No posts for a week? whats the deal?

After 11 days of work in a row, I got to take a day for myself today! Day off= day to refresh. I heard a great sermon a couple months back that really hit home w/ me. The main point of emphasis that I took away was thinking about what you do on your "days off". Long story short, the speaker voiced the opinion that you (we) should spend our time off recharging our batteries, so to speak. I took this to heart, and have started planning, running my errands, and catching up on my to-do list on days when I'm actually scheduled to work. Yes, it does make for a busier schedule. However, it does allow me to focus on taking some "me time" on my off days. Since you're reading this it's probably pretty obvious how I spend most of my free time.

Today was no different, I had my first foray(sp?) into making my own chicken stock. I'm doing this in preparation for making a white chili this week! I also made my first strombolis from scratch. DELICIOUS.

I used a beautiful free-range whole chicken from Stonewall Farms, which is only about 15-20 min or so from Evansville. I've bought eggs and pork from them before, but this was the first time I have purchased a whole bird. I cut up an entire white onion, 4 decent-sized carrots, and 4 stalks of celery, into 1" chunks. I then put the back, wings, and legs into the pot w/ the veggies, along w/ some rosemary, oregano, bay leaves, kosher salt, and black pepper. I covered the entire mixture w/ water and brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat and simmered the mixture for about an hour (FYI for this batch i'm using a basic 8qt stock pot). once the chicken was cooked I removed it and peeled the meat from the bones. I reinserted the bones into the stock and reduced it for another hour. This yielded me around 3 quarts of stock after I strained everything out.

Best part of making stock... smells like fall!!! Was reminiscent even of thanksgiving w/ the family. nice overcast 65 degree day, cool breeze, football on the tv... PERFECT start to the day.

Once the Colts game was on, I was starting to get hungry (IMAGINE THAT?!?!). I decided on homemade stroms for our halftime food, and they certainly didn't disappoint! I used a full pound of sausage (Grogan's has no added MSG), a full pound of local ground beef, and about half a jar of organic tomato-basil pasta sauce. I browned the meat with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic (add the sauce after the meat browns). While the meat mixture was browning, I sauteed 2 red bell peppers and 1/2 of a white onion, both sliced into petal-sized pieces, with a drizzle of vegetable oil.

Funny side note/joke... What's Snoop Dogg's favorite kind of weather? Drizzle. HAHAHA love corny jokes like that...

Once the beef was mostly cooked, I tossed in a couple diced local chilis for some heat. I spooned the meat mixture onto one half of an artisan loaf bought from my local bakery, use an elongated loaf, but not a baguette, too crispy. Meat mixture on one side, mozzarella, parmigiana, asiago, and romano on the other, topped with the onions and peppers. Toasted in the oven for about 10 min on 350, this sandwich was HUGE and delicious!

I had plenty of leftover meat mix after making 2 sandwiches to easily make 2 more, so make sure you invite your friends if you choose to duplicate this delicious sandwich!

Successful recharging of said batteries, complete w/ a Colts win and a great day w/ friends!

Soundtrack for the day: Silence, and bone-crunching NFL hits:-)

Kanpai pt. 2

Quick review for you Evansvillians. Kanpai is a wonderful niche sushi/Japanese restaurant on Washington Ave. I have enjoyed their sushi on occasion but haven't dined with them in a few years. I returned when I heard that the ownership had changed and that they were incorporating some newer items and providing a selection of local and craft beers. I was not dissappointed in the slightest.
    I had a craving for tuna, so I ordered the seared Ahi appetizer along with a couple tuna based rolls. The S.O.B. was particularly delightful, mainly due to the abundance of fresh cilantro that was incorporated into this roll. The Ahi appetizer was delicious as well, serving the tuna over a warm cabbage salad. I was skeptical of the cabbage at first, but the flavors won me over. Lovely sesame notes rounded out this fantastic appetizer.

    While the food was wonderful, what impressed me most about this visit to Kanpai was their beer list. Skeptical of this as well, due to the fact it was printed on a blotted piece of paper, I ordered a craft brew i hadn't heard of before. I was pleasantly surprised! The unfiltered wheat was the better of the two, but both went very well with the heat of the dishes I ordered.

I would be remiss in my responsibilities as an honest critic if I didn't also list the things that I was displeased with. There weren't many things that rubbed me the wrong way, but the music certainly did. It didn't mesh at all with the ambiance. Both servers were very attentive and so was the owner, but the servers didn't seem to have a lot of knowledge of the diverse beer list. I understand this situation, I do hope for more when I dine out. These problems are minor and are certainly no indictment of Kanpai for low quality.
 
Overall, my visit  to Kanpai was a great success and I would certainly reccommend it to anyone.

P.S.
Soundtrack for today? U of M gameday radio and Glee soundtrack... NEW SEASON STARTS TUESDAY!!!!

Kanpai and Pancakes

Today I found delicious redemption!! 

I picked up the missing ingredients I needed for blueberry pancakes, and made some eggs and sausage to go with it.  

Always the label junkie, I compared Bisquick to the smaller, organic/natural mixes, and I also investigated the ingredients of the various sausages. I was abhorred at the fact that ALL of them minus one had monosodium glutamate as one of their ingredients.http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/monosodium-glutamate/AN01251

http://www.natural-health-information-centre.com/monosodium-glutamate.html

             "Because glutamate is absorbed very quickly in the gastrointestinal tract (unlike glutamic acid-containing proteins in foods), glutamate could spike blood plasma levels of glutamate.^[14][15][16] Glutamic acid is in a class of chemicals known as excitotoxins, high levels of which have been shown in animal studies to cause damage to areas of the brain unprotected by the blood-brain barrier and that a variety of chronic diseasescan arise out of this neurotoxicity.^[17][18] There has been debate among scientists on the significance of these findings since the early 1970s, when John Olney found that high levels of glutamic acid caused damage to the brains of infant mice.^[19] The debate is complex and has focused mainly on whether the increase in plasma glutamate levels from typical ingestion levels of glutamate is enough to cause neurotoxicity and on whether humans are susceptible to the neurotoxicity from glutamic acid seen in some animal experiments.

At a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in 1990, the delegates had a split opinion on the issues related to neurotoxic effects from excitotoxic amino acids found in some additives such as monosodium glutamate.^[20]

Some scientists believe that humans and other primates are not as susceptible to excitotoxins as rodents and therefore there is little concern with glutamic acid as a food additive.^[21][22] While they agree that the combined effects of all food-based excitotoxins should be considered,^[23] their measurements of the blood plasma levels of glutamic acid after ingestion of monosodium glutamate and aspartame demonstrate that there is not a cause for concern.^[24]

Other scientists around John Olney felt that primates are susceptible to excitotoxic damage^[25] and that humans concentrate excitotoxins in the blood more than other animals.^[26] Based on these findings, they feel that humans are approximately 5-6 times more susceptible to the effects of excitotoxins than rodents are.^[27] While they agree that typical use of monosodium glutamate does not spike glutamic acid to extremely high levels in adults, they are particularly concerned with potential effects in infants and young children^[28] and the potential long-term neurodegenerative effects of small-to-moderate spikes on plasma excitotoxin levels.^[29]"

         "In 2008, a collaboration between American and Chinese researchers found a positive statistical association between MSG intake and obesity in humans: Prevalence of overweight was significantly higher in MSG users than in non-users. The population in this study was 752 healthy rural Chinese villagers between the ages of 40 and 59, of whom 48.7% were women.^[30][31][32]

Previously, monosodium glutamate has been shown to indirectly cause obesity in lab rats by downregulating hypothalamic appetite suppression and, thus, increasing the amount of food the lab rats consumed. However, at least one study (1978) found that this obesity effect (widely used in obesity research using rats and mice, and also observed in Chinese hamsters) was not dependent on additional food intake.^[33]Animal research demonstrating an inverse relationship between increased glutamate intake via maternal feeding and serum levels of growth hormone, combined with an epidemiological survey of 2,239,960 German adults demonstrating an inverse relationship between height and morbid obesity, compels some researchers to theorize (2006) that monosodium glutamate has a role in the occurrence of obesity in humans.^[34] In contrast, a 2008 Japanese study sponsored by a MSG manufacturer found that rats lost body fat when allowed to freely drink a solution of MSG and water.^[35]

However, an earlier study (1973) did not find a similar effect in humans. The epidemiological survey of 4,938 ethnically Japanese men drawn from the Honolulu heart program in Hawaii found that self-reported dietary monosodium glutamate consumption was not statistically linked with obesity.^[36][37] Researchers furthermore found that frequent monosodium glutamate consumption did not significantly affect blood sugar or serum cholesterol levels among the participants.

Monosodium glutamate may worsen non-alcoholic fatty liver disease caused by trans fats.^[38]"

Taken from Wikipedia.

So let me get this straight, in tests MSG has been shown to "cause obesity" as well as "damage to the brain" and

 "chronic disease"... Sounds like one more ingredient I want to avoid even though it's "not a cause for concern"

I have known people in which the addition of MSG to their diet triggered migraines, and the elimination of MSG eliminated those same symptoms... hmmmm

In my opinion it's just another example of this simple fact. More processing= further away from the natural benefits of good food, i.e. raw, fresh ingredients.

That is all for tonight. for you Evansvillians I'll have a review of Kanpai tomorrow, Stay tuned!

First morning frustration...

I need to go grocery shopping!

So I had it in mind to share some snippits of deliciousness with you of my blueberry pancakes and fresh oj...
Unfortunately I had no eggs, therefore no pancakes. I realized I ran out of oj a bit too late as well.

Hmmm, what to do?

I went w/ the delicious fall standby of oatmeal w/ organic brown sugar and pure maple syrup. Had some delicious coffee as well.

Not quite the intriguing first meal for the blog, you say? Touche. But there are always moments for teaching/learning.

Educational moment for today: Name one of the most widely used ingredients in processed food that is also one of the worst things to add to your diet? High Fructose Corn Syrup. See the links.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66057P20100701
http://ajprenal.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/293/4/F1256

So I've given you some examples. Now educate yourselves. It's in EVERYTHING. There are a few products that the mass majority of people ingest on a regular basis that are almost ENTIRELY HFCS but packaged/marketed under a different name. Soda=HFCS+flavoring & color. Maple Syrup= HFCS+color.

HOWEVER, there are options. Pure maple syrup for example, is incredibly more delicious w/ ZERO additives and ZERO HFCS. More expensive for sure, but well worth the extra dollars in my opinion.

Conclusion for the day:
READ YOUR LABELS. If you don't know what something is? It's probably not good for you.

First post on the new blog!

So I've decided to start blogging. If you're reading this, you are probably either someone who cares about me, or someone who loves food as much as I do.

My intention is for this blog is to serve as a forum for me to share my experiences with cooking, eating, and partaking of an adult beverage when I choose to. I may also share articles or videos I come across that I find particularly enlightening.

My hope is that by reading this you will become a bit more exposed to the world of food around you and a bit more enlightened to the ways of a true foodie.

That being said, there are some things you should know:
-I have not gone to culinary school. I learn from trial and error as well as observance. I learn from making mistakes. I intend to share my cooking successes as well as my failures!
-Besides being a foodie, I'm also appreciative of anything artistic. Be it visual arts, music, film, voice, architecture, etc. I am of the opinion that not enough people in my generation appreciate things that are made by hand, i.e. not mass produced.
-I usually only cook for myself, but I LOVE to cook for anyone. If you're ever near Evansville, IN, I'd be more than happy to cook for YOU!

I'll post again tomorrow, for now, have a great evening. don't forget to take a minute to star-gaze.