cajun smoked Andouille pork sausage

1 inch palm stack of angel hair pasta

1 blender

Large mixing bowl

Small bowl

Serving plate

–

Let’s start off with the marinara sauce. On the low setting, heat up 2 tablespoons of grapseed oil, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, and chopped onions in a sauce pot for about 8 to 10 minutes. The onions should be fairly soft when you next add the carrots. Continue to cook for about 4 to 5 minutes. Now put in the tomatoes, herbs, and sugar. When in the pot, mash the tomatoes with a wooden spoon or the base of a ladle. At this point you want to simmer everything uncovered for about 17 to 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it to make sure it does not burn. There isn’t that much liquid in there.

–

Start boiling the water for the pasta.

–

At this point you can either make the sundried tomato purée and basil & kale purée in a blender or you can buy them already premade at your grocer.

–

When the time is up on the sauce pot (making sure the contents do not burn), turn off the heat, and pour it all in a blender. Put in the two purées and pulse blend it a few times to mix it up a little. Add two to three tablespoons of warm water to make the sauce more of a liquid consistency, only if it appears to be too thick, like a paste. Taste the sauce at this point to gauge how much Sriracha you will want to put in. Add the precious Sriracha sauce a little at a time between mixing and tasting. The tablespoon’s worth is recommended but not required if you really love the heat. Once added and you are happy with the heat, blend the mixture until it is smooth. (Note: Add more water in small amounts if it gets to much like a paste.)

From here you can either leave it in the blender covered, or transfer it back to the hot pot to keep it warm, covered of course.

–

Take out your sauté pan and put 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil in the pan. Turn on the heat to get the pan and oil hot.

Now put the pasta in the boiling water. Store bought angel hair pasta takes about 4 minutes to cook.

–

You can choose to start sautéing the sausage now or wait until you have finished cooking the pasta. When the sauté pan is hot, toss in the garlic and the sausage. Season it with a pinch of sea salt and pepper, to your liking, and cook it until it starts to caramelize around the edges.

(Fancy cook-like frying pan tosses are recommended to look cool, but not required if you aren’t comfortable with hot airborne food. Use a wooden spoon or tongs to stir and flip the sausage if you do not want hot oil everywhere.)

When done, remove the sausage from the saucepan into a small bowl.

Once the pasta is ready, strain it, and then pour it into an empty mixing bowl. (Note: pour in 1 to 2 tablespoons of the pasta water in the bowl as well to keep the pasta from drying out quickly and to help slick up the next step. Put in the rest of the fresh cut basil. Grab the bowl with both hands and toss the pasta in the bowl to mix in the fresh cut basil. Don’t use utensils on the angel hair pasta since it is sort of delicate.

After it is mixed fairly well, carefully grab one small handful of pasta and basil with your ‘CLEAN AND WASHED’ fingers and place it on your serving plate. (It shouldn’t be to hot to the touch. If it is, you can wait a little until it cools down more. Also, if you haven’t already, you can now cook your sausage)

From here, everything can now be put together. Pour the sauce over the top of the pasta using a large spoon. Add the parmasien cheese, place the sausage on top of that, a little more parmasien, and if your wack-a-doodle nuts, more Sriracha sauce. Weirdo.

Your done. Now take your time and enjoy. You don’t have to clean up all that mess you made just yet.

  

Baked Egg in an Avacado

Are you the kind of morning person that likes the warm creamy and smoky taste of baked avacodo with a gooey golden sunrise egg in the center?

If so, then your in for a treat!

1 egg (Beaten or not. Your choice)

Pesto

Chopped Chili

1 Large avacado

Chopped Scallion

1 ramekin

1 baking sheet (to set ramekin on)

Pie weights or course salt or a bag of dried beans

Hot sauce

Salt & Pepper

Cilantro

Preheated oven at 450°

First you need to cut your avacodo in half and remove the seed. Next you need to scoop out about 1 tablespoon of the inside of one half to make room for your egg.

Now put your avacado half in a ramikin. Since you want your avacado half to stay level, nestle it on a pie weight or inside a shallow layer of dried beans or a good layer of course salt.

For the next step, crack your egg into a shallow bowl so you can easily slide it into the avacado half. Here is where you can get creative. Before pouring your egg into the center, lightly dab your choice of condiment inside the avacado where the egg is going. I would use hot sauce and/or some pesto.

Finally and carefully, pour in your egg and then season with salt and pepper. Dollup a little pesto, diced scallion and diced chili on top.

Now put that puppy in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes depending how done you want your egg of course.

After it is done , top with more of your condiment and fresh cilantro.

May your meal be one of magic!

Sukiyaki

Alright. While I was in the grocery store this vibrantly chatty 16 year old was having a minor panic episode because they did not have Sukiyaki sauce. I personally didn’t know “Sukiyaki sauce” existed. She needed it for her cooking class group project in high school and she was just going to die if she could not find it so she could help make Sukiyaki. I just looked at her father put his hand over his eyes, in what I could only assume was a gathering up of another deep reserve of patients.

Heaven help her group members dealing with her spastic energy and unwillingness to get the job done right.

So on that note. Here is the recipe to make the fabled dish I fear she will never get to fully appreciate.

4 tbsp Soy Sauce

4 tbsp Sugar

2 tbsp sake or mirin

1 tbsp olive oil

1 pound cut beef

1 bunch shiitake mushrooms

1 bunch enoki mushrooms

8oz  itokonnyaku noodles

Half of a cabbage cut two finger widths wide

14oz tofu cut one finger width wide

2 scallions (long onions) cut diagonally

Heat your frying pan to medium high. Once it is hot, put in the cut beef and sear it. Add the soy sauce, sugar, and sake when the meat’s color starts to turn.

Once you do that, flip it a few times and then add the rest of the ingredients. Cook everything at this point between 10 and 15 minutes.

Taste the mixture and adjust the flavor to your liking by adding either soy sauce and/or sugar.

Prepare your belly for some serious yum yums! And also pray for that poor girl and her cooking class grades.

On a side note. If you are feeling like you want to punch up your meal in a traditional fashion, dip your ingredients in an egg wash when you are putting them in the pan.

Twinkies!!!!

A few weeks ago I gave this recipe to a coworker and figured I should prolly post it since it is one of my guilty pleasures that I can’t make anymore. Nowadays, it takes to much time that I don’t have, and the real reason, I would eat it all in one or two sittings.

The Marshmallow Buttercream

2 cups confectioners sugar

1 cup of room temp butter

1 vanilla bean (pitted)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (7-ounce) jar marshmallow creme

Instructions

Whip the butter until it is light and fluffy. Then marry the marshmallow creme into the butter and beat it for 2 minutes.

Now pour in the confectioners sugar. Beat the mix for another 2 minutes. After that, pour in the vanilla extract and vanilla bean. This time stir the mix until it is consistent thoughout.

—————-

The Twinky Cakes

1/3 teaspoon  Cream of Tartar

Nonstick Cooking Spray or Vegetable Oil

1/2 teaspoon  Salt

3/4 cup  Granulated Sugar

1 teaspoon  Baking Powder

1/4 cup  All-Purpose Flour

1/2 cup  Cake Flour

2 tablespoons  Milk

4 tablespoons  Unsalted Butter

1 teaspoon  Vanilla Extract

5 large Eggs (separated and at room temperature)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Move the oven rack to the lower-middle position. Apply the vegetable oil or cooking spray to the molds you will be pouring the mix into.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the all purpose flour, salt, cake flour, and baking powder. Heat a pan over low heat, with milk and butter until the butter melts. Remove from the heat and add the swirl pour in the vanilla. Now cover the pan to keep warm.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat egg whites on high speed until it is a foamy constancy. Now gradually add 6 tablespoons of the sugar and the cream of tartar while the mixer continues to beat until the egg whites reach soft peaks. This should take about 6 more minutes.

Transfer the beaten egg whites to a large bowl with a spatula and add the egg yolks to the standing mixer bowl (you don’t need to bother cleaning the bowl). Beat the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar on a medium-high speed until the mixture is really thick and a lite yellow color. This should take about 5 minutes. Now add the beaten egg whites to the yolks. Make sure you do not mix these together yet. This is important.

Now shower the flour mixture over the egg whites to make a snow cover. Now you can mix everything on low speed for just 10 seconds. Remove the bowl from the mixer, make a well on one side of the batter, and pour the melted butter mixture into it. Fold gently with the same large rubber spatula until the batter shows no trace of flour and both the whites and yolks are evenly mixed. This should take about 8 strokes.

Immediately scrape the batter into the prepared molds, filling each with about 3/4 cup of batter (I would advise using a measuring cup). Bake until the cake tops are light brown and feel firm while springing back to the touch. This process should take approximately 13 to 15 minutes.

Transfer the molds to a wire rack and allow the cakes to cool. Do not remove them yet!

Now take the cream filling:

Put the frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch round tip. Pipe frosting into three spots on the underside of the Twinkie (Or use a piping rod to trail it through the center from the side). Make sure not to overfill the cakes or they will split.

Serve while they are still warm and get ready to enter heaven.

My Fantasy Food Truck

It’s been over a year since I posted on this blog… Since my life change I have had no time to cook in my kitchen, ever, so this post is just a dream of what I may some day explore if I ever get a chance to cook for myself again…

I was compelled to post this because of Brittany’s blog post on BlissffulBrit, a wonderful website!

http://blissfulbritt.com/what-id-sell-in-my-food-truck/

So,…

I have always thought throughout my life that the very best food inventions on this planet were, sandwiches, meatballs, and pizzas. These would be the focus of my serving menu. There would be “the regulars” (items that would never leave the menu), the “double dailies” (items that would only stay on the menu for only two days every month), and finally the “mad mashes” (items that would be uncommon food combinations that would be on the menu no longer than a week, or less). All of these menus items of course would be in the form of a sandwich, a meatball, or a pizza.

Understanding that the common representation of these three food items most always have bread, meat, and cheese in their construction. My food truck would give into the status quo of these items to a certain extent for those people whom are not looking for “different”. However, the rules do not always apply when you are looking for something you have never experienced before.

For healthy adventurers, have you ever had a saladball? Or a fruit calzone? How about a portobello club house?

For meat mongers, ever try a fried turkey-pork shred-sphere? How about a diamond steak strip pie? Ever get your hands around a bacon weaved bo-po-pul stack?

These are just a few things my food truck would serve. My food truck of course being the size of a family RV with two serving sides. 

Maybe one day I will actually add the menu to this blog post that is still in my head.

(Thank you for inspiring me Brittany!)

Sautéed Radishes in Orange Butter

1/4 pound one inch diced smoked bacon
6 tbsp undated butter
3 pounds radishes with their greens (quarter lengthwise with some stems still attached, then chop up the rest of the greens)
Salt
Pepper
3 large thin sliced shallots
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

In a big and deep skillet, cook the bacon over moderate heat until crisp for about four minutes. While using a slotted spoon transfer the bacon to paper towels. Pour off the bacon fat in the skillet.

Add two tablespoons of the butter into the skillet and melt over moderately high heat. Add the radish greens, season them with salt and pepper and cook. Stir for about 3 minutes until wilted. Now put them into a bowl.

Melt the remaining butter in the skillet. Then put the quartered radishes, sliced shallots and bacon in and cook over moderately high heat. Don’t forget to stir a few times while cooking. The radishes should turn a golden brown in about 6 minutes. Now add the sugar and cook for two minutes until the sugar dissolves. Now add the orange juice and bring to a boil while still stirring a few times. Cook until the radishes are barely tender and the sauce starts to become thick. This should take about two minutes. Now stir in the radish greens and season with salt and pepper.

Now get that scrumptious-ness out a that pan and into your tummy!!!

The Snickering Red Tux Zebra

Are you an avid coffee snob? Do you like to create coffee drinks to see how wired and amped you can get?

Here is one of my expensive pleasures when I find myself in a Starbucks. (Get a gold card)

You tell the cashier this…

“I would like a hot quad grande, 2 pump mocha, 4 pump Raspberry, 4 pump toffee nut, whole milk, caramel drizzle, 2 pump white chocolate mocha.”

I used to work at Starbucks as a supervisor up north, so that is how they should say it in “Starbucks speak”.

The recipe is as follows (the order in which they should prepare it),

2 pumps white chocolate mocha sauce
2 pumps mocha sauce
4 long neck pumps of Raspberry Syrup
4 long neck pumps of Toffee Nut Syrup
4 regular shots of espresso
Regular temped whole milk with no foam
The top of the cup capped with whipping cream
Caramel sauce drizzled over the whipping cream

Sugar and caffeine overload-a-go-go. Please drink ‘responsively’. Know what this will do to your body. Don’t chug. And yes, be responsible too.

The Obnoxious Snickering Red Tux Zebra has all the ingredients above in a Venti cup with 2 shots of single malt scotch added in over the whipped cream.

Video of Panini Sandwich

Hello. It’s been a long time since I have posted any new recipes. I have been busy and lazy. I did however make a video of myself making my most favorite panini sandwich on my YouTube channel. It isn’t a food based channel, however it is not opposed to an occasional recipe explanation and perpetration.

I hope it entertains you and apologize in advance if it offends and confuses. I am a bit of an adolescent. If you would like a text based recipe, all you have to do is look at my previous post to this blog.

MY DRUNK SANDWICH

My Special Panini Sandwich

( I have finally returned home and I am in no mood to cook anything except my special sandwich. My vacation has made me temporarily lazy and joyfully dumb. I will be eating out for awhile still. But I have gotten some new awesome recipes that I will “eventually” be trying out and will post them if they turn out good. So until then, below is my favorite sandwich that I have been eating for almost 10 years. )

My condiment mixed in a ramekin:

Squirt of lemon
Mayo
Pesto
Original Dijon mustard (from Dijon France)
Hot sauce
Cream cheese
Puréed garlic
Pepper

Building the sandwich:

I spread the condiment on both pieces of cut sour dough at 3/4 inch thick slices from a dome loaf.

I fry 4 strips of bacon in a pan with a dime sized dot of olive oil. Then after the bacon is done. I fry turkey (in the bacon grease) in shreds with a pinch of salt to caramelization. Then I roll two “cold” slices of ham-off-the-bone deli slices together (in the form of a tight cylinder) and section cut them in quarter inch slices.

I evenly place all the meat on the bottom slice of bread.

I then take 2 quarter inch thick slices of marinated mozzarella cheese that has marinated in olive oil, sprigs of rosemary, sun dried tomatoes, onion powder, basil, chipotle peppers and Italian seasoning for two or more days in a Tupperware container, and place them on top of the meat.

I place 8 FRESH full leaves of spinach on top of the cheese.

I then close the sandwich.

From here I put it in my panini maker. But not before I spray my homemade seasoned butter oil (that I keep in a generic spray bottle) over the exterior of both slices of bread so the sandwich doesn’t stick to the panini maker.

I wait just a few minutes until the cheese starts to melt over the edge of the bottom slice. Then I take it out and consume.

(This sandwich I eat ONCE a week or 2 weeks. (For reasons of my health.) It is one of my DEEP pleasures that make my culinary life worth living. I have been making this sandwich for almost a decade and will never get tired of it.)

Warning: this sandwich will make you gain TONS of weight if you do not regularly exercise. I have first hand knowledge of this… Well… first, second and third to be literal.