I'm feeling cheated

So yesterday I am having some processed luncheon meat (Spam) fried up for breakfast and I notice there are supposed to be 6 servings per can. Depending on how I slice it I get 3, maybe 4. In this case I think they are getting a bit creative because I always thought a serving of meat is 4 ounces and they were using 2 ounces as serving. And how about a pint of Gelato or ice cream? They all say 4 servings per container. After I finish with the third serving there is none left. I want to know who stole the 4th serving! Or do they intentionally leave that one out of the carton? Another one I get to see quite often is a bag of frozen vegetables. They all say 5 or 6 servings. I only seem to get 2 and when I was married with kid I could squeeze 3 tiny servings out of one. And yes, I manage to squeeze by on a bit more than 3,000 calories a day. :-)

Frozen fish filets

I use my cast iron for a lot of things. And I prefer to not use the oven for just my self. For some things I use a counter top convection oven. A while back I wondered if breaded fish filets could be cooked on the stove top. After a few tries I think I have it figured out. I preheated the skillet to med-lo (3 on my dial), gave it a thin coat of vegetable oil and tossed in the filets. Ten minutes on the first side and then 5 minutes on the second. Nice and crispy golden on the outside and soft in the middle. Used a lot less electricity and didn't heat up the whole kitchen like heating in the oven for 25 minutes at 475°.

Phone books

Today I just got the Phoenix metro edition for the year. It is only one book. I grew up in Santa Barbara and I can only remember it being one book there. In the 17 years I have lived here I saw it grow to 4 books from I think 3. And the regional edition for the Northwest valley had all the retirement communities personal phone number and address listings in large print. It's been 2 years since the phone book(s) even had personal information. Thinking back on it, I don't think I have used a phone book for anything but a business look up in 10 years or so. A large part of it's usefulness for personal information has changed with people not listing their addresses or getting rid of land lines in favor of cell phones. And even businesses have cut down on the amount of advertising they do in the phone books. I guess seeing that I only got one book with all the yellow pages and business listings mad me wax nostalgic today. Time was when phone books got worn out in a year. Now they may get out of date but certainly not worn out from overuse.

Rotten beef

Have you ever accomplished what you set out to do and realized you didn't like the finished product? A few months back I attended a dinner with several Yelpers at Murphys (A German restaurant in downtown Glendale). Chrissy and I both remarked afterward that steak knife tender was a little tough for the saurbratten we had each ordered. While I like a tender piece of roast I am not a big fan of sweet stuff at dinner so I decided to opt out of making the cabbage and the gingersnap gravy. I instead made brown gravy from Better than Bullion and served mashed potatoes rather than potato dumplings. I set out to prove I could make it more tender than the restaurant. I happened to use tri-tip because that is what I had and other than the gristly parts I did indeed make a melt in your mouth roast. The cooking method I used was on an open rack in the oven at 200° until it was 140° in the middle. The disappointment was that even with normal gravy on it to temper it I did not like the taste of the meat from the marinade. So now to search for a marinade recipe I like.

Paper Heart

2009, PG-13, Romantic Comedy, Charlyne Yi, Michael Cera

Quick moving. Very different, I would almost label it Indie. Lots of fun. I enjoyed it. I have no clue however why I put it in queue to begin with.

Urban Cowboy

1980, John Travolta

This is another one of those movie classics I never got around to seeing. As it is I cannot tell you how it ended because after about 45 minutes I gave up on it. Possibly because what were considered normal things 30 years ago just don't fit anymore. Nice thing about Netflix is I don't have a lot of money tied up per viewing.

Wine Tasting

Saturday afternoon I attended a wine tasting in North Scottsdale. This was my first ever wine tasting so I had no preconception of what to expect. All twenty wines presented were limited production, in most instances less than 200 cases. That was reflected in both the price of the tasting ($30) and the price of wines ($32-105 per bottle). I felt a little out of place both by disposable income and knowledge of wines and wineries. I think it bothered me more than the presenters or the other attendees. The tasting was presented by Arcadia fine wines and was a very casual afternoon affair. The location was a cooks dream. Multiple functioning kitchens, including an Iron Chef stadium, equipped with the latest in Wolf and Sub Zero (who together own the showroom) appliances. I ended up tasting about a dozen wines and learned a lot about wine and wineries and had several peasant conversations with folks. Seems almost everybody interested in wine has been a frequent visitor to the Central coast.

Immersion blender

Also called a stick blender. Really neat toy! I usually make my own hummus. The first time I made it I got out the full sized blender and it didn't really do that great of a job (think I used too little liquid) and since then I have been using my mini processor. But it always came out like chunky peanut butter instead of smooth. I thought about getting out the big blender again but wasn't convinced that was going to fix my problem for the small batch sizes I make. So I narrowed my choices of a new toy down to the mini blenders where the container becomes the vessel and an immersion blender which I think was more popular a few years ago. I found out my brother has used one for years to make small batches of mayonnaise. Last night I made my first batch of creamy hummus! $20 at Wal-mart and it doesn't take up too much storage space in my cramped kitchen.

Sauteed cabbage

This is one of those things I have had since I was a kid. My youngest sister doesn't remember having it so I am posting how I did it. We grew up calling it broiled cabbage and I have also heard it called fried cabbage. Sauteed is probably the most correct term however caramelized could also be used. I have served this to many folks that did not like cabbage and they liked it. I use 1 stick of butter per head of cabbage (adjusting up or down to keep the ratio the same) starting with about 1/2 of it and and adding the other half near the end. Basically what you are doing is cooking the moisture out of the cabbage and replacing it with butter. I cook it on medium low as any attempts I have made to hurry the process along has always left me with a combination of burnt and undercooked pieces. Average cooking time is an hour or so. And this is not a dish you can walk away from for very long.

I am starting here with half of a large head of cabbage, coarsely chopped.



Here it is after 10 minutes in the microwave which saves a good hour over the original cooking time.



And this is how much of the wok it fills at this point. Choice of cooking vessel really makes no difference, my dad used an electric skillet and I have used various pots and pans depending on how much I am cooking. It should be noted here that 1/4 head of cabbage yields one small serving.



Here it is cooked in the wok.



And back in the original serving bowl.



And the two small servings I referenced earlier.



There are a few variations to this. You can add a diced onion. You can replace the butter with bacon grease. You can cook small pieces of bacon in the pan (I would probably use 1/2lb for a whole head) and leave the bacon bits and grease in the pan to cook the cabbage with. I have also done this same dish with Brussels sprouts both with butter and with bacon. I prefer the cabbage. If your diet doesn't allow for butter or pork fat it can be cooked with margarine without too much loss in flavor.

My First cake

To be more accurate this was the first cake I baked entirely from scratch. The few I have done before were box mixes and canned frosting. What started this all off is I accidentally bought a box of powdered sugar when I was baking cookies for the holidays and the only thing I could think to do with it was make butter cream frosting. And it just didn't seem right to waste scratch frosting on a boxed cake mix. A couple of other firsts for me, First time I separated egg yolks from whites and the first time I used unsalted butter. The cake was chocolate and I thought it to be a bit dry and folks said it could be from baking too long (I was using a recipe for a layer cake and made a sheet cake) to I should always expect scratch cakes to be a bit drier. The orange butter cream frosting turned out perfect! I have decided I do not have enough spatulas, mixing bowls or counter space to be doing this on a regular basis. Overall it was a pretty good cake and all who sampled it liked it.

ROTD

Review Of The Day

For those not familiar with Yelp; Every day a review is picked for review of the day. The first criteria is votes by other Yelpers and it has to be a favorable review, you have to have a real picture of yourself and a few other things.

For my award winning review of Santisi Brothers click here.

I think I work too much

About a month ago my driver got tired of me expecting her to actually work and stormed off. So, the economy basically sucking right now, I took over her position too. She was getting paid for 30 hours and it has added about 20 hours a week to my already 60-70. That's why I haven't posted much, heck I haven't even posted my description of my Vegas trip at Christmas yet. At some point in time business will pick back up and I will again hire help, most likely a combination of prep work in the shop and driving the pick up and delivery route.

I did indeed get over to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast last week. I had to stand around in the parking lot for a while as they don't open until 7AM. It was a little more expensive than my breakfast out the previous two weeks but it was a little better food too.

Last night I did get out. There was a Yelp UYE at FEZ in honor of a Yelper that used to live here and was in town for the weekend. It was good to get out and see some old friends again. Through Yelp I also have a ticket for this coming Thursday to see [insert title here) at the Herberger.

Last Saturday evening I cooked a turkey breast at 225°. I didn't realize it was going to take 7-8 hours and bumped up the temp for an hour at the end (I was really ready for bed!) so it only took just over 6. I turned out real well and I have been on a turkey diet for the last week.

Breakfasts

I no longer have the luxury of being able to take off for an hour or so on Fridays to go have lunch so the last couple of weeks I have gone out to breakfast on Saturday. Last week it was Black Bear diner and this morning it was 5 and Diner. Of the two I think Black Bear was better, but not by much. Both places seem to be afraid to introduce any form of taste in their food. And I should have expected that this morning as, at 56, I think I was the youngest person in the place. Both places were ok and nothing was really wrong with either the food or the service. I think I'll try Mimi's next week.

Rain

We very seldom get real winter storms here. The kind that make the cold damp just take over your body and give forth never ending rain for hours that varies from sprinkles to heavy showers. This week we had two such storms, they had lost considerable power by the time they made it to Arizona from the coast but were still pretty good. On Tuesday we had one that hit mid-afternoon and rained until about bedtime and on Thursday we had one that started about 3AM and was still sprinkling when I went to bed about 9. Total was over 2" for the week. It has rapidly raised the levels in lakes and added more snow in Northern Arizona. The last time we had a major series of winter storms was in 93 just before I moved here. As much as I really enjoy the heat I also love listening to the rain fall. Thursday I was out driving in it which wasn't much fun though. The streets around here do not shed water quickly so there were some streets under water from curb to curb.

Like Water for Chocolate

1992, R, steamy romance, Spanish

This movie came up in a food blog because it has a lot of really nice food served. Filmed in Mexico. It has been dubbed over in English but you need to make that selection as you set it up. The time frame is the late 1800s, early 1900s. Not surprisingly a good part of the film takes place in the kitchen. I rather enjoyed the movie. It definitely takes some odd turns.

Take my butt to jail

A Virginia State trooper pulled a car over on I-64 about 2 miles south of
the Virginia/West Virginia line. When the trooper asked the driver why he
was speeding, the driver said he was a Magician and Juggler and was on his
way to Beckley WV to do a show at the Shrine Circus. He didn't want to be
late.

The trooper told the driver he was fascinated by juggling and said if the
driver would do a little juggling for him then he wouldn't give him a
ticket. He told the trooper he had sent his equipment ahead and didn't
have anything to juggle.

The State trooper said he had some flares in the trunk and asked if he could
juggle them. The juggler said he could, so the trooper got 5 flares, lit
them and handed them to him.

While the man was juggling, a car pulled in behind the patrol car.. A
drunken good old boy from West Virginia got out, watched the performance,
then went over to the patrol car, opened the rear door and got in. The
trooper observed him and went over to the patrol car, opened the door
asking the drunk what he thought he was doing.

The drunk replied, "You might as well take my ass to jail, cause there
ain't no way I can pass that test."

Fajardo's cafe

6706 N 58th Dr, Glendale, AZ

Now the holidays are over I can get back to going out to lunch on Fridays.

For over thirty years this place was known as Lily's. In 2006 the original owner died and it reopened in 2008 by a cook and his wife who had worked there for 28 years. It is grandfathered in to the residential neighborhood it sets in. Hard to find and maybe not a place I would like to be after dark. The food was well prepared without being amazing. I had 2 chicken and spinach enchiladas with beans and rice and a Horchata. The family takes good care of it's customers and the place was almost full for a Friday lunch.

Meat probe part 2

I ended up paying higher than suggested list price for the probe because it was Sunday and I went to the only place (Barbecues Galore) I could think of that was open and would have exactly what I wanted. Not to mention the fact I had already dry rubbed the meat that morning and it was sitting on the counter coming up to room temperature while I was out looking for the probe. Fire drill anybody? :-)

I ended up cooking the tri-tip at 200° for over 2-1/2 hours. I had it set for 150° and took it out at 145°. I should have pulled it at 140° because sitting on the counter it rose to 156°. Still a very nicely cooked roast that retained most of it's juice in the meat. It used to be steak juice was used for baked potatoes but as you can see on the plate there was very little.

I am definitely happy with the probe. Now I want to get an electric smoker too. :-)

Alarms

It does absolutely no good to turn on an alarm if you don't tell it when. Case in point: a week or so ago the power went out. I have a digital clock with a battery back up. Apparently the battery is dead so I had to reset the clock, along with 3 other clocks in the apt.. Never gave the alarm a thought and since I normally awaken before it goes off at 4:30 it wasn't a problem until this morning when I slept right on through "knowing" my alarm was set. It wasn't a catastrophe as I still got up at 4:52.

Tott's Asian Diner

1817 E Guadalupe Rd., Tempe

The highlight was really that my son and his girlfriend were up for the day from Tucson. She mentioned she would like Chinese for dinner and I presumed they would prefer the South valley as they would be driving back after dinner. I got on Yelp looking for Chinese and found this place with multiple reviews averaging 4 out of 5. I did not realize it was not waiter service until too late to change it. It is set up to be the kind of service where you order at the counter then get your soft drinks and service and they bring the meal to your table. Well it might as well be waiter service, the owner is all over the place getting things for folks. We enjoyed our visit and the restaurant not being full he encouraged us to remain as long as we wished.



My son and his girlfriend seem to be doing well. He has trouble getting much over 30 hours a week as even grocery sales are down. He looks really good. This is the first time in his life he has not been pudgy. Since I had last seen him he gained twenty pounds and then lost 60. He walks or rides his bike most every where and she drags him to the gym whenever they have time.