26 posts tagged “food”
In about a month's time I will be covered in flour, sugar, frosting and turkey grease.
That's right, it's our annual Holiday Bake Sale. It's still San Diegans only, and you have to pick up but I promise you it's worth it. The menu hasn't changed -- I have re-tooled the red velvet cake, and if you thought it was good then it's even better now. I really hope that I don't forget to bring the camera for the 4th year in a row, I'd love to get some pictures to use on our Moo business cards!
Next year, as I work my way through Veganomicon and Super Natural Cooking, I hope to get more vegan and veggie options. It's hard though, we do have a Southern bent to our cooking!
Here's the menu:
Cakes - $10
Sweet Potato Spice Cake with Walnuts
Moist Lemon Cake with Lemon Frosting
Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Pies - $10
Pumpkin
Lemon (with or without Meringue)
Dutch Apple
Sweet Potato
Peach Cobbler - $15
Breads
Dinner Rolls -$6 per dozen
Mini Pepperoni Rolls $15 for half dozen
Fried Turkeys -$45
Turkeys will range in size from 13lbs to 15lbs
Full Dinners - $100
Complete dinners for 4 are available for order. Please see below.
Full Dinners Contain:
One Fried Turkey
Your choice of three sides:
Cornbread Dressing
Collard Greens
Candied Yams
Green Beans
Mashed Potatoes with Gravy
One Dozen Rolls
Your Choice of Dessert:
Pumpkin Pie
Dutch Apple Pie
Sweet Potato
Sweet Potato Spice Cake
Additional Sides are $10 each.
Cold Chalupa's for breakfast in the morning. MMM MMM.
San Diegans, I promise to make up this gross discretion by getting some authentic street tacos tomorrow. Health Freaks, I promise to have extra spicy salsa on said tacos to counteract the lard in the tortillas.
(OMG Goldie, forget fish tacos. I'm taking you to Tacos El Gordo!!!!!)
I'm really starting to like this holiday. It's official.
First off, prompted by the We <3 Music Ratt post, I thought I may as well post my "Year of the Rat" song here.
My mother, feeling jealous that I didn't bring her any yummies from my previous Chinese New Year post wanted to go get some Chinese. Since I could eat Chinese all day every day, we set off to our local until we remembered about this Pei Wei place. I'm not a big fan of chain Chinese as they tend to be over priced, over booked and underwhelming *cough PF Changs cough*. This place was really really good and we got enough food to feed 4 people for only $24. If you have one in your area, check it out and try the Spring Rolls!
I'm going to go back to my food coma before I wake up and take the rugrats to Chuck E Cheeses - they've been really good this week and I'm a masochist. If I don't come back, please check under the ball pit!
I celebrated my very first Chinese New Year with a massive feast at my friend Lan's:
It was a good thing I parked far away last night.
She also had dessert but I was too tired (and too full) to eat anything else. Plus the 100% pure Chili Sauce stuff she had burnt most of my taste buds, so no worries. Anyhow, this is definitely a celebration I'll be taking part in again!
*sigh*
Every year I ask myself "WHY GOD WHY DO I PUT MYSELF THROUGH THIS!?!"
The reason is simple: I'm crazy and a masochist. Those two things should never go together. Here's the menu for this year folks, and we're doing full dinners!
Cakes - $9
Sweet Potato Spice Cake with Walnuts
Moist Lemon Cake with Lemon Frosting
Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - $10
Pies - $10
Pumpkin
Dutch Apple
Sweet Potato
Peach Cobbler - $12
Breads
Dinner Rolls -$6 per dozen
Mini Pepperoni Rolls $12 for half dozen
Fried Turkeys -$45
Turkeys will range in size from 13lbs to 15lbs
Full Dinners - $100
Complete dinners for 4 are available for order.
Full Dinners Contain:
One Fried Turkey
Your choice of three sides:
Cornbread Dressing
Collard Greens
Candied Yams
Green Beans
Mashed Potatoes with Gravy
One Dozen Rolls
Your Choice of Dessert:
Pumpkin Pie
Dutch Apple Pie
Sweet Potato
Sweet Potato Spice Cake
Additional Sides are $10 each.
Obviously, my catering company is heavy on the Southern inspired cookin'. If you're in the San Diego area, and need a fried turkey or a pie just shoot me a message and we'll see what we can work out.
If you're not in San Diego, but would like to drool over our other goodies then go here: http://web.mac.com/invisiblesparks
I am a book lover. I am a food lover. Most importantly, I love books/periodicals/shows/podcasts about food.
So I'm cruising Barnes and Noble on my break and I came across a magazine I'd never heard of before.
I was taught how to make sauce when I was 12, by a family friend. His is a 3 day long affair, with one full day of cooking and two days of sitting. Granted it makes one whopper of a pot of sauce, but even on my day off I have no desire to have all the hassle. Most days, I'm making dinner while rushing off to work. I keep cans of crushed and whole tomatoes on hand now because my little brother is notorious for making spaghetti for one, and when I want to make pasta there's never any on hand.
This is a recipe that I got from the 101cookbooks webby. I had a 5 minute recipe that was okay, but didn't taste as good as this one. Heidi is vegetarian, and a lot of her recipes are based in all natural ingredients. She lives in San Francisco, so she's got a bit more access to the lovely things in her book Super Natural Cooking which I have yet to pick up:
5 Minute Pasta Sauce
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt or kosher salt; whichever you've got on hand
3 medium cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 28-ounce can crushed red tomatoes - no herbs or seasonings added
zest of one lemon
1. Bang the first 4 ingredients in a saucepan and turn the heat up to medium high heat until everything is fragrant. I call this the "tummy growling" stage. Be careful not to let the garlic brown or burn. Browning or burning = bitter.
2. Add your tomatoes, juice and all, and give it a good stir. Bring to a gentle simmer. Taste, and add more salt if needed. Sprinkle in your lemon zest and you're good to go!
Trust me on the lemon zest. When I first read this recipe, I was like WTF?! but the lemon zest adds a lightness to it. This is one sauce that I cannot imagine not having lemon zest in. So make it, and invite me over for dinner!
I get asked a lot of food questions by the guys at work. More recently, I was asked a question about my favorite food which of course is soup hands down. I typed up this recipe very quickly, because it's the one I've been craving for ages but I haven't had the time to make let alone enjoy. I have made this one many times over, with Vegetarian and Vegan changes made to the recipe depending on who I was feeding. My favorite recipes are the ones that I can change as I please. If you'd like to see the variations on this, shoot me a PM and I'll give up the goods =)
All I need now is a really cold day, and the time to make my favorite soup!
The Veg
2 large Carrots cut into medium dice
1 medium Yellow Onion cut into medium dice
2 stalks Celery cut into medium half moons1 pound baby spinach, washed and dried.
The 'Erbs
2 bay leaves fresh or dried
The Meatballs
1 pound ground beef or pork combined or if you're like me use a mix of ground chicken both light and dark
1 egg
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 cloves garlic minced
2 Tbls fresh parsley chopped
Bang all of this into a bowl and using the tools God gave you, mix it together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Roll them into balls the size of a truffle. The Lindt kind. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and cover with plastic wrap. These can be made a day ahead and kept in the fridge. Take them out when you are starting to put together the ingredients for the soup.
The Soupy Part
6 cups low sodium chicken broth Substitute Vegetable broth if you're taking the Veggie/Vegan route. I like Kitchen Basics.
2 cups Cold Water
1 1/2 cups dried pasta, such as Ditalini or Orzo
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper, to taste
1. Mise en place: Get everything ready to go. Take 20 minutes to prep your veggies and put them into a bowl, everythng but the spinach. If you're prepped your meatballs the night before take them out now, or make them at this point. The goal is to have everything ready before you turn the heat on the pot.
2. Once you're ready you'll need to put your deep pot on medium heat and let it get nice and hot. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and toss in your chopped veggies and bay leaves. Add a bit of salt and pepper and cook until soft and translucent.
3. By now, your tummy should be growling. If it is, you're doing this right. Add your broth and cold water and bring to a boil.
4. Once you've got your pot a-bubblin' add your meatballs. Once you've got them all in, add your pasta as well. Cover and cook about 10 minutes.
5. You can cut a meatball in half to test for doneness. If it's not pink then add the spinach in batches until it is all wilted and the soup is done. If your meatballs are still pink, then let them cook a bit more before you add the spinach. Soups on! Serve with a crusty baguette or (my favorite) grilled cheese.
When I did this veggie style, I took out the meatballs (for obvious reasons) and added twice the spinach, firm tofu and porcini mushrooms. I used Kitchen Basic's Vegetable Broth - it's the only one that doesn't taste like dirty feet to me. Even my meat eaters loved it! I did add the minced garlic and the parsley from the meatballs into the soup for added flavor. Give this one a go, and tell me what you think!
I have two pasta sauce recipes I'd like to post soonish...I'm just testing out some of the variations but I'll have them up by the end of this month. One is my veggie friendly version and one is a super-hearty meat version that I use mostly for lasagne. I love comfort food!
I've been a bad, bad girl.
I've gone back to my old habits: carbonated beverages, lots of junk and caffeine. Blah. It would explain why I've been feeling so bad lately...and why I cannot drop this last 40 lbs. I say this as I sit here eating chocolate covered pretzels.
Hmm.
So I'm giving up the sodas, the cookies and the caffeine. I'd give up the red meat again, but I've only just started adding it back to my diet. Not eating it was becoming a problem, especially during catering gigs so I've only started eating it sparingly to get used to the taste.
In any case, I've finished the last of my pretzels and am going back on the straight and narrow. I'll put a bag of Dove Dark Chocolate mini's in th freezer for the hard times. And break out the yoga DVD's to get rid of this tire round my middle.
