Fresh Ground Burgers

Ground Ribeye Burger with Pepper Jack cheese and Tomato Jalapeno Salsa 

Tired of Bubba Burgers? Your burgers just not as moist as you hoped they would be?

Well here is a solution: ground your own beef. But, of course!

This is a fun task that even your kids will enjoy helping with (parental supervision required).

Start with a nice piece of meat. We are using a 2.5 lb ribeye steak.

Cube meat and place in freezer for 20 minutes. You want the meat very cold but not completely frozen.

Run meat through grinder.

Ellie had a great time! The older kids will think it's like Play Doh!

Place all ground beef in a large mixing bowl and season

The key to a good burger is not to over mix and never, I mean never, press on the meat with a spatula while cooking. The reason pressing the meat cooks it faster is because it releases on the moisture. Not a good thing!

The white chucks you see mixed in with the red is the fat, very necessary for a moist burger.

Thinly slice 3-4 washed potatoes and add to a hot oiled pan, season with salt pepper and granulated garlic. Toss in hot pan until potato sticks begin to lightly brown. Finish cooking in 350 degree oven for 20-30 mins. Time depends on desired crispness ( also size will depend on how crispy the sticks get, thinner more crispy).

Tomato Jalapeno Salsa:

• Hand full for grape tomatoes
• Half of a red onion
• half of a jalapeno
• 1 oz red wine vinegar
• 1 oz olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Cut tomatoes in half, and ruff chop the onion and jalapeno. In a separate bowl mix vinegar and oil, and pour over tomato mixture. Season, and place in fridge.

For the most part I cook the majority of my meats in a pan on the stove and finish cooking them in the oven, and when its 26 degrees outside there is not doubt that i will not be firing up the grill. 

So heat a pan, non stick if you have one, and a little oil and put your burger down. Cook on first side until the sides are turning brown, flip and finish in the oven. 

Pretty tasty!

Beer of choice: Rocky Mountain IPA 

Enjoy!!!

Fisherman's Stew for Two! (but really 3 or 4)

Fisherman's stew, a delicious 1 pot seafood medley, is traditionally served in a garlic tomato broth.

Tonight, however, I am going to serve the fish and broth with creamy mashed potatoes and garlic bread.

So here is tonight's grocery list:

• White fish (we used tilapia, $2.99 lb at Harris Teeter) 
• Clams (middle neck or little neck will both work)
• Shrimp
• Calamari
• Smoked sausage (bacon will work here as well)
• Carrots
• Onions
• Garlic
• 1 can crushed tomatoes
• Bell pepper (all colors will work here, I went with green, for flavor and color)
• Italian parsley (these are the flat leaf parsley, more flavor then the curly)
• White wine (we used Pinot Grigio, Sarah's favorite white wine)
• Clam juice (chicken stock will work)
• Russet potatoes
• Sour cream
• Heavy cream
• Butter
• French bread

Now this dish could get a little pricey, but remember you don't have to use every ingredient listed (for example, it'd be great with just fish and clams, cutting out the sausage, mussels, and shrimp).

This is a really pretty dish, so take a little more time with your knife cuts making sure all vegetables are the same size.


With that being said, let's get started:
-Small dice peppers, onions, and carrots and set aside.

-Peel and quarter 8 potatoes, and place in pot with salted water and bring to a boil. The easiest way to know when potatoes are done cooking and ready to be mashed, is when you can stick a skewer (a knife will work as well) in to a piece of potato and it slides off easily.

-Strain potatoes and add back to pot over low heat to make sure all water has evaporated. Add half a stick of butter, 1 cup heavy cream, and 2tbl spoons of sour cream. With an electric mixer, mix until smooth, and cover.

-Season fish, and sear in a hot pan with straight sides (so that it will hold liquid). Only cook fish half way and remove from pan. Add onions, peppers and carrots, then garlic last.  Sweat vegetables.

 Smaller cuts may take a little longer, but look how nice it looks!

-Add sausage. Deglaze pan with white wine, and reduce by half. Add tomatoes, and 1 1/2 cup of clam juice.

-The rest of the seafood cooks fast, so bring liquid to a boil and taste for seasoning, and add mussels, clams, shrimp and fish.

-Cover pan and wait until all shellfish have opened (if they don't open, toss them; they're dead).

Plating:
Mashed potatoes, fish, then broth and add mussels and other seafood last, so they are all visible.
Garnish with fresh parsley.

A Quick Bite For Breakfast

Daddy, I am starving, me too!!! cries Ellie and mommy.

I've got just the idea...

Breakfast sandwich!

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs ( 2 per sandwich)
• Shredded cheese
• Lettuce 
• Tomato
• Smoked sausage
• French bread

Hurry they are getting hungry:

Slice bread in 1/2 inch slices, top with cheese and place in oven at 350. If you have a pizza stone it works great at making the bread crispy, if not no big deal. While bread is toasting heat non stick pan, add butter. You can crack egg directly in to pan, but if you are nervous about breaking yoke, crack egg into a bowl first and you can use any eggs that break to make scrambled eggs tomorrow!

Cook eggs until whites are almost set, flip, and remove from heat for perfectly cooked over easy eggs. For over medium or hard eggs flip and leave on heat an extra 2-3 minutes.

While eggs are cooking slice sausage long ways the length of the bread. 1 piece cut into 4 pieces works for two sandwiches. Place in a cold pan on medium heat, cook on both side until they start to curl, this does not take long at all.

Pull bread from oven and top with lettuce tomato ( I always season my tomatoes for sandwiches), and sausage and eggs.

Coffee and juice, and enjoy!!!

Good For The Soul

Soul food, when I open my restaurant the cusine will be derived for these two beautiful words, and slow cooking is a very big part of good soul food.

So tonight I am going to cook some delicious slow cooked short ribs, with creamy stone ground grits.
I will use a braising method to cook the ribs,  searing the meat and covering with liquid and cooking at a low temperature for 3-4 hours.

Ok lets get started:

Ingredients:

• 4 bone in short ribs
• 3 carrots
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 green bell peppers
• 1 tbl spoon garlic
• 2 cups beef stalk
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 tbl spoon mustard
• enough flour to coat
• salt and pepper

Rough chop all the vegetables ( mince the garlic), this is a rustic style dish so don't spend to much time making sure your vegetable are all perfectly square, unless you are using this dish for your Top Chef audition tape and in that case good luck!

Cooking:

In a large bowl, season meat and coat with flour. Heat a heavy straight sided saute pan and add oil, shake off excess flour from ribs and sear on all side until they are a nice golden brown color.

A hot pan and room temperature oil will help the meat not stick to the pan.

Once the meat has finished, remove from pan and set aside. Add a tbl spoon of olive oil back to the pan and add all the vegetables. Adding the garlic last, and using the other vegetables as a "nest" helps the garlic not burn, since it cooks at a much faster and at a lower temperature. 

When you notice the onions have started to sweat and are becoming more translucent, it is time to add your mustard. Stir to make sure all vegetables are coated.

Deglaze (adding a liquid to a hot pan helps remove all the food that has stuck to the pan, that makes the sauce really tasty) the pan with the white wine. Reduce the wine by half, and season with salt and pepper. Seasoning as you go will make you food much more flavorful then seasoning at the end.

Return the meat to the pan and add beef stock, enough to almost cover the beef. Make sure to bring your beef stock to a boil first.

Bring liquid to a boil and cover. If your pan does not have a lid, aluminum foil works fine.

place in a pre-heated oven at 325 for 3 1/2 hours.

Now for the grits, put away anything that says instant in the title, stone ground also know as polenta, take a little longer, but like most things, definitely worth the wait.

Bring 8 cups of water with half stick of unsalted butter to a boil, I like to add salt and black pepper at this  point. Once boiling add 2 cups grits, (grits to water ratio is 4:1) stir vigorously to avoid any grits sticking to the pan. Once the mixture is smooth you can turn down the heat to a simmer. Be careful, grits pops and really burns, lava is how it is referred to in most restaurant!!! Taste the grits after about 20 minutes, for seasoning and texture, it should not be gritty, now add 1 cup heavy cream and the other half stick of butter. 

By this point your whole house should be smelling amazing and your family my have migrated towards the kitchen, take this time to see how everyones day was, the best conversations are had while sharing a great meal.

To make sure your meat is ready, holding to forks pull in opposite directions, if the meat pulls away it is ready, hence "fork tender". Remove meat and vegetable separately and allow liquid to come up to a boil.

With equal parts butter and flour, make a roux, this is used to thicken the sauce. Melt butter on low heat and whisk in flour. 2 tbl spoons of roux is a good amount for this sauce. Add roux to boiling sauce, stir, check season and remove from heat.

Roux should be smooth, and the consistency of thick pancake batter.

Spoon your grits into bowl, grits should be thick enough to pick up with a fork.

Place a short rib on grits and ladle sauce on top.

Enjoy!!!

Date night; how the times have changed.

We are officially "those" people. It's 5:30 and we are eating dinner at a restaurant. When it's this early, can you even call it dinner?

We are at a great little neighborhood restaurant, Intermezzo, a cozy pizzeria off of Central Ave., and tonight is date night. Not just for mommy and daddy, but Ellie's got a handsome little guy waiting for her at the restaurant (don't worry his parents are coming too).

Ellie getting ready for her date

The atmosphere for the restaurant is very welcoming: dark wood walls, stone work throughout the restuarant, and only a few tv's in the bar area...which is nice when you are not there to watch the game but, it does help drown out the little guys when they get too excited!

We were greeted by a friendly server, who did not seem bothered at all seeing two toddlers sitting in her section. They have a small, but good, selection of beers on draft. I had Avery's Ellie's Brown Ale, which was delicious, Sarah was happy about the Saturday night 1/2 priced martini special, while Jeff and Heather also enjoyed cold draft beers. Beer and pizza is always a winning choice.

Pretty nice little date night, right?

I think Finn was getting hungry and wondering where the server was.

The appetizer arrived: now everyone is happy!
As a great starter, (and not the typical bruschetta) we enjoyed a cheesy corn dip. It needed a little seasoning, but overall, it was a pretty good appetizer.

Ellie loved it!

Spinach salad...
(my apologies on the bad lighting...my Fascinate isn't the world's best camera)

The classic Margherita pizza. It was good, heavy on the olive oil, but pretty tasty.

The table's favorite, the "Capriccioso". This is Intermezzo's version of the meatlovers pizza...
Delicious!!!

Overall, a great restaurant for good pizza, cold beer, and family date night! 

And I think the kids had fun too.

A momentary break from winter

Thanksgiving, holiday parties, Christmas shin-digs, chilly snow days.  If you are like us, then you have recently been in a blizzard of delicious, comforting soul food for the last 8 weeks or so. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE soul food (what isn't good battered and fried???). But, we decided a little taste of "something light" would be a good break from all the winter food madness.

Tonight's menu:

    Blackened Mahi Mahi/Apple-Cabbage-Slaw Buritto with Herb Roasted Potatoes

Getting started:

Slaw:

• 1/2 head of cabbage
• 1/2 red onion
• 1 green apple
• 1 stock of celery (1 piece)
• 2 tbl spoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbl spoon mayonaise 
• 1 tbl spoon mustard (whole grain for that extra kick)
• 1 tsp sugar
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Julienne (thinly slice, like a match stick) all vegetables and place in bowl. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over cabbage mixture. Mix well and place in fridge.

Fish:

• 1 1/2 lbs of Mahi Mahi ( I always request the piece closer to the head)
• salt, black pepper, cayenne, Italian herb blend

Cook that fish:
Remove skin from fish (you can request the skin of the fish removed at the store). Cube fish (a little larger then a nickel) and toss in a bowl with season mixture. In a hot pan with a table spoon of vegetable oil, cook fish on high heat for 3 minutes on each side. With a slotted spoon (helps leave excess oil in pan), remove fish from pan and place onto a paper towel to absorb any excess oil.

Ok, time to roll the burrito:

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Place tortilla in microwave, covered with a wet paper towel, and heat for 45 seconds.
Place a piece of romaine lettuce on tortilla (this keeps moisture of the slaw from dampening tortilla).
Add slaw, then fish. Then add shredded cheese and avocado.
Fold sides over and roll (hint: tucking in as you roll helps keep everything inside burrito).

Cutting allows for easier eating, and for wrapping-up leftovers

Sarah has already forgotten about the snow and is on a beach in Hawaii

A Dos Equis or Sol are my two suggestions for washing down this tasty treat

Well at this point there isn't enough to wrap...

Delicious!

No school, No work...what's for breakfast?

So the roads are all icy and the office is closed, and your kids are going a little stir crazy from being home the last two days...how about a fun breakfast that they can help you with? Ellie helped me with ours!

Reese's peanut butter cup pancakes

Gather your ingredients:
-3 eggs
-1/2 cup sugar
-2 tsp vanilla
-3 cups all purpose flour
-2 cups buttermilk ( whole milk works as well)
-1 pinch salt
-1 table spoon baking powder
-1/2 stick melted butter
-2 Reeses Cups crumbled up

Getting Started:
-Whisk together eggs sugar and salt.
-Add baking powder, flour and milk (alternating flour and milk 1/2 cup at a time)
-Using and sifter with help avoid clumps in your flour
-Add vanilla and melted butter ( should look like thick batter, adjust milk or flour to thin or thicken)
-Add Reeses crumbles

-On medium heat in a greased pan, ladle in 1/2 cup of batter.
-Cook until bubbles on pancake open, Flip cook for 30-45 seconds an place on cookie sheet in warm oven until finished with batter.
-Left over batter can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days

Pancake are great with scrambled eggs and a cute family!

Enjoy!

Snow is in the Forecast

If you are in North or South Carolina, even the idea of snow means: get to the store, get all the bread and milk you can fit in your cart, go home, and do not leave until it has all melted...

Since you are already at the store, why not pick up some ingredients to make your family some delicious chili? After all, you're gonna be cooped up for a few days!

What do you need (feeds 8):
2 lb ground beef
Yellow onion
Red and green peppers
Jalapeno (for those who like a little kick)
1 can kidney beans (optional)
1 can crushed tomato
Chili powder
Cumin
12oz stout beer
Beef stock

Gettin' Started:
-Rough chop all vegetables, except jalapeno (you will want to give this guy a finer chop as nobody wants to unknowingly bite into a big, spicy pepper).
-Brown the beef (use the same pan you will cook the chili in, adds flavor to the pan as well as less mess to clean. strain grease and set aside).
-Add 1 tablespoon blended oil to hot pan (80/20 vegetable/olive oil. This blend works best; tastes like olive oil but has the heat tolerance of vegetable oil). 
-Add vegetables and sweat (cook onions until they become translucent).
-3 tblspoons chili powder and 3 tblspoons cumin
-Add beer and simmer 2-3 minutes
-Return beef, add tomatoes, and drained beans
-Add enough beef stock to cover beef
-Season with salt and pepper and cover
-Simmer on low heat...

Enjoy the snow!
-Thomas

Chef/Dad

Ellie with me, her adoring Dad

Gone are the days of: "Honey, I'm home!" Husband walks in awaiting home-cooked meal and martini.

Times have changed.

It is not so uncommon now to walk into a kitchen and see a man standing over the stove awaiting his wife to come home from a long day's work, and in my case, there very well may be a beautiful little girl on my back helping with the finishing touches of that night's dinner.

I have been cooking now for over ten years. Started at the bottom as a line cook, attended The Art Institute, moved onward ho to Sous Chef, Executive Chef...you get the picture. My corporate experience has been in a very busy "burn and turn" environment and has evolved to the relaxing, self pace of my own catering company. But no matter how exciting or busy that days work might have been, nothing gives me more pleasure than cooking for friends and family.

Fast forward to real life:
It's 4:30am. Am I dreaming or is that Ellie I hear?...yep, it's Ellie-my beautiful 17 month old. The stars may still be in full shine and the birds haven't even thought of the song they may sing when morning finally arrives, but my little angel is ready for Daddy's famous scrambled eggs.
This is how my day starts.

Cooking is my passion. I love food and creating amazing dishes and sharing them with friends and family. In this blog, I plan to talk about how to cook for large parties and how to execute those dishes that will amaze your family, no matter how big or small. I know my wife and Ellie can't wait to see what's on the menu tonight.

Thanks for coming and enjoy the read!