Quick props for Kroger...

I am usually unhappy with both of our nearby grocery stores. HEB has an awful tendency to be out of two or three of the main things we go there for which frustrates me to no end. I have been known to abandon carts full of groceries there (although I usually tell someone so they can put all the cold stuff away). HEB does have excellent customer service though. Their checkers are usually good about being able to tell that I don't wish to chit chat, I would just like my items scanned quickly. Their baggers are also excellent and I usually don't have to tell them that the insulated bags we got at the commissary (which we visited with McKay) are for cold things. I rather like the Kroger around our house because it is rarely out of what we need (but the items are still fresh) and it has great manager specials. However their checkers and baggers are notoriously slow, eat and drink while touching my food, are incessantly on their phones texting, and never know what the insulated bags are for. I have not noticed much of a price difference (overall on your entire bill) between either store. There are some things that are cheaper at each place and I think it balances out in the end.

However, HEB has been running a major advertising campaign against Kroger specifically and especially that their prices are much cheaper even without a special card. I would like to officially endorse my use of the Kroger Plus Card for a number of reasons:

A) You don't have to actually carry around the card, if it is linked to your phone number you can just type in the number on the key pad.

B) If you use your card enough you get extra free stuff...we always qualify for a free Turkey at Thanksgiving and we have recently been getting tons of Kroger specific coupons in the mail. These coupons are tracked through what we frequently buy so this last visit we got Free eggs, Free cherry tomatoes, a few other free things, and discounts on items we buy anyways. I like that.

C) We learned recently that by linking your phone number to your card and with their tracking (which is probably mainly for marketing research which I am ok with) that if you buy a "tainted" item, they will call you to warn you and you can bring said item back for a refund (if you still have it. Mattie was surprised to receive a phone call that a batch of cilantro (which was gone by two or three days) that we purchased may have been tainted with salmonella. I like that I do not have to worry about these items and that Big Brother Kroger is watching out for me...

So shop where you wish, but don't listen to the advertising scheme by HEB to shop somewhere just because you don't need a card...

A salty and sweet soap box

I am a firm believer that there needs to be a good deal more balance in this world. Aside from the saying that there needs to be darkness in order to appreciate light and Sirius Black's firm contention that the world is not divided between good people and Death Eaters, balance is an important component to the world of cooking and enjoying cooked food. One thing that I really appreciate about a good burger is when the vegetables (lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onions) are cold in contrast to the hot hamburger patty. Throw in a soft bun to help hold together the crisp veggies and you get a very happy customer...me! The Japanese contend that this is part of the sixth sense of gastronomy...mouth feel...but it is more than that. However, I would argue that the Asian world has a better sense of where I am going. I refer mainly to that complete contrast of flavors that makes some food so appealing. The contrast of sweet and spicy or sweet and sour that awakens our taste buds in a way that more complimenting flavors can not. While most of us appreciate (and are beginning to appreciate even more) the presence of sweet and spicy in everything from fast food Sweet and Sour Pork to the Cherry BBQ glazed, Free-range, Lamb Ribs I had at Madden's a few weeks back, few of us realize what an important component this is to baking...especially when baking with Chocolate.

I didn't realize how few people realize the importance of salt to balance out the flavors of sweet items was until I continued to get crazy looks from several people when describing different cookies. Even people that know a little about baking would look at me strangely if I commented on a particular dessert having just the right amount of saltiness. I suppose that some would write off salt in a dessert because often (not always) unsalted butter is called for in the recipe, but this is to control the amount of salt in a dessert, not to eliminate it all together. Forget about the fact that many desserts simply cannot behave properly in a chemical sense if the salt is left out, the simple fact of the matter is without the salt you have an overload of sweetness that is not enhanced by more sweetness in the way that it is with that touch of salt. A really easy way for you to understand my soap box is to go buy a package of Rainbow Chips Deluxe cookies. Once you get home with them, do not enjoy them right away, instead stick them in the fridge for at least (and I really mean this) a day. When they are nice and chilled, slowly eat one specifically looking for the salty, buttery flavor. If you do not have the patience to wait for it to be chilled, buy Oreos, eat all of the creme filling, and look for the salty flavor in the cookie. You will be surprised by the depth of flavor in a simple packaged cookie when your mind is open to receiving it.

A place that knows a thing or two about the salty, buttery balance of flavor is the Corner Bakery Cafe. It is something of a chain and if you have not been there, it is like an upscale Panera with the same prices. I first partook of this wonderful Sandwich (and more) shop when attending the Holocaust Museum Houston's Summer Institute and was delighted to find a cookie very similar to this one in my lunch. It is a chocolate chip and m & m cookie with m & m's on both sides of the cookie. One might think this was too much chocolate, but you would be wrong because of one simple fact...yes...because of the salt/butter balance present in the cookie. I was given an extra cookie by a friend, took it home, and showed my complete devotion to Matt by letting him enjoy it after dinner. He did not believe how much of an act of love this was (thinking it was a regular store bought cookie) until he took his first bite. He now knows how much I love him with this simple gesture.

I had to include a picture of myself and Mattie's grandmother because she understands a thing or two about the salty necessity in her baking. Her chocolate chip cookies are famous among the grand kids. They are not ooey, gooey cookies, but there is something about them that screams "Eat me" when all of us make the trip up to Oklahoma to see her. The cookies are dense, chocolate chip filled, and not only do they have a nice layer of butter flavor (thus having a good amount of salt and butter) but they also have pecans which adds more texture and a contrasting flavor to the chocolate. She has so perfected her cookie that you can literally experience different flavors as you eat her cookie. It is first sweet, then chocolaty, then nutty, then has that wonderful bread/salt/butter flavor. Any woman that can take a three bite cookie and turn it into such complexity definitely has my admiration. In fact, I have some of her cookies in the freezer, I think I need one now.

There is no recipe for this post because the flavor is out there, I am just asking you to go look for it. And just because I mentioned cookies, does not mean that there are not other salty and sweet combinations already out there. Take your time, don't wolf down your food, and look for multiple reasons to enjoy it!

Really easy Chinese...thanks Paula Deen

I would like to thank the one and only Paula Deen for making this post possible. Surprisingly enough the recipe calls for no mayonnaise, no butter, and no sour cream. I didn't think it was possible, but I guess there are surprises everywhere. The recipe was super easy, it is simply Paula Deen's Chicken Stir Fry. I have listed my modifications below.

Because I am trying to find recipes that are quick and easy for when the baby T-Rex comes I did take a little help from the store. I used a bag of frozen Asian/Stir Fry veggies, nuked those, then threw them in the stir fry to crisp them up a bit. I did use fresh onion and mushrooms (I had regular mushrooms on hand, not shiitake) and sauteed those like normal. I love the crisp water chestnuts even though Mattie is not partial to them, so I just picked them out of his and added them to my bowl. Instead of powdered ginger, I used fresh grated ginger and it turned out fine and we served it over rice instead of noodles. We also used a bit less chicken (because it was what we had) and liked it with less chicken because it meant that we had a little more sauce. We are going to try freezing it next and I would think the best thing to do would be to remove it from the heat before the sauce tightens up too much from the cornstarch mixture so that when you reheat it, it will be nice and saucy.

I really liked this recipe because it was fast, light, and relatively healthy. As far as flavors go, it was the perfect balance of sweet and salty with a bit of an emphasis on the sweet undertones (from the Hoisin sauce). The veggies were a nice compliment to the chicken, so you could feel good about eating Chinese. We served it with brown rice which is supposedly healthier for you, but we like it because it adds a hearty, nutty feel to the meal. I think next time I make this I am going to add just a touch of crushed red peppers to the oil when I saute the chicken or veggies to add a little spice to the sweetness. This meal was light enough that we probably wouldn't feel incredibly guilty if we got egg rolls to go along with it next time.

Becco replica

Recently I took a little trip to New York for the JFR Lerner Fellowship. There were some fabulous meals and snacks to be had in an entire new part of the city that I had not explored (the Upper West side around Columbia). One of the restaurants that we ate at was called Becco. It is located just off of Broadway in the Theater District.

The outside of Beco

All in all the food was very good a Becco. We were a large group so we had a preset menu, but at one point I looked at the rest of the restaurant and it looked as though the entire restaurant may be preset. One thing that automatically made the meal wonderful was excellent conversation with the Croatian teachers that came to the fellowship whom we tried enthusiastically to teach how to be Southern/Texan. I was a bit envious of the friend next to me who ordered a glass (or two) of Prosseco. I really enjoy the Italian sparkling wine and it would have matched well with the variety of food we had. I do not remember much about the anti pasta we were given. It was marinated artichokes and red bell peppers and marscapone cheese with some sweet glaze that I felt would be better suited for dessert. The salad was mixed greens in a typical house dressing even though we were supposed to have Caesar until too many people complained about anchovies in the dressing not realizing that most Caesar dressings have anchovies. On to the unlimited (yes I said unlimited) servings of pasta. There were three types and I do not remember much about one of them. The other two were mushroom ravioli and oreichette with cauliflower. The ravioli was good and had a very nice sauce that complimented the dish well, but for me the real winner was the oreichette with cauliflower. All of the pasta was homemade and some of the shell shaped pasta had a tendency to stack together making a larger pasta filled bite (which I loved). The cauliflower was a little soft, but had good flavor when tossed with a really light and smooth tomato sauce. Topping all of this off with a good dose of Parmesan really made the dish come together. I rather enjoy the way that Parmesan acts as a last minute "binder" for lighter pasta sauces. I came home and duplicated what I ate!

We try to eat a lot of veggies and this was a new way to prepare them. I took zucchini, yellow squash, and carrots and using my vegetable peeler cut slivers of veggies. This was all sauteed with finely sliced red onion, garlic, olive oil, and a bit of fresh ground black pepper! Really good and fresh tasting.

I boiled the pasta (I used rigatoni at Matt's request) and used the steamer basket to steam chopped cauliflower. I took the cauliflower after it was "al dente" and sauteed in a little olive oil and garlic.

All real pasta dishes need lots of fresh basil. We roughly chopped this and tossed it when we were mixing all of the pasta together. The basil will wilt just enough from the residual heat of the pasta and sauce. We have found that it tastes a lot fresher and makes the basil much more noticeable when not cooked in the sauce.

For the actual sauce I took a shallot and half a red onion diced and sauteed that with a couple cloves of chopped garlic. When everything was translucent I added one large can of diced tomatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a bit of Italian seasoning. After letting it mellow and blend a bit, I tasted and adjusted my seasoning. We like sauces like this sometimes because it is super fresh and almost raw in that it is not your all day simmered marinara or meat sauce. It is great for the summer time!

We tossed it all together with Parmesan and topped with sauteed chicken (this is when you add the fresh basil)!

A word about your chicken. Mattie and I sometimes buy vinegar based salad dressings that we end up less than thrilled about. When this happens, we keep it in the fridge and use it for a quick marinade on our chicken. Just because you don't like it on your salad doesn't mean that it won't impart wonderful flavor on your poultry!

Pasta E Fagioli

One of my favorite modified recipes is my recipe for Pasta E Fagioli. Pasta E Fagioli is pasta with beans and is often served in soup form. If you order this at Olive Garden you will get a soup tasting very much like chili. It is good, but a little less authentic than the recipe I modify. For the soup: In olive oil sautee one diced onion and two to three diced carrots. If red, yellow, or orange bell peppers are on sale I throw a finely diced bit of that in too. When the veggies are well on their way to being tender you can toss in some chopped garlic. I then drain three or four cans of Cannolini beans and rinse those to remove some of the salt and starchiness. I usually let those soak in some of the veggie-ness for a bit in the pot as well. This next step is up to you: you can add in a bit of tomato paste or canned diced tomatoes. I would not add a lot, just enough to add a bit of flavor. Top everything off with water or chicken stock. At this point I usually season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, fresh rosemary and some Italian seasoning. Sometimes I also add a bay leaf or two (it is soup after all). Once the soup is to a full boil add ditalini or some other small shaped pasta. Once the pasta is cooked you are ready to stir and serve.

You MUST top this with a drizzle of good quality olive oil and parmesan cheese. Optional is browned Italian sausage (removed from the casing). With Mattie the carnivore, I must add the sausage!

Serve with salad and toasted bread or combine the two and serve with bruschetta!

Ole for Burritos

This is a method I learned from my dad. We would eat this fairly regularly and seeing as it is so easy and delicious, Mattie and I have it probably once a month or so. The concept is simple...you take a frozen burrito and spice it up to your liking. We always choose to bake our frozen burrito in the oven, but from what I understand the frying method is even better. While the burritos are baking and getting toasty we heat up refried beans and canned (or homemade) chili. We also shave some lettuce, dice tomatoes, avocado, and onions and grate some cheese. When the burritos are ready we put down a layer of beans, a layer of lettuce, the actual burrito, spoon a generous serving of chili on top, cover in cheese, avocados, and tomatoes and get ready to enjoy. My favorite part about this dish is that after the burrito is done, you usually have a little miniature taco salad left on your plate from all of the toppings and burrito guts. We have a neighbor who took this same basic concept and put all of the hot stuff (beans, chili, burritos, and cheese) in a casserole dish for easy transportation. This is a very simple meal, but sure to please and if people can find frozen burritos in other parts of the country or world, a nice way to remind them (fairly closely) of some good texas flavor!!!

Summer time means fruit galore!

Just a quick post to write about the glories of summer time fruit! We love this time of year when HEB and Kroger vie over customers with ridiculous weekly specials on otherwise expensive fruit. We find ourselves perusing the grocery store ads to see who has Strawberries for less than $1 or cherries for a cheap amount per pound. The plethora of fresh fruit means that Mattie and I tend to stay away from traditional dessert and opt for fresh fruit with a bit of sugar, cut up over our favorite light ice cream (Dreyers Slow Churned Vanilla Bean...you cannot tell it is lower in fat...I swear), or as a topping to angel food cake. It is a dessert or snack that you can feel really good about. We rather enjoy sweet strawberries that can be eaten as we cut them up in preparation for a dessert later in the day. We also like blackberries and raspberries that merely need to be washed and popped in your mouth for that burst of flavor. When we can get some good peaches or nectarines I will break out the ice cream maker for a nectarine/peach and raspberry sorbet. Lastly, we like to add cut up berries and granola to yogurt for a snack or breakfast (my favorite combo is a blackberry, cinnamon granola, apple turnover yogurt concoction). The picture was a fruit salad that Matt commissioned after he bought kiwi, strawberries, nectarines, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, it was a delicious and light end to a wonderful meal.