snow days/birthday party

Nashville TN, rarely gets snow. When there's a threat of snow, people rush out to the grocery store to stock up on all the staples. Milk, bread, eggs, the usual stuff.

Well, it just happened to be our regular shopping day. The day before the storm. It was actually about 11am when all the weather nonsense started. Snow, sleet, freezing rain... it all began.

Well... It's day three of being "snowed in". Being snowed in has its advantages when you like to cook AND you have groceries. So far, we've made homemade clam chowder, blueberry pancakes, chili, stuffed mushrooms, chicken fried rice and tonight I'll make some homemade hummus.

When I grow up, I want to be a chef. I really think I do. The problem is, I've seen how much work it is behind the scenes. I think I more so would like to just cook for my friends.

I'm thinking out loud at this point, but for my birthday, I'm thinking about having some sort of cooking party. Like, having everyone bring over an ingredient and I'll cook a meal. I really enjoy cooking breakfast. But to have a Breakfast-Cooking-Birthday Party? I don't know...

Maybe brunch? That way I can still make my breakfast favs but also make some more savory lunch/dinner type dishes. But then I think, "It's only me!" My mind is racing even now thinking about it. I want to make omelettes. I want to make BBQ ribs. I want to make, I want to make, I can't do it all. To be realistic, I should pick a couple of different things and stick with that. Hmm.... so much to think about.

not the healthiest thing...

Hey,

I need some advice here. Some ideas....

I bought some REAL bacon yesterday. Not knowing what to do with it. My thought was to wrap it around something.

I've had chunks of chicken wrapped in bacon. YUM!!

I've had chunks of turkey breast wrapped in bacon. DOUBLE YUM!!

Ya know... I wanna do something, but not sure what.

Thoughts?

burgers...

Life can get crazy sometimes. When it does, there's no time to cook. My thought tonight was to make a pork roast for dinner. Some wild rice and broccoli to go with.

But real life happens sometimes and you just don't have time. So, tonight I grabbed a burger from a fast food place. Not my favorite thing to do, but it does fill the void.

Let me tell you about MY burgers. The perfect burger in my opinion is done on the grill. Getting that char and smokey flavor on it. LOVE THAT! I gotta say, ground chuck is my favorite to use. But now, because it's healthier, we use ground turkey. What's cool is, it stays the same size as when you make the patties.

When I make MY burger. I pat out a good size chunk of ground turkey. Not too thick because I want it done in the middle. I use Dale's steak seasoning. Not much because a little of that stuff goes a long way. I think for one burger, you could use a couple of tablespoons and be just fine. I also like to give the burger a splash of onion powder, garlic powder and some pepper. YUM! No salt. The Dale's takes care of that.

Set that in the fridge for a bit, let that Dale's do it's business, and get your grill fired up.

I hate wasting a good fire. So I try to find anything and everything grill worthy. For now, let's do some yellow squash and green zucchini. I slice these long ways into 4 sections. Put them on a plate and sprinkle some olive oil on them. A lil' sea salt and some pepper. Mix it up a bit so that you get a lil' of that oil all over the veggies. Set these aside and check on the fire...

When the grill is ready, I put my turkey burger on there. Ahhhh hear that sizzle? I love that sound. Around the burger, I place my veggies. I say "place" because I want those char marks that you get when you grill something. So I "place" them in such a way as to get those marks across the veggies. It's gonna taste good for sure, but the marks will also make it LOOK good.

I use a Weber kettle grill. That thing is as old as dirt, but there's something about it. It works great! It's like your mother's old cast iron skillet. It's a part of the family.

With the lid on, you can hear the sizzle, see the smoke and enjoy that you're cooking outside. It's about this time, I step back and look around. That overly proud feeling. Similar to Tim Allen in that show Home Improvements. "AOWW, AOWWW, AOWWWW!"

I don't know, I'd say about 7 minutes into all that sizzle, I grab the lid and flip my burger over. Also turning the veggies. I like cheddar cheese on my burgers. Hang on, let me run in and cut a slice of Tillamook Sharp Cheddar! "One slice for the burger... Two slice for the burger... Three slice for ME NOW!"

I'd give it just a few more minutes. I've heard from many burger scholars, you don't want to smush the burger down. It's so tempting to do when you flip it. The spatula is there and it just happens. You smash it and all the juice comes out and into the fire. Don't smush! Let all those juices stay in the burger and keep it moist.

I give it another flip just to check it out all the way around. It's got good char, smells great, looks great too! I move it to the side so it won't burn anymore. But it's still getting some heat to it. Slap that cheese on there and the lid. Now by the time the cheese is melted, the veggies are going to be done too. Still crisp, but done.

I personally like those buns with the onion sprinkles on them. And since we're talking about MY dream burger.... that's what we're gonna use.

Any array of condiments. The usual, mayo, mustard, ketchup, relish... whatever you wanna use. A must for me is a nice slice of romaine lettuce and a slice of tomato.

Serve that up with some of your grilled zucchini and yellow squash?

Nice....

More Breakfast Please....

Sometimes I take pictures of the food I make. I've even done the play by play with pictures. A picture of the ingredients. A picture of the pan I use. A picture of the raw meats etc etc.... Then the finished product. It's fun. Maybe it's my way of living out my "I've got my own cooking show" dream. I don't know.

We talked about eggs the other day. Again, I have to stress that I'm NOT a professional chef. I get to hang with a pro sometimes. I'm sure soon, if she lets me, I'll drop her name and encourage you to eat at her restaurant.

In fact, in this episode, I'd like to talk about a recipe she gave me. Well, I can't really call it a recipe. When I think of someone giving you a recipe, they give you a sheet of paper with measured out ingredients. You follow it to a T and your meal turns out perfect right? Well... sometimes.

She was doing a catering job and explained one of the dishes to me. I said, "Awww man that sound good." She then told me how to make it. It's easy enough to remember so I really didn't have to write anything down. But that's how I prefer to cook anyway. Flying by the seat of your pants. You have some stuff and you have to create something tasty and wonderful with it.

Since we're on the breakfast thing, I wanted to tell you about French Toast Casserole. Sometimes when you say the word "casserole" people get nauseous. It comes with the thought, "LEFTOVERS" or, "Everything in the fridge, thrown in a dish with some cheese melted on top." Not the most appealing. But you're gonna DIG THIS! I promise.

Go to your local bread store or bakery. Buy some day old muffins, some scones, some sweet breads and maybe a few dinner rolls. All the buttery, sweet, fruity breads you can get. I personally like getting scones, blueberry and banana nut muffins with one package of just straight dinner rolls.

Crumble them up into a big baking dish. Your "casserole" dish if you will. Set to the side for a bit while you sip some of that great coffee you made before you did anything! :)

Now... you're going to make that dipping goo that you'd make if you were making french toast. In a large bowl, eggs, milk, vanilla extract, nutmeg and some cinnamon. Mix it up all nice. Because you wanna make a big batch of this, you'll need to use a bit extra when it comes to the dipping goo. I would probably use at least 3 eggs, 1 1/2 cup milk... then just use your judgment on the spices. Like I said before, I fly free in the kitchen. When it looks right, it IS right. hehehehe......

Once again, a sip of coffee. (Tea if that's the way YOU roll.)

Now... grab that dish of crumbled up bread. Pour all of your dipping goo over that bread. Here's the deal. You want every crumb in that casserole dish to be coated with that goo. If it's still a bit dry in some spots, I'd go ahead and add a lil' milk to the dry spots. (if you're feeling on the wild side... see... just thought of this... you could add some fresh blueberries in there. Some raisins would be good. Even some thinly sliced granny smith apple could be really good. I might have to try that on my next one.)

Now I've been checkin' out Paula Deen a bit on the Food Network, so before I pop this in the 350 degree oven, I put some butter on top. 4 - 6 chunks. (tablespoons to the normal person) I might toss a lil' more cinnamon on top and a little bit of brown sugar. NOT much.

You'll wanna bake this for about 20 minutes. Closer to 30 probably. Just check it. When its brown on top, call it done. This is similar to bread pudding. I've never made bread pudding, but it's the same kind of vibe.

Cut into squares and serve. OH BOY! Talk about good eatin'! You could serve it with some syrup on top. But with all the butter, the cinnamon, the lil' bit of brown sugar on top? You may just wanna eat it as is.

Breakfast as made by the regular guy...

Breakfast doesn't have to be pop tarts or cold cereal. It doesn't have to be donuts or toast on the run. Let's make up something great. Breakfast is a must! You eat breakfast to jump start your metabolism for the day. Get the engine going so to speak.

What do you have for breakfast? Eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, home fries, pancakes, waffles... So many different options. I've heard that breakfast should be your biggest meal of the day. You'll have time during the day to burn off the calories. But seriously, who's got time to make a full on "Cracker Barrel" type breakfast before the kids go to school or the wife goes to work?

Lets take a look at eggs. Scrambled eggs are great. Let's start there.

My wife likes fluffy eggs. My trick to fluffy scrambled eggs is, turning off the heat early.

Get your pan going on medium heat. I'll go out on a limb and say that, start everything on medium heat. Unless you're frying something, start it on medium bro.

Spray a lil' nonstick in your pan. If you don't have any, a little bit of butter works nicely too.

While that's warming up, crack a couple of eggs in a bowl and wisk them. Now hear me on this. I'm into cooking, I have a few cooking tools that help out. But, you can use a fork just as easy as a whisk. When your pan gets hot, the non stick spray is looking good or the butter is melted, pour your eggs in there.

I let it cook like that for a minute while the edges begin to get firm. Then I start to mix it up with my spatchula. The eggs are getting close but they're still runny right? Surely they have to cook more. That's when you turn the burner off. The pan is still hot, so the eggs are still cooking. Don't just let them sit. You'll need to keep mixing them, making sure every part gets cooked and is not raw. Because the pan is cooling down, they won't burn. As long as you keep stirring them, they become perfect. Light, fluffy and fully done!

Lets say you wanna make an omelette. I've not mastered this great breakfast treat. It's still a work in progress for me. Try this though.... First off, I DO have a pan that use only for omelettes. It's smoove! (smooth for you regular folks)

Follow the steps for scrambled eggs. BUT, I start my pan a little bit hotter. Let's say medium heat plus one. If 4 is medium heat, I'd go 5 when I'm making an omelette. "These amps go to eleven. One higher."

The egg part of this is the same as a scrambled egg. You're not going to stir the eggs in the pan though. After you pour the egg in, you let it firm in a big circle. Maybe even lifting the sides to get some of the raw egg in the middle out to the sides. Carefully move it around a bit so it doesn't stick to the pan. Flip that puppy over so it stays in the same shape. Immediately turn off the heat. The side that you just flipped too will cook in no time. Put in your filling on one half, fold it over and then I'd take the pan from the heat, put a lid on it and let it sit just for a minute. Serve it up and enjoy.

I've watched many people make an omelette. I think the best omelette I've ever had was made by a 15 year old kid at a mom and pop restaurant. Obviously this kid has been making them for most his life. HA!

He did the two pan approach. I like this one a lot. Especially if you're making an omelette with veggies in it. You'll want to cook them down a little bit at least. In one pan, he seared up some ham, onions, mushrooms and peppers. He cooked the eggs in another pan with butter. He flipped the egg, put in the filling with cheese, folded it, served it up and it was perfect!

Again, depending on what you put in your omelette, you can either try this two pan thing, or just put the filling in just before you flip it. Ingredients I might use for the one pan approach. Smoked salmon, cream cheese, shredded cheese, or anything that you don't need to cook before the eggs go in. Two pan approach might mean you're going to put in onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, bacon or ham, stuff like that.

Remember. Making an omelette is an art unto itself. Don't be discouraged when your first one turns out to be scrambled eggs with STUFF in them.

Enjoy!

ck

Lets cook!

I love to cook. I think it all started when I was a kid. Most of the time watching my mom cook. Rarely did she use a recipe. It was all, "pinch of this, dash of that" She was always so confident that it was going to taste great and be perfect.

When I was in 6th grade I took Home Ec class. When we cooked in class, everything had a recipe. Yes it was bizarre to me, but we did it. Even making hamburgers, our teacher made us follow the recipe.

Fast forward several years. I'm grown up now, have a career as a musician and sometimes I wonder what it would be like to change careers and become a full time chef. I like cooking THAT much!

After watching the movie Julie & Julia, it inspired me to start writing. I'm no Bobby Flay or Mario Batalli, but I can cook more than just a pot of spaghetti or pot of chili. This blog if you will, can be for the guy that wants to cook for his family. Make a nice meal without being laughed at by his kids or wife.

I'm sure you've seen the scenario where the mom is out of town for a couple of days, and dad has to cook for the kids all weekend. The kids either go on a fast, or they gain 12 lbs from all the take out they eat.

I hope this sparks some interest in us "regular guys", to cook something nice for your family. Nothing fancy... well... maybe a few fancy dishes thrown in when the kids are out of the house and you want to impress your best girl. ;)

Being a musician I use the creative part of my brain. Cooking is very much an artsy thing. So it lines up with my whole being anyway. So lets get in the kitchen and make it good!