A Foodies Life

Roasted Acorn Squash with Baby Bok Choy

Lots of fun and exciting changes have been going on in my life the past couple of days. I'll write more about them when I'm closer to a computer but wanted to pass this on.

On Monday night I made a roasted acorn squash with some roasted baby bok choy.

For the squash I cut it in strips and then rubbed it in olive oil and seasoned both sides with salt, pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I roasted them in the oven until they were tender and it was amazing!

For the bok choy I sauteed in the pan with salt and pepper and finished them in the oven with a dairy free honey Dijon vinaigrette by Cindy's Kitchen that I bought at Fresh Market.

I was suprised at how good it was and how full I felt after eating! Have a great day!

Stuffed Butternut Squash

I looked in the cabinet this morning for something good for breakfast and realized we were out of cereal. So I opened up the fridge and found a stuffed butternut squash from the other night. Delicious. So I choose that instead of steak. The recipe I use is based on a recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook.

I get a butternut squash, cut in half and lightly oil. The bake with flesh side down in oven until done.

Meanwhile I sauté some onions, mushrooms and apples until just cooked. I add it to a bowl with cottage cheese and cinnamon. I then added some breadcrumbs until it firmed up. And seasoned to taste.

When the squash are done I take them out abd stuff them. Then bake in oven at 350 for about 20 minutes.

It's very filling and great as a meal on it's own.

Roasted Vegetables

Had these wonderful roasted veggies tonight with corned beef. Cut up some potatoes, pearl onions and baby carrots. Melted some butter and added olive oil. Chopped some Rosemary from the front yard. Tossed all those things in a bowl and added salt/pepper. Then put on a sheet pan. Baked in the oven at 400 degree convection oven for about 30 minutes.

When they were done I squeezed a little lemon juice on them and they were scrumptious. Give it a try!

Acorn squash

The wind is howling, rain is crashing against the window. It's the second straight day of rain. I don't know how the people that live in Seattle deal with the constant rain. Actually when I briefly lives in south eastern Alaska it was like this and I was depressed. I don't do dark and rainy very well, guess that's why I moved to Florida!

I've been trying to watch what I eat, as you know I'm dieting. Today was a bad day, I ate almost everything in sight. Last night though I had the great meal you see above. It was acorn squash that I cut and de seeded then rubbed it in olive oil and that lawry's 17 seasoning. Then I baked it at 400 degrees on convection for about fifteen minutes. Then I flipped them and added some grated Parmesan cheese. While I roasted the squash I also roasted shish kebob vegetables that we got from Fresh Market. I coated them with Newman's Own Sesame Ginger dressing. Makes for a delicious and wonderful meal!

Stay dry and have a great weekend!

Creole Spiced Seafood Gazpacho

After making a delicious Risotto at work this afternoon, tough to do when you can't use salt and you have no stock or wine in house, I walked out of the door at work to a beautiful 70 plus degree day.  It was refreshing to be leaving work at five o'clock and know that the sun would be out for at least another hour or so.  I was exhausted, wanted to sit out on the porch, play with the pooch and do not much of anything.  

I walked into the house and saw an array of dishes and beautiful looking vegetables being cut in the kitchen.  Dad was making Emeril's Creole Spiced Seafood Gazpacho.  What a great idea if your trying to eat healthy.  The dish is an array of tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, cucumbers and more and is garnished with a brunoise of those vegetables, lump crab meat and shrimp.  Dad and I joked about brunoise, he pronounced it brown noise.  I told him that it gave me flashbacks from culinary school, chef's with rulers etc.  

It should be noted that I've ordered a battery charger so I can charge the battery for my camera so we'll have better pictures on this site.  I have some other stuff that I want to write about but can't get the pictures because I've lost the charger.  As anyone who knows me will tell you, if my head wasn't attached I would lose it.  

Oh, and you notice those brunoise cuts are far from it.  We would have failed tonight if we were getting graded.  The taste was wonderful though.  It was very flavorful and spicy.  We left out the lobster that is in the recipe and to be honest I can't imagine spending the money on the lobster when it would be greatly over powered by the dish.  

If your looking for something lite and summery give this a shot!

Shoestring Fries and Boo Fries

Last Friday night I did what your supposed to do on a Friday night.  I went out with some friends from work.  Not a normal group of friends that I go out with, actually I'd only really been out with two of them out of work once.  When you work with people day in and day out they become family so it felt like we'd been hanging out for years.  

First we went to my normal bar, if you know me I don't need to even tell you where it was.  If you don't know me, then continue to read the blog and you'll figure it out.  We imbibed quite a bit, dare I say I even smoked a few cigarettes.  We'll pretend you didn't read that though.  Although I will tell you that the cigarette addiction has taken over again.  Ok, start the comments a rolling.  

After many many drinks we were all starving.  It was probably about eleven o'clock at this time, late for me.  So we decided to try this little burger joint in the village.  I'd been there a couple of times and fallen in love with their fries.  They are small shoe string cut fries loaded with salt, crispy and incredible.  

All week long I have been thinking about these fries and thinking I have to find them.  I was talking to one of the guys who went out with us, we'll call him The D Man.  

"Ron you should just call the place, tell them your the chef here and ask them about their fries."  The D Man said.  

He walked away and I thought for a minute about it.  Trying to think of how else I could figure this out.  I called my food purveyor, who is a friend but she didn't answer.  I searched the internet for the restaurants number and called.  A young lady answered.

"Hi my name is Ron and I'm the chef at so and so.  I was in there last weekend and I love your fries can you tell me if you get them from (name of my purveyor).  

"Oh hi, yes we do get them from there."

"Great, could you give me a product number, item number, something?"

"Um we're really busy and the owner normally doesn't like to give out that information to other restaurants."  She said.

"Well I'm not a restaurant, I feed the elderly."  

"I know that but I'm going to have to call him, can you give me a call back in an hour?"

"Ok thanks."  

Well I was under crunch time in doing my order so I did a google search on the size of shoe string cut fries and came up with 3/16".  I found some online with my purveyor and ordered two cases.  

Cut to tonight.  The fries were on the menu at work.  I got to work at five thirty this morning and had every intention of leaving early, early was 3:30pm.  A long enough day.  When I got home I had to go and get dog food and do some errands, including re-stock cigarettes for my father who would have come home tonight to no cigarettes and I would be out on the street.  I know I know.  In the back of my head I was thinking 'man I have to go and try those fries out.'  

"I just knew you were going to be back."  The D Man said.

"How did you know?"  One of the servers asked.

"Because of the fries."  

I went over and got some out of the basket and they were just as great as the night before.  

"Hey how about some boo fries?"  The D Man said.

"Yeah sure."  I replied.  He took a plate piled them with fries, added some brown gravy and topped them with cheese, then put the plate in the oven so the cheese would melt.  He took them out and I started devouring the plate.  They were gooey, yummy, cheesy and melting in my mouth.   

I've had them before at Acme Oyster House.  After a few minutes of research on the web it turns out that they originated in New Orleans.  They are very similar to Poutine, which is the Canadian version except it's with cheese curds.  

If your ever at an Acme Oyster House give them a try.  Or if you ever feel adventurous enough to make it at home you can do that too!

Roasted Broccoli with Shrimp

Do you want a dish that is very healthy and can be cooked in under 20 minutes?  I can't think of anything better than this roasted broccoli and shrimp dish that I got off the Amateur Gourmet website. The original recipe that he posted was just of the broccoli, then he posted a follow up and added shrimp to it.  It seems that the recipe came from the Barefoot Contessa.  

This is basically how I make it.   For three people I get two bags of broccoli florets from the grocery store.  The kind that you open up and they are ready to go.  I put that in a big bowl and I add about 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of chopped garlic, cumin, coriander and a dash of chili powder. Mix it all together well.   I put the broccoli on a sheet pan and baked it in the oven at 400 degrees for about ten minutes.  While the broccoli is roasting I take a pound and a half of peeled shrimp and add it to the same bowl that I tossed the broccoli in.  I add the juice and zest of one lemon.  Some salt and pepper.  I toss it around and let it soak up the flavors of the bowl and lemon juice.  

Take the broccoli out of the oven after ten minutes and add the shrimp to it, tossing all together with a spoon.  Put in for another 5 to 10 minutes until shrimp is just done.  That's it!  You can serve by it self or I've become accustomed to eating it on brown rice.      

Amaranth

So I haven't been writing on the blog a lot lately because I've been focusing on my diet.  I've added a lot of beans and whole grains and pretty much taken meat out of it.  This is a bowl of Amaranth and berries that I had for breakfast today.  Amaranth is one of those whole grains that is great for you.  It's got protein, antioxidants and all that good stuff.  So give it a shot and I'll start writing more.

Ron

Dinner Party

While Mom is away the kids will play......isn't that an old saying?  Well I'm not a kid, or at least age wise I'm not a kid but Mom is away and I felt like it was time for an annual dinner party at my house.  The planning actually started weeks ago.  Who to invite?  What to eat?  The who to invite actually became difficult because there are a few people that I wanted to invite but other's that I really wanted to come would not have if I invited them.  It's always amazing to me how childish people are even when they are older.  I find that at work as well but that's a whole different topic, post.  

I planned this one about two or three weeks before it was going to happen.  I had grand plans.  I was going to make tenderloin, then I was going to make sweet and sour pork with fried rice.  But as the number of guests coming to the party swelled to 15 I decided that I would keep it as easy as I could get it.  Actually make something that I could prepare on the weekend and all I would have to do is throw it in the oven.  I went with my old stand by chicken tetrazinni.  That's when this website came in handy.  I couldn't find the recipe for it the day I was planning to cook it so I actually looked it up on here.  I spent all of last Sunday cooking and preparing.  I made so much of the stuff that actually I am still eating it today.  Friend's offered to bring things so we also had home made pecan pie, and a wonderful black bean salsa, thanks L!  I also made my favorite Spinach Salad.  Have I mentioned it here on this website?  All it is is spinach, hard boiled egg, bacon, mandarin oranges and Paul Newman's Sesame Ginger Dressing.  It's delicious!  Then I found some nice looking green beans so I took them blanched and shocked them, cut up a red onion, added feta cheese and Paul Newman's Raspberry Vinaigrette.  It came out pretty good.  I think next time I might try it with Balsamic.  It needed a little more acid.  

All in all it was a great evening.  Zoe had fun because two of her friends came over and played with her.  It was good to see old friends that I hadn't connected with in a long time!  What are your holiday party plans?  

The Onion

Have you ever had a baked onion? If you haven't you haven't lived. Ok, just kidding but they are a low cal and delicious accompaniment to a meal. How do you do it? You get a big Vidalia, did I spell that right, onion and peel it. Cut a hole in the top of it and then get a bouillion cube. I usually use beef. Wrap it up in tin foil really well. Put it in a baking dish because if you don't you will have juices all over the oven. Then all you do is bake it in a 375 degree oven for about an hour. When it's done you have this juicy wonderful onion. If you like onion soup you'll love this onion!