Give it some color! (Yeah I know, I need a better camera!)

Well folks, I know that previously I have talked about one of our (Stephanie and I) favorite meals which is a Black Bean Burger and Sweet Potato Home Fries...of which I left a recipe link in an earlier blog, very easy!

This time I want to revisit this meal in a different way. I peeled and cubed sweet & purple (yes purple) potatoes, blanched them, and then sauteed/pan fried them (not quite enough oil/butter to really call it pan frying but it sounds weird calling it sauteing?) with a little butter and olive oil...and when I say little, I mean hardly any at all. Not like Emeril or Paula Deen's use of butter or olive oil! Used some fresh ground salt & pepper, that's it! Browned them like a hash, the combination was delicious as well as healthy and visually appealing. Colorful!

Fresh vibrant colored avocado on top of that black bean burger (panini style) with mozzarella...the only way I could make it any better is use one of my favorite 'hot sauces' that is usually found in mom & pop Mexican restaurants: Chalula! ...as you will see in the picture. Yes, that is a glass of Merlot (Dellicato). But my favorite is an Australian, Black Swan.

Enjoy the visual. It really does and is an integral part of 'selling' the mind on making it taste even more appealing before the tongue even touches it. That combined with smell...SOLD!

ps. just to rub it in a little bit, the bread was one of our homemade facoccias.

Roasted Red Onion Cup

Just a quick lesson on making roasted onion cups...

Cut tops and bottoms off of red onion cups (why red? because they look better...but you can use white or yellow). How do you know you cut enough off? Is there 1 1/2 to 2 inch across flat surface area on each end of the onion? Then you got it right!

Do not worry about peeling off any skins, oiling the pan (maybe parchment/foil paper if you don't want to clean much) throw them on a sheet pan and cook them in the oven for about 1 to 1 1/4 hour on 350*F. Take them out let them cool down. See picture:

After the onions cool down, its time to pop out the centers (and you can use these tasty sweet flavored onions for another dish later!). Contrary to popular belief its easier to use you fingers on the (now cool to warm) onion popping out the center from pushing into the flat cut ON TOP OF THE ONION pushin it out the bottom. Look at the picture...the structure of the onion on top will hold more 'filling' in it when you pop out the middle from the bottom, them flip it over in the tray/pan on the top....confused? The bottom will have a bigger hole, so we use that as the top on the second part of this lesson. Look at this next picture good and you should see what I mean:

Now we have a good 'pot' to plant some food in...what kind of food you say? How about baked beans and then bake them a little further. What about a stuffed 'pepper' substituting the pepper with the onion? Or, better yet a squash casserole.

We stuffed ours with a White Wine Risotto w/Asparagus tips.

Take a large funnel, use a knife or small saw and open up the end of the funnel about an inch. Now use that and a dowel (or handle of round wooden spoon) to push thru your filling...Look at the next picture to get an idea of that:

Now finish with the blanched tips pushed down into the top for a 'cute' pot o' plants:

Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest, but 'folks' is busy cookin' U know?!

Just in case you forget!

RULES OF THE CHEF

* The Chef is always right.

* The Chef does not sleep, he rests.

* The Chef does not eat, he nourishes himself.

* The Chef does not drink, he tastes.

* The Chef is never late, he is delayed.

* The Chef never leaves the service, he is called away.

* If you enter the Chef’s office with your own ideas, you leave with his.

* The Chef is always the Chef, even in his pajamas.

* If you criticize the Chef, you criticize the Almighty.

* Chef is always spelled with a capital C.

Got it? Good, now carry on.

Fresh Bread

In West Africa...no airconditioning in the kitchen/galley. Mercy Ships, M/V Anastasis (ship)- Cotonou, Benin & Monrovia Liberia

I Had Fresh Danish Pastries In Denmark

Are you jealous?