A Special Request

The Foodie Daughter asked that I make a Taco Ring for dinner. Of course I was happy to oblige. But first I needed to make a grocery run as I needed some fresh veggies and a product I don't normally have on hand.

I made my own taco seasoning using

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

I pulled out a few jars for this seasoning mix.

I used almost all of this for the dish as I wanted the meat to have a bit of a kick to it. Any remaining spice mix can be stored in an airtight container.

Here I have the ingredients for the taco ring:

1 pound ground beef

taco seasoning

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 packages crescent rolls*







*(If you guessed that this was what I don't normally have on hand, you would be correct.)

There were also toppings to prepare.

Sour cream

yellow bell pepper

tomatoes

shredded lettuce

shredded sharp cheddar cheese, not shown

yellow onion, not shown











The onion, tomatoes and bell pepper were chopped. The shredded lettuce was also rinsed.

The crescent rolls were laid around the edge of the pizza stone, about two inches in from the edge. The points face out.

Meanwhile, the meat and onion were cooked and then drained. Two tablespoons water and the taco seasoning were added to the meat. Remember, you can add more or less taco seasoning, depending on your particular tastes. This was then mixed well. Once the meat had cooled a bit, the shredded cheddar cheese was mixed in.

The meat mixture was carefully placed around the ring of crescent dough.

Then the points were gently brought up and over and then tucked under the edge of the ring.

The taco ring went into a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Time to call the family to the table.

You could think of this as a deconstructed taco.

The tender, flaky crescent rolls make a nice change from the normal taco shells or tortillas.

The Foodie Daughter was very happy after this meal.

Gypsy Bacon

The Foodie Daughter is absolutely certain that bacon deserves its own food group and she has been begging me to make this recipe so her boyfriend can experience this ethnic dish. I had to wait until now to make it as her father has been home most evenings and he doesn't appreciate this true peasants' food. Now, as I have always believed that I was kidnapped from a tribe of gypsies, I happen to love this dish.

The star of this meal is pork jowl meat. The bonus is that this is a very cheap cut of meat.

Sweet paprika is generously rubbed into the cut pieces of the pork jowl meat or jowl bacon.

When cooked, this will add a great deal of flavor to the rye bread.

The jowl meat cooks over medium-high heat.

Every so often, the pieces are taken off the heat and used to "mop" the rye bread on both sides.

Earlier I had cut Romaine lettuce, a yellow bell pepper, red onion and a cucumber*. On a whim we decided to put out sliced mozzarella and baby Swiss cheese.

*Any veggie that can be eaten raw is a good candidate for a gypsy bacon sandwich.

The jowl meat is cooked through.

Now it's time for the diners to assemble their sandwiches. It is so good.

The Foodie boyfriend was suitably impressed. That made the Foodie Daughter very happy.

More Minx Mayhem and More Laundry

Minx is a very busy kitty.

What's that? There's a cat on a hot tin roof? Or at least on top of my doll house. Bad Minx.

Minx is still fascinated with the refrigerator. Now he wants to see what is in the veggie drawer.

If you recall in my last post, I had told you that the Foodie Daughter had taken the camera so she could take pictures of Minx. Please enjoy.

Minx likes to watch the fishies.

"What's behind here?"



"I wonder?..."

Minx is freaking out the fishies.

Bad Minx.

Minx has also been busy helping with the laundry.

You should really thank your lucky stars that you don't have Smell-ernet(tm). It was so bad that I had to open the windows, despite the fact that the air conditioning is on. And this was only the second of three day's worth of laundry for the week.

What Would Brian Boitano Make?

Well, Brian Boitano would make Coq au Vin-guine, but as I am famously allergic to chicken, I am making Dinde au Vin-guine per his recipe from his Food Network show. Hint, dinde is turkey in french.

I went to Wally World (WalMart) today and, thus had to make a couple of substitutions. I subbed pearl onions for the cipollini onions and bacon for the pancetta. Sigh, guess that's what I get for slumming it.

I also have:

linguine

olive oil

salt

black pepper

merlot wine

crimini mushrooms

flour

flat leaf parsley

tomato paste

garlic cloves

thyme

butter

turkey cutlets (on sale!)

I cut the turkey cutlets to bite size pieces.

Before lightly coating them in seasoned flour.

This was set aside in the refrigerator until needed.

Then I brushed clean the crimini mushrooms and sliced about half of them for the dish. The Foodie Daughter does not like mushrooms, so I opted to leave the rest for another meal.

And then it was time to get emotional. The package directed me to drop the onions in boiling water for a couple of minutes before rinsing under cold water. Honestly, I found it just as easy to simply peel the things as is. However, nothing stopped the tears. It got so bad that I couldn't see what I was doing. Tears were streaming down my cheeks and I was in pain. I was beginning to wonder if this dish was worth all this misery.

All right, fast forward a bit. The bacon has been cooked and drained and now the onions are cooking. The cat was busy being cute, so the Foodie Daughter had absconded with my camera for a while.

Then the mushrooms and the turkey were browned.

The garlic and tomato paste were cooked for a couple of minutes before the wine was added to the pan. This was allowed to reduce for a few minutes before the rest of the ingredients were added back in.

Finally the Dinde au Vin-guine was plated and presented to the hungry family.

The verdict?

This goes into the recipe rotation, but I will definitely be halving the recipe as it makes a lot of food.

A Labor Day Treat

My husband was home for Labor Day while the Foodie Daughter had to attend college classes. What better time to make krab salad with ingredients that the Foodie Daughter's boyfriend couldn't eat?

Do you recall my warning that not all imitation crab was created equal? Well, this particular product was made with shrimp, so the Foodie Daughter's boyfriend will not be able to eat it.

The ingredients I pulled for this salad are

the imitation crab

light sour cream

ranch dressing

mayonnaise

fresh chopped chives

eggs

red onion

celery

Here is a handy dandy tip for you if you aren't inclined to boil an egg or two for a dish. If you have a microwave egg poacher, you can instead poach an egg or two till they are hard-cooked. Just be sure to poke the egg yolk so that they don't explode in the microwave.

The eggs are cooked and allowed to cool.


Meanwhile, the imitation crab is put out on the chopping block so that it can be cut into a smaller dice.

There, that's better.

And now the fun begins.

Mix to taste. I have to say that I impress even myself. Have I told you that this is the first time I have ever made this dish? No? Well, now you know.

I think I could like this. I really think I could.

Labor Day Weekend in Bloomington

This is always a special weekend in Bloomington. The students are back in town and Bloomington celebrates by hosting a nationally noted arts festival. I make sure to clear my calendar for this festival every year.

I was a bit sluggish this morning and didn't arrive until after 10:30 am. Things are already hopping.

A band is playing along one side street. Hm, that's an interesting place to put the port-o-lets.

Yep, definitely glad that I got here early.

I decided that since I was already going to be downtown, I would finally finish out my Asian culinary tour by eating at an Indian restaurant. I had earlier chosen the Bombay House Restaurant on 4th Street.



They had a menu posted outside the door, but for lunch they ran a lunch buffet. Well, why not? Let's be adventurous. And it's all you can eat for $5.99.

I found that the only meat on the menu was chicken, so I opted to go vegetarian for my lunch. Now, I knew better than to expect beef on the menu, but I had been hoping for some lamb. But that's okay. I can do vegetarian. And, hey, many in the population in India are vegetarians, so it's gotta be good, right?

I chose: curried potatoes
butter naan
garlic naan
chick peas masala
fried potato slices
green salad
chick pea salad
veggie biryani

These were all very good. For dessert I had a vermicelli dessert, which as far as I could tell was short pieces of cooked pasta in a sweet cream sauce. This was a nice finish to a somewhat spicy meal. The biryani was by far the spiciest thing I had picked out, but was child's play compared to some of the Thai food I have eaten in the past.

Now, would I go back? Based on this meal, perhaps not, but then again, India is a large country and this was but a small buffet.





Like many of the restaurants on 4th Street, this place was once a private home.

I would say that we were sitting in what was once the front parlor.

And now we fast forward a day. A favorite new show of mine on Food Network is "What Would Brian Boitano Make?" Based on the recent decline in the quality of the programming on this network, I, like many others, expected a glorified train wreck. Imagine my great surprise and delight to find instead an intelligent and entertaining program. Bravo, Brian.

One of his recent shows centered around bacon, and given that bacon is one of the Foodie Daughter's favorite and most important food groups, I knew I HAD to make at least one of these recipes. I chose to make the Bacon Cups with Sweet Potato Hash the first time out. Surprisingly enough, I pretty much followed the recipe, except that I only made ten pancetta cups and I used only two celery stalks. Of course, I had extra hash left over, but I have plans for that, so no worries on that front.

See, just a bit of hash left over. I think that will be a nice side dish for dinner.

They turned out rather well, don't you think?

Meanwhile, I had put the Foodie Daughter and her boyfriend to work on the BBQ Bacon Krab Bites.

We decided, quite by accident, that a bit of the barbecue sauce with the Bacon Cups with Sweet Potato Hash was pretty good eats.

Oh, and the only thing spoiling our appetites? Sandra Lee* and her "Money Saving Meals". I'm still not sure how it saves money if no one will actually eat the food. Isn't that "Money Wasting Meals"?

*Click on the picture for the full effect.

And now you see the down side to having your daughter being the manager to her old high school's football team. Too bad they haven't invented smell-ernet. You'll just have to believe me when I tell you that the "aroma" from dozens of sweaty teenage boys wafts throughout the entire house. *Gack* *Cough* *Choke* *Gasp* *Errk.....*