French Toast

I made Alton Brown’s french toast for breakfast this morning. I am sorry that I did, for I have ruined all other french toast for my family.

I did tweak the recipe by adding a 1/4 tsp cinnamon and about 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. I used a loaf of what was labeled Country Loaf from Companion. I purchased the loaf on Wednesday and let it sit until Saturday. It was perfectly stale and fit for purpose.  In addition I baked the bacon. One package on my pizza pan (pan covered in foil) into a cold oven set to 400 F. 25 minutes later and it was perfect.

NOM NOM NOM NOM

Alton Brown French Toast and Baked Bacon

How good was it? I had to make an extra half batch to get everyone satiated.

January 30th, 2010 | Category: Food and Drink | Comments are closed

Menus

Christmas Eve Dinner
Appetizer
Baked Brie

Dinner
Baked Ham
Butter Nut Squash
Asparagus
Crescent Rolls

Desert
Baklava

Beverages
Milk
Iced Tea
Schlafly Christmas Ale
Sierra Nevada Celebration
Boulevard Nut Cracker
Prosecco

Christmas Dinner
Appetizer
Mushroom Puff Pastry Turnovers

Dinner
Corn Casserole
Green Bean Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Horseradish Sauce
Yorkshire Pudding
Prime Rib Roast * changed back to use the old recipe

Desert
Pumpkin Pie
Cheese Cake TBD

Beverages
Milk
Iced Tea
Ommegang Hennipen
Trader Joe’s Vintage 2009 Ale (hey, it’s brewed by Unibroue and is $4.99 for 750ML so back off. seriously go buy some and cellar it, I am)
Avalon Cabernet Sauvignon

December 21st, 2009 | Category: Beef, Food and Drink | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)

Blueberry Pie

I have been spending some time with cheap, in season blueberries.  I have been eating them raw, making pie, making muffins, putting them in and on pancakes, waffles, ice cream.  The blueberry has long been my favorite fruit.  Here is a pie recipe that I have been working on. I was inspired by this recipe, but it didn't quite cut it for me.

  • 3/4 cup white sugar for 4 cups blueberries, add 1/8 cup if you go to 5 cup BB.
  •  1 TBS cornstarch for each cup BB. Plus 1 tbs if you use a full cover in lieu of lattice top.
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt for every 2 cups BB
  •  1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon for every cup BB
  •   5+ cups fresh blueberries
  • 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie. I use two Pillsbury refrigerated crusts (1 package). Make sure its fresh, only buy what you need at the time, this doesn't keep well. (My preferred pie pan is a 9.5 inch glass)
  • 1 tablespoon butter (or a bit more)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
  2. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cinnamon, (i use a sifter a couple of times to combine) and dump over blueberries. To combine dry mix a bb's, pour the mixture from bowl to bowl until all BB's are evenly coated.
  3. Line pie dish with one pie crust. Pour berry mixture into the crust and scrape the remaining goop out of your bowls onto the berries.
  4. Dot berries with butter.
  5. Cut remaining pastry into 1/2 – 3/4 inch wide strips, and make lattice top. Crimp and flute edges.(or cover with crust and add vents).
  6. Bake pie on middle shelf of oven for about 50 minutes covered loosely with foil
  7. Remove foil and cook until crust is brown and pie is bubbling throughout, about another 10-15 minutes.
July 20th, 2009 | Category: Food and Drink | Comments are closed

Lifehacker=handhacker

Not the best tutorial I have ever seen on this topic. First, you want a FILLET knife. The hatchet that guy is using works, but if you are cleaning fish repetitively, get the right tool for the job. If you like cool knives, get one like mine here. Also pick up this bad boy while you’re at it.

The fillet knife needs to be flexible, not rigid and strong. Sharp and flexible. A good flexible blade lets you feel the bones easily. A thinner blade lets you use a little finesse.

The overall technique is good, but I see a couple of critical errors.

0:24 – you don’t need to gut your fish. If its live, fillet it without gutting. If its dead it prolly should have been gutten already. If you want to use the remainder for stock, gut later. If you bought it at the market its probably gutted and clean. You do not want to rupture the intestines which you can do gutting. Don’t do it filleting either. The bile is gross and makes the meat spoiled, IMO.

1:27 Uhm, yeah, do that only if your health insurance is paid. That guy is going to cut his thumb off. You make the cut that he makes at 0:32 and holding onto the head with your left hand turn the knife to the tail. I like to make the cut that he makes at 0:32, separate the majority of the fillet from the back/spine and come back and cut from the incision made at 0:32 toward the tail with my left hand holding the head. Seriously, that is a serious cut he’s making at 1:27 towards his hand and he is going fuck up some day and slice himself. Also, if you do it my way with a proper fillet knife, you leave the ribs on the carcass.

In summary, wrong knife, good overall technique, but be careful not to cut your thumb off. Maybe I’ll shoot a video when I’m at the lake this summer, cause this is some low rent instruction. But there are several videos with good technique on youtube.

Also, if you have a fillet knife, a good one, you can easily skin the fillet if you desire. We like to batter and fry or batter and bake fillets, making skin removal a requirement.

Lifehacker – How to Filet a Fish Like a Pro – How To

We asked a chef to show us how to filet a fish, and we filmed it for good measure.

June 11th, 2009 | Category: Food and Drink | Comments are closed

I think I might stop titling my posts a la the blogfather. They are never as witty as I think they are and usually don’t provide much insight into what end up writing about since I usually title a post and then write but ramble into a direction I didn’t intend.

F-train has a great post up. and surprisingly my partner in crime has a post up as well. His post is an homage to a great writer and one of his best friends.

I distinctly remember that winter of 2004. I was at Tool’s for homegames all the time. He was twisting my arm trying to get me to go to Vegas. I had no way to get there. The trip was a mere two weeks before my son was due and I am not that good of a salesman. The wife was fully preggers and completely uncomfortable. She needed a lot of help as she was still working 40-60 hours a week and exhausted doesn’t begin to describe her state of being.

I have only seen her more tired one time. While on her oncology rotation as an intern she was eating dinner on a tv tray while watching tv. She fell alseep sitting up while chewing food. I had to wake her up because I thought she might choke to death.

So anyway, no vegas for me in the December of 2004. Instead I was rewarded with the cutest, most lovable thing known to man. After the holidays homegames continued and I was regaled with tales of final tables, drunken color-blind hippies, solo ragers and of whiplash prop bets/drinking games.

So a a couple of months after the WPBT Inaugural Winter Classic, my friends told me about the plans for the upcoming June event. They gave me a set of instructions. First, start this thing. Next, email this guy. I had a blast. Sure enough, it happened again in December and then again this past July, and now its December all over again.

I can’t keep up this pace.

I probably only have one Vegas trip in me next year. That trip is reserved for a very special episode of Blossom drunken bachelor party. When are you going to set the date for that anyway? My daughter is set to be born around the first of April. That eliminates two trips between April and September. Then, knowing who is invited I am expecting that the party will be at the end of August, beginning of September, making two trips in four months unlikely so December is out. I was optimistic that this bachelor party might mean three vegas trips, but it will really mean just one.

I have retired from the ranks of professional drinkers. I turned that card in officially on New Years Eve 2003. That was the New Year’s party that my friend Troy opened up his bar for all his friends and let me play bartender. Anyone who witnessed the carnage said it was like D-Day for drinkers. I spread the bodies across the floor. On girl laid on her back and puked straight into the air. My wife puked multiple times on the first and second floor. Someone actually made it outside to puke in the gutter. I passed out on a couch and puked all down my front and side.

Troy closed that bar and opened another within days of New Years.

So I might be drunk, but I have not desire to hang with the big dogs. Just like I wouldn’t play heads up with Phil Ivey, I won’t go drink for drink with Al, STB or any of the other pros. I will stand back and laugh as drunken dwarfs make fun of pink shirted cowboys and their bra-less girlfriends. I will also watch out for flying escalators. And douchebags min raising pocket aces.
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The wife flys to Texas today. She has to take her board examination tomorrow morning. She is stressed, I am stressed, the kid is stressed. Its the freaking stress olympics around here. The past couple of months and especially the last two weeks have been long a drawn out. Hopefully her test goes well and I survive Vegas so we can enjoy a holiday/birthday season of joy. The boy turns 2 the day after xmas so we have lots to celebrate.
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I am thinking of preparing beef instead of turkey or ham for holiday dinner. I have never done a roasted tenderloin, but I am looking forward to the challenge. I did a ham last year and the year before. I am tempted to bust out the turkey fryer either way. Yes I am that guy. The one that drinks beer and fries turkeys. It is now December and at no time during the past 12 months did I fire up the charcoal grill. Between the move and other stuff there was never time. Besides, the new house has an electric grill built into the cooktop, so its not like I didn’t grill, I just didn’t do it properly. And no, if you think you are superior because you have a gas grill, you are wrong. Gas grills are for punks.
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December 5th, 2006 | Category: Food and Drink, Gambling | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)