Natural Disaster(s)

Photo courtesy of www.weather.com

Well, folks, I am in Richmond, Virginia, and as you may have heard, Virginia has had an eventful week.  It started with the 5.8 Earthquake that epicentered about 45 minutes from us.  This also resulted in several aftershocks (the 2 biggest were 4.2 and 4.5).  We also are about to experience a Hurricane.  Good ol' Irene.  So, I am going through my house and preparing for power outages.  But, that means what to "cook" without power.  I refilled our propane tank last night.  We have a gas grill and a turkey fryer (Of course I do.  Fried turkey for Thanksgiving!  Like there's any other way!).  If we lose power for any length of time, we'll have to move food to a cooler and hope for the best.  I have made casserole-type dishes that we can heat up in a pot on the gas flame if we need to.  I am also making a chicken vegetable soup today.  (Wait until winter time.  You may rename me "Soup Nazi")

What are your plans for food for disasters?  For those in the wake of the storm, what have you stocked up on?  How do you plan on cooking if you are without power for several days?  Do you have a make-shift campground kitchen in your house?

Tell me your ideas.  Tell me how you go about things.  Sharing ideas always opens up new things for others!

Condiment Crackdown: Cooking Channel Fans Like Their Hot Sauce

Condiment Crackdown: Cooking Channel Fans Like Their Hot Sauce

Sriracha takes the cake!  Mustard is second...and mayo comes in as second runner-up.  So, I ask:

What is your favorite condiment?
What do you cook with all the time?
What do you put on all of your food?

Have a plethora of those cherry/grape tomatoes?

As the gardens are just spitting their fruits out right now, some of you have a ton of those little cherry tomatoes...perfect for salads, pastas, Bruschetta, etc.  It sometimes can be a pain to slice each one of those suckers as they roll all over your board or counters.

Here's a quick tip:  Go to that cluttered Tupperware cabinet,/drawer.  Find those pesky little Egg Drop Soup lids...or maybe you have them from that Brunswick Stew fundraiser last fall.  Find two.

Place one down on your board and place your little tomatoes on the lid.  Make sure the lip of the lid is positioned so it will hold them in place...like a little border.

Place the second lid right on top of the tomatoes.  Lid-tomato-lid sandwich, if you will.  Get a knife.  People, use a serrated knife here.  You don't want to have a blood/tomato fiasco.  (It's the knife with the teeth.) 

Place your knife in the middle of the lids and slice right across.  If you try and keep them all around the same size, it will help, but regardless...it will work.

QUICK!  And there ya go...You're ready for some fresh creations!  In one swipe, at that!  ;)

Syracuse, NY Salt Potatoes

So, my 19 year old step-son, Coleman, went to Syracuse, NY to help his maternal grandfather do some work around his house.  He returned with a sack of "Salt Potatoes."  OK, I know a lot about food, but Salt Potatoes???  Huh?  Well, they sat around for a week and I figured it was time to go ahead and serve 'em up.  I thought it was some crop that they had in NY that was exclusive to up north.  So, I looked on the web and come to find out, they are just baby potatoes boiled in salt...a lot of salt.  I opened the bag and it had a baggie of salt in there and just regular old baby Yukon gold potatoes.  I added the potatoes and cold water to my pot.  Cover the pot and bring it all to a boil.  Once the water boils, add the 1.5 cups of salt that accompanied the sack (don't ever add salt until your water boils.  It can mess with your boil point and burn your pots up), boil away until they become fork-tender.  It looked like regular table salt to me.  I usually always use kosher salt, but what the heck...the salt was there!  I then drained the potatoes and quickly added them back to the warm pot so the excess water could evaporate and the salt could crystallize on the skin.  I served them with a side of melted butter as they do in the classic recipe (unsalted, of course...I never buy salted butter and I melted a full stick).  Let me tell you, "YUM!"  Wow!  They were so creamy in texture.  I was nervous that they would be too salty, but not in the least!  So, anyone can do Salt Potatoes at any time.  Try it!  Super simple and super delish!  As Rachael says, YUM-O!

(I lost all my pictures for this post. I apologize. I will update for your eyes as soon as I can! Sorry!)

Master Chef Casting Call 2010

Here is a picture of my dish I made for the Richmond, VA Master Chef casting call.  I made a sweet Italian sausage and clam orecchiette pasta dish with a white wine and shallot sauce.  It's topped with buttered Panko and shaved parmesean (shown on the red charger).  There were about 100 contestants.  Only one made it through.  Mine did not!  I know what to expect next year, though.  This was the first year and it was a little unorganized.  We had no idea what our conditions were going to be.

And here is a shot of me and my group.  It was so much fun!!!

I am back row, far left.