Happy Pi Day Everyone!!! 3-14-16
In honor of Pi Day here is a link to my Banana Cream Pie!!! I hope you check it out and what Pie will you be eating today!! LOL!! 🙂
https://whatscookingwithchefamy.com/2012/06/17/banana-cream-pie-for-fathers-day/
“the Chief” or “the Boss”
When I first heard about this movie and saw the trailer I thought this looks like a really cute funny movie.
Here is the wiki if you want to read about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef_(film)
As I sat in the movie theater as the credits rolled, my mind was reeling, I was like what did I just see!!
The trailer
Feeling of inspiration was so overwhelming, I just wanted to leave the theater and go and COOK!!!
There was so much about this movie that I could relate too, the passion in cooking and sharing it with other people!!
Whether you are a Chef or Foodie you will love and understand this Movie, you will walk away with the same feeling of joy and inspiration that I did…if you are not…you will walk away and say oh that was a cute and funny movie.
There were so many scenes that I just loved…I think the big one (well all food scenes really) was the making “Grilled Cheese” scene, really the part when he starts to eat it 😛
The crunch…the CRUNCH!! was out of control, the sound of that Crunchy bread and the gooey cheese hanging from the bread, it was like I was there eating it myself. I could smell it, I could feel the crunch and I could taste it!!!
Here is that scene
The food scenes have been described as ‘Food Porn” and have all been “designed” just like the set is designed, the food cooking scenes were designed by Chef Roy Choi, he worked as an technical adviser. Chef Roy Choi is a Genius in my mind!!
He also sent actor Jon Favreau who directed, co-produced, written and starred in, to French culinary school and then had him train in several of Choi’s kitchens.
Here is a behind the scenes clip with Chef Choi and Jon Favreau
I just loved every minute of this film and have already gone back and to see it again with my best foodie friend Danny, he got the movie just like I did 🙂
I have made my takes on some of the food that was made in the movie here are couple, of course the “Grilled Cheese” and the “Pasta” scene.
For the “The Cuban” sandwich, I search the Cincinnati area for the best, some good some not so good, but I found a place “Paula’s Cafe” downtown. I heard that the owner Paula was from Miami and the sandwich was pretty authentic, so I finally got down there and had it…it was the best i had yet. Pork could have been a little more and spread out on the bun, but everything else was perfect!!! If you are in the area I recommend the Cafe, it is only open M-F 10:30 am to 2:30 pm and its crowded!!! Its small so getting it to go is popular if there are no seats, I went at 1:15 pm and it was starting to clear out, by 1:30 pm only a few people. But the “To Go” line was really non-stop, soup of the day (cream of chicken with wild rice) and the Tuna Salad seemed to be the most popular for the “To Go” customers. Also the friendliest waitresses around town!!!!! I will be going back for sure!!
Enjoy my pictures and it the Movie “Chef” is playing still near you go see it!!
Grilled Cheese
Pasta 🙂
The Cuban from Paula’s Cafe
So if have a passion for food, then please go see this movie, you will not be disappointed, I can’t wait till I can get it on DVD 🙂
Summer is coming to a close and the garden’s are producing some late blooming goodies.
I got my hands on some good seedless cucumbers or some might call them “burpless” even “English”, in any case I like using these cucumbers for making pickles, so I had about 30 minutes on my hands and I made Sweet Pickles 🙂
Ingredients
Slice the cucumbers, I used my Wolfgang Puck’s Crinkle Cutter 🙂
Put into a colander, sprinkle with salt, let set for 30 minutes
In a medium saucepan add, sugar, salt, onion powder, mustard & celery seed
Add both vinegar’s
Add colman’s mustard and stir to combine
Bring to a boil
Rinse the salted cucumbers
I used a 2 quart jar
add the cucumbers
then vinegar mixture, fill to the top, put lid on, let cool about an hour on the counter, then keep in refrigerator
Eat them plan or on a burger…how about a grilled cheese 🙂
Recipe
4 Cucumbers (seedless, burpless, English)
2 tbsp. mustard seed
2 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, divided
2 tsp. celery seed
2/3 apple cider vinegar
2 3/4 cup white vinegar
2 1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. colman’s english mustard
Slice cucumbers and place in a colander, sprinkle with 2 tsp. kosher salt and toss, let stand in sink to drain for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile in a medium sauce pan add sugar, 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, onion powder, mustard & celery seed, then add both vinegar’s, stir in colman’s mustard, bring to a boil, let boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
After 30 minutes rinse the cucumbers with cold water, then add cucumbers to the jar. You can use any size jars, just fill your cucumbers to the top. Add liquid to jars covering the cucumbers, put the lid on and let stand on the counter for an hour. Keep in refrigerator, and eat them up 🙂
I hope everyone had a great summer, I have been extremely busy and will continue to be busy into the fall, so bare with me as I might be even slower getting more recipes out, but more are to come I a sure you.
Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read and enjoy my recipes!! 🙂
So this weekend was my Mom’s Birthday and I was trying to come up with a dessert that was different. I had a few Nectarines and I thought…cobbler…crisp???? but not enough to a full recipe and I’ve done that before….but not with zucchini 🙂
So this is what I came up with and I thought it was yummy!!! 😛
Ingredients
a co-worker gave me some nice spices from Penzeys, so I used them, otherwise I would
have used whole nutmeg and grated it myself
peel, slice zucchini
put into large skillet
add lemon juice, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and brown sugar, stir and cook
meantime, peel and slice nectarines, and set aside
once zucchini has cooked and softened, remove from heat
fold in nectarines
pour into a 9×9 (8×8 will work too)
make the crisp topping
add cold butter cubes, mix with fingers, or use pastry cutter
you want it to be crumbly, about pea size pieces
sprinkle on top of zucchini mixture
bake
Recipe – Zucchini & Nectarine Crisp
Filling
3 medium zucchini, peeled, halved lengthwise, then sliced
3 good size nectarines, peeled, sliced, set aside
3 tbsp. butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup lemon juice
Add zucchini slices to large skillet, add butter, lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, cook over medium high heat, once butter is melted and mixture starts to boil, reduce heat to medium and continue to cook for about 5 minutes until zucchini is softened. Remove from heat and fold in nectarines, spray a 9×9 or 8×8 baking dish and pour mixture in baking dish.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Topping
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cold butter, cut in cubes
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
Add all dry ingredients to a medium bowl, then add butter, with your fingers squeeze butter cubes with dry ingredients, to make a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle mixture all over zucchini mixture and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly around the edges.
Serve with sweet whipped cream or vanilla ice cream….Enjoy!!!
