Food, Food, and more Food!

I have been enjoying all sorts of delicious food lately, and it feels like heaven. Seriously, heaven. I discovered a new place to grocery shop. Harmon's. It's awesome. For those who have never been, you should go check one out. Some examples of cool things they have there that I have not yet purchased:

Edible flowers
Dry Aged Beef (House Aged)
A Cheese section that is the best in Utah other than Caputo's
All Sorts of Weird Fruits
Marshmallows for roasting that are about 4in long

I could go on. Anyway, I have bought all sorts of yummies from them. They have delicious artisanal breads, and my favorite is a sourdough bread with white chocolate and pecans. It is amazing! In fact, I have decided I need a good sourdough recipe so I can make up my own breads. (Ben and Laura, I know you guys have some great bread recipes!)

I also bought maitake mushrooms, which I turned into an AMAZING pasta with some scoparolo cheese from Caputo's. It was a pasta I make pretty often, but the mushrooms and cheese took it to a whole new level. Amazing! They also have other cool mushrooms there, like enoki, oyster, chantarelles, and blue foot mushrooms. I think I will be trying them all before too long.

I bought a dragonfruit. It was gorgeous, but not that tasty. It was a lot like a kiwi, but very bland. They have other cool fruits that we may try in the future.

THEN, we went to Caputo's. We bought cheese and olives, as always, and some new Valrhona chocolates. But the coolest thing we got at Caputo's was.... a Truffle! A black truffle, to be precise. Usually prices at around $800 a pound, we got a screaming deal at just $200 a pound. Luckily, truffles are very light. We paid $6 for one. I wish we had gotten more. Oh well. We made a delicious dish out of Mario Batali's cookbook called Turkey a la Bognese. Basically, it was turkey breast (found at Harmons) breaded and sauteed in butter, then topped with shaved parmaggiano reggiano, shaved truffle, a layer of prosciutto di parma, and finished off with grated pecorino romano. Then you bake until the cheese is bubbling and shave the rest of the truffle on top. It was good and simple. The truffle acts as a flavor enhancer, and also adds its own musky, earthy, mushroomish taste to the party. I liked it, but wish there was more truffle on it. My fault for buying a small truffle.

Anyway, I have been glorying in all of the delectable goodies I have been eating. AND it has the bonus of making me feel like a true gourmand.

Williams-Sonoma Chicken Essentials

So, I went to a new Williams-Sonoma class this morning. It was called Chicken Essentials. Unfortunately, I had to leave early, so I didn't actually get to taste anything, but it was all smelling really good! Here are some things I learned:
You should always grill your meat at room temperature because it seals in the moisture. Also, thawing frozen chicken causes it to lose alot of moisture.
Organic Chicken weighs more than Regular Chicken.
You can use a panini press to grill meat (yet another reason I need one!)

Here's a few recipes we did:
Chicken Satay
2 Shallots, quartered
2 cloves of garlic, halved
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp lemon grass powder
1 Tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
Mix them all together in a food processor.
Add 2 Tbsp unsweetened coconut milk and 2 Tbsp water and process again. It should be a thick paste.
Put it in a big ziploc and add 1.5 lbs of cubed raw chicken breasts. Marinate overnight. Skewer and grill. Mmmm!

Chipotle Chicken Panini
Find the recipe here:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/recipeDetail.cfm?objectid=CD344450-091D-2356-32728D77CBC6B7A8

The rub is chipotle, cumin, oregano, onions and garlic. I'm sure you could make you own rub or marinade. It would also be tasty with a different rub, I think.

Coolest Website EVER!!!

OH MY GOSH!! I just discovered the coolest website EVER!!! Okay, at least for me it is! As you all know, I have been trying to count my calories. But, it's hard when you're cooking because it's all guesstimation. Unless you want to take the time to count everything out and measure it, which I don't. But- NO LONGER! Now- you don't ever have to do it again, thanks to http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
You enter in your recipe and servings, and immediately, you get Nutritional Information! And not just calories! We are talking fat, fiber, sugars, protein, and significant vitamins. I mean- AMAZING! Right? It is so cool! I can't wait to start using it! I tried it for a trial recipe, and it was so quick! And incredible! And it even gives your dish a grade based on the health aspect. I know- maybe I am a little over-excited here. But I thought I would share it, as it's the coolest website I have found in a LONG time!
Again, it's http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

Goat Cheese and Bell Pepper Pasta

Mmm- it looks pretty good, huh? I didn't have a Cherry Tomato to make it look more beautiful, so I just sucked all the sauce off some of the Bell Peppers and arranged them for a garnish. (Hey- it was my plate, I can do what I want!)
Basic Recipe: Chicken with olive oil and salt and pepper, sauteed with lemon juice. Added mushrooms, a tiny bit of sun-dried tomatoes, and a red bell pepper and a yellow bell pepper. Added lots of garlic. And then some lime juice (because I was out of lemon, and I thought it needed more.) Added some Tarragon. Added a bit of cream, reduced it, and then added some Chevre goat cheese to melt in. Added more cream for sauce-like consistency and served with Penne.
Ratings: Everyone gave it a Six. They thought the peppers were really good (which was the point, as I built the whole pasta to bring out the pepper flavor, so I did that well.) but that the goat cheese made a weird texture. The goat cheese doesn't melt really smoothly, and it kindof coats your mouth, which is a bit of a required taste.
My Rating: Probably a Six-and-a-Half. It needs a bit of tweaking. It didn't have enough goat cheese, and I am not sure I liked the cream-based sauce. I will try it again with a lemon butter. Another possible idea is to serve it as Chicken. Chicken, covered with the sauce and veggies, and then add a smear of goat cheese on top. Probably would have been better. But I did like it quite a bit. More than anyone else did. I was impressed that the main flavor was the bell peppers. Everything just really brought out that flavor.

Creative Kitchenry and Sucky Computery

Well, today I decided to invent a new recipe for dinner. I took some beautiful pictures of it (complete with pretty tomato garnish!!) to post. I took them off the camera and put them on the computer, into a new folder I had just titled "Food." They showed up, so I deleted them off the camera. Then, when I went to look at them, they were gone! Just gone! And THEN, the title of the folder reverted back to "New Folder." So, I think my computer must have gone back in time. Or something. Unfortunately, the camera was still firmly affixed in the present. So, you will just have to imagine how delicious my dinner looked.

Now, on to the dinner. Recipe name: I am not totally sure yet. I'm going with maybe "White on White with a Tomato Twist" or something else dumb.
Basic Description: Sauteed (sliced on the bias) chicken and garlic. Salt and peppered with a splash of lemon juice and a generous plop of White Balsamic Vinegar. When browned, I added baby Bella mushrooms and Sundried tomatoes (for color). Near the end, I added quite a bit of cream to make a modified alfredo-ish sauce. All served over Angel Hair pasta. (It really was beautiful. Maybe if my pictures reappear, I will post them.)
The consensus: I had three friends over for dinner. The average rating (out of 10) was about an 8.56. (Including Jason's.) Some memorable quotes: Adam- It's better than Taco Bell. (Which didn't say much for me, but he loves it.) Jason- It has a nice fruity undertone, with solid legs and a smooth finish. (The fruitiness is from the White Balsamic.)
My rating: Honestly, not the best dish I invented. I thought it needed a bit more cream than I added to make more of a sauce. Lauren and Adam concurred. I gave it a 7. The fruity tones were excellent with the mushrooms, and the sundried tomatoes were perfect. So what was my beef? A little too sweet. The Balsamic gets really sweet when reduced, and the White Balsamic is missing the "zing" of the regular Balsamic. And then with the cream, I found it really tasty for a few bites, and then a little hard to swallow.
The fix: Next time, I will add a dash of Tobasco sauce to help negate the sweetness. I would definitely make it again.
Stay tuned for more "Adventures in the Kitchen with Amanda!"