A small breakfast

Breakfast, one of the most skipped and forgotten meals of the day. How could something so important be left out as we begin our busy day? In this day and age with all of our gadgets and widgets you would think that time could be made for indulging our bodies need for nutrients. Whether it is a piece of fruit, toast or quick shake it is very important to begin your day on a positive note.
When you are waking and beginning your day try to give your body that initial boost it so desperately needs. For this particular morning I kept it real simple. Whole wheat toast, a little butter, cranberry chutney, a fried egg and some bacon.

At first glance this seems to be a high load of saturated fat, yet at my height and weight this is acceptable. Remember that everyone is different and to keep portions to a minimum. As you can see with the finished dish, it was simply one egg a piece of bacon and some toast. Keep things in moderation and enjoy the goodness of life!

Have some Creme Brulee

Chocolate Creme Brulee
Makes 5 portions

Heavy Cream 16 fl oz
Sugar 3 0z
Vanilla bean 1ea or a 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract as a substitute
Egg yolks, beaten 3 ea
Chocolate melted 3oz
Brulee Sugar 2.5 oz

Method and Technique

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees f.
Bring the cream and half of the sugar to a boil. After it boils pull off the heat and place the vanilla bean, which has already been scraped, into the the hot cream and sugar. Allow for this mixture to steep for 15 minutes covered with plastic wrap.
While the base is steeping mix the egg yolks and remaining sugar. After the 15 minutes has passed your base should be well infused, it is at this point you should start tempering the warm cream with the egg yolk base. It is very important that you take your time with this stage. If you add too much of the warm base to the eggs your custard will look like scrambled eggs. This is certainly not a characteristic you would like to see in your finished creme brulee. With that said, be patient mixing slowly until all the cream base has incorporated smoothly with the egg yolks and sugar. Once you have a nice custard base it is time to add the chocolate.
Melt the 3 oz of chocolate either in a microwave over small increments of time or over a double boiler. Personally I use a pot of slow simmering water with a metal bowl on top of it stirring my chocolate with a rubber spat until melted. Do whatever makes you comfortable.
Once the chocolate has melted place it into a large bowl and start mixing a third of the custard base into it at a time. Strain once all the base is mixed in.The end base should be smooth and well incorporated. Pour the custard into your creme brulee ramekins evenly about three-quarters full.
With the oven set at 325f, prepare a deep sheet tray with the ramekins set into it. Fill the tray with water until it reaches half way up the ramekins then place into the oven and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until the custard has set. You can test this by simply shaking the ramekin lightly. If it is set the custard with have no ripples. At this point you can pull it out and cool.

When the custard has cooled it is time to create the delicious sugary crust that we all love about the beloved creme brulee.


Take some granulated sugar and dust the tops of your ramekins with it. Once you have covered the tops pull out your blow torch! ....there really cant be many times in life that you can say that and be serious about it. I love it.



With the torch in hand light it up and quickly run the flame over the sugar melting it with out burning. Let stand for a moment then serve. Enjoy!

Monday Dinner with Friends

Last Monday a couple friends and I got together and made a meal happen. In these trying times funds are very hard to come across. If you, like me, are not apart of the one percent of individuals wealthy enough to simply live off of money earned from money here are a few easy guidelines you can follow.

Keep it Simple:
When looking to cook search for a protein, veg and starch. You don't have to make it more complicated then it is. For this meal I started with a protein we already had in the freezer. Chicken thighs and drumsticks. If you don't have anything frozen or readily available it would be a good idea to start watching sale trends at your local market. On occasion you can walk away with a great deal! Those deals can lead you to creating several meals off of a bulk purchase.

Create with what you already have:
With our chicken thawing I began searching through my cupboards and found a box of orzo that was purchased and forgotten about. Orzo is a great starch option and it is an extremely easy pasta to cook. This strange pasta is very close to resembling rice and could be used as a substitute in many dishes. Now that we had the main components of the dish figured out a simple trip to the market would round it out.

Only purchase what you need to finish the dish:
Needing some vegetables to smooth out the rough edges of our meal the group and i talked about which flavor profiles we would want to follow. Keeping it simple was the path and my cupboards supplied an answer...Italian. With a little dried basil, red chili peppers, onion powder, salt, pepper and red wine vinegar it was decided for us. Now that a flavor profile is found one can then decide which vegetables at the market would coincide the best with the dishes flavors.
At the store we found Asparagus, Broccoli, mushrooms and spinach. With the addition of these vegetables our dish would come together nicely. Giving us a well rounded meal at a low cost.
The following recipe is how I put it all together.

Chicken:
5ea drumsticks
5ea thighs
2 cups red wine vinegar
1 cup Olive oil
1 tbs dried basil
1 tbs red chili flakes
1 tbs onion powder
s/p to taste

Defrost the chicken. Preheat the oven to 375. While the oven is heating up take the chicken and rinse. Place it into a large container that will enable you to store it and the marinade together in the fridge. With the chicken rinsed, measure out all ingredients mixing them well with the poultry. Store in fridge for 30-45 minutes. This will allow all flavors to combine and settle with the protein.
After the chicken has marinated for a while pull it out and place it on a baking tray evenly spacing it. Remember that overcrowding will not allow for even cooking and a proper crisping of the skin. Once you have done this place in the oven for 45 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked and golden brown.

Orzo
3 cups of orzo dried
8 cups of water
1 tsp salt for water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar
pinch of red chili flakes
s/p to taste

Bring the eight cups of water to a boil. Once the the water boils drop the pasta in giving it a stir. The water temp will fall then come back to a boil. As this happens you will want to control the boil by bringing it down to a simmer. Controlling the heat is very important when making pasta or rice. Simmer the orzo for 8-10 minutes or until it has expanded and softened up. With the orzo cooked strain it discarding the water. Place it into a bowl or back into the pot you cooked it in. Measure out your olive oil, red wine vinegar and a pinch of chili flakes, add them in with the orzo. Mix thoroughly so you ensure all ingredients are incorporated. Cover and keep warm.

The Vegetables
1 bu Asparagus
2 small heads of Broccoli
1 pk Button Mushrooms
1 bag of Baby Spinach

Take and wash all vegetables, making sure to dry them after rinsing. Wile washing all vegetables have two small pots of water heating up. Take the asparagus and cut off the wood-like bottoms leaving you the nice tender green stems and tips. Cut the Asparagus in half after trimming the bottoms off and put aside. With the broccoli heads, trim off the florets creating small bite sized pieces, put them aside. The mushrooms purchased where already sliced so washing them was all that needed to happen. As for the spinach it says washed but it is always good to take that extra step rinsing it off, put it aside and prepare to blanch the asparagus and broccoli.
With the two pots of water boiling by now drop the Broccoli florets in one and the asparagus pieces into the other one. Let them cook for 1-2 minutes strain and run cold water over them to stop the cooking process. Place onto a plate and hold.
Heat up a large saute pan with a little olive oil in it and once hot, start off by browning the mushrooms. Cook the shrooms for 2-3 minutes then add broccoli and asparagus, brown a touch then add in the spinach. With all of those beautiful leaves hanging in the pan splash a bit of water or stock in to speed up the cooking process of the spinach. Once the spinach is cooked and well incorporated in your vegetable medley turn off heat and hold.

To Finish:
Pull the chicken out when it is fully cooked and golden brown. At this stage you can decide to either platter up the thighs and drumsticks, the orzo and your side separately like a family style buffet or you can plate it up for your guests. For the platting I made a bed of orzo, having the vegetables come off of the side allowing the thighs and drumsticks to stack giving them an appealing height while show casing that golden brown crispy skin.
Have fun and enjoy.