Wednesday, September 16, 2009

It's Bacon

I have heard of infusing vodka with fruits, mint, and vanilla...but BACON, that was a new one for me. This past weekend I ventured out to Greenpoint, Brooklyn for Sunday Funday with some friends. We started off at a place called 68. They had been infusing vodka with bacon as an expirement for the past few weeks. The day we arrived happend to be the day they were testing it out. We tried bacon martinis and bacon bloody marys. I think the vodka worked better in the bloody mary because it wasn't too overpowering. It just had a hint of bacon flavor; where the bacon martini was extreemly potent. I am not sure if my palet could stomach more than one bacon infused beverage.

How to Infuse Vodka:

Toasty Tip: Put green olives stuffed with bacon and blue cheese into your martinis and pickeled snap peas into your bloody marys. They did it and I loved it!

Chip On This


IT'S NATIONAL GUACAMOLE DAY!!!
Everyone go grab your mortar, pestle, and magic bullet and make some killer guac and margs to celebrate this special day.
I give this two toasted buns!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Toasty Treat


Kristin made me dinner last night. What a great roomie.

To make it a little healthier she used lean turkey meat, light sour cream, and black beans. However, I think the three helpings I had took the "lite" right out of the dish.

Oh well, it still was delicious. Thanks Kristin!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

GOOP


I am secretly in love with Gwyneth Paltrow. I think she is so freaking cute, is a wonderful mother, and always involves herself in things that make the world a better place. Oh and of course...she is a foodie like me!

Anyway moving on...Gwyneth has a blog/website called GOOP that I am obsessed with. She blogs about six categories (make, see, do, get, be, see). She discuss anything from what she is wearing this fall to her favorite organic baby food. The cool part is, being that she has a lot of celebrity friends she frequently gets them to chime in on their ideas.

Obviously my favorite category is MAKE where she posts recipes from famous chefs and "how to" videos. Check out her most recent MAKE post.


Toasty Tip: Sign up for her weekly newsletter and get goopin!

Eating Out Recession Style

My Mom is always looking for a deal. Whether buying microwaves on Ebay or getting triple skymiles points on Delta, her eye is always on the "never pay full price" prize. Being that we are in a recession, she has stepped up her game moving from deals to steals. Something constitutes as a "steal" when you walk out of the store worried the clerk is going to run after you saying she made a mistake in ringing you up. It was so cheap you feel as though you stole it from the store.

My Mom's most recent steal was on http://www.restaurant.com/. If you register online, you can purchase restaurant gift certificates at a fraction of the cost. (i.e. $25 gift card for $10). If you can believe it, she found a promotional code "NINETY" that takes 90% off your total order. So, I just got 13 $25 gift cards to New York City restaurants for a total of $14. Now that's a steal!

Your "Cup" Cakes Look "Double D" Licious


I am in my friend, KD's, wedding and she had a lingerie shower last weekend. What looked like a regular cake turned out to be a cake made from vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. What a cute idea and a great way for people to serve themselves.
Toasty Tip: Don't eat Fondant icing (the purple bows above). It it edible but tastes like rubber. It is used for decorating cakes as it is extremely pliable. Ever seen Ace of Cakes?

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Scalloping

My Dad and Mom went scalloping with their friends the other weekend. Thanks to my parents' support for their crazy daughter who blogs about food, they created a post for me. I think they secretly enjoyed putting it together!

Here is what they had to say:
It is like an adult Easter Egg Hunter under water. A scallop is a fan shaped shell creature found in oceans the world over. You search for them to harvest the muscle that holds the two sides of the shell together as they make a scrumptious meal.
We scalloped in the shallow edge waters of the Gulf near Steinhatchee, Florida... this is “old” Florida. You feel what it must have been like for the Olds, Vanderbilt and Astor families as they began wintering in Florida. We stayed in a beautiful 3 bedroom cottage at Steinhatchee Landing.
To be legal, a Florida saltwater fishing license for $17.50 is required as well as hunting in season (July 1 – Sept 10). Some areas are banned due to “over scalloping”. Waters were two to four feet deep and the bottom was mix of sand and sea grasses. We arrived at our happy hunting ground by boat supplied by Captain Jim and Cindy Seletos.

Using a mask, fins and snorkel, you float lazily around looking for scallops just inches above the sand or sea grass, collecting them in a mesh bag. You periodically return to the boat to deposit your catch and swill down the libation of your choice.

Those who don’t get in the water find themselves in the boat cleaning the scallops. This is done with a spoon used to pry the scallop open followed by scraping the inside to loosen and discard a bunch of yuckie stuff. The muscle is collected and the shells go back into the water to become beach sand in a couple of million years.

It took about 6 hours for 8 adults to collect and clean scallops yielding 64 oz., the limit for our boat. It might have been a thousand scallops. The more you clean the larger the number gets. While the scallop is about 1.5-2 inches in diameter, the harvested scallop muscle is slightly smaller than the size of a piece of double bubble gum.

The collection process is extremely relaxing but remember your sunscreen or your will become a lobster! Relaxing is aided by the fact that cell phones rarely work there! We cooked our harvest the following day.

Scallop Recipe:

Just sautée the scallops in some olive oil, minced garlic, sea salt and ground pepper for approximately 5 minutes. Once cooked, remove the scallops from the pan. To the liquid in the pan, add white wine, a bit of half and half and a cornstarch/water mixture to thicken the sauce. Return the scallops to the pan. Color with some chopped parsley. Ladle over al dente linguini along with a green or tomato salad. Quantities of white wine of choice should also accompany… helping with digestion or mental acuity I am sure!

Secrets, Secrets Are No Fun

Remember my previous post about In-N-Out Burger's "secret menu"? Well look what my new roomie, Kristin, sent me. This is a clogged arteries dream! This list comes from another blogger who loves food.

10 Secret Menu Items from Fast Food Restaurants

1. In-N-Out Burger’s “secret menu” isn’t so secret these days – in fact, they’ve posted it on their website. But in case you’re not in the habit of surfing fast food sites, here’s the skinny on the rather un-skinny items: ordering something “Animal Style” at In-N-Out means you’re going to get it with lettuce, tomato, a mustard-cooked beef patty, pickles, extra spread (it’s sort of Thousand-Islandy) and grilled onions. You can even get your fries Animal Style. “Protein Style” is a burger wrapped in a lettuce leaf instead of a bun. A Grilled Cheese is two slices of American cheese, lettuce, tomato and spread on a bun (grilled onions if you so choose). And you can get just about any combo of meat and cheese that you want if you order it like you’re ordering lumber: 3×3 gets you three beef patties and three slices of cheese, 4×4 gets you four of each, and so on. It doesn’t stop there – one gluttonous patron requested a 100×100 at an Las Vegas store a couple of years ago. One item not listed on the website secret menu: the Flying Dutchman, which is two slices of cheese sandwiched between two patties, hold the bun.

2. If you’re at Starbucks and in need of just a little caffeine, don’t worry – there’s a tiny option for you. It’s the Short size, and they don’t advertise it. It’s like a little baby cup of coffee.

3. It’s a good thing we don’t have Jamba Juice here in Iowa, because I would be all over candy-inspired smoothies. Because it’s considered a health-food chain, Jamba Juice doesn’t officially list these on their in-store menus, but Mighty Foods assures us that the secret flavors exist. The ones they confirmed with the company’s headquarters include Strawberry Shortcake, White Gummy Bear, PB&J, Various flavors of Starbursts, Fruity Pebbles, Push-Up Pops, and Skittles. Other tantalizing flavors that are rumored to exist: Chocolate Gummi Bear, Apple Pie, Sourpatch Kid, Tootsie Roll, Chocolate-covered strawberries, and Now and Later.

4. Chipotle has a whole secret menu that is limited only by your imagination – they have a store policy that says that if they have the item available, they will make it for you. Things that have been tested include nachos, quesadillas, taco salads and single tacos.

5. If you’re at Wendy’s and you’re really hungry – like, three-patties-just-won’t-cut-it hungry, go ahead and order the Grand Slam, which is four patties stacked on a bun. It’s also known as the Meat Cube.

6. Several places, including McDonald’s and In-N-Out, will serve you the Neapolitan milkshake. It’s just what it sounds like – chocolate, vanilla and strawberry shakes layered in a cup.

7. Feeling a little health-conscious at Popeye’s? If you are, you really should have gone somewhere else. But there’s a little hope for you – ordering “naked chicken” will get you breading-free poultry. The word is that this is on the menu at some Popeye’s, but not all of them, although it is an option at all of them.

8. FAVORITE: Like Chipotle, Taco Bell will make you just about anything within reason as long as they have the ingredients for it. Since most of the food at Taco Bell is made out of the same basic items, that means you can probably ask for most discontinued items and get them. One “secret,” though, is that they have a not-advertised green chili sauce at most locations, and apparently it’s excellent.

9. Some Subways will still make you the popular pizza sub from the ‘90s. Once the chain decided to make their focus healthy eating, the pizza sub disappeared from most menus. Just make sure Jared isn't standing behind you in line when you order.

10. At Fatburger, you can order a Hypocrite – a veggie burger topped with crispy strips of bacon.