i came across this quote by the famous comedian and thought it appropriate for this blog...
i cook with wine, sometimes i even add it to the food
Monday, November 24, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
patheticism
is that even a word???
so i haven't written or posted on this blog in a long, long time. i feel as if i've said this before too and once again, i have no honorable excuse. i have, however, found my zest for cooking again. i guess i grew tired of trying to cook something that was an attempt at impressing people and instead decided i wanted to cook something that, original or not, was just really good to eat. i also realized i owe a lot, if not everything, to my experience at gold fork during my college years. with that said, i'm presenting a southwest salad that we made at the fork and used a skill/technique i learned there as well.
on our way home from our wednesday night bible study, we stopped to purchase our dinner groceries at vons. as usual, we picked up a freschetta thin crust pepperoni pizza and a zucchini. we're always starving as it's around 8:45 and we haven't eaten since a measly homemade lunch we brought to work and ate around noon. so, we usually get a snack to last us the 12 minutes for the pizza. this time i wasn't that hungry and decided i'd forgo a snack. this lasted until the checkout line when i saw garlic roasted bagel crisps on sale right next to the 3 person line. i grabbed the crisps and then thought i really could go for some roasted red pepper hummus dip. i hastily made my way over to where i thought the hummus was only to not see it and find myself wondering whether the hummus was worth the angry faces waiting in line behind marcela back at the checkout. i decided it was worth it and ran across the store to the "hummus" area. i quickly scanned the items and found the roasted red pepper description, grabbed what i saw and made it back to see everyone looking aimlessly around for the jackass! when we got home i broke open the crisps and ripped off the lid of the hummus only to find a very liquidy looking dip! i had mistaken a red pepper dip for hummus. now it ended up tasting really good, but it wasn't what i was looking for. so, what was i to do with this sour cream based dip??? the following saturday provided me with an answer...
southwest chicken salad
grill a piece of chicken with blackening seasoning, chili powder, or any spicy seasoning you have. rip up some lettuce of your choice, we use plain loose leaf, add a moderate amount of the following: mexi-corn, black beans and black olives. add the amount of roasted red pepper dip you like (a substitute could be a mixture of ranch and the salsa or hot sauce of your choice). toss this combination and serve topped with the grilled chicken. a nice addition, which is how i tie this recipe to gold fork, is to take some corn tortilla's and cut them into strips to fry. if you have a deep fryer, you can fold them into curls instead of straight strips. either way, toss the cut strips into hot oil and let fry for a few minutes. pull them out and salt and pepper them before adding to the salad. i used to spend sunday mornings cutting up hundreds of corn tortillas and deep frying them for the day. it seemed so futile at the time and now 8 years later, i recalled this technique to make a nice saturday lunch for my bride and i.
so i haven't written or posted on this blog in a long, long time. i feel as if i've said this before too and once again, i have no honorable excuse. i have, however, found my zest for cooking again. i guess i grew tired of trying to cook something that was an attempt at impressing people and instead decided i wanted to cook something that, original or not, was just really good to eat. i also realized i owe a lot, if not everything, to my experience at gold fork during my college years. with that said, i'm presenting a southwest salad that we made at the fork and used a skill/technique i learned there as well.
on our way home from our wednesday night bible study, we stopped to purchase our dinner groceries at vons. as usual, we picked up a freschetta thin crust pepperoni pizza and a zucchini. we're always starving as it's around 8:45 and we haven't eaten since a measly homemade lunch we brought to work and ate around noon. so, we usually get a snack to last us the 12 minutes for the pizza. this time i wasn't that hungry and decided i'd forgo a snack. this lasted until the checkout line when i saw garlic roasted bagel crisps on sale right next to the 3 person line. i grabbed the crisps and then thought i really could go for some roasted red pepper hummus dip. i hastily made my way over to where i thought the hummus was only to not see it and find myself wondering whether the hummus was worth the angry faces waiting in line behind marcela back at the checkout. i decided it was worth it and ran across the store to the "hummus" area. i quickly scanned the items and found the roasted red pepper description, grabbed what i saw and made it back to see everyone looking aimlessly around for the jackass! when we got home i broke open the crisps and ripped off the lid of the hummus only to find a very liquidy looking dip! i had mistaken a red pepper dip for hummus. now it ended up tasting really good, but it wasn't what i was looking for. so, what was i to do with this sour cream based dip??? the following saturday provided me with an answer...
southwest chicken salad
grill a piece of chicken with blackening seasoning, chili powder, or any spicy seasoning you have. rip up some lettuce of your choice, we use plain loose leaf, add a moderate amount of the following: mexi-corn, black beans and black olives. add the amount of roasted red pepper dip you like (a substitute could be a mixture of ranch and the salsa or hot sauce of your choice). toss this combination and serve topped with the grilled chicken. a nice addition, which is how i tie this recipe to gold fork, is to take some corn tortilla's and cut them into strips to fry. if you have a deep fryer, you can fold them into curls instead of straight strips. either way, toss the cut strips into hot oil and let fry for a few minutes. pull them out and salt and pepper them before adding to the salad. i used to spend sunday mornings cutting up hundreds of corn tortillas and deep frying them for the day. it seemed so futile at the time and now 8 years later, i recalled this technique to make a nice saturday lunch for my bride and i.
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