A Foodies Life

Stuffed Roma Tomatoes

My quest continues to create delicious treats for our vegetarian friends who I’ve been charged with feeding this summer. On Monday on my walk around the cooler, ok so I really just stand in one place and move around, I decided on stuffed tomatoes. I asked my sous chef to cook some rice for it and then went searching again for products to use. I found a zucchini and a yellow squash. I diced them up as small as I could, I diced an onion and 2 cloves of garlic as well. I then sweated them on the stove. For those that don’t know, sweating is process where you cook things on low heat until they are translucent in color. You can also do it on high heat but you’d have to watch it closely and stir it often. The number one rule with sweating is no color!

Somewhere between sweating the vegetables and the rice being done I realized that I should make this gluten free so I decided that I would skip the rice. We put that aside deciding we would use it for dinner. After I sauteed the vegetables I put them in a bowl and added a tablespoon or so of balsamic vinegar and half a cup of grated parmesan cheese.

Then I mixed it around and added some more salt and pepper. Earlier I had cut small roma tomatoes in half, cutting a small piece off the bottom or top depending on how you look at it to make them stand.

Next I took the squash mixture and stuffed it in the tomatoes. After that I placed a small piece of mozzarella cheese on the top of the tomato and then put it in the oven at 350 for 10 minutes, just enough to brown the tops. Here’s how they came out....

They had just about the perfect bite. The balsamic added just the little pop that you needed. These might be the perfect treat for appetizer at a cocktail party. I think they were too small for lunch but I imagine you could make them in peppers as well.

Ron’s Squash Stuffed Roma Tomatoes

15 Roma Tomatoes, cut in half
1 Yellow Squash, small diced
1 Zucchini Squash, small diced
1 Onion, small diced
1 glove of garlic, small diced
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, shredded
Mozzarella cheese for garnish
salt and pepper to taste
Oil

Dice your onion, both squash and garlic. Sweat in a pan with oil until translucent. Add salt and pepper to taste. While sweating veggies cut roma tomatoes in half and scoop out the insides with a small spoon. Once vegetables are translucent put in a bowl and mix with balsamic vinegar and cheese, add more salt and pepper to taste. Stuff squash mixture in roma tomatoes and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until mozzarella is melted. Do not overbake as the the tomato will not hold it’s shape.

*I have just discovered from a friend that rice is gluten free unless it’s been treated and then in some cases it’s not. You can learn more here: Is Rice Really Gluten Free?

Bistro Zinc- Lenox, Ma

Last week I moved from where I was living to the property where I work. I could literally roll out of bed, open my door and see my office. I’m so close to work that I can hear when the breakfast person comes in and starts opening up the walk in cooler door. The cooler is right next to my wall. I don’t tell you this for pity, or to complain. I like where I live. Mainly because I feel like it gives me more time to read and do some writing, which I’ve wanted to do all summer long. I discovered last night that I like it even more because it’s a short walk to the center of Lenox, Ma. Lenox is a beautiful historical town in the berkshire mountains of Massachusetts. It’s home to Edith Wharton’s Estate, The Mount. It’s also home to Tanglewood. In the center of town there are some great restaurants.

So last night after 13 days of work I felt like i needed to get out. I asked one of my co workers to come along. After trudging up the hill, discovering how out of shape I am, we entered the downtown area. Being that it was a Monday night it was really quiet. I guess not only do theatre companies take the night off but so does everyone else. We were going to go to Rumpy’s which is apparently the place to be, but alas they were closed. I want to save that for a Karaoke night away, not so I can sing though!

I remembered Bistro Zinc from the last time I worked here. It’s more of an upscale restaurant/bar, the food has always been really good and I secretly wanted to eat. We went around the back and sat at the bar. I ordered my typical rum drink as did my co worker and began talking about work, life in general, and future plans. After two drinks I asked for a menu. Their menu has a nice flair to it. It includes pork confit, duck, lamb and even a zinc burger, which I’m sure is over the top.

Our eyes moved over to the starter side of the menu and we decided on a few items including scallops, duck fritters and the steak tartare.

My co workers was interested in the scallops because it included a mango sauce. I, personally, am not a big scallop fan. I did taste a piece and the sweet balanced out the seafood perfectly. I love the combination of seafood and mango.

My least favorite of the dishes was the duck fritters, strangely enough it was the one that I choose. They were good but I felt like I didn’t taste enough duck and there could have been more pop in the accompanying sauce.

Then came the dish of the night. The steak tartare was divine. My co worker and I each took a bite, a look of intense pleasure came over both our faces. The combination of the salt combined with the acid was a exquisite balance and bite. They served crostini’s with them which were crunchy and wonderful but I just wanted to dive into the meat. I felt like the crostini’s took away from the great flavor that was all ready there.

The atmosphere at any Berkshire county eatery can be very interesting in the summer. Right next to us were a couple sipping on their expensive brandy with rich New York accents talking about the musical influences of Black Sabbath, the band.

All of that said, I would go back to Bistro Zinc just for the Steak Tartare. Who knows you might see me there again very soon!

Gluten Free Eggplant casserole

Yesterday in my battle about what to make vegetarians I decided that I would be proactive and do that first thing in the morning. So I started my day like I do any normal day, I went and looked in the walk in cooler. I loved confused at the eggplant thinking, oh eggplant why in my brain do you not seem so versatile? Why do you seem like your only good in an eggplant parm? Or how about a ratatouille? The vegetarians love you eggplant so why can’t I think of anything else to make? So I went into my office, sat down at the computer and googled eggplant recipes. This recipe from Emerald came up- Eggplant Casserole Recipe : Emeril Lagasse : Food Network.

So I got out my eggplant and diced it up. Then I sauteed it on the stove and seasoned it with salt and pepper.

While that was cooking I got out some celery, peppers and carrots out. I diced them up and sauteed them and then I added some garlic for good measure. Everything has to have garlic doesn’t it?

Then I hit a road block of sorts. I remembered that we have a student who is gluten free but the recipe called for bread crumbs. I immediately thought about my friend, quinoa. So I cooked some up and used it instead of the breadcrumbs. Once everything was cooked I mixed it together and then added the cream, parmesan and I added some mozzarella as well.

It then went in the oven and baked until it was bubbly and crusty. I need to get better at taking pictures of things when they come out of the oven. It wasn’t until the casserole was half eaten that I thought to myself. “Hey self you should really take pictures of things you plan on writing about.”

Ok so not the most attractive picture but at least they liked it! It just came to me that this would be a great recipe if you were trying to stay away from carbs as well but liked that mac and cheese style taste. The most fattening part of it is the cream and cheese.

As I’ve said before to me cooking is all about making something your own. I remember in culinary school the instructors would always say ‘a recipe is a guideline’. I needed a gluten free version so I made one. I like garlic so I added it. I think that’s what makes cooking so much fun. You can really do whatever you want, as long as the ending result is something delicious!

Opening Night for 400

If you had asked me seven years ago what I would be doing I don’t think I could ever fathom that I would be the chef and providing food for an opening night performance. I had no clue. Last night was the second in a series of big opening nights at the theater company where I’m working. I was charged with making sure there was enough food for 400 people to make it from the time the first person claps to the toast of the evening. I’ve been successful all of the other times with food running out just in time. This time I over planned.

On the menu this time chicken wings, cheese and crackers, veggie trays, fruit trays, dessert tray etc. The dessert trays took the most time because they consisted of house made truffles. I literally spent 2 hours rolling and dipping truffles on Thursday evening. Luckily I discovered a pretty simple recipe. The dessert trays also consisted of brownies and cookies. Truffles are fun to make, it’s even more fun to see the reaction when people eat them, let’s just say that I lost count at 300 truffles.

Honestly, being a chef is like being an improvisational actor. I improvise every single day by going into the cooler, exploring what ingredients we have and going from there. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. One of the ingredients I had was lots of hot italian sausage. I knew I had to do something with it but wasn’t quite sure what to do. My mother had made some wonderful sausage rolls but she made the dough from scratch and I didn’t have the time for that. On Thursday I played around with some puff pastry that I had. I made a mixture of cream cheese and sausage. I then rolled out the puff pastry, put the filling in and then rolled it up. I froze it because I thought it would cut better and possible cook better frozen. Unfortunately when I cooked it, it puffed more than I wanted it to. It is called puff pastry so I guess I shouldn’t of been shocked. So back to the drawing board. I had tons of that cream cheese and sausage mixture left. Then yesterday it hit me, crostini’s! I took some rolls that we had, cut them into crostini’s and put them in the oven with some olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Then I put the sausage mixture in the kitchen aid and added some mozzarella, parmesan and a little hint of brown sugar. I also chopped up some chives and added those as well. When the crostini’s came out of the oven I lathered some of the sausage mixture on them and then put them back in the oven for just a moment. Then I topped them with some more fresh chives. The only thing I had wish I had done was is cut some more vegetables up and made it more colorful but the flavor was great!

After bringing the food over to the theatre it was time for a celebratory drink with my staff. We toasted to another successful opening night, while watching the volunteers marvel over how much food we had.

We then placed a bet on how ravenous the actor’s would be. We knew we had an insane amount of food but we’ve also been through this before. One staff member said the food would be gone in 40 minutes, another said 1 hour and 10 minutes, I said an hour and eleven minutes. The prize, drinks at the bar. I put my stopwatch on the minute the first patron came out of the kitchen. I watched as 40 minutes went by, 1 hour and 10 minutes went by, and not to long after 1 hour and 11 minutes. By the time I had left there was still food, an amazing feat!

The best part of the evening was when I sat down with one of the volunteer’s who I’ve known for years. She said “In all the years I’ve been here I have to tell you that you put out if not the best then very close to the best spreads we have ever had.”

Meatloaf vs. Veggie Sloppy Joes

One of the best part of my job is that I get to make people happy everyday through food. One of the student’s came in the first day talking about his grandmother’s meatloaf. He described it as a blue cheese meatloaf with rotel (tomato product in a can) and layered with bacon on top. Last week he gave me the recipe but it’s been a week of trying to find the ingredients, specifically the rotel. First I called my vendor and asked him for some rotel, he shipped me the pasta. So finally yesterday I decided to go to the store and find some. I couldn’t. I searched and searched, granted it was early in the morning and I was tired. I knew that I had some tomato puree in a can so i bought some green chilies and used that instead of the rotel, which I think it just tomato product and peppers. I went back to the office and put together the meatloaf. I added 30 lbs of beef, blue cheese, 2 cans of green chilis, half a huge can of tomato concentrate, salt and pepper, onions and garlic powder. Then I put bacon on top. The directions he wrote out were put it in the oven for 30 minutes and drain oil, done. I kept looking at it and it kept looking like it wasn’t done so after an hour and a half I took the meatloaf out, cut it and then put it back in the oven. I thought I was going to have a meatloaf disaster on my hands.

So ok I’ve done the meatloaf, now it’s time to figure out the vegetarians. I had some tofu in the fridge and some tomato concentrate left over. So what I did was cut up some onions, carrots, peppers and sauteed them with some garlic. Then I diced up the tofu added it to the pan. Then I added tomato sauce, cumin, salt and pepper and I called it a veggie sloppy joe! it went much quicker than the meatloaf did!

Ok time for work. Tonight is a party for 400!

Random thoughts by Ron

It's almost the middle of the summer. I'd hoped I would have a lot more time to reflect, write, etc. I should of known that I would get swept away in the flurry of work that is summer theatre. It really is a job like no other. When your here you eat, breathe and sleep work. It seems like it never ends but you don't really want it to either. Even though I'm around all of these wonderful places, sites, shows I haven't enjoyed any of it yet because I'm so consumed with work.

In true Ron fashion I started this post last night while I was sitting outside watching a beautiful berkshire lightening storm come shot across the sky. Now I'm sitting in the dining room at work after breakfast service. It's quite, all the student's have left, employee's/coworkers aren't here yet. This is my favorite time of day when I can sit here, soak it all in and mentally prepare for the daily marathon.

This weekend, actually tonight, I'm moving out of my current living situation and on to the campus where I work. Originally I was upset about having to make the change but now I'm excited. I think I'll have more time to write, read, etc. In all actuality I will probably spend more time in the kitchen.

Anyway, I must go get ready to do a lot of cooking today! Big party this weekend!

Gluten Free Oven Fried Chicken

When your cooking for a bunch of people you are bound to find someone with special dietary needs. For the first time in my career I'm dealing with celiac or gluten free needs. The person with the dietary restriction is very sweet and never asks for anything special, always happy with just the salad bar.

Today I was trying to think about what to make for lunch tomorrow. I realized that I had chicken breasts in the cooler so I decided on oven fried chicken. I thought about the young lady who couldn't have gluten and remembered how excited she was when we had taco's. So what I did was grind some taco's up and put Paul's Redfish seasoning in the ground up taco's. Then I cut the chicken up, melted some butter and made an assembly line of chicken, seasoned butter and taco mixture. I dipped the chicken in the butter and then taco mixture. I baked it in the oven until cook through and this is what it looked like...

It tasted yummy. Now I only hope I have a happy customer tomorrow!

Quinoa Salad

Had the most amazing quinoa salad tonight made by my housemate and good friend Juanita. It had radish, cucumber, avocado. It was fantastic! I'll see if I can get the recipe and post it but for now here's a pic!

The Lake and I

        I’m having an affair with a lake. There I said it. This is not just a short little affair. It’s been a life long affair, unbeknownst to me, until recently, a 30 year affair. It started when I was about 5 or 6. I was living on Long Island with my family. My father’s boss had a house in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, so dad decided to take us there. Down the hill, what felt like a never ending hill, was a lake that we used to walk to when we were kids. I loved it. Now go to ten years later, I’m 17, been living in Long meadow, Massachusetts for 4 or 5 years. I got involved in a theatre company in the berkshires and have a friend whose family has a camp on some lake. She decides to bring us all to the lake, we swim, have camp fires, watch movies in their own movie theater, dance etc. I loved that summer, the lake, everything about it. Then five or six years later another one of my friends moves from her old house to a lake house. While on a boat ride I mention that one campy looking area looks very familiar. She says the name of it and I immediately recognize it. I started dating a girl, a shock I know, and we move into a little apartment complex that was right on the lake.
        Well I’m back up here, of course I’m typing this sitting outside at that very lake. It didn’t dawn on me though, until recently, how deeply I’m gravitationally pulled to this lake. While driving here one day I saw a sign at the side of the road, it was the first initial and last name of my dad’s old boss, incidentally I’m named after him. I just know that it’s his house, although everytime I go by there I’m tempted to drive up the hill and announce myself.
        I’ve had some great times and not so great times at this lake. We came for Christmas one year and I got switches because I wouldn’t stop sucking my fingers. I practically broke my neck doing a forward roll on a bed once and my mother was freaking out because there was no hospital close by. I’ll never forget the summer I was 17 and swimming and frolicking on this lake. I think we only did it once or twice but it was the greatest summer of my life. Then I dated and moved in with a girl here, it was devastating. The first time I ever got my heart really broken. They have since completely torn down the building that we lived in so I guess that means I can finally let go.
        I started a novel where all the characters lived on a lake, this lake. One of my goals was to finish a first draft of that novel this summer, I’m not doing so great so far. I’ve been staying here the past few days since my friend who lives here is out of town. This morning I got up and went on an hour long kayak ride. As I looked up at the mountains that are surrounding me i couldn’t help but think about all of the things that have happened to me while I’m here. I couldn’t help but to think that I am pulled here. How strange is it that I came here as a five year old and have been coming back ever since? There are thousands of lakes around this whole country but I’m pulled towards this one. As I stopped paddling on the kayak, put he oar down and let my hands glide in the water I couldn’t help but think this is where I’m meant to be. This is where I’m meant to retire. I know I’ll go away for a little while but I can’t help but think I’ll always come back.

Summer Memories- 21st Birthday

        Juanita is friend of mine, she is now married to Sam and have a beautiful baby girl, I’m staying with them this summer. Ok so Juanita and Sam aren’t their real names but I must protect the not so innocent. Juanita and I are the same age, by three weeks or so. We are both August babies. I was living up here in Massachusetts working at the same theater company I’m working at now when I turned 21. Albeit I was just a box office employee at the time. I was shy, sexually confused and lacked major confidence. Which is why, I now realize, I was an easy target for the situations that I put myself in a few years later. I digress.
        I remember the day vividly, it was my birthday, it was raining out. The kind of day when your working in the box office that we all dread. The companies biggest main stage theater was outside, it seated 600 or 700 people and when it rained people were livid. Imagine them saying things like “Can’t you make it stop?” “Why is it raining?” “This is ridiculous.” You even had the occasional customer who would kick the trailer, our office, like a whining little baby. Or try to grab you and ring your neck through the trailer window. On night’s like this we always locked the door to the trailer and stood as far from the window’s as possible to avoid physical contact. It didn’t matter though because I was about to turn 21 and these girls in the box office were about to give me an experience I’d never forget.
        Juanita is indescribable. She’s a firecracker and you never knew when she was going to go off. Never in a bad way, but a humorous way. This was back in the 90’s and Juanita once took old forms of paper from the box office that we needed to get rid of and put them in my car. She filled the entire car up when I was somewhere else, not paying attention. It was a mess. I had a Wiley Coyote mug that got broken. It was one of a kind and I loved the thing. I don’t know why but I’ve always loved my coffee mugs. It disappeared for a long time. We went on and on about this mug for ever, finally after a few weeks it appeared again. Or the times when I would tell her that I had a date with a girl named Amanda, just to get her off my back, she replied ‘you mean a man to love?’
        Anyway, on the night of my 21st birthday we first went over to my friends house to play pool and hang out. I think they had dinner for me planned. Strangely enough I’m sitting at her lake house right now writing. I was smoking cigarettes, drinking, thinking about this girl that I wanted to date, then seeing a cute guy pass by. Ugh. Then we went to the local bar where everyone hung out, but now I was legal. What little I remember of the night the whole company was there. People were dancing, toasting me, having a great time.
        Then it happened. I heard the cling, cling of bells. I turned around and there was a woman, except she wasn’t a woman, she was an exotic belly dancer. She was coming my way. I felt all of the blood flowing to my beet red face. Maybe I was disappointed because it wasn’t a male stripper? I remember making a split second decision that I was going to play this up. If these girls went through the trouble to find and pay for this belly dancer I was going to make it worth their while. I whooped, I hollered, I act surprised. I had the whole place laughing hysterically. I felt like I was thirty by the time the show ended. I also remember that making the people that were watching laugh was probably one of the best experiences of my life. This wasn’t just laughter, it was full on belly, I’m about to pee myself laughter. Maybe that’s why I love humor so much and making people laugh.
        That’s not the best part of the story. After the belly dancer had finished Juanita and friends told me that they had the hardest time because they had actually hired a stripper, it would be better if it was a male stripper but I think it was a female one, but she got into a car accident! The poor stripper probably knew she was not going to get many tips from lap dancing with me. Juanita probably called her and said “He’s gay but not telling anybody at this point so we want to see what will happen.” And she was probably like ‘screw this I don’t want that gig.’
        The truth is that when Juanita is around you knew something unexpected was going to happen. I knew the girls were up to something so I played it up. I was just happy that someone did something for my birthday. Even almost 15 years later we talk fondly of that day, I imagine being 90 and getting together with my box office girls and recounting those memories.