• About
  • Brush with Fame
  • Cooking Classes
  • Publishing
  • Testimonials
  • Videos
  • Personal Chef Services

Snacking in the Kitchen

~ Culinary Adventures In & Out of the Kitchen. Recipes, Reviews, Culinary Musings.

Monthly Archives: August 2010

The Hungry Kitten – No Tamale for You

30 Monday Aug 2010

Posted by snackingkitchen in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

I’m doing something new this week – house-sitting for my brother and taking care of his kitten.  So far I’ve been scratched, woken up at 6am and head bumped in the face.  She’s quite adorable though and might get away with all the abuse and the sniffles (I might be allergic).

As much as I am growing to like her though, I wasn’t about to share with her my tamale from El Camion.  She seems to be upset – judge for yourself.

 

Want to share?

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Pineapple Sage Scented Challah French Toast

27 Friday Aug 2010

Posted by snackingkitchen in Breakfast, Cooking, Recipe

≈ 1 Comment

It’s breakfast time!  Today’s breakfast was inspired last night by Molly Wizenberg’s Book A Homemade Life.  In one of her chapters, Molly talks about her father’s French Toast that was cooked in oil instead of butter.  To most people the ban of butter in French Toast preparation might come as a surprise or even shock.  But I’m not most people 🙂 Seriously though, I grew up with a father who is “allergic” to the smell of butter (his other allergies include cilantro and lamb).  And as such, our French Toast, along with any other sauteing endeavours were prepared using oil.

But back to breakfast.  I’ve had French Toast numerous times and wanted try a different approach today.  And that is when Pineapple Sage Scented Challah French Toast was born.  Welcome to the world! I hope you have a long successful life.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of milk, divided (I used 1%, feel free to use what’s in your refrigerator)
1/4 cup pineapple sage leaves
1 egg
2 teaspoons brown sugar
splash of vanilla
2 3/4″ slices Raisin Challah
vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Combine 1/4 cup of milk and pineapple sage in a microwave safe container.  Microwave for 1 minute and allow to cool.

2. Whisk egg with the remaining 1/4 cup milk, brown sugar and vanilla.
3. Once cooled, remove the pineapple sage from the milk. Add the scented milk to the egg mixture and whisk.
4.  Soak Challah slices in the egg mixture for about 2 minutes on each side.

5.  Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat.
6.  Cook Challah French Toast in high oil for 2-3 minutes on each side.

7.  Eat immediately!

Want to share?

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Chef’s Table – Feast for your eyes, stomach and heart

24 Tuesday Aug 2010

Posted by snackingkitchen in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

On a Saturday afternoon I put on my black little dress, heels, and armed with a notepad and camera drove to Georgetown, WA for a Chef’s Table hosted by the lovely Traca Savodogo.  I’ve heard about Chef’s Table before and was more than excited when Eric Rivera asked me to attend the dinner in his place (thanks!).

The dinner was hosted at Skillet, the modern American diner. Walking towards the Skillet, I knew I was about to experience something quite special – the soft glow of candles, beautiful arrangements of fall flowers and tantalizing smells from the back of the kitchen were there to welcome!

The evening started with mingling over Watermelon Mojitos.  If you know anything about me, you know that mojitos are my drink of choice.  This Watermelon Mojito reminded me of a summer watermelon slushy – it was nice and thick and I drank it through a straw.  I can’t guess how much rum was in the mojito, but it was lovely and refreshing, and I had to have more than one.

Next, it was time for dinner.  There were about 30 of us – food bloggers, farmers, educators, food photographers and chefs.  We came together to share our love and passion for food and enjoy an incredible family-style dinner prepared by Ericka Burke & Heather Earnhardt of Volunteer Park Cafe and Josh Henderson of Skillet Street Food.

While we sampled delicious charcuterie courtesy of Charlie Hertz of Zoe’s Meats, Traca introduced all the wonderful people who put together the event.  She started with a bit of Food for Thought: did you know that most people consume only 75 pounds out of 1500 pounds of meat?  The rest is considered to be secondary cuts of meat.  These secondary cuts (think beyond tenderloin and ribs) were the focus of the evening.

The dinner began with BLT Salad with Bacon Lardons and Farm Fresh Tomatoes with Green Goddess Dressing and Shaved Summer Squash Salad with Lemon, Cucumber and Mint.

Tracy Smaciarz from Heritage Meats, a family owned company specializing in “organic, locally grown and sustainable meat products and services,” provided the bacon lardons for the salad.  Tracy is featured as one of the best and youngest butchers in Primal Cuts.  



I was too busy eating the next few courses (Vietnamese Oxtail Lettuce Cups and Ragu) to be taking pictures.  But both were delicious in their own way – the lettuce cups, fresh and vinegary, a perfect bite served in a lettuce leaf.  The ragu was rich and hearty, perfect recipe to have on hand for a fall night.

What came out of the kitchen next, was a thing of beauty.  A platter of Moroccan Lamb with Cous Cous, Olives and Fennel.



Perfectly tender and rare, the lamb was brought by Linda Neunzig of Ninety Farms who spoke about ethically and naturally raised animals.  Did you know that animals are best slaughtered during certain seasons?  As Linda explained, the slaughter timing depends on the growth of grass – the optimal time is during Spring and Fall.  Most animals slaughtered during Spring are fabricated for the BBQ cooking where the Fall animals are fabricated for braising (think roasts, larger cuts).

And then came the pig.  One, whole, roasted pig.

Crispy on the outside, fork-tender on the inside and oh-so-delicious!  We devoured the pork, dunking the tender meat into Chimichurri for an extra tang.  The stone fruit roasted along with the pig were tender and soaked in delicious juices.  Oh, and there was some red wine involved.

The pig came from Crying Rock Farm.  Joel Blais made the personal delivery and all of us were so thankful! Joel talked about the way pigs are treated on the Crying Rock Farm “let pigs be pigs” he said.  “Pigs have a good life” on the farm.  This is a celebration.

As though the dinner wasn’t already sweet enough, we saved some room for dessert.  The individually plated Fresh Fig Tart with Rosemary Cornmeal Crust and Honey Glaze was a delightful finale.  I personally wouldn’t have thought of putting rosemary in dessert, but it enhanced the figs and added a bit of a savory taste.



And honey?  Oh boy!  The honey came from Corky Luster of Ballard Bee Company – Keeping the Bee in Ballard.  Corky does urban bee pollination.  Say what?  He places bee hives in people’s backyards – think of that as surrogate for honey.  There are currently 60 hives in Seattle and Corky hopes to grow the number next year.  Did you know that a worker bee’s life is a month long, while a Queen Bee lives about 5 years?  More food for thought!  


Unfortunately, I have honey issues….Growing up, my parents would feed me honey and hot milk when I was sick.  And the memory associations have stuck.  As a grown up, I do not consume honey straight out of the bottle, but I did love the Cokry’s honey in the dessert and as a glaze for the roasted pig.


How is it that I’m hungry at the end of this post?  If you are lucky to live in Seattle, please visit The Skillet and Volunteer Park and support the local vendors.

Want to share?

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Breakfast – Sunny Side Up Eggs

22 Sunday Aug 2010

Posted by snackingkitchen in Breakfast, Eggs

≈ 1 Comment

Of all the things I was going to do on a Saturday night, playing Scrabble wasn’t in the plans. But that’s exactly what my friend and I ended up doing last night.  One game of Scrabble turned into 2, and then came the Pear Vodka & Cream Soda cocktail along with the 3rd game of Scrabble.  The game night turned into a sleep over and when the morning came it was time for breakfast.

Skillet, oil, eggs and we were on the way.  I chose to sprinkle the eggs with crumbled blue cheese. The slices of avocado and toasted thin bagel completed the plate.  Breaking into the egg yolk and seeing it run is a morning dream!

Want to share?

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Recipe Development for Fitness Magazine – Out in Print

22 Sunday Aug 2010

Posted by snackingkitchen in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

I was first contacted by Fitness Magazine in March.  By some universal force my resume got into the right hands and the magazine offered me to develop a recipe for their Dinner in 20 section.  The goal was to create an original, healthy recipe that took 20 minutes to prepare from start to finish. 

By this point, I’ve had experience developing recipes for Cuisine at home magazine (just a note to all you grammar people out there – “home” is really meant to be lower case) and Joy Bauer’s Slim & Scrumptious Cookbook.  I was up for the Fitness challenge!

Unlike a 9-month-giving-birth-to-a-baby process, giving birth to the recipe took only 5 months from development to print.  I hope you try this recipe for Grilled Curried Shrimp with Mango Couscous in your own kitchen and let me know your thoughts!

Thanks so much to the staff at Fitness Magazine – I had such a wonderful time working with you and hope to do it again in the future.

Want to share?

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Cork & Fork Family Dinner

21 Saturday Aug 2010

Posted by snackingkitchen in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

My sister Olga of Mango&Tomato was in Seattle this week and we got to cook together (quite peacefully and harmoniously) in the kitchen.  As usual, she took beautiful photos and wrote it all up.  Below is her post with photos.  Enjoy!
Written and photographed by Olga.
Earlier this month I received an email from Foodbuzz letting me and other Foodbuzz members know that they’ve paired up with Columbia Crest Wines and were looking for proposal projects for Cork & Fork entertaining soiree.

I decided to apply. Below is my proposal, which got accepted!!!

Here’s the background story: after I joined Foodbuzz, I told my twin sister Anna to join too! And she did. She blogs here:www.snackinginthekitchen.com    She lives in Seattle, WA while I live in Arlington, VA. Despite the entire country between us, we chat all the time, travel together, and share many hobbies/interests such as FOOD, salsa dancing, crafts, etc.  One of the differences between  Anna and me is that she prefers red wine, while I prefer white wine. When I saw the Cork & Fork “challenge,” I thought this would be perfect for my upcoming trip to Seattle to visit Anna and our family.    And so the name for this would be Red vs White Wine Cork & Fork Twin Cook-off. Anna will make one of the red wine pairings, and I will make one of the white wine pairings.    We’ll invite some of our closest friends and depending on the weather have the meal outside or inside: sorry, with Seattle weather you can never tell! At the end of the party, the guests will choose the winning menu. 

And so, this Tuesday Anna and I set out to make a family dinner for our parents and brother. Anna chose Shiraz, and I chose Pinot Grigio. Luckily, the weather was absolutely perfect for a dinner outside.


Here’s a view of the table with a few of the dishes. Scroll below to see what we cooked.


For her appetizer, Anna made a bruschetta with fresh tomatoes, onions and basil on top of a grilled ciabatta bread.


For my appetizer, I made a pear salad with blue cheese and spiced pecans. The recipe called for roasting the pears, but it was too hot for that. The pecans were toasted in butter, sugar and a bit of cayenne and gave a bit of a punch to the salty blue cheese and the sweet pears. The dressing for the salad included reducing two cups of orange juice to two tablespoons: I just did not have enough patience for that and only reduced it to about quarter of the cup. Still, a success.


I also made steamed mussels. Instead of using poblano peppers as the recipe called for, I used roasted red peppers. The broth also contained onions, garlic, clam broth, coconut milk and white wine. I absolutely love mussels, but neither my brother nor my dad tasted a single one of them. Fine, more for the girls in my family 🙂




Anna chose to make grilled lamb chops with balsamic honey glaze and mint pesto. The mint pesto was absolutely awesome and also went well with bruschetta. It smelled fresh like summer! 


To go along with the lamb, Anna and I made grilled baby potatoes by first cooking red and white potatoes in salted water till they were tender and then drizzling them with some olive oil (thank you, Misha, for doing that) and seasoning with salt and pepper before putting them on the grill.


Anna grilled the lamb till medium rare and everyone enjoyed it with shiraz. Everyone other than our dad, who has very strong dislike for lamb (and also cilantro).

There was too much food to also make a dessert, so we ended up choosing a watermelon as a finale for our dinner.

Thank you Foodbuzz and Columbia Crest for sponsoring this dinner with my family. As far as who the winner is, my mom’s favorite dish was the lamb, and my brother liked bruschetta.  My dad liked all the food, other than the lamb and mussels 😉 He’s diplomatic like that.

Want to share?

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Cherry Tour and Lunch at Chinook Winery in Yakima, WA

19 Thursday Aug 2010

Posted by snackingkitchen in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Long overdue photos from a cherry and wine trip in Yakima, Washington with a stop at Chinook winery.

Want to share?

  • Tweet
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • November 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • August 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • June 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007

Categories

  • Alabama
  • Allrecipes.com
  • Appetizer
  • Arugula
  • Asparagus
  • Avocado
  • Bacon
  • Baking
  • Baklava
  • Balsamic
  • Bananas
  • BBQ
  • Beans
  • bed and breakfast
  • Beef
  • Beets
  • Birmingham
  • Book Club
  • Bread
  • Breakfast
  • Brunch
  • Burger
  • Cake
  • Cauliflower
  • Caviar
  • Cereal
  • Challah
  • Cheese
  • cherries
  • Chicken
  • Chili
  • Chinese
  • Chips
  • Chocolate
  • Coffee
  • Cookbook
  • Cookies
  • Cooking
  • Cooking Classes
  • Corn
  • Crafts
  • Cravings
  • Culinary Instruction
  • Cupcakes
  • Curry
  • Dairy
  • Dairy Free
  • Decorating
  • Dessert
  • Dinner
  • Dolmas
  • Drink
  • Eggs
  • Events
  • Falafel
  • Fall
  • Farmers Market
  • Festival
  • Fish
  • Fitness
  • Five Ingredient Dish
  • Food Competition
  • Food Revolution
  • Food Styling
  • FoodBuzz
  • Freezing
  • French
  • Fruit
  • Furniture
  • Gifts
  • Giveaway
  • Gluten Free
  • GlutenFree
  • GPS
  • Grains
  • Greek
  • Green Beans
  • Grilling
  • Grits
  • Guacamole
  • guest blogger
  • Gym
  • Happy Hour
  • Healthy
  • Hillel
  • Holidays
  • House Decor
  • Ice Cream
  • Ideas
  • Indian
  • Iowa – Cuisine at home
  • juice
  • Kale
  • Kids
  • Kitchen
  • Kosher Food
  • Lamb
  • Lunch
  • Mango
  • Meat
  • Meatless Monday
  • Mediterranean
  • Mexican
  • Mint
  • Mother's Day
  • Mushrooms
  • Mussels
  • Mystery Ingredient
  • New York
  • Nuts
  • Outside the Kitchen
  • Paleo
  • Passover
  • Pasta
  • Peppers
  • Pho
  • Photography
  • Pizza
  • Plantains
  • Pork
  • Portland
  • Portugal
  • Potatoes
  • Product Review
  • Purim
  • quick and easy
  • Quinoa
  • Recipe
  • recipe development
  • Recipe Testing
  • Restaurant Review
  • Rice
  • Risotto
  • Russian
  • Salad
  • San Francisco
  • Sandwich
  • Seafood
  • Seattle
  • Shrimp
  • Sides
  • Snacks
  • Snow
  • Soup
  • Southern Living
  • Spain
  • Spanish
  • Stir Fry
  • Sushi
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • tacos
  • Teaching
  • Thanksgiving
  • The Culinary Institute of America – Updates
  • Tomatoes
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • vacation
  • Vegan
  • Vegetables
  • Vegetarian
  • Video
  • Vietnamese
  • Volunteering
  • washington
  • Washington DC
  • Watermelon
  • whole30
  • Wine
  • Writing/Publishing
  • Year in Review
  • You Buy I Cook
  • Zucchini

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Blog at WordPress.com.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: