Cookies!

Hey everybody! Sorry I haven't updated my blog in such a very long time. I have been swamped with schoolwork and haven't gotten much of a chance to think about writing anything lately.

My latest forays into the culinary world have been baking cookies. My dad requested that I make molasses cookies about two weeks ago and it got my "inner chef" going and I've made three batches of cookies since and will be making more this weekend. I think it might have something to do with the cooler weather... Well the molasses cookies were absolutely perfect! Great taste and the best texture ever. Slightly crunchy but with a just enough chewy to keep you wanting more. They were so good I had to make two batches!

The other cookies I made were snickerdoodles. These were per my mother's request. I bought her a cookie jar for her B-Day (That's it in the top right!) and filled it for her. I think she's just about eaten her way through that supply though...well ok I've helped some too.


This weekend I'll probably make some No-Bake cookies or chocolate chip cookies. I'll let ya'll know how those turn out!
Until next time...
Happy Eating!
"Chef" Slade

Tuna Steaks!

Today was the first day of the fall semester for me so it was a bit depressing, but I cheered up when my mom consented to letting me cook some fresh yellowfin tuna steaks for supper.

The key to good tasting fish is to start with high quality meat. The fillets, steaks, or even whole fish should not smell fishy at all. It should have a firm, springy texture and if possible shouldn't be frozen. If the fish was frozen make sure that it was vacuum packed and frozen as to allow for minimal water content in the fish. Freezing fish with water around it creates mealy, mushy fish which is unappetizing.

These tuna steaks were pretty large at about 2 inches thick and 4-6 inches square. I laid them out in a glass pan to allow them to thaw and then poured the liquid off and patted them dry. I tried mixing a few different things to create my own marinade but couldn't come up with anything that matched what I had in mind. So I settled on using a store-bought teriyaki marinade and adding some honey; about a 2-1 ratio of marinade to honey. I marinated the tuna for about 2 hours before placing on the pre-heated grill. I grilled it for about 10 minutes and it turned out perfectly!

The honey gave the fish a tiny bit of a crust and glazed the steaks beautifully. They were flaky, a tiny bit juicy, and extremely flavorful. Best of all there was only the slightest hint of a fish flavor, it was so minimal that my mom even ate quite a bit and enjoyed it! The tuna steaks, garlic bread, pasta, and broccoli were a great finish to the day. Wish you could have been there to share!

Happy Eating!
"Chef" Slade

Chocolate!

Sorry its been so long since I've posted! A lot has happened lately that has kept me from posting. But without further delay here's the latest installment of "Kitchen Critic!"

My girlfriend, Beka, and I love to try new recipes and do our best to be Iron Chefs. Well the other day we were looking at a delicious book of recipes featuring that most wonderful of all substances....CHOCOLATE!

Well after looking through all of the recipes we picked out a few but then had to narrow it down to just one because we lacked some of the necessary ingredients. The recipe we ended up with was Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes! They are supposed to be scrumptious chocolate cupcakes with a molten chocolate center. Well they didn't turn out too good. They were edible, but not tasty. We didn't have any self-rising flour so we had to make our own using a mixture we found on the internet, that didn't work out too well. And we didn't have any regular size muffin tin liners so we had to make them extreme mini size. All in all they turned out kinda salty, barely chocolate flavored, and all the chocolate in the center had mysteriously disappeared!

Although we were disappointed we'll probably try them again because the pictures in the cookbook look so good! I'll let ya'll know if they turn out!

Happy Eating,
"Chef" Slade

New Orleans BBQ Shrimp

My beautiful girlfriend, Rebekah, gave me the most amazing present the other day. Steven Raichlen's Barbecue! Bible. It is an amazing book! It has over 500 recipes and I've read every one of them and to be perfectly honest I'd try almost all of them. It will definitely get your creative culinary juices flowing and make you want to grill something! Well as Beka and I were perusing the pages we decided to cook a meal from it. We settled on fixing Emeril Lagasse's New Orleans-Style Barbecued Shrimp. We made a list of what we needed and headed to the store to pick up everything. When we got back from the store we plunged right in and started cooking.
Now be forewarned this recipe takes a very long time to cook but believe me it is totally worth it. We started with about 2 1/2 lbs of gorgeous wild Louisiana jumbo shrimp and after peeling them they were placed in a shallow glass dish and sprinkled with a cajun rub and set to marinate. The sauce is what takes the most time and constant attention. It's a very long process to get to the end result and when you start looking at the small bit you get out of it you might get disheartened but one taste and I promise you'll forget about the time! Everything from white wine to shrimp peels went into the sauce, which is actually more of a reduction with cream added to it for volume.
After making the sauce I grilled the shrimp until slightly pink then basted them right on the grill, turned and basted again. They grilled to a gorgeous barely charred finish and their smoky, spicy aroma made everyone's stomach growl. After taking the shrimp off the grill I drizzled them with the remaining sauce and we sat down to eat. Beka made some of her terrific cheddar garlic biscuits and those together with iced tea finished off the simple meal.
To be perfectly honest this was the best meal I have EVER prepared or had a part in preparing. The shrimp were absolutely amazing. They were like little bites of Heaven. Perfectly spicy, creamy, and a hint of smoke from the grill. They paired perfectly with the biscuits and all were quickly consumed or dare I say engulfed! If this were a movie rating I would say six out of five stars. I am making myself hungry just thinking about it. I will certainly be fixing this for my family again in the not too distant future as my mother has already made a couple of comments about how good they were and how she wants some more. I'm sure next time it will be much faster and easier also as I'll know what to expect.
Happy Eating!
"Chef" Slade

By the way, I'd be happy to email anyone the recipes for this or any other dish that I try. Just drop me a line at cssgfac@gmail.com and specify which one you want and I'll do my best to get it to you promptly!

Grilled Chicken

Oops! Long time no blog... Sorry ya'll I've been busy at work and then when I get home I just haven't felt like writing. Until now suddenly at 1:30am I am in the mood to write so I'll post several things.
Friday, July 18th I fixed supper for my parents. It was some kind of trade off if I remember correctly. Mom didn't want to cook supper and I didn't want to mow the yard or something like that, but anyways it resulted in us swapping places. I decided to fix one of my all time favorites, grilled chicken with bacon and cheese. Sorry I don't have a fancy name for it. But it consists of a marinated chicken breast nicely grilled then topped with a few strips of bacon then cheese melted over that. I chose to make my own marinade for the chicken as I love experimenting with different flavors. I made a concoction of lemon juice, EVOO, soy sauce, and honey, with a few spices thrown in, it tasted good! Kind of tangy with a smooth sweet and sour kick. I used some of the bacon my sister and brother-in-law were so kind to bring down from their farm and it is good! I covered it in blackpepper before cooking it crisp, then set it aside. Monterey Jack cheese was the only type we had in a block so I sliced some pieces off of that to melt over it.
The chicken turned out decently. The bacon wasn't as crisp as I would have liked, but it was edible. The cheese melted perfectly, I credit this to my slicing it extra thin and watching it closely while cooking. As a whole the dish was tasty and filling but not something I'd want to serve royalty as they might choke from that much cholesterol!
Happy Eating!
"Chef" Slade

Nicky's Mexican Restaurant

Nicky's is an Ark-La-Tex based chain of restaurants that boast good Tex-Mex for a good price. On Monday, July 14th I had lunch with my mother, sister, and brother-in-law, at the Cross Lake location.
We started off the meal in typical Tex-Mex fashion with a heaping bowl of tortilla chips and salsa. The chips are good, but are served cold and would be much better if served warmed and salted. The salsa is tasty with just enough of a spicy kick. Nicky's salsa is nothing to write home about either way. It's familiar flavor is enough to keep you dipping back in until you realize you'd better slow down or your entree will go to waste.
I ordered the Beef Fajitas, which by the way are my favorite mexican food. The fajitas came out hot and sizzling on a skillet. Strips of flank steak surrounded by grilled onions and green peppers. Paired with them were the usual Tex-Mex sides of mexican rice and refried beans. The rice was burnt and stuck to the skillet which resulted in my eating only a bite or two before the scorched flavor drove me away. The beans on the other hand were fantastic when used as a condiment for the fajitas. The beef was done perfectly with a nice crust on the outside but juicy and hot on the inside. The fajitas would have been perfect except for the tortillas. They struck me as being frozen and re-heated. If the tortillas were homemade and the rice had not been burned this would have been a great meal. As it was, it was satisfying and good, but left me feeling like it really could have been better if the chef or manager cared just a little more about the food.
Happy Eating!
"Chef" Slade

'ello puppet!

Hi! Thanks for stopping by to check out my blog. I hope it won't make you bored, sad, or angry! My main interest is to make you hungry and ready to try some new foods!
I don't have a set time of when I'm going to update this but I plan on posting at least once a week. The posts will most likely have a title consisting of the restaurant/eatery name and then the post will talk about where I ate, what I had, how it was, and if I'll ever order it again. Also I'll be peppering in posts of my latest forays into the culinary world from the perspective of the chef! I love cooking (despise cleaning up afterwards) and am always attempting new recipes. Feel free to comment back on what you thought of the post/critique, ways I could make it better, things you've experienced at a certain restaurant, or just whatever comes to your mind.
Happy Eating!
"Chef" Slade