Forkable

We've moved to ForkableBlog.com

2009-09-30T08:56:00.003-05:00

Hey! We've moved to: ForkableBlog.com! All the archived posts from here have been moved and cataloged into a new, easily searchable format which makes this information much more accessible. Come check it out!

Launching Our Massive Redesign: Wednesday, September 30!

2009-09-29T08:47:00.005-05:00

In less then 24 hours, we will be leaving this layout behind and unveiling the new face of Forkable! Our new layout will focus on being a more user friendly interface which will allow for much easier access of our archived posts. You can now browse recipes by type and ingredient, as well as search by any term with a search dialog box. Its so exciting! We're taking this digital food project to the next level!

Here's a quick peak at our new banner.

Goodbye www.forkable.blogspot.com and hello www.ForkableBlog.com!

Update Over Brunch: Website Redesign

2009-09-20T13:15:00.000-05:00

It may appear as though I'm being a slacker on the blog since I haven't been updating as much as usual, but I assure you, I am not. As I said in my last post, we're working on a massive Forkable redesign which will hopefully take this project to the next level from a simple food blog to functional online food resource. I'm working on categorizing posts so you can browse recipes by type and cuisine as well as adding tags so recipes will be searchable by ingredient. This is a massive undertaking so be patient with me. As long as I don't get driven insane by all the html, css, .php and other web jargon my simple mind is attempting to process, we should be up and running in the next month or so.

Since I can never publish a post without a picture, here's the delicious brunch I've made myself to nosh on while I slave away on the behind the scenes action. Quesadillas and black beans with the fresh roasted salsa verde I made with organic produce from my parents house.

Canning Tomatoes: Roasted Salsa

2009-09-15T08:47:00.004-05:00

My visit to my parents house this past weekend, produced a harvest of over 30lbs of tomatoes. I've been super busy lately (mostly working on a huge redesign of this blog which I hope to be launching in the next month!! More on this later) and I'm really short on time lately. I like salsa, but I don't have time to chop the ingredients for one batch, let alone 30 lbs worth. What to do? Don't worry I have a solution.

Check out this Instructable to see my time saving salsa recipe along with tons of canning tips. Also, check out the comments for links to tons of online resources for canning methods.

Canning Tomatoes: Roasted Salsa - More DIY How To Projects

Ok, here's my cliffnotes for you lazy bones: My shortcut to hours of chopping and slicing is to roast all the ingredients together until they are nice and soft, then blend it in a food processor. And you're done! Beside being a shortcut, the roasting also helps bring out the natural sweetness of the flavors which makes for a delicious salsa! I can get it taken care of this afternoon and and I'll can it this weekend to preserve it.

Dilly Green Beans!

2009-09-11T19:09:00.003-05:00

Dill pickles= dilly pleasure. Crunch cruch. I love dill pickles. But pickles doesn't just mean cucumbers. Pickles can be anything that's pickled! For the first post in our canning series, check out this crowd pleasing recipe (in instructable form) for dill pickles made of green beans. These are always a crowd favorite. Don't believe me. Try them out for yourself.

Canning Dilly Green Bean Pickles - More DIY How To Projects

Canning: The Pleasure of Putting Up the Harvest

2009-09-08T07:44:00.001-05:00

This time of year, my Dad can be found carrying overflowing baskets of produce back to the house. My Mom can be found in a steamy kitchen, lowering jars stuffed with their homegrown veggies into boiling pots of water, to thwart spoilage and preserve them for the upcoming winter. Despite the back breaking work, my Mom always talks about the pleasure she feels in putting up the harvetst to feed her family and continue the tradition of her farming heritage.

Jars of green beans to be pickled.

Growing up, as I helped my Mom with our garden's produce, she told me stories of helping her Mother put up preserves from their family farm. My memory has flavored these stories with a very romantic (if not slightly unrealistic) image of the women in my family joined in loving comradory, escaping into their temporary basement kitchens, gossiping and laughing over their work together. The reality was probably more like a bunch of tired women, spending their spare time between their day jobs, slaving over the hot, boiling pots, working late every night until their pantry was full, but what is reminiscing for but to forget the hardships and romanticize the past.

My parents canned tomato juices, regular, low acid and tomato basil.

Although canning and preserving foods for the winter is no longer a necessity for survival, it now represents an affordable year round source of organic produce, as well as a continuation of tradition. For me, even further removed without a garden of my own, perhaps it is this lack of necessity which helps me to enjoy the tradition of this process. I can delight in my voluntary trip to the farmers market or to my parents house and get a great satisfaction looking at the jars of food I've put up which will save me money while still giving me great quality of food.

Canning roasted salsa.

Since its that time of year, we're gonna get all hot and steamy in here as our posts put up a harvest of digital delight chronicling our adventures with canning! Stay tuned.

C-BLT With Chipotle Mayo

2009-09-03T07:02:00.002-05:00

C-BLT? What's the "C" for, you ask? Representing the makers of my favorite whiskey, rock musicians and sketch "coamody" troup, eh?, its for our hockey loving neighbors to the north! It puts the Canadian in Bacon!

Before I get too far into my love of sweet, sweet Canadian bacon, I have to digress a bit to another love: vine ripened organic heirloom tomatoes!

When I say vine ripened I don't mean the stuff you buy at the store, I'm talking about grown by the sweat of your friend's brow. (sweat is always better when its off someone else's brow). When my friend, Wendy, gave me a bag full of the most delicious, sumptuous tomatoes, I knew I had to do something worthy of their ripe beautiful bounty. I can't cook these tomatoes! They're too sweet and supple. What could make the most of this sweet seasonal treat...hmmm. I got it!! BLT's!! Nom nom.

But it can't be just any BLT. It has to be a special BLT! Not just any bacon will do. No, for this, I need a special, supple bacon: thick and sweet but seasoned with a special kick! Peppercorn-encrusted Canadian Bacon, made by my local Polish Deli, is sooo delicious!

Ok, we've got the B and the T, but we still need the L. No ordinary lettuce will do obviously. I want fresh, so fresh...so fresh its actually still alive!! Hydroponic Lettuce! Yes sir, this stuff is still alive, and its up to you to go in for the kill. Rip those leaves off, and eat 'em. SO fresh, so sweet.

Finally the last ingredient. Mayo. To me this is as much an important part as the other ingredients. I don't know why they never added it in. Well I'm going to! BMLT. Oh, wait. I get it. That's gross. Ok, so I'll leave it out of the name, but not out of the sandwich. Since all the other ingredients are going for gold, we can't just use regular mayo. We're going to make chipotle mayo! Delish:

Chipotle Mayo
enough for 3-4 sandwhiches

1 chipotle pepper, (from a can: see above pic) chopped into paste
1/2 c. good mayo

1) Mix together. Easy. Done!

How was that for a recipe? You don't need a recipe for a CB-CM-LT. Fry the bacon, toast the bread, slap the mayo on the bread. Layer toppings and you're done. Lets sum this up:

This sandwhich is going to kick ass!
B: Peppercorn encrusted Canadian Bacon
L: Hydroponic Lettuce
T: Organic Vine Ripened heirloom Tomatoes
not to forget: our Chipotle mayo.

All of these round little ingredients compliment each other so nice. Time to EAT!!! NOM NOM NOM! I love BLT's!

3 Tips to Make Perfectly Mashed Yucca

2009-08-31T11:52:00.006-05:00

I've always thought of yucca as being a very exotic thing. Not only is it not part of the average American diet but it also has some very strange textural characteristics which make it very weird. Yucca, similar to a potato, is often eaten boiled and mashed. Because it is VERY high in starch, if you give the yucca mash a good mix, it becomes very sticky and gooey. This paste can be very good for various things, but I've found, I often end up with this sticky paste, when all I wanted was mashed yucca.

Here are 3 quick tips for getting a good mashed yucca.

1. Peel completely. Remove the hard outer skin as well as the pinky underskin. The delicate white inside will be less fibrous then the outer layers.

2. Boil the shit out of it. Cut the yucca into disks or chunks and boil in water. I always boil potatoes until you can put a knife into it, but I've found, you have to boil yucca longer. It starts to break up in the water, but it will still be hard inside. Keep boiling it until it falls apart easily to the touch. This means the fiber has broken down a bit.

Potato Ricer: image courtesy of Exlibris

3. Use a potato ricer to mash the yucca. A ricer helps separate the hard fiber from the softer mash, leaving you with a perfectly fluffy pile of mashed yucca. I know you may not have a potato ricer, its sort of an unnecessary kitchen item. However, once every decade, it comes in handy, and this is one of those occasions.

Afternoon Delight: Seafood and Wine

2009-08-27T07:00:00.002-05:00

To finish up our series profile on Isaacson and Stein, nothing would be better then to show a little party which sprung from a visit there. Last Friday, my friends Meena and Anki (in town from Paris) wanted to hang out, but I needed to do a bit of blog work. Well, we, at Forkable, love to multi-task, so why not hit two birds with one stone! I&S is such a fun place to visit, I brought them along with me and let them peruse the goods while I got a few photos.

Searing our scallops for a delishous afternoon treat.

After I was done, we walked around and picked out a few morsels to bring home to snack on. Of course, our eyes were bigger then our stomaches and we ended up leaving with a bag full of shrimp, scallops, mussels and ahi tuna steaks. OH DELISH! We weren't complaining.

The wonderful thing about the seafood, is it can be prepared very easily in no time at all. We got the tuna in a soy-miso-vinegar marinade and set it aside in the fridge. Anki, quite diligently worked on de-viening the shrimp, while Meena prepared a garlic butter for the scallops. Meanwhile, I got the mussels steaming with white wine and butter. Once we were ready, we got two pans fired up on the stove, we seared the scallops-rubbed in garlic butter, and the tuna with a miso rub.

Shrimp a la flambe!

Once these were done, we quickly added some more garlic butter to the pan with the scallops, and did a quick saute with the shrimp. We added some lemon juice and a bit of rum (Anki wanted to start a fire!) and finished them off with a dramatic flambe. At this point, the mussels were done, we finished up the toast we had under the broiler, and we took our fest outside to nosh!

Anki makes sure Meena's not running on empty. What a decadent spread!

What a luxurious afternoon! Only 20 minutes of cook time in the kitchen, $12 each for the supplies, and we were eating like kings. Yum. We had so much fun working together and our Garlic scallops, Tuna steaks, mussels in a white wine butter dipping sauce, and shrimpies a la flambe were c'est magnifique! . Can you get any more decadent?

Lets play the game "what would you pay for this plate at a restaurant"? More then $12. I think that's a big yes!

Well we also had raddishes with salt and lime, fromage de gruyere (we're putting on french airs to impress Anki), sun dried tomatoes and my homemade pickled green beans. We had a great time from start to finish, and in true french form, quite a bit of wine was drank throughout the process. Sorry the pics are a bit blurry. What can I say. Que sera sera. Oh wait that's Spanish. Hmm. C'est la vie! There we go. Who said "Amurican's" were ignornt.

A Free Guided Fishing Expidtion to Isaacson and Steins

2009-08-25T07:46:00.002-05:00

I felt really intimidated going into Isaacson and Stein for the first time. I didn't want to look like I didn't know what I was doing. I was afraid of asking anyone questions for fear of bothering them, or being seen as an idiot. The piles of whole fish made me feel inept in my inability to clean them. But, it was all in my mind. People here are nice and there's nothing to be intimidated of!

So you can make the most of your first I&S fishing expedition, here's 8 tips for smooth sailing!

Know the hours: They have weird hours. They're never open past 4:15 during the week, although they are open 8-1 on Saturdays.

Try to make it in during the week: its worth it. Saturdays are always busy busy and the selection is picked through. I go on Fridays when its pretty low key. If they're not busy, the staff is way more willing to shoot the shit and help you pick out the right fish for your dish!
Go early. If you go on Saturday, try to make it there as early as possible to get a good selection.

Know the process:

Grab gloves: There's a box of plastic gloves on the table on your right when you come in. You'll want them to handle the fish.
Get your fish weighed: When you've decided on what you want, take your bag of fish to the table to the right of the door. Guys behind the table will weigh your stuff and give you a receipt.
Pay for your fish: take your receipt to the guys at the window on your left and pay, cash or credit.

Check the signs: Signs above the fish tell you more then just the name and price. It will also list where the fish come from, if its farm grown or wild, and if its fresh or previously frozen which guarantees you know what you're getting.
Don't be afraid to ask questions. If you're not sure which fish will work for your recipe, how you want it cleaned, or what's the best stuff at the moment, ask someone. Just don't be offended if they don't give you a long answer. If they're busy, they can be brisk. It is a whole saler after all. I've always found them to be very helpful!
Get Your Fish Cleaned: Once you've paid, get in line at the two cleaning stations to the left of the payment windows. After your fish is cleaned, tipping is suggested. I have to make a confession, I never have (eek!). These guys are so covered in fish juice, with thick rubber gloves on, I don't know where to put the money. Give it to them... put it in their pocket.... I've never seen any one else do it either. If anyone has advice on this, I'll take it!!
Use the Fish Bones in Stock: If your getting your fish cleaned, keep the bones and head. You paid for it, and you can use it for stock! They also usually have fish bones in the back corner you can buy for stock as well. I only use whitefish bones though, bones from salmon and other dark varieties make a really fishy stock which is definitely an acquired taste.

Be Prepared:

Don't get grossed out: This place is stinky and there's dead fish everywhere. There's fish juice all over the floor. Like Cat B says, "Don't wear flip flops".
Fish can rot: Raw fish and seafood are very delicate. Make sure you can go straight home afterward or carry a ice chest with you.

Park your car! They have parking spots out front. How lucky! Well if you have a car.

Where Can I Find Fresh Fish In Chicago? Hellya: Isaacson & Stein!!

2009-08-24T00:00:00.003-05:00

We get a lot of seafood sympathy from our seaboard friends for Chicago being landlocked and so far away from the coasts? (Lake Michigan grunts. Sorry Dude, you know what I mean). While its true, you'll never see lobster for $3.00 lb here, not all the sympathy is warranted. So, is it possible to find fresh, reasonably priced fish in Chicago?

Ugh!! Did I hear you say Whole Foods? I'm sorry you've been paying so much! No, no no! The answer is Isaacson and Stein's!

This has to be one of my favorite spots in Chicago, which the Yelper, Emily L. rightly describes as "Holy Foodie Heaven!" Isaacson and Stein, a fish wholesaler in the meatpacking district (Fulton off Halsted) which is, as it's sign reads, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!! If you've never been here, its worth a trip, just to look at the fish!

Ohh! Wild Caught Red Snapper!

"Ah, the smell of fish on a sunny afternoon. Once your nose adjusts to the waft of fish stank (if that is possible), this place is really a gem."
-Scott A.

This store's one big room is a weekly conduit of over 10 reeking tons of the most beautiful fresh fish and seafood in the city. If its good enough for the best restaurants in Chicago, its good enough for me! I'm no snob.

Their selection is awesome, ranging from the exotic to local, with rare South American varieties next to locally caught whitefish and perch. Classic seafood options are almost always available, including my favorite fresh muscles, succulent scallops and shrimpies of various sizes. Most of the fish is sold whole, but as the week wears on, you'll see more and more piles of fillets all cleaned and prepped that day.

Whole fish? Don't worry, after you buy the fish, you can take it over to the two cleaning stands and have one or their amazing mongers gut and clean everything for you, so you get to leave with the freshly cleaned fillets ready for your dinner.

Action shot: Cleaning an Alaskan Halibut! I'd never seen even a partially whole halibut before. This fish is huge and he filleted it in one solid quick motion. These guys really know how to wield a knife!

Okay, I know I sound like a paid commercial, but I'm not alone. People freak out about this place. Don't believe me? Check out their 4 1/2 star yelp page.

"I LOVE this place...minus the fish juice I get on my shoes (don't go in there in flip flops!)"
-Cat B.

Ha! Thanks Cat for the great tip! Speaking of tips, check our User's Guide to Isaacson and Stein so you can make the most of your I&S fishing expedition!

Succulent Ceviche with Whitefish

2009-08-21T09:52:00.000-05:00

Ceviche blew my mind the first time I heard of it. The idea of "cooking" with no heat seemed so exciting; that because of the delicate tissue in seafood and fish, when you soak it in a high acid solution, often lime juice, the acid will break down the cell walls and "cook" the meat.

I love the delicate succulence of sushi and sashimi, and this same quality, often lost or diluted when cooking, is so wonderfully preserved in ceviche. Each bite is a burst of subtle juiciness infused with the tartness of the citric marinade. Nothing can be more satisfying on a warm summer day then this fresh cool dish!

Because this dish is all about the delicacy of the meats, you want a fish which has a more subtle flavor. As awesome as this dish is, it can be made horrible with a strong fishy flavor. Gross gross gross! So stay with a whitefish and you won't be sorry. Although, we are very frugal here, this is a dish which needs good quality fish. It can be made with some cheap farm raised tilapia, but I would suggest going to your local fish monger or grocer and asking for a good fillet cut. I've made this with wild stripped sea bass as well as the Peruvian Corvina sea bass for the Polynesian meal, and the better the meat, the more beautiful this dish becomes. So don't skimp. That's my advice.

The marinade needs to be high enough acid content in order to "cook" the fish. I tried making it with marinades higher in wine content then citrus juice or vinegar but the meat was a bit raw, even after soaking for 8 hours. SO my recipe sticks with the traditional technique of being mostly citrus juice with some additional flavors. Many recipes call for cutting the fillets up into small bite size chunks, which make the soaking time much less, but I like keeping the fillets larger because I feel as though the meat retains the fresh texture better. So with no further ado, on to the recipe.

Whitefish Ceviche
30 minutes prep time, 8 hours total time

1-2 lb of fillets of whitefish
10 limes
1/2 c. white wine
1/2 c. sweet vinegar (rice vinegar, white wine vinegar, etc)
1 onion, diced
1 tomato, diced
fresh fruit, diced
salt
pepper
optional: papaya seeds, black tea

Prep fillets: Take each fillet and cut in half or in thirds (for large pieces). If the fillets have differences in thickness, trim any thicker areas to create a uniform thickness. Place the fillets between parchment paper and gently pound to lightly tenderize the meat. Don't beat it, just to slightly mush it a bit.

Soak the fish in salt water: In a bowl of salt water, soak the bowl for 10 minutes or so. This will give the fish a quick brine and help infuse the salt into the meat.

Tenderize the meat: Remove the fish from the salt water and lay out in glass dish. Lay each piece of fish out so they don't overlap. Sprinkle fish with salt and freshly cut pepper. You can use smashed papaya seeds instead of pepper. Optional, you can also sprinkle the meat with dried black tea which helps give a nice subtle bitterness to the sweet taste of the fish. Cover the dish in syran and place in the fridge.

Prep marinade: Squeeze limes for fresh lime juice. Mix juice with wine and vinegar. Set aside. Dice onions, tomatoes and any fresh fruit. I used papaya and mango. The fruit helps infuse a sweetness into the fish.

Assemble ceviche: Remove dish of fish out of the refrigerator. Cover with 3/4 of the diced onion, tomatoes and fruit, reserving 1/4. Pour the marinade so it just covers the fish. Recover and chill.

Flip fish: After 15 minutes, remove the dish from the fridge and flip the fish. Cover and chill. The fish will probably need to sit between 6-8 hours in the marinade to be fully prepared. Check back every couple hours to flip the fish, maybe two or three times.

Plate the fish: When you check the fish, take a piece and slice into the center. You'll want it to be white all the way through. If its still pink at the center, it needs a bit more time. When its done, remove the fish from the marinade. Cover with the remaining fresh onions tomatoes and chopped fruit.

Serve, eat, yum!

Precious in Pink: Pickled Quail's Egg in Beet Juice

2009-08-19T07:34:00.002-05:00

Pickled eggs seem so nice and ol' timey. I imagine some turn-of-the-century saloons where they were available at almost every bar. They're so easy to make. Its just a matter of hard boiling and then soaking them in a brine. My brother-in-law, Jason, always has a jar of them in the fridge, and they do make a great snack; all that protein can really fill you up!

Pickled quails eggs, as garnish for the appetizer course from our Polynesian Meal.

Tiny things are always so precious. You could fit 3 or 4 quails egg inside the shell of an average chicken's so of course, its hard not to adore them. Don't judge them by their size though, although small, once cooked, these eggs are surprisingly tough. Their egg whites are not as soft as their larger counterparts which gives for a surprising texture when bursting into the center and finding a soft, delicate yolk. They are a bit exotic in our culture, but quite common in various Asian cuisines, so are not impossible to find pickled if not fresh in Chinese, Korean or Thai grocery stores.

So lets pull out our cauldron, and with a little of toil, toil, boil and bubble, we'll mix together 1 part exotic, to two parts precious, a pinch of ol' timey, and a bit of beet blood for pizzaz and we'll concoct the perfect pickled quails eggs!

(oh come on, I don't mean blood- its beet juice. Sheesh!)

PICKLED QUAIL EGGS

3 dozen fresh Quail eggs, or 2 cans of preserved eggs*
4-5 medium sized beets, washed and quartered
2 c. vinegar (white wine, cider, rice, or any mixture of these)
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
bay leaves
black peppercorn
whole cloves
fresh mint
1 clean quart jar with lid

* I suggest getting fresh, as the canned eggs are a bit rubbery. However, the longer fresh eggs sit in a brine, the more they will become a bit rubbery as well. They are best eaten within two weeks. However if you plan to store yours for a while, it doesn't matter if you start out with canned or fresh.

Make beet juice. We'll add beet juice to the brine to give added flavor but most importantly a nice purple color. Clean and wash your beets. You don't have to skin them if you don't want just get all the yuck off. Quarter and place in a pot with water covering about 1" above beets. Cover, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Allow to cook for about 30 minutes, until you see dark red liquid. Drain and reserve 2 c. of juice for your brine.

While beets are cooking, we'll prepare the eggs. If you're using canned eggs, you can skip to step 4. If using fresh eggs, we'll need to hard boil them. Place a cloth napkin or towel at the bottom of a pot, place the fresh eggs on the cloth and fill the pot with water. Place the pot on a the stove. Cover and bring to a rolling boil. Once boiling, remove the pot from heat. Let sit for 5 minutes with pot still covered. While its sitting, prepare a bowl of ice water. Take eggs from hot water, and place into the ice water until they cool. This will make peeling them easier. Because they are so small, its easy to damage them while peeling. Peel eggs and set aside.

Create your brine. In your cualdron, I mean in a pot, mix all ingredients, including the beet blood, ahem...juice, but excluding the eye of newt. Ok, joke taken too far now! Excluding the eggs, put everying into a pot and bring to a boil. If you have a pickling spice mix, feel free to use that instead of the whole spices I listed above. Once the brine is boiling, remove from heat.

Assemble your jar of pickles. Place your eggs in your quart jar. Pour the hot brine over the eggs, whole spices and all. Fill jar with as much of the brine as possible, place lid on jar and allow to sit. Once cool, you can add in some fresh mint if you want and place in the refridgerator.

Your pickled eggs will be at full potency in about a week and will remain good indefinitely if kept chilled.

How To Roast A Leg of Goat and Be Awesome!

2009-08-16T03:08:00.001-05:00

Goat is a bit exotic. If you want to impress people. Exotic always works. So, roast a leg of goat and you'll be awesome. Guaranteed. That's a Forkable promise. You can also go off about how difficult it is to make goat and how its often tough, and then when people bite into the moist juicy meat this recipe will easily provide you, everyone's brains will explode. Maybe that should be the title of this post: How To Make Everyone's Brains Explode with Goat. Hmmm Anyway, onto the recipe.

If at any point during this recipe you ask Why? - here's your answer.
_________________________________________________________

Roasted Leg of Goat

a 4-5 lb leg of goat, bone and all
seeds from a large mature papaya
1-2 Tbs kosher salt
2-3 large onions for roasting
-for the marinade-
20 limes, juiced
1 c. rum
1 c. white wine
2 c. olive oil
1/4 c. brown sugar
2-3 large beets
-for the dry rub
2 Tbs dry ginger
2 Tbs cumin
1 Tbs coriander
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. kosher salt
1 Tbs sumac
chopped fresh mint
head of garlic
fresh ginger knuckle- 2" or so.

1) Go out and purchase a fresh leg of young goat from your butcher.

The night before you serve:

2) Trim the roast. The roast may be covered by a hard white surface tissue. If so, you'll want to trim this off. I found this to be a bit difficult, but just do your best to remove as much as possible without hacking apart the roast. Put your fingers underneath the tissue and see if you can work it away from the flesh and cut it off that way. Trim off any extra fat deposits. Reserve for later.

3) Rub smashed seeds and salt on the leg to prepare it for the marinade. Take your papaya and cut in half. Take the seeds from half the fruit and using the flat end your knife, smash them until you can see the white insides. Mix with a few tablespoons of salt and rub over your meat. Chill while you make your marinade.

4) Assemble your marinade. Freshly squeeze your limes. Mix lime juice together with your rum, wine, olive oil and brown sugar. Place your leg roast in your roaster and pour the marinade over the leg. Wash and peel your beets, slice and place the slices in the marinade with a few slices on top of the roast.

5) Cover the roaster with cellophane and chill overnight. Check your roast every few hours to flip over. You don't need to get out of bed in the middle of the night. Relax. It'll be ok, just don't forget to flip it at least once or twice. Now, go have a drink. You need it.

The Day You Serve:

6) Figure out what time dinner is and schedule cooktime. Once you have dinner time scheduled, figure out the timing of your meat. It will take about 3 hours with the dry rub, 20 min. or so on the bbq and ~90 minutes in the oven. It will be fine to sit for up to an hour after removing from the oven and still be warm. You'll want to get the dry rub on your meal about 5-6 hours before dinner time.

7) Remove the leg from your marinade. Reserve about 4 c. of the marinade for later.

8) Insert your lardoons. Wait, what are lardoons? Well, I can see you didn't read my previous goat article. That's okay. I forgive you. Lardoons are just a fancy way of referring to the fat we trimmed off earlier. Take your roast, and make a few deep incisions into the meat- an inch or so. Stuff these incisions with any trimmed fat as well as a garlic clove and a thin slice of fresh ginger each.

9) Get your dry rub on. Mix your ingredients for the dry rub. Feel free to edit or substitute any of the seasonings on my dry rub. Its not that important, just the salt, sugar and some spice. Take the seeds from the second half of the papaya and smash them the same way you did above. Mix the seeds in with the dry ingredients. They will bind the spices together into a paste. Smear that stuff all over the meat. This is always my favorite part!! Wrap it up in cellophone and chill in the fridge.

10) Heat up the grill. 30-45 minutes before you're ready to start this roast off, get your grill fired up. Figure out your timing based on your grill. We have a very small smokey joe which takes forever! But you may have a fancy stainless BBQ with burners, sinks and an attached swiveling lazy boy. If so, recline back and press the fire button on your remote control.

11) Preheat Oven. While you're messing with the grill, have the ol' ball and chain preheat the oven to 325. If you don't have an ol' ball and chain, do it yourself, dummy!

12) Grill it! Once that fire is HOT: get that roast on there, face down first. We're grilling it first to sear it, so only give each side about 10 minutes, more or less until the surface is blackened.

13) Roast it! Have the roaster ready to go at the side of the grill. Fill the roaster with 2-3 large onions quartered to rest the roast on so the meat doesn't burn to the bottom of the pan while its in the oven. Once the meat is done on the BBQ, insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the meat and get that pup into the oven. Keep an eye on the thermometer. Once it gets to 130 degrees, probably after 90 minutes or so, remove from the oven.

14) Let it rest! After it comes out of the oven, tent it by taking a sheet of aluminum foil and loosely folding it over the top of the leg roast. Let it sit for about 20 minutes. While it sits, you'll notice it will go up to about 140 degrees, which is EXACTLY what we want. Nice- medium rare!

15) Carve it. I wish I could give you better instructions on how to carve, but I can't. I suck at this! I'm told the only way to learn is to practice, so I'll just have to keep at it. Its sort of depressing to make such a beautiful food item and then hack it apart, but oh well. Here's a guide to carving a leg of lamb which may help you. I wish you luck.

Eat it sucka! This of course is always the easiest part. Hopefully you have some people to eat it with. Make sure you tell them how long and hard you worked on this thing. Well, I hope it wasn't actually hard, but make them think it was. Its great when people drool all over you with compliments. Suck it up. You've earned it. You just made a goat! Ha!

-PS- Don't you dare throw that bone away! Stick it in your freezer to save for stock. There's another long hard winter in front of you and you'll need some broth. I guarantee it.

How I Figured Out How To Roast A Leg of Goat

2009-08-14T13:38:00.007-05:00

The first time I tried to cook with goat, it was HORRIBLE!!! I'd never prepared goat until a few weeks ago when I fearlessly listed it as the entree for our Polynesian meal. As our entree, I not only had to figure out how to make it, I had to make it awesome.

My second attempt at making goat, a leg roast is coated with papaya seeds to tenderize the meat.

When my first attempt (braised goat in coconut and rum) came out of the oven, I was staring at lumps of grey meat bathed in a curdled gray sauce. This was definitely NOT awesome! Tasting it only made it worse. I hate throwing food away, but that was the only place fit for this dish! I didn't take a picture because I was too stressed out and embarrassed, but I wish I would have because it was DISGUSTING!

I knew goat was a lean meat which could be tough, so it would be best to slow cook it with a liquid to help it keep moist, which was the impetus of my first attempt. For an island effect, I chose rum and coconut milk. Well, I'm still not sure what part of the body those cuts came from, but they were tough grisly and grotesque. The rum was not acidic enough to help tenderize the meat and coconut milk, upon continuous cooking, apparently curdles. I guess goat has a tendency of turning gray when cooked and the white cooking sauce, surely didn't help its color. It looked horrible and tasted disgusting. This recipe SUCKED! I was a bit stressed out.

It seemed the obstacles I needed to work around for this recipe was:

keeping the meat tender and avoiding tough chewy meat
avoiding the gray color which is unappetizing!

To tackle the main problem of tough meat, I decided I needed was a good cut from a real butcher. Although I'd never done one before, not even with lamb, a leg roast would probably be the best way to go. I found a great spot in the warehousing district and picked up a fresh leg of young goat which would be more tender with a milder taste then an older goat. An average leg roast from a young goat (leg in) weighs about 4-5 lbs.

After my last fiasco, I wasn't taking any chances with texture problems, so I decided to marinate it overnight AND apply a dry rub for a couple of hours before cooking to ensure a moist tender roast. I had previously marinated my first attempt in rum only, which I figured wouldn't be enough. I decided to add fresh lime juice which would pump up the acidity, and I added olive oil, to help infuse some fat into the lean goat meat.

But now color. Gray meat just looks gross. If I was doing a red wine marinade that would give it color, but I wanted to stick with tropical flavors (rum, lime etc). I started thinking of other things I could use for color, and I finally thought of one of nature's most powerful natural dyes: beets! Although not authentic to Polynesia, I added beets to the marinade to give this meat some color.

Leg roast for the event on the grill. You can see the ginger, garlic and lardoons sticking out in areas around the roast.

It worked. The morning after its marination, I found what looked like a tandoori leg of goat! Even more so, it was purple! Well, I thought the meat would definitely not be gray. Ha!

I had also been instructed by my Aunt to cut away the thick white fat around the edges of the leg and reserve them. I now pulled them out of the fridge. With my paring knife, I cut slits an inch or so into the flesh of the roast and inserted the fatty deposits, which we can be all fancy and refer to as "lardoons". I also stuffed some garlic cloves and ginger into the pockets with the lardoons to infuse a bit of awesome. I finished by applying my dry rub, which used papaya seeds as a binder. I wrapped the pup up and put in the fridge, to chill for 3 hours or so.

To trap all the juices which I had been obsessing about infusing into the meat, I decided to sere the roast first. You can start the roast in the oven at a really high heat like 450 and turn down to 300. But I wasn't sure that was enough. I wanted to make sure this meat SEARED.

SO Ira and I set up our small BBQ with a huge pile of coals red HOT! By starting the roast off on the BBQ, not only were we able to sear it, but also infuse a bit of smokey flavor and give the surface of the roast a nice blackened look. I gave each side 5-10 minutes on the grill (15-20 min. total).

After the grill, I inserted the meat thermometer into the thickest part of the meat. Putting my blackened purple leg roast back into a roaster pan over some chopped onions to keep it from burning to the bottom, I quickly got it into the oven at about 325 to finish cooking. I spooned some of the marinade over the top for good measure. At this point, I just waited with fingers tightly crossed until the thermometer registered 130.

Roasts will continue to cook after its taken out of the oven, so by removing it at 130, I could ensure to end up at my preferred temp of a medium rare 140 degrees. I thought the roast would take a few hours as did the recipes I had read online, so I was a bit surprised when I hit 130 after only 90 minutes. I guess the BBQ really put a jump start on the cooking. I took the roast out of the oven, and "tented" it by loosely covering it up with aluminum foil to rest, about 10-20 minutes.

When I finally carved into the roast, I was jumping for joy. It was the most moist, delicious meat I had ever seen and tasted. The beautiful mild flavor was not overpowered by the marinade. Although purple on the outside, the meat had a delicate pinkish color which only added to its appeal. Thank you beets! A sigh of relief, I had my entree recipe figured out.

It was a close gross call, but the dish we ended up with was filled with absolute goaty awesomeness!

Here's the recipe.

Polynesian Pictures: Fiafia Food Fotos

2009-08-11T09:02:00.006-05:00

Knocking on wood almost always works, (knock on wood), and I give my superstitions total credit for helping to keep the weather at bay so our collaborative Polynesian supper club event could go off without a hitch. The 90 degree weather at least insured it was sultry! We, at Forkable and Being Totally Sweet In Chicago, promised to create a paradise of authentic dishes recreated with a splash of bygone glamor for the present pallet. I think we delivered.

Our usually drab urban gangway was transformed into a sumptuous tropical retreat. Silky curtains blocked the sidewalk and the alley, golden lights twinkling overhead and surfaces festooned with tropical flowers and candles helped create a magical intimate effect.

A true collaborative effort, Ira and I worked tirelessly over this event, to make sure all the details were perfect. Our courses were ambitious, heavily researched and painstakingly tested. You've seen the menu. Here's the food.

Appetizer: Masa Shrimp Bun steamed in a Banana Leaf
served with a Sesame dipping sauce and accompanied by a freshly pickled quail's egg.

Unwrapping the banana leaf revealed a bun of rice flour and corn meal surrounding the smokey sweet filling of diced shrimp and bacon. The bun was nicely complimented by the salty sesame oil dipping sauce. A freshly pickled quail egg helped finish this taste sensation with a bit of tart sweetness and a smooth creamy texture.

Soup Course: Lemongrass Leek Consume served with Papaya Seed Crusted Pork
garnished with fresh papaya and lime.

This course fused preparation and presentation to create a fresh delightful soup in which each ingredient complimented each other without losing itself in the chorus.

Bowls of ingredients were brought out to each guest and the dish was finished with a steaming broth poured into the bowls table-side to create a fresh fusion of smell and taste.

First Course: Peruvian Corvina Ceviche with Champagne Vinegar infused with Earl Grey
served on a fresh bed of epazote with a salad garnish of fresh fruits.

Ceviche, a technique of "cooking" fish in citris and vinegar, creates a supple delicate texture lacking in dishes which have been heated. This dish married the mildness of this Pacific seabass with the tart ceviche marinade and the fresh sweet fruits to create a light cool flavor perfect for a sultry summer night. (We just "married" three things there. Oh well, theres no problem with bigamy in food)

Palate cleanser: Sauvignon Blanc Sorbet with Ginger and Lemon

A light crisp spoonful of icy cold sorbet helped cleanse the palette and cool the the body in preparation for the entree.

Entree: Roasted Leg of Goat served with a Coconut Beet Sauce
sided with Guava Plantain chips topped with a Manioc Puree.

To prepare this goat, it was marinated for 16 hours, brined in a dry rub for 3 hours, placed over a hot BBQ to sere and finished off in the oven. The result was a sumptuously moist roast complete with the delicate sweet flavor of young goat and complimented with the smokey flavor of the grill. The salty plantain chips, given a rub of sweet guava paste were finished with a buttery puree of manioc (the local word for yucca). Our local word for this was DELISH!

Dessert: Samoan Po'a
garnished with Lemon Balm, and sided with a light sea salt cracker.

Samoan Po'a is a medley of fresh fruits including mango, papaya, pineapple and banana , thickened and baked to create a custard like texture. The thin crispy cracker created an excellent counterpoint to the sweet smooth sensation presented in this final dish.

Oh, is that it? Well... not quite. No Polynesian dinner could be said to be complete without at least one tiki drink!

After Dinner Appertif: The Beachcomber

The Beachcomber, a take off a traditional daiquiri, features rum, fresh lime, a bit of tripple sec and a few other secret ingredients. This was solely Ira's mix, so if anyone wants the recipe, you'll have to check with him!

All the photos in this post (with the exception of the blurry second picture) were beautifully shot by Andrew Golding. Check out the full flickr set.

Fiafia Final Preperations

2009-08-09T14:21:00.005-05:00

We're in the heat of it with our final preparations. Literally. Its 90 degrees outside, and who knows what in the kitchen. But I can take the heat, so I will (and have to) keep plugging away. We want to serve dinner outside, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for it to cool down and for the 50% chance of thunderstorms to pass us by...I'll also knock on wood for good measure. If our luck goes bad, I've got the AC on in the house as a backup. Oh well, consider this sultry island living.

Here is a copy of the final menu with all my last minute changes. Pictures and recipes to follow, I promise!

Papaya Smoothie

2009-08-06T01:17:00.002-05:00

My current obsession for papaya seeds has left me with tons of papaya fruit with the middles scraped out. Its hot outside and I've got tons of fruit. What a predicament. I'm sure I can find something to do with it! Luckily, my blender tapped me on the shoulder to give me a quick hint. IT'S SMOOTHIE TIME!!

Papaya and Mango Smoothie

2 papayas
1 large mango
1 can of coconut milk
lychees: optional

I know you don't need directions, you just cut the fruit apart and mix it together! You can make it any ratio of fruit you want. I had a lot of papaya, so I was able to make a whole pitcher. I've been pouring it out and adding a bit of white wine or sugar water to thin it down a bit. One way or the other I've been having fun.

So this post isn't a complete waste, here's a video on how to cut a mango. You can skip to the 35 second mark to skip all the mango chef's credentials. ENJOY!

Forkable Food Fixations: Papaya Seeds

2009-08-03T15:14:00.006-05:00

I always find myself becoming obsessed with a new food which I then shove into every recipe I make. Last winter it was toasting spices in oil, recently I've been putting sumac into everything from soups to on top of my bagels. While doing research for our Polynesian meal, I discovered the amazing properties of the papaya seed. And now... I'm hooked.

"What can you use papaya seeds for", you ask? Well, lets show you in a bulleted list. Papaya seeds:

make a great meat tenderizer,
have been used as a pepper substitute by various Southeast Asian cultures for thousands of years,
can help you eradicate any intestinal parasites you may have (nice!)
apparently have proven scientific effects for and when used as a male contraceptive**
or make a salad dressing for a more pedestrian approach

**Ok, well only proven on monkeys and mice, but still. Interesting.

Crunching into a fresh seed releases a tart bitter flavor which is nice and fresh especially with the mellow sweet papaya flavor of the pulpy flesh surrounding the hard inner core. Its so good, I've been integrating into all my sample recipes for our Polynesian fest.

papaya seeds used as a tenderizer on striped bass ceviche and for a leg of goat.

I remember back when I found the slimy seeds to be an annoyance when cutting into a ripe papaya, but now, I've been buying the fruit just for the seeds. Now the question is what can I do with all this left over fruit??

Don't Do The Dishes: Banana Bread in Pork Roaster

2009-07-31T18:22:00.000-05:00

Waste not, want not. I believe that. Also, I can be lazy. These are the pillars of this post.

I've been testing recipes for our Polynesian supper club coming up next weekend. As part of our soup course, I need to prepare a roast pork shoulder with a papaya seed rub. This past Monday, I was experimenting with my recipe. And I was left over with a glass baking dish with some delicious drippings and grease. I swear, although its horrible for you, there is almost nothing which smells and tastes as delicious as pork fat. You think there is...prove it!

Pork shoulder roast with papaya and sea salt rub. Soooo good!

Anyway, I also had two bananas going bad which I needed to use up. I decided to make banana bread. But...I only have one loaf sized pan and it was currently being used with the small test pork roast. Hmmm....

Yes, I had two bananas, but I already smashed one before I thought to take their pictures. Oh well.

To be lazy, I don't like doing dishes. (WHO DOES??) To waste not, I wanted to use both the delicious pork flavor on the glass dish and the bananas which were going bad. Why not put them together!! I decided to make a banana bread and just put the batter right into the glass dish once the pork roast was done!

A detail of the caramelized pork drippings on the glass dish (left) and the batter in the pork fat (right).

I left some of the pork grease in the bottom and put my banana bread batter right into the dish to bake and fuse with the caramelized porky yum.

The result: banana bread with a slight hint of the savory salty sweet flavor of pork. I also added a lemon glaze. Delish!

Here's the basic banana bread I used:

Basic Banana Bread

2 brown bananas
1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp salt*
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
3/4 c. sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp whiskey

Lemon Glaze

1 c. confectioners sugar
2-3 tbs lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350.
Mash bananas in a bowl.
Cream butter and sugar together with a stand or hand mixer until light and fluffy.
Add eggs 1 at a time to butter and sugar and mix.
Mix dry ingredients together.
Add to butter/sugar/eggs and mix together.
Add bananas, sour cream, vanilla and whiskey.
Pour into your pan greased loaf pan (the pork fat is not manditory).
Bake until tests clean with knife or skewer test. About 45 - 60 minutes.
Prepare glaze by mixing together two ingredients.
Spread glaze over cooled loaf.
Eat it, obviously!

Forkable Fiafia Menu

2009-07-29T01:41:00.003-05:00

Dinner jacket and boufant encouraged, but not required. Photo: Vintage Vegas c/o BTSIC

The menu for our Polynesian Fiafia fest fuses traditional Oceanic recipes with contemporary style, combining the best ingredients, flavors to bring you a paradise of authentic dishes recreated with a splash of bygone glamor for the present pallet. The word "fiafia", used throughout the Pacific Islands, can mean celebration, get-together, and happy. Our fiafia will combine all of these, with a discerning splash of kitsch which leaves the tacky tiki at the door.
___________________________________________

Our Polynesian Fiafia Menu
presented by Forkable and BTSIC

Appetizer
Pickled Quail Egg Dumpling Steamed in a Banana Leaf
served with a ginger sake dipping sauce

Soup Course
Lemongrass Leek Consume served with Papaya Seed Crusted Pork
finished a garnish of fresh papaya and lime zest

First Course
White Fish Ceviche with Earl Gray-infused Champagne Vinegar
served with a salad garnish of fresh fruit and sweet basil

Entree
Rum and Coconut Braised Goat
served with manioc puree and sided with guava plantain chips

Dessert
Samoan Po'a
accompanied by a sea salt cracker finished with a garnish of mint and lime

___________________________________________

This event is BYOB. As always our supper club events are hosted in an intimate urban space and seats are extremely limited so reserve your spot right away!

Questions From the Readers: Can You Save Chicken Drippings?

2009-07-27T09:44:00.002-05:00

Breakfast fried in chicken drippings.

Andrea, I just roasted my first chicken and I have a pan full of drippings. Can I save them for future use? What can I use them for? Can I freeze them? -Katie

Awesome! I love chicken grease! Its almost the best part of the chicken. Your question was well timed in that, although I didn't roast a chicken this weekend, I did need to finish up some chicken thighs we were BBQing in the oven when it started to rain on us friday night. Boo hoo about the rain, but we ended up with a small pan of chicken drippings which I used Saturday morning to make us a decadent and delicious breakfast!

Using the chicken grease in my cast iron pan, I first fried up a pan of potatoes to golden crispy deliciousness. Then I threw in some eggs and fried them up in the same grease. This grease puts the chicken back in the egg. (hmm that sounds sort of weird, but its true!) The whole house smelled deliciously chickeny and we had a breakfast which will definitely put meat on your bones.

Now in answer to your question, if you don't plan on using the drippings to make a gravy, I would still save them for sure. This stuff looks and tastes like liquid gold. Besides using the grease for frying up deliciousness, its also a great way to punch up a quick soup or sauce if you don't have time to make a chicken stock. Depending on the amount of grease, you may want to separate the two so you don't make your soup or sauce too fatty.

In terms of saving it, you can definitely freeze the drippings in a jar or Tupperware container until you need to use it. I prefer glass since I can easily throw it into the microwave to quickly defrost it when I want to use it. Some people like to separate the grease from the drippings when freezing, but again, depending on what you want to use it for, you may not need to.

Delicious pan fried breakfast in chicken drippings

In short, Chicken drippings are great to use in soups, sauces, stocks or for pan frying and can be frozen to keep for future use.

separate the grease from the juice if you plan to use the juice in a quick soup or sauce.
don't waste time separating the grease for stocks because you'll have to skim grease from your bones off the surface anyway.
use separated chicken grease for pan frying or deep frying (if you collect enough!)

Goodbye Kelvinator, Hello Kenmore

2009-07-24T16:52:00.004-05:00

There's no easy way to tell you this, my old friend Kelvinator, but this relationship is over. I won't deny we've had good times together. I was a little scared that you were stalking me, when I left you behind in my last old, run down apartment, only to find you lurking in the corner of my new apartment, but we've made it work. You have pretty much kept everything nice and cool. But the party's over now.

I wasn't lying to you when I told you how much I love vintage antique housewares! I do, just not in a refrigerator. We've had fun together for sure, but you hemorrhage cold air at all your seams. You're a dirty old man inside and out. I hate to say this, but you're really too small. I know they say size doesn't matter but it does.

I've gone for a newer, younger and bigger model. There, I said it. I'm sorry. And one last final indignity, but I need back all those magnates and decorations I've given you over time, because I want to give them to your replacement.

Whats crowded in the Kelvinator looks like nothing in the new Kenmore.

So you know, I won't be here when you go. I've asked a bunch of guys to have you evicted when I'll be out, because, although I sound blase, I know it will hurt. I don't have the courage to see you, slumped and decrepit, a burned out has-been, waiting in the alley for that junk truck to pull up and have someone half-haphazardly throw you in the back of the trash pile for your last ride to the scarp yard.

But, its time to move on. I've got a new big Kenmore waiting for me now. Energy efficient, twice the size with glass shelves instead of wire. Beer bottles will never fall over in this one. I'm ready. This is it. Our final goodbye.

A Forkable Fiafia Post-War Polynesian Supper Club.

2009-07-21T19:03:00.005-05:00

Although I like to control my kitchen with an omnipotent hand of steel (just kidding, well...sort of), yielding complete control of the reigns to collaborate with others can be such sweet surrender. I'm excited to announce, we'll be teaming up again, this time with one of Chicago's premier social scensters, Ira Cox, of Being Totally Sweet In Chicago fame, to bring you the next event in our series of clandestine culinary events for foodies, fashionistas and other adventurous urbanites.

Presenting...

A Forkable Fiafia Post-War Polynesian Supper Club.
presented by Being Totally Sweet In Chicago

Sunday, August 9 at 6 p.m.
5 course pre fixie

Our next dinner event will be a time machine re-imagining of American Polynesian food as haute cuisine. Polynesian restaurants in Mid-century America were a swanky, exotic treat. While 1940's Tiki restaurants were famous for wild approximations, our fiafia menu will fuse traditional Polynesian recipes with contemporary style, combining the best ingredients, flavors and smells to bring you an alternate edible history. Our collaborative menu will surf the islands to bring you a paradise of authentic dishes recreated with a splash of bygone glamor for the present pallet.

This event is BYOB. Suggested contribution of $60.00 for online preregistration. As always our supper club events are hosted in an intimate urban space and seats are extremely limited so reserve your spot right away!

Check out our official press release for more details.

"Healthy" Camp Cobbler With Double Acting Alka Seltzer

2009-07-19T11:31:00.006-05:00

Imagine this: While vacationing with a bunch of friends, you've snagged a bunch of cherries from a ripe cherry tree. You really want to show-off by whipping up an awesome cherry cobbler on the fly. You've got just the recipe in mind, but you soon realize your friend's cabin does not stock baking powder? Is this the end of your grandstanding dreams?

If you say yes, turn to page 5, where you will die a gruesome death.

If you say no, continue to read on.
_______________________________________

Congratulations, you said "no", this isn't the end to your grandstanding dreams. You will live on to be the obnoxious braggart that you are. But first, you need to put your money where your mouth is and figure out a way of this no-baking-powder-pickle. Think about what you can use instead. What does baking powder do for the recipe and what else might create the same effect.

Okay, you know baking powder reacts while baking, creating bubbles which lighten baked goods and make then fluffy. Baking soda can be mixed with vinegar (similar to the volcano science fair project) for the same results.

Sorry, you don't have baking soda either, but thinking on this reminded you of the packets of alka seltzer you always carry in your bag to counteract your nightly binge drinking.

Cobbler with alka seltzer? This is brilliant you think! What a way to cure all your aches and pains. What a tasty treatment. Practice your swagger; its time to self medicate while baking!

crushed alka seltzer to substitute for baking powder.

Here's the recipe I came up with when faced with the exact same situation last weekend at my friend's cabin. We all ate it, and many people burped to show their appreciation and gratitude!

Cherry Camp Cobbler
in a 9" x 12" pan, 16 - 20 servings

2-3 c. bing cherries, pitted
1 c. butter, melted
2 c. flour
3 c. sugar
2 c. milk
3 packets of alka selter (6 tablets)
9" x 12" baking dish

pitting the cherries by pulling the stems.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Rinse cherries and pit them. To pit these, fresh from the orchard, I was able to extract the pit by pulling the stem while squeezing the cherry. The pit stayed attached to the stem and I could basically pull the cherry off the pit.
In a sauce pan, place the cherrys with 1 cup of sugar and bring to a boil. Boil for a couple of minutes and then remove from heat. Drain cherries and reserve Bing cherries are very tart so we need to precook them with a bit of sugar to infuse some sweetness into the fruit. This will also help cook some of the juice out of the fruit so the cobbler won't be too soupy.
Drain cherries, reserving 1/4 c. of juice. Set aside cherries and 1/4 c. juice. Use the rest of the juice to make a kick-ass old fashioned. (although it may appear to be, this drink is not optional.)
Melt the butter on the stove top or in a microwave if you have one. Pour melted butter into the bottom of your 9"x12" baking dish or pan.
Crush alka seltzer tablets in a bowl or cup until they are a fine powder, set aside.
Measure all your dry ingredients: Mix dry ingredients together including the crushed alka seltzer. Mix your milk and reserved 1/4 c. cherry juice. Have your cherries in a bowl along with all your other mixed ingredients ready to go along with your baking dish with the melted butter. Because we're using alka seltzer instead of baking powder, its going to react immediately so we want to mix it at the last possible minute and pop it into the stove as soon as possible.
Quickly assemble your cobbler: Mix the dry and wet ingredients and pour them into the pan with the butter. Spoon the cherries into the batter. Try to distrubute evenly.
Bake for 30-45 minutes or until toothpic/knife can be poked into cobbler and come out clean.

A delicioulsy fluffy cobbler ready to eat.

This cobbler recipe is always delicious but the addition of the alka seltzer only makes it better! I would say this qualifies as a healthy snack. Though its definitely not low-fat, it does make you feel way better after eating (it has aspirin in it)!

**Sorry the pictures are not as good as usual, they were taken by Ira's iPhone while we were on vacation.

Left Over Remix: Frozen Cheese Makes Fabulous Lasagna

2009-07-17T10:41:00.006-05:00

Yes, you can freeze cheese, as we talked about in the last post. Moving on. What did I do with the left over cheese from our wedding? Well, since, frozen cheese should be melted, a big batch of lasagna.

Lasagna is a quintessential comfort food which is always a crowd pleaser. If you've ever eaten one, you can probably make it. The basic recipe is a simple layering technique using noodles, sauce and cheese. A large pan can as easily be made as a small one, so making it in bulk to supply a weeks worth of lunches can save you time and money.

I often take liberties with my recipe substituting anything and everything from tortillas instead of noodles and bbq sauce instead of a marinara. However, to use up my frozen left over provolone cheese along with a jar of last fall's roasted marinara I have left in the pantry, I decided to make the "classic" version of this recipe, which is usually comprised of layers of lasagna noodles, a meaty tomato sauce, layers of melty cheese and a cottage cheese/ricotta layer mixed with egg which acts as the glue which holds the dish together.

Before you learn to run you learn to walk, so lets walk through this classic recipe so later we can adulterate it all we want!

Classic Lasagna
for 9" x 12" pan, makes 12 - 16 servings

16 sheets of lasagna noodles
1 quart of marinara
1 lb ground beef
1 16 oz. container of cottage cheese
2-3 large eggs
1 Tbs Italian seasonings -or- 1 tsp each dried thyme, oregano and basil
2 lbs of cheese (sliced or shredded)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375.

Season ground beef with a sprinkle (1/4-1/2 tsp) of salt and pepper.

Brown ground beef in a skillet over medium heat.

In a bowl, mix cottage cheese, Italian seasonings, and eggs. I also sometimes add Parmesan cheese into the mix if I have it around.

Bring a large pot of water with 1-2 Tbs of olive oil to boil. Boil lasagna noodles until they are slightly soft on the surface but still hard at the center. They should be flexible enough to bend but not tear easily. You want them not fully cooked because they will finish cooking while the lasagna bakes.

Drain boiled noodles. If you pour a small amount of olive oil on the noodles, this will help them from sticking together.

Mix ground beef together with marinara.

lasagna with slices of defrosted cheese.

Assemble your lasagna: In a 9" x 12" pan, layer the bottom of the pan with 4 sheets of noodles. Then layer with 1/3 of marinara and meat sauce and then with 1/3 of cottage cheese and egg mixture. Top with slices or sprinkles of 1/4 of the cheese. Place 4 more sheets of noodles on top and continue layering until three layers are complete. Top with your final 4 sheets of noodles and top with the last amount of cheese.

Place lasagna in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Place pan on a baking sheet while baking to collect any overflow if the lasagna bakes over. or until cheese is golden.

Eat up!

Cooking Questions: Can Cheese Be Frozen?

2009-07-15T10:32:00.000-05:00

After our wedding, I had a bunch of food left over. I hate waste. My most hated job would have to be a garbage man, not because of the grossness and stink, but because I would be horrified by the amount of waste we produce. Don't get me started. As absolutely exhausted as I was after our wedding, the last thing I felt like doing was using up the 5-10 lbs of sliced cheese I had stacked in my fridge. Since it was already in zip lock bags, I just threw all of them into the freezer and went to bed. This begs the question: Can cheese be frozen?

There's a lot of debate about freezing cheese. Some say hard cheeses freeze better, some say you should only freeze soft cheese. It seems everyone has a slightly different take on the issue. In a good article from the TheNest.com, author, Nest Colleen, describes what happens to cheese as it freezes:

"Because of the moisture content or vein-y, open texture of most cheeses, ice crystals develop inside as cheese freezes. (Hey, that rhymes!) The ice “breaks” the curds in the cheese apart, which alters the texture of the cheese from creamy and smooth to crumbly or grainy when it thaws."

This change in texture is only apparent when you eat the cheese raw. However, once its cooked , the texture of the melted cheese is relatively indistinguishable from fresh cheese. So the answer is, yes, most cheeses can be frozen, but only if you plan to use it in a heated dish like a casserole or enchiladas.

Colleens final stance urges us never to freeze fancy cheese and although it is possible to freeze cheese of a lesser quality it shouldn't be taken on as one would freeze bulk bread or meat because unlike these examples, the quality of the defrosted cheese is so much less then the quality of the original. While I sort of agree with her, I have to take a different take on this matter.

In terms of buying in bulk, if you see a great sale on the pre-shredded mozzarella or cheddar cheeses which you would probably melt on pizza or nachos anyways, I say GO FOR IT! Buy a bunch and freeze it. In my experience once melting frozen cheese, it tastes great and I've never had any complaints.

Sometimes, like in my case after my wedding, you may find yourself with a lot of cheese you don't have time to deal with, I think it's way better to throw cheese in the freezer then throw it in the trash. I think Colleen would agree here since my cheese was basic provolone and swiss.

I think, however, this holds true for fancy cheeses too. I totally agree they should be enjoyed in their best possible quality and should never be purchased with the intent on freezing. But when dealing with left overs, waste not, want not. Even in the worst case scenario, if the cheese is totally destroyed in the freezing, at least then you have that knowledge from experience and you haven't lost anything since it would have probably been tossed anyway.

Because there's so much back and forth between which cheeses freeze well and which don't, my opinion is everyone should try things out for themselves and learn by trial and error what works and what doesn't. Don't be afraid to try something just because random voices on the internet which present themselves as "experts" tell you not to.

Once melted, I defy anyone to tell the difference between Kraft cheese which was fresh or frozen. Its not that high quality to begin with. If they can, send them packing to go hang out with that stupid pretentious bow-tie dude from America's Test Kitchen. You don't want to be around that type anyway!

Four Easy Steps To Freezing Berries

2009-07-13T08:00:00.001-05:00

Berries are expensive, especially out of season. Freezing them is so easy its ridiculous. So save money, buy berries when they're in season and on sale, and freeze those bad boys for later.

A few weekends ago, I bought all these pints of blueberries and raspberries for $1 (the 1/2 pints of raspberries were 50 cents). Besides being in season, the reason they were so cheap was because they were on the verge of going bad. I had to pick and choose through the containers to make sure I didn't grab any moldy ones.

So I ended up with 16 pints of berries about ready to go bad. The day after I bought them, I made the blueberry and raspberry rhubarb pies I just posted about, but that still left me with about 12 pints of berries on the brink of destruction. The weather was super nice, and I didn't want to waste any more time in the kitchen. No problem! I quickly and easily froze the rest. Here's how.

Berries are super easy to freeze, requiring just these four steps:

Wash the berries to remove any dirt and/or nastiness.
Lay berries out on a baking sheet.
Place trays in the freezer for a day or two until the berries are frozen.
Scoop the frozen berries into plastic freezer bags and throw those bad boys back in the deep freeze.

Easy! Next time someone comes over unexpectedly, impress them by whipping up some quick blueberry muffins or cobbler. Frozen berries are good for frozen fruit smoothies or as a replacement for ice in a fancy cocktail.

Tips:

You may want to measure the berries when putting them in your freezer bag so you'll know the exact amount of cups you have for future recipes.
I also suggest writing the date you froze them and the amount on the bag so you don't forget how long they've been stuck under that frozen pizza.

Scrap Dough Pie

2009-07-11T08:44:00.001-05:00

Don't you always have scrap dough left over when making a pie? I do. I hate throwing anything away, so I'll put it in the fridge, only to forget about it and have to throw it away later. Don't do that either. Make a scrap pie!

Scrap Pie
(Yes, this is obvious, but I don't care. I'm going to blog about it anyway.)

Just set aside some extra fruit to use as a pie filling. When you're done with your other pies, combine all your scraps and roll them out.
Mix your fruit filling (I like to do something a little different with it then the other pies so it is more special) and place in the center of the dough.
Fold the dough up and around the pie filling to form a little rustic tartlet.
Brush with egg. milk, oil, or whatever you use and drizzle with sugar.
Throw that bad boy into the oven with your other pies.

Bam! A delicious little treat. Kids love them!

Blue Food: Blueberry and Lime Pie

2009-07-09T08:00:00.003-05:00

You don't like blueberry pie? Why not. You're grossed out by blue food? Well, get over yourself. You're a jerk. Stop reading my blog.

OK, Ok, Alright. You're not a jerk. Different stroke for different folks. Its not our job to preach about pie, but for 99.9% of you, when I say blueberry pie is the best, I know, I'm preachin' to the choir. To all you .1% out there, get over yourself. Ahh! There I go again. Don't pay attention to me. Lets just get to the recipe.

Blueberry and Lime Pie

2 pints blueberries
2 tsp. lime zest
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 Tbs Pimms Cup liquor
1/4 corn starch
1 pie crust

I guess technically this could be called Blueberry Citrus pie as the Pimms Cup liquor is a nondescript citrus flavor, but I liked the sound of blueberry lime pie. The lime zest and the Pimms helps set off the sweetness in the berries. If you don't have Pimms, I suppose you can substitute an orange liqueur like Grand Marnier or sweetened lime juice. If you don't drink, again, why are you reading this blog? Just kidding. I don't know why I am so antagonistic today. I love all my readers. Truly. Try some orange extract. If you don't have that, just add a bit more lime zest and perhaps some juice.

Directions
(pretty much the same as the Raspberry Rhubarb pie from the last post.

Preheat the oven to 375
Roll out bottom pie dough. Place in a pie pan, and pre-bake for 10 minutes until golden brown.
Mix filling and place in the pie crust.
Put a top crust on in whatever decoration you choose. You can do a whole top or a lattice. Above, I used 2 different sized juice glasses to cut out circles and overlap them as my topping. Fun!
Brush pie with egg, milk, or oil, whichever you choose. Sprinkle the top with sugar.
Bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly.
Cool completely before eating.

99.9% of you can now dig in.

A Sweet Tart Treat: Raspberry Rhubarb Pie

2009-07-07T06:40:00.003-05:00

This week I was pondering an important pie question: Can tart + tart = tasty? Normally you want to pair a sweet fruit with a tart fruit. Strawberry Rhubarb is classic. Peach and raspberries is the best. What happens when you take out the sweet and pair tart with tart: raspberry and rhubarb. Will they cancel each other out? Will it be too tart to take?

I was curious, so I mixed rhubarb and raspberry together in pie form to see what would happen. The results were delicious. These fruits are strong enough to maintain their individual flavors, but subtle enough for the sugar melt into the flavors so the sweet and the tart work together to form this little sweet tart. Here is the recipe I came up with:

Raspberry Rhubarb Pie

2 pints of raspberries
2 cups chopped rhubarb
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. corn starch (or flour)
1 Tbs rosewater
1 Tbs powdered ginger
1 pie crust

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Make your pie crust. Roll out the dough and place bottom into a 9" pie pan. Here are 3 dough recipes I use all the time depending on my mood, and here are some tips to help with your dough.

Place pie pan with bottom crust only in oven and bake for about 10 minutes until the crust is hard and a bit golden. I like to pre-bake my bottom crust whenever I'm making a pie with a super soupy filling.

Mix above ingredients together and place into the pre-baked bottom pie crust. These ingredients get very soupy, which is why we need to add cornstarch or flour to the mix, to help the fruit juices thicken.

Place your pie crust top over your filling. I like doing a lattice crust top, but you can do whatever top you wish. You probably don't have to do a top, but for fruit fillings which can be pretty liquidy, I like having a top crust to help keep the pie shape when serving. Here's some tips on doing a lattice pie crust

Place pie on a baking sheet (to catch any overflow from your pie so it doesn't end up on the bottom of your stove) and put pie into the oven.

Bake for approx. 45 minutes, until crust is golden. Let cool completely before serving. It will help the filling harden so you aren't serving raspberry rhubarb soup.

Eat up and enjoy. This is the best part!

4th of July Pie

2009-07-06T13:36:00.004-05:00

Hey there. Remember me? I've crawled my way out of the wedding hole and I'm back! Just in time for summer fun. This past week, I gave myself a break from the blog, so I could kick back, relax, chug some beers and blow up some shit in the good old "Amurican" spirit. But if you think the hot weather can keep me out of the kitchen, think again!

There's nothing more close to my USofA heart then a great sale and when I found raspberries and blueberries on sale for $1 a pint, you can bet your Benjamin Franklin I bought a shitload of both.

There's nothing more american then pie, so for this 4th of July, we showed that these colors do run: down your gullet! Red: Rhubarb raspberry pie. Blue: Blueberry and Lime pie. White: The color of your face when you see our founding fathers jump out of the grave and get in line for a slice of these pies!

This week, we're going to celebrate the summer with fruit and pie time!

Catering Your Own Wedding: Final Week Checklist

2009-06-29T22:59:00.014-05:00

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Go Back to the Cater Your Own Wedding Index
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:Part 9: Final Week Checklist

Photos Courtesy of OneLovePhoto.com

This is it; you're in the final stretch. The marathon is almost done. You'll be sweating and tired, almost ready to throw in the towel, but you can see the finish line. You've worked so hard for so long and it will gone in a flash. You'll probably be wildly oscillating between wanting to get through these last few days fast so you can finally get to the fun part and wanting everything to go slow so you can enjoy and savor every moment.

Preparing a couple for their union is an event marked in almost every culture throughout time. Experiencing it for yourself, surrounded by your community, can be a very powerful experience. Try to enjoy as much as you can, keep focused on the big picture and don't get bogged down in too many details. We've been as organized as we can be to try and make this last week as easy as possible. The list of things to do for your food isn't long, but with all the other wedding related things you've got going on, you're still going to be very busy. Try your best to keep your head on straight and your bridezilla under lock and key.

Final Week

FOOD AND BAR:

Schedule and implement all shopping trips
Create and implement a schedule for food prep during the week
Create and implement a schedule for food prep the day of.

Catering Supplies:

Acquire any last minute catering supplies.

Manpower:

Continue to keep volunteers organized with lists and schedules of tasks needed.
Prepare day-of lists for each crew so on your wedding day you can relax and let everyone else take over

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Here is a rough idea of how your can schedule the food into your week.

Days 6-7:

Make a master list of all tasks and schedule your week
Complete shopping lists

items you need
places you'll purchase them at
schedule when you'll go.

Prior to shopping, make sure you have room for your purchases

space for perishable items in refrigeration
space for non perishable goods in a side room and/or basement

Go shopping for all non-perishable goods and as many perishables as you can
Confirm final details with your event space.
Meet with your Food Foreman

confirm your schedules
give them lists of all contacts
go over your food prep schedule

The first thing you'll want to do this week is to sit down and write a master list of all the tasks you need to take care of including non-food related items and make a daily schedule which evenly distributes your tasks throughout the week. There may be some last minute things which come up so try to not over schedule yourself so you'll have time to be flexible. If you're schedule seems too full, enlist some volunteers and delegate jobs to lighten your load.

You'll want to get as much shopping done early in the week as possible. Finalize your shopping lists with food/bar items and where you'll be getting them from. Make sure you'll have the room to put the items once you've bought them. You're going to need a lot of refrigerator space. Possibly you have access to another refrigerator, or you have a close neighbor who will let you use part of theirs. If worse comes to worse you can use large coolers with ice. You'll just have to monitor them to make sure everything is kept cool.

You'll want to meet with your foreman and go over all details of your food/bar shopping and prep, your catering supplies and your volunteer list and schedule so they have all your up to date info. Ask them questions and make sure they have all they need to keep organized. They may be helping you throughout this week, but their big moment will be taking over the day of the wedding to make sure all the food is prepped and plated. Make sure they know your schedule for the day of and they know when you need all the food out by. Make sure you confirm a handful of volunteers who can help them get the food plated and ready. Depending on your wedding size it may be anywhere from 3-6 helpers.
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Days 4-5:

confirm final details with your event space

when you have access to the space
when you can do drop off
when you can begin set up
when you need to have everything out of the space afterwards

confirm delivery/pick up details with vendors

alcohol
ice
bread
rental orders for

tables/chairs
dinnerware/glassware/serving items
barware/coolers

confirm the borrowing of any platters or serving equipment from friends and family
Work on any food prep which can be done this many days in advance

caramelize onions
cut pickles into spears
prep salt and pepper shakers
finish roasting any vegetables you have not taken care of yet

Confirm details with your event space. Make sure you know when your people will have access to the space so you can drop your stuff off. The more you can get in before the day of the wedding the better. Confirm when you'll load stuff in, start the set up, and when you need to have everything out after the event.

Confirm details with any vendors for the delivery or pick up of your large orders. If you're having your liquor, bread, ice or any rental items delivered, coordinate and confirm delivery details with your event space to ensure a successful delivery. Confirm and schedule any pickups you'll need to make.

Confirm the borrowing of any platters, bowls, serving equipment with friends and family. When planning your buffet set up, think about laying things out on different levels to give more visual interest and to make it easier to grab the food items. In addition to platters, ask if people have cake platters you can use to raise platters up a level.

Work on any food prep you can take care of early like caramelizing onions, cutting pickle spears, etc.
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Day 3:

arrange to have your meat and cheese sliced
finalize arrangements of getting food to event space

As the days get closer to your big day, try to have less and less things to take care of, since you'll probably have more misc. wedding tasks to do.
This is a good day to schedule your meat and cheese to get sliced. You want to wait as long as possible to get this done, but still a few days in advance to get it out of the way. Hopefully, you've already made arrangements of how you can get this done, and who can help you with it.
Finalize arrangements of how you'll get all your food and supplies to your event space. If possible, you'll want to arrange to have your non-perishable items taken over the day before. Arrange for all perishable items to be taken over the morning of your wedding.
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Day 2:

prepare side salads
take any frozen items out of freezer to thaw
purchase any last minute perishables

Coordinate last minute details. Organize the preparation of your side salads with the family and/or friends who have volunteered to take care of this. Take any items which you have pre-roasted and frozen out of the freezer and place in the refrigerator to thaw. Purchase any last minute perishables such as mixed greens.
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Day before:

organize and supervise the movement of all non-perishable items to your event space
coordinate with your food foreman to have all perishable items transported the day of
make a check list of all items which need to be picked up at your house and moved
make a list of all prep things which will need to be taken care of the day of the wedding
confirm clean up with your clean up crew

AHHH!!! Its the final day before the wedding. You'll want to have two lists written up for the people who will be moving the last minute perishables from your house to the event space the day of. Make sure you have a detailed list of all items which need to be moved and where they are in your house. Make a list of all the last minute things which need to be done the morning of.

You probably have a rehearsal dinner tonight, so if possible try to have all your ducks in a row, so once the rehearsal dinner comes, you're done with all your prep and planning, and you can relax. This is what your months of organization were for. Hopefully, you can now sit back and let your friends and family take over. You're about to get on the slide. Once the day starts, it will go by in a blur. Enjoy it. Don't worry about the food. You've done all you can do. Sit back, be the center of attention.
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Wedding Day

Photos Courtesy of OneLovePhoto.com

get your hair did
get some make up on your face
put on your stuff
drink champagne
say "I DO"
Smooch on your new spouse
drink more
dance
eat cake
say hi to everyone
Repeat "I'm so glad you were able to come" a million times
kiss everybody
get pictures taken
get drunk
destroy yourself with fun

Its time to sit back and let your months of lists and organization kick into autopilot. You've worked hard and everyone will appreciate all you've done. Its time to celebrate the love you and your partner share with all your friends and family.

The only think you have to do today is look great, have a good time and remember to thank all your helpers profusely. This is going to be one of the most memorable days in you and your partner's lives. Thanks to all the personal attention and dedication you showed, it will remain very memorable for all your guests as well.

So go get married, party down and get drunk. You've both earned it. Hopefully you won't have to be the one cleaning up tomorrow.
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Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about my plan or about how to plan your own event.

Catering Your Own Wedding: Final Month Check List

2009-06-26T14:00:00.010-05:00

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Go Back to the Cater Your Own Wedding Index
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:Part 8: Final Month Checklist

Mr Right by Boopsie.Daisy"

Wow, only 30 days until "the big day". We've still got some time, but the stress is slowly creeping in. It starts with one zombie clawing for your brains, but you can easily fend him off. As we get closer and closer to the big day though, the zombies start multiplying until you're locked in the attic, shaking and screaming because your fiance just got turned into a zombie too and he(she), along with all the rest, are trying to beat down the door to eat your brains! AHH!!! Don't worry, though. Zombies feed on chaos and despair so they are easily fended off with lists and organization.

You're getting into crunch time, and the more you can do to keep organized, the more you'll be able to keep your head on straight. There's no way to avoid it, as this month ticks away, you'll be getting more and more stressed out. Everyone will be calling you about everything. You've got to be making final decisions on everything from decorations and flowers to figuring out how your wheel chair ridden great grandmother is going to get to the bathroom. The food won't be the only thing you're working on, so its important to make detailed schedules, integrating your food in with all your other obligations.

A word to the wise, keep to my check list... or live to regret it! Mwa ha ha!

Final Month Overview:

Food:

Meet with your Food Foreman and together begin to make plans for your event
Price out different shopping options
Write up your final menu
Write up your final shopping lists and from which stores you will purchase your items.
Schedule your shopping trips to coincide with food prep needs.
Prep as many vegetables as you can possibly roast and freeze ahead of time.
Arrange for your meats and cheeses to be sliced

Bar:

Make arrangements with your liquor store on your order
Arrange for bar tenders
Select final bar menu
Organize your final bar shopping list and schedule any shopping trips
Arrange for bottled water.
Order ice.
Finalize any rentals you may need

Catering Supplies:

write up a list of misc. you may need during food prep and/or at the event space:

coordinate coffee service:
coordinate the borrowing of platters and other serving pieces with friends and family
Make final decisions on dinnerware, linens and serving ware.
Order/arrange for all necessary items to be shipped or brought to your house/event space

Manpower:

Confirm with volunteers specific tasks.
Prepare schedules for volunteers and share time frames with them so everybody knows your plan.
Compile a contacts list of all individuals involved with wedding including cell/email info and share with all volunteers

*please note: You'll want to complete this checklist BEFORE the final week, so you have three weeks to get all these things done, not four.

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1) Food:

Meet with your Food Foreman and together begin to make plans for your event

work closely with them through all final stages of the food
share all lists and schedules with them so they are as knowledgable as possible as to all the food details.

Price out different shopping options

research different grocery stores or food wholesalers to try and get the best bulk price.
make sample shopping trips to stores and make notes of:

price of item
size/weight of item

Write up your final menu

pick your final food selections
write up your ingredient list

all sandwich ingredients such as...

meat
cheese
vegetables/toppings
condiments

all side ingredients such as...

any side salad ingredients
potato chips
pickle spears

any bar necessities such as...

lemons and limes
olives
maraschino cherries

coffee service supplies such as...

coffee
creamer
sugar

Calculate the final amounts needed for each item using final rsvp head count
Calculate total food cost based on your sample shopping trips

Write up your final shopping lists and from which stores you will purchase your items.
Schedule your shopping trips to coincide with food prep needs.
Prep as many vegetables as you can possibly roast and freeze ahead of time.
Arrange for your meats and cheeses to be sliced

Meet with your food foreman. The time has come to start making final decisions and, if you haven't already, conferring with your food foreman to go over all the details of your plan. I suggest going over together all your prep work and sample menus you've made based on your head counts. If you (and your partner) have been working on this stuff alone up until now, there's a good chance you may be very inside your own plans. Its good to have a second person look over your work and give you objective critique to make sure all your plans make sense and are realistic. Be open to your foreman's ideas and edit if you need to. Being organized is great, but be flexible to making changes and edits if they make sense and help your overall scheme. Besides, something always goes wrong and you can never plan what that thing is. The more flexible you can be, the better able you and your food foreman will be able to work all the last minute kinks.

Share all your lists and schedules with your food foreman. This person should know everything as well as you do, so they can be your number 2 until the big day, when they will become the go-to person for all your other helpers while you will be frivolously enjoying yourself and being completely overwhelmed by how awesome your wedding is.

Go on a sample shopping trip at the beginning of the month with your sample menus you made in your last check list. If necessary, go to a couple of different stores to price out goods. This will help you select the stores you will use. I suggest shopping at a food wholesaler if this is an option for you. I went to Restaurant Depot to purchase a lot of my things. However, you need to have an account (be an approved food vendor) to shop there. My food foreman had an account, so we did our shopping on her card number. However, there are places such as Gordons, who don't require a membership, or Costco who offer memberships to the general public.

It will be cheaper for you to buy whole roasts of meat and loaves of cheese from a wholesaler, instead of buying them by the pound from the deli which will mark the prices up. If you have any friends or family who are in the food business, work at a restaurant etc, perhaps they can help you get connected with a food wholesaler. This person may also have access to a deli slicer which you could use to cut your meat and cheese. If you can't find or get access to a wholesaler, talk to someone at your local deli and ask them if they will give you a discount if you buy a couple of whole roasts and loafs. Conversely, you may be able to buy the meat and cheese from a wholesaler but you don't have any way of slicing them. Ask your deli if they can do it for you and what they would charge.

While shopping, make accurate notes with each food item, the weight/amount of the item and the price. This will help you greatly when figuring out the amount you'll need to feed your whole group.

Get final head count. By now you should have your final RSVP head count in from your invitations. This is the number we will work from when coming up with the final menu and the amounts of items we need for our shopping lists. I suggest blanketing your total head count by 10-20 people. There are always those unreliable guests who don't RSVP but show up anyway.

Make final menu choices. Once you've priced out your food items and have your final head count, the time has come to sit down and make a final decision on your food menu. According to your tastes and your headcount, make a detailed list of all your menu items and figure out how much of each item you will need. Figuring out amounts may be difficult if you are not familiar with feeding this many people. I've come up with a sheet of equations to help you figure this out. Once you've got your amounts, figure out what they will cost, according to your sample shopping trip. Edit as necessary to work within your budget.

Write up your final shopping list and divide the items into separate lists by the store you will be purchasing the items from. Remember, if you'll be serving your own bar, you need to add any items you need for this to your shopping lists so you don't have to make extra trips. Check your catering supplies list as well, and if any items on your list there can be purchased at the same stores along with your foods, budget that in as well.

Make a schedule of when you'll be prepping different foods throughout the month and final week. Vegetables to be roasted, like the eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes can be done at any time and frozen, so the sooner the better. Things like slicing the meat and cheese should be put off until only a couple days before the wedding.

Make a schedule for shopping which coincides with your food prep and can be integrated into your schedule of all of your other obligations. You'll want to make a special trip out to get the veggies you want to prep earlier. You can purchase all the other items in the final week to ensure freshness.

Roast any vegetables you may want in the first week or two. I suggest going on your shopping trip to purchase any vegetables you wish to roast and freeze and getting this out of the way in the first couple of weeks. The more you can get done ahead of time the better.

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2) Bar

Decide on final bar menu

select drinks you wish to have

beer
wine

red
white
champagne

cocktails

liquor necessary
mixers necessary

soda
juice

bottled water

decide on amounts you'll need of each

Make arrangements with liquor store on your order

call around for pricing
ask if deliveries are available
ask if they accept returns for unused merchandise

Organize your final bar shopping list and schedule any shopping trips

arrange this to coincide with your food shopping

Arrange for bar tenders
Order ice.

confer with bar tenders on how much ice they think you will need
order for a delivery to be made the day of
if you need to pick up, arrange for friends or family to take care of this for you the day of

Finalize any rentals you may need

if you require glassware
if you require any Lucite tubs/coolers for ice or bottles of water and/or beer and wine
if you require any tubs for kegs

Decide on your bar menu including a list of all drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) you will have available. You'll want to make a list of beer, wine, liquor and any mixers you'll need to accommodate your drink list. Remember mixers will do double duty to be used in cocktails and as non-alcoholic options, so keep this in mind when coming up with the amounts you'll need. Here is a sample list of our bar menu and a sample shopping list to look over as a guide. Now you'll need to decide on the amounts of what you will need. Here is the alcohol shopping list I came up with for my wedding, divided by type, size, price and where we were planning to get our alcohol from to give you a better idea of what I mean.

Don't forget about water!! I suggest serving either bottled water or getting one of those large coolers with a spigot and cups. If you go with bottles, you should have at least one bottle for every guest. People drink a lot of water and if you'll be serving alcohol and people will be dancing, water can help people from dehydration. It is very important!!

Make arrangements with a liquor store with your order and ask for the items to be delivered the day of or the day before the wedding. Call around to price out different stores. As you could see from our shopping list, we chose to purchase the wine separately from the alcohol because we could get the best deal on wine from Trader Joes. They sell their cases of three buck chuck for $36 a case, which is pretty much unbeatable. The wine is a good quality. The downside was we had to pick it up ourselves, but we scheduled this in for a couple of weeks before. The rest of our liquor we purchased from a liquor store who could deliver it to our event space the day before. Also ask and see if your liquor store will accept returns on unused liquor. They often will, so you don't have to worry about ordering too much. Just make sure to ask what the conditions of the return are so you know all your facts.

Make your final shopping lists including garnishes and budget this shopping list into your schedule. Add any grocery items you may need such as juices or sodas for mixers and garnishes like lemons, limes, olives, etc to your food shopping list.

Arrange for bar tenders. If you are having a full or partial bar, I suggest hiring a bar tender or two (depending on the size of your event) because it will make the bar more efficient, clean and organized. If you are having your event at an informal space, perhaps you have some friends with bar experience, or you can go to a local bar and ask around if you can find anyone you can hire freelance. Depending on the requirements of your event space, you may need to go with bar tenders who have a liquor license. If this is the case, your event space should be able to give you names and numbers of companies who do this sort of work in your area. You can also ask the liquor store.

Arrange for ice. If you're going to be serving cocktails, you'll want ice for your drinks as well as chilling any white wine, champagne, or bottled water you may be serving. If you go with a bar tending service, they should be able to advise you on how much ice you should get. You can also ask the liquor store. Hopefully there is a service in your area which can deliver the ice to your event space. Call around, ask your local gas station where they get their ice. If you can't find anyone who does deliveries, arrange for a friend or family member to pick up as many bags as possible before the ceremony. The amount you'll need depends on your guest list, but I imagine you'll probably want to have 1lb of ice for each guest. Confirm the amount with a professional.

Finalize any rentals you may need. Are you going to go with real glassware as opposed to disposable? Will you need to rent any Lucite tubs or coolers for your beer, wine, champagne, or bottled water. Are you getting kegs? Will you need keg tubs? Ask the bar tenders or the liquor store, what they would suggest you rent for the liquor order you are putting in and ask if they have any suggestions for rental houses. Perhaps you're already renting tables and chairs to be delivered to your event space, and you can just add the items onto your existing order.

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3) Catering Supplies

Finalize (as a continuation of our last check list):

Make final decisions on dinnerware, linens and serving ware.
Order/arrange for all necessary items to be shipped or brought to your house/event space
coordinate the borrowing of platters and other serving pieces with friends and family

write up a list of misc. you may need during food prep and/or at the event space:

zip lock bags for freezing roasted vegetables
garbage bags for on-site
toilet paper for on-site
cleaning supplies for on-site
etc.

coordinate coffee service:

rent or borrow coffee makers
purchase/rent coffee cups

Your final decision on dinnerware should be made by now. Make arrangements for the items you require to be delivered to your house and/or the event space. Now you'll have a better idea of how much food you'll be serving you can start to guess how many platters and serving items you'll need. I just asked friends and relatives coming a few days ahead to help me prep to bring everything they had and whatever we didn't use we could just set aside. Its better to have too many platters then not enough.

You will probably need to purchase some miscellaneous items depending on your food prep and your event space. Try to be as detail oriented in your planning as possible. You'll probably need a lot of garbage bags to handle the garbage from this big party. Do you need to provide your own garabage containers as well? Do you need zip lock bags for freezing your roasted vegetables? Does your event space provide toilet paper or do you need to bring some along, it would suck to run out! Ask yourself as many questions as you can think of and add any needed items to your shopping lists so you can get everything at once.

Coordinate coffee service. You'll want to get the big coffee urns, like the 30 cup ones. Ask around and see if any friends or relatives have one or two available for your use. You can add this to your rental list if need be. You could also ask a local coffee shop if they could make coffee for you and if they have any urns available for rental. If worse comes to worse, you could just serve it in the cardboard container most shops sell their coffee in. You'll also have to arrange for coffee cups. Make sure you have enough. We ran out at our wedding, and thank god for my cunning aunt, who ran across the street to the gas station and bought every cup they had from their coffee area. I suggest purchasing 1 cup for every guest. You will probably end up with extras, but better to have too many then not enough.

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4) Manpower:

Confirm with volunteers specific tasks.
Prepare schedules for volunteers and share time frames with them so everybody knows your plan.
Compile a contacts list of all individuals involved with wedding including cell/email info and share with all volunteers

Your goal is to have every helper as knowledgeable as possible with your plans. Confirm with volunteers and make a schedule which is doable for them. If you haven't already, compile a list of all individuals involved, what their task is and all contact info you can share with other volunteers so everyone will know who is doing what and how to contact each other if need be.

Try to schedule as much as possible before hand, but sometimes you won't be able to know who can actually help until the last minute. Some people may agree to help but can't or flake out at the last minute. Expect this and make a few back up plans. Stay flexible and remember people are doing you favors, so be gracious and kind.

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I know this list seems really long, but just take it a day at a time. We're in really good shape and things are moving forward nicely. We're almost there. Planning a wedding is like a marathon, especially in the last month. You've got to pace yourself. Take a few breathers and don't get too obsessed with any one detail. Something will go wrong at the last minute and you won't know what it will be until it happens. If you're this far in, its pretty clear your working your ass off to make the day as wonderful as possible for yourself and all your guests. Your effort will not go unnoticed to your guests and that is almost the most important thing. They'll have a good time no matter what small details go wrong, so don't worry if some details don't work out. Your wedding day will be so hectic, you won't even notice those small details when your caught up in the whirlwind of it all.

Stay focused but don't get sucked in. Keep looking at the big picture. This is a tone of work, but you obviously enjoy it or else you would never have been so stupid to take this on in the first place. So remember to stay relaxed and have fun!

We'll check back in for the final week. Ahhh!
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Continued reading in the Cater Your Own Wedding Series:
Final Week Checklist

Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about my plan or about how to plan your own event.

Catering Your Own Wedding: 2 Months Ahead Checklist

2009-06-22T13:45:00.005-05:00

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Go Back to the Cater Your Own Wedding Index
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:Part 7: 2 Month Checklist:

2 Months Before

Food:

Keep track of your RSVP's to give you an idea of your head count
Plan your side salads
Research the bakeries in your area and price out roll options
Coordinate coffee service.

Bar:

If you decide to do your own bar as well, compile a drink menu
make a list of necessary grocery items (garnishes and mixers)
research options for bar service
Compile a list of glassware etc, you will need to add to your catering supply list.

Manpower:

Complete your list of volunteers
assigned each person one or two specific tasks

Catering Supplies:

Make final decision on china vs. disposable options
organize acquired items in your house

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1) Food:

Image courtesy of Hannabidays

Keep track of your RSVP's to calculate your head count
Plan your side salads

delegate to helpers

Research the bakeries in your area and price out roll options

ask about different roll options
find out pricing information
find out about pickup/delivery
ask about freshness

Make sure you have a way to organize your RSVP’s. Hopefully by this time, all of your invitations have been sent out and rsvp’s are starting to come in. Organize your RSVP list either by compiling your own spreadsheet or use an online service to add it up for you.

Wedding planners estimate you can expect about 60% of invited guests to come. Using this number, review the menu you made and make changes as you go along to suit the amount of food you'll need for you this many people. If you need more help coming up with amounts, we'll give you more tips as we get closer to the date.

If you decide to serve side salads in addition to your sandwiches, start researching recipes now. I suggest pasta or bean salads with vinaigrette dressings because they hold up well on a buffet table for hours and best when made ahead a couple of days.

Side salads are a great job for family members who want to help with the wedding but will be involved with the actual ceremony to help with food prep the day of. For our wedding, I asked both our Mothers to make a salad, so we had two side salads to serve. They were super happy to be involved, the salads turned out great, and I didn't have to do any of the work. Win win!

Coordinate coffee service. This is something we haven't touched on yet. Serving coffee after serving your food is important because it can definitely help the pace of your party surge ahead instead of drag along due to guests suffering from food comas. People love coffee, so think about what you may need to serve along side your coffee, like sugar and cream.

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2) Bar:

Image courtesy of JaniceLin

compile a list of drinks you wish to have available
make a precursory grocery list for your drink list

alcohol
non-alcohol/mixers
garnishes

start thinking of bar service

professional bar tenders w/ liquor license
friends who you can hire as bar tenders

Compile a list of glassware etc, you will need to add to your catering supply list.

If you decide to supply your own bar, start to decide what drinks you want to serve. The biggest decision here is a full bar vs. beer or wine. As I said before, I suggest serving some liquor to allow a selection of cocktails. Full bars make guests feel taken care of and it always seems to up the ante from a good wedding to an awesome wedding. Make a list of drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic, you'd like to serve, along with any garnishes. Here is the sample menu we came up with for our wedding.

Make a coordinating grocery list for your drink menu. Start thinking about where you will purchase these items.

You will also have to decide how the bar will be served:

Does your event space require bar tenders who can supply their own liquor license? If so, you'll have to look into this and research costs. We needed to provide this for our event space, which turned out to be a hefty sum of $500. However, I don't regret spending the money for a second. Providing our own bar instead of hiring a catering service to provide it for us still saved us a bunch of money. And alcohol is one of the single most important elements of a social event. It helps lubricate social interaction and helps people relax and have a good time. This is something worth spending the money on.

If you are not required to have bar tenders with a liquor license, decide if your bar will need to be manned or not. If you feel it does (which I suggest, as it will be more organized, look better and be easier for everyone involved), perhaps you have some friends, or friends of friends you can hire to tend your bar for a lower cost then hiring professionals.

Compile a list of glassware, napkins, or other materials necessary for your bar and add to your catering supply list. . If you decide to go with plastic glassware, I suggest using the hard plastic glasses as opposed to the soft solo glasses. Although a bit more expensive, they appear way more classy then the thin plastic. I suggest 16 oz. glasses for beer and the squat 9 oz. for cocktails and wine. Remember when coming up with amounts necessary, people ALWAYS set their glasses down and lose them, so you should probably arrange for 3 glasses for every person coming. Will you give out bar napkins with each drink? Will you need any fancy items like umbrellas or stirring sticks? Keep in mind these things when planning your list.
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3) Manpower:

Image by Chris Dilts Photography

Complete your list of volunteers

shopping
food prep

days before
day of

Event set-up
Event clean up

assigned each person one or two specific tasks

Assign tasks to your volunteers. By now, hopefully you have a list of people who have volunteered their time and efforts as well as a list of things you need to have done. Try to match skills your volunteers have which would make them the best candidates for different tasks. People who will be involved with the wedding ceremony like direct family members and friends in the wedding party should not be asked to do to much prep work during the wedding itself. Perhaps schedule these friends for help in the days before the wedding.

Try not to over burden any one person with too many tasks. Spread the work around as much as possible. You don't want to make your friends feel like they are being taken advantage of. The more people you have involved, the more a feeling of community you will create.

Make a full list of tasks and who is assigned to do them including contact info for each person and share this list among all your volunteers. By sharing your list, if volunteers need to communicate together, they can do so around you, not through you. The more people you have involved, the more organization you will need to keep everyone's tasks in order. The more organization, the easier and smoother everything will go, ESPECIALLY IN THE LAST WEEK!

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4) Catering Supplies:

Image courtesy of RossMat5msu

Make final decision on china vs. disposable options
organize acquired items in your house

Clean out area in your house to store items.
Place items in boxes
Label your boxes with what they are and where they go

Make a final decisions on your catering supply needs. Go over your sample list of menu items and your list of bar needs. Either set up your rental order, arrange for borrowing items, or decide where you are going to purchase disposable items, be it online or from a whole saler like Costco.

In terms of amounts: I would suggest ordering/borrowing the following amounts:

plates/paper trays: 1 1/4 per person (meaning every fourth person will need 2)
silverware: 1 set per person
glassware: 3 per person
dinner napkins: 1 1/4 per person
bar napkins: 3 per person (if you decide to serve them: this is optional)
Buffet bowls and platters: can probably be borrowed from friends and family. Large flat baskets will work well too
Buffet Supplies:

5-10 pairs of small tongs , one for each of your platters depending on the size of your wedding. Don't worry about the exact number of platters, you can find cheap tongs as low as $1 or less.
you may want a few olive oil and vinager dispenser bottles. 1 for each.

table clothes: 1 per table

The decision here is if you're having circular or rectangular tables. Your event space may not give you a choice, but if you have to rent them keep in mind:

Circular

looks more classy

Rectangular

You can fit more people at rectangular tables
they take up less square footage. You can usually fit 8-10 people at a standard 8ft x 3 ft rectangular buffet table.
If you get rectangular tables and line them up in long rows, you can get rolls of plastic table cloth material. They usually come in 150 ft. rolls which is enough for 16 8 ft tables.

Clean out area in your house to store items. When acquiring your items, make sure you have a closet, side room or area in your basement which you can begin to stock pile items in.

Place items in boxes, if the are not already to ensure an easy way to transport them later.

Label your boxes with what they are and where they go, for example: Plates/Food or Glasses/Bar. This will help you immensely when you're setting up for the wedding.

That should keep you busy for the next month. We'll check back in 1 month before your wedding.
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Continued Reading in the Cater Your Own Wedding Series:
Final Month Checklist
Final Week Checklist

Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about my plan or about how to plan your own event.

Catering Your Own Wedding: 6 Month Check List

2009-06-19T13:43:00.001-05:00

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Go Back to the Cater Your Own Wedding Index
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:Part 6: 6 Month Checklist

We're not stressed. We've got tons of time; the wedding is still months away. Here is the general overview of the tasks we want to achieve in the next 3 months:

3-6 Months Ahead

Finalize event space
Invitations
Manpower:

begin assembling a list of volunteers and assigning tasks to friends and family.

Food:

begin estimating a guest list to help with planning your menu
make a rough menu list of sandwich fillings and condiments
begin working on any preserves you'd like to serve like homemade pickles, pesto or chutneys.

Catering Supplies:

Begin researching options for dinnerware: renting china and linens vs. disposable options.

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Now we'll work our way down the checklist and tackle each task as it comes along.

1) Finalize Your Venue

If you're looking at formal event space:

Do they require you to go with a specific list of caterers?

Find out if they require insurance?
Find out if they have a liquor license or if they will require you to hire bar tenders who supply their own?

Does the space have any kitchen facilities. Is there a refrigerator and/or running water on site?
Will the space provide tables, chairs, and dinnerware like plates and eating utensils?

Selecting your venue is your first priority 1, because it will form the framework which your event will be created around. Keep the food in mind when picking a space. Some formal event spaces will not allow any food except from a list of pre-approved vendors. If you want to do your own food, you'll need to avoid these spaces.

Insurance issues may be your biggest setback for providing your own food. Many formal event spaces require food providers to hold liability insurance to protect themselves and guests in the case of food poisoning. Because you are probably not a professional, lack of insurance may pose a problem. You may wish to avert this by having your wedding at a private space like on a friend or family's property where this won't be a concern. If you must use a formal space, perhaps you have friends or family in the food business who might be able to help cover you with their insurance. In any case, to be safe, you should read up on food sanitation guidelines to help you make smart conscientious decisions during your food prep.
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2) Send out your Invitations

6 moths ahead

prepare your guest list with addresses
send out your save the date cards

3 months ahead

send out the invitations

Include an RSVP due date at least 1 month before wedding
With your method of RSVP, ask for a number of guests of each party

Once you have an event space finalized, its time to prepare your guest list. I suggest sending out save the date cards. This gives your guests extra time to plan for your event and gives you extra time to get the final invitations out. You'll feel more relaxed if your invitations are taking longer to get out then you anticipated knowing your guests already have the date marked in their calendar.

Getting an accurate head count for guests who will attend your wedding is very important for planning your food. A rough guest list is OK for now, but I suggest asking on your RSVP CARD the number of guests in their party who will be attending. This will help you have a more specific idea of your final headcount when writing calculating the final food amounts later.
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3) Manpower

Make a list of all tasks you will need assistance with

shopping

food prep

days before
day of

Event set-up
Event clean up

Make a list of all friends and/or family members who will be available to help
Find one friend or family member who can be the manager/foreman of all food efforts the day of the wedding.

someone with catering experience or food service is a plus!
avoid anyone directly involved with the wedding (direct family members/wedding party)
pay this person what you can afford so they won't feel taken advantage of

In order to accomplish this huge goal of catering your own wedding, you are going to need A LOT of help!! Start drafting a list tasks you'll need help with and a list of people you know you can count on to help out. Share your list of tasks with friends and family and ask for volunteers. People know weddings are a lot of work and want to help you. Finding small tasks for people to do can create a very inclusive welcoming environment. People love to pitch in and be part of your experience. The more people you can include in your wedding, the more a feeling of community you'll create.

During this time, the most important role you need to assign is a person you can count on to be the manager or foreman of your food. You DO NOT and CAN NOT do anything the day of your wedding, so you need someone who will be as well acquainted with all the food plans as yourself. You'll want someone who can be involved with the food prep before the wedding so they know whats going on, and can take over the reigns for you the day of to supervise volunteers and direct all the efforts of getting the food out and cleaning up afterwards. A person with catering or food service experience is a plus!

Do not ask anyone who will need to be very involved with the actual wedding, like any direct family members or people in the wedding party. This is a huge job which will take up most of their time during the wedding and it will be too difficult to take care of everything behind the scenes and be on the front lines. I also suggest agreeing to pay this person whatever you can afford, even if it is a small amount, because this is a HUGE job and you don't want your friends or family to feel taken advantage of.
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4) Food

Start drafting a menu list of sandwich toppings and condiments you would like to serve.

Keep it simple: more options=more work
Keep in mind seasonal produce surplus or restrictions

OPTIONAL: Begin working on any preserves you'd like to serve

pickles and chutneys/jams can be canned
pesto can be frozen

There isn't too much of actual food prep we need to do at this stage, but you can start drafting an initial menu to give you an idea of what you want to have. Make notes on what meats, cheese, vegetables and condiments you will probably want. More unique condiments such as various kinds of chutneys or pesto can help give a more sophisticated appearance to your buffet. You can easily make these items yourself ahead of time by canning or freezing them.

Keep you menu simple. Don't fall prey to thinking the more selection the more fancy. I had tons of options which guests could have gone without. The more options of toppings and condiments the more work involved for prep and set up. Plan for simple solid foods with nice clean flavors.

Keep in mind what produce will or will not be in season and plan accordingly. Things in season will taste better and be cheaper. This is a huge reason why a harvest wedding is such a good idea!

OPTIONAL: Making your own pickles and preserves can add a very personal touch to the food. You can begin making these now, since most pickled vegetables need a month or two to mature and can be preserved indefinitely once canned. If you do not have much experience making these preserves, or would like to cut down on some work, you can skip this step and purchase these items pre-made later.
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5) Catering Supplies

Make a list of table service and dinnerware items you will probably need

Dinnerware

plates
glasses

silverware

linens

table clothes

napkins

serving equipment

platters/trays

tongs

Research options for acquiring table service

Fine China/linens/silverware

rental
borrowing/thrift

Disposable

purchasing paper and plastic items as needed

If you'll be doing your own food, you may need to provide the dinner ware and serving pieces. Find out if your event space has any items available for your use. If not, the big decision you need to make is china/disposable. Make a list of what you think you may need based on your notes you wrote for your menu plan. If you plan to do only sandwiches, potato chips and pickles you may not need any silverware. However, if you want to serve side salads, you'll need to have some available. If you plan to do your own bar, make sure you keep in mind any glassware you'll need.

I have a real aversion to disposable dinnerware and had planned to rent formal ware for our wedding, but I found the cost for China, linens, glassware, and silverware to be prohibitively high, even for a wedding of only 150. If you really want to go with formal ware, you have two options:

1) Rental: You can call around to your local party/event rental houses and hopefully you'll be able to find something which works in your budget.

2) Borrowing/Thrift: You can get really grass roots and see if you can scrounge up extra plates and silverware from friends and family or start collecting from your local thrift stores. You will end up with a hodgepodge but you can always make it look funky-chic. While this may be time consuming to do for every item you need, I definitely suggest asking friends and family members to borrow large platters and bowls to use for the buffet table.

All in all, disposable dinner ware is probably the best way to go. It will save you money as well as a lot of time and energy running around collecting random plates and silverware. Because of the sandwich buffet and deli theme, paper trays lined with parchment and plastic table clothes can actually look stylish not tacky. If you are environmentally conscious, there are lots of different eco-friendly options you can look into. Here are some suggestions for disposable dinner ware options which can fit your budget without making your event look trashy.
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This should give you a good start into your planning. We'll check back in at the 2 month marker.
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Continued Reading in the Cater Your Own Wedding Series:
2 Month Checklist
Final Month Checklist
Final Week Checklist

Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about my plan or about how to plan your own event.

Full Bar vs. Wine and Beer

2009-06-17T15:30:00.001-05:00

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Go Back to the Cater Your Own Wedding Index
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:Part 5: To Booze or not to Booze:

Providing a bar for your wedding is arguably one of the most important elements to the whole reception. It can be the key to making your event a success by lubricating social interaction and helping people relax and have a good time. The big decision here is what you want to serve. A full bar is great, but it can be pricey to set up. Many people decide to save money by serving only beer and wine. It’s less expensive and you may not even need to hire a bar tender.

My recommendation is to spend the money and serve a selection of cocktails as well as beer and wine. I know I like to preach about doing things on the cheap, but this is one corner I personally believe is worth spending on. The ironic truth is, your wedding really isn’t about you; it’s about celebrating with your community.

The more you think about and prioritize the wants and needs of your guests, the better your wedding will be. Having an open bar which serves a range of cocktails as well as beer and wine creates a welcoming environment where guests feel they can get whatever they want. 2-3 large bottles of each various kinds of liquor will only run you a few hundred dollars and will be well worth the investment in the happiness of your guests.

I would give the same advice to non-drinkers debating if they should even include beer and wine in their event. Although you may have a personal aversion to alcohol, your guests may not feel the same way. Providing alcohol despite personal preference will show all your guests that you have placed their happiness above your own, and will be greatly appreciated. When all is said and done, it is your event and it should be what you want, however, I believe it is shortsighted to eliminate alcohol because of a few persons’ dislike or problems with it.

An easy and cheap way of dealing with the alcohol issue is to select a handful of cocktails which you will make available. For our wedding, we chose to serve vodka, rum, gin and a selection of whiskeys including scotch, bourbon and Canadian. By providing mixers like tonic, seltzer, coke, and a selection of juices, the booze could easily be made into a handful of different cocktails. If you really want to keep it simple, you can supply one clear and one dark liquor like gin and whiskey. Gin and tonics and martinis always seem to be the two most popular drinks. A good sipping whiskey or rum can be served on the rocks or with coke.

You will definitely need to hire a bartender if you decide to serve cocktails and this will also be an added cost. However, as I said above, I personally believe this is one of the most important elements to the success of your event and one which should not be skimped on.

Since you’re putting so much time and money into this event, you want it to be a wild success. You want your guests to comment that your event was one of the best weddings they’ve ever been to, and a sure fire way to get this reaction is to have a bar with many options to ensure your guests will get exactly what they want.

In short, if you want your wedding to be awesome and not awkward: DON’T SKIP THE BOOZE!
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Continued Reading in the Cater Your Own Wedding Series:
6 Month Checklist
2 Month Checklist
Final Month Checklist
Final Week Checklist

Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about my plan or about how to plan your own event.

Catering Your Own Wedding: Begin Planning

2009-06-15T22:43:00.009-05:00

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Go Back to the Cater Your Own Wedding Index
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:Part 4: Begin Planning

Image by Flickr User ManMadePants

Get ready for hand cramps and icy hot. We're going to be making lists, lists, lists! Its time to get down to the knitty gritty of food planning and there's A LOT to do. I would suggest starting the initial planning as soon as possible, at least 4-6 months before your wedding date. During this time, we'll begin a very general plan and fine tune details as we get closer to the date.

When you start organizing your wedding meal, everything you need to plan for, pretty much fits into these four topics:

Food
Bar
Catering Supplies
Manpower

The food section includes formulating and finalizing your menu, writing up grocery lists, and organizing and implementing a schedule for completing shopping and food prep.

If you're doing your own food, you are probably going to want to provide your own bar as well. Providing your own bar will save you tons of money and doesn't add too much more work to what you'll be doing already; you can easily add garnishes and mixers to your food grocery list and ask your local liquor store if they do delivery on large orders.

Catering supplies includes what you will need for the place settings, dinner ware and linens, aka the plates, silverware, table clothes, napkins etc. In addition to the place settings, you'll also need platters, large bowls and tongs to serve your sandwich buffet.

For all these things, you'll need to arrange for volunteers of friends and family to provide the manpower to help you from prep to plate.

While these things may seem daunting, we can break everything down into monthly checklists which will allow us to do a little at at time, while still taking care of as much as we can in advance to make your final week as easy as possible. First I'll start by making a rough time line and allocating general tasks so we will know in a general sense how our time will be broken down.
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Tasks for 3-6 months before:

finalize your event space
send out invitations
Food:

begin estimating a guest list to help with planning your menu
make a rough menu list of sandwich fillings and condiments
begin working on any preserves you'd like to serve like homemade pickles, pesto or chutneys.

Manpower:

begin assembling a list of volunteers and assigning tasks to friends and family.

Catering Supplies:

Begin researching options for dinnerware: renting china and linens vs. disposable options.

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2 Months Before

Food:

Keep track of your RSVP's to give you an idea of your head count
Plan your side salads
Research the bakeries in your area and price out roll options

Bar:

If you decide to do your own bar as well, compile a list of drinks you wish to have available and make a list of necessary grocery items (garnishes and mixers)

Manpower:

Complete your list of volunteers and have each person assigned one or two specific tasks

Catering Supplies:

Make final decision on china vs. disposable options

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Final Month:

Food:

Compile your final menu choices with amounts needed for each item.
Organize your shopping lists and Schedule your shopping trips.
Prep as many vegetables as you can possibly roast and freeze ahead of time.

Bar:

Make arrangements with your liquor store on your order
Arrange for bar tenders
Select final bar menu
Organize your final bar shopping list and schedule any shopping trips

Catering Supplies:

Make final decisions on dinnerware, linens and serving ware.
Order/arrange for all necessary items to be shipped or brought to your house/event space

Manpower:

Confirm with volunteers specific tasks.
Prepare schedules for volunteers and share time frames with them so everybody knows your plan.
Compile a contacts list of all individuals involved with wedding including cell/email info and share with all volunteers

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Final Week

FOOD AND BAR:

Schedule and implement all shopping trips
Create and implement a schedule for food prep during the week
Create and delegate a schedule for food prep the day of.

Catering Supplies:

Acquire any last minute catering supplies.

Manpower:

Continue to keep volunteers organized with lists and schedules of tasks needed.
Prepare day-of lists for each crew so on your wedding day you can relax and let everyone else take over.

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We now know when we need to worry about something and when we can put it of until later. There are so many things to keep track of, I suggest keeping detailed notes throughout this entire process. Maintain organization of your notes and lists, so you can easily reference it when you need to. The rough time line above can give you a general overview of how to best use your time. In the next handful of posts, we'll examine each time frame more in depth to give detailed info to help you on your way.

USEFUL ORGANIZATIONAL TIP: A great tool for keeping organized and sharing information with friends is Google Documents. Similar to the Microsoft Office applications, Google Docs supplies easy to use applications for making word processing documents, spreadsheets and more. Where Google kicks Microsoft in the ahem, butt, is that, besides being totally free!!!, Google Docs allows you to easily publish and share your documents online with as many people as you wish so you can keep all your volunteers up to date with your plans!
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Continued Reading in the Cater Your Own Wedding Series:
A Full Bar vs. Wine and Beer
6 Month Checklist
2 Month Checklist
Final Month Checklist
Final Week Checklist

Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about my plan or about how to plan your own event.

Catering Your Own Wedding: A Disclaimer

2009-06-13T07:30:00.007-05:00

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Go Back to the Cater Your Own Wedding Index
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:Part 3: A Disclaimer

Photo by Just.Julie

Everyone is going to tell you that you're crazy and they won't be completely wrong. Deciding to cater your own wedding is totally doable but it is A LOT OF WORK!!! I can't enforce that enough.

I don't take back what I said in my last post; anyone can do it. The thing you need to reflect on is if you really want to. Besides being the biggest party you've ever planned, there's so much emotion and expectation surrounding an event like this, that no matter how chill you try to be, its difficult not to get wrapped up in it.

You also have to keep in mind if your venue will allow you to do your own food. Many official event spaces require caterers provide insurance to cover personally liable if anyone gets food poisoning or chokes on an olive pit. Make sure you discuss this with your venue so you don't end up a week or two before the wedding with hundreds of dollars of food items purchased realizing you can't serve the food because you don't have the proper insurance. If you want to do your own food, having your event at a private home or private space may be a better option.

I'm not trying to talk you out of this, I'm just trying to impress upon you that this is a real undertaking. Planning a wedding is stressful enough without adding this substantial amount of work as well. I've tried to organize this food plan to be as easy as possible, but it will still require months of planning and hours of labor. However, if you are the type of person who doesn't mind working your ass off and gets more pleasure in doing things yourself, then paying someone to do it for you: you're in the right place.

OK, now that I've gotten that off my chest and we're all on the same page, lets dig in and start planning!
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Continued Reading in the Cater Your Own Wedding Series:
Begin Planning
A Full Bar vs. Wine and Beer
6 Month Checklist
2 Month Checklist
Final Month Checklist
Final Week Checklist

Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about my plan or about how to plan your own event.

Catering Your Own Wedding: The Basics

2009-06-12T07:00:00.005-05:00

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Go Back to the Cater Your Own Wedding Index
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:Part 2: The Basics

So, how do you feed 150+ people for around $1000 on your own wedding day? It seems impossible, but I assure you, it isn't. As I previously described in the post I wrote about my own wedding, you simply need to think about your limitations and work around them. When attempting to tackle this problem, I started listing the various criteria the food must meet:

The food must feed 150+.
It must fit in a tight budget ($1000-$1500)
It needs to be able to be prepped days ahead and with very little prep (beside set up) the day of so you can enjoy your wedding.
It must not need to be heated since an on-site kitchen cannot be guaranteed.
It needs to be flexible to accommodate a range of dietary needs.
It has to be super easy and basic. We're not professional caterers and we don't have the experience for anything even moderately difficult
It needs to be AWESOME. This is a wedding meal!

The simple answer to all these concerns is: A SANDWICH BUFFET!

By serving platters of a variety of cold cuts, cheeses, and other toppings:

guests can make sandwiches according to their own tastes and diets
everything can be served room temp, removing the need for an on-site kitchen
everything can be prepped days in advance to make it possible for friends and family to step in and set up the day of
all the ingredients can be purchased inexpensively.

Its super easy and anyone with the desire and energy can pull this off. Win, win!

BONUS: A sandwich buffet goes perfectly with a deli theme which we can use to our benefit to make things which might otherwise seem tacky appear stylized like disposable dinner ware and linens (paper napkins and plastic table clothes) as well as easy sides like individual bags of kettle chips and dill pickle spears.

Six Quick Tips To Help Your Sandwich Plan Succeed

1) Drastically cut down last minute prep by roasting vegetables like red peppers, zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes weeks in advance and freezing them, instead of serving fresh veggies. Roasting will also intensify the flavors which can be doubly enhanced if cooked with any combination of salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary and thyme, and will also lend more sophistication to your spread.

2) Serve specialty items like sliced prosciutto and fresh mozzarella to add a little more glamor to the deli staples of ham, turkey and provolone.

3) Rolls can be easily ordered ahead to be made fresh right before the wedding. Call local bakeries and ask if they do deliveries or ask a friend or relative to pick the rolls up before coming to the wedding.

You may wish to sacrifice a bit of freshness for the convenience of picking the bread up on Friday when you won't be as busy, but make sure you ask the bakery if it will be as good the next day. Also make sure to ask the bakery if they can pre-slice the rolls which will save A LOT of work.

4) A few inexpensive bags of mixed greens can turn your buffet into a salad bar. Instead of sliced lettuce, serve mixed greens and add a few salad dressings like ranch and blue cheese in with the sandwich condiments. This will allow the buffet to be easily used as a salad bar for guests who are allergic to wheat or wish to cut carbs.

5) Serve side salads with vinaigrette based dressings. Preparing salads with vinaigrette based dressings a couple days in advance is actually optimal because the longer they sit the better they become as they marinate. The less you have to do the day before and the day of your wedding, the more relaxed you will feel. These salads will also hold up sitting on a buffet table for a couple hours without spoiling like a salad with a dairy or mayonnaise dressing might. I suggest a pasta salad and/or a bean salad.

6) Make your salads vegetarian to suit all diets. Bean salad (made without cheese) is excellent for any vegans wanting to get more protein, like the simple garbanzo bean salad pictured above. You may not be vegetarian or vegan, but some of your guests might be, and its always best to make the food flexible for as many diets as possible.

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So, that's it in a nutshell. These basic foods make for a classic meal. Everyone loves a sandwich, and with the buffet style serving, every guest will be guaranteed to get exactly what they want. This plan is flexible for every taste and diet, is simple yet classy, relatively easy to prepare and best of all won't break your bank.

Now that we have a better idea of what we're dealing with we can move on to the planning...
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Continued Reading in the Cater Your Own Wedding Series:
A Disclaimer
Begin Planning
A Full Bar vs. Wine and Beer
6 Month Checklist
2 Month Checklist
Final Month Checklist
Final Week Checklist

Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about my plan or about how to plan your own event.

Cater Your Own Wedding: An Introduction

2009-06-11T07:00:00.008-05:00

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Go Back to the Cater Your Own Wedding Index
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:Part 1: Introduction

Weddings are where dreams and reality come to duke it out, like two giant bikini clad body builders wrestling in the mud. What you want vs. what you can afford. They're both slippery bastards you can't seem to get a hold on.

Photo by Jim March Photography

You want to throw a huge wedding, but don't want to be in debt for 20 years to pay for it. Compromises need to be made and corners cut, but if you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, when confronted with a $6,000 quote for catering, don't cut your guest list in half; cut your caterer!

Catering your own wedding can be a lot of work, but, with careful pre-planning, good organization and a lot of help from friends and family, you can cut the cost down as much as 75% what you would pay a professional. Beside saving tons of money, you can also impress all your guests while making your reception even more indicative of your own unique DIY style!

The question is, how do you, with little (if any) experience in large scale food prep, coupled with your limited resources of money and manpower, tackle the challenge of feeding 100+ people on a day when you will not be able to do anything but eat and greet? I've just spent the last 6 months in the mud pit wrestling this same issue. The solution I finally came up works around these weaknesses and actually provides some added bonuses. My recent wedding catered by myself along with my wonderful friends and family was voted a complete success by all our guests.

Stacy is loving it! Photo by Chris Dilts Photography

In an effort to help other like minded DIY B2B's (Bride to be's...and their partners of course) I'm going to spend the next week or so giving all the details of my unique plan to help you successfully cater your own wedding including hints on shopping lists, schedules, check lists and more. Each post will feature a new installment of how to organize a flexible food plan for your wedding, with less then $1000, in your own kitchen.

To all my general readers, I promise, after this series of posts, the wedding craze will be over, and I'll get back into my regular posting routine. So, please stay tuned!
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Continued Reading in the Cater Your Own Wedding Series:
The Basics
A Disclaimer
Begin Planning
A Full Bar vs. Wine and Beer
6 Month Checklist
2 Month Checklist
Final Month Checklist
Final Week Checklist

Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about my plan or about how to plan your own event.

Save Money: Cater Your Own Wedding

2009-06-08T13:47:00.003-05:00

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: Index of Posts :
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Image by OneLovePhoto.com

You want to throw a huge wedding, but don't want to be in debt for 20 years to pay for it. When confronted with a $10,000 quote for catering, don't cut your guest list in half; cut your caterer! Here's an index of our guide to DIY Wedding Catering on the cheap.

Email me if you have any questions about my plan or need assistance when planning your own event.

DIY Picnic Table

2009-06-07T18:50:00.005-05:00

Image courtesy of HandymanUSA.com

As a quick supplement to my last post, I just wanted to further stress how easy it was to build our picnic table. The awesome instructions on HandymanUSA.com, gives you a shopping list of all the wood and hardware necessary.

From you, this project only requires:

approx. $70.00 of wood and hardware
power drill
hand saw
hammer
tape measure
pencil
5-6 hours

You do need a bit of space to build it in, but you could just spend a weekend afternoon and build it all in the spot you plan to set it up. I HIGHLY recommend it. You can easily fit 8 maybe even 10 people at this table! It may be rainy and 40 degrees, but we're sitting outside anyway. We've been going through a lot of cases of beer.

Making Our Own Sidewalk Saloon

2009-06-03T13:44:00.012-05:00

Although the weather may be acting different, the calendar is telling me summer is here. There's nothing we Chicagoans want more right now then a good backyard BBQ. "My apartment building in the city doesn't have a yard" I can hear you lamenting. Don't worry, mine doesn't either.

Last year, we made do with hanging out in the gangway stairwell. This worked OK and we had lots of fun, but this year, OK isn't good enough. We've been trying to think up a remedy to our urban problem with no luck until recently.

Ever since one of local bars closed, the loyal patrons, refusing to frequent the bar across the street, have been hanging out on the sidewalk outside the locked doors with unmarked glasses of unmarked liquids. The other day, I found the drinking club had seriously upgraded their sidewalk saloon with a new picnic table, taking them from wino to winner with just 20 pieces of wood.

There's more then juice in the juice and coffee cup is not holding coffee.

I love these guys! They just plopped this their table on the side of a city street, and got right down to business. If you ask about the table, they will proudly display the "made in Poland" scrawled on the tabletop to prove it's their own handycraft. "Is easy to make. I make you one too" the bearded one (not pictured above) says as he winks at me.

This got me thinking. Is this the answer to our yardless BBQ problem? I casually suggested to Ira and our neighbor Eric that they postpone assembling the "slop heap" compost pile they've been obsessing about, and take a cue from the Polish Drinking club. I want to be rockin' it on street level!

Eric's got the pencil ready (left) as they discuss their next move. Ira drilling holes for the hardware (right).

For the past week, Ira and Eric have been busy as bees in the garage we rent down the block constructing a table from blue prints they got off the internet. Men being men!

Last night, they lugged this thing down the alley and seated it in its new place of honor! Pull out the beer and meat; summer BBQ here we come!

Our DIY Wedding

2009-05-28T13:01:00.005-05:00

As much as you want your wedding to reflect your own individual thing, there are some truths you cannot escape. FACT: weddings are a ridiculous amount of work and then they go by so fast. Since my last blog post, I spent a frenzied week of preparation for the event and then needed a week for recuperation after. When spending so much time and energy on something, I felt as though I needed some time to go by before I really wanted to think or talk about it. But now I'm a bit more rested and its time to get back into the swing of things. Here's how the wedding went...

When planning for this wedding, Ira and I wanted to throw awesome party where we could honor all our friends and family who have supported us in, and around our relationship.
We came up with a list of must have things which we were unwilling to compromise on:

we wanted to invite everybody
we wanted a full open bar
we wanted awesome food which we could do ourselves
we wanted awesome music for a sweet dance party
we wanted to party all night long.

All the rest of the details could be flexible to fit around these core details. We didn't want to leave anyone out, so we planned a two part reception which would allow us to invite everybody we wanted. We scheduled a 12 hour party with the ceremony and food for close friends and family in the first half. Then after about 6 hours, we opened the invitation up to all our extended friends so we could party until the wee hours of the night.

It was tough finding a space in the city which would fit in our budget ($1000-$2000), but finally hit upon Envent, an awesome warehouse space promoted as being a blank canvas for us to do with whatever we wanted. They would allow us to do our own food and bring in whatever we wanted in terms of decorations, flowers, alcohol, etc. The best part of Envent was they were willing to let us have the space all day until 3 a.m. with no additional fee.

Setting up the space before the ceremony.

Envent is a formal venue so the law required we hire special bar tenders with a liquor license, and although that added to our cost, it was number two on the no compromise list, so we went for it. We put the priority of our budget on the food and drinks so our guests would feel comfortable, relaxed and happy. When you walk up to a bar and you can get any drink you want, you're going to have a good time!

In my last post, I was talking about our food situation. Against everyone's advice, I really wanted to do my own food. I knew I was in for a challenge.

I came up with a sandwich buffet which would be affordable, would allow us to prep all the ingredients days in advance, could be served room temp, and everyone could make what they want of it guaranteeing a happy crowd. The sandwich buffet went well with a deli theme which allowed us to get away with using disposable tableware without appearing too tacky. This definitely cut the cost down from renting china and linens.

We wanted the environment to be casual and comfortable but still be fancy enough for our important event. Simple ingredients like prosciutto and fresh mozzarella lent a little more glamor to the deli staples of ham, turkey and provolone.

Simple tricks of adding wasabi powder to the mayo did a lot to up the ante. I oven-dried tomatoes with thyme which allowed me to prep the tomatoes days in advance, cut down on the mess of fresh tomatoes, intensify the flavor and make them appear a little more special then what you would find in a Subway counter.

Beside the roasted tomatoes, we also roasted zucchini, eggplant as well as red, yellow and poblano peppers. These looked beautiful, could be done weeks ahead and frozen and gave for more selections to our vegetarian and vegan friends. Here's a full list of the menu items we had.

Olives, roasted peppers, textured mustard and artichoke hearts among the things on the condiment table.

For sides, we again, went for deli classics. Assorted bags of Krunchers available as well as pickle spears available in either dill or sweet were available depending on your mood.

My mom and Janice (my now mother-in-law) wanted to be involved as well, and volunteered to make a few side salads. I was of course only too happy to let them!

My mom made a delicious Greek pasta salad (above) and Janice's simple garbanzo bean salad with tomatoes, parsley and vinaigrette was a big hit especially with the vegetarians wanting a bit more protein.

My aunt Karen and cousins Katey and Olivia are leading this line of stuffing their sandwiches.

These simple foods made for a wonderful classic dinner. We all got so many compliments on how great the food was. Everyone was able to take exactly what they wanted. I had initially been uncertain if people would be intimidated of making their own sandwiches, so I had come up with a sample menu of sandwiches with suggested ingredients for people if they were feeling uncreative. After dinner, I asked a few people what they put on their sandwich, they would just laugh and say, "everything!" I don't think anyone needed the sample menu.

Everywhere during dinner, people were jamming these huge sloppy sandwiches in their faces and loving every second of it. It was great! We were told by many of the guests it was the best wedding food they had ever had.

We started dancing in the early evening and didn't stop until 2. Ira and I put together a great mix of oldies, soul, rock, rap and pop which reflected our tastes. You couldn't help but get down! Around the time a lot of our family was leaving the second wave of friends arrived to keep the party going. Half hour before closing time, we rounded up all our remaining friends and enlisted their help taking down all the tables and stacking the chairs in the back room.

We chose to do so much of this wedding D.I.Y. and while it was doable, I never would have been able to accomplish this on my own. We really needed to reach out into our community to help us and they did. Our friend Amber did all the corsages and boutonnieres and my sister Emily put together all the bouquets. They both did a beautiful job.

Emily holding my bouquet. Photo by Stacy McKinley.

Ira's family along with Amber and our friend Sarah took the few decorative elements Ira and I had bought (this was not one of our priorities) and put together a magical scene of golden Christmas lights, flicker candles and beautiful flowers.

My Aunt Dottie, using greenery from her backyard created beautiful displays for the ceremony.

Our friend Malissa made a delicious wedding cake enough to feed 20 people which was served along side 11 different kinds of cookies made by my Mom, my Sister and Janice. (I forgot to get shots of the cookies- but they were absolutely beautiful!!!)

Our good friend Chris Dilts did an awesome job shooting the event and was a joy to have around. Check out the full gallery if you want to see more!

Most of all, we were aided all throughout the process of food planning and prep by my good friend Kirsten. She was indispensable in helping me plan, acquire and prep the food prior to the wedding.

Kirsten and Jon prepping food trays.

The day of, she along with a crew of wonder full friends, Malissa, Jeff, Alee, Stacy and Jon spent hours prepping trays for the food display and then cleaning up afterward. Without their help, we could not have done this.

Ira and I were both humbled and overwhelmed by the generosity and support from our community of friends and family who came out to help us put this together. Ira and I set out to create an event for our community and it ended up being the community which helped put on the event for us.

We all did it together, and Ira and I will forever remember it as being one of the best days in our lives. To all our friends and family who helped make the day so special: I had the time of my life. No, I never felt that way before. I swear its the truth. And I owe it all to you!

DIY Wedding Food

2009-05-15T18:06:00.002-05:00

Everybody said I was crazy when for wanting to do the food for my own wedding. I think its crazy to pay a caterer upwards of $6,000 when I know I can do something for 1/4 of the price. So I decided to do it. I love a challenge, plus I couldn't keep face with my blog readership if I didn't take care of this myself. Forkable is all about promoting DIY cooking while dealing with restrictions and when catering your own wedding, there's nothing but restrictions.

A tray of zuchini slices ready to be roasted and frozen to be used as a topping for the sandwich buffet we're serving .

When I started planning the food, I wasn't sure where we'd be having the event, but I couldn't count on having access to a kitchen. I'm not a professional caterer, so I don't have a lot of fancy equipment to heat things up on premises or to keep them warm, so I knew the food I served would have to be room temp. Since I'm going to be busy that day, I wanted to plan for food which could be prepped days earlier and have as little work to be done as possible the day of. The answer to all these problems: a deli themed sandwich buffet.

Peppers, zucchinis, and eggplant can be roasted weeks before hand and frozen to limit the amount of last minute prep work.

With the help of a friend who has an account with a food wholesaler, we're going to purchase multiple roasts of precooked meat and bricks of cheese which we'll cut deli style and arrange on platters. The menu will include a selection of sides and fancy condiments which people can pick and choose from to design their own sandwich. The deli theme will allow us to serve the food using disposable materials (which I usually hate) while keeping in the theme, saving us money from having to rent china and flatware. All in all, I'm thinking the food with place settings for 150+ people will total around $1500.

A tray of red and orange peppers to be roasted.

I've enlisted the help of a few friends who will take care of setting up the day of and prepping all the last minute stuff, so I don't have to worry about it the day of. But, I've been trying to get as much stuff done before hand so the day of, Kirsten who's heading up the food for us will be ready to go. I've got lists coming out of my ass right now but staying organized is the best way to keep things running smoothly when you're dealing with so many different people. I know this is a brief intro, but I promise I'll have much more detailed posts about the hows of the wedding food after the fact.

A jar of roasted poblano peppers ready for the freezer.

I know my blog has been suffering the past month or so due to this wedding planning, but we're in the home stretch. I'm going to take a short vacation from the blog to allow myself time to get all my other stuff done. Oh, did I mention beside being my own caterer, I'm also the florist, the DJ, as well as making food for the rehearsal dinner? I know, I'm a glutton for punishment. Just hang in there, and in a little over a week, I'll be back to making Forkable priority number 1!

Forkable Anniversary Dinner Tickets Are Now Available

2009-05-12T13:23:00.001-05:00

The title speaks for itself. Reserve your spot today!

A Forkable Anniversary Dinner

2009-05-10T21:06:00.007-05:00

The past months I've been in a total daze preparing for my wedding (in two weeks!). Once this is over, my mind will finally have a moment to breathe ( Minds don't breathe-whatever), and I will be able to shake this crazy single minded way of life which the wedding fever demands. Once I've recovered my sanity, I want to throw it away immediately on a crazed celebration to mark our one year anniversary of blogging! I'm excited to announce, we're finally coming out of our supper club hiatus and starting the summer season off right with a June supper club event.

Sunday, June 14, just fours days after our first post, we'd like to invite you come enjoy some slow food for fast living, Forakble style with our Forkable Anniversary Dinner. Its time to celebrate the 188 posts chronicling 365 days full of food, fun and a shit load of work. There is not a more fitting way to celebrate, then with a reinvention of our first supper club event last summer. We'll be making pulled pork Asian style with all the fixins.

If one year is the paper anniversary, I'll bring the flowers with possibly a few chocolates thrown in and you supply the paper. Menu to be posted soon. Tickets are available via Brown Paper Tickets. Spaces are limited so reserve your spot today!

Cilantro: Fuck You or Fuck Yeah?

2009-05-05T18:56:00.006-05:00

You either love it or you hate it.

While they fight about it, I'm going to eat.

So I guess you could say I'm with this guy.

Happy Cinco De Mayo.

What Do You Do With Wine Thats Gone Bad?

2009-05-02T03:16:00.000-05:00

OK, if you don't want to watch the video, the short answer is: Use it as a marinade. To find out why, you have to watch the video. Sorry.

$10 Designer Meal: Stuffed Shells with Gorgonzola Skirt Steak

2009-04-29T11:21:00.001-05:00

My chest freezer has become a despairing land of forgotten foods. I can never pass up a good sale. It doesn’t matter that I don't have any immediate need for it, into the freezer it goes. Once that door slams shut though, out of sight out of mind, like the skirt steak I got on super sale for $1.75 lb over a year ago (....OOPS!). It’s been hanging out for quite a while in my guilt complex next to the duck breast which I finally took care of at Easter. The steak seemed sad, missing its once feathered friend, so I decided to send it the same way and maybe they could meet somewhere in the hereafter.

From its long stay in the frozen hinterlands, I was concerned about the meat being tough which can be a problem with fresh skirt steak. One neglected food deserves another, so a bottle of red wine which had turned to vinegar from months of sitting in windowsill would work for a marinade, and help tenderize the meat.

Baked shells with apple chutney sauce.

The Gorgonzola, left over from salad night would go well with the beef. In walking through my pantry, I pulled some large pasta shells which I could stuff and bake. For a filling, blue cheese is a bit strong on its own, so I would have to tone it down using a milder cottage cheese or ricotta. I just needed a sauce. A tomato sauce didn’t sound right, but when I passed some jars of apple chutney, I knew that was the ticket. All in all, I only had to run out for the ricotta which I found at the corner store (just as cheap as the cottage cheese!). Here’s how it came together.

Apple Chutney Conchiglie with Gorgonzola Skirt Steak

16 large pasta shells
1 tsp olive oil
8 oz. Gorgonzola blue cheese
1/4 c. sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
12 oz. ricotta cheese
2 eggs
2-3 c. apple chutney
1 lb. skirt steak
1-2 cups red wine
salt and pepper to taste

Marinate the steak in wine; chill for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, boil pasta shells al dente in boiling water with olive oil.

Mix 3/4 of the Gorgonzola with the tomatoes, thyme, ricotta cheese and eggs.

Stuff each shell with filling and place in a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and spoon apple chutney over shells. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

15 minutes before shells are done, remove steak from marinade. Rub both sides with salt and pepper. Saute on a cast iron grill over high heat. (3-5 minutes). You can use a regular pan if you don't have a grill. Flip to cook second side, and drizzle cooked side with the remaining blue cheese.

Slice steak and serve over baked shells. I sided my dish with steamed broccoli. As a quick tip, I kept the water boiling from the pasta shells and placed the broccoli in a bamboo steamer over the boiling water while I was cooking the steak. After steaming for about 10 minutes, I drizzled with butter, salt and pepper.

Arrrh, this was so good! (So good, I turned into a pirate for a second). I was super happy with how well the steak turned out, especially considering how long it sat in the freezer and how crappy the wine was. This meal cost about $10 in all, if you don’t include the ingredients for the homemade chutney. Now lets play my favorite game: “how much woud you pay for this plate at a fancy restaurant.”

Stretching A Dollar Into A Pitcher: Fresh Squeezed Limeade

2009-04-26T07:14:00.003-05:00

Fact: few things are as delicious and refreshing on a warm afternoon then freshly squeezed fruit juice. To celebrate the thermometer finally surging into the 70s, Ira decided to pull out the citrus reamer and make an ice cold pitcher to sip on our stoop.

Our neighborhood bodegas usually limes for 10 cents a piece, so we were able to whip this delicious drink up for only $1.00. Now that's making the most of a dollar!

Freshly Squeezed Limeade

10 limes, juiced
2 c. sugar
8 c. water
ice

Squeeze limes. We have this handy dandy 2:1 lemon and lime squeezer which is awesome and easy to use. A wooden reamer works great too, but if you don't have any of these just use a fork.

Add sugar. This drink has ALOT of sugar, but who cares about our teeth on a day like today. We just want to drink a delicious beverage. So don't worry about it, and just mix that shit in.

Add ice and water. Stir it up. Keep adding water until the taste is just the way you like it.

Drink up and taste the summer. Now that's crescent fresh!

Brinner: Eggy Eyeball.

2009-04-23T03:00:00.004-05:00

Its time for dinner, but you want breakfast. It happens. We can take care of this problem quick and easy.

Uova Di Pomodoro (Eggs Baked in Tomatoes)
From the Silver Spoon Cookbook

vine ripened tomatoes
same number of eggs
1 tsp of olive oil for each tomato
dried oregano
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Cut off the tops of the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds.

Sprinkle the inside of the tomatoes with salt and lay upside down on a paper towel to allow to drain for 10 minutes.

Put 1 tsp of olive oil in each tomato and sprinkle the insides with a pinch of oregano and pepper.

Bake tomatoes for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and add egg to the center of each tomato. The eggs will sizzle in the hot oil.

Place the tomatoes back in the oven for 5-7 minutes.

I sprinkled the tops with Parmesan cheese and dried dill. Don't they look like little eggy eyeballs? Is that unappetizing?

I sided the tomatoes with the left over potatoes and broccoli from our Easter Dinner. Boom, 30 minutes later and its brinner time.

Cheddar Biscuits Can Equal Big Discounts

2009-04-20T13:33:00.000-05:00

Spring is here and the weather is getting warmer. Time for some fun bike riding. Girls, here's a great hint if you have a bike which needs work. Men love biscuits. It makes them feel all old timey, like cowboys on the range. Put on a cute skirt and make a plate of biscuits and wheel that rusty hunk to the shop. Flash some smiles, whip out the biscuits and get some discounts!

Here's a cut above your average biscuit to help seal the deal.

Cheddar Biscuits with Sun Dried Tomatoes

1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
2 Tbs Parmesan cheese
4-6 Tbs chilled butter
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. shredded cheddar
1/4 c. sun dried tomatoes, chopped

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients and Parmesan cheese. Using a fork or pastry cutter, mix butter into the dry ingredients until chunky. Add milk and mix until dry ingredients stick together to form a rough dough. Don't over work it. Add tomatoes and mix.

On a floured surfaced, roll dough out about 1/2" - 3/4" thick. Cut out biscuits, using a circular cookie cutter or juice glass with approx. 2" diameter and place on a baking sheet.

Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove tray from oven and sprinkle biscuits with cheddar cheese. Place back in the oven for 2-5 more minutes until biscuits are golden and cheese is melted.

Forkable Tips: The Best Method for Defrosting Chicken Breast

2009-04-17T23:36:00.003-05:00

Duck Boobylicious: Broiled Duck Breasts with Fig Miso Glaze

2009-04-15T07:00:00.003-05:00

For a holiday meal deserving a special treat, there's nothing like duck boobs! Ha ha ha. I mean, ahem, duck breasts, of which I had 2 plump specimens in my freezer saved for such an occasion. They had actually been in the freezer for a bit too long and I was starting to worry they might be going bad. Cooking them up gave me a fancy meal free of any guilt of letting such a delicacy die the slow death of freezer burn.

Our Easter dinner of broiled duck breasts sided with rosemary roasted potatoes and lemon steamed broccoli.

I've never had good luck preparing duck before, usually overcooking it into duck leather. At $11.99 a lb, I wanted to make sure my duck turned out! When thinking about the preparation options, I decided to brine the breasts to help the meat retain as much juice as possible. A quick hot cooking method like broiling or sauteing is a good way to sear the outside of the meat and seal the juices in. Broiling with a glaze would infuse rich flavors as well as give a sweet caramelized exterior. I had my method; I just needed my ingredients.

The jar of fig paste on left was sealed with a layer of wax. How old timey!

Whenever I go on a food shopping adventure, I always like to treat myself to one or two exotic treats like the Duck Breasts I got on a visit to Mitsuwa. Easter dinner is a perfect excuse to go whole hog so I pulled out all my fancy ingredients. For the brine I needed an acidic base which immediately put me to mind of the persimmon vinegar I got on my last visit to Chicago Foods. The fig paste from Al Khayam would provide a rich tart base for the glaze. On to the prep.

Broiled Duck Breasts with a Fig Miso Glaze
approx. 1 hour of total cook and prep time with 3-4 hours for brine

2 4 oz. duck breasts

Brine:

1 c. vinegar
1 c. orange juice
1 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbs brown sugar

Glaze:

1/2 c. fig paste
2 tsp miso
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs persimmon vinegar
1 tsp sesame seed oil
1/4 tsp wasabi powder
1/4 tsp brown sugar

Duck in the brine.

Similar to red wine vinegar, the persimmon vinegar had a very deep tart flavor, so I mixed some orange juice with the brine to sweeten the flavors. I let the duck soak submerged in the brine for 3-4 hours in the fridge.

On left, the breasts after the brine, patted dry with salt and pepper. On right, the breasts on a makeshift rack after the first 4 minutes under the broiler.

I'd never made duck breasts alone before, so I wasn't sure the proper time broiling. I did a quick google search and just clicked on the appropriate first recipe I saw which could give me a rough idea of times. The recipe states:

Pat duck breasts dry and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper.
Remove rack of a broiler pan, then add 1 cup water to broiler pan and replace rack. Preheat broiler with pan 5 to 6 inches from heat.
Broil duck breasts, skin sides down, 4 minutes
Turn over and broil until thermometer inserted horizontally into center of a breast registers 130°F (see cooks' note, below), 8 to 10 minutes more for medium-rare.

The info given for the temp the breast should read on the thermometer was very helpful. To insert my glaze into the recipe above, I proceeded with steps 1-3 and added the glaze to the top of the breasts after flipping over and placed the back in the oven to finish broiling for the last 8 minutes.

Though my duck breasts were half the size as the ones listed in that particular recipe, by following the first steps along with the temp guide lines, I was able to make sure my Duck breasts were plump, juicy and delicious.

The rich fatty meat was complimented by the deep sweet and tart flavor of the fig mixed with the vinegar and miso with an extra little kickass taste of wasabi. Sided with roasted potatoes and steamed broccoli with lemon and black caraway. The quack was loud but our bite wasn't vicious and that dinner I was cookin was duck boobylicious!

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T14:39:00.003-05:00

One badass peep
Originally uploaded by Corey (Lost his Groove)

My Catholic school upbringing is making me feel a little guilty about posting this gory Easter image, but that really is a badass peep. Don't worry guys, its just play acting. Its not even real blood.

Hanky Pysanky

2009-04-11T17:14:00.008-05:00

Ukrainian eggs are awesome! Growing up, we always looked forward to Easter, but not for the candy. My Mom always made a big deal about decorating the Easter eggs . We tried the Ukranian technique a couple times but we could never get ours to have the crisp lines or sophisticated designs you see in pictures. Ours always looked like they had been made by a three year old with a severe hand tremor. We did have lots of fun blowing the egg insides out of the shell through two tiny holes poked at the ends to keep our eggs from rotting.

Although the process of making these eggs is time consuming, they come in all shapes and sizes and are so beautiful to look at!

What Do You Do With Pierna De Pollo? I Dunno. Enchiladas?

2009-04-08T19:27:00.009-05:00

I found it at the bottom of my freezer, all red and wrapped up in cellophane but I don't remember buying it: a package of pierna de pollo. To preface, I don't speak Spanish well. Once in Ecuador when trying to ask the bus driver to turn down the loud music, I actually asked if he could make the big music more tranquil. Using my same genius at language, I assumed "pierna" had something to do with the red seasoning rub coating the chicken. (Yes, I do know "pollo").

Browning the chicken to prepare for braising.

I was thinking I could quickly saute the meat for fajitas but after defrosting, I realized I had a bunch of chicken hind quarters which where oddly sliced in half long ways. With lots of bones to deal with, I wasn't going to be able to quickly saute anything. I scrapped my quick plan and decided to braise the chicken in a bottle of white wine left over from a party.

An hour or so later, I had a pot of braised chicken legs in a greasy wine broth, but not exactly sure where I was going from here. I figured whatever the "pierna" seasoning was, had also cooked into the broth, so it was too good to dump. It would have to be part of the dish. I was thinking a soup maybe, but after a long winter I am SO F**ing SICK of soup I can't take it anymore. Next in my mind: make a sauce for enchiladas. So I did. Here's how.

Chicken Enchiladas with Wine Sauce

2lbs chicken, browned
1 bottle of white wine
1 large onion cut into 1" slices
2 Tbs tomato paste
1 tsp corn starch
hot sauce
1 green pepper sliced
1 red pepper sliced
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 1 8 oz. bag
1 package corn tortillas

After braising the chicken and onion in wine (about an 60-90 minutes at 350 degrees), strip the meat from the bones. My meat was not as moist and tender as I would've liked so I cut it into smaller chunks to make it easier to eat.

Next make the sauce. I separated half of the broth out to use to make a side dish of rice. With the remaining broth, heat until just boiling and stir in tomato paste which will help temper the tart wine flavor with its sweetness. Remove 1/2 cup or so of the wine broth and stir in the corn starch quickly so it doesn't chunk up. Mix the milky liquid back into the broth stirring to avoid lumps. As liquid gently boils it will begin to thicken into a nice sauce, about 5 minutes or so. Add hot sauce to taste.

Saute green and red pepper over medium heat until softened about 5 minutes or so.

Assemble the enchiladas by stuffing the tortillas with the braised chicken, sauted peppers, and a bit of cheddar cheese (1 cup or half the bag).

Stuff the tortillas tight into an oven safe pan. Pour the sauce over the tortillas and bake for 20 minutes at 350. Sprinkle the remaining half of cheese on top and place back into the oven for a couple minutes until the cheese is nice and melted.

Chicken Enchiladas served with white rice cooked in wine broth with coconut milk and black pepper.

This was a weird take on enchiladas as the sauce was more tart then spicy, but they were just as satisfying. I really liked the cheddar with the wine sauce. Alcohol and cheese, who would have thunk?

I kept wondering what was in the "pierna" seasoning? Well, thanks to the internet, I realize the red rub was probably some adobo seasoning because pierna de pollo directly translates to "chicken leg". Ha ha. I guess I should have paid more attention in Spanish class. Oh well you know what happens when you "ass-u-me".

Quick and Fruity Breakfast Pastries

2009-04-05T11:25:00.000-05:00

The best way to get everyone to like you is to fill them up with sweet treats. A Sunday brunch seems like the perfect opportunity for bribing people with some sort of delicious breakfast bites except for one thing: I hate getting up early. HATE IT. I also like to go out on Saturday night, so if I am going to make it the day before, it has to be fast and easy.

Black currant and cherry pastries with lemon zest sugar topping.

I've been obsessed with whipping up these quick danishes by stuffing puff pastry with a berry filling. Pre-made puff pastry is a shortcut we approve of, as making puff pastry from scratch is putzy and time consuming. Fresh or frozen berries can be thickened with sugar and cornstarch to create the filling or if you are really pressed for time, you can just open up a can of pre-made pie filling.

Quick Fruit Pastries

fruit filling
1 package of puff pastry
1 egg
1/2 c. sugar
citrus zest.

To make your own Fruit filling:

2 cups berries or chopped fruit, frozen, canned or fresh (doesn't matter)
1 c. sugar
2 heaping Tbs cornstarch
1/2 c. fruit juice (you can just use water if you don't have juice)

Mix in a sauce pan, bring to a boil and continue to stir until the sauce is nice and thick. You can add some added flavoring to the filling depending on your fruit. Almond extract goes great with berries. Citrus zest can give be fun, but a little goes a long way.

Puff pastry usually comes in a box with two sheets. Defrost dough and roll out each sheet into 12" squares. Cut the squares into quarters and quarter again so you have 16 small squares. Spoon 1 tsp of fruit filling into the center of each square. Brush raw egg along all edges of each square.

Assemble the small pastries by pinching the corners together at the center. Then pinch together the open corners so there are no places where filling can leak out. Pinch tightly with fingers to seal, if the dough is giving you trouble you can twist the dough.

Brush with raw egg and top with sugar. I like to add some fresh lemon or orange zest into the sugar to give some added pep!

Bake little guys for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Remove from oven when the dough is nice and golden. Allow to cool completely before placing in air tight containers.

The next morning, these pastries are little light crispy bites of fruity friendship. Everyone will like you and you will be happy.

2 Secrets For The Best Quick Chicken Noodle Soup

2009-04-01T20:46:00.008-05:00

I got home from work to find a sick Ira swaddled in layers of blankets begging for chicken soup. A hot bowl of soup can make all the difference when you're sick so I knew I couldn't refuse, even though my favorite guilty pleasure was going to start in 20 minutes.

Did I miss my show. No! I was able to get this started before showtime and finish up during the commercial breaks. Amazing? Not really, I just know the tricks.

My top two tips for a quick hearty soup:

Awesome Chicken Stock:

A nice potent chicken stock is really easy to make and so much better then anything you can buy. You can make soup with canned broth, but it won't taste as good. We're not cooking this soup for very long, so if the stock/broth is weak, the soup is going to be bleh. Stock is easy to make ahead and freeze. I always keep some on hand. Microwave it for 5 minutes to defrost and bam, you've got broth that's basically good to go.
Spaetzle Noodles:

Where would chicken noodle soup be without the noodles? Spaetzle noodles are the best secret for an awesome chicken soup. They can be bought dehydrated at the store, and cook into rich luscious noodles. They are soo hearty, they'll help put some pep in your sickie's step right after eating!

Want my quick chicken soup recipe from scratch? OK. Here it is.

The Best Quick Chicken Soup
prep time: 10-15 minutes cook time: 15-25 minutes

1 quart chicken stock
1 small onion, chopped
1 large carrot or 2 small carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1/4 chicken breast chopped into 1" chunks
~ 1 cup loosely packed dried spaetzle noodles
salt and pepper to taste
splash of lemon juice

Saute onions, carrot and celery in 1 Tbs of olive oil until onions are translucent.

In a medium soup pot, brown chicken over medium heat. Add sauted onions, carrot, and celery. Add chicken stock. Bring to a boil and reduce to low heat. Allow to simmer for ~15 minutes.

Add spaetzle noodles and allow to cook for 5-10 more minutes, or until spaetzle is soft and cooked through.

Season to taste. Add 1/8 tsp of pepper is probably good. I never salt my chicken stock when I make it. This recipe probably needs 1-2 tsp. Start with a little bit and taste. Keep adding until you've got enough. With salt, its good to start slow. You can always add more, but its difficult to remove too much. If you do over salt, just add water to dilute. I like to throw in just a splash of fresh lemon juice for a bit of kick. Plus, vitamin C is always good for the sickie.

Eat and feel better.

Asian Miso Risotto with Avocado

2009-03-29T13:26:00.007-05:00

I hate making risotto; it's a pain in the ass. I know there is probably some secret to it, but for me, it always involves an hour at least standing in front of a stove, stirring rice. Its just boring and my inpatient nature wants to pull it from the burner before its completely done.

To cut out all the fuss, I often make a microwave risotto by reheating pre-made rice with vinegar and miso then mixing in a fresh avocado to create a creamy vegan sauce. Its been a while since I tried to make risotto the proper way, so I decided to try the authentic technique with these Asian ingredients to see if all the hassle is worth the fuss and to test if it can hold up to my quick microwave method. Here is the recipe I made for the taste off.

Miso Risotto with Mushrooms and Avocado

1/4 c. olive oil
1 small red onion, chopped
1-2 c. mushrooms
1/2 tsp powdered mustard
1/2 tsp coriander
2 c. short grained sushi rice
1/4 c. white wine
4-6 c. vegetable stock
1/2 - 1 c. rice vinegar
1-2 Tbs miso paste
1 large ripe avocado

In a large sauce pan, saute onions in olive oil until translucent.

Add spices and mushrooms, and saute until mushrooms are soft but not totally cooked (5 minutes or so).

Separate mushrooms out and set aside.

Add rice to onions and saute until rice becomes partially translucent (7 minutes or so). Keep stirring rice while it sautes. While sauteing, microwave wine for 30 seconds to heat.

After 7 minutes or so, and rice is partially translucent, reduce heat to low and add heated wine. The wine is heated so it doesn't shock the rice (or so I am told). Allow to cook until the wine is completely evaporated while stirring rice to keep it from burning to the bottom of the pot.

Add a cup of stock to the rice, and stir allowing it to cook into rice. Continue to add a cup of stock to the mixture as the liquid cooks into the rice. After the third cup of stock, add 1/2 c. rice vinegar along with 1 Tbs of miso and stir in.

When rice is feeling soft, taste to see if the rice is completely cooked. If not, add more stock and for gods sake, keep stirring. Once rice tastes nice and soft, add avocado and stir until fully mixed. You can now rest your aching arm. Season to taste and serve. Finally.

I served the risotto with roasted eggplant discs. Small sheets of nori made wonderful wrappers.

This dish was so wonderfully creamy and smooth, it leaves my microwave "risotto" far in its wake. The constant stirring weaves the flavors together while the rice slowly cooks. While absolutely irritating, it is worth the time. But only when you have the time. Otherwise, you can just heat up a bowl of pre-made rice, with vinegar, miso and soy, stir in an avocado until creamy and eat within 5 minutes. I just had some and it was OK.

10 Must Have Korean Foods

2009-03-26T11:09:00.002-05:00

Its fun to look at exotic foods at the Korean market, but WHAT do you do with them? I have a few main staple items I go to Chicago Foods for. In addition to the cheap cans of coconut milk I mentioned in my last post, here's my list of top 10 items you'll often find in my shopping basket.

Rice Vinegar: is my absolute favorite vinegar for its sweet tart flavor. I use it all the time in my salad dressings, as an added accent in my salsa and guacamole, or as a substitute for lemon/lime juice. I use so much of this stuff, I usually buy it in gallon bottles. When I can't find it in a gallon I have to content myself with two large bottles (above).
Miso

Miso is a salty-sweet paste made of fermented soy beans which can be used similar to a vegetarian bullion due to its naturally intense flavors. Its definitely a fridge staple because it lasts forever, makes a quick soup broth or marinade and is a great thing to have in a pinch if you need to quickly give some added body to any dish.
Frozen Dumplings:

Although I like to make things from scratch, I also like dumplings ALL THE TIME! Found in the frozen food section are bags and bags of frozen gyoza, fluffy buns and all kinds of deliciousness. I like to buy a few bags to keep on hand to be steamed and served with rice for a quick dinner.
Nori:

Sheets of dried nori can be found in a few sizes, but I like the small rectangles (~3" x 4") which is sold wrapped with multiple single serving packets to keep the seaweed from getting stale. Its a tasty addition to miso soup, or great to wrap around rice for a finger food. If you're grossed out by seaweed, you don't know what you're missing; nori is nutritious and delicious.
Lemongrass:

I like to think of Lemongrass as the Asian bay leaf as you don't actually eat the stalks but boil it in your broth for flavoring. I keep some stalks in my freezer at all times to throw into my stock or broth for my favorite Asian soups.
Fresh Fish

The Chicago Foods fish counter is stacked full of fresh fish; heads still on and cheap! Buckets of clams. Shrimp for $2.99. Come on! This stuff may smell bad, but hopefully you don't have that far to get home (although if you're taking the blue line from the Belmont stop, the people on the train won't like you so much).
Mushrooms:

Mushrooms can be expensive. Chicago Foods is a great place to find awesome prices on shitake and other exotic Asian mushrooms like oyster and beech difficult to find elsewhere. Because of their limited shelf life, its worth checking out their affordable selection of dried mushrooms to keep in the pantry as a quick substitution.
Soju:

Soju is like a Korean sake; its stronger then a wine but less potent and slightly sweeter then its Russian cousin. Its delicious, full of alcohol and ridiculously cheap. Good to drink; good to cook with.
Sprouts:

Chicago Foods is the only store I know of which has a year round sprouts station. $0.69 a lb. Do you know how many sprouts you get for in a lb? What I can't figure out, is who needs 10 lbs?

Radish sprouts adds a hot peppery kick to any salad or stir fry.
Fish Sauce:

Ever tried to recreate an Asian dish and you're sure you've got all the ingredients in place but it still doesn't taste right. You're missing the fish sauce. This is my favorite brand and a bottle with last you for years.

A Fun Trip To the Korean Market

2009-03-24T18:38:00.000-05:00

There's nothing better for Sunday afternoon fun then a trip to my favorite Korean market, Chicago Foods.

Its a great place to:

get good prices on staple items like coconut milk (90 cents a can!)

peruse exotic produce including an extensive selection in varieties of radishes and greens,

and investigate items you've never seen before like dang-kwi, chun kung and a variety of other unknown dried roots and fungus.

What are the practical uses of these?

Do you eat it or use it to kill bugs?

Seasoned pig "trotters", yum!

You can also shop for inexpensive cookware.

My favorite brand, "Cook Help" right next to the Love Home Magic Pan.

(While I was looking at the food, Ira was looking for funny signs)

Sometimes stacked in with the cookware, you'll find a reasonably priced pair of shoes.

Here's a slide show of all our pics if you still haven't gotten enough.

Olive Oil Dreams Come True.

2009-03-22T22:03:00.002-05:00

Sometimes its the simplest things which give you the most pleasure. I've always wanted an olive oil bottle dispenser with a spigot to control pouring, but I've never gotten one. I've had to content myself with a wide mouthed bottle which always dripped all over the place.

Finally the other day, I found a nice simple bottle with the spigot with the air hole which allows for smooth pouring for $3.00 and I bought that sucka. It makes me so happy every time I use it. Its so easy to control the amount of oil poured. I can't believe I've gone for so long without having one.

A bottle like this is definitely a kitchen staple. It makes me feel like the host of my own cooking show every time I use it!