We miss you Bloo. 1976-2011

photo courtesy of Nate

Earlier this week, Mammoth Lakes lost a friend and sister.  Our friend Bloo unexpectedly passed away.   Bloo was one of the nicest people you will have ever met.  She truly embodied the phrases puravida and stoke for life.  Never have I met such a positive force before.  She exuded life, adventure and all the wonderful possibilities nature had to offer.  We had a mutual love of many things: music, dogs, gardening, all things green, and most of all snowboarding.  There never was a powder day that you didn't see Bloo on the hill.  It was one of those things you can always count on: chair 22 never opening on time and Bloo out on a powder day.  I will never forget our awesome powder days together, our awesome hiking adventures and our brief but wonderful time together. And who could ever forget  that voice?

Even though you are reunited with Mingus (6-19-2011) and I know you two are shredding the eternal pow. We miss you so much, Bloo.  It was too soon, for both of you.

Listening to Bob Marley- One Love

Blueberries!

Summer means berries.

Burnt's Blueberry Vodka

I have been noticing all the blueberries on sale as well as all the great recipes other blogs have been posting.  I usually make blueberry muffins or cobbler but I wanted to try something different.  I saw Bon Appetit's blog, Infuse Your Booze, and I wanted to make blueberry vodka.  In addition to the blueberry vodka, I also made strawberry vodka, pineapple vodka and watermelon vodka.  You have to try this.  It is so tasty and so much better than those infused vodkas you buy at the store (so long Absolut Acai Berry aka vomit inducer)

Bon Appetit also featured Blueberry and Cream Cookies by Christina Tosi of Momofuku.  The same cookie was also the Cookie of the day on Martha Stewart.  I am obsessed with all things David Chang so I had to make these cookies.  They. Are. Awesome. I love chewy, thin cookies and these are exactly that.  The recipe calls for dried blueberries but you can use fresh. 

Hank wants the cookie

Here is a list of my favorite blueberry recipes:
Infuse Your Booze
Blueberry and Cream Cookies
Thomas Keller's Blueberry Cobbler
Banana Muffins with Blueberries -this recipe doesn't call for blueberries but I add them.

Perfect Burger recipe

From the Celebrity Cookbook, published in 1967

Dean Martin is my kind of man.

Source: NY MAG

Listening to Dean Martin- You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You

Coconut Water Cure-All

Fourth of July weekend means lots of things: patriotism, BBQs, block parties, fireworks.....besides all the USA pride, the true common theme this weekend is getting shitfaced.  Three days in a row of total inebriation. Maybe in my college days, this is something I could handle but now that I am in the ripe age group of 30+, my body can only tolerate so much hangover.  My go-to cure for hangovers or when I'm feeling crappy is coconut water.   I swear this stuff is a miracle.  It is so good you can LITERALLY streamline it into your veins.  (True story, in WWII, coconut water was used in blood transfusions because of its electrolyte content, pH and viscosity are similar to blood plasma. Besides blood transfusions, coconut water has a multitude of medical uses).  

So when you're hungover, you are supposed to recover by drinking a Gatorade and eating something greasy.  But if you're like me, Gatorade tastes like radioactive piss that has been fermenting in the sun for several years. Coconut water tastes good. Coconut water is a natural sports drink.  Coconut water is loaded with natural occurring electrolytes, B vitamins and more potassium than a banana so it's actually better than a sports drink.  If you compare them side-by-side, you will notice that a sports drink like Gatorade will have double the amount of sugar, less potassium and no protein.  All the sugars are natural in coconut water while commercial sports drinks sweeten their products with high fructose corn syrup or other artificial sweeteners. Bleh. 

I also live in high altitude (8000 ft above sea level).  For people coming from sea-level, it's very important to stay hydrated.  When I'm really dehydrated at altitude, I sometimes find it hard to drink enough water to stay hydrated.  That's where coconut water is the cure-all.  Altitude sickness symptoms include headache, dizziness and nausea and I swear coconut water fixes them all.  Within 15 minutes of drinking a coconut water, I always feel better.

 

There are lots of brands of coconut water available but my favorite brand is Vita-Coco.  I think it tastes the best out of all the competition.  It even won the Bon Appetit Supermarket Standoff.  Vita-Coco advertises itself as being all-natural and not from concentrate. "It's like sticking a straw in a coconut." is their slogan.  It REALLY does tastes like sticking a straw in a coconut.  What consumers don't know and what the Supermarket Standoff failed to do was differentiate the fresh coconut waters from concentrate but the taste test does show the preference for the fresher coconut water.  Vita-Coco and O.N.E. are both fresh but the brand Zico is made from concentrate, which means they juice all the coconuts and mix the juices together.  It goes through a pasteurization process which in my opinion ruins the fresh taste.  I also think the plastic bottles make the coconut water taste funny.  I prefer the Tetra Pak which is like a juice box.  Also coconuts from different places will produce different tasting juice.  Vita-Coco uses coconuts from Brazil while O.N.E. uses coconuts from Thailand.  

Vita-Coco has been getting lots of media attention as well.  Madonna, Demi Moore, Anothony Kiedis and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers are investors in Vita-Coco.  If you Google "Vita-Coco" and "celebrities, over 900,000 results pop up, including this one from E! "Why is every celebrity drinking coconut water".  Just recently, Vita-Coco signed Rihanna as their spokesperson and Kelly Slater as a sponsored athlete.  A copy of US Weekly is endorsement enough for Vita-Coco. 

But who cares about the celebrities and super athletes that drink coconut water.  Try it for yourself. Next time you are hungover and feeling completely shattered, reach for the coconut water.  You will thank me. 

This was supposed to be posted by July 1 but due to hangovers and such, it got delayed. 

Listening to Katy Perry-Firework 

Cornflake Crusted French Toast with Strawberries

Breakfast is important.  We all heard the studies about how eating breakfast is important to maintain your concentration, metabolism, yadda yadda yadda, but for me breakfast is important because it used to be the one meal I prepared for myself at home.  Most of my other meals were eaten at work, standing in the corner behind the oven or sitting on a dish machine rack by the mop sink.  Now that I am unemployed, I cook all my meals at home and eat them sitting down (usually in front of the TV) but breakfast still has a special place in my heart.

During the winter, I pretty-much ski everyday. I'll ski for about 3 hours (more if it is a powder day), go home, have a quick bite like a grilled cheese (if time permits) then make my way to work.  So breakfast basically became the only complete meal I could enjoy without having to wolf down my food. I like typical breakfast foods: bacon and eggs, pancakes, waffles, eggs in a basket, fritattas .......

For awhile now, I've had the craving for French Toast.  French Toast is not something I usually make because it is more labor intensive than I prefer. Soaking the bread and cooking it was usually one more step than I'd like to do.  But somewhere I saw this picture of cornflake crusted french toast and I just had to eat it.

Cornflake crusted french toast actually involves THREE steps! But I knew the extra labor of coating the french toast would yield a delicious crunch, so I fought back the laziness and coated my french toast!


Cornflake Crusted French Toast
makes 4

8 slices of thickly sliced bread
1/4 cup cream
2 TBSP. whole milk
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
3 cups cornflakes, coarsely crushed
6 TBSP. butter
Maple Syrup, to serve
Fresh Berries, to serve

1. Preheat oven to 200˚F.
2. In a shallow dish, mix cream, milk, salt, sugar, cinnamon and eggs.  Put crushed cornflakes in another dish.  Working with one slice at a time, soak each slice for 10 seconds on each side, then place in dish with cornflakes, pressing cornflakes onto each side.  Transfer french toast to parchment lined baking sheet.
3. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add 3 TBSP butter and heat until butter starts to foam.  Add four slices of the french toast and cook, turning once, until both sides are golden brown.  Transfer french toast to warm oven, wipe out the skillet, add remaining 3 TBSP of butter and cook the remaining four pieces.
4. Divide the french toast amongst 4 plates and serve with warm maple syrup and fresh berries

Cheers,
Burnt

Listening to Katy Perry- Last Friday Night

Welcome Back

It has been a long while since I have been here.  My last visit was almost a year ago.  I apologize for visiting so infrequently but my passion for cooking and baking waned last year as I struggled with my job. I was working the fry station and cooking (rather, frying) became the bane of my existence.  I stopped cooking at home and ate mostly a diet of Carl's Jr and frozen macaroni and cheese.  I would immediately come home from work, smoke until my lungs hurt, and watch reruns of the Gilmore Girls while eating terrible junk food. It was amazing to see how this one job completely ruined my passion for cooking and eating.  Eventually, I found another cooking job where I didn't want to slit my wrists everyday.  Slowly, my passion for eating was reignited.  Unfortunately I was laid off from that job so I am finding myself with lots of time to spare.  And since I have all this free time now, why not start blogging again.

Another reason why I stopped blogging was because I was intimidated by the other food bloggers who took great pictures of their food and made exotic dishes or technical dishes that I didn't have the time or patience to execute. I mean, hear I am, a professional chef, a graduate from culinary school, and these housewives and amateur cooks are schooling me at home cooking!  It made me feel stupid and inadequate as a professional chef. Not only, did I NOT have the time to make these dishes (I was working 8-10 hours a day plus I ski ALOT) but I didn't have the money to pay for the ingredients (a line cook make on average $10/hr).  Even if I did have the money to make these exotic dishes, I didn't want to spend hours in the kitchen to create one plated dinner.  For these housewives and amateur cooks, cooking was an escape from the pressures of the working world.  For me, cooking was my working world and the last thing I wanted to do was to spend more time in the kitchen.  As a result, when I did cook at home, my dishes were simple, required few ingredients and usually took less than 30 minutes to make.

So here is the deal: I'm not a millionaire rancher's wife,  I don't have a fancy kitchen or very much money to spend on ingredients but hopefully the recipes I post will be tasty and delicious.  This is how a professional (unemployed) line cook eats for herself.  I am also very interested in food policy so I will be posting articles about food policy along with posts about gardening, funny dog pictures and whatever I feel like.

Cheers,
Burnt

Listening to Adele -Rolling in the Deep

I'm BAAAAACK!

Wow, it has been forever. After a busy, busy winter and an equally busy summer, I'm back with a redesigned blog and logo! I promise to try and keep blogging.  I swear.  To kick off my return, I present to you slow cooker chili mac! I just got a slow cooker and I have been testing out new recipes.  Fall is slowly making its way to winter and slow cooker recipes are just what I need on these frosty days. Also I can't wait to come home from skiing to enjoy a meal waiting for me in the slow cooker.

This chili is perfect for this autumn weather.  I prefer chili made with chuck roast but the BF likes ground beef chili better but this chili has good beefy flavor.  I am also of the Texas style chili persuasion- NO BEANS!  I made the chili in my slow cooker but you can easily make it on the stovetop.






 



TBC Slow Cooker Chili
makes 6 portions


3 slices of bacon, diced
1 small onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1½  lb. ground beef
½  tsp. oregano
½ tsp. cumin
1 TBSP. chili powder
1 14oz. can crushed tomatoes
1/2 can of water
7-8 drops hot sauce
Salt and pepper to taste


Preheat a skillet to medium heat.  When it is ready add the bacon and cook until crispy, about 5 minutes. Pour out all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat. Next add the onion and saute until translucent, about 4 minutes.  Add the garlic, spices and ground beef, breaking up with a wooden spoon.  Cook until no longer pink. Season with salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes and using the same tomato can, add 1/2 can of water. Stir to combine.  Add beef and tomato mixture to slow cooker and cook on high for 6 hours.  If you don't have a slow cooker, bring the beef and tomato mixture to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Continue to simmer on the stove top for 4 hours.