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pastameshugana

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Posts posted by pastameshugana

    Dinner! 2012

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Wrap a bit of meat, a dab of sauce, an oyster and a slice of kimchi up in a leaf of butter lettuce and gobble down. Also added slivers of raw garlic to each parcel halfway through the meal, so no photo of that.

    That is amazing. And I'm glad to hear your pork fat levels are back up to normal. Wouldn't want you wasting away...

    Off-Strip and Local Gem Dining, Vegas

    in Southwest & Western States: Dining

    Posted

    From a former Vegas local, I'd heartily recommend Rosemary's on Sahara. We had a fantastic tasting menu there, 5 or 6 courses for around $100. Great atmosphere & service. Also, over on the east side, we had great experiences at Lindo Michoacan.

    The custard shop (can't remember the name!) just off-strip near the stratosphere was out of sight, always a line into the parking lot, and lots of entertaining 'local' scenery passing by.

    If you hit 'china town' west of the strip on (I believe) Spring Mountain you'll find an endless variety of all things Asian. Had a stellar Malaysian meal at a little store front there once.

    $.02, exchange rates may vary. ;)

    Dinner! 2011

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Last night was a feast!

    My real (full-time) job is as a pastor, so last night we hosted an 'Appreciation Dinner' for a number of the people in our congregation that are a big help (leaders, close supporters, behind the scenes, etc). We were planning for 25 adults.

    We decided to do Italian, because I love it and there's not one (!!!) Italian restaurant in our city, not even a bad one.

    Planned Menu:

    Crostini (3 types):

    -Roasted Veg (an Idea I got from a recent trip to Brasov, Romania where several restaurants served a room-temp roasted veg paste you smeared on your bread instead of butter)

    -Tomato Basil (Because that's what you'd expect)

    -Mozzarella & Chili (an Idea ripped from Jamie O)

    Bacon Wrapped Asparagus (Because who can resist that? And a 'thank-God-my-Jewish-blood-doesn't-mean-I-eat-kosher' dish!)

    Salad (Made by Mrs. Meshugana).

    Two pastas (Penne & Spaghetti)

    Two sauces (Alfredo & a Meat Sauce)

    Lemon Ricotta Cheese Cake

    Cheese Cake Brownies - Mrs. Meshugana is responsible for all the desserts!

    I started my (cooking) day at 9am, chopping veggies to roast, and roasting garlic for my sauces:

    IMG_1104.jpg

    Then wrapping the asparagus with bacon for frying:

    IMG_1108.jpg

    All fried up (in olive oil): What's nice is that as you go, the bacon fat adds to the olive oil, so the end of it gets MUCH more bacon-ey and artery clogging!

    IMG_1109.jpg

    Then I roasted all the veg in the broiler, as well as a few heads of garlic to use later. The garlic was heavenly! Here it is just about to be mashed up:

    IMG_1110.jpg

    Diced serrano and some red sweet peppers (for Christmasy colors) for the Mozz crostini:

    IMG_1111.jpg

    Which turned out looking like this, with a little olive oil splashed on:

    IMG_1114.jpg

    And the tomato basil crostini:

    IMG_1115.jpg

    Two sauces and two pastas going on my way-too-small stove:

    IMG_1112.jpg

    And here's where it almost got all stuffed up. The breaker kept tripping on my stove (ridiculous! You didn't expect me to be using all four burners and the oven at once?), so my roux for the alfredo kept getting interrupted, so I ended up turning up the heat on the roux, then the doorbell rang and..... badly burnt roux and no alfredo. That also means we'd have 1/2 the food we were planning on. I made a last minute decision to toss the penne with melted butter, garlic, a little oil, pepper, and micro-planed parmesan. It was fantastic! Far better than the four hour meat sauce in my opinion... ;)

    It all ended up great - had a good time, and my feet are reminding me why I don't cook for a living!

    The aftermath (we used holiday paper plates for serving!)

    IMG_1116.jpg

    Dinner! 2011

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Lordie - anything that has foie/truffle mousse 'melted in' as a flavoring gets a hearty vote of approval from me.

    That soups sounds fantastic - and thanks for the (inadvertent) D'Artagnan reminder. I'd forgotten all about that place, and am eyeing some foie & truffle goodies for a Christmas feast.

    Please help me make good coffee at home

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    French press is simple, but it is a different cup than a filtered cup - generally more acidic (which is good if you like it).

    I have a nice hand burr grinder I got from amazon for ~$20.

    I have absolutely fallen in love with the coffee from red bird coffee (redbirdcoffee.com). They only roast and ship WHEN you order, you'll get an email telling you which day it roasts/ships - and the price is killer: at 5lbs it's $10/lb - and superiorly tasty!

    A Day in the Life of a Las Vegas casino cook's helper

    in Restaurant Life

    Posted

    Scoop - as a former resident of Vegas - I'm loving this!

    Great writing, and love the insight into the casino food biz.

    When living there I was friends with the managing chef (proper title??) of one of the 'nice' casinos. Every couple of months he'd invite a few friends for breakfast in a private room where he'd cook just for us. I took one tour of a few of the kitchens (buffet, staff kitchen, etc) and was monstrously impressed with the scale at which they produced food - astonishing, really. We were really impressed the week that the 'W' family spent wining/dining him trying to hire him for the (then new) property being built.

    Keep it up, loving it! This would make a great book some day. (and I get a cut of the royalties for the suggestion, right?) ;)

    Percyn's travels (2011) continued

    in India: Dining

    Posted

    Percyn - A few posts back you have a pic of someone weighing something, and the sign to the right lists "chicken ham" which, along with some other stuff, is the cheapest thing. What is "chicken ham"? Ham and chicken ground together, or mixed after grinding? Or something else altogether? Thanks.

    Country - Chicken ham is a 'ham like' product that is made from chicken, thus it is Halal (an approximate equivalent to Kosher, but for Muslims).

    In India you'll find all sorts of things like that: Chicken ham, chicken pepperoni, salami (the Subway's have a wide variety).

    There are similar products in Israel, as well. Also in Israel I found bacon vacu-sealed at the hotels (so Kosher kitchens wouldn't be corrupted) and re-heated.

    (Sorry Percyn!)

    NOTE: It's interesting that the words Halal and Kosher both mean approximately the same thing (legal, prepared according to religious law) but in their respective languages.

    Free shipping

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    I was checking back in my Amazon account and noted that in 2009, when I purchased several expensive items and my total outlay was well over 5K, my annual fee was waived. There doesn't seem to be any mention of this in the explanation of benefits except to state that from time to time there may be changes and additional benefits to the Prime membership holder.

    Back when this service began, I took them up on the Free Membership offer and was more than happy to pay the fee after my 30-day trial.

    Amazon Prime is a huge deal - I love it and recommend it to anyone I run across. I'll order silly things (like screen protectors for my phone) and have them shipped free rather than go to the mall and deal with the snotty kid at the kiosk any day! ;)

    If you're a big movie/TV fan (I'm not) it also includes thousands of free on demand movies/videos/tv shows.

    I just ordered a whole grip of espresso parts (steamer jug, thermometer, syrups, etc) and I always sort my searches by which are 'prime eligible' - it's certainly worth it.

    Thanksgiving Menus 2002–2011: The Topic

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Does anyone serve their TG meal as separate courses, as opposed to the 'mountain of food on the table smorgasbord'?

    Just thinking about something different, we've had lots of 'functional' thanksgiving dinners in the last several years (been traveling quite a bit) and might have some old friends visiting.

    I'm not a big sweet potato fan (wife is), so I was thinking a sweet potato soup (or sweet potato and parsnip) as a starter, then some sort of cold green bean salad, then the 'main' with turkey, potatoes, and dual 'gravies' with one traditional and one cranberry. (I can think of artistic designs to plate with those!)

    Desserts I'll probably leave to the in-laws (they'll already be offended that I'm cooking, but then they'd complain if we asked them to cook, so lose-lose!)

    There's lots of options for roasted veggies along the way, depending on what we can find that looks good around here.

    Dinner! 2011

    in Cooking

    Posted

    dCarch - I love it! While not practicing, we've got Jewish heritage and I love your take on the meal.

    ScottyBoy - the Salad 'garden' is a brilliant idea, now you've got me thinking about new presentations for thanksgiving dinner!

    Dinner! 2011

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Today, I made baked Reubens, minus the sauerkraut, which I sauteed with apples and served on the side. The process starts with Triple Rye Bread from Bernard Clayton's New Book of Bread, and after its first rise, instead of shaping into two loaves, it gets rolled out about an inch thick on parchment. Spicy mustard is slathered down the center, and layered atop that are corned beef and baby Swiss.

    KayB - This is the 2nd time I've seen this idea here on EG - and both times it's made my heart stop.

    I owe Mrs. Meshugana big time (leaving to Romania next week after just being in Russia), so I think this'll make it on the menu this week to help 'pay' for my absence...

    Scallop roe - eating it raw?

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Correct:

    USA : no heads, no roe.

    :unsure:

    Weird. Where I'm at (New Mexico - faaaar from the coast) I've never seen any decent scallops (let alone w/roe), but I am able to get shrimp & prawns with heads on at the grocery.

    I know it doesn't apply, but we just were giving our 2nd son crawfish eating lessons on sunday at the chinese buffet (barf) that has (surprisingly) a well stocked vat of boiled craws. Heads and everything.

    Forgotten candy bars, e.g., Caramello

    in Ready to Eat

    Posted

    ...I am also in what I guess is the minority of candy eaters that can't stand the Cadbury chocolate recipe. In general I have no idea why so many connoisseurs prefer the British mass-market candies (or the ones made elsewhere under license, such as Cadbury items being made by Hershey in the US) to the American ones. I find the British mass-market chocolate to be inferior -- not that either is particularly good as chocolate goes.

    Amen! I can't stand the cadbury chocolate. We lived in India for a few years, so naturally Cadbury was the only stuff regularly available. You could get some imported Hershey's or Godiva or Lindt on occasion, but it was rare and expensive.

    Not to mention that many of our close friends are Aussies so they think I'm blaspheming all things good and holy when I talk bad about Cadbury...

    Seasonal Chili Fix

    in Cooking

    Posted

    ...a filling of mushroom , bacon, garlic, cream cheese, parm, and my own dry rub and hot spice mixes. stuffed into seeded cut in half habs, then wrapped with bacon and grilled indirect on the smoker til the bacon goes crispy.

    Holy crow that sounds amazing! Guess what I'm making next? ;)

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