The Brooklyn Bridge - We walked across it this time!

I just got home from an awesome trip to NYC!  I always love visiting Manhattan and Brooklyn.  Bob and I hit some of our favorite places but also made sure to try out some new places.  I'm working on the food post now, so keep your eyes peeled.

:)M

Goat Cheese Creme Brulee!

Bob and I really like creme brulee.  Once we had a delicious goat cheese creme brulee and we both thought, if only we could make this at home!  And now we have.

First I went out and bought a sexy kitchen torch.  I spoke to a nice gal at Sur La Table who told me she very much liked the one I ended up purchasing.  (Yes, I believe her.)

I used the Chavrie recipe, which strangely doesn't tell you how hot the oven should be.  I went with 275 degrees.  I also went ahead and halved the recipe because I didn't think we needed to be eating that much creme brulee all by ourselves.  It was really straight forward and easy, just took a long time to finally get around to eating it.  And of course, it wouldn't be complete with out fresh strawberries!

It was so good! If you like goat cheese and you also enjoy creme brûlée you should definitely check this out.

:)M

The "PushPan"

The box exclaims: "Never struggle w/ a traditional springform pan again!" 

Challenge accepted. 

Cheesecakes watch your back because I'm gonna own you!

:)M

New Iron Griddle!

My new and completely awesome Lodge  iron griddle arrived today! I'm so excited! I've been upgrading my kitchen pots and cast iron is the way to go.

Until March of this year (2013) I'd been cooking with a set of non-stick pots my Dad bought me when I went to college. My old pots were great (a nice starter set from Costco), but I've discovered the true awesomeness of cast iron. 

I plan on breaking in my new griddle tomorrow night. I'm going to sear New York strip steaks, marinated in red wine, and it'll be amazing!

Stay tuned for the pictures!

:)M

SF Street Food Festival

I visited the SF Street Food Festival this weekend with Bob.  We showed up about an hour and a half after things had kicked off and it was complete craziness.  Lots of great booths set up to eat delicious food, and there were plenty of places to grab a drink and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Unfortunately we ate a late breakfast, so while everything smelled fantastic we didn't eat at any of the food carts.  Let's be honest here, we also realized that rather than standing in line with a huge mass of people we'd rather go eat at those places at our leisure.  (I know, we're whiners.)

We did take note of specific restaurants we definitely want to try.  Rice, Paper Scissors, The Beijing Restaurant, and Binis Kitchen are at the top of our list.

We stopped at the SF Cooking School booth and said hi, and I picked up some sexy temporary tattoos.

My fake tats!

I felt like a culinary badass.  This is a good time to mention that I will be attending the SF Cooking School's full time culinary program starting January 2nd, and I couldn't be more excited.  I'm going to be cooking my face off! 

It was a great day, to people watch and just enjoy a sunny San Francisco afternoon.

:)M

Cinnamon Bread!

 My First Loaf of Cinnamon Wheat Bread!

I decided to try my hand at making homemade bread.  Of course being me, I couldn't make just regular bread.  I chose cinnamon wheat bread because whenever I buy it at the store it has raisins in it, and there's never enough cinnamon.  Because I've never made bread I looked up a recipe, but then of course I used it as a guideline and adjusted as I saw fit.  I used The Pioneer Woman's Homemade Cinnamon Bread.

The alterations I made were:

• I used brown sugar in place of white sugar for 1/3 of the sugar in the recipe.


• I weighed out the 3.5 cups of flour based on this conversion chart. (I also weighed the sugar.)


• I used a very generous amount of cinnamon and sugar in the swirl part.

I should also mention that I don't have a bread maker, so I made my bread entirely by hand - well my kitchen aid mixer did make an appearance.  It was a long endeavor.  I now have seriously respect for people who regularly bake their own bread - especially with out a bread making machine.  The whole process took forever, this is not a quick pay-off recipe.  I didn't get any pictures during the whole process because I was covered in nastiness for most of the cooking experience, but my finished pictures make me very happy.

My loaf of bread sliced open for delicious eating.

You can't tell very well but I didn't roll my bread tight enough so it didn't quite hold together in some places.  I think I'd also use half wheat flour and half regular flour to make the bread a little less dense.  Otherwise I was pretty damn pleased with myself.  

This morning for breakfast I used the bread to make french toast!  It was delicious!

Delicious French Toast!

I think everyone should try baking bread at least once just to understand how ridiculously long the process takes.

Now go forth you baking fools, and create your own deliciousness!!

:)M

Fried Pickles with Spicy Dipping Sauce

Delicious Fried Pickles

I don't know what came over me the other day, but I decided that for lunch we'd need to eat fried pickles.  Last summer at Outside Lands Bob and I ate some seriously delicious fried pickles from Frickles Pickles.  After having Frickles we made sure to order fried pickles whenever we'd see them on a menu but they just weren't the same, so finally I took matters into my own hands.  

We decided we wanted a spicy cornmeal fry, so I did a little research and then decided that I could make it up myself based on everything I'd read.  It was so easy, so delicious and so satisfying.  

Let's take a minute to talk about frying.  I use a large iron pot (5 qt) for frying.  I've used this same pot to fry donuts.  In other words, you don't need a deep fryer or really anything fancy to fry food.  Another thing you need to know about frying is that you want to bring the oil up to temperature slowly - this will give you the best chance of keeping a regular heat/temp while frying your items.  And finally, remember it's hot!  Be careful!  But don't worry, if I can do it then you can do it.

What you'll need:

Pickles (I used a jar of Dill oval chips 24oz)

Cornmeal 3/4 cup

Flour 1/4 cup

Spicy seasoning (I used Old Bay) 1 tsp

More spicy seasoning (And Angelo's BBQ Beef Seasoning) 1 tsp

Buttermilk 1/2 cup

Vegetable Oil (enough to have 3 inches of oil in your pan)

Tools you'll need:

A large pot to fry your pickles

Tongs (or chop sticks if you're really awesome at using them, or a large strainer with a handle)

A thermometer to monitor your oil temp. (I use my candy thermometer, it's awesome.)

2 bowls

A large plate/cutting board/etc covered with a paper towel for your pickles to cool on. (I used my cutting board.)

In your first bowl put your pickles and buttermilk, along with some salt and pepper, just for a little seasoning.  In your second bowl combine the cornmeal, flour, and spicy seasoning(s).   This is when you'll want to decide how spicy you want your pickles to be.  I put in a bit more than what I've put in the recipe, and I could have added a couple of tablespoons more for a good kick.

Move your pickles from the buttermilk to the cornmeal mixture in batches.  Make sure you completely coat the pickles in the cornmeal mixture.  After your pickles are all coated go ahead and start frying!

Pickles sitting in buttermilk.

Pickles after being coated in cornmeal mixture.

In my 5 qt pot I fried about 10 pickles at a time.  This gave all the pickles enough room to fully fry.  It doesn't take very long to fry pickles, just watch them and when they start to turn a little goldeny go ahead and scoop them out.  (It's about 30 seconds.)  Be very careful adding and removing your pickles, oil is hot and can be splattery.  Also keep your eye on your thermometer because you don't want the oil getting to hot or too cold.

And then ta-da! About 5 minutes later you'll have delicious fried pickles.

We enjoyed our fried pickles with tzatziki sauce mixed with siracha and it was fantastic.

Fried pickles on the cooling rack.

We tried frying zucchini the same way the following day, and it wasn't as good.  The zucchini didn't pick up as much cornmeal, and the flavor was just off.  I'll have to figure out something else for our zucchini fries.

:)M