A Foodies Life

Chocolate Strawberries

        So it’s the end of the summer. I’m spending this week looking back and reflecting. I’m also doing a little bit of cleaning, and wondering why the hell it’s the end of August and my kitchen is this hot. Shouldn’t things be cooling down here in the Berkshire mountains? Not that I’m opposed to a few more gasps of summer air before fall sets in. It’s supposed to be 90 for the next few days and then go down to 70 on Friday. I guess I better enjoy it while I can.
        I’m also glad that I’ve become a lot more prolific in writing on this blog. There were times I thought about closing it down because it was a waste of money but I’m having fun writing. I feel like this summer has actually been a very creative one for me. So in an effort to keep the momentum up I went looking through some pictures this morning. I found this:

        There is nothing like a chocolate covered strawberry! People love them and flip out for them. And the most amazing this is they are the simplest thing to make! All you do is melt chocolate and dip strawberries in it. Then put it on a sheet pan and put it in the fridge. No, really, it’s that simple folks. Ok so I suggest washing the strawberries beforehand and letting them dry but it’s not brain surgery. If your chocolate doesn’t melt to a smoothy consistency, usually on more humid days. Then you just add a little oil to it and it will smooth it out.
        This summer I also started to make chocolate truffles to sell in the concessions stand here. I’ll be honest with you, I’m too embarrassed to even show anyone the recipe because it’s that simple. You just take the chocolate balls and roll them in cookie crumbs or brownie crumbs and you’re all set. When I was first testing out the recipe I made a batch and I had a teacher run into and say ‘so and so just tried one of your truffles and she had an orgasm all over the floor.’ That’s how good they are...... But I’m not sharing that one, sorry.
        Ok that’s all i have to report for now. I’m off to make some pizza for 30 teenagers........

The Newport Winefest 2010

        The one good thing about moving back to a place that was home for many years is that there is a lot of catching up to do. I’m re-connecting with friends I haven’t seen in years and making new friends in the process. So last week I got in contact with a friend who I worked many years ago at a fast food pizza joint. We’d been best friends when I lived here last and have always kept in touch via Facebook. She lives on the other end of Massachusetts with her wife but I kept promising to come and see them but still hadn’t so this was going to be the weekend. Her wife suggested we go to the Westport Whiniest I hadn’t been to Westport, at least not that I can remember, ever so I was excited about that, and well a Wine Festival? How could I turn that down. There also promised to be good food there as well.
        So on Sunday morning about 8:30 I started out on my 2.5 hour drive to Fall River, Ma to visit my friends. I was tired, it was pouring down rain but I was determined to make the trip. They had also all ready bought the tickets so there was no getting out of it. So I put my ipod on Amy Grant and started rocking out to tunes on the trip. I got to fall river about 11am, met the dogs and my friends wife for the first time and we were off. The rain showed no signs of letting up but we weren’t going to let that stop us! It was supposedly covered with tents so no big deal. We parked, payed $20 for the privilege, and made our way to the entrance. They checked out id’s, gave us a glass and we were on our way. We had our first toast of the day and then I looked to my left and saw a familiar figure, it was Chef Dave Martin, from Top Chef: Chef Dave Martin - WELCOME. I wanted to say ‘hi’ but he rushed right past on a mission. I was bummed that I had to work on Friday and Saturday because I missed his demonstrations. For the next few hours we tasted, drank, tasted some more and drank. It was a good wine festival but I was disappointed in a few things. All the other wine festivals I’ve been too before you’ve been able to keep your wine glasses, they made us give these back. You pay $50 you should at least get a souvenir glass. I thought there was going to be a bigger variety of food. The food was also really expensive, except there was a lobster roll that wasn’t too badly priced.

This eclair was huge and decadent. I ate it with my two friends.

It was booth after booth of wine, beer and there was vodka, rum and more. Talk about mixing your alcohol but it was so good.

The woodchuck beer was my favorite there. They had many different flavors. One of them tasted like Granny Smith Apples.

The Crostini and Life

        Occasionally I’ll start taking pictures with my phone with hopes that it will spark an inspiring blog post. Invariably what happens is that I just take a picture with my phone and then, well, I have a picture on my phone that I never look at again. It’s been a crazy week this week. I’ve had job interviews, I didn’t get it, the final week of a training program and wrapping the summer up. That, alas, is why I haven’t posted in a few days. So in an effort to have something interesting to say I went through my photos.
        So let’s talk about the crostini for a moment. This is bound to be a disjointed post cause that’s how I’m feeling this morning and I’m going to own it! Last week we had 2 opening nights. One for 400 people and one for 200 people. In an effort to save money and be extremely creative I looked around for combinations to put on a crostini. Which is basically a piece of a bread that you slice, lather in olive oil, salt and pepper and toast.

        Above is a picture of the bread that I sliced for the crostini’s. Imagine cutting 600 pieces of that bread. That’s what I did last week. So I then went into the cooler to check and see what we had. I noticed an abundance of onions and also some goat cheese that I didn’t know what the hell to do with. So what I did was I chopped up the onions and caramelized very slowly until they were sweet and wonderful.

        Then I put them on the crostini and put them in the oven. I topped them with some goat cheese after they came out of the oven cooled. It was actually a really nice tasting contrast with the sweetness of the onions and goat cheese. Then I needed one more so I was going to do a caprese salad type one with roma tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. I didn’t have enough Roma tomatoes though so I decided on more of a bruschetta style one where I chopped the tomatoes up, added some diced red onions, garlic, a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Then I put that on top of the crostini with a little ball of mozzarella and topped it will some fresh basil.
        So what the hell does this have to do with life? Well I don’t know but it was a catchy title wasn’t it? I guess the lesson is that you can create anything if you put your mind to it. On another note, I’m at a funky time in my life. My job here ends in the middle of September and I don’t know what's next. It’s full of possibilities. Yesterday I went on a interview for a job in Vermont. As I mentioned before I didn’t get it. Which is ok because while on paper it looked like it would be a great job, I got there yesterday and realized it was in the middle of nowhere. It was nice to be away for a day though.

        And the views were amazing!

Ribs in the Oven

        So everyone knows I love my Ipad. Actually for my birthday last week I bought myself an otter box defender case for it, so I don’t have to worry about it dropping and getting hurt anymore. If you have an ipad you should check it out: iPad Defender Series Case // OtterBox.com. I love it! That being said there is a new application on the ipad called Flipboard:Flipboard for iPad. It basically turns your ipad into a virtual magazine. You can link it to your twitter and facebook. I’ve had success with twitter but not with facebook.
        While I was playing with Flipboard I came upon a site called Smitten Kitchen. In it there was what looked like the most amazing spareribs in the world. You can find it here:sweet and smoky oven spareribs | smitten kitchen. I’m always trying to find different things to feed the kids in the training program I’m working at so I decided to try the recipe. Mind you, if you want the recipe I would actually go to her site, I of course will tell you the changes that I made. The first thing that you do is make a spice rub.

We have a southwest seasoning spice rub that we use a lot here and also some Paul’s Redfish Seasoning. I added them together and they tasted good but it needed some sweetness to it, I added some brown sugar to the mixture as well. And I also added some cumin to it, because I love the taste and smell!

Then it was time to lather it on the ribs. I put a piece of aluminum foil down that was big enough so that when I wrapped it, it would close tightly. Then I put the spice rub on both sides of the ribs. I put the front side of the ribs facing up and then folded it with a tent.

Then the best part of the recipe. Put them in the oven at 200 degrees and just let them cook for hours! I mean like six hours. The recipe I went off of says to cook for 4 hours and then put the oven down to 175 for 2 more hours. My oven temperature thingy didn’t go past 200 so i put it down but I personally think you can keep it on 200 the whole time. I would check them after 5 hours though just to make sure they are ok.

Above is what you will find when you open up the oven. The smokiest ribs you’ve ever seen coming out of an oven. My staff was watching me open these packets of ribs and I blurted out “it’s like christmas morning, getting to open ten amazing presents.” The smell and look are intense. Also what comes out is an amazing liquid on the bottom of the tin foil. Like the recipe said I got a sauce pot out and added all of the drippings to it. I then added some apple cider vinegar, more brown sugar. Then I let it reduce down to a beautiful sauce. Here is what the final product looked like garnished with some chives. You have to try this recipe!

No wonder we are all fat!

Yesterday evening, in an effort to de-stress, after working one hundred thousand days without a day off, in exhaustive heat, I decided to go to the movies. I’m in to more chick flick type movies, I know that won’t surprise a lot of you, so I went to see The Kid’s Are All Right. The I paid the young lady at the ticket counter for my ticket and then walked over to the concession stand, the ticket lady appeared. Clearly we work for the same people. Oh and I saw her doing rounds in the theater that evening as well.

I digress. My favorite thing to do is to go to the movies and buy a small soda and a small bag of popcorn. The soda is always diet coke, I know it’s still not good for me just shut up all ready. The popcorn has no butter. It’s a rare treat. I was looking up from taking money from my wallet when I noticed on the register it said “32 ounce soda.” The thing was huge! It was like half a gallon, no wait, that IS half a gallon! I gulped and it was a big gulp. I couldn’t believe it. Now mind you the soda is never really a big deal to me, just something to help get the stale popcorn down. There is no way I would ever drink that much soda in the theater, mainly because I’m afraid I’d miss the movie cause I’d be in the bathroom. And then there is the cost. I would imagine the soda that they give me cost a lot less than $.50 and they charged something like $4.25 for it. The soda and popcorn were more expensive then the movie.

I know why I’m fat, I eat too much and don’t exercise enough. Television tells us that we are fatter than we have ever been, I’m sure they are right. I mean they have to be because they said it on TV right? Kidding, I’m just kidding. You know to be honest with you I just don’t see it. I see that people are making more of an effort to work out and watch what they eat then ever before. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older now but I feel like we are more educated and trying. I honestly, rarely go to fast food places. If I do it’s because it’s 1am and I’ve had too much to drink and am starving. It’s a rare situation that I’m in that predicament though. I try to reach for more apples, peaches etc. I see my friends making those choices as well. And to be honest the better I eat and less alcohol I consume the better mood I’m in. Although I might be in a better mood if alcoholic drinks were served in 32 ounce glasses.

Braised Short Ribs

Every Saturday night I cater an event here where I work. It’s upscale or as up scale as you get in a tent on a budget. I struggle every week, trying to creatively come up with something new and great to cook. This week i decided that I wanted to try my hand at braised short ribs. I love them but don’t have much experience making them. I used google again and came up with the basic technique. So I got the ribs out, coated them in a mixture of salt, pepper, thyme and granulated garlic. I then put them in a rondeaux that had been turned on high till it was almost smoking. Then I seared them.

After I seared all the ribs I took them out and let them rest while I chopped two onions, 2 celery stalks, 2 cloves of garlic and a big carrot. I let the pan cool down and then I sauteed the vegetables in the same rondeaux. I then added about a cup of Chianti that I had gone to the store to buy and let that cook off. After that I added a can of crushed tomatoes and some vegetable stock that I had on hand. I then added the short ribs back to the pot and brought them up to a boil. They weren’t completely submerged in the sauce but close. While all this was happening the oven had been preheating to 325. Once boiling I put some aluminum foil on the pot and put it in the oven.

After about an hour and a half I checked on them. The aroma’s coming from the oven were intense. They weren’t done though so I put them in for another hour and a half and they came out beautifully.

I wish I had drained the oil a little more because if I had any complaints personally it was that they were just a little too oily. The flavor was incredible though!

As accompaniments for my short ribs I made a creamy parmesan polenta and a chipotle chicken breast. As well as a garbanzo bean salad with asparagus and lemon juice. Top that off with a homemade truffle and some cookies and it was a wonderful evening!

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.”