Time off...

I don't think I have had a proper vacation for almost a year now, with my last trip being to Beirut and most of Southern Lebanon and then to London, England for a few nights.  That was a while ago.  Now, on Friday, I leave for Las Vegas.  I will be doing less Vegas stuff and more 'other' stuff.  I will be going to Red Rock as well as Hoover Dam (I hope the Legion and the NCR are not there). 

It shows that Chef Rick Moonen follows this blog and if he really does, then he will know that I intend to visit RM seafood with my wife one night in the next 7 days.  I only hope that he is there the night I am, so I can meet him, officially, and take his picture :)

I will have pictures of the food from his restaurant and my best impressions of what his restaurant is like as well as the food.  I will leave you all at that and should have a new entry/post on next Thursday.

What did you miss this past Friday?

This Friday was the first time that there was a food and wine festival/fair at The Market Place in Columbia.  It started as an idea of one of the employees, Kathy, and turned into a great walk, through the store.

It all started with a sample of some chocolate covered strawberries and some wine sampling.

 

Then there was a large buffet set out of snacks and desserts.  They had baklava, mini chocolate eclairs, cheese and crackers, along with toasted ravioli and some savory things as well.

This table has some frozen smoothie mix.  It had no added sugars or even HFCS and the gentleman was giving out these little sample glasses.  I tasted the strawberry smoothie and was great.  They come frozen and can last for several weeks upon opened.  You just add ice and they are ready.  

 

They had some poppyseed dressing and a nice salad for sampling.

Would you like some crab ragoon or toasted ravioli?  It is interesting to note that all of these items are sold at this Market Place store, so everything you can try, you can buy anytime.

Fruit flavored vodkas and chocolate flavored wine.  Let me tell you though, for me, a chocoholic, that chocolate wine tastes like a badly flavored Bailey's Irish Cream.  The chocolate flavor is only slightly there.  If you want the same thing, buy some generic vodka and add 1 tablespoon of chocolate milk.  The chocolate flavor is not rich or even very lasting.

 

Here we have some cookies and some yogurt.  I think the reps were from General Mills and they were happy to give my kids yogurt and even happier when they liked it.

The last table we passed had some sweet beers and wines and overall was delicious.  The things offered at this table could beat the chocovine, out of the water in an instant.

I think the best thing of the night was the chocolate covered strawberries and those pre-frozen smoothies.  The wines were good, cookies were good and the food from the deli, showing off their buffet, was good as well.  It was a highly enjoyable evening and it looked to be a successful one.  I hope there are many more in the future.

This tastes strange....Let's make a healthy tonic out of it.

Throughout human history, is something natural tastes horrible, it is instantly deemed good for you.  Such a thought seems to contradict any holistic professional, who believes that science has caused plants to evolve their fruits in order to increase the chances that creatures eat and spread the seeds. Contrary to this thought, when early humans discovered natural mineral spring water, they believed and still do, that the water has a health increasing effect. 

Some of the earliest records suggest that the Arabs first took advantage of this and made a mixture of this mineral water with herbs and other flavors to produce what could be first health tonics.  These natural carbonated mineral waters were hard to find and in the 18th century, scientists started to devise ways to artificially create carbonated water.

But these were not recreational drinks.  Since they had a history of being for increasing health or having 'healing properties' these first started to show up in pharmacies. In the early 1800's, pharmacies started to infused the soda water with natural flavors in order to make drinks with curative properties. In the 1950's pharmacists started to add phosphoric acid to a drink combined with some orange flavor with soda water to create a healthy drink.  The only thing that I can figure that phosphoric acid is good at, is removing plaque on the teeth.  Even Coca-Cola started out as a flavored soda water beverage that could allegedly heal the person of diseases. The difference is that Coca-Cola originally was made with real cocaine.  Other flavors could be cherry to celery and all was originally done with juices but now flavors are all artificial.

While originally thought to have special healing or curative properties, studies now show that none, not a single one of the early to modern soda drinks, has any good health benefits.  They are now made with acids, high fructose corn syrup and worse. 

In games, soda has different effects.  In the Bioshock games, soda can replace EVE, a required item that allows the player to use special abilities in-game.  In the Fallout series, drinks such as Nuka-Cola and Sunset Sasparilla add health to the character and appear to be soda-pop.

A saving's grace...

My previous visit to the Stable, for brunch was so bad that it seemed to have garnered the attention of the restaurant's owner.  Upon being asked if there was anything he could do to make my dining experience better, I responded that the menu items that needed a change, NEED to be changed.  I don't ask anything for myself, as the money I spent on that fateful day was a loss and I just have to accept that.  While not entirely a trip back to re-try the brunch, I did get a chance to go back to the Stable, again, for dinner.

Originally, I was to try the Blackthorn Pub as the pub is continuously being written up in the RFT for their great pizza.  There was a few issues with me dining in the pub, this past Saturday night.  The first and foremost being space.  The small pub is home to perhaps 5 booths and about 6 tables, together seating probably no more than 40 people, if packed like sardines.  The bar had every seat taken and since there is no seater or host or hostess, you basically have to either stand in a line or stand across from the area that you want to sit at.  This reminded me of my time at Old Country Buffet when old people would make snarls and strange faces at the people who were in "their" spots until those people finished up and left so the "regulars" could have "their" favorite spot.  I saw an old couple at the pub, staring at couple, likely on a date, attempting to intimidate them to finish up quickly so they could have that booth.  After watching a small party of people leave from an 8 person table and then watching 4 people take that table and use the extra seats to house their coats and purses, I felt like we would not get a seat within the hour.  It was already 7:15 and after waiting for 5 minutes, as our stomachs growled, we decided to leave. 

I don't know if I will get a chance to dine there at the pub again, unless I come about 2 hours before I intend to eat and then when people stare at me and try to get me to feel uncomfortable enough to leave the pub, I should stare back at them with this "I will take you down" look and hope they stand in front of someone else's table.

Lucky for myself  and my two buddies and fellow foodies, The Stable, was about 5 minutes away and maybe longer as most of the city's residential roads were about as clear as mud.  After finding a lucky spot right in front of The Stable, we went in.  We were seated quickly and greeted just as quick.  The waitress was very patient with our slow choice of beers or drinks and even food.  She even played along with our random decision making as my father asked her to pick a number, in order to make his beer selection. 

We started with some starters: like the basket of bacon, which is always good.  But also added the bacon wrapped dates and the Cajun steak bites.  The bacon wrapped dates were juicy and sweet.  The bacon's maple flavor brought out the sweetness of the dates and added to the juiciness. The dates changed the bacon from a savory dish to a sweet dish, even when dipped into the red pepper sauce.  The bacon wrapped dates was easily a 5 out of stars as it just blew each of us our of the water.  It was the highlight of the meal and after we had finished our entrees we still came back and finished off the dates.

The other one we had, were these Cajun steak bites. What it was, was basically the most tender, mouth watering, fall-apart in your mouth piece of not too spicy but full flavored steak that you have ever had. They took about 3 chews to swallow and the flavor was not too overwhelming but also not deaf but just right.  These were a 4 out of 5 stars.

 

Next came the entrees and we were set for something different.  I really was caught between making the choice of the "plate of food" or one of their sandwiches.  I chose the sandwich.  One of my friends chose a different sandwich and the third picked a plate.  My father chose the Mixed Grill, which was a mix of sausages and some home-made res skinned potato salad.

My other friend picked the steak sandwich which was then topped with onions and peppers and cheese.  I appeared to have been good enough that he ate the whole thing and left nothing, not even a crumb.

I picked a grinder, which is a sandwich made up of ground beef that is stuffed into a piece of French bread.  The one I ordered was the Pizza Grinder, which had pepperoni and mozzarella cheese on top.  It was awesome.  It wasn't what I was expecting but definitely good. The ground steak, wasn't too flavorful but in a good way because if it was, it may not have worked well with the pizza-like theme.  I gave the sandwich a 3 out of 5 stars.  Overall though, even though it wasn't Brunch, which I have yet to re-try, I will say that our dinner selections were very tasty and helped convince my father that The Stable could be trusted again and should be visited again.

hey, to everyone that has snow!

Don't eat the yellow snow!




Also, I will be trying out the Blackthorn Pub's food and pizza this Saturday night and the review and pics should be up on Teusday.  Be on the lookout.

Semi-homemade blogging..

Unlike chefs who have their own restaurant, I like to make thing at home instead of buy them.  Why spend the money on bread, donuts or even a plate of perfectly cooked steak and potatoes when you can do it yourself?  I tend to want to justify my passion for cooking by wanting to create good things for my family and friends.  However, also being a father, I understand that after I am finished with my job and come home at 6:30pm that I don't have the most of time in order to prepare something great for my family.  While short cuts seem like a great idea, more often than not they are but still don't count as much.  For example: I could tell people that I made my own pot roast, with gravy, steamed vegetables and fresh noodles.  To the average person, unless they taste it, they will only understand that I could have heated up an already prepared pot roast, threw some veggies into a steamer-bag and then boiled some water for the noodles.  For a time when I want this dish to taste fantastic, I would do my own meat, steam my own veggies the long way and even make my own noodles.

This past Sunday I woke up with my 4 year old as my wife and the 2& 1/2 year old continued to sleep.  I was craving doughnuts already and when I looked over and saw the package for her dry coffee creamer, I had an idea.  It was Vanilla Caramel flavored and I thought how cool it would be to make vanilla donuts with a caramel sauce.  Well, like many others around town, since the original doughnut shop in town closed, like so many other local joints, the grocery store's baking department has taken over. Even in this town, the local grocery store's bakery department has their own doughnuts and Krispie Kreme.  The issue with either one is that it is chalk full of calories and fat and has more ingredients than their should be in a doughnut.  While the doughnuts I make are baked, I also try to make them better tasting that those store bought ones.

Did you know that flour has a smell? Packaged all-purpose white flour has a distinct smell to it as does whole wheat flour.  They smell good, on their own.  Most people don't know that flour has a smell and most adults have never touched or seen flour, other than second hand.  More and more things are made outside of the home and then brought home that people have seemed to forget what home-made is. I know that in this day and age, when sometimes both parents have to work, coming home from long hours and then cooking doesn't seem ideal to either one.  The solution is to buy something already made.  I know that in some cases, Sandra Lee's show is a big hit as it appeals to these hard working people who don't want to spend an hour cooking after spending 8 hours working.  But as I said above, sometimes the extra time and effort is worth it.

This is my kitchen and I currently had 6 things cooking at once.

In the hour that I had on Sunday night, I prepared whole kitchen worth of food, to all come together to form just 3 dishes.  Everything was done by hand and the true nature of semi-homemade.  I believe that some current cooking shows think that semi-homemade cooking is making pot roast from store bought and cooked pot roast, a can of gravy and a box of instant mashed potatoes.

Here we had freshly made pizza dough, being mixed and ready in my bread machine, a large pot of boiling water and noodles, some sausage cooking in a small skillet, some meat sauce being prepared in my sauce pan, some tomato sauce in a small pot, some finger sized potatoes in the steamer and some beef, beer and sauerkraut in the crockpot.  The pizza dough and sauce were made from scratch.  The sausage was store bought and so was the cheese, finished, it was a nice sausage pizza for the kids.

Sausage pizza, anyone?

The pasta was finished and cooled off and went well with the bolognese sauce, which was homemade; the pasta was store bought.

bolognese sauce

There were potatoes in the steamer, since they go well with anything.

The last thing was in the Crockpot.  We had marinated some beef pieces in beer 24 hours before and poured that beef in the Crockpot with some dark lager and some sauerkraut.  We left it on low and cooked it for about 11 hours.  It looks so yummy.

I think overall, if you plan on making anything at home that is semi-homemade, please do something or make some part of it.  Don't get lazy and not do any part of it, like certain cooking shows would like you to be.

Is that fake or real?

For fun, when I was last in Rural King, I purchased something quite peculiar: Babyback Rib flavored potato chips.  Now, I have to wonder about a few things.  First I think about how far we have come, as food product scientists and inventors.  20 years ago, the idea of having a food flavored product was around but just didn't work that well.  40 years ago, the idea of food flavored item would be cool but would likely have tasted too much like the real thing.  I have seen many different flavors of strange flavored chips and snacks and while they exist in other countries, here in America, the idea of shrimp flavored potato chips doesn't go over too well.  So, the manufacturers have been working on ideas that would be accepted by the mass of people.  Shrimp flavored chips, no.  BBQ meat flavored chips, yes.

Doesn't that picture look delicious?  Mouth watering, tender, fall apart in your mouth BBQ baby back ribs.  Can you imagine the taste and feel in mouth as you eat those perfect morsels of food?  So wonderful and tasty.  But imagine if you could have that same flavor and experience, maybe even with just a cut of the umami, but in a potato chip.  Wouldn't that be great?

Sadly, it is not the case.  To me, these chips taste like really good BBQ chips.  Sort of like the Lays KC Masterpiece BBQ chips with a more smokey flavor to them.  I won't say that I don't like them, because I do, but they do not taste like the meat, just the seasoning on the meat.

What am I looking forward to in the future?  I want to see a BBQ steak flavored salmon.  I want to see doughnut flavored ice cream.  I want to see a fried balogna sandwich flavored cupcake.  If we are going to get creative with flavors, lets get creative, as long as it tastes like it is supposed to.