Phoenix Foods

I know I posted photos of food we ate last week, but no recipes or other preparation ideas.

I know I used the fact that we were traveling for Utah Ute Gymnastics as an "excuse."

I know I posted Ethel's diet the week before, with no recipes or other preparations.

I know I used the fact that we were traveling for Utah Ute Gymnastics as an "excuse."

Guess what?

This week's blog will focus on food we enjoyed over the weekend in Phoenix, while we were attending... YES, a Utah Utes Gymnastics meet! And YES, there will be no (or minimal) preparation ideas.... this week. C'mon - a fan has to support his team, right? Next weekend we're staying home, and I promise to post a recipe, simple as it may be.

And if we're lucky, because of this Phoenix Food post, we will have a "guest food artist" to share his version of crepes, Norwegian style, in the near future!

Our hosts in Phoenix were Bobbie and Jimmi - great friends from Salt Lake who retired to Phoenix several years ago. When we travel to the Valley of the Sun, they always welcome us to their beautiful home, and turn it into so much more than a fancy B&B - because the food part of "B" includes Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

Bobbie is the cook extraordinaire, who loves to please. We arrived on Friday and Bob served homemade beef stew that was so good I forgot to take a picture of it while I was snarfing it down.

Saturday morning Bobbie made bacon, eggs and hash browns, BEFORE going off to work for the day,

while we visited other friends in the area and explored the new light rail line running through town...

...and Georgia lounged poolside with Minnie and Mod

Saturday night, instead of our usual run to the local Mexican place a few miles from their house that we love so much, Bobbie prepared a home cooked meal (AFTER he got home from work) of Tamales smothered in Chili.

Sunday morning we were treated to Bobbie's delicious Norwegian Crepes with Lingonberry butter and Canadian Bacon (a truly international meal);

with Chicken Salad Sandwiches for lunch before our flight home to Hollywood.

Who's going to make dinner for us when we get home?


SO much good food, great company, and much fun!

Seattle Bites

We spent last week in Seattle to cheer on our Utah UTES (womens gymnastics team), and though I haven't had much time to cook, I've certainly had a lot of time to EAT. So, as Joey Roo suggested, when I don't have time to cook and post, why not just eat, photograph, and post!

Dennis made Paninis - (recipe later)

Followed by COCKTAILS!

We had a yummy meal at Chop Sticks, and had leftovers to take home for lunch the next day, accompanied by BLOODY MARYS, of course.

Or Pizza.

Fish and Chips at Steamers, on the wharf, with a side of clam strips....

Cocktails at the Elite:


Dinner at Kyle and Carl's - YUM....

Breakfast at Odd Fellows.....

...or Zeena's - We Report; You Decide !

Cook more; Eat more.... xoxoxo

What Would Ethel Eat?

This is Ethel - she's our Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot, and has been a member of our family for over 20 years.
This week's blog is going to focus on her and her diet - both what it should be, and what it is.

January through April is a very busy travel time for us - we avidly follow the University of Utah Womens Gymnastics Team, and were in Salt Lake City to watch the Utes defeat the bulldogs of Georgia on Friday, then we fly to Seattle on Tuesday to play with Dennis and watch the Utes beat up on the Dawgs of University of Washington next Friday - so not a lot of cooking opportunities.

While we're on the road, I have to confess that we eat more than our fair share of Pizza, and this is where Ethel comes in....

This is the food that Ethel should eat:


a healthy blend of seeds, nuts and dried fruits.




BUT, this is what she LOVES ! PIZZA....

and we love it, too.

GO UTES !

Bagel with White Cheddar

The Christmas tree is back in it's box, the holiday parties are over (but the Awards Show parties are about to begin!), and you've got some yummy dry white cheddar cheese left over in your fridge. If you want a quick, delicious breakfast with some protein but don't want to get out the bacon cooker - try this.

Slice and toast your favorite bagel (I prefer the onion bagel). Lightly butter the toasted bagel, then slice some dry white cheddar on top of both halves. Put in your toaster oven on "broil" until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Voila, a delicious breakfast treat. Additional serving suggestions: yogurt, fruit juice, vitamins and coffee - and of course the morning edition of the LA Times.

Tart Lemon Pie

We have friends visiting from Salt Lake City this weekend - here for the UTAH vs. UCLA womens' gymnastics meet (I'm sorry to say that the Utes were soundly defeated by the Bruins, but they will rebound - and UCLA looked great this early in the season). Anyway, I knew I wouldn't have much time to work on this blog, so I decided to make something really easy and fast and fun for us to enjoy - both here at home, eating, and here on the blog, for your reading enjoyment.




Kenny brought me a big bag of lemons picked fresh from his lemon tree - so I wanted to make Lemon Pie. I was searching for a recipe from my dear friend Bobbie in Phoenix, but he never got back to me, so I found this recipe on the internet at foodnetwork.... it's so simple and as you'll read later, turned out to be quite tasty - even though my presentation was somewhat flawed.

I picked this recipe because it was simple, and it didn't require separating the egg yolks from the egg whites, and didn't involve making merangue...and the pies were delicious.

The ingredients are basic - except for the right-off-the-tree picked lemons, unless you live in a citrus friendly climate.

2 pre-baked-ready-to-fill pie crusts
4 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice.

Really - that's IT. AND you don't have to separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and make meringue to go on top.

I started with Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust dough - so I set my oven to 450, unrolled the pie crusts, layed them out in two pie tins, then baked according to directions.

I ran into trouble - I did not press the dough hard enough against the sides of the pans, and when the heat hit the dough, it caused the sides to cave in - of course I didn't realize this until it was too late to do anything about it. Oh well - what's a budding chef to do other than press onward.

When the crusts are out of the oven, turn the temperature down to 350 degrees. That's the temperature for baking the pies.

While the crusts are cooling, prepare the pie filling. First - squeeze your lemon juice. The lemons I used came from 3 different lemon trees, so they were different sizes and types. I squoze 6 lemons to get my 1 cup of juice. In your favorite mixing bowl whisk together all the ingredients (except the pie crusts - they would gum up your whisk and make the filling really lumpy, and besides, there wouldn't be anything to fill).

Pour the filling into the pie crusts, skimming off the foam (if you do let a little foam get by, it will just bubble up as an unsightly blemish on the face of your pie - but it will still taste delicious). Bake the pies for about 20 minutes, until the filling is set - how do you know? - it will jiggle a bit in the center. Let the pies cool completely - just let them sit on the counter.

When I make these again - and I will - I would double the filling to make the pie thicker (I would also press the pie crust tighter so it doesn't fall). Even though the pies as prepared were not the most beautiful of pies, they were oh so delicious, and really, isn't the taste what's ultimately important?

Potatoes Debbie

Today we had a gathering of family and friends to celebrate the lives of our dear friends Debbie, who passed away early November, and her mother Dorothy, who passed away last week. We couldn't think of a finer tribute than to gather at the house and throw some Fred Steaks on the grill. "Fred Steaks" are an amazing marinated sirloin steak sold by Schaub's Meat, Fish and Poultry Market in the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto. Debbie's friend Katarina would bring down a cooler full on her visits from Palo Alto, and Debbie would invite everyone over for a Fred Steak feast. Fred Steak's primary characteristic is its very black color - I think it looks like a smoker's lung - but it's SO DELICIOUS, and that's not what is featured on today's post.

To accompany the Fred Steak I am fixing "Potatoes Debbie" - but with my own twist, since Debbie never did share her recipe with me. Fred Steak is best cooked on the outdoor grill, so this version of potatoes is prepared with the intent of firing up the grill. If you prefer, you could cook it in the oven.
My ingredient list is very simple - you'll need potatoes, onions, bell peppers (green, red, yellow -whatever color you choose), olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic seasoning - and heavy duty aluminum foil.







Slice the potatoes lengthwise in half, then slice each half in thin slices (how many times can YOU use "slice" in a sentence?") Repeat with six medium sized potatoes, then put in a large mixing bowl, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, granulated garlic, then drizzle with olive oil.
Peel one large onion - cut in half, and then thinly slice the two halves... add to the mixing bowl.
Slice up your green/red/yellow bell pepper - add to the mixing bowl.

Now toss it all up really well, till it looks as pretty as in this photo.









Pull off a large piece of heavy duty aluminum foil - pour out half of the potatoe/onion/pepper mix, then tightly wrap the top of the foil, rolling and squeezing it down, then rolling and squeezing the ends. The goal is to get a nice foil package that will not leak on the grill.


(Mine did leak, and I had to double re-wrap it - oh well - trial by error)




I forgot to take a photo of the finished Potatoes Debbie, but here's a photo of the finished Fred Steak.












DELICIOUS ! R. I. P. Deb and Dot. xoxo

OH, did I mention that it was 80 degrees today? Gotta love LA in January.

And by the way, I doubled the recipe, and between the 10 folks at our little gathering, there was not one bit of Potatoes Debbie uneaten, and we still had room for the yummy Rum Cake that Dennis so thoughtfully donated to our event.

Josh's 1-hour Homemade Pizza

This week's post features a "Guest Food Artist," something I hope to do periodically so that I don't have to do all the cooking. Josh is our Wednesday bartender at the Motherlode, and an incredible photographer. Check out his web page at: http://www.rominephoto.com/

AND he's a budding chef, specializing in Pizza. I think that I make a mean pizza, but Josh claims that I don't really "make" pizza, because I use the bag-o-dough from Trader Joe's, instead of making my own pizza crust. So to show off, Josh sent me this recipe, which I share with all of you (all 14 of you) with Josh's permission.

And Josh is really cute, so you know he has to make good pizza! Here's the recipe, in Josh's own words:

"hey scott, the other night i wanted a quick pizza. I went from starting completely from scratch, to pulling a hot pizza out of my oven in an hour. i thought i'd share it with you and that you might want to put it up on your blog :)first thing is first. everything in this recipe can be taken to a new level. i'm really going to focus on using ingredients that you can keep stored so that at any moment you can make a quick pizza. using fresh ingredients is always recommended, but for the sake of ease and ability to just have these ingredient laying around, i'm going to focus on that.-Preheat your oven. Before you even start putting together your ingredients, you'll want your oven to be as hot as you can get it. It takes a good 45min to an hour for my oven to get completely heated up, so turn it all the way up as high as it will go before you get started (basically just turn the oven up as high as it will go. mine goes up to 500 and i just turn it up all the way. pizza ovens in restaurants get even higher.)

Pizza Dough:

-3 1/2 cups flour

-1 cup warm water

-2 tbl honey

-1 tbl quick rise yeast

-1/4 c olive oil

-1/2 tea salt

I know that with quick rise yeast you don't have to proof it, but i do anyways. Dissolve the honey in the warm water and mix in your yeast. Let it sit for 10-15 min. While your yeast is proofing, put together the rest of your ingredients into a bowl. Make sure that when you measure out your flour, you don't compact it into the measuring cup. I always spoon my flour out into my measuring cup. Once your yeast has been proofed, pour it into the bowl and mix everything together. If you have a mixer with a dough attachment, use that. If not, knead your dough until it's stretchy but not sticky. If your dough is sticky, add a tiny amount of flour while you knead. If it's too dry, add a tiny amount of water. Shape it into a ball, cover and let rise for 30 min.While your waiting for your dough to rise, let's make the sauce. It's a no-cook sauce, and It's easier than you think!!

Pizza Sauce:

-1 20oz can San Marzano tomatoes

-1 tea minced garlic

-1-2 tbl dry basil

-1 tea dry oregano

-1 tea honey

-1 tbl olive oil

The most important ingredient in the entire pizza are the San Marzano tomatoes. I can not stress enough how important they are. They will embody your sauce and your pizza with a flavor that is completely unique. I take all my ingredients, put them in a bowl, and use a potato masher to mix it all up. I like my sauce to be a bit chunky, but you can easily blend this mixture as well for a smooth sauce. You can also add any other spice or herb to this sauce to give it a flavor all your own. I will often add crushed red peppers to mine to give it a little spice. Once your sauce is the consistency you like, cover and put in the fridge. After your dough has risen for 30min, punch down and separate into balls. I usually separate mine into 3 dough balls, but it really depends on how large you want each pizza to be. Cover and let rise for another 20 minutes.After 20 minutes, it's time to make your pizza.

For a wonderful and easy technique on how to form your pizza, I highly recommended watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjYqw1CLZsA. You don't need to be a pro or throw your pizza up in the air in order to make a thin and perfectly balanced pizza crust. Watch this video, it will take your pizza making to a new level.

I use the push dough technique for mine because I like a good size crust. There are many different ways to make and cook your pizza. I use pizza stones, but you can use a pan, cast iron skillets, whatever you have.The basics are pretty much the same for every type of cooking technique. Push out or roll your pizza dough, transfer it to your cooking device (pan, skillet, pizza peel), put on your sauce, put on your toppings, and put it into the oven. I always put a little corn meal on my pizza peel or skillet before putting the dough in to my cooking device so it doesn't stick. You can also drizzle olive oil around your dough before putting it into the oven. They key to making a great pizza: less is more. Piling on cheese and toppings may sound like a great idea, but in the end it will only make your pizza heavy and unbalanced. With homemade pizza, a little goes a long way. Experiment with different toppings and combinations. For me, the sauce and crust are so good that I usually don't put any additional toppings on my pizza.

Once your pizza goes into the oven, you'll want to keep an eye on it. It should cook in 5-10 minutes. On a pizza stone, my pizza's cooks in 5 minutes, and if I don't watch it closely, it's very easy to burn. Most importantly, experiment and have fun!! Don't get discouraged if you overcook your pizza or if the dough doesn't quite fluff up. Every time I make pizza it comes out differently. The bottom line is that no matter what, your homemade pizza will be head and shoulders above anything you'll get from delivery."

THANKS JOSH! Now, give it a try and post your comments on Josh's Pizza. If you want to cheat, get a bag of Trader Joe's pizza dough - but don't expect the same deliciousness as you'd get if you made your own dough.