what day is it

Poor Permit - the only live fish that had to be frozen. There is no recipe for Permit that I have liked. I could grill it all grilly like but I wont. Poor Permit.

go fish

Poached cod with a red pepper butter, simple, satisfying and something I have been making for years and years and years.



Farfalle soup for those sick days, except this one was 'fused' it has kombu.



Whole fried 'mullet' with mystery greens, yet these were not the oh so mysterious ones and an appreciated reader informed me what the other ones were - chrysanthemum, or 'tong ho' - thanks [eating club]vancouver!

nice muffin

I was thinking about this post and I was going to make all kinds of Amish puns and I couldnt think of any - then I was realizing that even if I insulted the Amish they technically would never know about it since using a computer is out of bounds. So here I am with the unpolitically correct ability to poke fun and I cant think of a thing to say. "But why are you thinking of the Amish" you wonder. I am thinking of the Amish because I am a recipient of some Amish Friendship Starter and I need to pass it along. I got it from Mo and I will give Mo a couple of muffins to show my friendship appreciation.



This is not bread, as you would be led to believe, it is more like cake batter. Oh I forgot to mention that it takes ten days of bag squishing and flour adding till you can make cake.



I have some barbie muffin 'tins'



And I have some GI Joe muffin 'tins'



The barbie muffin tins didnt rise enough - these came out flatter than a nine year old. (yeee -haw - I got something politically incorrect in there)



The GI Joe muffin tins worked perfectly except the instructions clearly say not to use metal! When the Amish are hungry what is it? Famished......har har har.

fish wish

Or should I say fishy washy? You dont have to hold me down and tickle me to get me to eat fish I do it willingly, in fact I think fish is so good I make others eat it too. Chinatown is a fountain of plenty when it comes to seafood selection, you can look back when I talk about Tan My My and see for yourself. I do know a lot of the different kinds of fish but I definitely dont know all of them yet that wont stop me from buying it, in fact some are so 'out there' that I cant even find them in my reference materials, these I just chalk up to 'some kind of mullet'.



A lot of people like eating breakfast for dinner - I will do that on rare occasions and I mean super rare. I cant imagine eating pancakes or french toast at eight o,clock at night and then not wanting to go run a mile. I havent been out late drinking in 10 years so the late night breakfast binge isnt in my schedule either. What is in my schedule is having dinner for breakfast and one of my favorites is catfish and grits. While catfish and grits is a breakfast offering it is not that common.



What it boils down to really is a carnivorious excuse to eat greens. I love greens of any kind and when I picked up these mystery greens in chinatown I thought the vendor was going to hug me. I grabbed a leaf, tasted it and said give me a pound, she glowed, I grabbed a different leaf from a different green and she started bubbling over telling me that I picked the two best ones. She was right, they were good.



One I can tell is in the Amaranth family and the other one looked Arugula like but it wasnt - mystery greens - chinatown -oh well.



The Permit fish and the 'mullet' in the first photo will be in future posts - its a fishy few days. The dozen oysters were gulped before I had a chance to figure out I had gulped them, (they were the chefs treat, what can I say a cooks gotta eat too ya know)

yes you're once

Twice, three times a lady and I.........whatever. Lionel Richie never spoke for me. Lou Rawls, now Lou Rawls definitely spoke for me. And at taco time.........



Barry White, now Barry White is a whole other level.



Seriously.


Thats why this is the right taco for right now. Boxed up and ready to go - Rajas con Crema. Go on, look it up.




Seriously. I have fusioned so much that the fuse has fused.

chillin' and illin'

Bronchitis can hit you at anytime and I got sucker punched by that beotch two days ago, so rather than make everyone I come in contact with sick I opted not to sneeze on their food and I have been out of commission lately.



By out of commission I mean I have been throwing things together in big pans and vats and letting them do their thing without much influence from me, no stirring no tasting no belaboring the point. Some baby eggplants some purple, red and yukon fingerling potatoes and onions roast together with some chicken making its own delicious sauce and sides all at the same time. You ask "how do I keep my girlish figure" well this is how I stay the lean mean fightin' machine that I am today.



Good mix of carbs and proteins combined with toasted coconut banana cake that was soaked in vanilla flavored rum (remember I made that way back in January, well I poured the whole thing into this cake) and frosted it with a mascarpone, banana and blood orange cream.



This behemouth is over 3 feet tall. Well thats a stretch but it is a big un'. I went crazy after making a couple loaves of banana nut bread and I thought to myself "this can't be all, there has to be more" so the birth of this cake was manifested and I know what you are thinking, "how did I frost it so perfectly" its just one of my knacks.



Just substitute "mascarpone" every time you hear "my sharona" and you too will have the knack. Nirvana had the knack.





Wanna see it? Here it is!

soap opera

Kick out the paper and the trash. Cleaning as much as we can since my sister is coming. Remember when my brother came we were freaking out? We had an intense visit and we did totally freak out in advance. Well, since then we are still freaking out.



Anyone can cook.



Anyone can make a plate.



Anyone can eat.

its my hill

Contests and video submissions and being submissive and dominating takes its toll on a guy and this guy has had his toll taken. Everyone is nice in their own way, I keep telling myself. I am nice in my own way I keep telling everyone else and hopefully at the end of the day we have reached a balance. King of the hill was one of my favorite games as a kid and I still like it to this day. Darwin knew what he was talking about but boy does that idea ruffle feathers. I get knocked down but I get up again......



In less than a month we will be hosting some nephews a niece and a sister- for a week, one of the nephews was here before and the other two and the niece will be here for the first time with their mom - my sister.

'nana nut

I eat a banana everyday, it is part of a diet plan that I adhere to for a healthy heart and since I eat so much of everything else so often I feel the banana does help. What doesnt count in my banana ritual is when I make something out of the banana, like bananas foster or in this case a banana nut bread. Somehow in my warped way I have determined that the banana has to be eaten straight from the peel in order for it to have its healing properties. Silly, I know.



Believe it or not this is the first time I have ever made banana nut bread and it is so good when it is fresh and hot and slathered in sweet creamery butter.

Banana Nut Bread

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
  
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 soft, ripe bananas, mashed

Cream sugar and butter; add eggs, flour, soda, bananas, and chopped nuts. Pour banana bread batter into 1 greased and floured loaf pan; bake at 325° for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. This banana nut bread recipe makes 1 loaf.

sunday secrets

After being gay for the first 14 years of of my life I decided to turn transvestite and well of course that didnt work out so here I am.

gotta gig

Yesterdays cucumber soup and todays puff pastries are all going to assemble themselves at a little event that I have the pleasure of providing appetizers for.



I love when I get to cook for other people and as often as it does happen I wish it happened for every meal (I say that now, what will I do if it ever happens?) The enjoyment I get out of watching the happy and excited faces struggling to decide what to get and then simply deciding that some of each will have to do. This is a relatively small event with about 25 in attendence.



There will be other things like homemade blue chips and salsa and various other crudites and hand foods but those will be made a little closer to delivery time and in addition to these ham and cheese, there will also be a spinach version for the non-meat eaters.

shooters

Well these are more like highballs, asparagus, cucumber highballs that is. Last night, right before falling asleep and wondering what to do with asparagus and cucumbers, I came up with the idea of putting the soup in a cucumber 'glass'. You see, I have been noticing so many delicious cold soups lately both around the city and around the web that I wanted to make some too. Asparagus are all over the place right now so asparagus have to be part of the mix. I scooped out the cucumber and left a shell for the 'glass' the scooped cucumber went into the blender with some asparagus stems -saving the tips for garnish. Making up recipes based on flavor pairings can be easy (strawberries and cream) and most often it can be difficult (curried raisins), in this case it is a little complicated. Should I make it a spicy sweet soup or a mild and savory soup that refreshes?





Cool curry cucumber soup.

six pounds later

Having too much corned beef has its advantages, there is the never ending sandwich as well as the coveted hash but there does get to be a point where enough is enough and we are at that point. I can confidently say that we are now finished with the corned beef.



We have a little phrase around here and it goes like this: "how do you want it?" and the answer is "just right" because that's how I like things and that's how I like to deliver them. I like the yolks to be perfect, the colors to be bright and of course the food to be hot, or "just right" as the case may be.



This corned beef hash was so 'just right' it was hard to eat slow, the perfect breakfast.

pair of aces

Shoes and socks, beer and pretzels, bread and butter and cookies and milk. Some combinations are simply perfect and cookies and milk is one of those matches that match.



The kind of guy that I am I make cookies for my kid about once a week and I like them to have some food value so these are oatmeal, raisin, chocolate chip, with a little lecithin and soy protein thrown in for fun.

roobie-doobie-do

Ask most people what to do with corned beef and rye and they will tell you to make a Reuben. The history of the Reuben is just as varied as those that like to eat it. I have never made a Reuben sandwich before today, why should I, I live in New York City I can get an excellent Reuben quicker than you can say shenanigans.



Today I made a Reuben sandwich especially for my blog buddy Beth and you start out with the star of the show -Corned Beef.



But wait, there's a twist, I didnt have any swiss so I used some Irish Cheddar from KerryGold. (they sent me a coupon for free samples - always pluggin' away what can I say)



The Russian dressing was deconstructed and mixed piece by piece into the the slaw, the flavor came out the same its just I took a different road to get there and it didnt have to look all orangey/ketchupy like Russian dressing looks. (read between the lines, I didnt make Russian dressing)




The sandwich was toasty, ooey gooey and good, mark my word.