Sandwich time!

Check this out, this guy is scanning his lunch every day. What a delicious plethora of sandwiches he has to show us!

http://scanwiches.com/

Just makes me want to eat sandwiches all the time... which I do anyway.

Today, in fact, at the Top Restaurant, Trixi and I were saddened to have missed their brunch, but the burger we chose surely made up for it. We had a "Good Morning Burger," tasty beef, with a fried egg, bacon and cheese on top.

Does a burger count as a sandwich? Perhaps a subset.

And what about having a runny yoke on a sandwich, is that scannable?

Lettuce and Tomato,
Zambria

What's For Dinner?

MEATLOAF!(& Friends)

While I know meatloaf conjures fits of nostalgia for a lot of people about like, good ol' momma cookin', but it was a food I would NOT EVER EAT as a child. Mostly because it was not macaroni and it was not spaghetti. But also because, in my mind, meatloaf seemed like a stop on the same exit as Bologna or canned tuna on the highway of deliciousness. And to me, that exit looks like a rest stop without lights, or a working toilet, only a vending machine that takes my money but will not for the love of god give me a soda!

"Hiss! Boo! You asshole!", you say. 

As would I, now.  

But I enlightened myself at the age of nineteen when I found a recipe for BBQ meatloaf. Now freed from meatloaf ignorance, I find myself on a quest for as many different delicious recipes I can find. 

THIS may be a viable contender for the title of Most Mouthwatering Meatloaf. 

Turkey Meatloaf with Sun-dried Tomatoes 

A Modified Recipe from the Bon Appetit Cookbook

(I know as soon as all of you meatloaf purists (if you exist, and I think you might) read the word "Turkey," you are doubting my credibility. And you would all be as silly as me before my BBQ Meatloaf Miracle.)

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped

PREHEAT the oven to 375F. 

Heat a splash of oil and a pad of butter in a heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat. Add the onion to the skillet. Saute the onion until fragrant and translucent. Add the celery. Continue to saute until the celery is soft. 

     (idea for next time: caramelize the onions, cook the celery separately, add carrots) 

Heavy bottomed skillets best distribute even heat, allowing a more even browning. If you don't have one, make sure you constantly move the vegetables.

Once done to your desired tenderness, remove vegetables from heat. Place in a bowl and cool until you can touch them with your hands. (Because I didn't. And it hurt.)  

• 1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey
• 1 1/2 -- 1 3/4 cups fresh breadcrumbs from soft white bread
• 2/3 cup chopped drained oil-packed sundried tomatoes
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons dried rubbed sage
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper

While you're waiting for that to cool, combine all of the above ingredients in a fairly large bowl. To the above list, I added some red pepper flakes and some herbes de provence. Add whatever you have! I wished I'd had some fresh herbs, particularly thyme. Pour in the vegetables. Mix until your fingers feel weird.

The cookbook called for a glass loaf pan, which I do not have. So I made it in a casserole. I thought it wouldn't make too much of a difference, but If the sides of my meatloaf had all the delicious crunchy pieces the bottom of it did, it would have been even more delicious. And I think that's what the glass pan provides.

I greased my pan with a bunch of butter, and I poured an 8 oz can of tomato sauce in the bottom of the pan (it keeps the loaf extra moist). I formed my loaf on top of the sauce. I put a bunch of ketchup on top of it and popped it in the oven for about an hour and a half. 

During which time, I made Pecorino Romano cheese mashed potatoes with green onions, garlic and shallots, corn on the cob and broccoli and squash with mustard butter.

By the time I'd finished with all the sides, the meatloaf was born!

TA-DA!

And then we ate and ate and ate and ate until we felt like THIS:

Barbie & Queue,

Trixi

Tell us what you like: a poll

The best New Year's Resolution that I ever made (and have probably most succeeded at) was to try all the foods that I didn't think I like, give them a second chance.

Kids tend to be picky and some more than others. There's a general consensus that maturity of taste comes with age. But that is the beauty of taste, each person has their own, regardless of age.

But we are curious, are there patterns in childrens' pickiness?

What kinds of foods do you like now, but didn't as a child?

Here's my list:
anything spicy (seriously, at all)
olives
dill pickles
scrambled eggs
fishier fishes

Let us know! We are curious.

Half & Half,
Zambria

These pretzels!

Hot damn, who knew I could make such super tasty soft pretzels... a super snack.

Makes 1 dozen.

Courtesy of The Joy of Cooking.

Combine:
1 pkg active dry yeast
and 1 cup 105-115 degree Fahrenheit water

(If you don't have a thermometer like me, I just boil water and combine half boiling and half chilled water, it should feel hotter than your personal temperature but not too hot.)

Let it react... You will see it happen.

Combine this with:
1.5cups sifted flour
2 tbsp softened butter (unsalted)
.5 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Mix (preferably whisk) for 3 minutes or more if you are feelin kinda crazy.

Add:
1.25 cups more sifted flour and knead until it isn't sticky any longer.
Let it sit, in a greased bowl, covered, until it doubles in size.

And then split into 12 even pieces. Roll each one into a skinny little dough stick, shape it into a pretzel (easier than it seems).

Let rise again. and set the oven to 475 F

Now SERIOUSLY....

Grease the baking sheet real good!

Boil:
4 cups water
5 tsp baking soda




Boil the pretzels in the mixture for one minute each and then garnish with salt, cinnamon and sugar, honey and mustard, or any thing you damn please. You know how pretzels taste, what would be awesome?

Bake at 475 degrees for 8-10 minutes, until they look pretty toasty.

Take it out, hopefully you greased it good enough. Even if not, they will just be a bit malformed.

Eat it, love it. Hopefully you need not store it, but if so.... airtight, up to a week.

Foodifesto

On our first show, we discussed how we think about food. Here it is, comment, add on, let us know what you think!

---------

The appreciation of food breeds respect for it.

We intend to cultivate this appreciation, in ourselves and hopefully in others.

We care how our food is produced, where and by whom.

Many of us have not gone hungry, a rarity in the world today, and due to this, we may become complacent in our food choices and take the abundance we experience in America today for granted.

It is easier for us not to think about the food we eat and what consequences exist because of it, but the world is in need of a sustainable and attainable way to produce enough food for all people and we need to figure out a way to do that.

So let's try.

Let's also learn to cook for ourselves with what we have on hand and continue to make delicious, creative food.

--------

Think about every decision(purchase) you make

Use what you are given

Give what you don't need

Be creative

--------

Rice and Beans,
Zam and Trix

Breakfast Sushi

Over beers at a local ale haunt, Zam and I discussed recipes we might like to show the world via our blog. Well, shot came to beer, Zam brought up sushi and VIOLA! Breakfast sushi birthed itself out of our brains, a veritable Athena of perishables!

Rather than go out and buy specific ingredients for said sushi, we utilized what lived in Zam's cabinets. We feel utilizing what's at hand not only conserves, but forces us to be as creative as possible. And that's half the fun of cooking!

For OUR sushi we used:

Crepes as Nori (a recipe modified from The Joy Of Cooking)

• 3/8 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp double acting baking powder
• 1 tbsp powdered sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/6 cup water
• dash vanilla

Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and powdered sugar. Beat egg in a medium sized bowl. Add milk, water and vanilla to egg.

Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour the egg mixture into your well. Mix together enough so all ingredients are wet, be careful not to overmix. Bubbles will work themselves out, don't worry.

You can leave the batter in the fridge to rest for up to 6 hours. At least 1 hour of rest is recommended. We ignored this step and our crepes still turned out quite crepelicious.

Use a pan roughly the size of your desired crepe. Heat it thoroughly. Splash a drop of water on the pan to test the heat. It's super important that the pan is HOT! Now, add a couple drops of oil. Seriously, only a couple. We added too much oil at first and it just drowned the crepe batter.

Put a scant ladle full of batter on the pan. Pick up the pan and spread the crepe batter out by tilting the pan back and forth, side to side.

Leave the crepe alone for a minute or two. Using a spatula, flip your crepe if it's ready. While, traditionally, you want to let the crepe brown, for breakfast sushi you only want it slightly browned, if even. The key is to make sure your crepe is still flexible enough to wrap around your other ingredients.

Crepes done!

For the filling:

• Eggs (we used two)
• Onion
• Mushrooms (about 3 or 4 of any varietal)
• Canned Ham

We beat the eggs with a splash of milk and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Scrambled them. Then cut them up super tiny, like mock rice.

The onions, mushrooms  and ham we cut into strips, the way you would cut any sushi stuffer. We cooked the onions very slightly, so they retained their crunch for texture. The mushrooms we cooked a fair amount and we browned the canned ham (which, after cooking was delicious, but before cooking smelt like a freshly dressed wound).

Preheat your oven to 375.

To build your sushi, lay out a crepe. Scatter a thin layer of chopped eggs on top. Lay out the insides on the part of the crepe closest to you. Roll up your crepe. If you have one of those fancy bamboo sushi mats, you can use that to make the crepe as tight as possible. 

Place the crepe in the oven for about 6 minutes so all your ingredients return to a tasty temperature. 

Remove. Using as sharp a knife as possible (which we lacked at casa de Zam), cut your crepe into little sushi bites.

Now look how fancy you are!

We made a really easy cheesy dipping sauce, because everyone loves to dip! For it we used some colby cheese, a little milk and 3 whole hot peppers. Zesty.

It turned out surprisingly tasty for a brain child born at a bar. Things I would like to suggest to anyone else wanting to make breakfast sushi:

• Keep in mind texture and color. Contrast is key! Sushi is a food designed for show. It's all about color and texture! I really wanted something green for the insides, like green onions or peas. But, alas, we had none. Also, keeping the onions on the more crunchy side (Zam's brilliant idea) was awesome. Maybe putting something even crunchier in, like sprouts or anything fried, would be ideal.
• Anything at all can be a wrapper for this. Originally, I was thinking bacon. I really wanted to wrap the whole thing in bacon and fry it. BACON!
• Dipping sauce, while not necessary, brings it all together. If we'd had some pepperjack that would have been real nice. But, at any rate, I recommend SPICY.

Go sushi your faces off!

Fish and Chips,
Trixi and Zam

Week 1 homework

Don't worry, it's fun homework!

-Create a haiku (or two or ten) about your favorite food(s).

-Make pretzels. We want to find the softest, tastiest, most delightful carnival-invoking pretzels that you can make at home.

-Keep eating!

Breaded and Fried,

Zam and Trixi

Tune In

If you're a person who finds themselves eating on a pretty regular basis, we have something that will revolutionize your world: Us.

We plan to explore all venues of food and beverage in Gainesville, Florida and beyond, whether it be local or chain restaurants, bars, pubs and clubs, boring old grocery stores, or your very own kitchen (and we don't knock).

But don't worry, it's not all talk, we'll also be playing a buffet of music for your auditory palate!

So, if you have a healthy appetite for awesome, tune in for the first episode of our radio show, Tasty Jams, Sunday March 13.

Pots and Pans,
Trixi and Zambria