Tuesday, January 31 – #Guacaritas – 6pm– Lolita – Like chips, guac and margaritas? Join local startuppers for all of the above at Lolita on Tuesday night. T3 Advisors has stepped up to cover the guac/nacho deliciousness so you can gorge without taking a hit to your wallet. Bottoms up!

Tuesday, January 31 - Tuesday nights get all kinds of cheesy in the bar and lounge at dantewhere chef Dante de Magistris and his clan host Grilled Cheese Tuesdays. Fans of crispy-on-the-outside, melty-on-the-inside goodness can come back week after week to see the sophisticated little twists they give the classic sandwich – for just $2. Call dante at 617.497.4200 to see what they have in store or just drop by any Tuesday after 5:30pm and let it be a surprise.

Wednesday, February 1 – Sel de la Terre‘s long-running dinner series, Wine Wednesdays, continues at the Long Wharf location throughout the winter. Wine Director Erik Johnson keeps on keeping on, plating and pairing seasonal food and wines for a four-course tasting menu of French-inspired fare. The prix fixe, and the aforementioned accompanying wines, costs $44 per person and is served (at 7:00pm) at large communal tables to encourage convivial conversation. To reserve your spot, check the schedule below and call Sel de la Terre Long Wharf at 617.266.8800 for reservations and more information.

Thursday, February 2 – Masa’s Salsa Thursday - Adding a little Latin flavor to the end of the workweek, Masa and Masa Southwest Bar & Grill in Woburn both host evening’s of food, music and dance at Salsa Thursdays. Pick your location and grab your dancing shoes for a complimentary lesson from 8:00-9:00pm, followed by dancing ‘til midnight (1:00am in the South End). You can swing by for dinner or just pop in for a margarita or a mojito and 50¢ tapas in the bar – either way, stick around to show off your moves on the dance floor. Call Masa at 617.338.8884 or Masa Woburn at 781.938.8886 for more information or directions.

Saturday, February 4 –  Poe’s Kitchen “Burrito Bowl II” – 1pm – 4pm – Poe’s Kitchen – In honor of Super Bowl XLVI, Boston’s celebrity chefs will be taking to the kitchen to kick off “Burrito Bowl II.” Chefs such as Tremont 647’s Andy Husbands, Poe’s Kitchen at the Rattlesnake’s Brian Poe, Lolita’s Brian Roche, Boloco’s Jason Hutchinson, Church’s Jon Gilman and many more will each create a signature burrito reflecting the city of their favorite NFL team.

If you attend any of these events, please let us know, we’d love to hear about them!

-Kteb & Cdog

Caramel Popcorn (Recipe courtesy of AllRecipes.com)

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (95 degrees C). Place popcorn in a very large bowl.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
3. Place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.
4. Yields five quarts.

Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn (Recipe courtesy of Everyday with Rachel Ray) Yes, I can still eat a whole pot!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt

Directions:

1. In a large pot with a tight-fitting lid (I’d recommend the Whirley-Pop Stovetop Popcorn Popper), heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the popcorn. When the oils sizzles, sprinkle the sugar over the kernels. Cover and shake the pan or turn the pan handle until the popping slows down (about 3 minutes). Remove from the heat and toss with the salt.

.

Cocoa-Cayenne Popcorn Balls (Recipe courtesy of Chow)

And if none of these strike your fancy, I would recommend tried and true Orville Redenbacher’s.

Happy National Popcorn Day!!

~cdog

Ketchup nastiness

This isn’t something new, I haven’t liked it ever since I was little. I distinctly remember when my family stopped at a Wendy’s to get lunch. As a kid (probably 7 or 8 years old) I ordered a hamburger. When I got it out of the wrapper it was drenched in ketchup, oozing out the sides, dripping all over everything and that was it. I was done with ketchup (not to mention Wendy’s square burgers, what?). For years, I refused to eat it, even when it came prepared on something. I’ve started to come around, but only when it is combined with mayo on a burger (sorry DennisF). You will NEVER see me put it on the following foods:

Eggs – Disgusting, really? Eggs should be combined with veggies and cheese.

Mac & cheese – Sick! I had friends who did this when I was little. Luckily I haven’t seen anyone do it recently.

Grilled Cheese – Seriously? Can you just stick with dipping it in your soup?

French Fries – Nasty – fries are perfect ON THEIR OWN. LEAVE THEM ALONE!

Hot Dogs/Brats - No! No! No! These sausages are made for MUSTARD! Don’t ruin them with your ketchup.

Steak – Don’t even get me started.

Tomatoes yay! Ketchup nay!

What a waste of a perfectly good fruit. Tomatoes deserve so much more than to be pulverized and have their flavor changed so significantly that it’s unrecognizable. Ketchup = GROSS. Agree or disagree? Am I the only one in this world who hates ketchup?

~cdog

Ingredients:

1 unsliced challah (egg bread) cut into 1” cubes (you can also use a French loaf)

1 c frozen blueberries

2- 8oz cream cheese (can use soft) (I also used fat free cream cheese and it didn’t alter the taste at all)

12 large eggs

1/3 c maple syrup

2 c milk

How to:

In a large greased 9X13 pan, arrange half the bread. Scatter cream cheese and berries on top. Add remaining bread. Whisk together eggs, syrup, and milk. Pour over bread, Cover with foil. Spray pam on the foil first. Refrigerate overnight. Bake @ 350 degrees 30 minutes covered & 30 minutes uncovered

How to make the blueberry sauce:

1c Sugar

2 T cornstarch

1c water

2c blueberries

1T butter

Combine sugar, cornstarch and water. Cook over medium heat stirring until thickened. Add 1c berries. After berries burst add 1 c berries and butter.

Cut half the loaf of bread and place in pan

Add cream cheese

Add bluberries

Mix eggs, milk, syrup

Pour over, add the remaining bread

The Sauce

Voila!

-kteb

I personally want to thank all of you for coming along on the ride with us. I know that Cdog would agree. We have had a blast writing about our culinary adventures, things we hate, more importantly things we love, people we love and everything and anything in between.

My blog highlights this year had to have been the most recent Q&A with Top Chef Season 7′s Tiffany Derry and my experience in the Atomic Wing Eating Contest. I’ve acquired the nickname Baconator at work. I have shared an amazing year with the Stud Muffin. We have had so much fun cooking together and trying to create new awesomeness. There are so many more highlights, but I don’t want to keep you here all day. But this little bloggy blog would never be what it is without the best blogging buddy (and friend) around. Cdog and I started this as a snack blog and it has turned into so much more and I couldn’t be more excited for 2012! Happy New Year. I hope this year brings you all love, luck, joy and happiness.

Holy Old School!

With all due respect to DennisF (mayonnaise), K-Teb (pickles) and M_M (bananas) in their previous Terrible Tuesdays posts, you’re all wrong. While I would have to agree with DennisF that mayo is flat-out nasty, I can’t think of anything more repulsive, more disgusting, yet somehow  more polarizing than any other “food” on the planet than…mushrooms. Ewwwwwwwww. I gag at just writing that word. For all of you mushroom lovers out there…eat shit. Oh wait, you already do. Well, you at least eat something that grows in the dark…in shit. And you swear by it. WTF?!?!

Seriously? C’mon people. “Eat shit” is only a saying!

I have previously written that bacon, cheese and BBQ sauce make everything better. I lied. There is nothing in this world that can make mushrooms taste good. Grill them. Sautee them. Drown them in bacon, cheese and BBQ sauce and you will still be left with the most dirty and vile of the vile. The smell. The texture. The taste. Heck, even the appearance. Mushrooms look like Cosmo Kramer took his meat slicer to an alien. Gray alien looking shit. Heck, it may actually be alien shit.

And if mushrooms as a food aren’t good enough, you are in luck – they double as a hallucinogen. And I am here to tell you…they ALL suck. Including the drug. And to be clear…I have tried them all (just one time on the illegal kind). Though, the caps did lead me to the munchies and having my very first Jamaican Beef Patties while vacationing in the British Virgin Islands following college graduation. Ahhh, when at the Bomba Shack on Tortola

Fatman returns to The Bomba Shack 10 years after the ‘shroom tasting.

You will never read anything I write — criticizing or giving propos to — that I have not personally tried myself. Mushrooms are just gross. And you KNEW this was coming from Fatman: DO NOT even get me started on putting these dirty, slimy piece shit on pizza. People that do this had better damn well be on the drug first.

I can see Bostonians adding shit-based food to shitty pizza, but shit, man!

While I may have failed to be as eloquent in illustrating my hatred of mushrooms in the written form a la my aforementioned The Eats blogging peers, I prefer to “take it to the streets”. Look no further than the Facebook page for Mushroom Haters – “A place for mushroom haters everywhere to discuss their hatred for mushrooms”.

There is a reason they are called SHIiTake

When you eat something nasty, they say you turn green. Well mushrooms are so nasty that if you lived in a village of them, you’d turn blue. If you don’t get that reference, you are too young!

Fatman signing off — hint coming — la, la, la la la la…la, la la la la.

I love birthdays, especially when they are for people that I really care about. The Love Muffin can attest, I talk about birthdays for other people, like they’re my own. And today’s birthday is super special because it’s not only for a friend and blogging cohort, but for someone that I admire and am so happy that they are part of my life.

She’s celebrating in South Carolina today, so let’s make her feel really special and send all of the good thoughts and wishes down to her!

Here’s wishing you a bacon filled, Chick-fil-a eating, and pickle-less birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KTEB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~cdog

~cdog & kteb

How did you first get into cooking? What inspires you to cook? 

For as long as I can remember, I always enjoyed cooking and anything food-related.  Food has always been a central part of my family.  We’re eaters and laughers, and I think cooking was a natural fit.

What really inspires me to cook is the feeling I get when I’m cooking.  It’s such a high.  Just last night at the restaurant, I had the chance to cook on the line (usually I expedite the food), but last night I was cooking salmon and scallops – it was just so much fun.  I absolutely love what I do and I really enjoy seeing guests come in and get excited about the food I’m creating.

As a southern-raised girl (South Carolina), I have a deep appreciation for comfort food and sweet tea. What is your favorite comfort food? Especially during the holidays?

I would have to say my favorite comfort food is macaroni and cheese.  It’s best when super cheesy and baked into a casserole dish. I developed a recipe with a few varieties of Sargento all-natural shredded cheese, including Extra Sharp Cheddar, Mozzarella & Provolone and Parmesan, which I mix together with bacon for crispy-ness and green onion for added flavor. It’s the ultimate mac and cheese recipe! The all-natural cheeses give it a rich, authentic flavor, and the bacon and green onion add a nice pop of texture and taste too.

Where is your favorite place to travel to? 

My favorite getaway is Costa Rica.  I have friends that live there and I usually get to go once or twice a year.  It’s nice being isolated with minimal contact to the outside world – no TV or noise. I love waking up, grabbing a cup of coffee on the balcony, watching the fog, smelling the flowers and hearing the birds.  Plus, you’re able to pick your vegetables in the morning for the lunch or dinner you’re going to be cooking later.

For those of us who don’t have a ton of time and/or resources on our hands, what’s your favorite, quick and easy recipe (either apps, entrees or desserts)? 

I am all about the appetizers!  It may sound complex, but my Gnudi with Brown Butter Peas and Mushrooms recipe is perfect for a quick, delicious starter that will really wow your guests.  It’s basically naked ravioli made with Whole Mile Ricotta and Shredded Parmesan Cheese from Sargento.  The flavors of the brown butter, mushrooms and peas aren’t too heavy, and it’s a great vegetarian option!

What is your favorite app using Sargento? 

Another great appetizer is my Pepper Jack Cheese Soufflé.  Again, it’s SO easy and delicious — all you need is a whisk and some strong arm motions.  After the ingredients are mixed together, you just pop it in the oven. People are really impressed by the soufflé with all the steam and cheesy-ness that oozes out.  They’re really not that hard to make and they’re a definite crowd pleaser!

Pepper Jack Souffle

Do you have any tips or tricks that you can share with all of us non-pro cooks?  

Just breathe.  Everyone tends to get really stressed out with holiday cooking but it’s important to relax.  I always say that you never mess up a recipe; you just create a new one.  Every mistake was supposed to happen!  Another important thing to remember is to be aware of the quality of ingredients you choose.  All-natural really makes a difference in cooking.  Most importantly though, just have fun!

What’s your favorite tool to use when cooking?  

It would definitely be a Japanese Mandolin.  It makes everything so perfect in a short amount of time. I’m never without one in the kitchen!

Tell us about your new restaurant, Private Social. Where is it located? What can guests expect from the new eats? What is your favorite item on the menu? What does the name suggest?

Private Social is located right in the heart of Dallas.  It’s my baby and I’m so excited to have been able to open it. The restaurant itself has a very modern look.  The “private” part of the name refers to the dining room, which provides that private dining experience. The “social” part is the bar area where we serve lots of small plates – it’s really conducive to mingling and sharing.

Many of my dishes are ones that are close to the heart and familiar but have a fun twist.  I have a few favorite items!  I love the Sweetbread with Smokey Ham Broth.  It has a nice mix of sweet and spicy. The Farm Salad with poached fried egg is also amazing.  I poach it, then fry it and serve it with bacon.  Who doesn’t like bacon and eggs?  Lastly, I’m a big fan of the Braised Oxtail with Gnudi, because it incorporates interesting flavors. I developed a version of the recipe for Sargento and the at-home chef.

As a HUGE fan of Top Chef and a huge fan of Tiffany Derry (you were our Fan Favorite!), we have to know what it was like being on Top Chef? What was your favorite challenge? Is Tom really that tough? We have a feeling, he is just a teddy bear with a hard shell. 

Oh wow!  Being on Top Chef wass stressful, crazy, fun…a lot of emotions rolled into a five minute period.  That’s the crazy part — it can change really quickly.  Tom is definitely a teddy bear on the inside but don’t get me wrong, he does not play when it comes to the dishes.  What you see is what you get, but he’s a really nice person.

My favorite challenge was when we were in the Bahamas diving for conk.  It was actually the one where I got eliminated, but it was such a fun challenge.  The weather was really nice which was super helpful.

And last, as we mentioned we like to add a bit of humor to our blog, so what is your favorite joke of all time?

What kind of cheese is not yours? NA-CHO cheese!
Cheesy, I know.

GREEN ONION AND BACON MACARONI AND CHEESE

 Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 8

You know I'm making this!

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. elbow macaroni
• 2 Tbsp. kosher salt
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 3 Tbsp. flour
• 3 cups milk
• 2 cups (8 oz.) Sargento^® ChefStyle Shredded Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• 1 cup (4 oz.) Sargento^® Artisan Blends^® Shredded Mozzarella & Provolone Cheese
• ½ cup (2 oz.) Sargento^® Artisan Blends^® Shredded Parmesan Cheese
• 1 cup bacon, cooked crisp and chopped
• ½ cup green onion chopped
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350° F. In large pot, boil water and add 2 Tbsp. salt. Add macaroni and cook according to package directions.
• Meanwhile, melt butter in a separate saucepan. Whisk in flour; cook, whisking constantly, or until thickened. Gradually whisk in milk and simmer 5 minutes or until mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat.
• Put half of macaroni in 8×8-inch casserole dish and sprinkle with half of the cheeses, bacon and onion, salt and pepper. Repeat. Pour white sauce over.
• Bake 30 minutes or until set and garnish with additional bacon and green onion before serving, if desired.

PEPPER JACK CHEESE SOUFFLé

 Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

• 4 Tbsp. butter
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 ¼ cup whole milk
• 2 cups Sargento® ChefStyle Shredded Pepper Jack Cheese
• 5 large eggs, separated
• 1 egg white
• 1 Tsp. black pepper

Directions:

• In a small saucepan, melt butter and stir in flour until smooth. Gradually add milk and cook, stirring constantly, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer for 2 minutes while stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in cheese until melted. Add black pepper and set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks and gradually add cheese mixture. Whisk until smooth. Set aside.
• Preheat oven to 325° F. Lightly butter a 6-cup soufflé dish and dust with flour. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into yolk mixture, 1/3 of beaten whites at a time. Pour egg mixture into dish; it will be 1/2 to 2/3 full.
• Bake 45 minutes until puffy and golden. Serve immediately.

Tips:

• A soufflé needs a straight-sided, round dish to rise properly. It will at least double in size as it bakes.
• You can use 6 ramekins for individual soufflés and bake 25 minutes.

This trip, I had one special night with my amazingly fabulous team (ahem!) at Salumeria Roscioli, a famous deli/bakery in Rome. Now, that may not sound that awesome (hanging out at a deli?), but this wasn’t just that.

Roscioli

They organized a wine tasting for our whole group in a private room. The room was sort of like a stockroom with cans, jars and stacks and stacks of wine. We tasted 6 wines along with various meats, cheeses and homemade breads.

Fresh mozzarella, sun dried tomato, focaccia

Salami

Cheeeeeeeeeese

As well as an entree of pasta with bacon (hello Kteb!) and we finished with panettone - a traditional Italian Christmas sweetbread. I’m not usually a huge fan of Christmas breads, but this was incredible. Sweet but not too sweet, light, eggy and the right amount of fruit. And NO nuts. I hate nuts in food.

Pasta with tomato sauce and bacon

Panettone

Panettone goodness

The highlight of the tasting (aside from the wine) was the cheese. The favorite around the room was the aged Parmesan. It was salty, crumbly and creamy all at the same time. Delizioso!

Aged Parmesan

Our night included lots of great Italian wine and food! But we weren’t done. The next night we spent at a local pizzeria near Piazza Navona – La Focaccia. They make traditional Roman style pizza, which acutally has a thicker crust. The pizza was really good. I had Quatro Formaggi…four cheese pizza…obvi. The best part about it is the Gorgonzola. It just adds this layer of complexity that makes it interesting.

Pizza!

Rome in and of itself was just lovely. If you have a chance to go around Christmas, I would highly recommend it. Below are some shots around Rome.

Piazza Venezia

Via del Corso

Angels

Christmas at the Colosseum

Buon Natale!!

Ciao!

~cdog