Vegas, July 2010

Almost hard to call this a Vegas vacation as I only spent one full day there. But I did spend 3 nights there and Vegas is all about the night anyway.



This was the view from my room on the 28th floor of Excalibur.



The bridge over the Colorado is almost complete and is set to open by the end of the year. Couldn't happen too soon as the wait East bound was over 2 hours. I actually go back through Laughlin most of the time to avoid the tie ups. Coupled with all the other road improvements over the last ten years it will be about an hour faster each way when the bridge opens.

On the second day I drove up I15 to have lunch with a friend near Cedar City, Utah. I had never been up that stretch of road before so it was an interesting drive.

Of course I am all about the food so here is a list of where I ate.
Day one
lunch - In and Out. Single cheese animal style with fries. It took almost 30 minutes to get my order and the fries were not that great
Dinner - Hyakumi inside of Caesers Palace. Japanese Teppanyaki. I had beef tenderloin, shrimp, chicken, veggies, miso soup, cucumber salad with crab, Asahi draft and ice cream. Easily the best meal of the trip.

Day two
Breakfast - Pyramid cafe inside of Luxor. Corned beef hash and eggs with potatoes and toast. Toast was cold, all the hot items came from chafing dishes. I had wanted to avoid the buffet, what I got was buffet food at a higher price :-(
Lunch - City Cafe and Deli in Cedar City. Great sandwiches in a family run little restaurant.
Dinner - Nine Fine Irishman inside of New York, New York. Chicken pot pie and a pint of Bass ale. Being acclimated to the heat, it was a very pleasant 95°, dry, with a light breeze, I sat out on the patio and watched the scenery as passers by watched me eat.

Day three
Breakfast - McDonalds. Greasy chicken biscuit, hash brown and orange juice.
Lunch - HK Star in Chinatown. Americanized Cantonese food. Beef with string bean and Shrimp chow fun. Shared with Yelper Angela H. Decent food, really cheap.
Dinner - Baja Fresh inside of Excalibur. Fajita burrito. It was ok.
2nd dinner - Bazic in China town. Mostly a Korean BBQ joint that opens from 7PM to 4AM. I was here for a Yelper party that started at 11PM. Even though it has a full Korean menu the "in" thing to get is 10 pieces of fried chicken and a litre of beer which Angela and I shared. Fun rowdy group!

In addition to eating and driving around I finally managed to see the shark reef exhibit at Mandalay bay. It is a nice aquarium but you get through it really fast. Crystal at City Center has more stuff open than it did when I was there at Christmas so I wandered around there. It was good to get away from the shop and do something different and I found some serious do nothing time in there as well.

Spicy mayo

I was sitting at lunch in Vegas with fellow Yelper Angela H and we were discussing heat in Asian dishes. One of the items we had for lunch was sliced beef and green beans in XO sauce which was listed as hot on the menu. With the exception of a few slices of jalapeno it really wasn't. Once we found out we both liked mayo, even though she does hot stuff and I do mild she offered up this condiment recipe. In a bowl mix mayo with a shot of Sriracha. Then use as regular mayo. Apparently mixing it in advance rather than trying to just squirt some on the sandwich gets rid of the hot spots and sort of mellows it out. I had it today on a ham sandwich and I really liked it. Now I have one more thing I can make from stuff I stock in the kitchen anyway. :-)

Sodas

I rarely drink sodas nor keep them in the fridge. I don't drink caffeine often and I am not a fan of HFCS or Aspartame. And refrigerator space is utilized for beer. :-) I stopped at Sprouts on my way home to get dinner fixins for the weekend (free range rib eye, fresh squash, hand stuffed brats, fresh cauliflower) and wanted some non alcoholic beverages to pack in my cooler for my trip to Vegas tomorrow. I was thinking 7-up or Sprite. Well this being a healthy type store, think Henrys or Sunflower if you are not familiar with Sprouts, they didn't really have a cold soda section. After digging I found in the aisle with the fruit juices a selection of soft drinks from Hansen's and Blue Sky that are actually made with real sugar. I picked up a six pack of Hansen's Key Lime and it is pretty good, a bit sweeter than with HFCS. They also make some diet versions that are made with Sucralose (Splenda) which they claim is better for you than Aspartame. And none of their sodas have caffeine. Even though their sodas cost twice as much, as little as I drink sodas It is not a big deal.

Gravies, soups and stews

While I was making stroganof yesterday it occurred to me I had the base for a beef stew and could have just as easily added carrots, peas, onions and potatoes rather than the onions, mushrooms and sour cream. Expanding on that theme I could make a poultry gravy and added diced chicken with veggies and had a creamy chicken stew. All variations on a theme. Stuff like that always make large quantities so I can have lunches.

Tartar sauce

Yesterday I picked up a salmon filet with the thought of pan frying the one pound chunk and eating half for dinner and using the other half in a lunch salad. That part worked fine and I also had some seasoned basmati rice and steamed asparagus. When I got home form the store I realized I had no tartar sauce of any kind and although I had lemon juice I am not a fan of lemon on fish. So I started rummaging around and made my own: 2 big glops of mayonnaise (Best Foods, of course), 2 small glops of dill pickle relish, some seasoned salt and some dry mustard then put it in the fridge for about an hour to let the flavors blend. It turned out better than some jarred varieties I have had. Looking around later I found some recipes that also included lemon juice, capers (both of which I normally have) and some other stuff. I think I would increase the ratio of the dill relish and maybe toss in a splash of lemon juice next time. It is nice to find one more item I can make quickly at home as I need it that doesn't have a bunch of ingredients I cannot pronounce. Also one less item to go bad if I don't use it all quickly enough.

Now what to do?

Several years ago the Costco I frequent near home stopped selling tobacco because the Arizona rules tightened up about access to them by minors. Never mind that Costco has a person checking everybody as they leave. Not a big problem as I drive by the Business center once a week anyway. Well Tuesday I stopped in and the business center has decided tobacco products will no longer be sold for personal use at that location. So now I can buy them at the grocery store, I hate hard box. I can go to the Costco by I17 which is out of my way except for Thursday mornings. Only problem with Thursday mornings is I drive by there about 9-9:30 and they open at 10. I can see if the Sams Club around the corner from my regular Costco sells tobacco at that location and switch my membership over. But I like the selection at Costco and they treat their employees better.

Humpf!! And don't say it. :-)

Lifestyle changes

Yesterday I stopped in at Albertson's to get a lottery ticket and pick up a few things. Other than vegetables I really had nothing special on my list and browsed through the store. Saw some meat that looked good but didn't buy it as now I get free range beef and humanely raised pork from the Meat Shop and free range beef and Buffalo from Sprouts. I saw butter was on sale for $2.50lb but passed because I get it at Costco for $1.60lb. I knew I was low on beer but passed the aisle because it is about $5.00 a case less expensive at Total Wine. Box wine was on sale, for $2.00 a box more than the everyday price at Total wine. Eggs were on the mental list too but the locally grown ones are much cheaper at Sprouts. Frozen veggies are much cheaper at Wal-mart for the same brands. I am getting spoiled living in a big city. With the exception of the Meat Shop all of these places are in my neighborhood. In some cases I buy better stuff for me and in others I buy the same stuff at lower prices. I still like Albertson's but it is no longer my only grocer.

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.