Peaches and Pork Chops

Jamie Oliver, you have done it again.  Won my heart with your devilishly handsome good looks and charming style and my taste buds with your simple and delicious recipes. 

I try and have dinner with my sister and her family a couple times a month. Even though we live less than ten minutes away from each other arranging these dinners is often difficult with my ever changing schedule and her need to not vary away from my one year old nephews schedule.  When we do get together it is almost always at her house and consists of me stopping in after work, which means that she does all the cooking.  It's always a good meal and good company but can leave me feeling a little guilty for not treating them to my culinary talents.  Since it's the holiday season and I have some extra time off I decided to take Jackson (my nephew) for a day of bonding.  I knew the afternoon would consist largely of his nap so I planned ahead to spend that time preparing a meal for my sister and her family. 

I had some pork chops in my fridge that I got at an excellent price and really didn't want to have to freeze so they became the focus of dinner.  As I was pondering how to prepair them, outside the normal barbecue flavor that my family is accustomed to, I noticed a naked chef starting at me.  That is, Jamie Oliver's face from the cover of his book The Naked Chef Takes Off.  I grabbed the book and scanned through the pages until I found a pork recipe that suited the ingredient I had on hand.  The following recipe is what caught my interest:

Roast loin of pork with peaches

one 7 rib loin of pork
1 bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked and chopped
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter
salt and freshly ground pepper
8 fresh peaches (or two 16oz cans in natural juices)

His recipe entailed scoring the fat, cutting a cavity between the meat and ribs (bones) and filling it with a seasoned butter and packing it full of peaches.  Binding the meat and roasting in a 425 degree oven for nearly an hour.

Since I didn't have a 7 rib loin of pork but instead 3 pre cut chops (no bones) I altered the cooking method as follows.

Preheat the oven to 425.  Pat chops dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper.  Mix thyme and butter and rub liberally over meat and place in an oven safe dish.  Drain peaches and reserve the juice.  Roughly chop peaches into 1/2 inch pieces and pour over the pork with the reserved juice.  Cook uncovered for 25 to 35 mins or until internal temp reaches 145.  Remove pork from pan.  Transfer any juices and yummy bits from the bottom of your roaster into a sauce pot, cook with 1/4 to 1/2 cup white wine.  Pour over chops right before serving.   

Wonderful, wonderful recipe.  I think next year when peaches are fresh and in season I will make some more peach butter (it was such a favorite last year).  And this time I will make an extra batch that is infused with herbs specifically so I can use it as a glaze, inspired by this recipe.

ThearyMeak Photography

If you're a reader of my blogs then by now you know my talent is partially based on the talent of my great friend Theary's ability to make my food look amazingly appetizing in photos. Theary is one of those rare people you meet who are truly an inspiration. She is so full of energy, spirit and love it's contagious. One of the things that I think makes her so special is her attention to detail. She runs her own business, Theary Meak photography, and is a huge success. Her secret? Paying attention to her clients. She never sets a time limit for her shoots and will generally want to meet with you for coffee, food and/or conversation before the shoot so she can figure you out. Find out something about you that you love, something that makes you tick. If she can figure that out then she can capture it on film. I love to go along on photo shoots with her just to see the light she brings out in people. On one of these trips (a photo shoot for the Chantalome sisters) we happened upon a busted up, broken down shell of a Helicopter. A Huey to be exact. I was beyond excited to find this rusted up old piece of military history. Helicopters are close to my heart because I spent three years working for the 37th Helicopter Squadron as part of the United States Air Force. I find it impossible to describe the friendships and comrade you find in the military. It is the closest thing to family will you find outside of your blood relatives. Some days I feel truly guilty for leaving the military. Some days it seems very selfish of me to have given up a job of serving my country to serve food instead. But what's done is done, and everything happens for a reason. If I had never joined the military I would have never found my love of food. Traveling the world exposed to me so many different styles of food and the traditions surrounding them. But what really did it for me was meeting, living and working with people from all over the country. My first food experiments started in the dorms (I was lucky enough to have a kitchen, not all dorms did) I would make Sunday night dinners for my friends. A nice routine we all looked forward too. Good friends and good food were the perfect way to end the weekend. However, not all my friends appreciated the mid-western casseroles I usually made and so I started getting requests for foods they were more familiar with. That's when I started collecting recipes, cook books and a love of cooking for and caring for others.
I think these photos Theary took of me are the best yet, the helicopter brought back so many great memories of my 'past life'. She did an amazing job and I am so sad to see her move away. After this month you will all see a decline the quality of my photos because I will be taking them myself. Theary is moving Georgia. If you live that area, look her up. She is a great friend and photographer, it will be worth your while.

My Top 5

As the new year approaches everyone talks about what they expect or anticipate for the coming year.  I think it's a better idea to focus on the good things from the previous year.  So here are my Top five places to eat in my home town, Lincoln Nebraska for 2010.

1. The Green Gateau- great atmosphere, amazing food, friendly knowledgeable staff, great menu variety.  Overall my best dinning experience this year.

2. The Bread and Cup-  fresh, fresh, fresh.  Simple and basic food, cooked with amazing skill and technique.

3. Ramo's Pub and Pizza- I'm not a pizza person but this place has me coming back time and time again.  The pepperoni and cream cheese pizza is a staple in my junk food diet.

4. Vung Tau- This place doesn't look like much but it is.  Best spring rolls and pho in the area. 

5. James Arthur Vineyards-  Not a large food selection but the view is un-matchable and staff is friendly and helpful.  And the wine helps too. 

Cumin and Garlic Crusted Tilapia

I've just realized that everything I've posted recently has been about dessert!  High fat, high calorie, high flavor desserts!  Time to cut the calories, chocolate and whipped cream.  Get ready for an overdoes of fruits, vegetables and low fat fish. 

Golden Tilapia served over a Garden Cous Cous Salad with orange semprmes and Aoli

lets start with the Tilapia.  Here's what you'll need.

1 filet of Tilapia (or other mild white fish)
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 egg
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic
salt and pepper to taste

season the fish with salt and pepper and dip in the egg.  mix together panko and seasoning, coat fish in mixture.  Bake 10-12 mins until fish flakes easily and crust is golden brown.

While your fish cooks start your cous cous salad. 

1/2 cup cous cous
1/2 cup  boiling water (check the label on your cous cous for water to grain ratio)
1/2 small onion, diced
handful of spinach
1/4 cup peas
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

The best part about a garden salad is that you can pick your garden.  For this go-round I used onion, spinach, peas and chives. (If using other vegetables cook necessary veggies until al dente)  Saute onions, spinach and seasoning add cous cous and gently toast, and water and peas, cover and remove from heat.  

Orange Aioli

3 egg yolks
3/4 cup olive oil
1 orange
*this is best done in a mixer

gently beat the egg yolks and drizzle in the oil in a slow steady stream, once the mixture starts to come together and before your out of the oil, squeeze in 1/2 the orange juice then finish drizzling in the oil.  Finally zest the orange and stir into mixture.  Your final product will resemble and thin mayonnaise. 

serve the fish on top of the cous cous salad and drizzle your Aioli over everything.  Add a couple orange slices to the plate for a zing of fresh flavor and of coarse the added nutrients and vitamins. 

The Bread and Cup

I really love living in Lincoln.  I catch a lot of guff for it from my friends in bigger cities.  Sure I miss cities like Chicago with an endless arena of food choices; new chefs and new concepts at every corner.  But there is a huge downside to that. In an over saturated market it can take weeks to find a good (and affordable) spot to eat.  And once you find it you have to keep your fingers crossed that it will still be there the next time you have a craving.  Lincoln, however, is small enough that it isn't hard to find a great spot to eat and if it truly is a great spot its going to stick around.  The Bread and Cup was established in 2007 and is still going strong.  Located in the historic Haymarket district the scene is perfect for the concept of this restaurant.  Located in an old warehouse the entire restaurant is a open concept loft.  As you walk in you see strait into the kitchen, the bread ovens and work spaces are all visible to the dinners.  The dinning room is also very open and inviting.  Off white walls free of clutter, small simple centerpieces and a flickering candle on each table top leave you with nothing to focus on outside of your company and the food. My company was my great friend Amanda and our choice of food was simple.  We started with the house charcuterie plate and we both ordered the fall vegetable risotto.  This was a big step for me because The Bread and Cup is most famous for its soup, and everyone knows how much I love soup.  But the meats for our charcuterie platter were all cured in house which sparked my interested and risotto is a dish that I just don't have the strength to turn down.  The charcuterie plate gets a 4 out of 5 stars.  We got a three meat selection and the house made sausage was a little on the waxy side however the prosciutto was divine.  It was silky smooth and melted in my mouth.  The sampler also came with a wonderfully chewy loaf of bread and a honey mustard sauce that Amanda loves so much she would probably eat it with a spoon.  In other reviews I've read for the restaurant I've seen a fair amount of complaints about the small sizing of food portions.  This was not our experience at all.  We ended up needing a to-go box for our appetizer, not pint sized at all.  The risotto was platted beautifully.  Not in a bowl like most places but on  a plate, a sure sign of a good risotto.  Thick enough to hold its form but still 'giggly' when the plate is shaken. I'm very well aware of the fact that when menu's have non-descript items such as 'fall vegetables' it is the chefs way of using up whatever he or she has excess of in the kitchen.  Kevin Shinn is not most chefs.  He believes in sustainable cooking.  That is, using local ingredients, fresh produce, no freeze dried, preservative filled ready made stuff.  It's a way of live and a style of cooking he really believes in.  To find out more about him, check out his blog, http://breadandcup.blogspot.com/ Keeping this concept in mind, I knew that our 'fall vegetables' would not be just the bottom of the barrel left overs.  What we got was onions and brussel sprouts.  I tend to fall in line with the majority of the population when it comes to brussel sprouts, no thank you.  I've had several chefs try and change my mind.  A former restaurant I worked for swore that their horseradish and cheese sauce would convert the pickiest of eaters but I was not swayed.  I even tried Julia Childs recipe and got the same resulting taste; dirt.  I always taste dirt.  The risotto, however, tasted earthy.  No dirty after taste, I ate every brussel sprout in my dish.  But the true star was the onions, gently sweated and translucent, I found myself digging through the dish looking for them.  It took awhile and I left feeling more full than I was comfortable with but I couldn't leave any of it behind.  The rice was cooked perfectly, the bechamel was to die for and the raspberry drizzle and Parmesan sprinkle was the perfect way to top it off.  I was very pleased with my trip to The Bread and Cup.  It defiantly ranks in my top five places to eat in Lincoln.  Give it a try, or better yet, give me a call and I will go with you.


The Bread and Cup
440 N. 8th street suite 150
Lincoln, Ne
402 438 2255

strawberry trifle

Whenever I think of trifles I remember the episode of Friends where Jenifer Aniston's character, Rachel, tries to make a holiday dessert. The pages of her cook book got stuck together and she ended up mixing fruit, whipped cream, beef and onions. Not wanting to hurt her feelings her friends devoured the disgusting mixture. What a sign of devoted friends! Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all had friends that were so daring as to eat whipped cream and sauteed beef to spare our feelings? We all know that is unrealistic, so I suggest a dessert that won't be so challenging to their taste buds. In fact this dessert is so delicious it will even make your enemies smile. And with less than ten ingredients it is practically fool proof. Here is what you will need.

1 package jello cheesecake flavored pudding

2 cups cold milk (for pudding)

1 8oz container cool whip

1 bunch of fresh strawberries (frozen sliced berries work just as well)

1 pound cake (found in the freezer section near the pie crust)

Chocolate for dipping (you can melt your own chips or use a pre made container of dipping chocolate)

slice the pound cake 1/4 inch thick

make the pudding according to package directions

once the pudding is set fold in the whipped cream

dip one side of the pound cake in the chocolate and layer it chocolate side down in your dish of choice. A glass dish makes for an amazing presentation.

pour a layer of pudding over the cake.

Then top the pudding with a layer of sliced strawberries.

repeat the layers until all your ingredients are gone.

let set overnight before serving. It is very important to follow the layers in this order. As the dish sets overnight the pudding mixture will soak into the cake. Make sure the chocolate dipped side of the cake is facing away from the pudding so it does not create a barrier between the pudding and cake.

This recipe is easily adapted to your personal tastes. Try substituting the strawberries with raspberries, blueberries, bananas, peaches or any of fruit or combination of fruits. The pudding flavor is flexible too. Although the cheesecake flavor is my absolute favorite flavor for this dish, check out your local grocery stores selection to see if they carry another flavor you prefer.

Backfire BBQ

A few days ago I took a road trip with some friends to Kansas City. After a three and a half hour car ride filled with candy and ice cream we decided we needed a hearty meal. Dinning with this particular group of friends can be tricky. With two lactose intolerant dinners and three shellfish allergies our list of places to eat is always slim. Trial and error have taught us that barbecue is a great solution to this particular problem. Lucky for us Kansas City is famous for its epic barbecue. Everyone in the Midwest knows it. And anyone who watches television should know it, the travel channel, food network and history channel all have shows dedicated to the soul full, slow cooked, smokey wonder that is barbecue. We had heard some great buzz about a place called Arthur Bryants. When we pulled we realized it was only a fast food joint and we were searching for somewhere to sit down and unwind. Even though the restaurant came highly recommended we passed it up for the atmosphere we were searching for. Across the way we found a place called Backfire BBQ. It was endorsed by The Orange County Choppers which impressed the men in the group. The inside was exactly what you would expect from a restaurant endorsed by a group of bikers. Motorcycle memorabilia everywhere, metal, neon lights, and over sized everything. Starting with our 24oz drinks. Not exactly fine dinning but it seemed promising to fill our angry stomachs. Our food arrived on its gigantic plates and looked delicious. And that's where our great experience ended. The baked beans that came with everyone meal had an extremely off flavor. It took a couple bits to figure out what the strange flavor was...old onions. Old onions, stale beans and a dirty pot. If I had to venture a guess I would say they sauteed all the onions when the opened for lunch that morning and had been topping off the same pan of beans throughout the day. That means by time we arrived at 8pm the pot had been on the stove for roughly ten hours, disgusting. I tried to rid the stale taste with a bite of my grilled Texas toast only to find they have put the same amount of care into cleaning the grill as they had into the pots used for the beans. You could taste the old grease and grim on the grill. Luckily the fries were crispy and the nothing appeared to be wrong with the brisket burnt ends that I ordered. With the over sized portions it was enough to fill me up without having to touch the beans or bread. It wasn't horrible enough to complain but defiantly not good enough to bring me back. Try at your own risk.

http://www.backfirebarbeque.com/

1855 Village West Parkway

Kansas City, KS

66111

puppy chow

It's that time of year again. Everyone is celebrating the holiday season and it seems like you have an endless calender of events to attend. Most likely at least one (if not more) of your invitations says to bring a favorite dish to share. This treat is by no means my own recipe but it is a childhood favorite of mine. And I've found when taken to holiday parties its a pretty big crowd pleaser. I grew up eating this stuff so I assumed it was a well known snack however I had a friend inform me that she took it to a party in D.C. and thrilled everyone with her 'new dish'. So the next time you need a sweet indulgence sure to please the masses, give this a try.

9 cups chex mix

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

mix chocolate, peanut butter and butter in a microwavable safe bowl. Cook in one minute intervals, stirring in between intervals until smooth and creamy. Stir in vanilla. Pour into a gallon sized zip lock baggie with the chex mix and powdered sugar. Shake, shake, shake! When pieces are well coated its ready to enjoy. Keep fresh in an air tight container if you are not going to serve it right away.

Felling daring?? skip the peanut butter and use 1/2 cup of mint chips, butter scotch chips, peppermint or any of the other fun varieties of baking chips found at your local grocery store. You can also keep the original recipe and add in some chopped nuts or crushed candy pieces to jazz it up a bit.