Product Review: Super short and easy !!

While the Chef works away at the restaurant every night, I don't normally cook a big dinner for myself. In fact, more often than not dinner will be a bowl or two of cereal and maybe toast if I feel that adventurous.

Tonight though I was feeling a little more restless and needed something to do in order to have a reason to NOT deal with the bowl of pears on the table (fact is, I'm giving some serious consideration to just TOSSING them and concentrating on the tomatoes that are ripening by the day).

Not too long ago I received a box of wonderful goodies to try from Elaine and Rob at FireFood with the promise that I would experiment, taste test and let them know what we think about their products. As you already know, we are SOLD on the Diablo Habanero Pizza Sauce, but there are still several items in the goodie box to try so, why not tonight?

I'm normally not a big sandwich nut but there is something about the crunch of a panini that's just special enough to capture my heart- and they're as easy to make as a grilled cheese but a heck of a lot more sophisticated. So tonight my sandwich consisted of thick slices of crusty bread from the South Union Bakery. South Union Bakery is a Des Moines original. Each loaf is hand made and baked daily in the 24 hour bakery located beneath Gateway Market at 2002 Woodland in Des Moines. They make so many different styles of bread and they are all so wonderful. 

On top of that wonderful bread went sliced provolone cheese, thinly slices roast turkey and a big spoonful of FireFood's Cranberry Chioptle Jam.

Just the SLIGHTEST brush of melted butter on the outside and they went on the press until super crunchy, golden brown and melty.

The turkey, cheese and sweet heat of the jam made this a perfect sandwich combo. The salty smooth provolone accented the sweet jam and left the chipotle just mingling in the background. This jam is a PERFECT condiment.

For someone "afraid" of hot peppers, hot foods and spicy things- this jam is the perfect place to start. It's not "hot". It doesn't burn your tongue or make you break out in a sweat. It's cranberry first with the ever so slight hint of something warm in the mix.

The only thing I DON'T like about this jam is the fact that is doesn't come in GALLON jars! Seriously, it is THAT good. It  would make a great pan sauce for sauteed chicken breasts or pork chops, a condiment alongside roast pork- it's just so versatile and easy on the palate. I highly recommend trying it.

Hey, I thought the gardening season was over !!!

But apparently not !!!

Sure, we have had several killing frosts and my own garden is long long gone. MY once proud castor bean plant looks like a big pole with cooked spinach draped all over it. Kinda gross actually.

But as always, with the end of the season comes an abundance of green tomatoes, and while I personally did not have an abundance from my own garden, my friends sure do, and they are giving me tomatoes by the box full. Of course,all these green tomatoes mean I have been devoting alot of research time into recipes for green tomatoes- and besides the obvious, pickled green tomatoes, which I don't even know if we'll like, we have the Tomolive Experiment still going, but the weird thing about nature and tomatoes is this: if you spend too much time worrying about what to do with GREEN tomatoes, they eventually change into RED tomatoes.

Which is where I'm at today. These tomatoes aren't your fancy hybrids, no Beefsteak or Early Girl or anything like that in there. These are all the golf ball size tomatoes you get when you leave a seed or two behind over the winter and get 25 volunteer plants that you just don't have the heart to pull. They revert back to their original form instead of the hybrid you had last summer. Which makes no difference to me, a tomato is a tomato to me, and I'll gladly take them off your hands.

But what to do with many pounds of smallish tomatoes, without dealing with peeling and all that mess? Easy !! Wash, cut in half, toss with the littlest bit of olive oil and salt and ROAST them to release the juice, heat the tomatoes and then can them, which is exactly what I did.

I'm going to guess at this point I had about 5-6 lbs of small tomatoes, mostly red golf ball size with a few small yellow pears and tiny yellow teardrop tomatoes in there. I gave them a quick bath in the sink, sorted out a small handful of yucky ones and then set aside two deep baking sheets, with a little drizzle of oil on them.

With the oven heating to 425 degrees I started cutting the tomatoes in half and tossing them on the sheets, ending up with two generously full baking sheets of beautiful tomatoes. I gave each pan a nice grind or two of sea salt and put them in the oven with the rack in the upper third and roasted them about 15 minutes and that temp then turned it down to 325 and let them go another half hour or so while I readied everything else.

Once the tomatoes were roasted and juices were released I dumped them into a big bowl and added my personal Italian seasoning mixture- a generous tablespoon or two of basil, crushed, palmfull of parsley, crushed, thyme, BIG pinch of oregano, and garlic powder.

Mixed it all up and filled 7 pint jars full. I put them in the boiling water bath for 40 minutes and they came out looking perfect. The tomatoes were so juicy I didn't have to add any additional water to the jars.

They were so successful, I was only able to store 5 of the 7 pints. 2 jars were opened the next day by The Chef and went into a pot of pasta sauce. But this is not the end of the story I hope. MY friend still has a LARGE stockpile of green tomatoes. And even though I really want to try some green tomato mincemeat, I have a feeling I an going to be doing plenty more roasted tomatoes with Italian herbs to get us through the winter.

It's almost furnace time !!

The weatherman (I know....don't lay any money on the table....) is saying you might want to fire the furnace up later this week. We won't- we're  tough like that- but what makes me so happy about hearing that ?? It's time for Winter Food !!

Ahhhhhhh yes, winter food. Roasts slow cooking all day. Turkey browning in the oven and making the whole house smell like yummy wonderfulness. Oh yes, I can't wait. Because....you see..... in the freezer is some of the most amazing winter foods of all- game birds. Mallard duck breasts. Goose breasts. Snow geese. I can hardly wait to break out the Le Creuset and spend a lazy weekend day, maybe even a snowy day, experimenting with the many awesome goodies that I canned earlier in the fall.

For instance, this amazing Apple Pear Chutney I have been working on. Starting with a pretty basic pear chutney recipe, I made a few adjustments (canning purists, don't worry- I did not make changes that would affect the safety of canning- this recipe has plenty of vinegar to allow for some experimentation) and came up with the perfect, in my opinion anyway, tangy, sweet, sour and slightly hot condiment that will soon adorn slices of roast pork or turkey.

Pear, Apple and Cranberry Chutney

3 quarts finely diced peeled pears
1 quart finely diced peeled apples
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried cranberries
3 cups brown sugar
2 TB dry ground ginger
big pinch of salt
3-4 cloves minced garlic
3 whole cayenne peppers (don't crush, you'll remove later)
2 cups cider vinegar
3 cups white vinegar

Combine all ingredients in large stockpot. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 2-3 hours or until reduced and thick, stirring often to prevent sticking. 

This is about halfway through cooking- I let it reduce further

At this point you can prepare canner and jars and ladle hot chutney (fish out the cayenne peppers and discard) into jars, wipe rims, seal, and process in BWB for 10 minutes for pints, or, as I am doing, letting mixture cool slightly, refrigerate overnight to let the pepper infuse as much as I can before I remove it, and then reheat to boiling and continue on with processing. 

Pizza with a side of Melt Your Face Off

Another Sunday. Another Chef's Day Off. Another day filled with football. Football food...what to make.....what sounds good.......what do we have.......

At our house it's the same routine every week. What do we eat, what's in the cupboard, we didn't thaw anything. Since it's football season, there are some obvious choices- wings, nachos, chili. We aren't the obvious, average sort of cooks tho, so we like to shake things up a bit.

Recently the incredible folks over at FireFood sent us a little "care package" of goodies to sample and then let them know what we think. Well that box was filled with incredible choices, everything from fiery hot panko with onion and habanero to chipotle apple butter (THAT one has me really thinking about some innovative ideas......). If you've followed this blog for more than a few months you KNOW we are pizza people. Homemade pizza is like an art form here, with the Chef as Picasso, painting his doughy canvas with sauce and vegetables and meat and cheese and then kissing his fingers and declaring Bellissimo !!!   Ok, well, maybe that might be overdoing it a little but you get it- we take pizza making seriously here.

In the box is this little, unassuming, innocent looking jar of something deep red. I pick it up and unwrap the bubble wrap and discover- HOLY HELLFIRE !!!!  Diablo Habanero Pizza Sauce !!! We looooove our hot and spicy food around here !! So it's settled. Sunday. Football. Melt your face off pizza.

We started, as always with my homemade pizza dough. There is no recipe here folks, just experience. I've been baking for 30-plus years and breadmaking for just as long. I dump some flour in the bowl, eyeball some sugar, pinch of salt, dribble or so of olive oil, palmful (guesstimate) of yeast (we buy it in bulk jars, so there is no "use one packet" or anything like that) and enough warm water til I think the dough is "right".  Set that aside to proof for a little bit and we finish watching the Vikings SKIN the Lions !!! SKOL !!!!!

Once the dough is made, my pizza duties are largely over with. The Chef takes over and does his thing. So he tastes the Diablo Habanero Pizza sauce first with a spoon- as do I, we need to learn to fear/respect the habanero......and decide how "saucy" we want this to be. Pretty saucy- we like it HOT.

Next goes cheese, some pepperoni, chopped fresh onion, mushrooms, and sliced banana peppers (as if we aren't already in enough trouble) and a few chunks of fresh tomato scattered about. A little more cheese on top, and into the oven she goes.

Now, how to describe this sauce...... well, to start I'll compare. Several local pizza joints have their "spicy" sauce which pretty much is pizza sauce with just a bunch of extra red pepper thrown in there. All you get is heat. The Diablo sauce is so much more than that. You can tell Elaine and Rob at FireFood care about their product and that people enjoy it. This sauce is heavenly. It's the slightest hint of heat, the sweet mouthful of tomato richly simmered down and THEN the little blast furnace of habanero in your mouth. Believe me, if you love HOT foods, you must try this stuff. If you are wimpy and don't do hot, don't even think about it- you have to be a habanero lover or love spicy hot foods to appreciate it. It's not just about the heat- you can taste so many flavors in this sauce, the heat is just an extra bonus on top of the delicious. And the heat doesn't stick around for ever- you get this nice POW of pepper and then it nicely mellows out.  It's a must have again and again for us !!

You can find these wonderful products online at www.FireFood.com or search for FireFood on Facebook. I HIGHLY recommend it. And I still have 3 more jars and a pack of those spicy panko breadcrumbs to play with !!!

Operation Faux Olives Part 1

I love a good food experiment. I do it all the time, play with textures and flavors and unusual combos. So as a Facebook user (City Girl, Country Life) I came across another Facebook page called Growing Gardens that had a post for an end-of-the garden kind of refrigerator pickle. I love reading what other people are doing in the garden and in the kitchen so I read their instructions:

• Fill a quart jar 1/2 to 3/4 full with green beans
• Fill remainder with green tomatoes, cut in quarters
• Chop some fresh basil and pack that on top

Bring 3 cups of water to boil, stir in 1/2 cup salt until dissolved. Pour into vegetable jar. Add white vinegar to jar until full, close and store in fridge. After 2-3 week the pickles will be ready and the tomatoes will have a taste and texture similar to green olives. Kept in fridge, veggies will last 6-8 months.

Well, I couldn't help but wonder if the tomato CHUNKS taste like green olives, wouldn't green CHERRY tomatoes ? I asked the question on their page and they challenged me to try it so..... here we go!!

I knew I did not have enough cherry tomatoes to fill a quart jar- more like a half pint. So next comes the math. I guestimated on the boiling water and used a little less than 1/3 cup and enough to salt to make it "pickle salty". We'd already had a first frost so I had no fresh basil, I used just one dried leaf, crushed up. I poked each tomato with a toothpick, placed in the jar, added the water, topped off with vinegar, dated it, placed in fridge and now........ we wait........

Well, I am 4 days into the experiment and finding it EXTREMELY hard not to break into that jar and just see what one tastes like. I am going to try real real hard not to. I also heard from my canning enabler friend Janet that she has lots of green tomatoes for me, including cherries, so I will have more to experiment with and work on that olive brine flavor. Stay tuned !!!

Zombies Revisited

Ohhhhhhh Zombie Burger.......how I love you so. Your naughty menu of ridiculously high calorie yummies makes me happy.  So today's visit to Zombie Burger after visiting the World Food Festival I wasn't exactly starving but my nephew hadn't ever been there so.......

The menu is the most creative you will find almost anywhere. The burgers are just ....... well..... unusual combinations.

We started off with a couple cocktails. Jeremy had The Zombie, a combo of two kinds of rum, Cointreau and cherry liquer. I had the Blood Tang Martini, Three Olives Rang Tang Vodka, Cointreau, Blood Orange puree and lime, garnished with a drizzle of blood colored candy goo.

My nephew had the "They're Coming To Get You Barbara" burger.......a frightening combination of two patties (double tap), cheese, caramelized onions, bacon, and two grilled cheese sandwiches instead of a bun.

It's........unspeakable.

My choice was the 28 Days Later Burger, with bleu cheese, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomatoes and mayo. MUCH more manageable.

I'll just say.......too too much food after the food festival.

Jeremy, however, polished off the evening with an adult milkshake- The Tallahassee- vanilla ice cream, Twinkie, cherry kool aid powder and vanilla vodka.

It was the perfect ending to the perfect Aunt/Nephew Day !!

Foodie Field Trip: Big day in the city- the World Food Festival

Not much going on in my little corner of the world on a Saturday, so when my nephew asked me to go with the World Food Festival in Des Moines, I couldn't say yes fast enough! Mother Nature cooperated as well, with a beautiful 60ish degree day, sunny, with a nice breeze. Perfect day out.

The World Food Festival is an annual event in Des Moines and offers a diverse menu of foods from all over the world, from local restaurants, ethnic stores and other organizations. Visitors can choose from several menu items anywhere from $2 to $5 or a "taste" for $1.

We decided to forego the usual around-town things like Italian sausage sandwiches and pasta dishes and made our first stop at the Cafe Fuzion booth. Cafe Fuzion offers a variety of Thai, Korean, Japanese and Chinese foods. Rather than just the taste item, we chose the Fuzion Sampler- tempura vegetables, crab rangoon, egg rolls and purple passion rice. It was a hit! The tempura vegetables were just from the fryer fresh, zucchini and sweet potato slices- were oh so delicious. The purple passion rice was a mystery- it was sweet and sticky and delicious, with no clue as to how the purple color got there.

The Ethiopian Association of Iowa's booth was our next stop. We had a hard time deciding what to try, not being familiar with Ethiopian cooking whatsoever, but we again passed on the $1 taste and chose "Wot", a spicy red sauce with chunks of beef simmered til tender, served with a sauteed mixture of cabbage, green beans and onions, which was so delicious I could have eaten an entire plate of just that! The food was served on an odd crepe-like pancake that was a little unusual in texture, I would have passed on that part.

A couple booths away we stopped at Mi Patria Restaurant. Ecuadorian cuisine was also very foreign to me so I decided to go with the $1 taste- arroz con pollo. Wow !! It was fantastic !

The thing about eating foreign food- you're bound to find something you don't like. We found it at Papillon Bosnian Food's booth. The $1 taste item was a sarma- beef and rice wrapped in a cabbage leaf and served with a thin tomato broth that was way too vinegary for me. I didn't even finish, it was just too tart.

We walked along, passing on several booths from places we'd already eaten at or, again, something we can have anytime. BUT........around the corner was a booth we just HAD TO stop at. Gusto Pizza had several of their many unusual combos available to taste. Jeremy tried the Spartacus, which was a thin crust, red sauce, Graziano's sausage, pepperoni, banana pepper and cremini mushroom flavor blast, and the Fromage-a-trois- exactly what it is, a three cheese pizza on a cracker thin crust. I bravely tried the "#24"- creamed jalapeno corn, chopped smoked beef brisket, mozzarella, bleu cheese, sweet corn and red onion. It was sooooo delicious.

After Gusto we hit the Hawaiian Grill for some crab rangoon that were unlike any I have ever had- lots of cilantro and an amazing ginger dipping sauce. Bacon Wrapped Des Moines offered a giant jalapeno stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon, and charred on the grill. Ok, but more for a Superbowl party. The Pacific Rim Noodle House offered wok-fired veggies tossed with soba noodles, and we finished up our tasting tour with a trip to Pronto/Tami's Tarts for a bowl of Bread Pudding with Bourbon Caramel. O.M.G. The pudding was sooooo lush and rich and amazingly fluffy, and the caramel- wow, you could taste the bourbon !! Loved it !!

In the middle of all this yummy food was a stage with live entertainment. While we were there, World Port was on stage with an awesome instrumental show.

We couldn't leave the Festival without attending at least one cooking demonstration and we were lucky enough to be in time for George Formaro's demonstration. Unlike his other endeavors, Centro, Django, Zombie Burger+Drink Lab and Gateway Market, his demo was Mexican ! George is one of the best chefs in the United States with a keen business mind and a brilliant imagination and creativity. Barbecoa with Roasted Tomato Salsa was the recipe he prepared and the audience each got to sample- it was fabulous.

So I will share Mr. Formaro's recipes (hey, he passed out copies so I guess it's alright) so you can try it at home.

Barbecoa (George likes to make it at home in the crock pot)

3-4 lb chuck beef roast, trimmed of fat and cut in cubes
2-3 teaspoons salt
2 c flour
oil or lard for browning (George prefers lard for flavor)
1 onion, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
1 bay leaf
1 tsp mexican oregano
1 tsp thyme
1 tb chopped fresh garlic
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
1 can fire roasted tomatoes

One night in advance, salt beef and place in fridge overnight.

Heat a large dutch oven, add oil or lard. Dredge the meat and shake off excess. Cook without crowding until well browned. Mix the meat with all remaining ingredients in crock pot. Turn on high for about 3 hours and hold at least 3 more hours at low. Stir occasionally. Serve on tortillas with salsa or toppings of choice.

George's Roasted Tomato Salsa

6 roma tomatoes, cored, seeded and cut in half
1/2 onion, minced
1 poblano pepper, sliced
1 jalapeno, sliced
4 cloves garlic
2 tb olive oil
1 tb salt
2 tsp chipotle powder
2 tsp ancho chile powder
1/2 mexican oregano
1 bunch cilantro, stems removed
1 tb vinegar

Heat a large saucepan on stove, add olive oil. Add vegetables and cook on high heat until vegetables start to brown. Add rest of ingredients. Remove from heat and blend with immersion blender or blender until smooth.