TaNos

Sadly, fish tacos were not had.

Baked stuffed lobster was instead, however my seafood stuffing still needs work, to be continued at a later date...

Thanksgiving Cheesecakes!

Not one, but two cheesecakes for Thanksgiving! Both recipes came from Junior's Cheesecake Cookbook. It's a more complex recipe then I usually do (water bath, sponge cake as opposed to graham cracker) but both cakes came out great, very rich but the perfect cap to some turkey and stuffing.

First up was the white chocolate and raspberry:


And secondly, rocky road:


All in all I'm happy, and this is a great cookbook if you like to make cheesecake. There are dozens or different kinds in combination I'd never considered.

Fish tacos tonight, will report back if it's tolerable.

Sushi!

Well I didn't make this (obviously) but it was too good not to share and it's been awhile since I posted. The sushi was from Yokohama of New Milford, CT (definitely the best sushi in the greater Danbury area). The front container is blackened tuna sashimi. The back container has two rolls, one I think was dynamite roll and the other was gozilla, probably, something like that. On the right is spicy/crunchy crab on the inside with eel on top and on the left is spicy/crunchy crab on top and salmon inside. We also had some crispy chicken maki, which was chicken stuffed with pepper, asparagus, mushrooms and crabs then fried. First time I had tried this one and it was great, spicy and great flavor. There was also a shrimp tempura roll in the mix but that didn't make the photo either.

Oh and the wine is Eidosela Albarino, which was also great, but I'm far from a wine connoisseur.



It's been awhile since I really cooked, but the holiday's are coming and I've been tasked with desserts, so stay tuned.

Shrimp, Bread, Beef

So a few random ones for you today. First, I decided on a light dinner last night. So some lemon garlic shrimp salad was perfect, I guess this is more along the lines of everyday boring than a cheesecake, but it was tasty. This was enough shrimp for two salads.
-1/2 pound of shrimp
-2 tablespoons of butter
-2 teaspoons of lemon juice
-1 teaspoon of crushed garlic

I don't like a lot of veggie in my salad, get over it.

Next, I've been in a bread making mood/mode lately (note to Santa, bread machine please). This week I tried some cinnamon bread, because even bread shouldn't be healthy. I used this recipe. I didn't use the raisins because I don't like how they taste in bread (and because that would make it slightly healthier). If you attempt this, please note it makes 3 loaves of bread! If you are like me, you only have one bread pan, and you've suddenly got a counter full of dough and aren't sure what you've got yourself into. For the record, after letting all three rise for one hour, I froze one, put the second in the oven and left the third out and put it in the oven when the first came out. The second cooked loaf was denser then the first but otherwise no big deal. Haven't attempted the frozen loaf yet, so I don't know how that turned out. This probably looks slightly better than it tastes, but heat it up and throw some butter on and it makes an amazing breakfast.




Lastly, I made some amaaaaaazing chili for dinner tonight. This was very easy to make and tasted great. Recipe for this one is here. At this point you're saying the same thing I was when I first read the recipe, "mmmmmmmm bacon", now you know why I made it. By the time it was done the stew meat was falling apart, so I pulled it apart and made nachos out of it, greatest idea of the day. The evolution of my nachos:







That's all for now. I promised Lily we would make applesauce donuts, so those should be up soon.

Phoenix (errr Scottsdale) Eats

Not sure anyone cares but I did have some good meals today in Scottsdale.


That there would be short rib BLT with some tasty fries. Short ribs? Bacon? Yes!


And this here would be scallops with pear, fried green tomatoes, endive wrapped in prosciutto and something tasty called cavalo nero (waiter described it as collard greens made from kale).

It was all very good, I forgot to get a photo of dessert, that was amazing.... strawberry cheesecake shot. Maybe I'll grab another one before I go... you know just so I can share.

Salmon with Pear and Cherry Chutney

One time at this amazing restaurant I had salmon with a pear and cranberry chutney. It was incredible. I have always wanted to recreate it, but haven't ever found a recipe for it and didn't feel like guessing, today I did. Well not totally, I looked into some other chutney recipes and worked from there. There was also a last minute panic at the grocery store when they had no frozen cranberries (thinking back, that's really not that awkward). So here's how I did it:
-2 1/2 bartlett pears, peeled, cored and sliced
-1 bag (12 oz or so) of frozen cranberries cherries
-1 cup of sugar
-1 cup of water
-1/2 cup of cider vinegar
Simmer everything in a pot for about 30-35 minutes. Drain and press. Refrigerate until needed.
Now my one fault was not doing much with the salmon. I used some olive oil, salt and pepper and threw it in the oven. This made for a flavorful chutney and a bland piece of fish. So in the future, figure out a better way to prepare the fish, keep the chutney as is. And here you have it:

The side dish are green beans made from this recipe, and they were phenomenal.

I also decided to make a banana bread for breakfast tomorrow using this recipe. I have yet to taste it but it smells great and was fun and easy to make. Looks pretty good too, don't you agree?


Sorry, no cheesecake this week. I'll be in Arizona next week (perhaps I'll share anything good I have there), so you'll have to wait on the caramel apple cheesecake for a couple more weeks.

Cake Cakes!

Today was my first cooking adventure with my 2 1/2 year old, Lily. She requested some cup cakes (or as she calls them cake cakes), and being the motivating father I am, I told her if she wanted them she could make them herself. No special recipe here, just some boxed cake mix, eggs, oil, water and frosting.... oh and sprinkles! As the photos and video shall prove, she really did make them.

Here she is assisting with measurements and mixing:


Here she is scooping the batter into the cups:


Time to strategically apply the sprinkles:


And here's the finished product: