Seared Tuna with Four Sauces

 

Seared Tuna with Four Sauces (from top to bottom): shallot, cilantro, jalapeno soy chutney,  fire sriracha mayonnaise,  avocado aioli,  and mustard soy.

Flank Steak

Flank Steak with shallot red win and veal demi glace sauce with mozzarella frites and roasted tomatoes

Fried Rice

Deconstructed Fried Rice

Brown rice with chicken, steak, carrots, water chestnuts, onions, mushrooms, green onions and spicy mayo.

Avocado Alfredo Pasta with Salmon

Pasta with Avocado Alfredo Sauce and pan seared Salmon

This is REAL alfredo sauce with avocado- it’s not one of those all avocado fake alfredo recipes…

Sauce:

Ingredients:

1/2 stick of butter

1/4 cup of flower

1-3 cups of milk or cream

minced garlic

block parmesan cheese

1 ripe avocado

– to start, dice up the avocado into bite sized pieces and puree with about 1/2 cup of milk and a pinch of salt.  ( i use my magic bullet, but any blender will work).  You might want to add a little more milk depending on the size of the avocado- you want it to have the consistency of  a thick yogurt or sour cream.

– melt butter in a sauce pan and add garlic-  i use about 1/4 cup, but we really like garlic (thus the blog title).   Sautee the garlic in the butter over medium heat about 5 minutes until the garlic is tender and smells wonderful.   Add the flour to the butter and stir it in to make a paste.  Let it cook for about 1-2 minutes until the flour gets a little color, then add the milk.

– you can add anywhere from 1-3 cups of milk  depending on how think you want the sauce,  start with one cup then work your way up.   Add the milk and whisk the sauce together.  Keep it over medium-high heat until it starts to bubble/boil (this will thicken up the milk sauce).   Then add shredded fresh paremesan cheese.  I use about 1/2 a cup of really strong fresh parm, you might have to use more if you use a different cheese, or less if you don’t want it too cheesy.

– Whisk everything together and taste your alfredo sauce- salt and pepper to taste (and a little fresh basil if you have it!)

– Add the avocado mixture to the alfredo sauce and mix together.  It will be GREEN (it looks glow in the dark) and delicious.  Check for reasoning.

– Pour over hot pasta  and top with chicken, salmon, shrimp, anything!  YUM.

Shrimp Stir Fry

Stir fried shrimp over brown rice with onions, peppers and water chestnuts( they really add a great crunch to the rice) with a yum yum sauce.

 

Miracle Whip (you gotta use use miracle whip, regular mayo doesn’t give it the right taste), sriracha and soy.

Mussels

Mussels steamed in white wine with garlic, shallots and tomatoes  with parsley

The BEST Cookies

 

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 sticks salted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup packed dark brown sugar (or a little more)

1/2 cup white sugar

1 Tbsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup of dark chocolate (if you use chips they will stay whole in the cookies or if you shave it off a bar of chocolate it will melt into the dough and be swirly and yummy)

chopped walnuts, pecans,  peanut butter cups or whatever (if you want)

Sea salt(if you want)

Directions:

– pre heat oven to 375

– put butter into a sauce pan and cook on medium until browned and nutty.  transfer to a large mixing bowl (or mixer) and let cool for a few minutes)

– add sugars and beat together.  Add in eggs and vanilla .

– mix in dry ingredients (you’re supposed to stir together the flour baking soda and salt first, i never do…)

– add in the chocolate chips an any other add ins.

– put on lined or sprayed cookie sheets in big dollops, – about two inches in diameter only fitting 6 or 8 on each cookie sheet.

– bake for about 8-10 minutes depending on how gooey you like them.

– sprinkle them with sea salt or kosher salt as soon as they come out of the oven.

 

– makes about 20 big cookies yum yum yum.

 

adapted from the spiffy cookie 

Chicken with Caprese Salsa

 

Grilled Chicken marinated in Italian seasonings   over ricotta basil sticky rice topped with caprese salssa and olive oil and balsalmic.

The ‘salsa’ was so great, it took relatively boring chicken to a whole new level.  I finely chopped fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and basil and tossed it with oil and balsalmic.   Yum.   The rice is sticky Japanese rice-  it gives it a risotto like texture-  with some fresh ricotta and basil.  Very simple, but really delicious.

Ravioli with Two sauces

Home made Raviolis stuffed with ricotta and basil   and mushrooms with mozzarella and paremesan cheeses.

The red sauces is bolognese with ground turkey and the while is garlic alfredo.

Pizza Night!

 

When we make pizza at home we use a bag of dry pizza dough mix.   It’s so good.  I use two bags per cookie sheet sized pizza.  I make the dough and let it sit for a few minutes while we mis en place the rest of the ingredients.  Then we spread the dough on a floured cookie  sheet using a lot of flour to keep it from sticking to everything.  Bake it at 400  for about 15-20 minutes. Then take it off the cookie sheets and put it right on the rack to get crunchy!   We baked our dough for about 10-12 more minutes  and then took it out and brushed it with olive oil that we had heated up with lots of minced garlic and seasoning. This was in loo of any sauce.   Then (here’s the secret) we cover the whole pizza with sliced deli munster cheese. YUM   Top with toppings and shredded italian mix cheese and top it off with some drizzled olive oil.

We made two pizza  both were white, one with fresh tomatoes and basil and the other with sauteed brussel sprouts and shallots.

Banana Nut Cinnamon Mini Muffins

 

Banana Muffins topped with chopped walnuts with cinnamon frosting.

For the banana bread:  (stolen from hayley)  I doubled the recipe to make about 60 mini muffins

 

3-4  large ripe bananas, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 4 T butter, melted and cooled, 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour, 1tsp each salt and baking soda

Mash bananas, beat in sugar, than egg and butter.  Add the dry ingredients.  (or do it the right by mixing them first and ya know..)

Bake in a greased or lined mini muffin tin for about 9-12 minutes.

 

For the  frosting, I added a LOT of cinnamon to a regular tub of a vanilla frosting and pipped it on.

 

You might be thinking, “oh those look nice I should try them without the frosting”  YOU ARE WRONG.   I have made a serious break through with the cinnamon frosting on banana bread thing.  try it. try it now.

Sushi Cubes

Sushi cubes made with a cool little mold .  Made with fresh tuna, salmon, shrimp, avocado, spicy mayo, eel sauce, fish roe and sushi rice.   So fun to make!  And more fun to eat!

Breakfast Cast Iron Bake

Breakfast pizza with hasbrowns, scrambbled eggs, turkey and cheese!

Cook frozen hash browns in a cast iron pan (or other oven safe skillet) with a little bit of oil and preheat the oven to 350. While they are cooking, whisk together at least 6 eggs with milk and seasoning.   When the hash browns are almost down, push them down into the skilled to form a solid layer and poor the egg mixture over the top.   Sprinkle the turkey (or other breakfast mean or veggies) over the top and  put into the hot oven for about 15 minutes or until the eggs are cooked through. Sprinkle with shredded cheese, I think i used a mexican cheese blend,  and turn the broiler on high until the cheese is bubbly.   Yum!

 

Salmon with Creamed Cauliflower and Pesto Oil

 

Salmon with asparagus with creamed cauliflower with pesto oil drizzle.

This might be the new best thing i’ve ever made.

I steamed the cauliflower until very tender then riced it in the food processor and added butter, cream cheese and half and half.  I seasoned it with salt, pepper and garlic powder and added  about a teaspoon of flower to thicken it up.  The drizzle is just a combination of a tablespoon of pesto and the same amount of olive oil blended up in our magic bullet. It was amazing.  Crazy good, amazingly good. This dish made mashed potatoes unnecessary.   Wow.

Bacon Pancakes!

Pancakes with bacon IN THEM!

I broiled the bacon first and then broke the pieces in half.   Then i put them in a frying pan with a little bit of salflower oil  and poured the pancake batter on top of the stripes of bacon and cooked them like normal.  What could be bad about bacon and pancake?!

Mini Cupcakes!

Mini yellow cupcakes filled with berry jam and topped with vanilla frosting

These were ridiculously good.

I made the jam by combining frozen  berries (staw, blue, rasp, black) water and a little sugar in a pot and bringing to a boil. I added some corn starch to thicken it up before putting it into a pipping bag.

Caprese Salad

Caprese salad with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil topped with olive oil and a brown sugar balsamic reduction.

Brown Sugar Balsamic Reduction:  Combine 1 cup of balsamic vinegar and 1 cup of dark brown sugar in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer over medium high heat.  Stir often to prevent burning. Allow the mixture to reduce down to about a half a cup. You may want to add more brown sugar or regular sugar if it isn’t sweet enough for you.    Serve over salad, steak, chicken, dip your bread it in it, yum.

Cake Balls!

Cake balls made from devils food cake and raspberry frosting topped with white chocolate.

Make cake as directed on box.  After it is done put it in a big bowl and crumb it up.  Mix in any kind of frosting you want and blend together.  I use my hands to mix it together, it’s very messy but it’s the easiest way to mix it up.   Wet your hands and form the mixture into 1 inch balls and place them on a cookie sheet.  Put the cookie sheet in the freezer so the balls have time to freeze up.  In the mean time, melt white chocolate over a double boiler until liquid.  Put the melted chocolate into a thick zip lock bag and allow it to cool for at least 20 minutes, or you’ll burn your hands while trying to pipe it.    Snip a corner off of the bag and pipe the chocolate over the frozen cake balls.  Return the cookie sheet to the freezer to allow the chocolate to harden. Keep the cake balls in the freezer or fridge until you’re ready to serve them.

Ravioli

Veal Ravioli from Eataly in garlic olive oil with fresh tomatoes and basil.

For the sauce: I sauteed some garlic in olive oil along with italian seasoning.  Then i added fresh diced tomatoes and basil.  The whole thing took about 7  minutes.  It was light and flavorful.  Yum.

Baby Shower Cake

Dark chocolate cake with raspberry frosting filling topped with vanilla fondant.

Fondant is a bitch.

Tuna Tartar

Tuna tartar with avocado and crispy shallots with a miso soy sauce.

Love my new food mold!

Zach made this!  He started with fresh tuna and ripe avocados and cubed them both.  Sprinkle the avocado with salt and set aside and toss the tuna with olive oil , salt and pepper.  Finely dice a shallot and sprinkle with flour. Mix the shallots up a little so the flour evenly coats them before putting them into a small hot pan with oil to crisp them up.  Watch them carefully – they burn quickly!  After they are a light golden brown color (they will darken after you take them from the pan) put them on a paper towel to collect any extra oil.    For the sauce: start with 1/2 a cup of soy sauce. Add about a teaspoon of mirin and white wine vinegar.  Add a sprinkle of wasabi powder- or more if you’re daring  and brown sugar to your liking.  Whisk the sauce together and set aside.  Assemble my stacking the tuna and avocado, top with the crispy shallots and drizzle the plate with the sauce- you don’t need a lot of it!

Roasted Potatoes

 

Roasted yukon and red skin potatoes. Yum.

Chicken Pizza

Pizza with garlic chicken, brussel sprouts and caramelized red onion.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Brown Butter Peanut Butter cookies with Chocolate Drizzle

I followed a regular peanut butter cookie recipe but i browned the butter first.  It made the dough very sticky but still delicious!  I smooshed the cookies down with a spoon so they were flat and drizzed melted milk chocolate over the top.  yum!

Salmon Alfredo

 

Pan seared salmon over garlic alfredo pasta.

For the sauce i melt about 1/2 a stick of butter in  non stick pan and then add about a tablespoon of  flour and let cook for about a minute. Then I add some dairy, milk, cream, half and half, skim, what ever’s in the fridge and whisk together.   Then i add a lot of garlic and shredded fresh parm.   Easy yum yum. Jarred alfredo is disgusting.  make your own.