Food Follies - Daily Specials

Hot Weather Pasta Salad

2008-07-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

A little while ago the temperature was 110 degrees for many days in a row. When we actually had appetites, we had to come up with something else to eat besides cold sandwiches and fruit, so we put together a cold pasta salad!

We used a lot of stuff we had around the house - rotelli pasta (tri-color would have been nicer, but we only had regular), organic Tuscan Italian dressing, tuna fish, diced tomatoes, and parmesan cheese. And we sprinkled on some sliced, fresh mozzarella just before we ate it.

We have nothing against mayo-based salads, but even that can seem heavy when it's so hot outside, so the Italian dressing version worked nicely for us.
[Tags: food, pasta salad, recipe, tuna, italian dressing]

John's New Blackberry!

2008-07-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

Everyone's so busy talking about their new iPhones and all the cool things they can do with them, so I thought I'd post a photo of John's new Blackberry!

What - you were expecting something with batteries, buttons, and a screen? ;-)
[Tags: blackberry, blackberries, joke, funny, food]

Joey & Eddie's Italian Restaurant in San Francisco

2008-07-07T17:56:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was up in San Francisco for a day of meetings with a bunch of compadres and we had the pleasure of being treated to a night out in the private upstairs dining room at a fantastic Italian restaurant called "Joey & Eddie's".

(Pardon the photo - I forgot to take a picture until the very end when we were getting back on the bus that was rented for us - but you get the idea.)

It was one of those amazing multi-course, choice of wines type events. We had terrific bread with butter or olive oil, fantastic salad with all kinds of greens, crab bisque (or white bean soup), spaghetti topped with a cherry tomato concoction, white fish, chicken cacciatore, and then a big finish with a fabulous chocolate and hazelnut torte with pannecota served in these fancy dishes that looked like hubcaps - LOL! I wanted to eat so much more of each course, but knew I'd regret it later, so I managed to space out my samplings.

So if you're ever in San Francisco and have a hankering for some tasty tasty Italian, check out Joey and Eddie's. And as an additional bonus, on the way out we walked through the front room and saw Sammy Hagar sitting there at the bar enjoying a meal - he seemed to be with a tall blond, so no one bothered him - LOL.
[Tags: food, Italian, California, San Francisco, restaurant]

Just This Once

2008-06-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

I just have to share this one from icanhascheezburger - it's a food joke though, sort of, and in any case it just cracked me up....

[Tags: bread, cat, lolcat, funny, humor]

Food Critics Don't Need To Be Anonymous

2008-06-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

Get the best seats in the house and maybe even a complimentary drink or two when you walk into a restaurant with our "Restaurant Reviewer" or "Food Blogger" t-shirts and sweatshirts! Even if you aren't an official food critic or have a food blog of your own, most restaurants know the power that word of mouth holds in this business, so give them a chance to show you how good they can be.

Each design is available on many different styles of t-shirts and sweatshirts (and bumper stickers and mugs as well) - just click on the sample t-shirt above to see the entire selection.

[Tags: food, funny, humor, food blog, restaurant]

Snapea Crisps

2008-05-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

I was in Trader Joe's one day (my favorite grocery store) and they had these Snapea Crisps hanging off of one of the shelves. Feeling bold, I bought them secretly dreading that they might end up tasting like freeze dried peas. When I opened them I was delighted to discover that they were light and tasty (not like peas at all) with a texture that reminded me of Funyons. They have their own flavor which is hard to describe but is well worth the two dollar investment. They work ok on a salad (as suggested), but actually work really well as a snack food by themselves. They compliment a trail mix nicely, going well with dried fruit or nuts.

[Tags: Snapea Crisps, peas, snacks, food, review]

Spinach & Artichoke Chips

2008-05-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

I was in the chip aisle last week searching among the plethora of MSG coated chips looking for something with genuine flavor. There were a few standard entries which I liked but was tired of, but then I noticed this bag of Spinach & Artichoke Chips by Jensen's Orchard. Spinach & Artichoke? I wondered, it made me think of some of the weird flavors that Jones Soda tries. I hoped that they wouldn't end up being fancy dog biscuits and gave them a try. The spinach flavor is quite pronounced, as pronounced as the green color of the chips themselves. The artichoke however often remains hidden, only peeking out once in a while. I wasn't sure if I liked them for at least the first ten chips, until my taste buds became accustomed to the flavor. My brain needed to make a new category. This was not in the salty,BBQ, cheesy or spicy category, but a new deeper sort of flavor which I find unique among potato chips. The ingredients were a refreshing surprise too. Spinach is actually the third ingredient, artichokes were further down, and spices like parsley and turmeric were listed as well. Overall I would highly recommend them particularly if you are looking for something different or if you're having company and want to add a new dimension to the same old fare.
[Tags: food, review, potato chips, snack, spinach]

Baconated T-shirts

2008-05-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

Attention all bacon lovers! Due to our own recent re-appreciation of bacon (particularly the no-extra nitrites/nitrates added apple smoked bacon we've discovered) we've created another way to celebrate bacon - our "Powered By Bacon" design on t-shirts and buttons and magnets and bumper stickers and yadda yadda! Here's one sample product:

Click the tee above to see the whole range of baconated t-shirts and stuff available!
[Tags: food, humor, funny, t-shirt, bacon]

Calzones

2008-05-07T16:16:00.000-07:00

We made calzones again the other day - this time stuffed with ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, and some fresh (pan fried) italian sausage coins - yum! If you want to play with a little yeast and dough, here's the recipe to make your own calzones.

And this isn't the best photo, in fact, it's a little TOO golden, but you get the general idea:

[Tags: food, recipe, italian, calzone, cheese]

Italian Chicken Sandwich

2008-05-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

This is a really easy recipe for a very tasty sandwich! Marinate boneless chicken breasts in Italian Dressing overnight. Shake off excess dressing and grill the chicken. Open ciabatta rolls and dress with mayo, lettuce, and thinly sliced tomatoes, then chicken, then top with a slice of jalapeno jack cheese and wah-lah!

Serve with a side of potato chips or potato salad if you like.
[Tags: chicken, sandwich, cooking, grilling, food]

An Explosion of Soda and Candy

2008-04-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

Many of you might know what happens when you drop a mentos candy into a bottle of soda. Now, can you imagine what happens when 1,500 students all do it at the same time? Click here for photos of the resulting simultaneous explosions - science at its funnest!
[Tags: mentos, science, soda, belgium, food]

Jello Cut Out Cookies

2008-04-19T14:13:00.000-07:00

This is another one of those food photos that I took a while ago and haven't blogged until now, as you might be able to tell, since these are CHRISTMAS cookies - hah!

Anyway... my mom never made normal sugar cookies, we always made Jello Cookie cutouts instead, which always had great flavor AND color. And these are the (raspberry flavored) Jello cookies we had over the holidays:

And here is the Jello Cookies recipe so you can play along at home! Oh, and I used a little extra jello powder instead of colored sugar on top of the cookies to give them a bit of darker accent color.
[Tags: food, recipe, cookies, photo]

Macaroni and Cheese

2008-04-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

Just for variety, I made macaroni and cheese in a different way than usual, by making a creamy cheese sauce first. Used half pound of elbow macaroni and doubled this cheese sauce recipe, pouring it over the cooked macaroni, in a large casserole dish. Mix in about 1/2 to 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese for extra kick, then bake for a half hour on 350. Next time I'll use ALL extra sharp cheese, no Monterey Jack, as the extra amount of milk really made it a bit milder than it needed to be. Still, it's always fun to try something new! And it's macaroni and cheese, can't go wrong with mac and cheese!
[Tags: macaroni and cheese, recipe, food, photo]

Orange Cake Again

2008-04-09T18:30:00.000-07:00

Because it's one of his favorites, I made another orange cake for John. This time though I changed the recipe a WEE bit - used orange extract instead of lemon extract and vanilla pudding instead of lemon pudding, and the orange flavor popped out MUCH more. (The updated recipe is here, FYI.)

And here's a photo - it's a bit rough, but very tasty - LOL:

[Tags: food, cake, dessert, orange, photo]

Eggs Benedict

2008-03-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

We had breakfast for dinner today - first time making Eggs Benedict for ourselves. First I have to fess up that we did NOT make our own Hollandaise sauce, which, I know, is the key to good Eggs Benedict. But we were more interested, at the moment, in HAVING Eggs Benedict, than spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to make it from scratch for the first time. Maybe at some future time, but this time we used Trader Joe's Hollandaise warmed and scooped over poached eggs on ham on english muffins, with a side of baked potato cubes....

It was all excellent, with the one surprise being that the cayenne pepper in the sauce was very... present. I've had Eggs Benedict in a number of restaurants and it never had such an affect on my sinuses as this did - LOL - but it was still very tasty!
[Tags: food, eggs, eggs benedict, trader joes, breakfast]

Chocolate Fudge

2008-03-10T17:03:00.000-07:00

I told you (or at least I think I told you) that we had a backlog of images/experiences to share - this is one of those posts - heh.

So, over the holidays I'm in the habit of making a nice big batch of this REALLY smooth fudge. You have to keep it refrigerated, but it's SO worth it!

It's from the recipe on our site: Chocolate Fudge - Smooth. Really easy to make too - I highly recommend it. And actually, it's a good thing you have to keep it in the fridge because the extra step makes it last a LITTLE longer... possibly.
[Tags: fudge, food, chocolate, photo, recipe]

Old Moon Zinfandel

2008-02-27T15:09:00.000-08:00

We bought the bottle of Old Moon Zinfandel from Trader Joe's - it was branded "Trader Moon", so it was definitely one of their own. We poured two glasses of wine and let them sit for a number of minutes to let the flavors ready themselves to be tasted.

It was a pretty tasty zinfandel, great for the price, and went really well with the smoked gouda cheese we had with it! We also got to break in (figuratively speaking) our new wine glasses as now we have a set of four red and a set of four white wine glasses. Doing the whole 'wine thing' up properly now.

[Tags: food, wine, review, zinfandel, cheese]

Bon Bon Cookies

2008-02-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

We have a backlog of food events/photos to post about, so you'll be seeing some that happened a while ago - I'm sure you'll adjust.

For example, sometime during the holiday season I made Bon Bon Cookies - a Hershey kiss inside a ball, dipped in chocolate glaze. The dough makes EXACTLY two dozen if you use only enough dough to make sure the kiss is completely surrounded - no extra. It's great exercise for your hands, needless to say.

And here's a delicious photo:

I had some extra glaze so that's why you see some textury-type swirls on top of the first layer of chocolate there. And here's the recipe: Bon Bon Cookies Recipe. You could probably make these for Valentine's day - who wouldn't love these - wrapped up with a red bow and all.
[Tags: food, recipe, cookies, valentine, photo]

Safeway Organics Blood Orange Italian Soda

2008-01-25T12:38:00.000-08:00

If you're a fan of orange soda, but don't like the fake orange, high-fructose corn syrup stuff, you'll be needing to try Safeway Organics Blood Orange Italian Soda. It's fantabulous! Really orangey, really tangy, and has great ingredients: carbonated water, organic blood orange juice from concentrate, organic sugar, citric acid, natural blood orange flavor, black carrot juice (for color, which is a little weird perhaps since the soda is like a pinky-orange color, not ORANGE-orange), and natural orange flavor. (Contains 12% juice) And you can honestly say it's Italian because it's imported from Italy - LOL.

So anyway, if you love orange soda, go pick up a four-pack of these beauties and revel in the flavor!!
[Tags: organic, italian soda, juice, cane sugar, food]

Easy Tomato Soup Florentine

2008-01-04T13:17:00.000-08:00

This isn't a 'cooking from scratch' sort of thing, but that doesn't make it any less delicious!

We cooked up half a pound of mini-raviolis (Trader Joe's brand) and then added them to the carton of Creamy Tomato Soup (also Trader Joe's brand) that was already in our small crock pot. I also added more water and a good amount of black pepper and some finely grated parmesan too. It simmered on low for hours and hours. About 45 minutes to an hour before we were going to eat, I chopped up a bunch (as much as you like, as it tends to shrink up and disappear somewhat, just don't overdo it) of organic baby spinach leaves and added them to the soup.

It was fantastic and very hearty!

We also had some leftover French bread and so I made buttery garlic bread to go with it, which was a fantastic match up.

A funny aside: We have limited counter space so I keep putting the crock pot away in its box when we're done with it, but I keep having to pull it out again every other day since we're having so much fun making stuff in it!

Also, we have a recipe for a completely from scratch Tomato Soup Florentine recipe in our archives for those that want to go for broke.
[Tags: food, soup, tomato soup florentine, recipe, spinach]

Ring in Fudge

2007-12-31T16:13:00.000-08:00

Just a little happy story about a woman who lost her ring while making fudge and got it back. ;-) Click here to read full story.

Happy 2008 Everyone!

[Tags: fudge, happy ending]

Raining Donuts

2007-12-14T18:30:00.000-08:00

Or doughnuts, if you want to go for the classical spelling! Yes, it's an homage to our favorite donut eater Homer and his illustrious wife Marge, and a certain Halloween episode with the time-traveling toaster. (I love that episode - my favorite line is "This is gonna cost me.") But anyway - now you can celebrate donuts (or doughnuts) raining down from heaven with t-shirts (including kids sizes), sweatshirts, pinned buttons, stickers, and more crazy stuff. Click the t-shirt to see more stuff! [/end announcer mode]

[Tags: donut, doughnut, simpsons, humor, funny, tshirt, t-shirt]

Best Chicken Noodle Soup Ever!

2007-11-30T18:18:00.000-08:00

We made chicken soup from scratch the other day - first time ever - and it was, if I may say so, fantastic!! We already had leftover cooked chicken and chicken stock. We shredded the chicken and put that in the crock pot with the broth. Then, we chopped onions, carrots, and celery and saute'd them in a frying pan. I took a picture of the raw carrots and celery because it looked so neat...

Then, we added the veggies to the crock pot and set that to cooking. A few hours before we were going to eat, I made some homemade noodles with our hand-crank pasta machine and the wavy wheel cutter. Here's a photo of the noodles drying out a bit on a rack.

About an hour or so before we were going to eat I added the noodles. Not surprisingly, the noodles plumped up a LOT more than I expected - LOL - and so we had a LOT of noodle content in there. Just before we were going to eat, we chopped some green onions and added them to the soup and WAH-LAH! Best homemade chicken noodle soup ever!!

[Tags: food, soup, chicken noodle soup, homemade]

Cheesy Puffs!

2007-11-19T17:34:00.000-08:00

We were just sitting around, eating Trader Joe's cheese puffs and I joked about making a cheese puffs t-shirt design. Before I knew it, I'd opened photoshop and bam!

You can get your cheesy puffs design on all kinds of t-shirts and sweatshirts, even kid's sizes! (They may not be the ones officially endorsed by Cartman on South Park, but they're just as orange!)

After I did that, I realized I needed to make a 'powered by' version of the design too....

... available on all kinds of apparel too, plus bumper stickers and buttons, etc.

"I like cheesy puffs!" If you know someone who's always got their hand in a bag, or has perpetually orange fingertips, they probably love cheesy puffs too - heh.
[Tags: food, cheese, cheese puffs, cheese doodles, t-shirt, humor, funny]

Beam Me Up White Zinfandel

2007-11-09T18:37:00.000-08:00

On his way home from work John often stops at the store for extra groceries, and sometimes shows up home with a little something extra. This time it was a bottle of "Beam Me Up" brand Zinfandel.

I know the 'wine elite' usually turn up their noses at white zinfandel, but 1.) sometimes you just want a mild, light wine experience and 2.) how could you NOT buy a wine with that wacky name? and 3.) look at the picture on the label! Look at it! LOL. (Those, of course, being the three things most wine professionals look for in a fine vintage.) Anyway, it was just the right wine for the evening - nice, easy, and tasty... and obviously appealing to the geeky target demographic.
[Tags: wine, zinfandel, food]