The Epicurean Yeoman cookbook

Paella

2011-03-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

I made this Paella, entered into a contest and never heard anything about it.

It's right here.

I had a great time making it, I even used a wood fire!

Coffee mug

2011-03-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

Size does matter!

Been a year..almost

2011-03-07T06:21:00.001-08:00

Since my last post. So on my almost anniversary of silence I guess I'll update. I am now the proud owner of two very nice folded carbon steel knives. My wife looked at one of them the wrong way and it cut her finger from across the room. Ok, thats a lie, but they are that sharp. Which leads me to my point on knife safety more people get hurt from dull knives then from sharp ones, honestly. I used to work at a wine bar and we were constantly slicing and chopping and 9 times out of 10 the injuries were due to the knife not being sharp enough and taking the tip off someones finger and right into a salad (happened only once, and we may or may not have noticed that the tip of the finger was in the salad after we served it). The other 10% comes from not paying attention. So when handling knives, sharpen them and pay attention, otherwise you'll have to comp someones meal and give them free dessert...

I digress, I received a Shun knife for Christmas and it is as beautiful as it is sharp. It is a 6 inch damascus patterned chef's knife and if you have the money i definately recommend this beautiful knife.

Just some Rambling

2010-03-12T06:18:00.001-08:00

So in order for me to keep my sanity right now, I am going to just type out a stream of consciousness because I haven't uttered a word to anyone today. I have to say that I got a little excited when my work phone rang, for a second and the jackass hung up...I was honestly hopeful that I could do some work. I might just turn off the internet here just for a little excitement. Oh that would be sweet, people running around pounding on my door "JUSTIN!!!! THE INTERNETS ARE DOWN" alas, while I am intellectually lusting for human contact and conversation their just isn't the motivation for me to actually do anything.

Since this is primarily a cooking blog I will regale someone with my dinner last night. After realizing that perhaps my steady diet of fried fare and meats will kill me sooner or later i decided to use my cooking prowess to change that. So last night I made some chicken in a white wine, leek, garlic, pepper and lemon sauce. The sauce consisted of nothing more than the above with a little olive oil. Then we had some asparagus with the sauce on it, it was awesome. Damn, now I'm hungry, rightfully so all i have had to eat today is a cliff bar and a half gallon of coffee (ok not a half gallon but enough). I am back on a work out kick that hopefully will stick, I feel like it will because I am starting to enjoy the pain and fatigue that comes along with a good work out. Also, I really dont have anything better to do. I either work out for an hour or so or play video games for an extra hour which honestly my ass doesnt need that.

In efforts to eat more like some without a culinary death wish I am trying to refocus the mainstays of my diet. I am actually trying to invert the proportions of my diet. From almost non-existant vegetable consumption to a majority. Which should prove interesting for my body to shift from a processed grain and red meat dominant diet to one of poultry, seafood and vegetables. I am probably going to eat a baby by the end of the week... maybe.

So for the small percentage of people who know me and the even smaller percent that know me and read this, there has been some job troubles as off late. About a month ago the owner of the company I work for came to me and the office manager and said that he wasn't sure about the health of the company and suggested that if we had another job to take it. Reading in between the lines here, get the fuck out while you can!!! This has lead to an indescribable amount of stress while i desperately try to hunt down a job that I can do. Most jobs out here in the Midwest are either sales, general labor or some obscure shit that research physists can do. Whats a consultant/tech person to do, I am to gentle to do general labor and I don't have a PHd in Quantum fluid mechanics or whatever that job posting was for. So after a week or so of doing some serious network milking and resume spamming, I got two hits. One is a general tech support and bench work the other, which i am more excited about, is a technical consultant for a finance firm :D, I am excited. This should prove to be awesome, truly awesome if i get the job because I can finally cook like I want to, using materials that I can actually afford to use and have access to that fresh stuff.

It is now going on 2 hours and I still haven't had any human interactions. I wonder how long until i spiral into a disassociative hallucination where I can't determine the difference between my existance and a that of a highlighter. Kinda like having a 0 Charisma score in D&D. Perhaps I'll crack open that orange I bought, that'll occupy me for...not long at all.

Sauted leeks in a white wine, butter and lemon sauce

2009-10-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

I have never cooked leeks before but god damnit I am kicking myself for it. All these years I could have been having leeky goodness in my mouth, well I am going to make up for it. Still, I digress recipe is as follows

White wine, left overs from a fiancee will do in a pinch
butter, i think i used a quarter a stick
rice
chicken broth
half a lemon

From my limited experience with leeks I learned a valuable lession, they are a bitch to clean. So what i did, and would love to discover a better method, is to cut the leeks in to little disks. Threw the disks in a collander and run under cold water. Then I laboriously rifled through the little bastards making sure all the mud and god knows what else is in farm soil was washed off, or at least to the point where I could in good conscious serve the food, shhhhh. So with my leeks and potentially goat placenta I threw it into a skillet the white wine, the butter and the other half of the lemon from the previous entry, set the burner to medium high. If I had more white wine, ahem Eva!, I would have cooked the leeks longer and on a higher temperature. But since she did buy the wine, I couldnt argue. Cook a cup of rice with chicken broth. Serve the orgasmic rings of green deliciousness on top a bed of rice and pour the white wine sauce on top. Presto changeo delicious.

day one dinner butternut squash, chicken, leeks with a white wine sauce

2009-10-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

This is the part that I look forward to, eating. I have had this whole chicken in my freezer for the better part of the summer. I finally got around to defrosting it and decided that I would ring in the new season with a fall inspired roasted chicken. So, the recipe is as follows

a bushel of carrots
a butternut squash (this one was only 2lbs or so)
a whole chicken
a lemon
an onion
a bunch of leeks
white wine
butter
pepper
Cayenne pepper
chicken broth
celery
rice

For the roasted chicken I crushed some black pepper and threw on some Cayenne pepper and stuffed it with half a lemon and some cubed butternut squash. In the roasting pan I lined the bottom of the pan with the veggies, butternut squash, onion, carrots, celery. I added some chicken broth so that they wouldn't burn and placed the dressed chicken on top. Threw it in the oven at 425 and walked away. Normally this would be the time that I start drinking the white wine because I know I am not going to use it all for the meal. Only problem is that my fiancee got to it first and had to plea bargain with her to use the remains, as if cooking wasn't a bargain enough. After about 30 minutes or so, I wasn't paying attention, I took the chicken out of the oven to gauge how it was fairing. I want to reiterate that I have no idea how this thing is going to turn out because I have never cooked a butternut squash or with leeks. But what I do have is Internet access to the kind people over at about.com. I think they paid some good money to be at the top of a google search or there are enough lazy people to just click on the link that says leeks.about.com. Lucky bastards, i want the about.com domain. Jesus wall of text...

I digress, so now the chicken is all hot and juicy ( that's what she said) time to add the coup de grace, the peice de triumph...BUTTER!!!!. I have had the notion that I need to start cooking with small amounts of butter more often because while using to much can kill you not using it and you might as well be dead. So i just took a stick of butter and rubbed it on the top of the chicken so the skin would turn all nice and golden brown and crispy. Rub a little butter on the top of the chicken every half hour or so and it will come out looking like those people that are addicted to tanning beds, only less orange but just as crispy. I cooked my chicken for about 2 hours and so far I am still alive so i would call it a success, good food and not dying from it.

Day one

2009-10-02T08:39:00.001-07:00

After work I went to the gym, and worked out as follows

10 minutes on the bike on 10 resistance ~80 Calories
20 minutes on the eliptical ~230 Calories
30 reps of bench press at 40 lbs
10 10 second reps at 40 lbs
1 1 minute rep at 40 lbs
2 sets of 20 rowing at 60 lbs
2 sets of 20 machine flys at 60
2 sets of one arm machine flys at 60
2 sets of 10 bicept curls at 40
Strength trained my shoulder muscles (not sure what they are called but it was low weight, read 5 lbs)
1 set of 30 tricept press at 40
1 set of 20 tricept press at 60
1 set of 10 tricept press at 80
1 set of 10 alternate tricept press at 80

So that was a good 500 calorie or so work out.

Begin operation "God Damnit Justin you are 20 pounds overweight and its time to do something about it"

2009-10-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

Today is the beginning of a journey for me to loose the weight that I have always meant to loose. I realized that I lead a very sedentary lifestyle, working for a tech support company and my hobbies involve computer games. But I will not succumb to the 'betes or congestive heart failure so my new goal will be to chronicle my journey through weight lose, document my food intake, document the recipes that I find along the way and hopefully motivate me to work out and blog on a daily basis.

So goals for today, continue to make good food choices, I have had some home made gumbo that mainly consists of rice, beans, peppers, okra and hot sauce and to hit the gym. At the gym I will bust my ass, and rock out. I have a motivating factor this time around, I finally got around to updating my IPhone and the 30 something gigs of music on my computer.

I will update this tonight after the gym or come up with a really good reason why I didn't go.

Mission Statement

2009-09-28T06:29:00.001-07:00

I guess that I need to come up with a purpose for this thing. So far its been a haphazard collection of my mostly successful cooking adventures. This simple will not stand I need a more focused direction...maybe.

Question

2009-09-17T08:13:00.001-07:00

Does anyone actually read this?

Julie/Julia vs Justin

2009-08-12T06:14:00.000-07:00

So I saw this movie over the weekend, Julie and Julia and it was good, yet it was interesting that I share the same interests and/or life goals as a 30 something year old woman and a well I dont know how old Julia Childs was suppose to be in the movie. And to all those people who are judging me right now, let me add some fuel for your fire. That same weekend I made two quiches, from my very lovely Joy of Cooking, well I got the general idea for a quiche from the book and threw caution to the wind. Which is how I feel cooking should be done, receipes are good and all but there are rare times where if you do not follow the measurements to the exact 1/8th of a teaspoon you will die. Cook, Learn, Live.

More on the quiche in a different post.

P.S. I think I just made a catch phrase for myself.

it's my birthday

2009-07-27T21:18:00.001-07:00

As the title suggests it is my birthday and I got a barbeque care of my fiancee!!!

I am very excited because I am going to team up with my fiancee's sister who is a RD (registered dietician) and make some "healthy" stuff. I am excited to play around with the BBQ and plan to post some fun ideas in the not so distant future.

So far I have cooked some brats and some steak, but alas those arent interesting.

My pulled pork

2009-07-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

Jesus, i can't believe that I don't have my pulled pork recipe up on this thing. Anyway its easy and people request it, I'm not lying they seriously do.

Get a pork shoulder, about 4 lbs
Have a slow cooker (if you don't have one, you need one, now)
And some Sweet Baby Ray's Sweet and Spicy

Step one: wake up early and throw the pork shoulder in the slow cooker
Step two: go back to sleep
Step three: after about 8-12 hours take the meat out of the slow cooker and make sure you get the shoulder separated from the meat
step four: shred the meat, I use a big bowl and two forks
Step five: dump in the sauce
Step Six: serve

I personally don't care for cole slaw so I don't serve it with my pulled pork. I have tried putting finely chopped apples in with the pork while it cooks, with a few people noticing the difference. Last time my fiancee's sister brought some baked beans with bacon in it which was awesome.

Justin's (in)famous chili

2009-07-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, i don't know if its infamous but its a chili recipe therefore it must be the best, no one wants a decent chili recipe. So here we go!

another note: this is vegan if you take out the meat, and probably the bouillon...

Get 2 lbs of beans, any beans, I like dry bulk red and kidney beans because they are cheap.
Get 1 lbs of ground beef
BTW: if its a vegetable dice it, dice it to hell
and onion or two, your pick
some garlic, i used 6 cloves
a potato (thanks Chris)
a Jalapeno
some habeneros! (i used 2 but i have like 20 left over, watch out 4th of July)<------ especially these guys you don't want someone getting half a habenero and ending up in the emergency room
12 ounces of tomato paste

spices: garlic powder, paprika, salt, cumin

The cumin is the important part, do not for get cumin, hell you should just have cumin on hand, it smells like body odor but makes everything taste awesome.

Step one: soak the beans, follow the directions on the packaging, and cook or if you are using canned beans skip this part
Step two: brown the beef ( cook it, i threw in the onion at this point to soak up the flavor)
step three: Combine EVERYTHING, like everything, and just a FYI everything I write about is to taste. I dumped in the remaining paprika, maybe 2 tablespoons, a good sprinkling of garlic powder some salt and 2 beef bouillon cubes and about 4-6 cups of water for the bouillon.
step four: let it cook, the longer the better, bring it all to a boil and the bring it to a simmer, i recommend a minimum of 2 hours. Chili can not be rushed, if you wanted quick chili buy the can.

Chili is pretty easy to make, making good chili takes time and reckless abandon. I have made it a few times so there are some nuances that happen in the cooking process that i can't recreate here so get out there and cook. The potato adds some starch to the water and paste to thicken it up. Also the recipe on the Aunt Jemima corn meal makes some decent corn bread.

All in all i spent about $20 for all the ingredients, including the ingredients for making corn bread from scratch. This took me about 3 hours to make and I have an 8 quart stew pot full of chili.

I need a camera to start taking pictures for this...

Illinois and its damn humidity

2009-06-18T22:46:00.001-07:00

Well its been a while since i attempted to publish anything so here is a little tidbit. For those of you who don't know I recently moved to Illinois so my Fiancee can go to school. I was alright with surrendering my Seattle habitat for the Midwest and I thought that I had psychologically prepared myself for the heat and humidity. I was wrong. Dead wrong. An example of the humidity, the toilet in our second floor duplex has a nice puddle of water around it, not because I missed the toilet but because the humidity is condensing on the porcelain and so much so that there is a small puddle in the bathroom.
Since I am trying to keep this a blog about cooking I am going come up with some decent recipes to go with my new, hotter, thicker climate. Also in the aspirations of living past 30 I have to make most of them non-barbecue, even though i have been to more BBQs and cook outs than i can remember. I am thinking that cucumbers and basil are going to be making a few appearances in the coming weeks. Since it is almost unbearably hot I am probably just going to make salads in lieu of actual cooking.

BTW just checked the current temperature and its 76 degrees, not to bad, but 95% humidity. I am going to have to seriously move around tomorrow otherwise I might start to grow moss.

Hangover Cure

2009-03-31T14:11:00.001-07:00

Here is something that I found and co-opted with a few updates.

My addition is to drink V8 the night before and drink a whole bunch of water, Vitamin B is suppose to help in some way.

Uh oh, you did it again? We know how you feel. The day after our companywide holiday party, somebody stuck a box of Dunkin' Donuts Munchkins in the office kitchen with a note reading "Perfect for Hangovers." Doughnuts do cover several of the food groups—fat, sugar, and carbs—deemed crucial to hangover recovery, according to our informal poll of Epicurious editors and contributors, as well as our booziest friends. Other cures center around salt, liquid, protein, caffeine, eggs, organ meats, more alcohol, and specially formulated combos of all of the above. Read on for our favorite remedies—one of them is bound to get the cotton wool out of your head.
Bacon, Egg, and Cheese—On a biscuit, roll, or English muffin, this cholesterol bomb is an all-time favorite for curing hangovers (while likely causing myriad other health problems).

Bagel and Cream Cheese—This one covers your carb, fat, and protein groups. "My sister claims that the idea of eating something greasy and carb-heavy like french fries is a myth—it's really protein that helps," relates an Epi editor.
Chocolate Milk—"Back in the day, my favorite hangover remedy was drinking one of those small cartons of Nestlé's Chocolate Quik," says an employee who's more likely to be using milk to soothe her daughter than her own stomach these days. "A massive sugar rush temporarily eased the pain and provided an illusion of being able to function. It's along the lines of drinking a Coke but a little smoother on the belly."
Coffee—It can be hard on a queasy stomach, but coffee can really cure a hangover headache. We've read it has something to do with constricting the blood vessels—plus, it helps any painkillers you've taken reach your bloodstream quicker.
Crescent City Cure—"There's a traditional, but not well known, New Orleans hangover cure called Yaka Mein. It's a beef and soy broth-based soup nicknamed Old Sober for it's purported hangover-healing properties and consists of noodles (often spaghetti), meat (often beef or pork chops), and boiled eggs," says our editor from New Orleans. "Generally it's sold in bodegas and corner stores in traditionally black neighborhoods. Since most of those neighborhoods were wiped out by Katrina, it has really become an endangered dish."
Fry-Up—The full English breakfast or the "fry-up" of eggs, toast, sausages, broiled tomato, baked beans, and sometimes, if you're lucky, blood pudding, is the perfect cure for a few too many pints of bitter.
Hair of the Dog that Bit You—Some say you need to drink exactly what you drank the night before for a true "hair of the dog" remedy, while for others any form of alcohol will do. In The South American Gentleman's Companion, published in 1951, Charles H. Baker, Jr., writes that "when it comes to Picker-Uppers... the old Hair-o'-the-Dog principle is just about the only thing that will rebuild a man who has not time or patience to let nature's cure of rest, quiet and time get-in its licks." He lists 27 recipes for such cures, including the Buenos Aires "Man-of-the-Port" Reviver: "Take 1 10-ouncer can of Campbell's Consomme or Beef Bouillon, add 2-ouncer tot of good French brandy. Stir and put in deep-freeze or freezer compartment of your refrigerator. Leave it till it's a chilled and sippable liquid; or chilled until it almost jells, and eat it with a spoon."
While a beefy brandy gel seems more than a bit repulsive, some of us have been known to seek a nice bubbly beer late in the afternoon after a hangover, particularly if the hangover came from something other than beer.
Mystery Pills—One editor takes a Chinese herbal digestive aid that is rumored to prevent hangovers. Another person we polled shared this scary story: "One time at a New Year's Eve party where I knew almost no one, I rashly stuck my hand into a large bowl of pills and took a few after being told they were homemade hangover preventive pills. I think the party hosts may have been chemistry grad students. Still have no idea what was in those. Seemed to work though." Many of us would like to get our hands on a pill we read about in the The New York Times Style Magazine on December 3, 2006: "Berocca is a fizzy tablet, like Alka-Seltzer with multivitamins, commonly available in more than 40 countries—not including the United States."
Pizza—"The ideal topping is clearly pepperoni, which helps satisfies the hangover cure grease requirement," says one editor.
Prairie Oyster—"The one my grandfather, who claimed to not drink, swore by was two raw eggs with Tabasco and Worchestershire sauce," says an Epicurious contributor. "He said he didn't know if it cured the hangover, but it tasted so bad it took your mind off it." We thought "prairie oyster" meant something else entirely, but it is indeed a drink, and you'll find several versions (with and without alcohol) in our database.
Slushies and Slurpees—The same curative caffeine, sugar, and carbonation as colas, plus lots of rehydrating ice. Especially good for summer hangovers.
Soda—"Ginger ale is essential," says one editor. Another shares this story: "I once had a killer hangover but still showed up (queasy, head pounding) to wait with friends in the mammoth line for brunch at Prune in New York. A sympathetic host gave me one of those tiny glass bottles of Coca-Cola. I was instantly cured. The caffeine and sugar fixed my head and the bubbles quelled my nausea—plus, I swear it tastes better in those glass bottles! I will always be grateful to that man and his magical Coca-Cola."
Smoothies—Parents will love this one: "Ever since I was a teenager and first learning to drink I've made smoothies to get over bad hangovers," one now of-age drinker relates. "When a blender is not available I run to Jamba Juice for their Peenya Kowlada smoothie—a proven hangover remedy, and it fights colds." Our database has plenty of smoothie recipes. May we suggest draping a kitchen towel over the blender to muffle its brain-splitting sound?
Soups of the World—Forget the egg sandwich! When it comes to curing hangovers, many wish we could teleport ourselves to far-flung countries for giant bowls of rehydrating broth, easy-to-digest noodles or rice, protein-packed eggs and meat, and—for a few of us—supposedly curative tripe. Some of our favorites are Mexican menudo, Korean sul long tang, Vietnamese pho, and Japanese udon and miso. One editor swears by the ramen at New York's Momofuku, while another will drag himself to Queens to eat duck soup at the Thai restaurant Sripraphai. "With its intensely ducky mahogany-colored broth, chunks of fat-on bird, and a mess of slippery noodles, fresh cilantro, and scallions, it's somehow really flavorful, but not in the ways that agitate the old gag reflex," he says. "God, how I want some now, and I'm not even hungover!"
Sugar in Any Form—'Nuff said.
Toast with Mashed Avocado—This is what one contributor craves when she has a hangover—seems like a good, healthy alternative to the bacon, egg, and cheese.
Water, Water, Everywhere—Many swear that simply drinking tons of water along with your poison of choice is enough to ward off a hangover. If that doesn't work, it's prescribed by our panel in many fortified forms, including Smart Water, Vitamin Water Revive Fruit Punch, Pedialyte, and Gatorade, as well as in juice and decaffeinated tea.

I love to cook

2009-03-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

I love to cook. This surprises people at first when I tell them, apparently most people my age aren't interested in cooking and especially males and even more so straight ones. But I do and almost to the downfall of my pocket book because I cook for eight people even though its just me and my fiancee. I didnt think that I would grow up this way but I blame my mother. She is a great cook and always showed us the importance of cooking even if it was just mac and cheese.

I feel that cooking is a lost art and people disassociate themselves from this necessary part of life. Most people view cooking as a chore, in this blogger's opinion and I have set out to change that.

Cheesy Bread

2009-03-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

In the previous receipe for the Epic Steak Roll I had some left over Gorganzola so a great way to take care of left over cheese is to bake it into your home made bread. It will give it an extra kick that is great for a snack and to eat with some wine. I have only tried it with my plain all purpose flour but I am interested in what it would do with other kinds of bread.

Update: Gorgonzola is a bit to strong of a cheese, unless you love Gorgonzola. I found that if you don't knead the bread well enough you get concentrated pockets of pure Gorgonzola. Not as good in practice.

Lunch for the Broke

2009-03-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

What you need:
Rice
Can of Red Beans
Andouille Sausage
Garlic Powder
Louisiana Hot Sauce
In my cupboard I always have some staples. These include a bag of flour for bread, a bag of rice for lunch and canned vegetables and beans. By the time I get to the Wednesday before payday I am usually pretty low on cash so I like to make these lunches.

Step one: Cook rice. Hopefully we all can cook rice and I don't need to explain it. If I do and people are actually reading this, email me and I'll explain
Step two: pick something to mix in it. This week i have a feeling its going to be red beans.
Step three: Season the hell out of it. I like to add garlic and hot sauce for this one.
Step four: Eat. Its cheap filling and tasty, if the store has a good deal on sausage or you know someone who doesn't want their pig anymore, you can add some to it.

Total Cost: .50 cents per serving, maybe.

Cooking During the Recession

2009-03-25T16:33:00.001-07:00

Now I have over heard people at work complaining about how badly they have to eat because of this economy or how expensive certain things have become. Take for example bread, sometimes you can get lucky and catch a 2 for $5 special, thats $2.50 a loaf. Now lets say you your family goes through 4 loafs of bread a week. We are up to $10 a week of cheap on sale bread and thats on sale! Lets say one week the store doesn't have a sale on bread and the price jumps to $3.50 now the cost of bread alone for the month is $56. For about a tenth of that you can have all the bread you can ever eat. Now I am sure you are asking "How in the hell can i get bread for 50 cents?" or "This probably involves dumpster diving or buying stale bread by the pound from a baker" but no its an age old secret that very few people think of today. You won't see it on CNN you won't read about it in Suzie Orman's book nor will Jim Cramer give you this hot tip. Are you ready gentle reader...

It's called buying a bag of flour and some yeast and making it yourself!

Now in our busy days of buying everything that we barely have time to pick up the kids, the dry cleaning and the kid's dry cleaning, pay bills so on and so forth how can you have time to make bread. Well its easy to make time because its fast and the time that you are actually doing work is minimal. Hell make the kids do the dirty work, thats what they are there for.
Step 1: Measure the flour, I use 2 cups for a loaf
Step 2: Get hot water, about a 1 1/2 cups, not boiling but about 120 degrees
Step 3: Measure the yeast, I use 1/4 tsp
Step 4: Mix, put the yeast in the flour and add water gradually. This is where it gets messy because you need to mix the flour, with your hands, as you are pouring in water. Stop adding water once it looks like dough, this part takes some experiementing. Also add some salt, I gave some bread to a co-worker without salt and she damn near threw it at me. My method is I let the naked, unadulterated dough rise for an hour before I add in other dry ingredients, try chopped garlic, oregano, cheese, jalepeno slices or really anything.
Step 5: Knead the bread, this helps to get things moving. For those who are new to this kneading is like pounding. I like to get the dough in one hand and punch it with the other. Then flip it over and do it again.
Step 6: Cook. 350-375 for 30 minutes or until it looks like bread.

I know that this isn't exact information and exact measurements because every batch of dough is different so play with it, have fun and all in all each batch of dough takes me about 10 or 15 minutes to make.

Flank Steak Roll

2009-03-25T14:42:00.001-07:00

What you will need:
A Flank steak
Gorgonzola cheese
Asparagus
A knife
Meat Tenderizer (a mallet if you don't have one)
Cooking Twine
Your favorite spices
A baking dish

I came up with this bad boy while walking around the store, taking stock of the things on sale. I also don't like just referring it as a roll so i will have to come up with a better name.

I found a beautiful flank steak, kind of like this. I think i paid around $16 for a 4 pound piece of meat, then I got a bundle of asparagus, also on sale and a wedge of Gorgonzola, not on sale. So far i have spent around $24 on this meal, wait forgot the wine, lets say $32. Don't forget to ask the meat department for some cooking twine.

Time to start cooking, i cooked the asparagus first. First things first wash them. Second, line them up on a cutting board make sure the tops of the spears are even, now cut the bottoms so that they are all nice and even. Now I like to cook them in a pan with an inch or so of water, I also like this method because I can use the same pan for cooking the roll, uh there is that word again. Once cooked take the asparagus and cool them by any means necessary, and do it quick.

Once you have the greens cooked take the flank steak and unroll it, mine was around 3 to 4 feet long so make some room. Now that you have this steak unrolled its time to pound it out, one of my favorite things to do in cooking. This is exactly what it sounds like, you are going to work out any aggression that you or the meat has stored up so just go to town. Now that it is pounded out, line the asparagus across the meat with equal spacing between each spear. Take that Gorgonzola and crumble it onto the meat and asparagus, use however much you want to use. I also used some garlic powder and pepper on the inside of the meat.

Now take one end of the meat and start rolling, like a sleeping bag you need to make sure that as you go it is actually rolling on itself nicely. Once you have reached the last spear roll at least another 3 inches, if you have left over steak you can make a nice appetizer. Now trim off any excess steak and set aside, cut the cooking twine into 3 equal parts and tie that bad boy up. This was my product

Now take that pan we cooked the asparagus in and empty out the water, throw some butter in there and set it to high. At the same time preheat the over to 350. Once the butter is all melted sear the our epic creation of cheese and meat. Once seared toss it in the oven and let it cook and you will know its done cooking once the cheese starts to bust from the sides, or after ~30 minutes. Once it looks done slice it and serve with what ever you like, or with my potato recipe.

The First step

2007-08-15T12:58:00.001-07:00

Why is cooking important at this stage in life?
In my early college days at Santa Cruz people mostly ate instant mac and cheez, with a z because there is no dairy in it, and promptly died of scurvy. It was ugly, people were bleeding from the gums and loosing teeth, seriously it was awful, looked like this. But on a more serious note cooking helps you stand out from the crowd of dudes that are at your school and odds are .2% of them can cook. Look at those odds, you are in the top .2% just by learning how to heat stuff up with other stuff. Its that easy, well maybe not that easy but close. Also often times its cheaper to cook than to go out. A meal at the local Olive Garden will run you about $15 per person before drinks, with drinks there is no limit. So say you and your lady friend rack up a $50 dollar bill, thats a lot of store bought pasta and canned sauce when if you had cooked at home you could have made a wonderful Alfredo with shrimp, garlic bread, a salad for probably $20 or so, thats $30 left over to drink with.

Preparation is key
The date typically starts hours before the arrival or pick up, with the presentation of the space. The first step is, if you are entertaining at home, to pick up everything that you need, as I post recipes, shopping lists and suggestions will be added, and to clean the shit out of your living space and cooking and eating area. No one wants to see week old Natural Ice can lying about when they are eating, unless of course its Super Bowl but alas it isn't so clean up. Time for the cooking area. I find that it's impossible to cook with dirty dishes abound so deal with that in what ever way possible. I once had a roommate that if someone didn't do their dishes they would leave the offending utensils in the person's room, kinda passive aggressive but got the point across, clean up after yourself, Mom isn't going to do your dishes anymore.

Things You'll need:

Knife, sharp (and get a decent sized knife ~5-8 inchs long)
Something to cook
Something to cook in
Stuff to serve with
Stuff to serve on, hopefully a matching set