Things I won from Sam the Cooking Guy.

A few years ago, I discovered a cooking show on Discovery Health (pre-Oprah) called Just Cook This! The guy was Sam, and his food was focused on simplicity with big flavor, and a nod towards healthy eating. He also cooked in his own kitchen in his own home, with one camera man. It was unconventional, unique, and totally relatable. He coined himself Sam the Cooking Guy, and after the show ended I moved on and didn't hear much about Sam anymore.

Fast forward to 2 months ago, I thought of Just Cook This! and turned to good old Google. Low and behold, I found out he had been doing a Livecast from his home for at least a year!  By the time I caught up with him, the Livecast had ended, but he still makes pre-recorded shows. I ate it up, and became a renewed fan quickly.

In one episode, Sam offered a We Olive giveaway. The contestant had to leave a review and rating on iTunes, and winners would be selected randomly to receive We Olive items. I decided to participate and after a week of anticipation, I was announced the first winner! I did a dance around my living room, and received the items a week later. So here they are, and here's what I did with 'em.

Fancy, right?

These two items are very much a yin and yang dynamic for me, since balsamic can easily overpower, but I am kind of crazy about anything lemon. For my first experiment, I wanted to let these guys shine on otherwise blank slates. So I decided to use the Lemon Olive Oil as a base for a salad dressing, and the Balsamic would go towards Balsamic Roasted Red Potatoes.

I've never made Balsamic potatoes before, so I followed a recipe merely as a guide. First, I quartered (or more) about 6 red potatoes and put them into a baking dish. Next, I made a basic dressing for the potatoes which consisted of olive oil, salt. pepper, green onion, 2 cloves of finely minced garlic, and some italian seasoning.

Into the potatoes, tossed around. (and my Siamese, Frida, trying to get in on that action.)

The recipe said to add more salt and the balsamic at the very end of the cooking process, so into a 400 degree oven they went, as I moved on to my salad.

I was going to do a review on these, but well...it's lettuce. There isn't a lot to say about these, except I think it's a cool way to offer different kinds of lettuce in one package.

There are 4 sections with individual..lettuces in each one! So I did a bunch of chopping and came up with this:

I added some baby spinach, chopped carrots, grape tomato, cucumbers and yes green onions. I sprinkled some walnuts on top, because I like them on my salads.

I've been experimenting lately with making my own salad dressings. The concept of making them is easy, but I've found that perfecting them is quite difficult. I decided that I wanted to use my Lemon Olive Oil as a base.

2 cloves of minced garlic waited patiently for the oil to join it, along with some salt and pepper. Since I'm incapable of leaving things be, I had to add one of my favorite condiments I add to almost anything. (except maybe ice cream.)

I whisk everything together with a fork to emulsify it a bit, and tasted it. You must taste your dressing as you make it, as ratios are key here. I always think of oil based dressings the same way I think of stir fry sauce, in that they should taste quite strong to your palette on their own. This way, when the food absorbs it, it won't come out bland. Thus far, it needed something, so I had to add another staple of mine.

Just a splash. I didn't even use up the little amount that was left in the bottle. You could add almost any vinegar to a dressing if you want to make it zippy. You could add sugar. You could add almost anything to make a tasty vinaigrette. I like to add lots of black pepper, or even cayenne for heat. I chose not to use balsamic since I wanted to taste them on their own, in separate dishes.

(money shot + I may or may not have added grated parmesan to my salad along the way. :-o )

One thing I've found with oil based dressings is to really use a light hand with them. They aren't like bottled vinaigrettes, and just a little bit of oil will really coat your salad well.

Now, onto the Balsamic.

(the We Olive spout is really cool!)

I took my potatoes out, and admittedly really had no idea how much balsamic to use. I measured out a little less than 1/4 cup...then used 1/2 of that. I tossed the potatoes with it and some salt, and then smelled it to try and gauge if it needed more. The bite of the vinegar scent tingled a bit, but I added a splash more, tossed again and popped them back in for 10 more minutes.

I also added more green onions, and few shakes of parsley.

10 minutes later, they were sizzling and soft. I was ready to try it out.

Roasted potatoes are pretty much never bad. These were a fine, basic potato roast, but the balsamic was lacking. Good thing you can always add more instead of taking away, so I even ended up adding a few more splashes to the bowl.

Overall, I found the lemon oil to be lovely. There's a good harmony between the light and freshness of the lemon, and the earthy, fruity flavor of a good quality olive oil. I can see myself using it for many things, such as a chicken and veggie roast (potatoes...carrots....red peppers....chicken thighs!), as a lemon sauce for pasta, a finishing oil on a shrimp saute...!

The balsamic is on the sweet side, so I didn't care for it as much with potatoes. I like my potatoes to be garlicy and salty, spicy and maybe a little lemony. I will have to experiment more with the balsamic to find more uses for it. Any ideas?

Thank you so much to Sam and Max for these lovely little gifts. It made my foodie heart soar, and my palette too.

Check out Sam here! He has tons of recipes that you could make, and I promise you will end up loving at least one of them.

Maria's Cafe: South Minneapolis

Mr. C and I were awake one early Wednesday morning, and decided that our hunger took precedence over our laziness. When I asked for ideas of where we should eat breakfast, I got the fastest, most decisive answer from Mr. C I have ever received; Maria's Cafe. I will admit I was skeptical at first, uneasy being out of my comfort zone. But I offered my welcome to his swift decision in the form of restraint, and off we went.

Maria's is a reticent little cafe in South Minneapolis, in the Phillips Neighborhood, and is of Colombian origin. Not as flat as a greasy spoon, not especially resplendent, but welcome and thoughtful. Many people report it being quite full most the time, but Mr. C and I had our choice of seating in the moderate, carpeted dining room. Maria's is most famous for their corn pancakes (Cachapas Venezolanas, which the optional addition of Cotija cheese), which Mr. C ordered 2 of without hesitation. I opted for the breakfast of 2 fried eggs, american fries, and wild rice toast.!

The service was fine, pretty standard for a cafe. The coffee kept coming, and the server was friendly. Our food came out in appropriate time.

Cachapas Venezolanas

At first, I wasn't sure if these would live up to the hype. And then I took a bite. At first I saw a pancake, so I kinda-sorta expected the sweet and starchy pancake flavor. But take away the traditional pancake sweet, add the natural sweetness of corn, combine with savory butter on top, and you have yourself an almost perfect unity of flavors. The total consummation happens with little bits of yellow corn sprinkled throughout. If you wanted to take it over the edge, you can add syrup. In my summation, this simple pancake is almost the perfect food.

Two Eggs, Wild Rice Toast, and American Fries

I can't think of anything else to say about this, besides that it is an absolute breakfast. Little chewy flecks of wild rice add a very nice texture to the toast, the eggs were perfectly cooked, and the american fries were crispy and hot.

Overall, I was very impressed with Maria's Cafe. They offer simple, yet thoughtful food. I am curious to try the South African burger and the plantain pancakes..!









  

Review: Priano Frozen Stuffed Shells (from Aldi's)

Pros:
Easy
Cheap
Tasty
Low fat/low cal per serving size

Cons:
For it being a frozen item costing $1.99, None.

On a recent food adventure, I decided to re-visit Aldi's. Aldi's is a chain that focuses on being budget friendly. The structure doesn't follow your typical name brand/store brand that you see in many grocery stores. Aldi's purchases products by partnering with different select brands. This helps them build relationships and purchasing power to keep retail prices lower. Also, they sell grocery bags for 10 cents a apiece. If you don't want to buy one, you have to bring your own bags. I personally find this beneficial, since I accumulate a lot of bags from shopping at other places that end up sitting around my house, eventually becoming cat toys. Aldi's also does not employ cart personnel. Carts are chained together, offering a quarter-slot mechanism that releases the end cart when the quarter is inserted. Some people get wound up about having to use a quarter to get a cart, but you get your quarter back when you return it. Pretty clever, and very telling on how fiercely people feel about twenty five cents..!

As a person who has a pretty limited budget for spending overall, one thing I almost never do is buy myself packaged, frozen foods. The only freezer items I buy are the occasional frozen pizza, some frozen veggies (peas!), and some frozen dinners for work. So when I saw these for only $1.99, I snatched them up immediately!

They come 8 to the bag, with a whopping 170 calories and 4.5 grams of fat for 2 shells. I had a friend come over to test them out on an icy cold MN evening.

I decided to keep the preparation simple with these in order to focus on the shells themselves. There are 2 methods of cooking these, either baking or in the microwave. My guest provided a jar of tomato sauce, and a tomato. So we decided to simply place some tomato on top, layer the bottom of the baking dish wiith sauce, and sprinkle a boatload of shredded parmesan cheese on top (also courtesy of my lovely guest, who loves cheese and salt more than me.) The only extra addition was some basil sprinkled on top.

The instructions say to bake for 40-50 min, covered loosely in foil. I had no foil, so I just decided to cook it for 40 min with the dish cover on, then uncover and cook for 10 min. I did all that, and this happened.

RIGHT?!

We each grabbed a few shells and went to town. I was pleasantly surprised at the abundancy of the cheese,and the toothiness to the pasta. The baking process cooked them nicely, and even one shell was satisfying. The jarred pasta sauce added an average tomato sauce flavor to them, as pasta sauces tend to do when not doctored up with something or another. The tomatoes on top were the pleasant surprise. Tangy, soft tomatoes that melt in your mouth along with all the creamy ricotta cheese. Pretty good.

The only thing I would do different next time (because there will be a next time where I buy like 3 bags of these) would be to pair them with a more flavorful sauce.  Traditionally, shells are served with tomato sauce. But I could see a light pesto, or even an olive oil/garlic/mushroom sauce being added to these towards the end of the baking process.

I would also eat them off a plate, with a fork and knife, rather than a bowl with just a fork. Like a civilized person.

The only possible drawback about these vs. making them on your own is that you could make many different variations of cheese stuffing. I think Ricotta + goat cheese, blended with garlic and basil would be awesome. So while the creativity aspect is absent, as with many frozen items, the quality is there regardless.

Buy some!

  

http://www.aldi.us/index_ENU_HTML.htm

February Favorites!

I got this idea (which may or may not have come from a certain guilty pleasure of mine) to start doing a favorites blog. Do you have food or kitchen related items that you swear by? I do! Here are my 5 favorites that I would like to highlight for this month.

1. Amore Tomato Paste

This was introduced to me by a teacher of a cooking class I took a few years ago. I've never been fond of canned tomato paste. I think most recipes that call for it, can do without it. Apparently someone else agreed once upon a time, and invented tomato paste in a tube. Since it's pretty concentrated, I use 1/4 or 1/2 a tube at a time when making spaghetti sauces, right at the end of the cooking process. It adds a little depth and texture, without being pasty and tinny like the canned stuff. The coolest thing is that it's cheap. The 2nd coolest thing about it is that it comes in different varieties, such as pesto paste and sun-dried tomato paste. Go buy some!

http://www.amorebrand.com/products

2. Rice Vinegar

Sure you can get a big plastic tub of white vinegar for like a buck. Which is good if you use it for different things, such as cleaning. I like to use rice vinegar mainly for vinaigrettes, stir fry sauce, and chicken adobo, so a small bottle will last me awhile. It's a little sweeter than regular vinegar, and adds a sweet zip to almost anything. This time I have the Kikkoman brand, but I'm assuming most of them are pretty much the same.

3. Bamboo Spoons

This was another cooking class discovery. I can't imagine why any cook/foodie/whatever who knows about these would use regular wooden spoons. They're cheap, they're lightweight, but sturdy. They clean up with no effort, and will probably last me forever  I've had these for around 2 years, and have put them to good use. These were a gift to me, but they were around $2 apiece! I use them for everything, even for very hot stir frying.

4. Wasabi Peas

Once upon a time, I was sorely close minded about wasabi. Then I discovered sushi, and wasabi wasn't too far behind. This is probably my favorite snack for 3 reasons: they're crunchy, you can control how hot you want them by focusing them to either the tip or the back of your tongue, and because well, I love peas. Horseradish, I'm not sold on yet. Which may come off as an insult to most Minnesotans, but c'mon! Minnesota, the land where ketchup is too spicy, but horseradish is pretty much worshipped. You can't be trusted!

5. Velveeta (or any cheese sauce brand. Aldi's has a good one) Mac and Cheese

I'm not above it. (and you can add so many things to it. Mac and cheese BENDER.)

Do you have favorites?