A better potpourri - warming pot

While cleaning our kitchen the other day I found several objects that were new to me.  One of them was my wife's Warming Potpourri pot.

The idea is simple.  It is two pieces. The bottom bowl is for the candle.  It has air vents.  The top bowl is for water and the scents.

In the picture I am using water, cinnamon sticks, cloves and a few dashes of cardamon.

Light the candle and allow the water to warm up gently and slowly steam the nice odors around the room.  All natural, potentially organic, and cheap.

I have other ideas for scents and I have been exploring stores in the Seattle area that may carry stuff that I am looking for.  I am leaning towards cooking spices and teas, just so I won't have a drawer full of things that have only one use.

Marketspice in the Pike Place Market will be my next step.

Steak Dinner

It was St. Valentine's Day dinner and my in-laws were kind enough to bring us a porterhouse steak.  Being the sharing type, I cut it into two sections; the "New York" Strip and the sirloin.  Steamed vegs and tators as side dishes.

 

Read on...

Garlic & Rosemary Potatoes - 

All I did here was slice the tators into halves or quarters, tossed in some olive oil, chopped garlic, rosemary, caraway seeds, salt, pepper.  Roasted in the oven at 350 for about 40 mins until soft to a fork.

Steamed Veggies - 

Chopped up some broccoli, bok choi, fennel,  and garlic.  Steamed until soft.  Dressed it with olive oil and salt and pepper.

The Steak - 

Simple pan cook with a little pepper until medium rare (had I been paying more attention I would have preferred mine rare.)  Steaks come out and rested while I cooked up some sliced onions with butter in the same pan as used to cook the steaks.

Little more pepper and truffle salt over the steaks and call it done.  Served with a bottle of Cafe Negro porter.

Happy Valentine's day indeed.

BotRG - Iron Chef Style!

Well, this post doesn't quite count, but screw it, its my blog and I cooked the main dish.   The company I work for held a team retreat day.  First half meetings, the second half we had a Iron Chef cook off challenge!  We split the company into 2 teams and had at it.  Each team had a secrete ingredient.  They had chicken and we had salmon.

There was a chef roaming through out the contest helping each team, but once I had my plan I was pretty much on my own.  I was in charge of the main dish, salmon in paper.

I chopped and sautéed veggies (potatoes, onions, peppers, garlic)  and place them in little plies on circle cut paper folds.  The salmon went on top with a little lemon and grapefruit slice.  Into the convection oven for less than 10 minutes.  The salmon was perfect.

Our team served it up with mushroom risotto, french green beans (quick cooked, with oil and garlic) and a near perfect creme brulee.

The other team had a stuffed chicken three way (not what you think) and Kale chips and roasted veggies, and a tart that was a bit more soup like than tart like.

We won of course!

This is our dish....

And theirs....

If you want to know more about the school for yourself of your company check this out!

Blueribboncooking.com

Say hello to one more mouth to feed!

Today, Feb 8th, 2011 We here (and by we I mean me) welcome CD to our family.  One more mouth to feed here on BotRG.

Yes that means baby food will be added to the mix!

Cheers.

Poutine - BotRG Style!

First off, I could eat Poutine everyday if I had my way.  I would dies quickly and fat, but man would it be freaking tasty.

Poutine in it's base form is noted to be a East Coast Canada dish.  Thin cut french fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy.  That's the basic.  Now you'll find Poutine in many many different styles.  Here's what I did the other night.

I started with hand made french fries, cutting by hand meant they were not so thin cut, and bathed in hot oil in small batches.  I kept the done ones in the over at warming temp.

My sauce was a left over tomato sauce that I added beans to it.  In this case, cheddar cheese was used and I got some chopped onions on it as well.

Everybody loved it!

Drinks I like part 1

I write this late at night, _____ days / hours before the birth of our second child who at this point is still yet to be named.  So in theory I should update this post, but I bet I won't.

I am going to diverge a bit from my normal writings and talk a bit about some of things I like.  Drinks.  Beer & Tea.

First up beer.  I like beer.  I think I should write about the beers I like and why.

The other day for a staff meeting I bought a 6 pack of Bridgeport Café Negro Porter.  A smooth porter that has been infused with a dark coffee flavor.  My tongue couldn't pick up the coffee flavor, but man o man was that a wonderful beer.  Dark, rich, smooth.  Not overly sweet like some porters can be, and it wasn't PWN Hoppy!  It made me very happy indeed.  You should try some.  NOW!

You can find out more about it at their website - -bridgeportbrew.com

Now on the other side of the coin, I also really enjoy tea.  Black or herbal, I like both.  Since working down in Pike Place Market I have also started mostly using loose leaf brewing methods.  I like it better.  It's cheaper, fresher, tastier, and well funnier too.

My mother-inlaw got me this wonderful tea pot with a built in screen.

I will chat more about teas as we progress.

Veggie Casserole with Biscuit top

My mind often wanders to my single young man days when I am in the kitchen.  Not what you're thinking.  But I day dream about the ease of prefab box meals.  Open fridge, toss in nuker, eat.  I also didn't concern myself with health, the planet, and flavor.  I though use those thoughts to create meals.  Like this one.

Veggie casserole with a biscuit top.

This was pretty simple.

A variety of veggies get chopped up and mixed in a bowel.  The color of mine came from just one beet!  Some EVO, stock, seasoning (salt, pepper, ect...).

I precooked this in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minuets with a tinfoil cover.  While this cooked, I mixed up the batter for the biscuit top.

I used a simple drop biscuit recipe here.  I added some extra seasoning for fun and topped with caraway seeds.  Plopped the batter on top of the dish and back into the over it went.

It took about 20 minuets longer to finnish.

Filling, yummy, and colorful!