Fire & Ice

I have always enjoyed doing absolutely nothing and on an even better note, I think I do nothing quite well.  My ideal vacation is a place that has extremely warm weather in which I don't have to do a lot of walking or sightseeing, This past weekend, I spent 4 glorious days at the Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona.  The temperatures hovered in the 80's the whole week and there was hardly a cloud in the sky.  The days consisted of moving from one lounge chair to the next, depending on the placement of the sun and my internal body temperature.  I was surprised that you can actually sit for hours on end, watch people go by, and be 100% content.  

Arizona could almost be a second home for our family.  We love going out there.  My Grammie used to live in Scottsdale and then moved to Sedona.  The red rocks in Sedona are like nothing you have ever seen before.  My days of climbing Bell Rock are over, but I still love the mountains.  Getting out of Illinois always makes you realize that there is more than just city buildings, long winters, and the daily hustle and bustle of your normal routine.  

The mornings at Camelback were slightly cool and I would lounge by the fire pit, with my feet up, while sipping my coffee.  The long pants and jacket that you ventured out of the room with, could then be stripped off as the sun started to warm everybody up.  The afternoons would give you that warm, desert heat feeling, which I absolutely love.  If I got hot, I moved to the shade.  If I was chilled, I moved to lounge in the sun.  In the afternoon I spent time by the pool, accepting ice water from anyone that would offer it to me.  I have never gone on vacation and not left the hotel, but that can now be crossed off my Bucket List.  I had also never had a massage before, but took advantage of the renowned services at the Camelback Inn by having my first ever Swedish massage.  

We did Mapquest the closest Whole Foods, which was only 9 minutes away, so there was a trip there for trail mix and oranges, but that was it!  I also stashed a jar of 365 Crunchy Peanut Butter into my purse for the trip.  Yes, peanut butter passes through security without issue.  Mexican food is one of my favorites.  We had many great meals, unique dishes, and daily favorites so I will highlight just a few of them.  

Nights started off with table side guacamole.  The guacamole was made with avocados, jalapeno, red onion, diced tomato, lime juice, and cilantro.  I have now become addicted to guacamole and taco chips and will be posting my own homemade version sometime this week.  

My favorite margarita on the trip was one made with cactus juice.  For one (me) with slightly elevated blood pressure, I probably shouldn't love salt as much as I do, but I can't help it.  The salted rim of a margarita glass makes the margarita the perfect drink.  The cactus juice added a slight pink hue to the glass, which makes you feel like you are drinking something special.  It was an Arizona twist to your basic margarita and that is why I liked it.  If I had roommates or people over on a nightly basis, I might be making margaritas more often, so it might be best that I live alone!

I think I got the biggest kick out of the poolside treat that the Camelback Inn offered.  About once an hour, one of the pool boys would walk around with a tray of snacks.  It just wasn't your normal mixed nuts, granola bar or cereal sort of snack.  They walked around with tiny cups of frozen grapes.  Can you guess what is in my freezer as I type this blog.....frozen grapes.  You must try this simple but surprisingly delicious snack.  

I read a 450 page book in 4 days.  I highly recommend reading Jodi Piccoult's Handle with Care.  Piccoult is my favorite author and this book keeps you reading.  Is it time to go back to Arizona yet?

Banana Crunch Muffins

I really love Mexican food.  My first ideas of real Mexican food were the soft tacos and cinnamon twists from Taco Bell.  It used to be a treat to 'go out to dinner' there.  That ranks right up there with ordering the Little Engineer Special in the food court at the IGA in Effingham.  In grade school, once a month on a Thursday we would have taco day.  Taco Bell was located right across the street from school and they would come in and serve us lunch.  I remember it being the highlight of the month, and I wasn't the only one.  We could choose between nachos, cinnamon twists, soft tacos and hard tacos.  Authentic Mexican food just didn't taste right when compared to Taco Bell.

If you want real Mexican food I suggest you go to Salpicon in Old Town.  Simple dishes, nice portion sizes, and great sauces really accent all of the flavors of Mexico on one plate.  We ate there this past Saturday to celebrate the end of Daffodil Days.  Priscilla Satkoff is the chef there and on the menu they have cookbooks for sale that the chef will sign for you.  Well you don't have to ask me twice to buy into something like that.  I have my own official signed copy!

The guacamole there is to die for.  Homemade corn chips with a chunky guacamole really hits the spot.  I had a seared pork chop surrounded by a spicy mole sauce and roasted sweet potatoes and plantains.  It was simple but delicious.  

I want to treat everyone in the office for all of the help they gave me with Daffodil Days this past week.  Nothing wins over office mates like some homemade treats.   I believe Ina Garten has many go-to sure fire win recipes that go over well with large groups.  Her Banana Crunch Muffins would qualify in that category.  At one point in time I was making these muffins on a weekly basis.  I would freeze them individually and then take one out each day for breakfast, heat it up in the microwave, and go on with the rest of my day.  They are really easy to make and don't even require a mixer.  

Banana Crunch Muffins

3 cups white-wheat flour

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Dash of salt

2 sticks of butter, melted and cooled

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

2 bananas mashed

3/4 cup of milk

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup granola (if you have it....I used oatmeal)

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 diced banana

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine dry ingredients.  Slowly add melted butter, milk, eggs, vanilla, and bananas.  Stir until combined.  Do not over mix.  Add coconut, granola, walnuts, and diced banana.  Spoon into greased muffin tins.  Bake for 30 minutes.  

Makes 18 muffins.  

Pulled BBQ Pork

I feel like I have neglected my blog over the past 7 days.  Daffodil Days has taken over my life in the past week and I have been living on apple and peanut butter, tuna salad and Triscuits, and pulled bbq pork on toast.  I attempted to blog on Wednesday night, but fell asleep mid-sentence on the computer.  Whatever I would have written would not have been that entertaining or informative I'm sure.  It was a week of waking up at 6am to get to flower storage, lugging boxes (but not heavy ones of course), pushing daffodils on just about anyone that would walk by, and of course providing hope to cancer patients throughout the city of Chicago.  It was a great week and I am already looking forward to next year.

Highlights of the event include: Whole Foods selling daffodils at all 6 of their Chicago locations, selling out at Union Station - $3500 worth, and the 3rd annual Garden of Hope planting that took place out at the Cancer Survivor's Garden in Millennium Park.  Currently we are just a little shy of $140,000 for the American Cancer Society!  

On Saturday a group of volunteers were selling at the Lincoln Park Conservatory and I got a text message that Alpana Singh just walked by the sales table.  Alpana is the host of Check Please and is in charge of wine for the Lettuce Entertain You group.  She didn't buy daffodils but I'm going to get her to buy daffodils for next year!  

It has been cold for the past 4 months and I have yet to take my crock pot out of the cupboard.  Last weekend I knew it would be a crazy week so I wanted to have something that would already be made for the weeknight of dinners.  About 10 years ago I was watching a show on HGTV and they had a cooking demo during one of their shows.  The recipe of the day was Pulled BBQ Pork Sandwiches cooked in Root Beer.  I was amazed that someone would cook pork in root beer so it intrigued me right away.  I had my Mom search online for the recipe so that I could attempt to make it.  This is the first recipe that I attempted from watching a show on tv.  I laugh at how often this happens now, but 10 years ago, this recipe was a big deal to me.

It works surprisingly well.  You cook the pork in a crock pot filled with root beer, over low heat for about 8-10 hours.  The sauce has root beer in it as well.  When I used to make this at home, my Dad would always ask that I didn't make the sauce with root beer in it, but use KC Masterpiece instead, but being the risk-taker that I am with food, I always went with this recipe.  I love the way the crock pot makes your house.  They should market the crock pot smell in a candle, it would make money.    I got off the elevator and could smell my pork cooking from the hallway.  I think I shall start using my crock pot a little more often.  

I decided to mix it up a bit this last time, and I used a vinegar based sauce instead.  I'll post both the original recipe and the one that I altered just a bit this past time.

Pulled BBQ Pork Sandwiches

1 boneless pork roast

1 tablespoon of oil

2 liters of root beer

1 onion, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, smashed

Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat.  Season pork with salt and pepper.  Sear pork on all sides, so that the pork is browned.  Place pork into a crock pot.  Turn heat to low.  Cover with sliced onions, smashed garlic, and root beer.  Put enough root beer in to cover the meet.  Let cook 8-10 hours.  Remove pork from liquid and reserve onions.  Discard juices.  Shred pork with 2 forks and place back into crock pot on warm.  Cover with sauce.  Serve pork on toasted bread and top with reserved onions.  

Original Sauce Recipe

1 bottle of chili sauce

1-2 cups of root beer

Simmer sauce and root beer together over medium heat until mixture thickens, about 30 minutes.  

Vinegar Sauce

2 cups apple cider vinegar

1 cup original sauce recipe

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon molasses

Dash of cayenne pepper

 

32nd reView: Peanut Butter

A little peanut butter knowledge for you: it takes about 850 peanuts to produce and 18 ounce jar of peanut butter.  Natural peanut butter uses only peanuts and oil, usually peanut oil.  Peanut butter is sold in two forms - smooth and chunky.  Natural peanut butter must be refrigerated after opening and can be stored up to 6 months.  (Food Lovers Companion)

My first official reView is in.  After 4 salty, crunchy, and monounsaturated fat filled months of taste testing various brands of peanut butter, I have finally decided on a winner.  This would be my first, and definitely not last, attempt at truly investing quality time into finding the perfect brand of a food.  At times, I questioned why I was taste testing a food that was the subject of many breaking news stories, due to the contaminated ingredient of the peanut, that was causing deaths amongst the United States population.  Granted, peanut butter is still on the safe list and we really not need worry about harming ourselves during consumption.  Therefore, the project continued on.  

Over the past few months I have made some definite conclusions about the topic of peanut butter.  The first being that there are quite a few peanut butter fanatics in the city of Chicago that I interact with on a daily basis.  When you find someone that enjoys peanut butter, they just don't 'kind-of' like it to the point where they could live with or without it, but instead they are an 'absolutely have to have in on a daily basis' sort of peanut butter lover.  Each person has their favorite brand.  Some like crunchy and some prefer creamy.  Others like all natural while many enjoy the separated varieties.  Regardless, I have enjoyed talking peanut butter over the past few months with just about anyone that will listen.

I created a system to judge each brand.  My first rule was that I would not buy a peanut butter that contained sugar in the ingredient list.  I like my peanut butter sans sugar and since it was my experiment, I can make up my own rules.  I kept a hand-written detailed list about each brand that I was investigating.  I took notes on the following to make my decision: ingredients, creaminess, roasted quality of the nuts, saltiness, texture, and quality of butter after refrigeration.  I graded each one with a letter grade from A-F.  

In the end I probably could have taste-tested even a few more brands, but once I came across my winner I knew it was the one.  I didn't want to spend any other time tasting inferior butters, but instead wanted to just go with the winner on a full-time basis.  I love peanut butter with apples or spread on toast with a chopped banana.  It is great spread over vanilla ice cream and can make a killer ingredient in cookie.  I've mentioned that I love it on oatmeal and could honestly eat it on cardboard.  

I hope you enjoy this inaugural reView.  If you are a peanut butter lover, please share your favorite brand with me.

MaraNatha Organic Crunchy Peanut Butter w/salt

-Ingredients: peanuts, salt

-Notes: MN has a creamy texture that you could compare to a Skippy or Jiff, even though it is a crunchy peanut butter.  The roasted peanut flavor does not come through.  The taste is almost bland.  The quality is not there.  The chopped peanuts throughout the mixture are sparse.  The peanut butter stays creamy after refrigeration and is easy to spread.  

Grade: C-

 Fresh Ground Crunchy Peanut Butter from Whole Foods

-Ingredients: peanuts, salt

-Notes: Peanut butter has a very thick texture.  There is a strong roasted peanut flavor.  The texture is creamy but still has that crunchy bite to it as you start to taste it.  The chopped peanuts don't dissolve in your mouth as you chew, but instead stay on your tongue for flavor. The mixture needs more salt.  The thick mixture is still easily pliable after a few days in the fridge.  

                               Grade: B

Smuckers Natural Chunky Peanut Butter

-Ingredients: peanuts, salt

-Notes: Smuckers peanut butter has both a chunky and grainy texture.  This butter requires you to stir upon opening to mix it up.  The chopped peanuts floating on top get distributed throughout the mixture, which is a great addition.  There is a strong roasted peanut flavor.  It is both creamy as you put it in your mouth but then nutty as you start to chew.  There is a good salt content.

                          Grade: A-

Arrowhead Mills Crunchy Valencia Peanut Butter

-Ingredients: roasted peanuts

=Notes: Arrowhead Mills has a butter with a creamy texture much like the MaraNatha brand.  The roasted peanut flavor is there but the mixture is lacking flavor and salt.  Like Skippy, the butter stays quite creamy after being in the fridge for a week but it does not have that bite that peanut butter should have.  This peanut butter is just lacking in texture and taste.

Grade: C

Trader Joe's Organic Crunchy Peanut Butter

-Ingredients: dry roasted peanuts, salt

-Notes: TJ has a great peanut taste.  The texture is smooth but still has that crunchy aftertaste that create a nice afterthought.  The peanut butter has a good salty taste but is lacking that standout taste.  In a pinch this would do.  I also tried the TJ crunchy peanut butter with flax seeds but because that throws in a little twist, I didn't review that in this experiment.  I do however prefer the butter with flax seeds as opposed to this one.

Grade: B+

Santa Cruz Organic Dark Roasted Crunchy Peanut Butter

-Ingredients: peanuts salt

-Notes: At first, Santa Cruz peanut butter has a great creamy texture.  Once stirred, the peanuts combine with the smooth mixture to make for a great peanut taste.  The salt content is slightly lacking.  After refrigeration, the butter turns rock solid.  It is not spreadable and loses that roasted flavor.

Grade: B-

7 Peanut Butters later and a winner has been declared......

365 Crunchy Peanut Butter

-Ingredients: peanuts, salt

-Notes:  365 peanut butter has a multitude of crunchy peanuts throughout the mixture, optimizing flavor throughout.  There is a great salt taste, and the peanut flavor stays on your tongue.  It is creamy without being too smooth.  The mixture spreads easily yet doesn't run all over your food.  The peanut butter has a great texture that really allows you to enjoy the roasted peanut flavor.

Grade: A+

When first going into the project, my peanut butter of choice was the Smucker's All Natural.  I didn't think I would find one that I enjoyed more than that one.  I will not be doing back.  You must try this 365 brand.  To each his own.  The average person will have a different liking to each of the peanut butters that I have reviewed.  But that is ok; this is what makes the world go round.  I'm glad that I can spend my 365 days a year with Whole Foods 365 crunchy peanut butter.  

Roasted Beets

Beets.  I love them any way you serve them to me.  Golden Beets, yes.  Red beets, even better.  Baby beets, you bet.  Usually, I will get a bag of loose beets and boil them on a Sunday afternoon.  I chop them up and have them for the entire week.  They are great with just a touch of lemon zest or a sprinkle of Parmesan and pepper.  I usually boil them.  The water usually turns bright red from the bleeding of the beets which usually makes for an interesting clean-up.  The beets themselves cook pretty well though without any hassle.  You can put them on the stove and let them go for a good 45 minutes.  The fun part arrives when you need to get them peeled and out of their skin.  Your hands get stained a Merlot red as you undertake this process, the beets slip out of your hands and topple onto the floor leaving tiny red splotches all over the place, and then as you go to wash your hands the sink handle gets stained red too.  Oh the love/hate relationship of getting a few beets into your diet.

I didn't always used to be a beet lover.  My Grandpa has always had a garden at my Great Grandma's house.  When I was younger I used to love to go to the garden and help tie tomatoes, dig potatoes, pull carrots and pick beans.  I think my Grandpa really liked when it was a potato digging day and I was there to bend over and grab up all of the harvest.  I don't do as well with physical labor these days, but he is now 85 years old and still digs his own potatoes.  Among many other things, he also grew beets.  My Grandma would pickle them, boil them, and can them, but you could never get me to eat them.  Times change.

Mark Bittman recently wrote an article in the New York Times titled A Divorce for Beets and Goat Cheese.  I will admit that I love the combination of beets and goat cheese.  It makes a great side-dish to any oven roasted fish and countless other proteins.  I do see his point though, that the goat cheese/beet combo gets overused slightly in many recipes and restaurants.  Bittman suggest roasting beets in the oven.  His key to solving the messy beet issue is to roast them individually wrapped in their own foil pouch.  I thought I would give this method a try.

After trying his method I have come to realize that there really is no easy way to make your own beets, no matter what.  I wrapped each beet individually into foil.  I put them in the oven.  Weird noises occasionally came from the oven.  On more than one occasion I expected to open the oven to find an exploded mess, but that never did happen.  So the beets will make noise, but that is ok.  Also, you still have to eventually peel the beets.  My hands still became a nice shade of purple and I still had beet juice droplets on my floor and counter.  But I will say that roasted beets taste MUCH better than boiled.  Thank you Mark Bittman for that tip.

Roasted Beets with Bay Scallops 

5 large beets, washed

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 shallot

1/2 cup pecan halves, toasted

1/4 cup orange juice

Handful of basil leaves

1/2 pound bay scallops

Salt and Pepper

Heat oven to 400.  Individually wrap beets in tin foil.  Place on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 75 minutes.  Remove beets from oven.  Let cool slightly.  Peel and chop beets into bite sized pieces.  

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add shallot and pecans and cook for about 8 minutes.  The nuts will toast and the shallots will soften.  Put the mixture into your mini-prep.  Add orange juice and basil and blend until smooth.  Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Add scallops to your skillet.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook stirring frequently until scallops are just cooked through.  (Bay scallops are small so they will cook rather quickly, about 5 minutes)

Put a pile of beets on your plate.  Top with the scallops and the pecan pesto mixture.  

Starbucks Splash Stick

Starbucks and I go way back.  My coffee tastes have matured over the years and my drink choices have evolved with age.  In my early years, I started with ordering the coffee frappuccino.  It was your typical drink order as a high school student who doesn't quite like the taste of coffee yet, but enjoys the occasional trip to Starbucks.  I then graduated to the Caramel Macchiato.  Tony event got me hooked on the upside down CM, which was almost more fun to say while ordering than to actually drink.  I graduated even further by switching to the Vanilla Latte.  The number of pumps of vanilla gradually decreased over time to the point where I could eventually do just a plain Latte.  I would get iced in the summer and hot in the winter.  I would go in spurts where I would also order a soy latte or even just plain coffee with whipped cream if I was craving something a little different.  By now you are thinking this is probably quite a strange story.  

Over the past year or so, the milk from Starbucks has started to taste funny to me and I have switched over to the Americano.    Espresso and water.  No funny tastes there.  I can't quite figure out what I like better: drinking my daily cup of coffee or the routine of going into Starbucks each day.  It's a comfortable, familiar feeling and it is the perfect treat in the middle of my day.  There is something to be said about walking into a coffee shop each day, with the same people working the usual shifts, that person knowing your drink order, and providing you with your caffeine boost for the day.  

This past week I was in the middle of a staff meeting and was slightly chewing on the lid to my Starbucks cup.  Word of warning: do not chew on the lids of Starbucks cups as they can cause a chipped tooth.  I don't make this stuff up, I lead by example.  I now have a chipped front tooth and need to get to the dentist to get it fixed. 

Starbucks has come out with a great invention called the Splash Stick.  It is a tiny, green plastic stick that you can put into the lip of your coffee lid.  This prevents sloshing of your drink and will eliminate the times when your coffee jumps out of your cup and burns your hand.  What a genius invention!  I only wish they had created this sooner.  I'm not sure if this is available in all Starbucks locations or not yet, but if it is, definitely pick one up next time you are there.  

Chocolate Chip Scones

When picking a restaurant in Chicago, there really are almost too many to choose from.  I have a few go-to websites to browse my options: Check Please and Metromix.  Both are great sites, however I almost get overwhelmed by the dining-out possibilities.  Sure you can pick your location, type of cuisine, price range, and number of stars, but the process doesn't seem to be simple.  I wish I could just type in: place Emily has never been to before, neighborhood restaurant, reasonable prices, great atmosphere, friendly service and delicious food into the search engine and then a recommendation could pop right out.  I get lost reading the reviews about each different restaurant and become slightly overcome with indecision.  Restaurants that I love get horrible reviews and ones that I don't care for at all go over quite well with reviewers.  I'm never quite sure what to expect and don't know how to make the process easier.

We tried a new place last night in the Warehouse District called Trattoria Isabella.   It was a small, unassuming Italian restaurant that had large windows to look out onto the street.  When we lived in New Orleans, they had a Warehouse District too.  Every city must have a Warehouse District? I had the fried calamari as an appetizer and the linguine with clams for my entree.  The calamari was lightly breaded and not greasy at all.  Restaurants can sometimes miss the mark when it comes to calamari, but TI did not.  It was served with lemon wedges and a spicy marinara sauce.  Personally, a few more tentacles on that plate would have made it a great dish.  The linguine was served with an arrabiata sauce and included both whole and minced clams.   I love seafood and pasta together and think those dishes sometimes get overlooked on a menu.  The food was served piping hot; hotter than most restaurants serve their food, which made for a great presentation and first bite.  

Today was a rainy day and I felt like spending some time in the kitchen.  While walking to church this morning I caught a glance of myself in the window: purple umbrella, black/blue rain coat, red purse brown pants, and green wellies.  Yikes!  People might have thought I was colorblind.  I gave in on the way home and bought a 'big kid' umbrella.  I usually carry around the travel size umbrella in my purse but I was honestly just tired of my body being half soaked with rain.  Now if only this 3 foot umbrella could fit in my purse, it would be perfect.  

My hope was to make sugar cookies today but I didn't have all of the ingredients in my kitchen, and I didn't want to get out again, so chocolate chip scones won out.  The recipe calls for buttermilk, which I didn't have, but making your own is quite easy.  Mix half milk with half plain yogurt, and you can call it buttermilk.  I'm going to take some scones to work tomorrow and put some in the freezer to have as a snack all week.  With only a 1/3 of a cup of sugar and minimal butter, these are a really healthy option for scones.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Scones

2 cups white/whole wheat flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons of cold butter

Zest of 1 orange

1 dark chocolate bar, chopped up

3/4 cup buttermilk or the yogurt + milk mixture

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

Heat oven to 400.  Put flour, sugar, powder, soda and salt into a bowl.  Chop up butter and add it to the flour mixture with the orange zest.  Use your fingers and incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients.  The butter should meld into the flour and the butter should look like rice flecks throughout your dough.  Add the chocolate.  Stir in the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla.

Pat dough into a disc and use a cutter to cut your scones.  You can use a knife and cut them into triangles or do like I did and use a small circle cookie-cutter.  Bake in the oven for about 17-18 minutes.  

Kumquat Chutney

Today was a beautiful day.  You can give us an inch of sunshine and we take a yard.  I saw runners jogging by in shorts and t-shirts along Michigan Ave. today.  In this treat of a day, people find reasons to be outside.  We had a nice walk to Millennium Park today at lunch time and it reinforces the thought that winter will soon be gone.  I didn't quite go that far to wear a t-shirt outside, but it was refreshing to wear a fleece to work instead of my parka of a winter coat.  Throw a vase of daffodils on my kitchen table and I believe spring would be here.  

Despite the busy work weeks, I have still found time to do some light leisure reading.  It is my new routine to get home from work and read a few chapters. while munching on some chips and salsa, before getting into the rest of the evening.  It's been a great way to clear my mind, not think about work, and to honestly just sit and relax.  I just finished my latest read called Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl.  I had previously read Reichl's Tender to the Bone, and I think I liked G&S better.  Riechl's book highlights her stint as the food critic for the New York Times.  What a job that must be.  It was a great book that gives you a look into the world of life as a food critic and the microscopic details that go into each review.  A critic goes to a restaurant no less than 3 times.  That sure must make for a lot of eating out.  Phil Vettel is no Ruth Reichl, but it did make me appreciate the time that it takes to really see a restaurant from start to finish, even through the eyes of the Chicago Tribune.  

A couple of weeks ago I read a blog about Kumquat Chutney.  Jenn and I work together and she has a blog called The Whole Kitchen.  I am a fan of anything with the word chutney in it and the fact that I had never tried a kumquat before made me very curious about the recipe.  Whole Foods didn't have kumquats but Jenn was nice enough to grab some from the market up by her.  

Kumquats taste like the combination of a lemon and an orange.  It not quite as tart as a lemon but has the citrus burst that you might get from an orange.  This is quite a simple recipe.  The most time consuming part is chopping up the kumquats.  I developed a system that I thought worked quite well.  The key is to do each step all at once.  This way you aren't going from one process to the next and you will get good at what you are doing.  Cut all of the kumquats in half, lengthwise.  Turn the kumquats inside out to get rid of the seeds.  Slice each kumquat into thin strips.  Once you've cut your kumquats you are really home free.

Over the past week I have eaten my chutney straight out of the jar, slathered on toast, piled on brie cheese for dinner, spooned over oatmeal for lunch, and tonight I am going to have it on a little vanilla ice cream for dessert.  Thanks for the recipe Jenn!  

Kumquat Chutney

1 bag kumquats (should be about 2 cups or so), sliced thin

1/4 cup agave nectar

1 vanilla bean, just the specks on the inside

1/2 cup water

Juice of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

Dash of cayenne pepper

Add chopped kumquats, agave nectar, vanilla bean specks from the inside of the bean, water, cinnamon, ginger and cayenne to a sauce pan.  Bring up to heat and then turn it down so that the mixture bubbles just slightly while cooking.  Cook for about 30 minutes.  The mixture will thicken and it will tell you when it's done.  Add lemon juice and zest and let cool.  

Iron Chef Potluck: BASIL - Crab Basil Risotto

Tonight marks the first night that I have had 'carry out' from a restaurant in Chicago since I moved here in 2007.  You might think that's a little surprising, but I'm not one to eat out all that much, especially during the week.  At $15 a pop too, who wants to spend all that money eating out every night?  It has been quite a few late nights at work over the past 2 weeks and I have been living off of Whole Foods bread with marinara sauce, brie cheese, and kumquat chutney for dinner.  It is a weird combination I know, but makes for a pretty great dinner.  Tonight however, I stopped by Carmine's and picked up the Fish Salad with a side of marinara sauce.  I have 2 favorite dishes at Carmine's: the homemade square noodles with marinara and the fish salad.  I usually get weird looks when I order the fish salad at the table.  The salad comes with squid, shrimp, roasted peppers, olives, parsley, chopped celery and one other type of fish that I can't quite recognize...ha!  It is a great salad that tastes fresh, and if you are a fish lover, which I am, it definitely hits the spot.  It is something that I would not attempt to make on my own, and therefore it is worth the splurge to get it as carry out.  

I have one more dish to talk about in regards to the Iron Chef Potluck Party.  I made a Crab Basil Risotto as my second dish.  The recipe turned out really well but would have been better suited for a crab competition, because the basil flavor did not shine through.  The crab flavor came through wonderfully though, especially with the combination of fish stock.  If you have leftover risotto, you should form the rice into patties and make risotto crab cakes.  It would be a great second meal.  

In the Japanese version of Iron Chef, when the reporter on the floor has something to report to the chairman, he interjects with the word 'cuisant'.  I tried to Google that word to get the correct spelling but nothing was coming up.  Anyway, at one point in time I had Chloe (my golden retriever) trained to bark when I said the word cuisant.  She could do it on command on a regular basis and it made me laugh everytime she did it.  I can't tell if she barked at the excitement in my voice as I yelled Japanese phrases at her, or if she really caught on and was being a smart dog.  I like to think the smart dog aspect wins, but somehow I think it is the latter.  Either way, she made my day quite often.  I've since tried to continue with that trick, but it seems to have lost its flair.  Oh well.

Crab Basil Risotto

2 cups fish stock diluted with 2 cups water

1 box chicken stock

1 onion, diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup ground walnuts, toasted

1/4 cup ground pine nuts, toasted

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups risotto

1 cup chopped basil

8 oz crab meat

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

Salt 

Pepper

Bring stock, water, and chicken stock to a simmer in a pan.  Over medium heat, warm olive oil.  Add onions and ground nuts and saute until soft.  Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Add risotto and let rice toast in pan while stirring for about 2 minutes.  Start adding broth one ladle at a time, stirring more often than not.  Once the liquid has absorbed, add another ladle of broth.  This process should take about 25 minutes.  Once rice has absorbed all the liquid it can, add crab meat, lemon juice, ricotta, salt and pepper.  Let heat through.  Stir in basil.  

Iron Chef Potluck: BASIL - Basil Crackers with Ricotta Basil Spread

On a typical Friday afternoon, I would venture to guess that most people in the United States are plotting the idea of what to do over the next 48 hours away from work.  There are the usual run of the mill, weekend activities that probably cross your mind.  The activities become even less enticing in the 4th month of an ongoing, everlasting Chicago winter.  You can only do so much in the confines of your own apartment and neighborhood.   If you have a group of friends that enjoy cooking, talking about food and trying new things, host an Iron Chef Potluck party.  The first party took place last night and it was an amazing success.  

Iron Chef and I have a history.  I first started watching the Japanese version on the Food Network about 7 or 8 years ago.  I was fascinated with the ingredients that were used, most of them being ones that I had never heard of or cooked with before.  I was a Morimoto fan.  Not only did these chefs cook extraordinary dishes, but they also ran around kitchen stadium in shiny, bright chef outfits.  The voice overs that were done to translate the program also make it quite entertaining.  I will give credit to my brother for opening my eyes to the show.  I believe I saw a 6 episode Iron Chef marathon on New Year's Day and became immediately hooked.  

The party was set-up like this: all contestants were sent an email on Friday afternoon with the secret ingredient.  From that point on, we had about 24 hours to come up with a dish featuring that secret ingredient.  This time, the ingredient was basil.  There were no official rules as to what your recipe entailed, as long as basil was the theme ingredient.  We were allowed 30 minutes prep-time in the host kitchen, if needed, prior to the start of the evening and judging would follow.  Each contestant was given a scorecard and we were turned loose.  The dishes were lined up on the dining room table, each with a note card describing the plate set before us.  At the end of the night, the scores were totaled and a winner was declared.  The winner picks the next Iron Chef Potluck party theme ingredient.  

Caroline invited me to join the party and I'm so glad she did.  We were a very dynamic group, everyone not knowing one another, but coming together with very similar interests.  I made 2 dishes for the competition.  I will write about one tonight and one another night.  I did learn a few lessons after this first competition: presentation does count and focusing on the key ingredient is essential.  Everything I tasted last night was really very good.  However, after tasting quite a few basil dishes, you could really tell the recipes where the basil flavor was the main event.  My goal for next months dinner is to really focus on enhancing the flavor of the secret ingredient.  

My first dish was basil crackers with cheese.  This was my first time making homemade crackers and I was very happy with how they turned out.  I realized that after tasting them, they would have been better suited for a Parmesan theme ingredient party, but that is how you make adjustments for the next time around.

  

Homemade Basil Crackers with Ricotta Basil Spread

Crackers (Makes 29....exactly):

1 stick butter, slightly softened

1 cup Parmesan

2 tablespoons ground pine nuts with 1 tablespoon basil

1 1/4 cups flour

1/3 cup chopped basil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

2 tablespoons water

Ricotta:

1/3 cup ricotta

1/3 cup mascarpone

1/2 cup chopped basil

3 roasted cloves of garlic

Salt

Pepper

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Dash of red pepper flakes

Toast pine nuts for 8 minutes at 350.  Let cool slightly.  Grind in mini-prep with 1 tablespoon basil.  Cream butter in a mixer.  Add Parmesan, pine nut mixture, basil, salt, pepper, and lemon.  Add flour and mix until combined.  If mixture is dry, add a tablespoon of water at a time until dough holds its shape.  

Roll dough into a log about 13 inches long and 1-2 inches wide.  Wrap in plastic wrap and let chill for at least 30 minutes.  Take dough out of the fridge.  Slice dough into 1/2 inch cracker slices.  Place on a baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  You can flip the crackers half way through baking to make sure they get brown on both sides.  Let cool.  

Wrap 3 cloves of garlic in tin foil and put in an oven at 400.  Let cook for about 20 minutes.  Garlic will become soft.  For ricotta mixture, combine all ingredients.  Place in a bowl and serve next to crackers.

I am posting some of the pictures from other dishes in the competition.  The winner was the Basil Ice Cream with Chocolate Basil Cake.  Heather, I am honestly still thinking about that ice cream, which means it was a hit in my book.  Caroline wins the award for presentation.  She served her Shrimp with Thai Basil Sauce on a black slate board with the recipe title written in chalk.  It must be that culinary school teaching you all that skill!