Bits Of Dust

Archive for the ‘Food Talk’ Category

On Thursday, Chef John posted a recipe for chicken wings that are oven fried.

I love my chicken wings, and I thought there was no way to make “oven fried” wings taste like they were fried. I was wrong. That’s why he is the Chef and I am the dad who aspires to cook well.

I followed his recipe to the letter (as far as the wings themselves went) and they came out excellent. When it came to making the glaze, I chose to use some honey bbq sauce, mixed with some Frank’s Red Hot. It made for a deliciously sweet and spicy combination.

The kids loved them, the wife loved them, and we’ll be having the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Sorry, I didn’t get any photos, but they look exactly like Chef John’s only they had lots of bite marks in them.

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We had a bit of a party today. Our youngest turned 7.

He was going to have a Curious George birthday party, but while we were shopping for his party decorations, he decided he wanted a Flag birthday instead. He loves flags.

In addition to the homemade cake, he got a 20 foot flagpole for the yard. Nice. I know what I am doing this weekend. Oh! He picked tacos for his birthday dinner too, so we ate some.

I’m just glad that birthdays are over for a few months. I am exhausted.

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We cheated again tonight. We took the easy way out.

We had sandwiches. The list of ingredients included:

bread (both white wheat and wheat)
mayonnaise
lettuce
tomatoes
cheese (american and provolone)
avocados
ham
turkey

and

bacon.

We let the kids decide what they wanted (from the list above). It was delicious. I know, I owe you pictures of something food related. Soon. I promise.

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The last couple days have been hectic around here. We had to prepare for two birthday parties in two days.

The first party found us eating delicious German Chocolate Cake and eating fried chicken, and mashed potatoes. The second part found us eating a heck of a lot of pizza.

Now I’m ready for more homecooked delicious quiet dinners.

Last week I bought a delicious looking London Broil as well as a huge pot roast. I can’t decide which one I want to make tomorrow night, but I think the pot roast will win. London Broil is more of a weekend thing, so we may have that on Sunday.

Anybody have any good London Broil tips out there? I sure could use them.

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Lidia Bastianich is an excellent chef. While I have never personally eaten anything prepared by her, I have eaten several recipes we have made from a couple of her cookbooks. In our house, Lidia is beloved member of the family.

When Pope Benedict sits down tomorrow night to say grace before dinner, he’ll have plenty to give thanks for: a four-star feast personally prepared by Lidia Bastianich, one of the city’s premier chefs. The four-course meal for 50 guests at the New York residence of Archbishop Celestino Migliore will feature red and white wines from northern Italy, locally caught Atlantic striped bass and a variety of spring vegetables.

The dinners Friday and Saturday will be prepared under extremely tight security at the Archbishop’s Upper East Side residence by Italian-born Bastianich and her team of high-profile, handpicked culinary stars from the city’s top Italian restaurants.

How awesome is that? I would be so nervous cooking for the Pope. Can you imagine someone asking you to cook for the Pope? What exactly does one cook for a Pope anyway? I hope we find out soon. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

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The good:

I went out of my way tonight to make a super delicious dinner.

I started by chopping up a few cloves of garlic and peeling 2 pounds of shrimp.

I heated up some olive oil and added the garlic and sauteed it until it was just turning a light golden brown, then I removed most of the garlic (I like to munch on it while I cook).

I returned the oil to the pan and cooked the shrimp til they were just barely done. At this point I mixed together some heavy cream, chicken stock, and butter.

Adding all of these ingredients and a couple egg yolks to some fettucini noodles and topping it all with some fresh grated parmesan cheese made a wonderful version of Garlic Shrimp Fettucini Alfredo. It was so pretty.

The bad:

Before I could walk 25 feet and get my camera, the kids dug into it and I had to hurry back and grab my share else it would be lost to the foraging trio known as the Flying J’s.

Maybe I’ll get a picture of it next time.

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For the first time in days, we ventured to the supermarket. My plan was to purchase some fresh shrimp and some artichokes so I could make the Shrimp and Artichoke Pasta recipe I blogged about the other day.

In the ten years that I have lived here, I have never really missed the west coast all that much. Until tonight. When I saw artichokes (and not real pretty ones at that) selling for $3.98 a piece. $4 for a frickin artichoke? I don’t think so. I could have gone over to the aisles in the store and got a jar of hearts, but you know, I wanted fresh artichokes and fresh shrimp in homemade pasta.

So I changed gears a bit. I figured, if they wanted that much for artichokes, screw them. I would get some avocados and shrimp and make the Shrimp Quesadilla recipe I mentioned in the same post. The avocados were $1.98 a piece. WTF? I paid $0.77 last week for the exact same thing. What the hell is going on here?

We ended up coming home and making some hot dogs and beans. The hell if I was paying that much for those items. Why they sudden spike in grocery prices? It’s not like the price of gas just went up last week or something. Somebody owes my stomach and explanation.

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Everyone in the house has been under the weather for the past 10 days or so. While they are still a bit too “on edge” to crave anything really tasty, I have been craving two dishes I saw on Simply Recipes this week.

The first one is the Shrimp and Artichoke Pasta Recipe. I love making my own pasta, I love shrimp, and I cannot live without artichokes. We have all the other ingredients in the house as well, so this one would be real easy to throw together one night soon.

The other one I saw was the Shrimp Quesadilla Recipe. Oh. My. Goodness. Anytime you take shrimp and serve it up with avocado, you have a friend in me. Needless to say, with our newly acquired homemade flour tortilla recipe and all the yummy stuff that goes in this one, it’s just a matter of time before many shrimp and a few avocados are lost to my temptations.

So which should I try first? Which ever one I try, I plan to make a video of it.

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