Tag Archives: #food

People Don’t know WTFork a Good Baked Item Should Taste Like

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

After tasting some of the desserts I’ve tried fairly recently around where I live I truly believe that people don’t know WTFork a Good Baked Item should taste like.

No……. I’m not talking forking fancy smancy high end Las Vegas Desserts like the ones below.

Jean Philippe Aria Las Vegas

Jean Philippe Aria Las Vegas NV.

I talking good baked goods and desserts that just about everyone loves like  pies, cookies, bagels, cream puffs, cakes and breads. Desserts that are free of non-dairy whipped cream and artificial flavorings. Desserts that aren’t made with fillings from a can or package. Honest to goodness real desserts that are made with butter, fresh eggs and cream. I’m also talking real breads. Crusty, flavorful breads. Real breads that you look forward to eat.

When I was growing up it seemed every neighborhood had at least one bakery. No matter what kind of bakery I went in to Italian, Jewish or German……… where I grew up…… during that time you could always count on something fresh baked and scrumptious. The bakeries had this great aroma that I still remember. The aroma of fresh baked goods was so good your belly would forking hurt if you didn’t eat something.

Real bakeries were also very noisy places.

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You hear lots of machinery. Heavy duty mixers, the cash register, the conversations of customers.  You’d always hear the mechanic loud thundering roar of maybe several different bread slicing machines going-

Bread Slicers looked something like this

Bread Slicers looked something like this

slicing fresh loves of crusty breads for customers that were waiting in the long line. In those days even the forking malls all had bakeries. They weren’t the same as the free standing bakeries but looking back a whole heck of a lot better than some of what I see today sometimes. In those old days you’d make the weekly trip to the bakery to purchase bread and a few treats. Once in a while you might order a cake for a special occasion. Children were always given a few complimentary cookies and if a child was lucky their parent let them pick out a special yummy treat. In those days people cared about quality. You could partake in enjoying natural ingredients like real butter, eggs and real cream in your fresh baked goods no matter what bakery you walked into. The whole bakery smelled like sugar and spice. If you worked in a bakery you left smelling like a donut. (I know because I did)

Time has marched on and things are different now. Life styles have changed. People are busier than ever and are always on the go working more hours. Doing more things.

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Many people are also more health conscience too, they are working out and are not eating desserts or breads like they used too.

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So weekly trips to the bakery are made by less people these days. They are not a priority these days. Fewer more limited new bakeries do pop up every once in a while and also many of the old bakeries have shuttered since the neighborhood  bakery for most people is a relic of the past.

People these days often settle for convenience and pick up something processed and cheaper from their local supermarket.

Typical baked item from any local supermarket

Typical baked item from any local supermarket

Something created with man made chemicals that sort of looks like dessert. Something that can sit on a shelf for a long time. Something that anybody can whip up possibly even made by the guy pictured below

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by only adding a few ingredients, mixing it (with something clean one hopes) and baking it in a timed oven….DING!. Just add some pudding from a can or a mix and some non-dairy cream and Woop there it is. Many people actually think this sort of dessert taste good and this is what dessert actually is because that is what they are used too.

It just forking KILLS ME that a few local bakeries in my area put out baked goods that are on par with the level of supermarket bakeries.

Lemon Bar from Baker Wee Glendale AZ

Lemon Bar from Baker Wee Glendale AZ

Recently I thought I’d try a baked treat from a bakery I was passing by on the way home from some place. The bakery offered me a rugula while I was deciding on what I’d try. I thought the rugula was pretty good and thought whatever I tried would be ok because after all it was from a bakery. I love lemon bars because of the lemony filling, the tasty crumbs and they usually have a buttery tender crust. I love the play between tangy, sweet and savory, so I picked a lemon bar thinking it would be just right. I dug into the lemony curd first. It had this unnatural flavor like low quality lemonade. It also lacked the creamy, silky mouthfeel of natural lemon curd that’s rich and carefully made. Instead this lemon filling was sort of Jell-o like. I don’t think a human created it. Perhaps something demonic?  I think the yellow goo was made in a laboratory and stored in a can till it got sold to this bakery.

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The top crumbs were edible but not delicious and buttery. The bottom crust was as thick as a life raft

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and hard like cement.

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God this lemon bar was terrible I thought I was going to cough up a forking brick from the few bites I ate. It was so bad I can never step in this bakery again.

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Another bakery not too far from out of my way is an Italian Bakery.

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I thought they’d make an OK Italian Rum Cake that I wanted to give someone for a gift. I thought the cake looked ok and this bakery just like the last one I spoke about gets very high reviews on a certain review website. This cake purchase goes a half year back so I don’t remember every detail about the cake but I do remember the filling most because it was very unnatural tasting so much so it was memorable. I remember the filling was what made eating the cake next to impossible. The filling tasted like they dumped in a whole bottle of forking rum extract into the filling. Rum extract not forking real rum……..rum extract.  I don’t recall the rest of the cake being very tasty but I can tell you the filling made it a lost cause.  I felt terrible when I tasted this cake, sorry and embarrassed that I gave it to someone.

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I also purchased what they called Italian bread from this bakery and I kid you not. The bread tasted like squishy unnatural white bread from the forking supermarket. I can never go back to that bakery either. Eating baked goods from those bakeries was just like purchasing a baked good from the supermarket or from the dollar store. They were just very unappetizing. It forking saddens me and confuses me. I have no understanding on why you’d open a bakery if you aren’t baking scrumptious decadent treats?

 

It appears that these bakeries have enough business. Both have been in business for years and both have great reviews on a certain review website. Maybe it’s all because people don’t know what the fork Good Baked goods should taste like.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

Baked Crispy Creamy Malted Rice Balls Recipe

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Here’s a Forking Unique recipe that everyone will like. The inside is creamy, lightly sweetened, almost saucy rice with pleasing familiar flavors. The exterior is crispy and very tasty. Serve them warm from the oven. It comes out like a baked rice pudding in a crispy shell. You’ll get yummmmmmm….”what’s that flavor?’ from your tasters. A secret small piece of banana melts into the middle with the coconut milk, malt and rice. It just works together well.

Ingredients to make 21 servings (one ball is a serving…it’s a just right generous bite)

1 cup white rice

1 13.5 oz. can light coconut milk

1/4 cup water

7 Tablespoons carnation malted milk powder

1 Tablespoon butter

1/4 cup white sugar

2 Tablespoons malt flour (purchase malt flour online or from Asian Market)

1 extra large egg beaten

1 cup whole wheat panko

1/4 cup carnation malted milk powder

1 banana

Non stick Spray for baking sheet(s)

Directions set oven to 400 degrees F

In a large sauce pan bring to boil your coconut milk, water, 7 Tablespoons malted milk powder and  butter. When it boils then add the rice and then turn it down to simmer and cover with foil for about 20 minutes or till the rice is cooked.

Take off burner and add sugar, malt flour, and the beaten egg and mix well. Put back on burner on medium heat and heat it up till it simmers. Remove from heat and chill in the refrigerator several hours or over night. You want the mixture firmer for working with.

Once chilled use a meatball scoop and scoop out rice like your making a meatball.Now indent the rice and slice off a small piece of banana to fit in the hole.

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Cover the hole up with some rice mixture and roll in the panko combined with remaining powdered malted milk.

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Place the balls on your sprayed baking sheet(s) for about 15 minutes in a 400 degree F oven and enjoy!

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These are Yummy and that's The Forking Truth

These are Yummy and that’s The Forking Truth

 

The Chile Relleno I will never Forking order Again

Popo's Fiesta Del Sol Glendale AZ

Popo’s Fiesta Del Sol Glendale AZ

A chile Relleno is usually but not always a stuffed Poblano Pepper. It is usually stuffed with cheese but can also be stuffed with meat and might come with a sauce. Somethings it’s fried and sometimes it isn’t.

Below is a picture of a typical Chile Relleno.

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Often a Chile Relleno might look like this inside.

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Below is a Central Mexican Style Chile Relleno.

Los Sombreros Scottsdale AZ

Los Sombreros Scottsdale AZ

Here’s what the Chile Relleno I recently had looked like inside.

Popo's Fiesta Del Sol Glendale AZ

Popo’s Fiesta Del Sol Glendale AZ

It was a green chile stuffed with white mild cheese that was topped with egg whites that were covered in green chile sauce and LOTS of cheddar cheese. It truly might not be the worst one out there but it tasted terrible to me. That heavy cheese and not so tasty sauce really KILLED the delicate fluffy egg whites. It was like putting a shag rug over your down blanket. Inside was a mild green chile that was kind of hard in texture and also had no color at all from being cooked. My forking stomach just locked up and I couldn’t eat anymore of it.

This is the First Chile Relleno I didn’t forking like.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

 

The Forking Truth might be that Not All Aluminum Foil Is Vegetarian

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I noticed something strange on my aluminum pan. It was a kosher mark.

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I thought why the FORK would aluminum need to be marked kosher so I did a little forking digging. I did find out some kind of oil is used in the manufacturing process of aluminum foil. I found that my pans are made with mineral oil. I called Reynolds and the person I spoke to had no forking idea of what kind of oil they use but their foil is also marked kosher.

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This one I have my doubts and find it hard to believe that aluminum foil might not be vegetarian. But then again why the fork would the foil need to be marked kosher? Do some foil manufacturers use lard? Whale grease? Forking Beaver grease?

But according to many sites on the web such as….

www.eye.worldpress.com

www.jainworld.com

www.creativesulekha.com

www.gleez.com

The above sites all post that bull’s intestines are used in the aluminum manufacturing process.

Indian Airlines at some point discovered the sweets they sold were wrapped in foil that was manufactured with bull’s intestines and immediacy stopped selling foil wrapped desserts on planes. (This is according to the above sites)

I never would have forking dreamed that any foil manufacturer would use an animal product in the production of aluminum foil. But since some foils are marked U maybe there is more to learn.

It’s FORKING POSSIBLE that your foil might not be Vegetarian.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

 

Forking Delicious Baked Crispy Spicy Cauliflower Recipe

Crispy Baked Buffalo Cauliflower

Forking Delicious Crispy Spicy Baked Cauliflower

Some things have to be fried to be delicious but not forking everything!  This baked crispy  cauliflower comes out so forking tasty you just might eat 1/2 a head or so. This cauliflower is very easy to prepare and taste like it might have been fried. For best results you need only thin coatings of dressing and crumbs and don’t make the cauliflower florets too forking big. Give them a try most people will like them because they are tasty and they aren’t too spicy.

Ingredients  about 8 servings

1 cauliflower cleaned and broken down into florets

1 cup panko bread crumbs (I used whole wheat panko)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon celery seeds

1/2 cup hot sauce (I used Franks Red Hot)

1/2 cup low fat mayonnaise (mine was 15 calories a Tablespoon)

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/8 teaspoon granulated garlic

1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika

pinch cardamon

Directions set oven to 350 degrees

You need a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

To one bowl add your panko, salt, cayenne and celery seeds

to another bowl mix up the hot sauce, mayonnaise, turmeric, garlic, paprika and pinch of cardamon and mix well.

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Now take a piece of cauliflower and dip it in the sauce mix and shake off.

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Now dip in crumb mixture and shake off

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and place on lined baking sheet.  Repeat till done and place in your 350 degree oven.

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After 45 minutes in my oven the cauliflower was crisp and tasty. They are good as is or you can make a dip for them.

Crispy Baked Buffalo Cauliflower

Forking Delicious Crispy Spicy Baked Cauliflower

 This is Forking Tasty and that's The Forking Truth

This is Forking Tasty and that’s The Forking Truth

WTFork is a Beef on Weck?

Beef on Weck from A Taste of Buffalo Glendale AZ

Beef on Weck from A Taste of Buffalo Glendale AZ

Beef on Weck is a sandwich that is normally only found and served in restaurants that are in Buffalo New York.

The Beef on Weck is traditionally hand sliced rare roast beef on a hard Kummel weck roll.

A Kummel Weck roll is topped with kosher salt and caraway seeds.

The beef on weck is topped with horseradish and the bottom of the top bun is dipped in au jus.

The beef on deck is a forking must try if you eat roast beef!

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

The House Brasserie in Old Town Scottsdale is Worth a Fork!

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This is a small converted old house with a large patio. The interior is a bit dark and filled with lots of wait staff and candles and mirrors. It’s kind of looks like the dark side of shabby chic.  The cuisine is a Modern American mixed with  international and created using French Techniques.

This restaurant offered an interesting inviting menu for restaurant week so I thought I’d give them a forking try. The Paper read that they were offering three courses and an amuse bouche for $45.00 a person.

We came and were seated quickly. I had to use a forking light to read the menu as it was painfully hard to read at my seat but I do note my husband had more light on the other side of the table. No mention of restaurant week was given by our waitress and I had to ask if they were serving restaurant week items. I felt weird asking about restaurant week but was given restaurant week menus quickly and ordered off the restaurant week menu.

They started us off with an amuse bouche.

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Little corn breads topped with pickled mushroom and fresno chili. These were delicious! I could have forking ate a bunch of these.

Then I was surprised to receive a second amuse bouche.

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Tiny perfect crepes wrapped around a piece of ham topped with San Marzano Tomatoes and fennel frowns.

My first course was …….

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Malted Rice, scallions, mushroom dashi, garlic and furikake. It was delicious. I got to eat something great and different that was unique and delicious. It was really good.

My husband ordered the other first course I was thinking of trying.

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Charcoal roasted beet with brussels, fava beans and caraway yogurt. This dish was also good but not as tasty as the malted rice. We switched plates halfway. I liked the beets with the caraway yogurt. They went together well.

I was surprised to also receive a complimentary full size glass of wine for restaurant week! Cheers!

My main course was the Scottish Salmon,

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The Salmon was absolutely perfect, fresh tasting and delicious. It was pretty much all a salmon could be. It was just as good as the salmon I had at Bouchon’s in Napa CA. It tasted the same. The cauliflower, whole grain and dill complimented the salmon and didn’t over power the tender rich fish. Another high light was those amazing horseradish pickles. They might have been the best pickles I ever tasted. They were multi dimensional with flavors. I wish I could have purchased a jar of those pickles.

My husband had the Pork Collar.

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It was basically pork over grits. My husband kept saying this is really REALLY good.

Then came two plates of dessert.

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Little fluffy light greaseless donuts, each with a different filling. The first one was mild and honey like, the second one seemed like grapefruit with poppy seeds and the third one was spiced chocolate.

Then we ate the Roasted Apple Pain Perdu.

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It was a fancy French Toast with melted camembert cheese and drizzled with a cider caramel. This dessert was great. I loved the play between savory and sweet. It was perfect. Delicious, light texture, buttery and tasty.

Dinner was lovely.

It was Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork! You might drive some distance to dine here.

Worth a Fork! You might drive some distance to dine here.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

Ugly but Forking Greatest Tasting Corn Soup Recipe

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You only make this soup when corn is fresh and sweet. You also have to cook your corn and make corn stock too at the same time. I make corn stock the easy way because it works out even better my way I think. I put 4-5 ears of pealed corn (depending on size) in a half pan. I add water to almost cover the corn and also add 2 ounces of unsalted butter and about a teaspoon of kosher salt. I then cover the pan with foil. I leave the corn to cook for two hours at 350 degrees in my oven and pull the pan out and leave it on the counter to cool for about an hour or hour and a half. I save the liquid that is now my corn stock. The corn stock is very sweet and has a deep corn flavor. I use this liquid all the time for polenta, it also is the secret ingredient to my delicious corn stuffing and it also is used in this corn soup. BTW the corn also comes out super surgery  sweet and juicy.

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This soup is not traditional. It’s very creamy yet there is no added cream and it also seems like sugar has been added but there isn’t any added sugar. You could improve the appearance by doubling the recipe and  straining the soup, adding a swirl of cream and drizzle of oil but I do real cooking and hate to waste if I don’t have to and I also do like the chunks in it. It’s so delicious I can’t change a thing.

Ingredients to prepare two meals of corn soup or 4 small size servings

2 Tablespoons corn butter (the fat left on top of your corn stock, essential for this recipe)

1/4 large sweet onion chopped small

1 rib celery chopped small

1 carrot pealed chopped small

1 large garlic clove minced

1 roasted banana pepper (pealed, seeds removed and chopped small) Any substitute pepper will give this soup a different flavor so your on your own when you forking change a recipe)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 cup corn stock

2 cups cooked corn off the cob

Directions

in a medium sauce pan add your corn butter,

Corn Butter

Corn Butter

onion, celery, carrot (I used a yellow carrot), garlic, banana pepper, salt and pepper.

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Cook on medium high heat till cooked about 5 minutes.

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Take off flame and add the wine and reduce till dry. Then add the corn stock and corn. Blend till your happy with the texture.

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Top with a few scallions or chives if you care to.

 It's forking delicious and that's The Forking Truth!

It’s forking delicious and that’s The Forking Truth!

 

FORKING DELICIOUS Baked Fluffy Crispy Cheesy Potato Crisps

 

Forking DELICIOUS Baked Fluffy Crispy Potato Fries

Forking DELICIOUS Baked Fluffy Crispy Cheesy Potato Crisps

These Baked Potato Crisps come out oh so very forking fluffy, crispy and full of delicious flavors because you infuse the water that boils the potatoes with scallions and a single hot banana pepper. I do note banana peppers sold in my area of Arizona are very hot unlike the mild ones grown back east. Banana peppers have a unique flavor so I can’t recommend a substitute. So PLEASE use a forking banana pepper. You basically boil the potatoes till fork tender, mash them by hand, add a few ingredients and pipe them out. DON’T FORKING USE A ZIP LOCK OR SANDWICH BAG like they tell you to do on all the cooking TV shows. That will only turn out to be a BIG FORKING UGLY MESS. Potatoes aren’t the softest thing to pipe threw a bag so you need to use a real bag. I like the strong plastic disposable bags. They are very cheap, very strong and sanitary. Real pastry bags are hard to clean and do burst open after a while. The plastic disposable are the best!

Ingredients should make 8 servings (but these are so forking tasty everyone might forking woof down double)

2 lbs. potatoes – pealed and cut in half (about 7 small/medium sized potatoes)

1 hot banana pepper-washed

4 scallions – washed

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

Ice water enough to cover your potatoes very well

1 cup shredded cheese – combination of mozzarella, provolone, sharp provolone and parmesan (my leftover pizza blend kept in freezer it was made of, 1.5 lb. mozzarella, 1 lb. provolone, 8 oz. sharp provolone this is delicious for all pizzas and certain pasta dishes) this batch I did throw in about a cup of parmesan to the cheese blend.

2 oz. butter (cut in slices)

1 pinch white ground pepper

fresh ground sea salt

fresh ground black pepper

Directions

Fill your large sauce pot a little over half way with ice water and your kosher salt. Add the potatoes, scallions and banana pepper and bring to boil and then lower to medium. Let the pot go till potatoes are fork tender.

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*NOTE- you might want to keep the water for soup because it has delicious flavors and you can build many things with this base. (a few vegetables, some noodles, rice or potatoes, whatever you want)

Next drain the potato liquid (keep or throw out) either way toss out the banana pepper and the scallions. Put the potatoes back in the sauce pot with the butter and mash with potato masher. Add cheese and white pepper and mash till smooth. At this point the potatoes are so delicious …..just keep going and you will be rewarded with awesome fluffy crispy delicious cheesy potato crisps.

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Get two baking sheets and put a layer of parchment paper to them and set your oven to 350 degrees.

Get your #6 pasty tip and fit it into your disposable pastry bag by cutting off the end and fill around half way with the potato mixture.

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Twist the bag’s end so it holds in the mixture.

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Now squirt out the mixture in about 2 1/5 inch pieces till done.

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Bake till crispy (about a half hour) Hit them with fresh ground sea salt and black pepper

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They are FORKING DELICIOUS as is no sauce is needed. This recipe is a winner everyone will love these. Comments I got were..”.Ummmmmmmmmmmmm” and “I could eat 800 of these”

THESE ARE FORKING DELICIOUS and That is The Forking Truth

THESE ARE FORKING DELICIOUS and That is The Forking Truth

Costco the Free Food Samples might come at a Price

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Costco the American membership only warehouse is the third largest retailer in the United States in 2015.

Costco offers big forking savings on car tires, dry goods, certain groceries, big forking bottles of booze, various services and more.

Costco also offers free food demos where some people graze and other forking people call lunch.

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Recently this Californian Man Derrick Gharabighi (true picture that’s the forking guy!)

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allegedly punched a 78 year old man in the face because the man asked Mr. Gharabighi not to take so many Nutella topped waffles.

The miscreant has a long list of arrest on his record already and might face 11 years in prison. At Costco the Free Samples might come with a price.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth