I have a new love for raw Zucchini as a noodle because I have found many uses for it this week.
I made a nice little Mexican Inspired Side Dish.
An Americanized Vietnamese Style Rice Paper Roll.
An Alternate to pasta.
I’m liking Raw Zucchini these days, you might too!
Forking Good!
I only needed Fat Free Cottage Cheese and a few other forking things so I thought I’d hit my closest grocery store for those things. Not one brand of any kind of Fat Free Forking Cottage could be found. I thought I’d move on and sight see and pick up whatever else the Fork I needed.
I breeze threw the snack aisle and my mouth drops open when I see all the Forking varieties of Oreo Cookies. I know they put out special ones different times of year but I had no idea it was normal to forking have so many varieties. Four of the varieties were called creamies and were one cookie with a different flavor cream Forking Embalmed in chocolate.
I saw ALL THESE on the Forking shelf!
I don’t know how many different forking kinds I saw but this forking store has screwed up priorities.
No WHEY was Forking Fat Free Cottage to be found.
I don’t even eat Oreos. How many kinds do I need?
Forking Truth
The story of Barbie’s Tuna salad is that it was created by a Caterer named Barbie. Nobody ever tasted tuna salad like that before and everyone who tasted it wanted the recipe. Someone who goes by the ID Tanaquil posted the recipe on www.allrecipes.com . The recipe is a little unusual with a tiny bit of curry and Parmesan Cheese but all the flavors are delicious together.
I tried out the recipe. I thought it had interesting flavors that were different. I liked it but wanted less creaminess, wanted more texture, and a little more balance so I made a few adjustments. Instead of White Tuna I used light, I like the flavor and texture of light better and it also has less Mercury in it. I had to cut the Mayo down a bit. I swapped out as much as the dried herbs as I could and replaced them with fresh that seem much brighter to me. I added shredded carrot, salt, pepper, and fresh squeezed lemon juice. I will post the two recipes together. Just follow whatever you like or a combination to make your own. Makes around two servings.
5oz. light tuna drained and flaked (Barbie’s 7oz. White Tuna drained & flaked)
1 1/2-2 Tablespoon Parmesan Cheese (Barbie’s 1 Tablespoon Parmesan Cheese)
3Tablespoons Mayo, I used light Mayo (Barbie’s 6Tablespoons Mayo or dressing)
1 1/2 Tablespoons Hot Sweet Pickle Relish, I used Famous Dave’s Sweet and Hot Pickle Relish (Barbie’s 3T Sweet Pickle Relish)
1 1/2-2 Tablespoon Sweet Onion Grated (Barbie’s 1/8 teaspoon dried onion flakes)
1/4 teaspoon Curry (same)
2 Tablespoons Fresh Parsley Chopped (Barbie’s 1 Tablespoon Dried Parsley)
1 teaspoon dried dill (the same I didn’t have any fresh dill here)
1 small (tiny) garlic clove mashed (Barbie’s a pinch of garlic powder)
Fresh Lemon Juice from 1/2 a lemon for my taste it needed acid for balance.
one small carrot grated This adds to the texture and eye appeal and the flavor plays well against the dill.
Fresh ground Sea Salt
Fresh ground Black Pepper
Just mix and chill and your ready!
Forking Good!
There are a few forking circumstances when you can and should send food back in a restaurant.
1- If food you receive has something forking gross in it like a used finger bandage, packaging material, chewing gum, tooth pic or some other kind of not a food kind of object.
Not Worth a Fork
2- Burnt or really over forking cooked food.
Not Worth a Fork
3- Forking Raw or really undercooked food.
Not Worth a Fork
4- A Totally unexpected ingredient not revealed that’s something your allergic too or just don’t forking eat. I do note the RIGHT thing to do is to reveal all allergies or dislikes when ordering but sometimes these are surprises you don’t expect.
Not Worth a Fork
A difficult one to decide on is Seasoning. On one hand if you order something spicy and you are too forking whimpy to eat it you are screwed, you Can’t send that back. If it’s slightly salty you sort of are forking screwed too but if you received a massive salt bomb or massive salt malfunction then it’s OK to send back.
Most times you really can’t send food back but if you do tell the wait person in a forking nice way. If they take something off your bill you should tip on all the forking food you received.
Forking Truth
Have a Knife Day and see Ya Spoon!
Tom’s Thumb Fresh Market Scottsdale AZ
After my most recent less than stellar meal out I’m forking convinced whenever I see Teens as the forking cooks in a kitchen I’m going to have a messed up meal. I recently went to a BBQ Bistro in Scottsdale AZ. This place has GREAT ratings on all the forking review sites. I did see all teens threw the open part of the kitchen and sort of worried but ordered something anyway.
The Brisket Sandwich I received really did have a very good flavor but somehow someone ruined it because I received it just warm and forking very dry. All I saw were Teens. I know this is an Award Winning BBQ Place but I was here when the Teens were on.
Thee Pitts Again Glendale AZ
Another Award Winning BBQ place I went too had all TEENS working the forking night I went. I had a pretty good view from this mostly open kitchen. Besides some service problems I encountered from a teen, I received dry, almost cold BBQ food with forking dry cracked corn bread.
Thee Pitts Again Glendale AZ Dry and almost Cold BBQ
Anther Forking place with an open kitchen and lots of TEENs working was A Certain Well Known Hot Dog Place in Tempe Arizona. I didn’t take a photo of the food from there but I should have. The main foods we tried were good. But I got this Forking Iced Tea that seemed like a mixture of diet cola soda SYRUP and who know’s what else. I also remembered we ordered a side of onion rings. We received a bag of mostly just Forking crumbs! I didn’t feel like complaining to the teens working there. We just left and never Forking went back.
FROM NOW ON WHENEVER I SEE TEENS as the COOKS I WILL FORKING GET THE FORK OUT OF THERE!
Forking Truth
Some restaurants don’t have kitchens with a view. I possibly received less than stellar foods from some Teens I didn’t see cooking.
I note I don’t know if Teens were responsible for all the improperly prepared foods I received.
Recently I had these Pea Cakes out at Southern Rail Restaurant in Phoenix and I was inspired to do my own twist on them. Theirs were tasty but fell apart when you ate them. Mine do differ from the taste of the ones I had from Southern Rail but hold together well and are moist. I don’t know what the Southern Rail Recipe was but they had an almost falafel taste, seemed pan fried or grilled and came with a really Great Flavorful Tomato Jam that complimented the cakes very well. I found them interesting nonetheless. Mine are more a corn bread taste. I guess I could have called mine cakes if I made them flatter or made them like pancakes in a fry pan but choose the muffin shape so I called them muffins. Mine came out moist with a delicate flavors I liked and I didn’t want to add anything else to them. My oven is set at 350 degrees and I used oiled muffin pans.
Ingredients are
1 Cup Cornmeal
1 Cup Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/2 Cup soft butter
1 egg beaten
1/2 Cup Buttermilk
1/2 Cup Milk
1 lb. Peas (I used a 1 lb. frozen bag thawed)
1 cup of chopped Scallion
1 clove minced garlic
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
I had my dry ingredients in one bowl.
My wet in my other bowl.
Then I spilled out 1/2 my wet and added the garlic, half of my peas and all the scallions.
Then I blended mixture.
Then I added the Fresh Ground Black pepper to all bowls and combined all mixtures. The mixture did look sort of dry but I knew it would be fine since I based this recipe on my Corn Muffin Recipe I haven’t Published as of yet.
Filled oiled Muffin Pans about 3/4 full.
Baked them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
They came out moist and with a nice texture. They do have some slight sweetness to them but are without sugar. you can also taste onions without them overpowering the peas. This recipe made 17 muffins for me.
I think they are a good for breakfast, or as a side, snack or a side dish for dinner.
Forking Good!
I had some Mulling Spice and some Grapes that were going past their time so I thought I’d pickle them seasoned with Mulling Spices. Mulling Spice sort of has the aroma of Christmas.
Normal Mulling Spices are Orange, Ginger, Cinnamon, Black Pepper, Allspice, Star Anise, and Cloves.
Foe some reason I had an old pack of this seasoning sitting around. I no longer purchase any spice blends because they almost forking always suck.
I cooked maybe 1/3 sugar against 2/3rds vinegar with my already packaged Mull seasoning and the grapes. I drained the mulling spices out.
They came out tasting good and not too sweet, almost apple pie like. I think they will go well with a light creamy cheese or an almost not sweet whipped cream. They also keep well too!
It’s easy to pickle your grapes if you accidentally purchased too many.
Forking Truth
Has this ever happened to you? I was waiting for my meal to be served to me at a restaurant and didn’t unroll my silverware until my meal arrived. If I simply unrolled my forking silverware I would have known how forking filthy the restaurant really was and would have left. Two of the four silverware rolls were very filthy. I used my glass of water to soak and clean the fork I used as best as I could. I couldn’t help but think if the silverware was filthy then the plates must be forking filthy and the pots and pans might even be worse.
Traditional Pastie from Draft House Peoria AZ
I receive my meal already knowing it was a forking leftover from at least yesterday because the waitress told us only certain pasties were available since the baker wasn’t in yet to forking bake new ones. I received a very dry meat pie with very dry beef in it. I think it might have been good when it was new and fresh but in the condition I had it wasn’t so forking good. I did tell the waitress and she said she was sorry but ignored the filthy silver in the front of the table.
Usually leftovers taste pretty good and sometimes even better the second time around but this meat pie seemed really forking leftover. I don’t know how leftover it was.
I ate what I felt like eating and went to use the forking ladies room.
Saturday at lunch time
The ladies room wasn’t forking cleaned from the night before and stunk like forking sewage. WTF!
Not Worth a Fork
If I took the time to check my fork I would have avoided all the forking crap.
Forking Truth
Fresh Rolls
As an update Sadly this Business has closed.
As we entered Two Sisters Thai Food restaurant we noticed a few Grade “A” Maricopa Health inspections posted by the door. The restaurant looked a little forking quirky to me with an open kitchen in the middle of the dining room but had nice looking stone top tables.
We decided to start with what they called fresh rolls. They were very light and filled with fresh crispy vegetables. They came with a better than average peanut dipping sauce.
I ordered the Esan Gang Gai.
Esan Gang Gai
The dish was a clear curry made with not regular Thai Basil but made with Lao Basil and Fresh Dill. I think the green vegetable in this dish might be called Pat Krana. The vegetable was like spinach but with a thin almost like celery stem. This dish smelled very aromatic and tasted like nothing Thai I ever forking had before. I asked my waitress about the ingredients but she said she didn’t know how to translate in English. She did say that this is a dish they eat in Thailand. The Esan Gang Gai is an North Eastern Thai Dish. North Eastern Thai dishes differ from Central Thailand foods and usually don’t have Coconut Milk in them. Central Thailand Dishes are the ones with lots of peanuts and coconut milk.
My husband tried the Pad Kee Mow.
Pad Kee Mow
It’s basically a Drunken Rice Noodle Dish a Chinese inspired dish but made by popular by North Eastern Thai People in the Lao Area. It was spicy and flavorful. Not sweet or saucy like you get at other places.
The food from Two Sisters Thai Food in Phoenix Arizona tasted like taking a Trip to Thailand.
Forking Truth
Not rated since it’s destination Dining.
Red Lentil and Carrot Kofte
I was searching for a recipe for something different to do with carrots and came across Award Winning Cook Book Writer’s Diana Henry’s Recipe for Red Lentil and Carrot Kofe Recipe. I was excited about the recipe because it seemed to be made with ingredients that were all very heathy like carrots, lentils, bulgur wheat and exotic seasonings.
The word Kofe is of Persian Origin and comes from the Persian Word Kufteh meaning mashed. In old times before grinders were made meat balls were mashed with a mortar.
I didn’t alter Diana Henry’s Recipe too much but for my taste I thought salt, pepper and lemon juice needed to be bumped up. I also had to cut back on the cilantro because for me it was too much. The biggest change I made was to crisp up the texture because the texture of this mixture was too exotically soft for me so I made them into patties and crisped them up in an oven at 400 degrees. (I forgot if it took a 1/2 hour or 45 minutes) Also instead of Pomegranate Seeds I really thought supreme oranges went really well with this dish.
Ingredients (for the Kofte and Sauce)
35ml Tahini (around a Tablespoon)
1 3/4 lemon’s juiced. (I used almost 3)
4 garlic cloves crushed
6 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I actually used less)
90g Red Lentils (cooked)
50g Bulgur Wheat (cooked)
200g Carrots (roasted with a sprinkle of sugar, salt and pepper when they are done mash them)
1 Small Red Onion finely chopped
1 t. cumin
1 t. paprika
1 t. Turkish Pepper Paste (I used my homemade Roasted Spicy Fresno Pepper Paste) The recommended substitute is Harissa
1 t. Tomato Puree (I left this out)
2 bunches of coriander (cilantro) (I used only a handful and found that to be plenty)
1 Pomegranate (seeds only) (I used 1 orange supremes )
over salad is suggested
The recipe for the sauce is mix the tahini with 75ml of water and juice of 1/2 a lemon, one crushed garlic and 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil salt and pepper. I used all fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons and skipped the water)
Heat about a T of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a pan and toss in your very finely chopped red onions and let then go till they are soft.
Then add cumin, paprika, remaining garlic, let it go about 2 minutes and then add your pepper paste (and tomato puree if you are using that).
Stir in your lentils and carrots and cilantro (the amount you like), juice of one lemon. 2 T of extra Virgin Olive Oil is suggested to add. (I think mine was soft enough and I didn’t add that)
It’s recommended to shape these into balls the size of a walnut and indent them to hold pomegranate seeds and then drizzle with tahini sauce, extra virgin olive oil and chopped coriander/cilantro.
For me this was too soft to eat this way so I shaped them in patties and crisped them up in a 400 degree oven for 30 or 45 minutes.I salt and peppered the surface of Kofes. I used orange instead of pomegranate and scallions instead of more cilantro.
Red Lentil and Carrot Kofte
Forking Truth
