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MG and I confronted two big questions today.
First… what do you make for dinner that will be satisfying and delicious, but super-easy because you started drinking champagne at four o’clock in the the afternoon and don’t have the energy to attempt anything even remotely ambitious?
Second… is it possible to eat a fantastic deep-fried tortilla loaded down with crab meat, jalapeño, avocado, tomato, onion, lime, and cotija cheese ONE-HANDED and NOT drop morsels onto the table?
The answer to the first question: Crab Tostadas.
The answer to the second question: No Fucking Way.
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Posted 5 days, 23 hours ago. 4 comments
Though Penny at Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen freely admits to finding this very simple and highly gratifying recipe at AllRecipes.com, I’ve still decided to re-name them in her blog’s honor. I take a lot of food into work but rarely do I get actual requests, or in one case an outright demand for more of the same, and the sooner the better.
Luckily for all involved, there are two extra cups of blueberries in my refrigerator awaiting their assignment. Take it from me, if you want to be the singular hotshot of your office on an otherwise bleak and routine Monday morning, these muffins are your ticket to stardom.
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Posted 2 weeks, 3 days ago. 2 comments
To celebrate my three-hour-plus visit to the dentist this past Friday, I present the absolute most sugary dessert I have made in months.
Yes, I said three-hour-plus. Actually it was even more than that because it had been so long since I had been to see the dentist that the hygenist actually had to break my simple, routine cleaning into two separate appointments. So the second appointment began with the resumption of scraping, plying and carving plaque off my teeth. Sadly, from there, it went seriously downhill.
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Posted 3 weeks, 5 days ago. 3 comments
Chicken is easy to abuse. It’s so simple to prepare, it’s good for you, it’s filling, it’s abundant, it’s inexpensive, and it takes a real genius to burn it. So, if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself making that aching sigh at the grocery store that translates into “ugh… again?” as you grab your favorite thighs, drumsticks or boneless breasts and toss them unenthusiastically into your basket, the way Mary Richards did in the opening of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
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It’s July in Hollywood. The way you can tell is that everyone in town is tan… except me. Well, Robert Pattinson and me.
MG is in Athens, Georgia visiting his family, and I’ll be joining him in a little less than a week. I keep hearing the same two things about Georgia: I’m going to be amazed at the food, and I’m going to be dripping wet from the humidity. Earlier this week, I was prepping a GSN Live phone contestant who was calling in from Atlanta and I asked her if she had any advice for how I could handle the heat when I’m there. Her answer: “Stand still.”
I’m choosing to not overly concern myself with The Peach State’s current 53% humidity. Instead, I’m focusing on the fun I’ll have with MG’s family, the beautiful scenery, visiting UGA, having smothered, covered, chunked, diced, peppered, capped and topped hash browns at a Waffle House, and the numerous “chicken trucks” I’ve been told I’m going to see on the roads. MG has also promised to take me someplace where I can see some authentic “hill people,” which I still don’t really believe exist.
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Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago. 2 comments
Summer isn’t exactly the season where people dive into spicy heated Mexican cooking. It seems most people sway towards pasta salads, fruity cocktails and grilling.
Fair enough.
But my Señor Verde’s Chicken Enchiladas went over big both in terms of web hits and compliments to the chef. Plus, my last trip to Super King’s produce section left me with an abundance of dried peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos looking to find their way into something, so here’s a spicy little salsa, slow-cooked to bring out every last hint of flavor.
Without the single habanero I added to the original recipe, this salsa is perfect to bring with you to a summer barbeque or picnic.
With the habanero, you might want to be a bit more selective about the people with whom you decide to share it.
And before we go any further, just to get our maracas off a bit, let’s all take a gander at a six-year-old Señor Verde, getting in touch with his Hispanic roots south of the border in San Felipe, Mexico, nineteen-seventy-bruh-huh bruh-huh. I’ll say this for myself. I know a good sombrero when I see it. I wonder if my family played checkers on me after I fell asleep.
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What do you do when you’ve arrived at home with an UNBELIEVABLE amount of affordable vegetables and a brand new Rachael Ray knife? You get to work putting together a flavor-infused Mexican feast that serves six… then you make sure you invite only one other person over to enjoy it with you!
Some of you out there know where I get my produce. In the local area surrounding our production offices, the market I hit is famous not just for its jaw-droppingly low prices on everything from fresh produce, meats, alcohol and fresh breads, but for its war zone of a parking lot with a single entrance, a single exit, and a slew of locals who are either over the age of eighty or simply ignorant to common driver’s courtesy. Plastic bags and runaway shopping carts dart around freely, as do at least three or four different languages and a healthy amount of honking and cursing. It’s even worse inside. It’s never anything but packed to the gills, and a mustering of patience is required along with extra-protective footwear and a heightened sense of self-preservation.
Yes, I very much have to be in a overwhelmingly composed, almost reverent state of mind to venture into the Super King Market at 2716 N. San Fernando Road in the Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. I take a deep breath, purse my lips, tuck down my head, and concentrate on the finish line, much as I imagine I might if I were forced to walk across hot coals or experience a colonoscopy.
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Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago. 3 comments
I think this is the first time I’ve ever made a dish that involved the use of skewers. I had to locate them at my local grocery store, and you know what? They’re not easy to find. Logic told me to head straight to the utensil and disposable pan aisle, but they weren’t there. Next, I hit the meat section. No dice. “Why not try the picnic and summer bar-b-que section,” you ask? I’ll tell you why… they’re not there!
Nope, the skewers at my local grocery store are located in the fresh seafood section, so if I had started grabbing up my ingredients with the pound of fresh shrimp I needed to make this meal, I could have saved myself approximately fifteen minutes of super-valuable “Gary time.” Of course, I could have also saved it if I just asked any employee in the store where to find skewers. But I don’t do that. It’s true what they say about us. We don’t like to ask for directions.
Side note – later in the day while playing DVR catch-up, I was watching Sandra’s Money Saving Meals, with cooking’s “bad seed,” Sandra Lee (She’s blond! She’s sweet! She’ll cut your throat and have the knife cleaned and back dicing carrots before you hit the floor!).
Sandra, it so happened, was preparing her own little skewer snack and just had to point out that any good chef of course has a bounty of skewers just lying around the kitchen waiting to be employed. Yeah, that made me feel good. Sandra… she really likes to rub your nose in it.
This is a recipe I found over at Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen, posted by my cyber ally, Penny. She lives with her husband in a beautiful summer cottage on Lake Lure, North Carloina, where she raises vegetables in her own garden, creates awesome dishes, and posts eye-popping pics of her lake and its surroundings that lead me to remember my single trip to the Tar Heel State for a television pilot in 1997. Some really beautiful scenery there (check out the blog – the pics really do not disappoint).
Penny seems to have it all, but she never shows off, unlike that snooty money-saving Sandra Lee who’s just busting to tell you that her pork tacos were made for ten cents less than yours.
I think I have some issues.
Anyway, my praise for Penny and her food blog are genuine, but if my flattery also garners me an invitation to relax on a dock awash in the laurel-scented Lake Lure breeze with a plate of salmon tarragon cakes or a grilled pizza or two, I’d happily fake a tapeworm to get out of work and sneak on off to N.C. for a week or two.
Check out the fantastic recipe after the jump
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Posted 2 months, 4 weeks ago. 4 comments
I didn’t know this until just a few minutes ago, but apparently in the apartment complex that is home to Chez Tv Food and Drink, I now have a reputation to protect.
I was just at my front door, key in hand and two bags of groceries at my feet. A young couple I recognized as neighbors I was nearly certain I had seen before passed me on the way to the elevator. He was sporting an entirely shaved head but for a large flap of dark hair that fell forward and covered his left eye, while she was coiffed in shoulder-length bright magenta locks capturing a look that is more common than not in the Hollywood area.
As they went past, the guy recognized my door, stopped and asked, “Hey, are you the guy that cooks all the time?”
I chuckled nervously because that’s what I do around strangers, and then said, “yes.” He responded with, “Ah, man. I smell that food coming out of your apartment all the time. It’s fucking amazing!”
Wow! Really?
I thanked him with a big smile I couldn’t have wiped off if you paid me, then offered to drop some food off sometime at his front door, to which he offered to pay me back in kind with a bottle of wine. Then we went our separate ways before it dawned on me I still had no idea what their names were or where the hell they lived.
Oh well. I’s nice to know I have some fans out there amongst the masses. And it’s certainly the kind of thing you happily welcome hearing the night before having to psych yourself up for another work week.
And yes, I certainly did assume that the aroma of the food I make would slither into the hallways of my complex now and again. But as I’m the one doing the cooking, I seldom catch the actual aroma myself since it envelopes me faster than anything else. So it’s nice to get a pat on the back for something you hope other people love enjoying as much as you enjoy making it.
So, I’m the “cooks all the time” neighbor. I’ll take it. It’s much better than being the “drunk who lets all the restaurant menus pile up at their front door” neighbor, or the “doesn’t know that polite conversation needs to end well before the ten-minute mark” neighbor, or the “why the hell should I walk one flight of stairs when there’s an elevator to haul my lazy ass up to it?” neighbor.
Come to think of it, I’m sure these spicy apple lamb meatballs probably garnered me some hallway props amongst the neighbors. Aside from the spicy kick of the onions, peppers and horseradish, there’s also some earthy tones from the parsley and the mushrooms, capped off by the sweet aroma of apples and apple cider. It’s an aromatic opera! As for the taste, the heat is met straight on by the sweetness, striking a nice balance from one chew to the next. And I highly recommend letting some sit overnight in its juices for an even more concentrated taste sensation the next day!
Click on the photos below for high-res images. Your back button will return you to this page. Recipe follows after the jump.
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Posted 2 months, 4 weeks ago. Add a comment
The end of LOST last week unfortunately also spells the end to hosting my regular Tuesday night viewing and food parties. It’s been a great way for me to keep the new recipes coming through the kitchen during the work week, and a chance to share the finished meals with people other than only MG. Not that MG would ever complain about being the sole recipient of my food, but it’s nice to get a little buzz going outside of the boyfriend realm.
(If you are one of those people who is planning to start watching LOST on DVD now that its full run is complete, do NOT read the next paragraph. Just hop over it.)
Unlike many of the LOSTies out there, I had no problem with the show’s ultimately unanswered questions and unresolved issues. The final episode was wholly satisfying and gave me a genuine feeling of closure. It was worth the six seasons of commitment, so please feel free to not leave comments asking how Libby ended up in Hurley’s mental hospital, what Walt’s powers were, and how the smoke monster couldn’t leave the island and yet characters saw visions of their dead loved ones in the “real world.” I have no interest in defending how I feel about the show or allowing someone to try and argue me out of it, and seeing that it’s still a pretty touchy subject with many fans, that’s probably the smartest road to take anyway.
The best part of the show for me was spending time with my mini-community of LOST buddies… eating, drinking, exchanging past story details that might have been forgotten and executing a communal gasp at a particularly mind-fucking cliffhanger.
Even more fun than that was grabbing MG by the shirt collars at an act break, throwing him around the couch and shrieking, “HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON??????” What, I’m suppose to do that with Glee now? I don’t think it’s going to work.
The final LOST dinner party at my place was for the penultimate episode. LOSTies and co-workers Travis, Laura and Ashley joined me and MG for a night of smoke monsters, frozen time-altering wheels, and open-faced crab burgers with homemade red pepper sauce followed by angel food cake topped with strawberry sauce and whipped cream, which in turn was followed by (in MG’s case only) a bowl of rocky road ice cream. Recipes and MG’s “this little piggy can’t be stopped” photo are after the jump.
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Posted 3 months ago. 4 comments
