Monthly Archives: August 2014

Asian Inspired Flatbread Recipe

Asian Inspired Crispy Flatbread

Asian Inspired Crispy Flatbread

I was thinking about the Wasabi and Ginger Flavors and thought they’d be good in a crispy style bread. The Wasabi flavor and Ginger flavor just mellow and turn tasty with the sesame seed topping. The recipe is very quick and very easy to prepare.

Set your oven at 375 degrees the recipe makes one  Tasty flatbread.

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1 Cup All Purpose Flour

1/4 Cup Corn meal

1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic

about 1 1/2 long Ginger grated

2 teaspoons Wasabi Powder

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1/2 Cup Water

About 4 Tablespoons Sesame Seeds

Fresh Crushed Sea Salt

 

Directions

Mix well and roll all ingredients (except for sesame seeds and sea salt) in a ball.

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Now sprinkle with your sesame seeds and make it into an oblong

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and place on a slightly oiled silicone mat topped with slightly oiled parchment paper and with your rolling pin try to make it into a rectangle shape to fit your pan. It will come out best if you roll it as thin as a tortilla. Lift off the parchment paper and sprinkle with fresh crushed Sea Salt.

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Just lift up your silicone mat and place on a pan lined with parchment paper to catch anything that flows.

Bake about 18 minutes till it looks like this.

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Then flip it and brown the underside for about 3 minutes.

When cool break and you will have this.

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This turned out to be a very delicious tasty flatbread that anybody would like. The Ginger and Wasabi flavors mellowed very much and just turned tasty. The sesame seeds and sea salt just tie it all together.

Forking Truth

Forking Truth

I never ate a Twinkie but Twinkies remind me of my Childhood

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I never ate a forking Twinkie but they remind me of my Childhood because I think about the local bakeries from my childhood where we’d  buy “real” Baked Goods and not Twinkies.

As an adult Twinkies also sort of grossed me out something about the 37 ingredients that are mostly forking chemicals always nauseated me.

This flavor reminds me of a Dog's Butt.

This flavor reminds me of a Dog’s Butt.

I grew up in an area where we had many bakeries. These days we don’t forking have  as many bakeries. Not all but many people just for convenience just pick up whatever chemically laden baked goods their local supermarket sells. I grew up were we had many German Bakeries, Jewish Bakeries and Italian Bakeries. All these bakeries made “REAL” baked goods using Fresh Cream, Butter and Eggs. They all made delicious baked goods that were like what you’d make at home only if you were a Master Baker. When you walked into any of these bakeries you’d be hit with the appetizing aromas of fresh baked breads and sweet smelling sweets.  You would hear the loud clunky roar of the Electric Bread Slicer with a long line of people purchasing their “real” bread for the week.

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None of the Bakeries would make anything that looked like the Blue Forking Cow Fat filled Twinkie.

I think most people from my time might have grown up like me. You’d go with your parents to a local Bakery and they’d buy Fresh Baked Breads for the week and your parents would let you pick out a sweet to eat. If you were like me the Old Woman working at the bakery would hand you a fresh baked cookie or two just because you were a kid.

I don’t think kids today have the same simple pleasures.

I think today a baked good might be a Twinkie for a kid today.

I never ate a Twinkie but Twinkies remind me of my Childhood.

Forking Truth

Forking Truth

White Sonora Berries Salad in Dijon Sage Vinaigrette Recipe

White Sonora Berries Salad in Dijon Sage Vinaigrette

White Sonora Berries Salad in Dijon Sage Vinaigrette

I got some beautiful LOCAL Sonora Berries (1.5 lb. bag) so I thought I’d make a tasty salad.  I think Dijon Sage Vinaigrette goes really well with sun dried tomatoes. I have made other salads with these flavors and most people seem to like it.

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First I soaked the berries over night and the next day I drained and rinsed them.

Before I cooked the White Sonora Berries I made the Dijon Sage Vinaigrette.

1 Tablespoon Roasted Whipped Garlic

4 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard

1/3 C. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar

2 Tablespoons Ground Sage

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

1 Tablespoon Sugar

Mix the garlic and mustard really well and then add the oil slowly till it emulsifies. Slowly stir in the rest and mix it up as best as you can.

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Cover and set in refrigerator.

Now take your soaked Sonora Berries and rinse.

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Then I put them in my sauce pot and added maybe twice as much water, maybe a tablespoon of Kosher Salt, about 15 twist of fresh ground black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of thyme, one sweet onion and one carrot both cut in half to flavor the berries. (the onion and carrot get tossed out after the berries are cooked. The vegetables are only used to add flavor to the Sonora Berries.

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I brought this pot to a boil, then covered and turned down to a simmer. I think it took 45 minutes to be done. When it’s done remove and throw out the onion and carrot. when it’s still warm add the Dijon Sage Vinaigrette so the flavor can soak in.

Now add.

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about 1/2 Cup Sweet Onions Chopped

1 1/2 Cup Beans

3.5 oz. Sun dried  Tomatoes Chopped (only if they are soft)

1 red bell pepper chopped fine

1 handful chopped parsley (add last after everything else or just before serving)

Mix and then Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

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Forking Good!

Forking Good!

LEAD could be in your Balsamic Vinegar

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Before you forking toss your Balsamic Vinegar out you need to know.

Not ALL Balsamic Vinegars contain lead and some contain more lead than others but MANY Balsamic Vinegars contain trace amounts of lead.

(according to naturalnews.com) Forking research is beginning to show that vinegars that are aged for the longest amounts of time in wooden barrels are the ones that contain dangerously high levels of lead.

Some people believe the lead is from grapes that absorb lead from the soil they grow in.

Nobody’s going around saying don’t eat forking raisins or grapes.

So forking buy the cheap stuff when it comes to Balsamic Vinegar.

Forking Truth

Forking Truth

Nobody can be Disappointed with me for the Lay’s Wasabi Ginger Potato Chips

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Lay’s currently has this Contest going on called “Do Us A Flavor” and the Four Finalist Flavors have been forking Selected. I think they were something like Bacon Mac “n” Cheese,  Mango Salsa, Some sort of Coffee Flavor and Wasabi Ginger. ( I read somewhere when first announced Ginger Wasabi possibly a typo)

When I forking heard about the Wasabi Flavor being a finalist I was forking bummed because I submitted that flavor almost as soon as the contest was announced and I FORKING wanted to be the finalist. Well I really FORKING wanted to win the million dollars too!

I printed my flavor out 1-17-14

I printed my flavor out 1-17-14

So I decided to purchase and try what my flavor would taste like.

WTFork!

It’s Ok and edible and not awful like some of the fake cheese flavored chips. But the chips aren’t the spicy Wasabi Flavor I was hoping for, I keep tasting them hoping to suck more Wasabi taste in my mouth. They also don’t have much Ginger taste either. The chips  taste more like Mild Asian Dipping Sauce that is oddly asidic and on the salty side.  The Lay’s Wasabi Ginger Potato Chips are sort of disappointing. I do like the crunch of them but I almost feel like slapping on some real wasabi and ginger on them to satisfy my wasabi craving.

Well I won’t win the Forking Million Dollars and Nobody can be disappointed with me for the Lay’s Wasabi Ginger Potato Chips.

Forking Truth

Forking Truth

Roasted Hot Green Sauce and Green Hot Pepper Ketchup Recipe

If you find yourself with a bunch of peppers that are forking too hot to consume you can always make them into Forking Hot Sauce and Forking Hot Ketchup. The Cool Thing is you can start off the two sauces from one pot.

Ingredients

6 Roasted, cleaned and seeded Bell Peppers and the golden sweet juice they release from roasting. (for sweetness)

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Around 12 oz. of Roasted Serrano Chilies Cleaned

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Around 1 lb. 11 oz. Hot Hatch Chili’s Roasted Pealed if you can and seeded

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1 apple pealed, cored and chopped

Juice from 1 Lime

3 Garlic Cloves smashed fine

3 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar

2 Cups Water

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

1/2 teaspoon Cayenne

1/2 teaspoon white ground pepper

(for making the Ketchup afterwards you need )

1 Cup Sugar

1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce

Pinch Cloves

Directions

Dice up all the peppers place in pot and add rest of ingredients and blend.

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It will look sort of like this.

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Bring to boil and let simmer at least an hour.

Then use a strainer and separate the sauce.

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Take your thick sauce and turn it into Ketchup.

Place Thick Sauce back in your sauce pan and add 1 cup of white sugar, 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce and a pinch of Ground Cloves. Bring to boil and let simmer about an hour. Place in a clean container. You can blend it smoother if you want to.

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Back to Hot Green Sauce.

Put your thin green sauce back in your sauce pan and bring to boil and turn down to a slower boil and let it reduce to maybe a third from where you started.

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The Green Hot Pepper Ketchup almost had a fruit taste to it I think it would be really good with lighter meats. It’s spicy but not forking spicy.

The Roasted Hot Green Sauce gives you that roasted pepper taste at first and then gives you a big fat punch of forking spicy heat.

Forking Good!

Forking Good!

 

Quick EASY and Forking Delicious Spelt Veggie Flat Bread

It only takes minutes to prepare a delicious and light Spelt Veggie Flat Bread. This is forking easy and anyone can make this flatbread.

Spelt Veggie Flatbread

Spelt Veggie Flatbread

Ingredients for the Flatbread (this recipe makes two quarter flat pan flat breads and will serve 4-8 people) Set Oven at 450 degrees

1 Cup All Purpose Flour

1 Cup Spelt Flour

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1 Cup Water

about 2 teaspoons Kosher Salt

Mix well

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and pat flat on a slightly canola sprayed pan. Arrange your vegetables. (I used Zucchini, Onion, Corn, Heirloom Tomatoes and Shishito Peppers)

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At this point you pop the pan in your 450 degree oven and it’s cooked in 10 minutes.

Now you add cheese if you want cheese. (I used Brie and it was delicious) You season with fresh crushed Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper and drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Glaze and Pop back in the oven till cheese just melts.

Quick! and Very Easy to make! The spelt flour lightens up the dough and also makes for a more flavorful almost nutty tasting dough. This Flatbread got inhaled really forking fast. Yours will too.

Spelt Veggie Flat Bread

Spelt Veggie Flat Bread

So Quick, Easy and Forking Delicious! Spelt Veggie Flatbread.

Forking Good!

Forking Good!

 

 

Tomato, Hibiscus, Onion & Roasted Lime Salad

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I had these beautiful tomatoes and noticed the forking tomatoes looked similar to the cover of my magazine. But they also had those pretty purple sprouts and forking micro greens.

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So I thought I’d try out the Tomato, Onion and Roasted Lemon Recipe. I thought the edible sugar roasted and herbed lemons sounded interesting and thought to myself I could easily also do the same with limes and create a similar but different salad.

Tomato, Onion and Roasted Lemon Salad

Tomato, Onion and Roasted Lemon Salad

I do note other people might not feel the way I did about the Tomato, Onion and Roasted Lemon Salad.

I did the cover  recipe and just found out I FORKING HATE Pomegranate Molasses or I hate the bottled Pomegranate Molasses I used anyway. The magazine recipe includes pomegranate molasses. I LOVE pomegranates and had no forking idea that pomegranate molasses can taste exactly like forking cough syrup. That red sweet tart sort of taste is really nauseating to me. The whole salad tasted forking terrible to me even with all the spices added. It was that cough syrup, mint, sage,allspice and almost bitter lemon.  The tomatoes taste laced with cough syrup. For me these flavors were terrible together. I’m thinking the recipe might have some forking typo errors. I can’t forking stomach it BUT I do note other people might enjoy it.

It was pretty easy to do another salad using the same method to cook the citrus. So I created another salad that looks similar but with flavors that forking taste good together to me.

The recipe is pretty easy.

Tomato, Hibiscus, Onion and Roasted Lime Salad

1 Lime Washed and sliced very thin with seeds removed (ignore the lemons in the picture, I used them for the other recipe)

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About 3 Tablespoons Fresh Cleaned chopped Cilantro

1/2 teaspoon Sugar

2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil (1Tbsp & 1Tbsp)

1 Tablespoon Hibiscus Syrup

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3 Hibiscus Flowers torn

1 Slightly Spicy Pepper sliced thin (I used a Shishito but a fresno or banana pepper would be just as good)

1 Garlic Clove mashed or crushed fine

Around a pound of small Heirloom Tomatoes sliced up.

About 1/4 sweet onion sliced thin

About 2 Tablespoons of Roasted Watermelon seeds (Pumpkin would also be very good)

Fresh Crushed Sea Salt and Black Pepper

 

Set your oven at 325 degrees

Boil your limes for 2 minutes to remove bitterness, drain and pat dry.

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Toss lime slices with I Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 1 Tablespoon Chopped Cilantro and Sugar. Line your citrus on a parchment lined pan and bake the limes 15-20 minutes till they seem dry.

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Mix I Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil with garlic and Hibiscus Syrup till well combined. Add all your remaining ingredients and Season with Fresh Ground Sea Salt and Black Pepper.

Tomato, Onion, and Roasted Lime Salad

Tomato, Onion, and Roasted Lime Salad

I thought the salad was good this way but then I kicked it up adding some Hibiscus Flowers to add more balance to the lime, A thinly sliced Shishito Pepper, and Roasted Watermelon Seeds. The salad is forking complete now.

Tomato, Hibiscus, Onion and Roasted Lime Salad

Tomato, Hibiscus, Onion and Roasted Lime Salad

Forking Good!

Forking Good!

 

 

Food Wise Phoenix AZ is Forking Different

It’s subtle but when you move to or visit Phoenix Arizona you might start to notice many small things in your food world are forking different.

The Produce Section,

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Dairy Sections

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and Meat Sections

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do differ from Grocery Stores in other areas that you might remember.

Different or fewer apples, less variety and more expensive mushrooms.

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(yikes some good ones in specialty stores are forking $40. a lb. and more), and usually fewer colors of cauliflower. Instead of reasonably priced banana peppers you can find reasonably priced jalapeños and you can never find any fresh forking cherry peppers.

In the dairy section

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you won’t find the different cottage cheeses offering you the variety of different sizes of curds. You also won’t find a good quality ricotta cheese so you should forking make your own. You can find heavy whipping cream but regular heavy cream that you might need for  your cheese making as it is almost impossible to find. Not all but MOST  forking grocery stores here don’t carry heavy cream and just carry heavy whipping cream instead.

The deli forking differs too here in Phoenix.

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You need to make your own forking Health Salad out here if you want it. The brands of deli meat differ and out here you can’t get real pastrami like the kind that has fat you just melt off in your fry pan. Out here you get the kind that turns forking hard when you try to heat it in a pan because it’s made without fat and also has less flavor.

Not all but most meat departments don’t carry veal but that might be because maybe most people don’t eat veal anymore?

It used to be easy to find roaster chickens but most places here only forking carry fryer chickens.

Almost everyone likes Cannoli’s.  I guess not too many people out here in Phoenix eat them because they are M.I.A. from the forking  bakery counters. If you want a cannoli you need to find a specially store or make them yourself.  Actually a lot is missing in action from the bakery counters such as people. People don’t wait in line to order bread and sweets as it’s just forking self serve. So far I haven’t tried any sweets from these grocery bakeries that taste good to me  as they seem to have that chemical box taste taste so I forking make my own.  Real rye bread doesn’t make much of an appearance here either as you have to settle for mostly spiked up white bread trying to be rye. Most of the grocery bakeries make forking squishy bread that doesn’t taste like real bread. You can find some good bread but it’s few and far between.

Of the jarred items I’d normally purchase I have to do without India Relish as NOT ONE STORE in the forking Phoenix Area Carries it.  Hot Cherry Peppers are not in any regular supermarket. I note I can find them at the Asian Market so I have to forking go there for that. I also haven’t found anisette sugar out here anywhere yet.

I hate to say this and pardon the pun but the Forking Fish selection Stinks.

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That is the truth! Almost every major supermarket sells only a few varieties not so fresh tasting fish. I know Arizona is the forking desert and fish just don’t swim here but just about every FORKING TIME I purchase fish from a supermarket it doesn’t taste fresh if it’s edible at all. Often ALL the Markets sell Spoiled Fish.

Soda taste different. I think the high Arizona Heat brings out the chemical taste.  The same with canned foods. You can taste the can more. Maybe it’s because of the dry heat?

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On the Bright Side!

The Phoenix food area is far from forking awful and many things are also better!

It’s easier to find less expensive better tasting beef.  You can pick up almost any forking beef from anywhere and you can do well easily.

Local Produce is grown here and is sold at Super markets and Farmers Markets. Some of the stand outs are the Local Grains, Local Beans and I really like the Local Sprigarella, Local Rutabaga’s, Local Pecans and Local Dates.

Many big box stores and Asian Markets are conveniently located to most of us.

You have forking easy access to booze and wine. Most Super Markets and Forking Gas Stations sell Booze and Wine. Phoenix also has some Forking Drive threw Liquor Stores.

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Specialty wine stores are also conveniently located in many areas.

Phoenix is a foodie destination! lots of interesting and international restaurants. You can travel the World by the Forking Seat of your pants in the Metro Phoenix Area.

Most of Mexican Cuisine is here from Seafood to Cow Head Tacos to dishes with dried Crickets to Americanized Mexican Favorites like chimichangas.

The Birthday Song kind of place

The Birthday Song kind of place

Almost every kind of Asian Food is here

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including Cambodian. We also have Caribbean Food, Swedish Food, Moroccan Food, German Food, Bosnian Food, English Food, Indian Food, Middle Eastern Food and Others!

Many Magazines and Food TV Shows say we have the best Forking Pizza Shop in the country!

You want Steak Phoenix has LOTS of fine steak houses. There is no steak shortage here.

Many James Bread Nominated Chefs have restaurants here and they all put out all kinds of Forking interesting creative plates.

At not all but many of the restaurants with patios your dog is welcomed to dine with you.

Food wise Phoenix Arizona is not the same and is Forking different from other places you’ve been.

Forking Truth

Forking Truth