Hawaiian Grilling (an Ed Post)

I seem to have forgotten that I am supposed to contribute to this blog. I apologize. Jodie has been doing such a wonderful job, I wasn't sure what I should write about. Writing about my own cooking just seemed like bragging, and Jodie is covering all the food we eat away from home very well.

However, I realized I could share how I made some of the dishes Jodie keeps bragging about.

Most recently, Jodie described my grilling in Hawaii, so I will start with that. First, let me just say that I love getting a chance to cook abroad. It is actually one of my favorite parts of travelling. If at all possible, I always try to schedule some time for me to cook during a vacation. This is because the types of food available to cook with from one country to the next, one state to the next, or even one city to the next, vary considerably. It is great to be able to prepare kangaroo in Australia, game hens in wine country, or ahi in Hawaii.

Not to say that fresh Ahi is only available in Hawaii. Here in California I've had a good deal of success finding sashimi grade fresh ahi. Especially in San Francisco, but also at my current residence in Los Angeles, with only a little more scarcity. The Ahi in Hawaii is, however, considerably cheaper and easy to find at any grocery store. The quality of the ahi I pepared in Hawaii was particularly good as my parents sprung for the nicest cut available.

Making an avacado-mango salsa is not nearly as complicated as it may sound. Simply, chop an onion, mango, avacado and some cilantro if you have it (I did not that night.) Then carefully mix these ingredients in a bowl with lime juice, salt, and pepper. Cut the avacado in large chinks and be careful mixing, so as not get mango guacamole.

Searing Ahi is also uncomplicated. Just salt and pepper the raw fish. Heat the grill until it is very hot. Try to coat the area you are using with a little vegetable or olive oil to keep the fish from sticking to the grill. Then simply sear the fish on each side no longer than 2 minutes. The fish should be nice and rare on the inside. My Dad's steak was prepared similarly, except that I rubbed the salt and pepper onto the steak with olive oil 10 minutes before cooking. I also cooked it closer to 5-7 minutes per side. rotating it once 45 degress to get the angled grill marks.

Serve the fish with the salsa spread over the top. I served the steak the same way. On the side serve some grilled veggies (in this case corn.) I added some grilled pineapple into the mix, because, as I said, its Hawaii and grilled pineapple is just too good to pass up. Normally, Ahi goes well with a Sangiovese red wine, but because of the mango salsa we opted for a Chardonnay. The more citric a Chardonnay the better. This would be a good time for some of the crisp summery Australian Chardonnays such as Madfish or Grant Burge. Hawaii's wine is expensive, so we opted for a cheaper, but still tasy Barefoot Chardonnay. We paired my Dad's steak with a Penfold's Shiraz-Cabernet blend.

Hawaii...Mmm Delicious part 2

Every two years my father's family holds a family reunion where most of them live; Honolulu, HI. The first event that kicks off the weekend celebration of family is always a luau at my dad's Auntie Mary's house. Back in the day Auntie Mary used to do all of the cooking. Over the years the younger generation has stepped in to lend a big hand and some of the food is now catered. No matter who is doing the cooking, the best advise is to not eat breakfast or lunch that day.
This year it was a mix of catering and home cooking. I am sad that Auntie Mary isn't doing as much cooking because I truly miss her curry shrimp, but there were plenty of other delights to choose from. I chose a mixed plate of (clockwise from top left) Lomi Salmon, Squid somthingornother, Tuna Poke, Chicken long rice, Kalua Pork and a slice of taro root; all things scrumptous! I could live off of the Lomi Salmon, Poke, Pork and long rice, I love going to Hawaii for the food.
After the family reunions on Oahu, Ed, me and Ed's parents went to Maui for the remainder of our trip. We stayed at Napili Point, a condo resort on the edge of the water overlooking a small cove filled with sea turtles. I LOVE this place! My parents booked it several years ago and I have been back three times since. The condo has a full kitchen, living room, big balcony, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Despite the full kitchen, we decieded to use one of the 3 gas grills on the property to grill up a Hawaiian style feast for dinner. Ed made seared Ahi for the two of us and his mom and a steak for his father. He also grilled up corn and pineapple and made a mango, avocado salsa to top the main entrees. Oh yeah! It was truly awesome! His father licked the bone.
The next morning we went to the gazebo cafe around the point. To get there the best way to go is on the path along the cove (where sea turtules are regularly spotted), down to the expansive tide pools and around to the whale shaped pool. There is always a line that requires about a 20 minute wait, but at the end of that wait there are white chocolate, macadamia nut pancakes! Not to mention a table with a great view. During the winter months (February-April) whales are regularly spotted from the pool and gazebo area. There is a bell mounted on a nearby palm tree with a sign that says "one ring for a whale spout, two rings for breaching".
The last time I was on Maui with my parents we ate at a French Restaurant. I could not remember the name of it but I knew it was in an itty bitty strip mall on the way to Lahina just around the bend. All I remember was that the food was indiscribably amazing! And when we went, it lived up to my memory, some of the best food I've ever had. Of course this time I remember that the prices are up there too. The restaurant, Chez Paul does not have a magnificent view what-so-ever. It is a closed, dark, classic French restaurant, and it is fantastic!
Hawaii was a fun and delicious trip! I am always happy to return. But for now it is back to the wonderful home cooked meals of my husband.

Hawaii...Mmm Delicious part 1

Before I thrill you with my wonderous culinary delights of Hawaii I want to wrap up Ed's infomercial workout.
Only about half of the class was asked to participate in the actual infomercial with before and after pictures and all. Ed was asked to join the top group! He lost a total of 22 lbs. and had to go buy new pants! My hubby is looking great and has kept up the routine after classes ended. Look out for the Shadow Boxer infomercial as a product of Body by Jake. Maybe some late night you'll see Ed's before and after shots and hear how he wanted to get in shape to sell himself better as an actor.

To Hawaii...
This was a special trip to Hawaii. Although I and my family have been many times for my father's family reunions this was different. Not only did we go to see my dad's family but our entire family tagged along. My mom, dad, sister, sister's boyfriend, grandma, husband, mother-in-law, father-in-law and me. We all went out to a fancy dinner on one of our first nights to celebrate both my parents' and Ed's parents' 40th wedding anniversary and my grandmother's 80th birthday. The restaurant was called the Hau (pronounced "how") Tree Lanai and had a beautiful view of the sunset. (of course it did, it's Waikiki).


The meal was a fun gathering of families. We all enjoyed wine, food, conversation and catching up with each other. The salad I split with Ed's dad was less than amazing and not worthy of a blog photo, I could have made something better at home. But for my entree I ordered this yummy Mahi-Mahi topped with avocado.


The next morning I was awake early beacuse our room was irritatingly noisy. I left Ed to sleep in the room and went out to find a quick bite for breakfast. I walked up Kuhio Blvd. where I knew there was a small grocery store. I picked up some water and POG (best juice ever; pineapple, orange, guava) and then stumbbled upon the section of Aloha Shoyu, the best soy sauce around. We occasionally found it in Grocery Outlet here in California but it quickly disappeared. I took this picture to show Ed and to remind ourselves to get some when we came across a better, less expensive store. But, I forgot and this is all I have of the Aloha Shoyu.


More to come...

Moving on

There are a lot of things that get neglected when life gets busy. Both blogs and dinners have fallen into that category; more the blogs than the dinners.

Among the many busy things that have crowded the last 6 weeks, transitioning to a new job and a new apartment were on the list. On my last day of my job at Warner Bros. we found out we had been accepted to an apartment we liked a lot and had just looked at two days before. Ed's Aunt and Uncle were also in town visiting during this time. All of this launched our lives into crazy chaos.

Dinner was consumed among a forest of boxes for a couple of weeks. Nevertheless, Ed came through with some tasty dishes.
The always great, baked honey & walnut encrusted salmon is featured here with maple glazed carrots, colorful pasta and a room full of boxes. Dinner (with wine, good ol' two-buck-chuck) was a great relaxing break from packing, working, training, learning, getting trained, cleaning and packing. Our living room eventually became more full when we moved our matress next to our kitchen table. The celling in out closet leaked and then smelled horrible making it impossible to sleep in the bedroom.

Thank goodness, shortly after this picture was taken we moved. Now we are happier in quiet Burbank.

However, two days after moving all of our stuff to the new place we left for Hawaii for over a week...

Hot off the Grill

Some time has gone by and a lot has happened. I'll start at the beginning or rather the end for my sister.
My little, baby sister graduated from college. She is now a (fairly) mature, young woman ready to use her business marketing degree in her new endeavors.
A hot day in Monterey marked her commencement and what better a way to celebrate than to host a BBQ! Our parents brought an array of meats and vegetables for the grill. There was also no shortage of margaritas and wine. Ed, my father and Kyle, my sister's boyfriend, all took turns MANning the barbeques.
Mmmmm, steak and chicken and mushrooms and sausages. It was a great way to kick off the summer!
Congratulations Jamie, now you have to find a job. The best of luck!

Sizzlin' Shrimp

All of Ed's meals are great but there are some that standout more than others. Previously I have noted his rack of lamb and chicken pesto risotto just to name a few of his fantastic signature dishes. He recently made a batch of his mom's spaghetti sauce, a fairly standard red meat sauce that he makes from scratch. And when I say a "batch" I mean he makes enough to feed a cafeteria of teenagers. It is one of those things like his chili that just gets better with time. We pack medium size portions into tupperware and freeze them for future quick and easy meals of pasta (whole wheat of course) and red sauce.
Recently Ed made a recipe from his Cook's Illustrated magazine that he had been wanting to try for a while, some sizzling shrimp thing. All I can say is WOW! Dude! this was so amazing! I don't care how unhealthy or super healthy it was or even if it had snail's brains in it. It was super good! I sat down and sneaked a quick bite of it and quickly had no intentions of getting up to get my camera to document this meal, I just wanted to scarf it down.
So, if you want some amazing food check out recipes in Cook's Illustrated in association with the PBS show America's Test Kitchen. Then get yourself a man who can cook GOOD!

Free Food!

As part of Ed's infomercial weight-loss program they offered him a free home delivery of food. Who doesn't like free food? So, of course he said yes. We didn't know what to expect but it certainly was not two giant boxes filled with Nutrisystem food. We received the equivalent of a 28 day program in Nutrisystem food to aid Ed in his weight-loss effort.
As you well know we like food, good food, thus the reason for creating this blog. I am not a fan of most prepackaged foods. Which is why I am so luck and so happy to have married Ed who loves to cook and is great at it. Okay, I enjoy some of those Lean Cuisines for lunch because they are easy, cheap and fairly healthy. But Nutrisystem I just couldn't get excited about.

Here Ed displays the thing that sounded most disgusting to both of us; dehydrated scrambled eggs. However, it turned out to be one of the better foods in the pile. I haven't tried too much of the food but the most uneatable item I found was the oatmeal. I normally love instant oatmeal but this stuff was like eating chunky, hot poi or porridge, yuck!
I cannot see how anyone could stay on the Nutrisystem diet. The food is horrible and not even healthy for you. Everything is loaded with sodium and preservatives. It seems the way you are supposed to loose weight on the Nutrisystem diet is through extra large servings of fiber!
Ed has been offered to receive a second shipment of food if he wants it. Maybe we will donate it to charity.

Poultry

Ed was looking for a healthy game hen recipe and found the perfect one in a food and wine paring book my parents gave him a few years back; Cornish game hen with sage and grapes. We don't normally have sage or grapes in the house. The sage was on sale, an herb we don't often use, we went for it for a change of pace. And the grapes are a diet snack-food must-have.
I have become exactly what I hoped I wouldn't. The person who stars a blog then abandons it when she gets busy. I'll try and update at least once a week.
Ed has been doing great on his infomercial diet/exercise program. He has lost 10lbs. to date and he's not yet half way through! I'll have myself a muscular man on my hands come summer!

Fishy Continued

I am very lucky that I love fish. As I have stated before fish is primary diet food and we have been eating tons of it happily. It is also a good thing that you can find fish somewhat affordable. The frozen Mahi fillets have been great and Costco prices them fairly well; Trader Joe's supplies affordable frozen Salmon fillets and Ralphs occasionally has good deals on their fresh or previously frozen fish like the Swordfish we had the other night.
Swordfish is a thick, meaty and tasty fish. Ed does a nice Swordfish Piccata which sounded odd to me the first time he made it a while back but turned out to be very good.
On the diet and exercise front Ed (and I) are proud to report on the beginning of his fourth week he has lost eight pounds. Good on ya Ed!

Fishy Diet

So, about this diet. It all started at the end of February when I saw a posting on Craigslist for free fitness training. A company was looking for people to participate in a workout program that would show weightloss and muscule building results. I forwarded the posting to Ed who figured it wouldn’t hurt him or his career to, at the very least, go to the audition. The quick story is; he went, they liked him, they cast him and he started it March 29^th, two weeks ago today.

As I explained before, the product the company is selling is a piece of equipment that is intended to be used in kickboxing classes. Kickboxing is a great workout for the body but seemed to be lacking a workout for the arms and abs. The “Shadowboxer” solves that problem. To demonstrate the Shadowboxer’s effectiveness Ed and about 20 others are participating in a 12 week exercise and diet program. So if Ed is counting calories and watching his fat, carb and sugar in take, what is he making for dinner?

Health conscious but delicious meals take some creative thinking. I have been pretty impressed with what Ed and I have come up with. We have had several tasty and healthy meals in the last two weeks. The only reason I haven’t yet blogged about them is because I forget to take pictures of them. I am so hungry when I come home from work that I just scarf down the food. Friday night I remembered to pause long enough to digitally capture our meal. I didn’t much care how the images turned out I just wanted to snap a couple and eat!

Ed made blackened Mahi-Mahi fish tacos. They consisted of frozen Mahi fillets (Costco, 2lb. bag), spice rub for the “blackened” flavor, whole wheat tortilla, fat free sour cream, lettuce, avocado (from my boss, Greg’s tree) and hot sauce. Apparently hot sauce is good for diets; spicy foods force you to burn more calories to digest them, or something.

Fish is a wonderful food. Perfect for diets because it is low in fat and has lots of…um…good qualities and is healthy, yeah. Therefore, sushi is prime diet food! Right?
That was our reasoning behind checking out the new sushi restaurant by our place this weekend.

Portion control is a big part of dieting and our portions at Crazy Rockin’ Sushi were completely out of OUR control. First of all the sushi was absurdly delicious, and we have had our fair share of really good sushi. Crazy Rockin’ Sushi has only been open 10 days, they haven’t even gotten their liquor license yet (so they haven’t done any advertising yet) but they are doing what ever they can to impress their few customers. They started by giving us a complimentary appetizer short, special sushi roll, then our combo dinners were made right in front of us (we sat at the bar) with a couple additional pieces of sashimi, then the sushi chef (say that 5 times fast) whipped up a “sushi pizza” for us to share (this was truly unique and amazing) and finally a special complimentary dessert of sliced oranges, whipped cream and chocolate even after we had moaned our delights with full bellies to the friendly chef. In short, we highly recommend Crazy Rockin’ Sushi at the West Hollywood Gateway (where Target is across from our building).

Chili

When my sister and I were kids, I couldn’t have been older than middle school age, I suggested that we make our parents a romantic dinner. I can’t remember if this was just for fun or it was a special occasion but I wanted to show my mom that I could cook. You would think that if a kid was coming up with the menu it would be something like pizza or spaghetti. I, however, even as a child had a gourmet pallet but that still didn’t explain why I chose to make vegetarian chili. I wasn’t much of a chili fan and I never knew my parents to love it either. But my sister and I spent our evening working hard to make this recipe for vegetarian chili. The final product was not exactly my taste but I proudly served it up to my parents in the dinning room among candles and fine china. My mother said she liked it but I think it was one of those moments as a parent that you are proud of what your child has done more than you enjoyed the final product. Mom, it’s okay, you can tell me athe truth now, I didn’t like it either.

For many years I was not a chili eater. Occasionally I would have some on fries or a taste here or there. Then Ed found a recipe in his much beloved America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. The title of the dish is, Stick-to-your-ribs Chili and it satisfyingly lives up to its name. The only problem (which is really more of benefit) with the recipe is servings and serving size. I don’t know how many servings the recipes states but one small bowl and I’m done for the night. Not to mention that any time Ed makes it we eat it for the next 3 days. So, not really much of a problem; the best part is that it is one of those foods that gets better with time. My mom and grandma always say at Christmas, “the clam dip is better the next day”. That is true with Ed’s chili too; and the next day, and the next day and on hamburgers and on sausages and on rice…

True, this is not a diet food. The chili contains tons of calories and carbs but loads of protein too. Truly, it is not that horrible for you, especially when you make it at home and use extra lean beef, chicken, beans tomato sauce; okay so the sodium is probably pretty high too. Well, it tastes great on those occasions when Ed makes it, which was recently but won’t be any time in the near future. Ed was cast in an infomercial. Go ahead, laughing here is acceptable.

Ed started his 12 week course/diet for the infomercial on Monday. Don’t worry it’s completely healthy. It is not one of those diet shakes, pills or electro pulse things. The item the company is selling is called the Shadow Boxer. It is a piece of equipment that straps around the waist with tight elastic from the waist piece to the hands. It is intended to be used in kickboxing classes, which is what Ed is doing every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 6:30am-7:30am. He is also following a healthy low fat diet to accentuate his results. More on the “diet” (that I, as the supporting wife, am doing with Ed) to come.

Free Rice

I found this on iseul bee my friend Alee's blog:

FREE RICE

I thought it would be appropriate to post. It's education, charitable, and fun!

Now go donate some rice.

Easter Dinner

Ham is traditional for Easter in the States due to long ago meat preserving traditions. Fresh pork that wasn't eaten during the winter was cured to last until after lent, thus ham. I, however, can't eat ham as it is a trigger for my migraine headaches (I'm not supposed to have red wine or chocolate, due to caffeine, either but I'd rather cut out the ham and cut down on the others).

The other more traditional Easter meal around the world is lamb. That being the case I don't feel so bad when I request my absolutely favorite dish Ed makes, crusted rack of lamb with blackberry reduction dipping sauce. He has made it a few times now, as a request for my birthday, for my family last New Years and now for Easter. Each time he makes it, it tastes absolutely fabulous. My grandma who "hates lamb" cleaned her plate!

The best place to get the rack of lamb is Costco where you can usually find a rack for about $11-13; you want to serve a half a rack per person. The delicious crust, which almost always falls off as you start to eat the lamb, consists of seasoned bread crumbs, sauteed chopped onions, dijon mustard and a raw egg to make it moist and stick to the lamb. The best part is the dipping sauce. Combine any kind of blackberry or black currant preserves or jam with red wine, worcestershire sauce, coarse ground pepper and a pinch of salt then reduce it for about 10 minutes. As a side dish we have made cous-cous or mashed potatoes.
This time Ed wowed his brother Rick and his wife Val who said, "this is one of the best things I've ever tasted".
And, of course, we dyed Easter Eggs...
...Then posed their baby Ella with them.

Risotto

Apparently my mom made risotto for us once when I was a kid. She said our comments were, "moooom, this rice is really sticky". I don't know what I was thinking, I was having a stupid kid day or something. Risotto (made from rice) is delicious! Ed has made a few renditions of the dish but his best, by far, is his Chicken Pesto Risotto.
His recipe yields a fair amount of rich, sticky goodness. The best part of this is leftovers!! He has not only wowed me with this dish but several of our friends and my parents. My mom asked for seconds and possibly thirds.
If you ask very nicely Ed might give out some tips for cooking the risotto but he rarely writes down the recipe. He does have a recipe file on the computer that he refers to on occasion but it's really all up in his noggin.

I HEART RICE

It was about a week ago Ed and I were wandering through BevMo making a mental wish list of each thing we would buy if we had money and I became mesmerized with the Sake section. I love Sake. It is so yummy hot or cold I just love it! My brain quickly ran through other things I enjoyed and I came to the quick conclusion, I love rice. Almost anything that is made with rice I love.

Sake (rice wine), sushi rolls, rice pudding, rice cakes, risotto (Italian rice dish), rice paper candy, rice bowls, wild rice stuffed in game hens, saffron rice, rice noodles, jambalaya (New Orleans rice dish), Horchata (the sweet Mexican rice milk drink), Paella (Spanish rice dish), I could go on but you get the idea. The only exception I could think of is dolmas, I like greek food but something about the grape leaves I'm not a fan of. For the most part anything made with rice is yummy in my book therefore...I HEART RICE!

"I should name my blog that," I thought out loud to Ed "I heart rice".
And so it is.

I'll do my part

I will help with this blog. I suppose my job is to let you know what it is Jodie ate and how I made it.

Basically, I will comment upon Jodie's posts with whatever it seems necessary as a cook/tasting partner to clarify.

I love to cook. I love to cook for someone who appreciates my cooking as much as Jodie. Please keep in mind I married a photographer. My meals look as good as they do partly because she knows how to make them look good. Like that artichoke and shrimp skewer she used as her titles background. I can't believe that is something I cooked.

My wife always likes to point out that her parents always said she had better marry someone with a gourmet taste in food. Well, I don't know how gourmet my taste is, but at least I can satisfy her with my gourmet cooking. Or so it seems by her wedding vow, and the creation of this blog.

That's what it's all about...

I have been wanting to start a blog for a while to keep in touch with family and friends and see if I could entertain anyone else.

But what to write my blog about? My day to day life is quite mundane and boring not to mention a bit depressing. Nobody wants to read a blog about how I still cannot get on the path to my desired job and that I am still stuck at a job that pays so little.

Of course I would love to write a blog like the Lost Girls (the first blog I ever started reading) a group of three New Yorkers who quite their jobs to travel around the world for a year. How totally awesome would that be? (yes, I just wrote "totally awesome," I also use "dude" in my vocabulary. And if I was speaking to you I would occasionally throw in "like" but it doesn't show up in my writing unless required.) The Lost Girls are always advising me (and all their other readers) to just do it, if I (we) want to. I would LOVE to travel the world for a year but it's just not going to happen any time soon due to lack of money and constant work towards desired careers.

So, I thought what is the happy part of my day?
Food! When Ed makes dinner; when I can enjoy the delicious combinations of food and drink. In this blog I will celebrate food, whether it is cooking at home (90% of the time) or adventuring out into the expensive and expansive LA scene.

Of course I promise to stray from the path at any point. But for now, I heart food!