Tapenade

I have a second cousin living in London who counts as one of his multi tasked careers that of being a food writer and many of his favorite foods are those found in French Bistros. In one of his reviews he mentioned Tapenade, an olive based spread usually used on bread as an appetizer. He also mentioned that it could now be bought almost anywhere in the states, unlike when he first encountered it. I mentioned I would give it a try and he said even at Trader Joe's prices it was still more expensive than it needed to be and supplied me with the recipe he uses to serve his guests. Well I started out to find some in a jar first just to find out if I liked it. It is found in almost every grocery store and even in Walmart in various forms. Looking at the labels the ingredients were short some items in his recipe and had a bunch of stuff with long, unpronounceable names which I was sure were not all good for me. And what is the point of trying something a food critic recommends if it isn't close to the same recipe. So to plan B. All of the ingredients were readily available for a total of about 150% of the price of one jar of the commercial brands. The one exception was olives, a can of California black olives was under $1.50 and anything labeled Greek, Kalamata, Calamata or Calamon is over $5.00 for a jar. I decided I could make do with the California olives. The total cost of the ingredients is misleading, one batch of homemade is almost twice the volume found in a jar and most of the ingredients will make more than one batch. I happened to use the entire tin of anchovies but I made first a trial batch and then the double batch. Next time, if I only plan on one batch, I will try using fish sauce, which I always have, to lend the same taste. The capers will stay refrigerated for quite a while. The picture is double batch I made for a dinner party. I made it the night before so the flavors would blend and left it out 3 hours to bring to room temperature before going. My trial batch sucked because I did not get out the recipe and left out some stuff. The double batch turned out great and everybody who tried it liked it. One thing I had going against me was for 12 adults there was an entire table of appetizers plus a 20lb turkey, stuffing, potatoes, potato salad, 6 dozen tamales and I am sure I forgot some stuff. Needless to say not everybody tried the funny looking French stuff. :-) If Amy had screwed up the rest of the food maybe a few more folks would have tried the Tapenade.

Tapenade

8 oz black Greek-style olives
2 anchovies or 4 fillets
1 ½-2 tablespoons capers
1-3 cloves chopped garlic
pinch of cayenne
1 teaspoon basil leaves
3-4 tablespoons olive oil

Reduce all the ingredients except the olive oil to a rough paste in a food processor. Add the oil a little at a time, checking the consistency as you go. It should be homogeneous and spreadable, neither wet nor dry.
The anchovies may be preserved in olive oil, or canned, either with olive oil or salt. If the latter, rinse under running water and remove any salt crystals. Likewise the capers, which may be canned either in vinegar or salt. How much salt you add to the recipe, if any, will be determined by the saltiness of these two ingredients.
Cayenne and garlic to taste. Don’t be shy—some rough Provençal types are really macho about it!
Use extra virgin olive oil, of course; it’s a prominent part of the flavor.

Note: This mixture will improve for at least a week, but it probably won’t be around that long. It needn’t be refrigerated if the weather is cool.

Edit 1/31/16.  I continue to make this quite often to take to parties. More than once, my invitation has been tied to bringing some. If I am also supplying the bread I will try to pick up a small baguette and slice it in 1/2" slices.  Over the years I have replaced the anchovies with a bit of salt, because I know quite a few Vegans and Vegetarians, with no apparent loss of flavor. I use well more than a pinch of cayenne with positive comments. I keep all the ingredients on hand.  The cayenne and French basil come from Penseys and I buy large jars of minced garlic as I also use it for hummus.

Vacation time

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. I worked but will be going to a Christmas get together with friends this evening. As most of you know my whole industry shuts down this time of year. So I am off to Vegas for a few days and will not have access to a computer again until the 31st. Hope you all can find something to do with me not posting during that time. LOL

Scrapple

This is from a recipe that my dad clipped from the News Press in the 60s. It remains one of my favorite breakfast foods. Depending on the serving size it will fed 4 to 8 (only 4 servings in my household). It will freeze, and actually slices best when not quite thawed out.

ingredients:
1 1lb bulk sausage
1 cup cold water
1 cup yellow corn meal
1/2 tsp salt (I use a lot less, like a couple of shakes)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp sage
3 cups boiling water

instructions:
Brown sausage well and drain
combine cold water and dry ingredients
stir slowly into boiling water
continue stirring frequently until thickened
reduce heat and cook another 10 minutes stirring occasionally
mix in sausage
pour into loaf pan
chill overnight
cut into slices (I cut the loaf lengthwise first) and fry until golden brown in a lightly greased skillet. About 15 minutes per side at 375°.

My added notes
I prefer 1/4" slices.
I like it with butter and maple syrup

The Syrup

Of course you didn't think I used bottled syrup? This is what I make.

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 Tb water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp maple extract (or fake stuff if you have to)

I don't really measure any of the ingredients real precise so feel free to alter any of them to your taste.

Bring it slowly to just a simmer and get it off the heat before it foams all over your stove. I keep salad dressing jars around just for this, it refrigerates just like any other syrup and I warm it by placing the jar (LID OFF) in a saucepan of hot water on the stove.




If you will excuse me I think I will go eat now.



edit 11/28/13: A couple of years back I discovered Trader Joe's organic pure maple syrup and have gotten lazy.  I still think homemade tastes better but not by that much.

Sweet Judy brown (?) eyes

I have no idea what color her eyes are. She is a neighbor of mine and we say say hi when we see each other and that is about it. She was one of the folks that got a bag of cookies when I baked them. She did call up to me at Thanksgiving to come over and eat with her family but I was already about finished cooking my dinner so I declined. Christmas eve as her relatives were showing up I was on the patio and she called up she would be over to see me in a few minutes. Well again I got an invite, which I declined as I was going to cook the scrapple and I hardly know her let alone her relatives, but to see I got fed anyway she had a two plate meal and a bottle of wine for me. A veggie/fruit plate with ranch dressing and the other half of that plate was shrimp with cocktail sauce. The dinner plate had a baked chicken thigh, a fresh roll, sliced onions and carrots that were pickled and I tasted vinegar right away and then the hidden heat hit me, I am thinking there were Jalapeños in the pickling jar that got removed to hide the evidence. With the pickled vegetables was finely shredded lettuce. The last item has me baffled, it looked like a chocolate chip cookie so I saved it for last but it was some sort of potato pancake that had a thin filling of some sort of meat in the center. It was really good so I will have to ask her what it was. Anyway, it was much appreciated and I got stuffed and will have to compliment her on her cooking the next time I see her.

Cornbread

Now does this look good or what? Right out of the oven, ready for some butter and maybe a touch of honey.

I got the last one!

OK, so I get excited about small things. Rather than wait until Christmas eve to do last minute groceries I went out last night after work. Because of where I decided to eat I did the all surface streets thing going up 51st to Bell and across on Bell to 83rd. Sure there was traffic on outer Bell but two days before Christmas it should have been a zoo and it wasn't. The right hand lane at each of the mall entrances was only about 8 cars long and moving steadily. After dinner I went to Walmart. The parking lot was about 1/2 full but it didn't seem that busy inside. I had to laugh, one of the shopping "secrets" at Walmart, Kmart or Target for years has been to check out through the garden shop when it is busy. I was over on that side of the store to get toothpaste and propane and the line was 10-12 carts long. In contrast, this store has 6 20 item or less lines and the manager keeps them staffed when needed, there were no more than 3 carts at any of the registers at any time I saw. :-) Anyway there were lots of bare spaces on the shelves and one of the worst aisles hit was the baking aisle. All I could see for shortening was the big 5 pounders and the sticks that look like butter. So I got up on my toes and way in the back, on the top shelf, behind some peanut shortening was one lone 16oz Crisco which is about a years supply for me. To get to it I had to stand on the bottom shelf of the display on my toes. But I got it!

Bill Johnson's Big Apple

7322 W. Bell Rd., Glendale

I have been going to several locations for years for breakfast, I love their chicken fried steak. Last night was my first time for dinner.

I was seated quickly. Server showed up within 3 minutes to take my order. I had my salad about three minutes after that and my burger showed up within 5 minutes of finishing the salad. I would rate that level of service quite good. Restaurant was about 1/3 full on a Tuesday 6-7PM with 2 servers waiting on 8-10 tables. Customers covered all age groups and several tables had 3 generations at them. Because of the many seniors that go in there this location no longer has wood shavings on the floor.

I got the "End of the Trail" burger ($7.79) and it came with a choice of sides (fries, beans, cole slaw....). I chose a salad, I like not having to add a pile of fries to an already big burger. The burger was really good save for a bit too much salt and the meat was med-well instead of medium. Still had stuff running down my arm before I was done. The bun was toasted, which I like. This is one of those huge burgers that is held with two hands (it came with 1/2lb meat, tomatoes, lettuce, purple onion, pickles, grilled onions, bacon, mushrooms, 2 kinds of cheese, bbq sauce)and if you put it down once you start it would most likely fall apart. This is not a place that puts a great deal of emphasis on presentation but for about $2 less than say Red Robin or about $4 less than El Paso for ribs with 2 sides I think it is a good value.

Cheesy rice

I like Risotto. But it takes a lot of work to make unless I want to buy the frozen Trader Joe's version. Nearly as good and much simpler is cheesy rice.

1 cup rice cooked however you usually do.
1 can cream soup. Tomato, celery, broccoli, mushroom (whatever you are in the mood for)
1 hand full shredded cheese, approximately equal to the can of soup.

Add soup and cheese to cooked rice, stir and serve.

I did the tomato version with pork chops, applesauce and steamed cauliflower last night.

The Incredible Hulk

2008, Sci-Fi, Edward Norton, Liv Tyler

From the promos and trailers I was convinced I would not like the movie. I was pretty sure the new version would not live up to the original series. WRONG! 1:54 minutes, no cigarettes, two sips of beer, one restroom break. I was glued to the set.

Stood up

So a bunch of us in the complex have been trash talking each others football teams for a while now. One of the guys comes by Thursday and asked if I wanted to meet up today to have a beer and watch the game. Well I already lost a day of production because of the holiday but it sounds like fun and I said I would try. Fast forward to Sunday: I am in pretty good shape for Mondays deliveries but not quite finished. I forgo my Sunday sleep in, Have a quick bowl of Cheerios instead of a big breakfast, get all my work done, change clothes and get across town to the bar/restaurant right at the kickoff. Don't see his truck, go inside and cannot find him, call his cell and nobody answers. So now I am hungry and am not watching a game. Guess I'll go home, turn on the tv and clean the bathroom or something.

Followup

He was indeed there, there was one more place in the restaurant I did not know about. He took a ration from his buddies at work when I had him look at his cell phone to see the calls he didn't answer before I left to go and while I was looking for him. :-) And because he didn't recognize my number he didn't listen to the voice mails. Anyway I got a cleaner apt..

Nothing but Noodles

8190 W. Union Hills Drive, Glendale

I saw this place last week when I ate at Wok-n-Stix which is about 100' away and it looked interesting on the net so I decided to give it a try.

I would like to give this place 3 stars but one thing kills it. The concept is good. There are plenty of menu choices. I was there on a Tuesday about 7PM and the place had several diners and some folks picking up take out. Of the five tables being used 3 had kids and the noise level was like there were 30 kids in there, not sure why designers lately seem to come up with acoustics that want to drive folks out. Even though the kitchen was open the sounds of cooking had been damped from the seating area. With a combination of booths and different height tables that could be moved around it would be easy to bring in a group of say 20 people. Many of the customers seem to have been there before.

The company website says service in about fifteen minutes after ordering and that was just about spot on. I had had a heavy lunch and wanted something light but hot as it was rainy and cold. I got the Cheesy chicken and vegetables ($7.29). It came in a bowl centered on a large plate which was filled around the bowl with romaine and shredded cheese. The meat and vegetables (mine had mushrooms, carrots, and broccoli) were fine. For the average person that added meat to a noodle dish and a soda or beer I would say $12-14 per person which is the low end of the scale I picked.

Now to the one thing that kills it. For a place that specializes in food with sauce, most of it containing cheese, the sauce sucks. Even when heating stuff from a jar I am one to heat any sauce or soup containing dairy to serving temperature very gently and stirring often. Not sure if this was brought to temp too quickly or left on the heat too long or had hot stir fry oil added to it or what but it just wasn't right. The flavor was off and it looked just about to separate. I'll go back a couple more times over a few months, trying different dishes, and if they fix the sauce I'll update my review. Like I said earlier I like the concept and hope they can work out the bugs.

Holiday lights

I really did get them up this year and a wreath on the front door. Not a real fancy set of decorations but better than nothing which is what 90% of the complex did.

Submarina

6780 W Thunderbird Rd., Ste. 101, Peoria

This was my second trip there in about 3 months. I moved here from California 15 years ago and have looked for a California type sandwich shop ever since. Along the way I found some good deli sandwiches but not a true California sandwich shop. This is the best I have found and I can get real avocados and sliced sourdough. I think the stuff inside should be the star of the sandwich and a thick sub roll takes it away for me.

Everybody gets coupons in the mail and most of mine seem to be buy one get one or it's someplace I just went to last week or something. I had already planned to go there after my haircut and lo and behold on Wednesday I got a coupon I could actually use. How cool is that? :-)

Oatmeal raisin cookies

My favorite cookie. I only make them once or twice a year. Not being really in to sweets a lot I give away most of each batch. Not looking closely I picked up quick oats instead of old fashioned (the recipe calls for either) and I think I like them better.

Wok n Stix

8110 W. Union Hills Dr, Glendale

So Wednesday evening I needed milk and cat food. On my way to the store I realized my stomach was growling. Never a good idea to shop on an empty stomach. A while back in The Savvy Shopper rag in the China Grill ad was a little banner about Wok n Stix being a new location. And because of an event that fell apart this week I had a bug to eat something Asian. So I found it and stopped in.

Chinese fast food. They also have hamburgers and a few other things. I stuck with something I figured I would like, orange chicken ($7.95). Most of my Chinese fast food consists of Panda Express and Ming Gee. This was much better, in addition to the onions and bell peppers listed mine had mushrooms, celery, sprouts and some other stuff. Service was on styrofoam with plastic utensils. Even though I was eating in the rice came in a take out box which I thought was sorta weird. I still hate eating out alone but at least I wasn't the only person in the place. Each side of the place had a long upholstered bench with tables and chairs that could be slid along to make up different seating and two tables in the middle.

There was nobody being served at the front counter when I was finished so I stopped and talked to the woman there and found out she is an owner. They have had the place for 6 months and are the same family that owns China Grill not far away.

Steel toed slippers?

Seems I am need of some. For some reason this is the third fall in a row I have banged a toe in the apt. First year I broke the middle toe in my left foot on a dining room chair. Last year I caught the post of the bed. And this year I managed to find the doorway to the closet.

Ironman

2008, Action/adventure, Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges.

I liked it. Actually I have liked just about all the Marvel features the last few years. Plenty of action. Not too bloody. I gave it a 4 on Netflix.

Fatburger

2815 W. Peoria, Phoenix

So yesterday I found myself without a lunch at work. Normally my driver goes for take out so when that happens I will just order something from wherever she is going. Well it turns out she had brought lunch. I had walked by the Fatburger in Tempe and on Las Vegas Blvd several times but had not tried either. I had the time so decided to make the 15 minute drive over there.

I did take out so I would not be away from the shop for too long. I arrived about 11:45 on a Friday which should have been a busy lunch crowd. With todays economy I am not sure that is a normal statement any more. The manager was having a smoke on the patio and greeted me on the way in. Three tables were occupied, two full and one with one person. As I walked in and was looking at the order board one of the customers came up to the two people working in the cooking area with a problem. Seems his hamburger wasn't right and there seemed to be a problem describing what he really wanted or by the employees understanding what he was trying to explain. The manager saw the exchange and came in immediately, figured out what was needed and the next hamburger off the grill was prepared correctly and delivered to the table by the manager with apologies. In these days of patrons expecting free meals and future discounts I feel this was the proper way to fix things, the customer was not rude and he got the correct, fresh, not reworked, hamburger in short order, problem fixed without any fuss.

The manager then came over to the register and took my order, sensing it was my first time he guided me through the options. I ordered a Fatburger less mustard, plus cheese ($4.49) and onion rings ($3.29). As he was taking the order he hollered each item out to the staff and when complete took them the paper copy. Must be the corporate way to do this. The order was ready in about 10 minutes. The burger was good but not fantastic, the bun was fresh and soft. I consider it a good thing not to succumb to pressed onion rings however these folks have found a way to squeeze the maximum number of rings per onion. The thin rings of onion with one exception were barely enough there to hold the batter and you could not taste the onion. The oil was at the correct temperature so the batter did not absorb grease or have any off flavor. I would definitely pass on the onion rings next time and try the fries.

Overall it is not a place I would go out of my way for but if it was convenient it wouldn't be out of the question to go again.

I am Legend

2007, Will Smith. I should know better. It is listed as a thriller and me and scary movies just do not do well. At the first sign of suspense I turned it off on Saturday night and didn't go back to it until Sunday. I was awakened several times in the night Sunday being chased by the mutants. I guess maybe that is the mark of a good screenplay that it will stick in your mind. I had seen an earlier adaptation of the same novel (The Omega Man, 1971, Charlton Heston) and not thought it scary at all and wanted to see how modern cinematography had changed it. CG has done things to the mutants no makeup artist could ever do. As scary movies go it wasn't bad, just not my thing.