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What I just ate: Butterflied Steak and Potatoes

I’ll make this quick because I’m tired and I want to write this while it is fresh in my mind. This is what I cooked for supper tonight. It is in fact I teased everyone with on Facebook. I cooked it for myself and friend and former co-worker Megan.

Steak and Potatoes

The Meat from top to bottom:

  • A Portobello Mushroom, swiped clean and grilled will the grill was heating up on high. Put aside was charred on both sides.
  • Butterflied an average steak, rubbed in chopped fresh rosemary, salt and pepper. Added a bit of Olive Oil. Grilled for 4 mins on the grill, flipping every minute for medium.
  • French loaf cut on an angle and then in half. Place on grilled to heat up and flatten.

I really enjoyed this, it was amazing. It had taste and flavour. It wasn’t not dried out. What I did find was that the french loaf was a little too charred and that taste overwhelmed the steak. The mushroom as got cold quickly, too quickly for my eating speed. I would probably reheat before serving.

The Potatoes and all that jazz:

  • Boil baby potatoes for 15 mins or until soft.
  • Mix together cottage cheese and lemon juice for dressing. Put in bowl will still warm potatoes and mix around.
  • Add in BACON bits and chives to add even more amazing flavour.

These potatoes blew my mind, they were great and not just because of the bacon. I recipe called for yogurt, but I used cottage cheese instead and I think it was for the best. Will definitely do again.

Both recipes are from Jamie’s Food Revolution. I would do again with minor adjustments. Thoughts?

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For the love of cookbooks!

I need to stop buying them, I have enough now. I need to start cooking. Yet every time I go into the book store I stop in the cooking section and drool. I want this one, this one too, oh and this one!

Can’t I have them all!

I have been on a Jamie Oliver kick lately and want to complete my set of his books. So far I have Jamie’s Kitchen, Jamie Oliver’s Food Escape and Jamie’s Food Revolution. The ones I am wanting now are Meals in Minutes, which I find very useful, and Cook with Jamie. Then I think I should stop buying his stuff.

I appreciate Jamie’s books more than Gordon Ramsey’s because I think I subconsciously don’t like Ramsey because of his attitude on some of his TV shows. I’ve always seen Jamie as a happy-go-lucky cook. That being said I do have one of Ramsey’s books and it is quite good.

Speaking of British cooks though, here is something I have noticed. They don’t use a lot of beef. Here in Canada we have a lot of beef and I tend to think it is one of the most common meats to use here, but that isn’t the case across the pond. They use lamb and more seafood – I live in Northern Canada there isn’t much seafood here – which is stuff I don’t see myself cooking on an average day.

So my next steps, after going through all the books I now have, are to try to find some more “Canadian” cook’s with book. I have a Guy Fieri book, but he is a little extreme, I do like him though, so I am wondering about Michael Smith. I know he isn’t Canadian, but he might be more on my level.

Two questions for you now: Who is your favourite Chef? and What is your favourite cookbook?

 

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Christmas Morning Breakfast Tradition

It is no secret I like to cook. I could do it all day if I had a good idea of what I was doing. So I have my own Christmas tradition, and that is to cook Christmas morning breakfast for the family. It has gone on now for about 4 years and I don’t plan on stopping unless I’m not here. Each year and I get fancier and fancier and try to improve.

Last year I had come up with the brilliant idea of Eggnog French Toast and it was good. So this year I wanted to hit it out of the park – which I didn’t – and found a recipe on AllRecipes.com.

Eggnog French Toast

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/eggnog-french-toast-2/

I’ll spare you the details of how to make it and just let you know, using the proper bread is essential. I didn’t, instead used fresh normal sliced toast and that failed. They came out to soggy and didn’t cook well. The trick is to use french bread that is stale or semi-stale, so it still holds it form when it the egg is cooking. Nevertheless though they still tasted great.

Creamy Cheese Scrambled Eggs

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/creamy-cheesy-scrambled-eggs-with-basil/

Scrambled Eggs are easy to make, a little milk in with the eggs, salt, pepper and done. They are hard to screw up unless you cook them too long. I wanted something different though, something unique. So again I hit up AllRecipes.com and found these. I had never made them with Sour Cream before, but I thought it as it still was a dairy product, the eggs would be fine, and they was. They turned out fine and tasted good, although the texture was different from regular scrambled eggs. These seemed to crumble more and I believe that is due to the Sour Cream. Good though.

The Meat

Of course no meal with KyleWith would be complete without meat. This is nothing special though. In a fry pan I just cooked up 1lb 1/2 of bacon and some breakfast sausages.

That is my Christmas morning tradition, after the family gathers to exchange gifts of course. What Christmas Day traditions do you have?

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The Best Chocolate Christmas Balls

Well here we are, Christmas Eve of 2011. My did it come fast; it came so fast I think I lost some of my Christmas spirit somewhere. Nevertheless I will find it by tomorrow morning, as the family is gathered around to celebrate a great day.

One of the great things about coming home to my parents for the holidays is the baking. My mom bakes a lot and sells it at the annual craft sales that take place in November and early December and par for the course we get to eat what doesn’t sell. As I’m now older and have found I rather enjoy cooking I thought I would try my had at a – very easy – recipe. Chocolate Balls, as my brother and I would call them. They are easy and quick to make and don’t actually require any baking.

Here is what you need:

  • 3 Squares Chocolate
  • 2 1/4 Cups Crushed Graham Crackers
  • 3 Cups Icing Sugar
  • 3 Eggs
  • 1 1/2 Cups Butter
  • Handful of Sprinkles – up to you

The first thing you are going to want to do is crush the Graham Crackers, if you were like me and didn’t buy the pre-crushed ones. Simply put them in a zip-lock bag and use a rolling pin to crush the heck out of them. Try and get them as fine as possible so they don’t clump together in the balls.

Chocolate Christmas Balls

Next you want to get yourself a good size mixing bowl for all this stuff that will need to be mixed. Throw in the graham cracker crumbs, icing sugar, eggs and soft butter. Mix that together for a minute or two.

Meanwhile you should put your 2 Chocolate Squares into a separate bowl of such and melt the chocolate in the Microwave. If you do not have a microwave, in a pot on the stove will work as well. The chocolate doesn’t have to be bubbling, but soft enough to mix.

Chocolate Christmas Balls

I’m sure you guessed the next part of this little recipe. Add the melted chocolate to the mixture you already have going on. Mix it together good and snug.

Chocolate Christmas Balls

Now that you mixture is all together, you may want to let it sit for a bit to harden up before rolling. Once you have done that though, I like to roll of the chocolate before I put on the sprinkles. Generally the balls be about 1″ in diameter or small if desired. Honestly, this part is up to you.

Chocolate Christmas Balls

Once you have you balls rolled…. errr…. Once your chocolate is formed, it is time for the sprinklies! yay. For me this is actually the most annoying part, so it is best if the chocolate balls are still room temperature. I have found there are two ways of doing this. The first is to lay down some wax paper and them pour sprinkles on top of it and roll the balls in that. Or a new method I came up with it pouring all the sprinkles into a zip-lock bag and putting in one ball at a time. I like the zip-lock method because it is also makes less mess.

Chocolate Christmas Balls

Then boom-badda-bing you are done. I like to change up the sprinkles I use, some Christmas themed, some plain, etc. Also if you want to get adventurous and like coconut, unlike me, you can also roll the balls in coconut.

Chocolate Christmas Balls

Best to store them in an air tight container in the fridge and eaten cold. They are good trust me.

Let me know what you think. I’m curious to see if anyone has done something similar before.

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The best looking Prime Rib

I came across this while going through AllRecipes.com for some Christmas Morning meal ideas. This has nothing to do with breakfast or Christmas for that matter, but looks amazing. It also looks relatively easy to make, so I plan on attempting it in the new year or between now and then. The video auto plays, so click on to watch it. It will make you hungry.

Continue Reading →

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Google caters to the Foodies

Google has won me over once again, as they now offer Recipe Search. There are tons of good resources for recipes online and many which I use. AllRecipes.com, the Epicurious iPad App, and so on. All of these places are good at what they do, so why does this Google search draw me in?

It draws me in because it is in a place I always am. I’m always searching for something, so why not food as well. When you watch the video you will see that there are many options you can put in place to narrow down your search. For example here is a link to a search I did for potatoes with parmesan cheese with only 30 minutes prep time and under 300 calories.

Even though my collection of Company’s Coming recipe books is growing I still foresee myself using this Google Search when I want to try and cook something different. What about you?

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