Monthly Archives: June 2015

Pickled Fried Rutabagas, Beets with Scallions, Blue Cheese and Walnuts

 

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What inspired me to come up with this dish was rutabagas that were unusually strong in flavor with an extra fiber texture. I tried to use them anyway and I decided I needed to infuse sweetness cut with some vinegar with beet essence.

I roasted up a few beets with rutabagas in a covered pan with a little water, sugar, and rice wine vinegar till they were fork tender. Around an hour.

Then I fried the rutabagas, beets and scallions in a combination of butter and canola oil till they were slightly crisp. I sprinkled the hot vegetables with fresh ground sea salt and pepper.

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To serve I slice the rutabagas and beets in slices. I topped them with the fried scallions, blue cheese, heated walnuts and some shredded pepper.

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Adding sweetness with beets to the rutabagas and the strong blue cheese mellowed the rutabagas in a way where they became edible and more beet like. This was the perfect flavor combination for this dish.  The scallions got slightly candied from the sugar coming out in the fry pan from the root vegetables.

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

Mashawi Lebanese Grill Glendale AZ was worth a Fork NOW CLOSED

The $21.99 Feast for two minus the two fresh salads

The $21.99 Feast for two minus the two fresh salads

UPDATE Mashawi Lebanese Grill has closed in January 2016 So this is now a story about how it was.

I am so glad I tried this new Lebanese Grill that recently opened not so far from me. The $21.99 feast for two is amazing. It’s forking generous but more importantly delicious. This little restaurant in a strip mall location serves up fresh Lebanese foods that are certified Halal…that means no pork is served here.

In a nut shell all the foods we tried were absolutely delicious.

We tried the Mashawi Platter for two $21.99 Item. I liked that it was studded with fresh herbs.

The large platter included-

one chicken kabab that was juicy and delicious white meat chicken

one shish kafta (lamb and beef like meat ball case free sausage)

one chicken kafta that was sort of like delicious juicy flavorful chicken meatballs with a delicious charbroiled crust.

one tenderloin kabab…tasty but slightly overcooked

2 really delicious herbed crispy falafels that were crispy and were studded with delicious herbs. (an above average falafel) Anybody would enjoy this falafel.

2 tasty vegetarian stuffed grape leaves

a large amount of fluffy rice

And some grilled fresh tomato with some fresh grilled onions.

two crisp fresh tasty salads

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And flat bread with three delicious house made sauces of garlic, tahini, and tzazitiki sauces.

Service was terrific being friendly and warm and the dining room seemed clean and was A-OK! All the sauces and marinades are made in House. Service was great, food was delicious and a forking value.

Mashawi Lebanese Grill was Worth a Fork! NOW CLOSED FOR BUSSINESS

3.5 Meaning Good Value not award winning. if you are in the neighborhood kind of place.

3.5 Meaning Good Value not award winning. if you are in the neighborhood kind of place.

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

 

Refreshing Rosemary Cucumber Salad Recipe

Refreshing Rosemary Cucumber Salad

Refreshing Rosemary Cucumber Salad

Rosemary is very aromatic and the key to this recipe being successful is a careful hand adding the rosemary. This recipe is simple but is light and refreshing.

Ingredients makes about 8 servings

2 large cucumbers pealed and sliced I sliced mine slightly thick so they won’t get too soggy

1 red onion pealed and sliced thin

1 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons kosher salt

2 cups red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary chopped fine

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Directions

Just combine, chill adjust seasonings if necessary and serve

It Forking Good and that's The Forking Truth!

It Forking Good and that’s The Forking Truth!

My PUPS are Featured on a bag of Lay’s Potato Chips #LAYSSUMMER

Pool Party pro's

Lay is running a new contest that gives out various prizes including personalized bags of potato chips. All you do is share a picture of your summer moments on social media such as twitter or instagam with the hashtag #LaysSummer.

They are giving away many prizes. To get the big prizes you do have to get a code number from your potato chip bag to plug in when you upload your photo.  I got a bag of chips but other forking people might win a trip to Atlantis, a 2016 Nissan Roadster, a paddle boat, a kayak, beach towels and much more!

I just got my prize in the mail.

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The chips are more useful than a paddle boat or kayak for me.

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

Onion Swiss Cheese Apple Rye Focaccia Style Bread Recipe

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This bread came out forking delicious! It’s crispy on the outside , chewy and moist on the inside with that just right charred onion taste and you get a little sweet from the apples and a real rye taste.

Ingredients Makes about 10 servings

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 pack dry yeast

1 cup warm water (mine needed to be 100-110 degrees for the yeast)

1 1/2 cup rye flour

1 cup bread flour

2 Tablespoons canola oil

1 Tablespoon caraway seeds

1 small apple pealed, cored, sliced thin and a rough chop

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

2 Tablespoons garlic dill pickle brine  ( I used from my pickle recipe on this site)

7 oz. shredded Swiss cheese (Swiss with the bigger holes)

1/2 red onion sliced thin

cooking spray for baking pan

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions Set oven to 450 degrees

Combine yeast, sugar and water and set in a warm place for about a half hour until you see the yeast has bloomed. Then add canola, both flours and caraway seeds and combine well, roll in a ball, cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place for about an hour. Punch down and add, apple, salt, brine, about 3/4 of the cheese (your saving a handful for the top), onion. Mix well and pat into a sprayed sheet pan and let sit about 1/2 hour. Now you make the dents in the surface with your fingers. Top with remaining cheese and drizzle with olive oil. Place in the oven and it will be done in around 20 minutes.

Onion Swiss Cheese Apple Rye Focaccia Style Bread

Onion Swiss Cheese Apple Rye Focaccia Style Bread

Pickle recipe- Boil and pour over pickles and fresh dill

Pickle recipe- Boil and pour over pickles and fresh dill and onions

It Forking Good and that's The Forking Truth!

It Forking Good and that’s The Forking Truth!

 

 

 

An Overall Not Worth a FORK Dining Experience in Metro Phoenix AZ

Sort Rib Taco from Salt and Lime Restaurant Scottsdale AZ

Sort Rib Taco from Salt and Lime Modern Mexican Grill Scottsdale AZ

Mexican Food can be delicious and is usually made with various fresh herbs and lots of spices. This kind of food is not boring and certainly isn’t bland.

When I walked into this establishment besides nearly turning forking deaf from the blaring 70s hard rock anthem tunes, I could see by the patrons that the cuisine would not be authentic Mexican and would be some sort of Americanized Mexi Style kind of food. So I only had forking dreams of an average meal but soon my only average dreams turned to a mediocre experience.  We were quickly whisked to the dining room filled with tables and booths that were very close together and some members of our party were actually rubbing elbows with strangers. We soon receive a basket of half broken corn chips that weren’t oily…….. YIPPIE!………. I dipped a chip into the salsa. It was oddly tasteless. It seemed like a few key ingredients were missing from that batch of salsa. It seemed like the fresh cilantro, chilies, salt, garlic and fresh onions were hanging out with the missing Lindbergh Baby.

I thought it might be a good idea to share a pitcher of margaritas. I tasted my margarita and it was cloyingly sweet like hummingbird water and seemed to only had trace amounts of liquor in it if any. It made me go mmmmmmmm not a forking good idea.

Oddly someone was running around passing out tickets to win a forking beer logo floatation raft. It sort of reminded me of a forking circus. My number wasn’t called so I felt deflated and didn’t win the forking floatation raft.

The tacos were $2.00 off for happy hour so they seemed appealing to start out with as appetizers. Four of us were at the table and between us we tried five different tacos. Four out of the five tacos were made with dry undeveloped with flavor meats and seemed to lack similar taste that the salsa was missing. I had the Huachnanco Taco, that is a snapper taco.

excuse the forking poor photo but that’s the fork how it came out.

Salt and Lime Scottsdale AZ

Salt and Lime Modern Mexican Grill Scottsdale AZ

The fish didn’t seem over cooked like all the meat tacos but this taco didn’t have any delicious flavor to it either. You can see this taco lacks fresh cilantro and fresh scallions. This taco was loaded with a creamy sauce that lacked the cilantro flavor that the menu promiced and other good flavors it was suppose to have. You can’t tell by looking at the photo how the pickled onions taste. Usually pickled onions in a taco taste good. These onions tasted like straight vinegar. They lack the sweet to balance them out.  It’s a little hard to see but there are small chunks of pineapple in the taco. The pineapple lacked a fresh pineapple texture and taste. I don’t know for sure but they seemed like sweetened pineapples from a forking can. When I bit into this taco I couldn’t forking taste much more than plain vinegar that made my mouth hurt. that taco was very unbalanced in flavor.

I had the kale and mango salad for dinner with added salmon.

Salt and Lime Scottsdale AZ

Salt and Lime Modern Mexican Grill Scottsdale AZ

After the the not so good tacos (saying the forking least), weak sweet margaritas and not so good salsa I wanted to forking hate my salad but honestly it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great. While it wasn’t forking awful like everyone else’s meal but it was expensive for what I got. The salad does come in small and large so I asked the server the different in size so with her hands she makes like the small is a forking 4 inches big and with her hands like the large is a foot long so it makes me think I better get the forking large one that cost $18.75 with salmon. That’s a lot of forking money for a salad even for forking Scottsdale.  The kale was prepared nicely and cut in the right size pieces. Mango, red cabbage, jicama, avocado, queso fresco and pepitas all were a good combination in the salad and did taste good. I can’t forking bust them for bad tasting dressing because the orange lime vinaigrette dressing was mostly forking tasteless. I did get about two bites out of many over the course of two days (because it was forking gigantic and took the rest home) that were DELICIOUS because those couple bites had the orange taste. That leads me to believe the dressing might have not been mixed well and I only got the light stuff off the top of the batch of dressing with all the flavors settled on the bottom. I have to say my salmon was cooked perfect. It had a nice crust and was prepared medium-medium rare. The salmon it’s self was very good.

My husband tried the carnitas. Sorry for another forking poor photo, I wasn’t drunk I swear because I couldn’t choke down that forking margarita.

Salt and Lime Scottsdale AZ

Salt and Lime Modern Mexican Grill Scottsdale AZ

The carnitas were dry and not developed with flavor.

One person at the table had a vegetable burrito. I don’t know what was wrong with it but the Sr. Citizen that had it said, “it was mediocre at best”.  I didn’t forking question that.

Another person at the table had the carne asada fajita. I saw the meat and could see it looked forking dry and shriveled up like beef jerky. It’s too bad the cook that prepared it didn’t feel like a forking jerk for sending that thing out. The person who had the fajita did say something to the waitress and she offered him a replacement that he refused. Later she did remove the fajita from the bill. That was nice and our server did seem very nice. Sadly she works in a place that prepared mostly mediocre food and drink when we were there.

So if your a fan of overly sweet/weak margaritas, American/Mexi Style food that’s bland and mostly dry, expensive salads, in a loud rubbing elbows bar and circus like atmosphere…….This is JUST THE Place for you!

Overall

Not Worth a FORK!

Not Worth a FORK!

I note your forking opinion may differ and you just like this kind of cuisine. I also note this it how it was on the forking day I was there and on other days they could possibly be better.

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

Slight update- The manager contacted me and said they’d turn down the music if we asked them too and that the pineapples weren’t canned. She also said I could come back and get a free appetizer.

 

 

 

 

 

WTFork are Black Velvet Apricots?

Black Velvet Apricots

Black Velvet Apricots

Black velvet apricots are actually 50% apricot and %50 plum. They have a slightly fuzzy skin like velvet and a really sweet juicy orange colored flesh. The first one I tried I thought started out tasting like a super intense apricot but then it finished more like plum with a slightly tart skin. The texture is better than an apricot it far more juicy and doesn’t have than grainy thing that apricots sometimes have.

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This is WTFork black velvet apricots are.

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

La Piazza Al Forno Glendale AZ is Worth a Fork!

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In old town historic Glendale AZ is a little Italian Restaurant called La Piazza Al Forno. This restaurant might be famous for being featured on Food Network TV’s Diners Drive Inns and Dives with Guy Fieri but don’t hold that against them. This little restaurant pumps out Italian Certified  Neapolitan Pizzas that are light and delicious. After all these are the delicate kind of pizzas that you eat with a knife and fork. With mozzarella cheese is made in house and certified D.o.p. Italian tomatoes how can these pizzas not be delicious?

Margherita D.O.C.

Margherita D.O.C.

The pizza that most people start out with is the basic certified pizza call the Margherita D.O.C. It’s made of Certified Dough San Marzano Tomatoes D.o.p., house made mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, and fresh basil. This is the lightest pizza I ever had anywhere. The crust is light and pillowy and moist in the center. The tomatoes are rich with tomato flavor. The olive oil and basil compliment the pizza perfect. It’s a very tasty pizza and you can eat half and not have a forking brick in your stomach like regular pizzas from most other places. This pizza doesn’t weigh you down. It’s a forking pleasure to eat.

Salvatore Pizza- San Marzano tomatoes D.o.p., house made mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, prosciutto di parma, arugula

Salvatore Pizza- San Marzano tomatoes D.o.p., house made mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, prosciutto di parma, arugula

I’ve also had other pizzas here including the one they might be locally famous for such as their white pizza that’s tasty and delicious. They won an award for best white pizza in metro Phoenix. Another dish they are well known for is the Spaghetti Pie but that one is only a forking special. I haven’t tried that one yet but the last time I was there almost every table had one. This time I thought I’d try something different and had the Calzone.

Calzone

Calzone

This one is not for the faint of heart. Nor do I recommend to devour this beauty in one forking seating. It comes stuffed with ricotta, house made mozzarella and a San Marzano tomato sauce is included for the yum factor for $9.00. For two dollars more I added fresh spinach because eating a little bit of vegetable made it seem slightly healthier (LOL) and Calabrian Chiles for pops of heat for fun. This is how it looked inside.

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My husband had the Dolce Diavolo pizza.

Dolce Diavolo Pizza

Dolce Diavolo Pizza

The Dolce Diavolo Pizza is made of San Marzano Tomatoes D.o.p., house made mozzarella, sopressata, Calabrian Chiles, fresh basil and just the right amount of honey for balance.

If you manage to save any room you must save room for one of the cheese cakes because they are the best in the valley. I don’t always like cheese cake because many of them are thick and taste sour to me. The cheese cake here is east coast style and is light in texture with the correct sweetness and touch of vanilla to it.

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This cheese was absolutely delicious! My husband always thought he hated cheese cake but this is a great one so even he liked it.

La Piazza Al Forno in Glendale AZ is Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork! You'll drive from far if your wild about pizza and cheese cake.

Worth a Fork! You’ll drive from far if your wild about pizza and cheese cake.

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

 

Larry The Cable Guy’s TATER SALAD Tater Chips R Forking Good!

 

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I forking crack up a little bit almost every time I see Larry the Cable Guy Food all around at places I go. His name is on all kinds of boxed mixes, spice rubs, candies, a whole line of potato chips and I have no idea what else. Larry the Cable Guy is a multiplatinum recording artist, billboard award winner and a well known comedian.

When you purchase Larry TCG Potato Chips you are contributing to his non-profit Git-R-Done Foundation that Larry and his wife established. Every LTCG Food Purchase supports assistance to mostly veterans and children who have experienced hardship beyond their control.

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I finally broke down and had to try the Tater Salad Tater Chips. Honestly they might be the most realistic tasting flavored chip I ever tasted. THEY FORKING DO taste just like potato salad. You can taste all the ingredients of potato salad. You can taste potatoes, celery, mustard, vinegar, onions salt and pepper but are slightly sweet. The chips are smaller than most other brands, are thin and do have a light delicate texture. The only thing strange about them is the flavor dust they have on them. It’s almost like freeze dried potato salad coats the chips. Honestly these LTCG “Tater Salad” Tater Chips are better tasting at being potato salad than the last potato salad I tried out at a restaurant.

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I can’t forking tell you if the other LTCG Chips or products are good but I can say the Tater Salad Tater Chips are Forking Good!

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

 

WTFork is Broasted Chicken?

Broasted Chicken and Broasted Potatoes from Guido's Restaurant Scottsdale AZ

Broasted Chicken and Broasted Potatoes from Guido’s Restaurant Scottsdale AZ

Broasted is a cooking process trademarked by the Broaster Company. The broaster is a pressure fryer made for restaurant use. To make broasted chicken first the chicken is marinaded, then battered. The broasting process is suppose to make a juicier chicken with a crisp exterior. It’s suppose to lighter and healthier than deep frying.

This was the first time I tried broasted chicken. The restaurant I went to said they specialized in broasted chicken so I thought I’d give it a forking try.

The white meat was  very forking dry inside and lacked flavor of any kind. It was like forking chewing hay. But hay would have more flavor. Oddly the chicken got dryer and dryer as it sat on my plate. At this moment I wished I ordered something different.  I also wished I was in a different forking restaurant with better food. The exterior sort of flaked off and I think it was just plain flour and it seemed to lack any forking seasoning. I saved some for my dogs and they ate it but they didn’t wag their tails like they normally do when eating chicken.

the "GIVE me CHICKEN" face

“that chicken was FORKING DRY” “WTFork did you give me?”

That chicken was so bad it forking disappointed my dogs.

The potatoes faired better. They seemed light and fluffy inside but the thin crisp flour on the outside of the potatoes kept falling off. I should also mention to be fair my husband’s Hot house made sausage sandwich was good but slightly over cooked and had good but slightly dry sausage in it with nicely prepared peppers. He thought it was tasty.

The broasted chicken I tried is not forking typical of what broasted chicken is suppose to be. Also it might not be the typical that this restaurant always forking destroys broasted chicken. It’s a possibility that the regular cook was off and nobody marinated the chicken leaving the untrained dishwasher to do the best of his ability or at least that is what it forking seemed like. I note I don’t know WTFork they did to the broasted chicken.

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!