menagerie

This post is going to be all over the place, every which way to Sunday if you want specifics. I have a little bit of a back log of food photos and no back log of snarky writing to go with them. We did dog some tacos though, crunchy and satisfying.



We have the shrimp and fennel pollen bisque with mini shrimp cakes, for example.



So mouth watering and delicious yet not inspiring enough to get my creative writing juices flowing.



Eggs benedict with shrimp flavored hollandaise are in the mix, complete with an avocado salad and hearty bacon home fries.



Filled up bellies but didnt rev up brain cells.



Yucca and bacalao salad - one of my favorite things to eat in the whole wide world - you can follow that link to a time when I talked all about it. While this isnt much for looks it is definitely one for flavor. So you see I have a whole lot of nothing.

You can vote for me:



This one is a cocktail



And this one is a flan. The badges look the same but they take you to two different places. Thanks in advance.

Geux with the fleux

Superbowl Sunday is such an American institution and I mean USA when I say "American" in this instance. There is so much hype and build up as to what are the best snacks to serve. Here's what I have to say - do what you want.



We are going to have fresh ground chicken tacos. Fry up the shells, doesnt the oil look so cool in this shot?



Fill with taco goodness.



Killer smoothies made from persimmon, mandarin orange and carambola (star fruit) are so good you actually dont need anything else.



We also have the best turkey in all the land. A nice turkey breast from the lovely people at Shady Brook Farms that has been filleted out and a layer of butter, pumpkin and cranberries and rosemary was spread over it.



It was then rolled back up and roasted covered in a 350 oven




until the internal temperature was 150 thus allowing the residual heat to carry it up to 165.



Sliced it looks so beauticious and delicious.



Served up with a little gravy and butternut squash, this dish has an entire turkey dinner in every single bite. So whatever you do and whatever team you choose I hope your day turns out as good as mine looks like its going to.



Whoops - I forgot to mention the super fudgy rice and soy brownies - vegan all the way!



I also forgot to tell you about the sweet potato and plantain fries.



The fries got served up with a little marinated garlic slices - can I get a "who dat" !

rice porridge hot

Rice porridge hot, rice porridge cold, rice porridge in the pot nine days old - No this is not the way the ditty goes and no this is not nine day old porridge, this is super tasty rice porridge that is minutes old.



As part of foodbuzz and their featured publisher TasteMaker program I occasionally get products to check out and this time around its from Kikkoman( I realized after a few hours of this post being up that the link for Kikkoman went to the EZ cracker egg cracker on youtube - if you saw this and were misguided please tell everyone). How can you go wrong with a 300 year old company.



I made a delicious shrimp and rice porridge, I had congee in mind when I was putting this together but the result was a little more porridge like.



Big pieces of shrimp, a little spring onion and a nice drizzle of Kikkoman Ponzu made this a lunch that was not only popular but landed in the pile of future requests. This sauce was so tasty with the hint of lime and the backbone of soy, I can think of so many other ways to enjoy it and trust me - I will!

Romancing the dog

Hot dogs are romantic, everyone has a fondness for the frankfurter. There are vegan hot dogs, there are vegetarian hot dogs, turkey, chicken and salmon hot dogs - there is a hot dog out there for everyone.



Before I get all caught up in the franks please take a minute and vote for my recipe over at Foodista for Candy Cap Flan - all you need to do is click that little widget up there.


There is actually a National Hot Dog & Sausage Council just in case you need to file some official paperwork. The hot dog is serious and it has its own etiquette.


Perhaps you were wondering who eats the most of these luscious tube steaks, No need to guess its New York City!

Caribbean Belle

Way back in the summer I created a Plum Carpaccio and this particular recipe generated a lot of buzz and hype. It was to be published in France and in New Zealand and also in the Caribbean but the funny realistic thing of it all is I had no idea if it actually was ever published since I somehow never received any copies of the publications. This is also a testament to how things have changed in the digital world, people e mailed me and asked if they could use it and credit me and I said yes and then they vanished, my guess is that they never used it. All this changed today when, lo and behold, my lovely friend Cynthia from Tastes Like Home managed to get me a copy of her article that was published in the January issue of Caribbean Belle magazine. This publication is available online and at news stands - but I think you would need to be in the Caribbean to pick one up.



I scanned in the piece but you can go to the website to see it there as well. In my scanned version I included my Plum Carpaccio picture that they said they could not include because I shot it at too low a resolution (I did not expect it to be printed but I have since started to shoot everything with possible printing in mind) so this is how it would look in my ideal world.



As much as I would have loved to have my photo included in the actual piece I am still happy to have my recipe out there for more of the world to see. Thanks Cynthia.