Yesterday morning I had a breakfast brunch to attend and I was to bring one of the main dishes. *gulp* I am not a big breakfast person… really I either have a Fiber One bar around 10 am or a packet of oatmeal. SO…. I had to do some thinking to come up with a breakfast item that 1. was tasty for a group but also 2. traveled well.
The actual breakfast brunch
I enjoy participating in the Weekend Cooking Meme a Beth Fish Reads. I like to nose around what other people are cooking, and as someone who does not enjoy a lot of kitchen time… finding great recipes that do not take a ton of time makes my day. 😀
The recipe I found and made is here.
Almond Pear French Toast Casserole
1/4 cup butter cut into little squares
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 29 oz. can of pear halves – each half cut into fourths
1 pound loaf of sour dough bread cut into squares (not the end pieces)
2 3/4 cup of eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 Tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup slices almonds
Using a 10 x 14 pan, evenly distribute the butter slices around the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the butter and bottom of pan. Put the pear slices over the brown sugar in a single layer. Take the cut up bread and place in a single layer over the butter and brown sugar.
Now mix together the eggs, milk, sugar, and extracts. Pour this mixture over the bread evenly – make sure all pieces get wet. Put foil over the pan and refrigerate over night (if you wish).
When ready to bake, take pan out of refrigerator and let sit while over gets up to temperature. Then bake at 350 for 40 minutes, take out and sprinkle almond slices on top, put back in over and let continue to bake for another 15 minutes.
This is delicious and when we ate it about 35 minutes later it was even good after it had cooled.
As for the flash mob… I think they are so cool. I seriously want to find one and do this. 😀 Here is one that was in Minnesota recently, and I will leave you this morning with this:
How is everyone surviving the Thanksgiving weekend? Honestly I feel soooo behind. I have had the best of intentions to post reviews the last few days and the fact is… I need to write them first. My week has been busy with not only Thanksgiving prep and crazy hours of shopping, but also a good friend of mine’s sister passed away on Wednesday and I have been spending time with her as well as she goes through this hard time.
Yesterday College Son (Justin) spent all day with me from the crazy shopping to afternoon errands to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. It’s hard to catch him when he is in town as he is off visiting friends but having him all day on Thursday and most of Friday was a blessing. He will be hanging out with us a while today before he heads back to Mankato this afternoon to prepare his projects for school again on Monday.
So this morning I was trying to think what pictures I was going to post for Alyce’s Saturday Snapshot as well as Candice’s Weekend Cooking post and decided if I want to add another post I have been working on this afternoon – I had to (just this once) combine the two meme’s.
In honor of Thanksgiving…. here is what I have to share.
SO… you may have heard of a very odd (IMO) tradition of stuffing a turkey with a duck and inside the duck a chicken? (ughhh…. I so dont even like the visual image of this). It is called Turducken.
No worries… I did not do it, BUT this past week I heard of something a little visually comforting and a fun holiday treat and that is the combination of a cake and a pie. (I looked it up on the internet this morning… I guess the official title is Pumpple.
I have no “before” pictures… but it is fairly easy and you can get the steps here:
you will need:
a cake mix or two
a pie or two that you think would compliment the cake mix
In this particular two layer one… the cake mixes were spice and yellow and the pies were pumpkin and apple.
Use round cake pans and put a little spray oil in the bottom and on sides. Mix up the cake mix as instructed on the box and put a layer in the bottom of your cake pan. Place your pie in the cake pan. Pour more cake mix over pie in the cake pan. Yes, you will have mix left over. Maybe make a few cupcakes or a mini cake.
Bake as instructed on the cake box. When done, cool and then frost. It looks pretty cool on a plate and when you cut into it. Its pretty tasty as well as a fun conversation piece for your next get together.
Verdict: It’s good. I liked the pumpkin pie and spice cake combo. I heard that a chocolate cake with pumpkin is really good too and since I am a fan of all things chocolate I would consider that one. 😛
Please stop by At Home With Books to see what others are posting today for Saturday Snapshots…
AND be sure to check out Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking which always has links to fantastic recipes that make you (ME) run right out the door to get the things to cook them! 😀
Today is going to be a low-key day and I am sooooo excited for that. I am going to write the missing reviews and between today and tomorrow get in some good reading time as well. I hope your weekend is a fantastic one.
Happy weekend… or err…. whats left of it. I meant to post this earlier but yesterdays read a thon and todays… whatevers have prevented me from doing so until now. 😀
Last weekend I was crafting at our cabin with three good friends. When we go to the cabin we usually all contribute to the food bringing. This time my friend Cindy was in charge of one of the main dishes, and my friend Sara came up with a breakfast dish. (*Note that one of the mornings I made the french toast muffins that were featured on Weekend cooking a couple of weekends ago and they were “num”. 😀
Cindy came up with a chili recipe that impressed all of us…. no spices. No hauling of seasoning packs at all and it was delicious! Sara came up with a delicious twist on cinnamon rolls by adding apple that was also a great cold morning treat!
Cindy’s Dump Chili
You need:
2 pounds lean hamburger
1 onion
1 green pepper (optional but I added!)
2 cans chili beans
2 cans kidney beans
1 large jar of salsa
1 can Hunts Zesty spaghetti sauce or another spicy spaghetti sauce
salt and pepper to taste
Brown your hamburger in a fry pan adding the onion and optional green pepper (chopped up) to the hamburger while it is cooking.
In crock pot put in your chili beans, drained kidney beans, the salsa and spaghetti sauce. When hamburger is browned, drain and rinse and add to the crock pot. Cover and cook on low all day or high for 2 to 4 hours.
This was delicious and easy to do!
Sara’s Apple Surprise Cinnamon Rolls
You will need:
one twist tube of cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting
1/2 stick of butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
one large apple (we used Honey Crisp) peeled and chopped into small chunks
Use non stick spray in a regular size muffin tin. in the bottom of each tin place a few of the chunks of apple. Sprinkle a little brown sugar over the apple chunks and then place a small dab of butter over the brown sugar and apple.
Now place one of the cinnamon rolls from the tube over all the apple cinnamon stuff in the tin and bake according to directions on the tube. When done, pop out of the tin and drizzle a little of the cream cheese frosting over each. Delicious for fall with a great cup of coffee and a few friends. 😀
Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads…. follow the link and check out all the delicious recipes and food related reviews.
I find that the more I read.. the more I like to dissect books… really look into the time period, the setting, and the food. Currently my book club is reading Pride and Prejudice for our annual October Classic read and I thought it would be fun today (as I make my way through this book) to connect with some of the food from the Regency era.
My husband = house lab rat. 😛
As I love the Weekend Cooking meme, I want to try more of this bringing the food out of whatever book I am reading…. and so today I present our fall “Regency type” dinner as English Pot Pie and British Salad Greens.
The main dish, was the English Pot Pie that honestly… looked like a lot of work so I made my own recipe (an easier version) – but hey, it’s fall in Minnesota and this is a great comfort food:
You will need:
3 cups Green Giant® Valley Fresh Steamers™ frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
2 cups cut-up cooked chicken
1 large can condensed cream of chicken soup
2 cups Bisquick® mix
1 cup milk
2 eggs
Heat oven to 400. In separate bowl mix the vegies, cream of chicken, and the cooked chicken. Pour into ungreased baking pan – I used two smaller class baking containers.
Now mix the Bisquick, milk and egg together. Pour over the vegie/chicken mix evenly. Bake for 30 minutes.
Secondly, the salad. Pretend you are Elizabeth Bennett and you and your sisters have just picked fresh vegies out of the garden. (I cant explain the blue cheese but lets just say one of the cows were sick and they made their own….)
You will need:
1 English cucumber (the one in the produce section that is long and wrapped in plastic)
3 cups mixed greens
a chunk of blue cheese
Blue Cheese salad dressing
a sprinkle of chopped English walnuts(no worries, these are the common walnuts we mainly use in the U.S.)
Craisins (ok ok… so Craisins were my addition, but let’s just say I ran into Elizabeth Bennett in the forest near her home and I told her about Craisins and that they rock. She, being of good character, knows an honest person when she sees one and takes me at my word.)
Black pepper to taste
Slice the cucumber in to 1/4 inch slices and circle around the edge of each salad plate. In the center place the mixed greens. sprinkle the walnuts, craisins, and walnuts on top and then a drizzle of the salad dressing. Serve.
Did it pass the husband test? I would say seconds means yes to that. 😀
Last week my book club met for the discussion of The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. I had read and reviewed this book earlier this year and was not fond enough of it to read it again. I did consider trying it in audio but my library did not carry it.
As the time drew closer for our review… I have to admit, I was not looking forward to it. I decided to turn my focus towards the food part of our meeting and that is really when it got interesting for me.
The 1940s were all about rationing, protein stretching, substitutions, rediscovering “grandma’s foods”, and making do with less. Home cooks made sugarless cookies, eggless cakes, and meatless meals. Cookbooks, magazines, and food company brochures were full of creative ideas for stretching food supplies. Why the shortage? Food was needed to feed soldiers fighting in World War II.
When entertaining, I learned that finger sandwiches were quite popular, served open-faced (so the bread would go farther). They also drank a lot of tea as coffee was scarce and if you could find it… expensive.
At this point my creative side kicked in…. the book may not be the best for review, but by golly the food was going to make this discussion a success. 😀
The day of the review, I made the open-faced sandwiches, a cucumber one with a spread of cream cheese and ranch dip mix, and a delicious seafood one (see recipe below).
Then I also made a potato chip and tuna casserole, apparently popular in the 1940’s. This consisted of very few ingredients…. cream of mushroom soup, tuna, peas, and potato chips. Yup. I read the recipe and literally said, “ewww!”
other entries that the Bookies brought were Angie’s (By Book Or By Crook) Grandmother’s stand by hot dish of noodles and tomato’s…
the only meat available in the 1940’s was what you could raise and prepare yourself so…
Side dishes were often garden vegetables or a jello or pudding…
Maybe Creme Brulee was not quite the dish of the 40’s…. but after trying it, who was I to complain…. oh YUM! (recipe below) Thanks Sharon!
Between all that and the pickles, potato salad, tea and water with orange and lemon slices… we were set.
It was time to discuss The Postmistress. The surprise is, I loved our discussion and here are some of the things that came out of it. (Should be spoiler free)
We discussed how in the 1940’s your news came mainly from radio. We wondered if the news being broadcasted seemed more real than it does in today’s world of over saturation of all things media. This led to how powerful news was then and led us to discuss the airing of The War Of The Worlds and how people who tuned in late thought that broadcast was real.
When the motto for a journalist to get a story was “get in and get out” we discussed in such a story can you ever fully get out? Would not some of the things we see, hear, and do in life not ever leave us?
We had a great discussion over today’s media of too much immediate knowledge of all things considered “news worthy”. Were we better off then or now? Sure the modern ways of communicating are awesome, but I also believe there is truly such a thing as TMI (too much information). Facebook came up in the discussion of course and how some of the younger generation do not know how to filter what they put out there in the world for all to see. This led us to discuss what could possibly go even further for the next generation as so much is considered not taboo now…
Historical novels were discussed as a whole… love them/hate them… what are the pro and cons? I felt pro for historical fiction as I learn through them in a format that I may have at one time not read or found boring… the novels take me places I have not known.
Over all the discussion was wonderful and engaging. The food was good, except the potato chip tuna casserole which I did not like at all. We ended our discussion close to 9 pm which is unusual as we usually wrap up close to 8 or a little after. Maybe it was the recent anniversary of 9/11, but for some reason I feel even after the ten years of this group being together… we bonded even more on this night.
**The food portion of this review is part of Weekend Cooking, a wonderful meme you may find at Beth Fish Reads.
Recipes
The Seafood Spread
This was taken as part of a recipe I usually make as a salad. You will need:
imitation seafood
dill weed
mayo
onion
a generous dose of chopped Cilantro (I am a cilantro junky!)
salt and pepper
Chop the seafood into small pieces and place in medium bowl. I used two packages of the seafood (found in the deli department) for the Bookies. Add the mayo only using enough to coat, it should not be goopy with mayo…. sprinkle generously with the dill seasoning, add the cilantro and chopped fine onion, as well as the salt and pepper to taste. Place in frig until ready to serve. For this event I served it on Rye Bread Squares, buy you could use it on crackers too.
Creme Brulee
Yield – 4 servings 2 cups heavy cream 1 vanilla bean split lengthwise 4 large egg yolks 1/4 cup plus 1 tbs sugar
1/3 to 1/2 cup white granulated or brown sugar (for topping)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
In a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan, heat the cream with the vanilla bean for 15 minutes, stirring to ensure it does not burn. Remove from the heat and let it stand for 15 minutes. Remove and discard the vanilla bean. Strain the cream.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks with an electric mixer on high-speed for 5 minutes, or until they are light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar. Add about half the cream, a little at a time (to temper the eggs), to the egg mixture, whisking until well blended. Then pour the egg mixture into the remaining cream mixture. Stir until completely blended.
Pour the custard into four 9-ounce ramekins or custard cups. Place the dishes in a large baking pan. Pour enough HOT water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the custard is set.
Remove the dishes from the baking pan and cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 2 or up to 24 hours.
To serve, let the ramekins stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle the tops with sugar in a thin, even layer over each ramekin. To caramelize the sugar, light a propane torch and hold it so the flame just touches the surface. Start at the center and spiral out toward the edges of the ramekins. If the sugar begins to burn, pull the torch away and blow on the sugar to extinguish the flame.
*Sharon said this recipe took her three tries to get it right and she is an amazing cook so I think this one is not for the faint of heart…. or… errr…. me. 😯
I think as we get uhhhh….. older….. many of us try to make healthier choices in our life style and in our diets. Key word for m here is – TRY. 😛 However, I know first hand that when I do eat right and exercise I feel (and look) better.
Books like this one fascinate me. I love to read up on herbs and spices that burn more calories, or take away headaches, or seem to reduce risks of disease. When I think about all the junk we have added to our diets the last 50 or so years (fast food, restaurant chains, anything fired and on a stick for serving purposes) it really is a no brainer that we have always had the ingredients and the tools to live healthier lives if we choose to do so.
Secrest of Longevity in other languages
Secrets Of Longevity is written by Dr. Moa Shing Ni (a 38th generation doctor!). The book is broke into easy to use chapters:
Chapter One: What You Eat
Chapter Two: How You Heal
Chapter Three: Where You Are (environment, ecology)
Chapter Four: What You Do (exercise, lifestyle)
Chapter Five: Who You Are (relationships, faith)
Chapter Six: Bringing It All Together
Each page is about a paragraph long with bits of information, some of which we know such as:
Smaller Meals four to five times a day
Eat Like a King by Day, a Pauper at night
but many I did not know…
Tea is the beverage most commonly drank by centenarians around the world. The free radical property of tea is more potent than that of vitamin E, and the antioxidants ward off diabetes and cancer
Honey is better for you than table sugar – and a gauge soaked with honey can help in healing burns and wounds.
Olive Oil regulates blood pressure
Orange peel served in meat dishes lowers cholesterol
Drinking your celery (yup – in a blender) helps arthritis and lowers blood pressure
Ginseng increases energy and stamina and has been used bu China for 5,000 years
I took away so much from this book, and will keep it handy for future reference. Nothing in the book involved going out and buying expensive ingredients or equipment…. is in the book, is already in your home.
This review is part of Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads. While I have no recipes to share – he tips in this book refer to healthy eating and drinking to enjoy a long, happy, healthy life.
Frank Bruni was ALWAYS hungry. He was born that way. His mother cooked amazing meals and loved having people over to enjoy them. If food was eaten in full of one of something left, Franks mom felt as though she had not made enough.
Bottom line was Frank enjoyed eating. he had an epic appetite that later would serve him well as a restaurant critic for the New York Times. Totally in love with his job, Frank had to learn how to deal with his long time love hate relationship with food. What followed was yo yo dieting, and dealing with a painful lifelong addiction to food.
Frank Bruni
I had heard this audio was pretty good…. and as a self-confessed foody (oh yes… I do love food!) I though it would be an interesting listen. The draw to this audio for me was that I found it interesting that someone like Frank who battled his weight all of his life – would take on a job as a food critic for The New York Times.
Frank, who reads this audio himself, tells an honest portrayal of diet pill abuse, over eating and then working out like a mad man…. going from one extreme ( a hiking adventure that is pretty extreme causing him to lose extreme weight) to another ( refusing dessert at a restaurant but them stopping on the way home for not only a piece of his favorite dessert – but the whole dessert!).
At times I felt the audio was getting long with tale after tale of food event, job, weight battles…. and just about then – frank would come in with a little “comic relief” and share about how many times when critiquing food he would mix up his alias names he used for reservations… or his denial about his pants being tight (certainly it was the cut of the pant… obviously the company has changed that…. or the old shrinkage in the dryer story…)
In the end – the book was satisfying – neither leaving me hungry, or full. I enjoyed learning a little about Frank Bruni.
This review is part of the Weekend Cooking meme at Beth Fish Reads
Interested in this audio? Leave a comment here telling me what your favorite food to go out for is, and I will have a drawing next week and choose one of the comments using random.org as the winner and I will mail you this audio.
Over 200 great-tasting, easy to tote dishes for parties, picnics, potlucks, barbeques, holiday dinners, and any get- togethers.
I purchased this book recently on a trip to the North Shore. Browsing through the books being offered in one of the many (MANY) touristy type gift shops… my eyes landed on this book. It was pricey, (I can tell you I paid over double what I see it is on sale for at Amazon now…) but I really was drawn to this book.
I am that girl who has a stand by item or two that I bring to every outing we are invited too. One is my baked bean dish. You know the one that has baked beans, bacon, lima beans, hamburger…. yup that’s my “go to” dish to bring to outings… when I have time to mess with it. When I do not have time, I make my fresh salsa and grab a bag or two of good tortilla chips.
Nothing that I bring is “the dish”. I am not the coveted person that has to attend because what I bring makes the party. Nope, if not for my witty and fun personality, I may not be invited at all ( ha ha – I jest). I think…. 😯
So now you see the need for this book to get into my hands. Hard cover, square, appealing to the eye book with almost 500 pages of ideas…. I could not wait to read!
Author Anne Byrn is known to millions of fans through her Cake Mix Doctor, The Chocolate Cake Doctor, and Dinner Doctor cookbooks. She has had over 200 television appearances on Good Morning America, Roker on the Road, QVC, as well as local stations.
Ok… in my opinion, this book is a rave! From fun down to earth parties like back yard potlucks and kids parties, to house-warming gifts, or something a little more formal this book covers it all from, packaging, transporting, serving… LOVE IT. Each page has a right side bar space to record who you made the recipe for, prep notes, what not to forget, special touches and if this is an item you should bring again. It is a book that makes me want to go through and try everything just so I can make notes. 😀
So here are a few little items that caught my eye (there were many more…. but this is a sample)
French Toast Slices (to be used for bruschetta, or spreads)
Slice a loaf of French bread diagonally about 1/4 inch thick. You should get two to three dozen slices depending on loaf size. Place on baking sheet and lightly brush with olive oil. Sprinkle bread lightly with kosher salt (if desired), or dust with Parmesan cheese before baking. Bake at 400 until slices are crisp and browned – 15 to 18 minutes. These will store in plastic bags for up to three days.
(I may make this tonight to go along with spaghetti)
Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps
1 large head of iceberg lettuce
1 tablespoon vegie oil
1 pound ground chicken
3 med garlic coves, minced
1 cup chopped scallions (green part only from a bunch)
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
3/4 cup hoisin sauce
4 tsp. soy sauce
1 teaspoon Asian (dark) sesame oil
3/4 cup finely chopped water chestnuts
Fresh cilantro (optional)
Use a small paring knife and cut the core out of lettuce. Wash and dry on paper towels.
Place the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Combine in the chicken, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Add the garlic and cook, stirring until the chicken is cooked through – 4 to 5 minutes. Turn off the heat. Stir in the scallions, ginger, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, and water chestnuts. Cook this filling over medium low heat stirring until it bubbles and is heated through – 2 to 3 minutes. Keep the filling warm if you are serving immediately.
When ready to serve, carefully pull apart the head of lettuce to separate the leaves. Pat the leaves dry with paper towels and pile them around the outer edge of a large platter. There should be at least 12 large leaves. Spoon chicken filling into the center of the platter and garnish with cilantro. Serve at once. To eat – spoon chicken mixture into lettuce leaf and wrap the lettuce around it and eat like a burrito.
Ok scrap the spaghetti idea for tonight… I may try this one instead if I can find the Hoisin sauce.
Taco Ring
*you can prep this ahead of time and not bake until you arrive to whatever event you made it for…)
For Taco Ring:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 – 2 pounds ground lean turkey or lean beef
2 packages taco seasoning
1 cup water
2 packages refrigerator crescent rolls (reg or reduced fat)
For serving:
reduced fat sour cream
shredded iceberg lettuce
chopped tomatoes
shredded cheddar cheese
Guacamole
Pre heat over to 375. Place the olive oil, if using, in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the turkey or beef and break up with a wooden spoon. Cook, stirring, until cooked through – 3 to 4 minutes. Add the taco seasoning and stir to mix. Then add the water. Increase heat to medium high and cook stirring until all liquid has nearly evaporated, 4 to 5 minutes. Take off burner and set aside.
Unroll the crescent rolls; you will have 16 triangles of dough. Place an ungreased baking sheet or pizza stone about 14 to 16 inches, ona work surface. Arrange the dough with the large side of the triangles facing the center of the sheet and the points hanging over the edge. Leave a 3 – 4 inch empty space in the center. Press dough together where the triangles meet to connect them.
Spoon the turkey beef mixture in a ring on top of the joined dough, leaving the center empty (you can put a bowl of sour cream there when serving). Carefully pull all the points of the of the crescent rolls, twisting them together to seal over the filling. Do not get too fussy about this as after the taco ring bakes, it looks gorgeous no matter whether the filling os completely covered by the rolls.
Bake the taco ring until golden brown – 20 to 25 minutes. Let it cool 3 to 4 minutes before transferring to a serving platter. If you do not have a platter large enough, cur sturdy cardboard into a large enough piece and cover with foil. Put bowl of sour cream in the middle and arrange the rest of toppings in pretty little bowls around the ring.
*Note – it is just as easy to make two rings as it is one. If baking later, cover with plastic wrap and keep cool.
Ok – scratch everything I said above… I am making this tonight! 😀
These few recipes are barely scratching the surface of the recipes that caught my eye in this book…. main dishes, sides, appetizers, desserts, breads, soups, marinades…. and party planning. I will get many years of use out of this new treasure in my home.
To win a copy of this book:
In my excitement over my new find – I am offering a copy of this book to be mailed to one lucky commenter between now and Thursday morning. Open internationally – I will mail directly to you from Amazon. *Simply leave in the comment section what your favorite item is to take along to a potluck or gathering type event.
Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. It is a fun way to share food related books, events, or recipes.
Last weekend my friend Amy and I went to St Joseph Minnesota for the Tour Of Saints. It’s a beautiful town and a great ride. After the ride we stopped at a little restaurant called Bo Diddley’s. This is pretty much a tiny small town stop, nothing exciting but we were a mess from riding in the heat for 50 miles and were not looking to impress anyone with our sweaty bike gear, so it worked for us. 😛
Once inside the menu was sparse. After riding in the humidity that had heat advisories out across the state, a burger and fries sounded way too heavy. I wanted nothing fried. Finally we both settled on the seafood pita.
When our food arrived I was pleasantly surprised. It was served in a little square wicker basket that held the pita upright and wide-mouthed. Inside the pita was chunks of imitation crab in a light mayo coating, shredded iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced tomato and onion. That’s it. Simple and refreshing. My friend Amy, who is a whiz at cooking identified the spice in the seafood mix as dill.
I liked this so much I made it as a mid-week supper, and packed it twice for my lunch as well. It’s funny, I could not remember the last time I bought iceberg lettuce being pretty much a Romaine or Spinach leaf salad person. Yet, Iceberg lettuce is exactly what makes this salad awesome.
Here is how I made mine:
head of iceberg lettuce
two tomatoes
a package of imitation crab (I bought the sticks as I thought the chunks were too big)
one onion
fresh cilantro
light mayo
salt and pepper
whole wheat pita (optional)
Using a sharp knife, slice the lettuce into this strips, as much as you need for your salad(s). I used about half the head to make salads for Al and I for dinner. Arrange the lettuce in the individual salad bowls. Slice tomato thinly as well and put desired amount of tomato over the lettuce in the bowls. Take the onion slicing thin strips, enough to put on top of the tomatoes in the salad bowls.
Take the imitation crab and cut into small bite size pieces and place in a small serving bowl. chop the cilantro (to taste) into small pieces and add to seafood. Generously sprinkle dill into the crab, cilantro bowl as well. Put enough light mayo in the bowl to coat the seafood and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Take the seafood combo and put generous amounts on top of each salad. Serve!
*You can also make the seafood combination ahead of time and keep cold in refrigerator until time to serve.
I did not use the pita in my recipe, but if you wanted to just replace the salad bowl with a pita 🙂
Anthony Bourdain, the star of the series No reservations on the Travel Channel, and the author of Kitchen Confidential now releases his sharp tongue, never apologizing ways in this new collection about the chefs in the industry, the economy, the best places to find a good burger… it reads like we are sitting and talking about cooking and food…. Anthony Bourdain flies from topic to topic, while occasionally hard to follow – it almost always is interesting.
If you have seen his show, you pretty much know what you are in for. At least… I thought I did.
Here is a little sample (or two) of Bourdain’s show, No Reservations:
Anyway – you get the picture. Food is what Boudain does. And for the most part he does it well. This was also the draw for me to this audio, narrated by Anthony Bourdain himself.
I admit it. I like the tone of Anthony’s voice. He is level and matter of fact. he has a quick wit, a knack for sarcasm – and he tells it like it is. Even, when I necessarily do not need to know to that extent of “what it is”.
What do I mean by that? Well, while I do enjoy Anthony Bourdain’s show, No Reservations… I have come to realize that they clean his words up quite a bit. In this audio, there is none of this and you can plan on being encased in everything that is on Anthony’s mind and without any sensors, all of this will come right out of his mouth. You will hear the “F” word… frequently. You will hear pretty much every other word as well.
So why, a person that usually avoids such books and audio, why would I put myself through this?
Honestly… I like to hear about the food behind Anthony’s language. If you can filter (and you will need a heavy-duty one at that) through that, the audio is quite interesting.
I enjoyed hearing how the economy changed the look and feel of some of New Yorks higher class restaurants forever – and even possibly for the better. Anthony shares that while some restaurants may no longer be able to afford to serve the salmon they once did, they have found ways to serve delicious lesser priced fish just as well. In some cases – they are thrilled to do so as chefs have known that some of the fish that normally would not grace their menu, is actually very good – and the economy has given them the opportunity to show this.
I also learned – that the economy has made the classy restaurants friendlier. There was a time you would be snubbed for walking up to a high-class eatery without a reservation. If you called to get a reservation without weeks and weeks notice, you would practically be hung up on. These days are gone. People are now encouraged to come in anytime. The phone service has greatly improved and the wait staff is considerably friendlier. Well – yay for all of that. 😛
I also enjoyed hearing about other big named chefs. Bourdain is not easy on any of them. He takes no prisoners. Some he admires. More, he does not, and he is not shy to tell you why. Names are tossed on the chopping block. He even goes into detail about his time as a judge on Top Chef. Bourdain will share, occasionally at great lengths about the importance of the great chefs actually being at their restaurants – actually cooking meals instead of relying on their name alone to get people in the door.
The chapter talking of the great detail that chefs go to prepare the fish for our meals – astounded me. I had never thought about what the big name restaurant may pay for a pound of fish and that would be including – head, innards, scales etc… much of which they paid for is thrown away in the cleaning process and they pay a very talented chef with a knife to do just that long before we ever see it on our plate.
At times I applauded Anthony Bourdains’ boldness. At other times I cringed at his references, language and crudeness. I am well aware that some of what make me cringe… are part of what has made him the success he is today.
The over all thing I have to admit here is that despite his great flaws…. I like him.
This review is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking. Pop on over and see what others are cooking or reading about food this weekend!
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