Do Superstitions Sometimes Work?

I guess that most people have superstitions that involve doing a special dance for the snow to come in full force, wearing a lucky hat to take a test, keeping a special penny in their wallets, etc. I make food.

The Ohio State versus Michigan game was a week and a half ago. Of course I dawned my lucky red and wore my lucky buckeye necklace...but special games goo very well along with special food. I think that these buckeye pretzels may be a new staple for Buckeye game days. I got a bunch of pretzels from work that needed to be used and had to find something to do with them. I just melted some peanut butter in one pot and melted some semisweet chocolate chips in another. Then I dipped the pretzels in the peanut butter and then in the chocolate and then let them cool on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. So simple, but very delicious. I put varying amounts of the peanut butter and chocolate on according to different tastes, but I think the ones with a lot of both were the winners. No matter what, the right team won the game and so I guess they all worked. GO BUCKS!

Also, there is a new tradition to put a Tennessee jersey on our kitten, Stella Artois. Stella has a perfect record with this jersey and quite an imperfect record without it. Seriously.. So the Stella Artois bottle wore the UT cozy courtesy of Ashley for the Tennessee versus Kentucky game. Another success! I think I might have found a way to win them all. :-)

Top Chefs of Knoxville

Tonight I went to a competition between the top chefs of Knoxville. Chef Antun, the head of the culinary program, gave us free tickets to the event. A chef from 12 of the better known restaurants in Knoxville came and supplied the crowd with an appetizer and (with the exception of 2 restaurants) a dessert. We went around and tasted one of everything and gave each a score from 1 to 5. It was so fun getting to meet all of these chefs whose names adorn all of the famous restaurants in Knoxville and especially having them trying to impress us for our vote.

There was a wide range in the foods and my impressions thereof. Two things I didn't like: filet mignon tartar and a Guiness chocolate cake. There were at tons of dishes that were absolutely fantastic, though....I think I might be stopping by those restaurants for similar dishes. Among my favorites: Beef Willington wrapped in puff pastry with basil mashed potatoes, seared tuna sushi with a mango cole slaw, a quid salad, salmon salad profiteroles, a meyer lemon cheesecake with pomegranate reduction, white chocolate banana bread pudding, and baklava. I'm so full!!

The results from our voting are going to be published in December's issue of City View Magazine (a Knoxville magazine). Chef Antun will also be included in the magazine talking about himself and the school. So fun!

I love being in the food world:-)

whoaaaah

look at this bread


*edit* So, I made this bread and I think that it lives up to the hype. MMMMM

not my food , but you've gotta love it

So, I have also decide that I need to talk about a couple of food-related sources that I have found to be quite interesting. The first is this book: Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel. In order to compile this book, the author went around to a bunch of different countries and asked a family from each to take a picture with all of the food that they would normally eat. There are also essays about the political and cultural climates of the countries while at the same time tying them into food. This is certainly right up my alley. The same author has another book called A Material World. I have bought several copies of this book to give as gifts and own one myself. It uses the same concept, but instead of with food the families stand outside of their houses with all of their material possessions. Both books give a very insiteful and unique view of the world and I highly recommend checking them out if you ever wind up bored in a bookstore.

The second thing is a website called Taste Spotting. They update the page at least a few times a day with links to different blogs about food that people have submitted. There are very often extremely creative and interesting ideas and foods that show up. I look at this website more than any other and am always so excited to see what is going to be on there next. Jenn introduced it to me and we are always talking about things that we have seen on there. You can click on the link up there to access the page if you would like to check it out. It is well worth it in my opinion!

In other happenings, a guy from my culinary class gave me a huge bag of collard greens yesterday. He was harvesting them and asked me if I wanted them last week and I said sure, not really thinking that he was serious. Sure enough he showed up with a huge bag of them. So I get to have my first experience with cooking them tomorrow. I better watch out- if I'm not careful I am on my way to becoming southern. :-)

Skyline Enchiladas and First Day of Culinary School

So, we had some leftover Skyline Chili in the fridge after making some coneys the other night for dinner. None of us ever complain about having too much Skyline around, but I felt like making something other than the classic Skyline baked potato or Skyline dip.

I thought and I thought and I thought about the endless combination of combinations that would be delicious with Skyline Chili as one of the components. The lightbulb- I also remembered that I had about 3/4 of a package of egg roll wrappers that were in the fridge and needed to be used up. (I now constantly have egg roll wrappers on hand because they are just so useful when needing to make lasagna, crazy egg rolls, or a number of other things.)

The concept: Skyline Enchiladas- the perfect little appetizer for the Cincinnati inclined
The recipe:

egg roll wrappers
cream cheese
Skyline chili
finely shredded cheddar cheese
(all proportions are according to how much you want to make, how thick, etc)

Slice egg roll wrappers in half (by width). Spread cream cheese across the center of one side of the wrapper, leaving about 1/4 in. border on all sides. Spread a small amount of the chili down the center as well (less wide than the cream cheese). Fold in the sides and roll jelly-roll style. Wet the end with a very little bit of water to seal. Place all rolls in a casserole dish. Bake for about 20 min at 350 F. Take it out and spread the cheddar cheese evenly. Increase the oven to 400 F for about 5 min.

The perfect meal for a skyline lover who wants a change.


Today was also my first day of culinary school. Mostly it was introductions and then we had an overview of some food safety techniques and things to keep in mind. I didn't learn a lot in this one and the teacher even asked me for the real names of the pathogens and such. I guess chefs are more concerned with how to keep them away rather than naming them. :-) It was a lot of fun, though and I really think that I am going to learn a lot. There is an interesting mish mosh of people in the class that will certainly result in an interesting atmosphere. Next class is on Thursday!

Wonderland Cookies...Wookies

Friday night we all decided to go out for Halloween. After much consideration, we came up with the idea of being the characters from Alice and Wonderland (I was chosen to be Alice). As a fun little evening activity it was decided that there was to be a tea party. We all love tea and of course all of the fun little foods that accompany tea parties.
Tea sandwiches were an obvious first on the list. I decided to make some very similar to ones that I had on my birthday this year- cucumber, cream cheese, and dill on wheat. So simple and yet so delicious. We also had some extra roasted chicken lying around, so I thought that chicken salad would be a nice complement. Curry makes everything amazing...especially in conjunction with grapes and pecans...delicious!
And then..... the idea of little tea cookies was brought up. My mom had made some delicious cookies the last time she visited that I was hoping to be able to duplicate that involved banana muffin mix and mascarpone cheese. Unfortunately I couldn't get ahold of her for the recipe...so my love of improvisation with food as my material came into play. What was born? Alice in Wonderland cookies...WOOKIES! So easy and so life-changingly delicious!

The recipe:

1 box yellow cake mix
2 ripe bananas (medium size)
1 egg
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t chili powder (trust me)
chocolate chips, walnuts if desired
mascarpone cheese

Mash the bananas in the bottom of a mixer. Add the yellow cake mix until it is all incorporated. Add the egg and spices and beat until the mixture is uniform. Drop onto a sheet pan in very small circles (1- 1 1/2 in diameter). Add chocolate chips and/or nuts to the tops of half the cookies. Bake at 350 F for about 15 minutes. Let cool and then stack a plain cookie, a bit of mascarpone cheese, and then the decorated cookie.

Enjoy!
You will love these!