Monthly Archives: September 2015

The FORKING BEST Cheese Plate I ever Had…..Whey better than the REST

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The FORKING BEST cheese plate I ever had was the cheese plate from Bistro Laurent in Paso Robles California. Forking Cheesus it made me feel like I never tasted great cheese before. It was something that I couldn’t provolone.

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It was a very simple cheese plate without the usual adornments such as nuts, fruit and honey but this plate showed me that cheese when ultra good doesn’t need embellishments. Cheese plays the starring role. It’s all about the cheese. The cheeses were so amazing that I asked for a list of what I tried. I camembert it any longer and here is my list.

I’m not 100% certain which cheese is what but when I looked up all the cheeses I am pretty certain that the center cheese that looks like a pretty carnation was the Tete De Moine. It might have been the strongest of the cheeses on the plate and is served scraped from a knife for more air surface for proper tasting. In French tete de moine means monk’s head because it was created by monks in the French speaking area of Canton of Bern.

I think the wedge at the top that looks similar to brie is the Reblochon. It might look like brie but it did taste a forking lot better than any brie I ever forking had. Reblochon is a French Cheese from the Alps traditionally made from cow’s milk.

Other Cheeses on the plate are Etorki- pasteurized sheep’s milk cheese made in French Basque County.

Camembert- creamy surface ripened cow’s milk cheese  (unlike any camembert I ever had and more flavorful)

Comte- French Cheese made from unpasteurized cow’s milk from the France-Comte of eastern France (NOTHING like any comte I had before)

Last cheese was spelled Ste Maure by the Chef but in my search the cheese came up either Sainte Maure or Sainte Maure de Touraine. If the cheese was one of the Sainte Maure kinds it was a full fat goats milk cheese made in the province of Touraine. The Sainte Maure de Touraine is made with a straw in the center and the Sainte Maure is made with out the straw. Both are fine cheeses.

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That Cheese Plate WAS THE BEST FORKING CHEESE PLATE I EVER HAD!

 The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

 

Vegetarian Food Can Be Forking Sexy

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Vegetarian food can be forking sexy and these are some of the Vegetables and Vegetarian Dishes I made. The Forking truth recipes expect for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe can be found on this website.

My heirloom tomato pizza….Yum!

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Purple asparagus is sweeter than regular asparagus but it turns green when you cook it.

Easy Salt Crusted Potatoes

Easy Salt Crusted Potatoes

Who doesn’t like a salt crusted potato with butter?

Heirloom carrots

Heirloom microwaved carrot chips

Potato Chips

Easy Microwaved Potato Chips

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Wrinkled  Peppers

Moroccan Inspired Carrots

Moroccan Inspired Carrots

Stuffed Pickled Beets and Blue Cheese Wrappers

Stuffed Pickled Beets and Blue Cheese Wrappers

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Chestnuts with Crisp Sage

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Chestnuts with Crisp Sage

Crisp Carrot Strips

Crisp Carrot Strips

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Potatoes

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More potatoes

Polenta Lasagna

Vegetable Polenta Lasagna with red pepper sauce

Breakfast

Breakfast

No Mayo East Coast Style Cole Slaw

No Mayo East Coast Style Cole Slaw

Mixed Citrus and Saffron Basboosa with Lemon Summac Mascarpone

Mixed Citrus and Saffron Basboosa with Lemon Summac Mascarpone

Kale Sprout

Kale Sprout

Cannoli

Cannoli

Making the Bouchons

Making the Bouchons

Mac-n-Chz

Mac-n-Chz

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Red Spinach and other vegetables

Romanesco Cauliflower with Romesco Sauce

Romanesco Cauliflower with Romesco Sauce

Rainbow Carrots two ways with Apple, Basil and Black Rice

Rainbow Carrots two ways with Apple, Basil and Black Rice

Spaghetti Squash with Harissa Vinaigrette

Spaghetti Squash with Harissa Vinaigrette

Purple Potatoes

Purple baked Potato fries

Flatbread

Pickled Beet Flatbread

Heirloom Pizza

Heirloom Tomato Pizza

Vegetable stuffed Rice Paper

Vegetable stuffed Rice Paper

Vegetable stuffed Rice Paper

Vegetable stuffed Rice Paper

White Sonora Berries Salad in Dijon Sage Vinaigrette

White Sonora Berries Salad in Dijon Sage Vinaigrette

Tomato, Hibiscus, Onion and Roasted Lime Salad

Tomato, Hibiscus, Onion and Roasted Lime Salad

Blinged up Polenta

Blinged up Polenta

Green Chili and Fat Free Cheese Blintz

Green Chili and Fat Free Cheese Blintz

Picked Beet Patties Falafel Style with Pink Horse Radish Cream

Picked Beet Patties Falafel Style with Pink Horse Radish Cream

My Chocolate Chip Cookies

The FORKING BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies that you might see for sale someday on line or at a farmers market.

Timbale

Timbale

Red Lentil and Carrot Kofte

Red Lentil and Carrot Kofte

Duchess Style Parsnips

Duchess Style Parsnips

Ricotta Gnocchi

Ricotta Gnocchi

Roasted Cauliflower

Roasted Cauliflower

Asparagus Guacamole

Asparagus Guacamole

Roasted then Fried Rutabaga topped with oven fried Lotus Chip

Roasted then Fried Rutabaga topped with oven fried Lotus Chip

 Vegetarian can be Sexy and that's The Forking Truth

Vegetarian can be Sexy and that’s The Forking Truth

 

 

Forking Easy Salt Crusted Baked Potatoes Recipe

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I used to boil potatoes for a salt crusting until I came across this recipe from Cook Book Author Stephanie Manley of CopyKatRecipes.com. These potatoes are those forking delicious fluffy perfect kind of potatoes with that yummy salty crisp crust that you eat at steak houses. This is a very easy recipe that any forking moron can do.

All you do is start with clean potatoes

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and coat the surfaces with a mild oil. (I used canola)

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Sprinkle the oiled potatoes with kosher salt

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Roast in your heated 350 degree oven for about an hour on a lightly oiled pan.

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Just add butter and whatever topping you like! You get that perfect crisp salty tasty skin and a very fluffy inside ready for what ever toppings you forking enjoy!

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It's Forking Great and that's The Forking Truth

It’s Forking Great and that’s The Forking Truth

Easy Eye Round Roast Beef Recipe 3 pounds only 15 minutes of cooking

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I note this is a recipe for home cooks and only comes out right with a 3-4 lb. piece of eye round. The result is a Medium Rare tender juicy beef with very little work or effort. This recipe has been going around forever. I read about years ago in a magazine, seen it on TV a bunch of times and a whole bunch of people do it on the web and on You Tube.

I built a natural rack with vegetables to help the beef cook more evenly and I thought the vegetables might infuse the drippings.

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Then I applied vegetable oil,  kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, granulated garlic, smoked paprika and a tiny micro pinch of cloves to the surface of the beef.

Off to a preheated 500 degree oven this 3 pound eye round went uncovered for 15 minutes. If you have a 4 pound roast you might need 20 minutes. Remember this recipe only works with 3-4 pound roasts.

After 15 minutes I shut the oven off and left the roast in the oven two hours.

After two hours I left it sit out a half hour to rest.

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I used the juices with some slow roasted beef confit onions I had in my freezer.

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My onions are so good that they’d taste good on a shoe. For the best results with this kind of roast you should look for prime grade beef or choice.

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I think I’ll serve it with easy salt crusted potatoes. (I post that recipe soon)

Easy Salt Crusted Potatoes

Easy Salt Crusted Potatoes

 It's Good and that's The Forking Truth

It’s Good and that’s The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth is that Humans are too Stupid to know how to Eat Wrapped Cheese Slices

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The Kraft Heinz Company has extended the recall of Individually wrapped forking cheese product because humans are too forking stupid to know how to eat it without choking. NO I’m not talking about the Cheese Product Slice it’s all about the forking plastic wrap on the cheese. Humans confuse it with the similar cheese product and forking eat it and some humans choke.IMG_9552

After all the forking product that was already recalled again the KHC recalled another 335,000 cases because they received two forking complaints about choking hazards from remaining wrap on the cheese. (according to Zacks Equity Research)

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Probably from someone like this.

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There is just no forking hope for the human race if we are too FORKING stupid to peal plastic off cheese product even if they do taste forking similar. Sadly the forking truth is that humans are too stupid to know how to eat wrapped cheese product.

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 The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Usually Leave Forking Disappointed from Most Chain Restaurants

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I don’t recall tasting anything forking great from a national chain restaurant in the past ten years.  I’ve usually just thought the food was maybe better than a frozen dinner or almost good or just ok. After just returning from traveling from the airport around dinner time I was forking exhausted and thought just picking up some of the new all natural burgers from a certain chain wouldn’t be such a bad idea. (of course this was before I knew fecal matter has been found in all ground beef……..YUK!) This place promised fresh baked buns and all natural grass fed beef. I try to avoid national chains but this was a very weak forking moment and I was feeling very weak and tired so I gave in to my weakness and said, “what the fork” “why not?”

The burger was ok and much more forking edible compared to the dried out you know who king burger and certainly was very edible compared to my least favorite that I consider inedible  burger (what I call the McDrek Burger). The McDrek just forking seems like devil’s excrement to me. That’s because I always got a headache after eating a McDrek’s burger as a child and haven’t relished the thought of having one since.  The meat in a McDrek’s burger just always looked forking unappetizing to me. It looked like canned dog food mixed with brown baby food and made into a forking patty. I thought it was the forking devil’s poop laid by a clown that laughed at you.

But  as ok as that all natural burger was  it only seemed as good as a 1980’s forking king burger, the old forking recipe when you might have forking gotten it YOUR WAY and the meat might have been real beef that was flame broiled. Both the  all natural burger and the 1980’s forking king burger are and were thin patties of beef in really large buns with a good amount of very similar toppings, lettuce, tomato, onions, sauces. I know the buns differed but that one bite taste did take me back to the 80s. But still this wasn’t a forking great burger it was just ok as a fast food burger and better than todays dried out king burger and FORKING LIGHT YEARS BETTER than the clown’s burger.

I choose not to go to forking national chain restaurants because during my life I’ve been to many of them at some point. At best they were almost good.

That budget steakhouse with all the forking peanuts on the floor seemed kind of fun. You never know who the fork sneezed on them forking peanuts before you. Or who the fork came out of the bathroom and did what and had some peanuts before you…..(think about that one)…. But the food never did taste forking good because of how processed it was and I thought while leaving I was going to cut my foot on a forking peanut shell.

I don’t recall tasting anything forking great from a chain restaurant and I usually leave disappointed or forking grossed out.

I do note I haven’t been to all national chains and haven’t tasted everything at every chain. Also your taste may differ so my opinion is subjective.

I usually leave disappointed from Most Chain Restaurants.

Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

 

 

 

 

 

Korean Inspired Leek Salad Recipe

Korean Leeks

Korean Inspired Leek Salad

I got these awesome Korean Leeks from my local Asian Market.

Korean Leeks

Korean Leeks

Last time I picked these leeks up I made whole wheat Korean Leek & zucchini pancakes that came out really well but this time I thought I’d make something different. It turns out that this salad came out FORKING Delicious. I’m beginning to think anything with gochujang can turn anything delicious. This salad is light, slightly sweet and not too spicy with a tasty mild veggie  garlic onion flavor.

I googled Korean Leek recipe and came across something called Seasoned Ramps (Dalae) Recipe by Naomi Imatome-Yun who is a Korean Food Expert. I sort of followed her recipe as a guild but didn’t have all the ingredients and made very slight changes for my taste. I am also assuming that kochujang and gochujang are the same because she used kochujang (a Korean Pepper paste made with rice flour) and I used gochujang that also is described as the same.  I also dropped the addition of salt, pinenuts and substituted Korean shredded red pepper for Korean Kochukaru pepper that I didn’t have. I also winged the proportions since it started out way different.

Other changes that I made were cutting the Korean Leeks in small bite size pieces instead of one inch cuts.

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Ingredients

1 Korean Leek (mine made around 4 cups)

2 Tablespoons gochujang

2 Tablespoons sesame oil

2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar

3 Tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

1 apple sliced up

big pinch Korean shredded red pepper

Directions

Clean and smash the bulb end of Korean leek to release flavor.

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Cut into bite size pieces and soak in a water filled bowl to release any dirt that remains.

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In another bowl mix up the gochujang, sesame oil, rice wine and vinegar. Set to side.

Toast your sesame seeds in either a pan, the oven or just microwave toast them 30 seconds at a time till done. (they take about 1 1/2 minutes this way)

Now pull out your leeks to drain. Throw out the water and put leeks back in bowl. Slice up your apple and add that bowl

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to your dressing bowl and mix. Lastly mix in your toasted sesame seeds and enjoy.

Korean Inspired Leek Salad

Korean Inspired Leek Salad

I also found this salad is delicious with cooked chicken. Just heat up your chicken in this salad with a little chicken broth or water and it’s just delicious.

It's GOOD and that's The Forking Truth

It’s GOOD and that’s The Forking Truth

 

 

Falafel Inspired Paprika Carrot & Chickpea Baked Vegetarian Balls Recipe

Falafel Inspired Paprika Carrot & Chickpea Vegetarian Baked Patties

Falafel Inspired Paprika Carrot & Chickpea Baked Vegetarian Balls

I was inspired to put these flavors together when I remembered one of the best lunches I ever had at the now closed Centurion Restaurant that was located in down town Phoenix AZ. My three course $15.00 lunch included this paprika parmesan hummus that went so delicious with carrots. It came with other vegetables but sort of popped with the carrots so I put together similar flavors in a baked vegetarian balls.

Paprika Parmesan Hummus Plate from Centurion Phoenix AZ

Paprika Parmesan Hummus Plate from Centurion Phoenix AZ

A true falafel is fried and made with dried chickpeas so this patty is falafel inspired. I will call it a falafel anyway. This falafel isn’t going to win a prize for crispiest or fluffiest falafel and is more meatball like in texture with flavors are spot on. This is a very easy delicious recipe that anyone can prepare.

Ingredients to make about 19 meatball sized balls that are about 9 servings set oven to 350 degrees

2 carrots shredded

1 15oz. can garbanzo beans low sodium variety rinsed a few times (because they are very close to fresh made and are better than the dried out old ones from my local grocery store)

1/2 large sweet onion grated

3 garlic cloves grated

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon Hungarian paprika

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 beaten large eggs

1 Tablespoon tahini

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (fruity mildly spicy red pepper)

1/2 cup chickpea flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon honey

1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley

fresh ground sea salt for finishing

fresh ground black pepper for finishing

nonstick spray for your baking sheet

Directions

Using a blender blend up your eggs and slowly add your chickpeas. Once blended then add onions, garlic, tahini, honey and dry spices. Scrape out mixture to a bowl. Hand mix in your carrots, now hand mix in your flours and baking powder. Mix in your parsley. Spray your baking sheet with nonstick spray and shape the mixture into meatball size balls somewhere around a walnut size. Bake about 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

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 It's Great and that's The Forking Truth

It’s Great and that’s The Forking Truth