Our Evolution of Soup

Stage One - "First Signs of Life", or "What's For Dinner" - 4 billion years ago.
The other night we were trying to figure out what to make for dinner. My wife decided to make soup, which was cool with me because she can make a mean bowl.

She grabbed the stew pot and started making vegetable soup. First up was to saute the onions and garlic. She added some fresh rosemary, and then she got the idea to try some pumpkin. I said it sounded like a good idea.

Stage Two - "The First Vertebrates Appear", or "From Vegetable to Gourd" - 505 million years ago.
After adding the pumpkin it was time to mix in the vegetable broth. Half of the broth came first and it was mixed in smoothly with the pumpkin, then the other half was mixed in.

Next the yams (or sweet potatoes) were mixed in.

Stage Three - "Along Came The Mammals", or "Back to the Drawing Board?" - 220 million years ago.
At this point my wife started to wonder... I want to add curry, but there's rosemary in there, do rosemary and curry work good together? This is also known as the "oh shit" moment. Off to the internet! After looking up some different recipes she was relieved to find that many had this combo. The internet is such a great tool for today's chefs! She asked if I was ok with curry, knowing that sometimes I'm not. Tonight I was fine with it though, onward with the soup!

Stage Four - "The Rise of the Primates", or "Stand and Deliver the Spices" - 75 million years ago.
Next up were all of the little things that make everything taste better: fresh ginger, paprika, chipotle powder, salt and pepper.
Then the rest of the veggies: frozen corn, frozen french cut green beans, and left over oven roasted red skin potatoes. I love it when leftovers can be made into or added to a new dish!

Stage Five - "Welcome Homo Sapiens", or "Come and Get It!" - 500 thousand years ago.
It was dinner time, we had our soup, with corn bread and butter on the side. The corn bread was from Trader Joe's, which has fast become one of our favorite store brands to buy.

After eating the soup I could taste the heat from the chipotle powder, but thought it needed a sweet flavor to compliment it. I asked my wife if maybe cinnamon or some nutmeg could be added to it to accomplish this. Right away my wife said she was going to add these but forgot.

Stage Six - "Current Day", or "May I Have Some More Please?"
Once we finished our first course she went out and added some fresh nutmeg & vietnamese cinnamon to the soup. What she brought back for a second round was exactly what I had imagined. Not to mention more corn bread with a little butter on top of it!

Excellent dinner my love!

My wife has said soup is the only thing she can make (invent) without a recipe, just by throwing things together. But I will try to give you the recipe, these are approximate measures:

1 Small Onion,
2 Cloves of Garlic,
1 Medium to Large Yam or Sweet Potato - pealed and cut into bite size cubes,
2 - 3 Cups of the Leftover Oven Roasted Red Skinned Potatoes,
1 Cup of Frozen Corn,
1 Cup of Frozen French Cut Green Beans,
1 Can of Canned Pumpkin,
6 Cups of Veggie Broth,
1 Teaspoon - 1 Tablespoon of Chopped Fresh Rosemary,
Curry, Chopped Fresh Ginger, Paprika, Vietnamese Cinnamon (regular cinnamon can be used, but this version has an excellent flavor - try to get some!), Chipotle Powder, Salt, Fresh Ground Pepper, Nutmeg - all to Taste.

KFC's Double Down

Hello fans! KFC came out with a new sandwich earlier this year - The Double Down!



Well kinda. A sandwich to most of us in this universe, is two pieces of bread or bread type product with some sort of filler in the middle - meats, veggies, PB&J, etc.

The Double Down (which will from here on out be called the "DD") instead uses two pieces chicken in place of the bread! Don't worry it still has a filler... bacon, cheese (monterey jack and pepper jack) and Colonel's Sauce! Yum! It comes two ways: fried (Original Recipe) or grilled.

Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Colonel Sanders was chasing him. Now the chickens are running as fast as they can!

Here's the not so skinny on this beastly duo.
---------------Calories-------Fat(grams)------Sodium(milligrams)
Fried----------540............32.....................1380
Grilled--------460............23.....................1430

Now I usually don't get accused of being a light eater. Therefore I was inclined to try the DD, both of them.

At first bite I was able to pick a favorite. The fried DD was way too greasy and had a some what heavy smell of food that didn't bode well with me. I ended up eating only half of this one. The grilled DD was still greasy, but not as bad. It also had a better taste, a nice pepper flavor. I ate all of this one. I kept hearing the heartbeat from the Guns N Roses song Coma running through my head.

The other thing I noticed were that these sandwiches came wrapped in a wrapper. Don't remove this wrapper, because the DD's are messy!

Restaurants are always trying invent new menu items with stuff they already have in their kitchens, the DD is no different.

Saturday Night Live has been making fun of them for a while, like...

Taco Town -
Taco Town



Bacon, is it good?



Jim Gaffigan may think so.

It was good with the grilled DD, but it was part of the problem with the fried DD. Then there is the Colonel...



No I don't hate the Colonel, and I do love that clip. As a mater of fact I still think KFC has the best coleslaw on earth. My only problem with him is that even though he served in the Army he's not a real Colonel. In 1936 Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon made Harland Sanders an honorary Kentucky Colonel in recognition of his contributions to the state's cuisine.

Our Tip:
Eating these is gamble with your health. Since I tried these a few months back I have changed my diet and started eating vegetarian. I can't say that eating these was a direct cause of this choice, but I'm sure it was a factor indirectly.

Salmon All Day Long! Part III (the final installment) - Balsamic Glazed Salmon Fillets and Pan Roasted Veggies

As any good cook knows, you need to have a side dish with any entree, or two in this case. Our choice this time around were Pan Roasted Veggies.

This is a simple dish to make. We took: asparagus, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes, and sliced them up. Feel free to use whatever veggies make you happy if you try this one. With the exception of the tomatoes, which I quartered, I cut everything on the bias. Which is a fancy way of saying I cut the veggies diagonally instead of straight. When you have to cut food anyway why not make it look nice?

Find a large or mid-sized pan and pour in just enough olive oil to coat the bottom of it, then turn up the heat to medium. I cooked the asparagus first because they need to be stirred or rolled around. Then I cooked the rest because they all needed to be flipped or turned. The only seasoning we use is kosher salt, fresh ground pepper. I placed them in a pan in the oven to keep warm until they were all done cooking. When it finally made it to the table, what we ended up with was a dish that was delicious and had a vibrant mix of colors! Remember you eat with your eyes before you eat with your mouth.

The second half of our dinner entrees were Balsamic Glazed Salmon Fillets. My wife found this recipe at allrecipes.com. The one thing I REALLY liked about this website was that it had a recipe calculator! I had two portions ready, so I reset the recipe for two servings.

Ingredients:
2 - (5 ounce) salmon fillets,
1-1/3 - cloves of garlic, minced,
1 teaspoon - white wine, we used white grape juice instead,
1 teaspoon - honey,
1 tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons - balsamic vinegar (Use a good one!),
1-1/4 teaspoons - Dijon mustard,
salt and pepper to taste,
1 teaspoon - chopped fresh oregano.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (this move comes in handy when it's cleaning time), and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Coat a small saucepan with non-stick cooking spray. Over medium heat, cook and stir garlic until soft, about 3 minutes. This is where all the prep work that I did before came into play. Mix in white grape juice (or white wine), honey, balsamic vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, for about 3 minutes, or until slightly thickened. When done split the glaze into two separate bowls with about half in each. You will need to brush the salmon in both the raw and cooked states. You don't want to reuse anything that was used on the raw fish once it's cooked.

Arrange the salmon fillets on the foil-lined baking sheet. Brush the fillets with the balsamic glaze, and sprinkle with oregano.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 14 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Brush fillets with remaining glaze, and season with salt and pepper. Use a spatula to transfer fillets to serving platter, leaving the skin behind on the foil.

This recipe turned out great, although I did throw myself a few curve balls along the way. I forgot to cook the glaze at first, so when the salmon was brushed before it was placed in the oven it only had a light coating. On top of that I decided, at the last minute, to double the amount of salmon being cooked. Due to this move I didn't have enough glaze to coat the entire meat after it was done cooking. I also forgot to remove the skin from the salmon after it was cooked.

Luckily, none of these faux pas mattered. The salmon turned out great! You could really taste the glaze due to the rich flavors and the quality balsamic vinegar that was used.

It was now after 10pm. Our bellies were full from the large dinner. The food had been put away. The last task of the night still awaited me... the dishes. After the massive amount cooking that was done throughout the day, I decide this would be a chore best saved for the morning. I know it's bad of me, but I didn't want to interrupt the happy food coma that I was in.

Salmon All Day Long! Part II of III- Linguine and Smoked Salmon

After smoking some salmon earlier in the day it was time to use some of it in a wonderful dinner. I had decided to take on the task of making a two entree dinner.

The first was a Linguine and Smoked Salmon dish. My wife found the recipe from a follow blogger, and the original recipe can be found here. There were few tweaks that we thought the recipe needed. First, the dish as a whole needed more of the white cream sauce. Secondly, the amount of lemon needed to be reduced. The recipe below has already been adjusted for your pleasure!

8 oz. linguine,
6-8 ounces smoked salmon, sliced into 2 inch wide strips and set aside - if you want to be fancy,
2 cups heavy cream,
juice of 1 lemon,
1 cup grated parmesan cheese,
1/2 cup coarsely chopped flat leaf Italian parsley,
1/4 cup shaved parmesan cheese for garnish.

Since I was preparing two different meals at the same time, I did all my prep work first. When I was done I had a counter full of ramekins and other small bowls filled with their respective ingredient. Now it was time to cook.

In a large sauté pan bring the cream to a boil over medium high heat.
While continuing to boil add the lemon juice.
Lower heat to low and add the grated parmesan cheese, stir well.
Remove from the heat and stir in the parsley.
Place the drained linguine in the hot sauce and toss to coat well.

Now serve the linguine with the shaved parmesan and salmon strips. Instead of serving it with the salmon strips, we brought the smoked salmon out to the table. Then we each added our own amount of salmon. I took a hearty serving, my pregnant and morning sickness suffering wife took a smaller amount.

This was an easy pasta dish to put together, and proved to be a winner at our table! You could even substitute a different meat into it if you wished. We will be doing this one again and again!

But there was even more at our table...

Salmon All Day Long! Part I - Smoked Salmon

Last weekend I had a yearning for salmon, that turned into an obsession by the end of the day.

I started the day by smoking some salmon. Smoking is easy with a little practice. It can be done in your oven (make sure you have a ventilation fan, just in case), grill, or a smoker.

The Smokers:

I have two smokers. The first one, a Luhr Jensen Little Chief, was given to me by my grandpa. I can remember growing up, he and his friends would hook it up in the garage and smoke what ever the catch of the day was. I got to have some too, and it was brilliant, smoky goodness! I've owned it now for about 15 years and the only maintenance I've had to do to it was replacing the heating element.

The newest addition to my arsenal is Brinkmann Gourmet Electric Smoker, which came my way thanks to the TVW estates. This was the first time I've used it which meant I had to do a quick cleaning and check to make sure all the parts were there and working. The task of cleaning ended up taking a little longer than expected, but doesn't it always? All of the parts were there and working, I only needed some lava rocks that this model required. With lava rocks in hand the only thing left to do was to start smoking!

So, back to the salmon. The day before I placed the salmon in a liquid brine. I usually use a basic brine recipe.

1/2 cup regular sugar,

1/2 cup non-idolized salt (kosher salt, sea salt, etc.),
1 quart of warm water. Warm water, not hot! You don't want to poach the meat, you just want the sugar and salt to easily dissolve.

Place the meat in a zip lock bag and pour in the brine solution. Remove as much air as possible when you close the bag. Then put the zip lock bag in a bowl, just in case it leaks.

Leave it in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours, and up to 2 days. I usually try for around 24 hours.
When you remove the meat, lightly pat it dry with some paper towel, and begin smoking.

The Woods:

This time I decided to use hickory wood. The different woods you use during smoking will give your meats different flavors. Different woods include, but aren't limited to:

Hickory - Zesty, a commercial favorite.

Mesquite - Hearty and clean.
Alder - Mild and sweet.
Apple - One of the sweetest, and mildest, it's delicate and fruity.
Cherry - Distinctive, a good one to mix with other woods for a special taste.

The only recommended action for the wood is to soak it in water about 20 minutes or so before using it in the smoker.

The Smoke:

The smoker is now plugged in and heating up. The wood is on the heat. The water pan is placed inside the smoker. I lay the salmon on the grill. Now before I can put the lid on, the smoke is already bellowing up the sides of the smoker, past the water pan and engulfing everything in it's path.

Due to the anticipation of what is to come, that first smell of smoke is one of those great smells. Like fresh, homemade bread coming out of the oven, or the first campfire of your summer vacation.

Since the smoking process usually takes at least a few hours, you will need to add new wood every 1 to 2 hours. This all depends on the wood and smoker, and the size of wood chips or chunks being used. Like I said before this was the first time using this smoker, so I was guessing this time. I knew the total smoke time would be around 3 hours, so I decided to add more wood at the half way point, an hour and a half in. Afterward I think I could have added it every hour instead. I was using small chipped wood pieces, but this smoker has room for bigger chunks, so I will be using those next time around. Another way I check to see if more wood is needed is to watch the amount of smoke exiting the smoker. When the smoke is at it's prime, it will be trying to escape from any opening or crack that it can as you can see in the picture above. When it subsides, it may be time for more wood.

Checking fish for doneness is easy and it doesn't matter if it's being smoked or cooked the test is the same. Take a fork and stick it in, trying to separate the fish. If it "flakes" off or apart, it's done. This means that the fish cleanly pulls away from itself along the grains of the fillet or steak. After 3 hours of soaking in the smoke I checked to see if the salmon was done. It was! It had a beautiful, light brown crust on the outside. The crust served as a halo above the succulent, deep pink meat underneath. I love smoked salmon, so I enjoy it in the simplest way - by itself. Another is with crackers, Ritz, or saltines are fine for me. It was delicious!

I wasn't done cooking yet though. I had plans for half of this to be used later in dinner...