Thanksgiving bird

So, For Thanksgiving this year I'm Smoking the turkey again. This time around I'm doing a Honey Brine. Going to keep up all updated via Video This time!  Enjoy!

Second Attempt: Turn-Out; Better

So I had most of the early day to kill today as I didn't have to work until five. So I decided to make another attempt at a good basic white sauce. I bought a book called "400 Sauces" last night after some great recommendations I got from a friend we'll call hillbilly. You see, hillbilly and his step-son, kly are both amazing in the kitchen. Hillbilly is the one who gave me the recipe for the apple, brown sugar brine I used to smoke a turkey last thanksgiving. anyway, I cracked open the book today and found the basic recipe for the "mother" sauce, a white sauce that is used as the base in a ton of different sauces. I just wanted to get the base right. I went to town and the base ended up turning out really well, but a little bland. 

So I started racking my brain, what could I add to make this better?

It hit me, I pulled out another frying pan, sauteed some sweet onions with salt and pepper in butter, then I put some vegetarian ground beef replacement to the pan with the onion flavor left in it. cooked it up with some garlic, salt and pepper. 

When all that was done I added it an the onion to the sauce, folded it all together and it came out amazing!

I'm really happy that I finally got this sauce right. yay me!

Old Favorites

I was out monday night with Cutie Pie, we visited one of our Favorite restaurants in town, La Nopalera. It's this amazing little mexican place we frequent. See, I love mexican food, as does she, so after moving to florida we were on a quest to find somewhere to get some good mexican. after a few failed and a few mediocre attempts we came upon this place. 

Anyway, I had the "Nopalera Fajitas" and Cutie Pie had the "Shrimp Chimichanga". 

My fajitas were amazing as always, it's a classic grilled fajitas with Steak, Chicken, Shrimp and Chorizo in the mix with the standard fajita veggies.

Her chimichangas are always great as well, you get 2 good sized tortillas wrapped around shrimp, cheese and veggies then fried. he meal also comes with beans and rice but what mexican doesn't? 

We also had some Queso With Chorizo in it. if you can't already tell at this point we both LOVE chorizo, so if anyone out there has a good recipe let me know, I've hit recipe zaar already and found some good ones, but like I said recommendations are welcome as always!

I tried to take some pictures of the food last night to post up but it was too dark inside. sorry folks, but don't worry, I'll try again next time, shouldn't be too long. LOL

Cutie Pie said she was going to make some Salmon Stir-fry tonight and she does amazing things in the kitchen so I'll take some pics and post them with the recipe either later tonight or tomorrow sometime!

A New Adventure

Well, hey folks, you can call me The Chef. This is my first real venture into the wide world of blogging. I guess we'll see how it goes.

Just to let you all know a little about myself, I am a man living in the cozy little town (HA!) of Jacksonville, Fl. I have three Great loves in this world. 

One, My Amazing Beautiful Girlfriend, we'll call her Cutie Pie. She's a Grad student here in jacksonville and she amazes me every day with her beauty, kindness, caring nature, patience, and intelligence. 

Two, Photography. I have loved taking pictures since I got my first real camera at the age of 10. I feel that Photography is a chance for those of us who can't draw or paint to express the beauty we see in our minds eye. 

 

Three, Food. I guess you could call me the quintessential fat kid, not to say that I devour everything in my path by any means, but that I see the beauty and wonder in a good meal. Food is the one thing every person in this world has in common, it's a love and a need we all share.

This blog will me something of a journal for me and an update for all of you as I wander through this life, this trek, this journey on my path to becoming a full time chef, and weekend warrior photographer, and a wonderful partner to the most amazing woman in the world.