Hey Mambo, Mambo Ital-Poblano?

     A few weeks ago, when I had a plethora of jalapeno peppers, I was taking suggestions.  One was to stuff them.  Um, too much work for something so small!  However, I do like a good stuffed chili pepper.  Back in July, I went to Pensacola with Matt & some friends to go sailing.  We took the concierge restaurant suggestion... The Fish House.  (A few days ago, I noticed it was mentioned in Wine Spectator for their not-so-expensive yet impressive wine collection... mine was tasty!)  Anywhoo, I ordered the seafood stuffed relleno... and was pleasantly surprised initially.  Then I realized that, overpowering my crab, shrimp, and crawfish, was a boatload of corn.  Really?  Way to yucky it up.  I'm all about corn, but not an entire cob of it in that kind of a dish.  I told the waiter it was delicious, but could use less (or no) corn.  He seemed to brush me off... (Gosh?  Doesn't he know who I am?  My 6 followers do!)
     Anyway, a few weeks later I ate at a Mexican Restaurant nearby... Juan Tequilas.  Love the place.  Good food, beachfront, & a 25% military discount... and karaoke Thursday nights (and by nights I mean WHILE you eat your dinner...)  One thing I did not love was their stuffed relleno.  I found myself peeling off a soggy omelettey batter.  I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands... even if I didn't have a recipe.  (not a big recipe fan, if you've realized I have never posted one, it's because I don't use them often... how I describe it is kind of what I do...)

     I got some poblano peppers, some crab claw meat, and shrimp.  Sauteed the shrimp, threw it in with the crab claw meat, an egg, and hmmmm.  Binding.  Ah!  I had some leftover organic polenta in the fridge.  I tossed it into the food processor to make it into crumbles, and added it to the mix.  Spiced it up a little, and  stuffed me some poblanos.  Popped 'em in the oven...

     I made a spicy cheesy sauce topping with some added queso and some anaheim peppers, and roasted some tomatoes to add to the plate.  It really was as awesome as it looked.

I'm a Ribeye Girl

     You can keep your hoity toity teeny weeny filet.  I'd take a melt-in-your-mouth marbled hunk o' ribeye anyday.  And last Tuesday was one of those days.
     I was watching FoodNetwork, and just like everyday, I wanted what I saw.  Rach was whipping up a garlic rosemary strip steak topped with an arugula and heirloom tomato summer salad, sided by a mayo-less (aka way-to-my-heart) potato salad fra-diavolo.  We'd been eating quite a bit of seafood lately (love the coast!), so a little red meat was just what the doctor (or PA) ordered.

     I chose to do it with ribeyes.  Because they're awesome.  And awesome they were.  I tried her technique of rubbing garlic directly onto, and all over, the steak, and then coating them in olive oil and fresh rosemary, sea salt, and pepper... lots of delicious flavors in this steak.  Topping it off with an organic baby arugula and farmer's market cherry tomato salad in a lemon/oil dressing was surprisingly good... and I am particular about what I let near my steak, (because if you ruin my steak, watch your back.)  And I thought it was a good combo of flavors.  Matt agreed.  He, however, prefers a mayo-based potato salad.  And, my critique for Rach, the "fra diavolo" potatoes weren't as spicy as she made them sound... but still not bad, seeing as though I also don't really like celery, and it was pretty well-hidden in the recipe.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

     This week I took my first cooking class, Knife Skills 101.  I became a member of the Mary C. O'Keefe Cultural Center in Ocean Springs, MS, (http://www.themaryc.org/) and signed up for some cooking classes.  I figured I should take knife skills, both to learn the correct knives to use for specific things, and how to hold them so I don't cut myself, (I am a huge clutz), and how to do that super fast chop that you see on The Food Network.  I surprised myself at how well I did!  No band-aids, and I totally beat the other lady in boning my chicken... take that great grandma!  (she became a great grandma that day, actually)...
     While we were learning how to slice & dice, one of the cooks was preparing us a meal out of our practice food.  We ended up with a bacon-wrapped chicken breast stuffed with boursin cheese, in a roasted tomato & garlic sauce.  We had a side of parmesan fries from learning how to batonnet, and then a citrus vinaigrette salad made from sectioning an orange, and slicing up purple onion and fennel.  I scarfed mine down.  Everyone else kind of ate most of it... I wanted to steal from their plates, I was so hungry and it was so good!

     I decided to make it for dinner last night, but with a twist... I still have an inordinate amount of jalapenos in our fridge, so I decided to stuff the chicken with cream cheese & jalapenos instead of the boursin (also because our commissary didn't have boursin).  I also added portabello mushrooms to the sauce, and served it over homemade organic parmesan risotto, topped with roasted garlic parmesan asparagus.  I made a fresh spinach chiffonade to top it off, but forgot to add it in my hunger/excitement!

Pad Thai

     I had some pork that I wanted to make, so I goog'd pork recipes.  I found one for Paula Deen's Pad Thai, checked out the ingredients, and realized I already have most of them... sweet!  (We have kind of alot of Asian non-perishables from my Master Chef excursion).  Before making it, however, I read the reviews, and some people were saying to steer clear of this one, so I found another one on a Thai website called ThaiTable.com.  So, I did another combo move.  I used PD's recipe in regards to the pork, and the legit Thai recipe when it came to the rest, except that I found the noodles weren't ready after a 10 minute soak, so PD may have that one right...  In order to expedite, I heated them for just about 3 minutes carefully, over the stove and they turned out perfect!  The other modification involved the tamarind.  Yo no tengo.  Thai Table said to use a white vinegar substitute.  I used rice vinegar.  More Asian that way, I think.

     After burning the first batch of peanuts, it all worked out well. 

Unfortunately, it was ready and done far ahead of Matt getting home, but I kept it in the wok large pan that I have, and just heated it back up.  Once again, he used the words "restaurant good" in it's description.  I forgot to throw the raw bean sprouts and sesame seeds on top for the photo (sesame seeds were my own little addition). 

I also steamed up some edamame and threw some sea salt on top.  I ate about 93% of the edamame... I think Matt had like 5 of them.  Another repeat meal!

Chim-chiminy Chim-chiminy Chimichurri Charoo!

     A few weeks ago, I went to the AAPA conference got a lot of free delicious meals in Atlanta.  I went with some PA school friends, Ashley & Ashlee (aka Milli), which worked out to my benefit because I got to finish their meals after I ate mine.  (Big Clean Plate(s) Club week for me).  On our last night there, we ate at a refurbished midtown warehouse-turned-swanky restaurant called Two Urban Licks www.twourbanlicks.com, which was reccommended to us by our fellow PA conferencegoers drunk hotel pool friends who never made it to a single conference lecture.  (If you take a cab there and wonder if you are about to be kidnapped by the cabby or disposed of in some abandoned warehouse, you're in the right place.  Let's hope.)  I ordered the monkfish and a side of gouda grits and hot peppers.  Let me tell you, the gouda grits were very gooda grits.  The Ash's both ordered the beef tenderloin in a chimichurri sauce (minus the chimichurri sauce for Milli, who likes to know exactly what she's in for).  After I finished my mediocre fish and exceptional sides, it was onto my nightly ritual of finishing everyone else's dish too.  (By the end of the trip, my food baby was in it's third trimester).  Anyway, it was my first chimichurri experience, and a delicious one at that!  I immediately picked up on the garlic and cilantro in the sauce, both of which I can't get enough of!  (My one complaint was that I wish the tenderloin had been sliced a bit smaller, because it was kind of difficult to chew).

     Well, in a passionate burst of food talk this 4th of July weekend, (my favorite type of passionate bursts/talks), I asked Matt if he'd ever had chimichurri, and decided that I wanted some.  STAT.  (It doesn't help that I watch the food network every day and CRAVE red meat when I do...)  Well last night I made just that.  An Argentenian-style beef tenderloin topped with a homemade three-herb chimichurri over organic? brown? basmati rice.  (I got it at whole foods... not much description.) 

     I found several recipes for both the chimichurri and the beef itself.  So I took a little from here, a little from there, and did my own rendition of the dish.  The three fresh herbs in the chimichurri were parsley, cilantro, and mint. 

I had just gone to a farmer's market yesterday morning and bought some fresh peppers, so I added one white pepper too.  (One of the recipes I saw included red pepper, and white is similar, but a bit sweeter.) 

     I cubed the tenderloin and skewered it on the grill, after coating it in a spice rub for several hours (only because it took Matty that long to get home from work!). 

And I luckily did not burn the house down making the rice, even though I forgot about it and left to take Marley to the lake (which we sprinted back from when I realized what I'd done...)  The nice thing about the dish was that I could make the sauce ahead of time, and not right when it needed to be served.  (And I have leftovers in the freezer that will probably last a long time!)  When Matt came home, I grilled the beef to about a medium-rare, plated it up with some chimichurri sauce, and served it over the rice.  He actually said, "this is good... like, restaurant good... was it easy to make?"  (As in, would I mind making it more often...)  I definitely don't!  I can't wait to finish it for lunch!

Back in the Saddle... Tortilla-Crusted Fish Tacos!

     Welcome back me!  I took a pretty long hiatus, during which time we moved to Gulfport, Mississippi, and now that I am sans my ER job again, I am back in the dinner-making saddle.  (Though I must say, the hospital cafeteria burgers at PCRMC rank among some of the top burgers I've ever eaten... just probably not good for you three shifts in a row...)

     So when I think of fish tacos, I get frustrated.  They look and sound so delish, but I detest mayonnaise oh so much, and usually they come with some sort of mayo/aioli/tartar sauce type of thing.  So I order the shrimp.  Well enough is enough!  I want to enjoy some fish tacos too!  So I decided to concoct my own...

     I decided on tilapia, and seasoned it with a mix of things... salt, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, dill weed, lemon pepper, lime juice, butter... and cooked it up.  I made my Tara's signature salsa (and, by the way, Pampered Chef will be getting a call... my fave scissors rusted and they're only a few months old!)  as a pico de gallo, and chopped up some Romaine lettuce.  Big deal so far, right?  Well.  I still needed a sauce.  What I did was make a mango/jalapeno guacamole, and "sauced" out the avocado with some lime juice, a bit of sour cream, and a touch of olive oil.  I also added some fresh cilantro, scallions, some cayenne pepper, and I think a smidge of lemon pepper and salt.  Didn't really write it down as I made it all up.  I left a little bit of the fresh diced mango and avocado to add to the tacos.  Then I grated up some Monterey Jack & Jalapeno cheese, and sprinkled some fresh lime zest on the cheese and guac.  Add to some flour tortillas or even some tortilla chips, and voila!  Mayo-less fish tacos!

     I can't wait to eat this!!  In the meantime,  I was so wrapped up in drooling over the anticipated deliciousness of this meal that I didn't realize I locked my phone in the car until I wanted to take a pic of the plate.  I missed Matt's phone call, and it was probably to tell me he'll be home late.  Sigh.  I want to eat them now!!  YAY he just pulled in as I wrote that!!

     It was delicious!!  Matt loved it too!  I threw some of the leftover pico & guac in a burrito with his similarly spiced scrambled egg breakfast!  And the rest will be for chips, or a quick whip up of some more tilapia!  Ayeayeayeaye!

..............So I posted this because I thought I was happy with this recipe.  I went on a bikeride today and got caught in a storm by the beach for a good hour, and all I could think about was fried food.  I know, weird.  But I got home and showered off and it dawned on me that I should make a tortilla crust for the tilapia.  So I got out some stale tortillas that moved with us, (because I have non-stale ones too, so I might as well use the stale ones, right?) and my mortar and pestle, and made some tortilla flakes.  I threw the spices I'd used into the egg mix, coated the fish, rolled it in the tortilla crust, and fried it up in a pan.  Result: even more deliciousness.  More texture than before.  Probably less healthy, but come on.  It's a pretty healthy meal overall...  Take a look at it's deliciousness...

Take a closer look...

Yeah.  It was really good.

A Pampered Chef, Indeed

     Not too long ago, Matt & I were invited to and attended a Pampered Chef party at a friend's house.  Before we even got there I knew what we'd be cordially checking-out with... the double-bladed salad scissors.  (This photo doesn't do the double-blade justice).  This past summer, I was staying with our friends Tara & Rob, and as Tara was partaking in her fantasy football draft, she was also making homemade salsa using these babies.  I was immediately hooked, and couldn't wait to make her salsa on my own.

     Now, I think Matt is somewhat sick of homemade salsa, but it seems to be a crowd-pleaser, and you can make it as hot-or-not as you want.  This batch below was for a bachelorette party pre-game this past Friday.  Sadly, it was the last salsa this cute fiesta-pepper bowl will ever hold... I destroyed it after clean-up the next day (ok night... when I made it off the couch...)