Pork Chops & Chicken

Tuna Salad Stuffed Tomatoes

This is a little easy trick my mom used to make for us as kids. It's so simple and delicious and perfect for the warmer months.



Tuna Salad Stuffed Tomatoes
Serves 2 to 4

Sweet Pickle Tuna Salad

2 cans of albacore tuna
1/2cup finely chopped sweet bread and butter pickles (not relish)
4 tbls of Mayonnaise
1/3 cup of finely diced white onion
1/3 cup of finely diced celery
3 dashes of celery salt
1 tbls yellow mustard
1 tbls grainy mustard

Mix all ingredients in a bowl making sure all is blended in and the mayonnaise has coated everything. Use more or less mayonnaise as you see fit.

Stuffed Tomatoes

2 Large tomatoes (Heirlooms if you feel like taking the price hit. They do taste the best, but cost the most.)

Mixed baby greens
Ranch Dressing (or Honey Mustard dressing)
Croutons (optional)

Place mixed greens on a small plate as base for the stuffed tomatoes.



Core the top stems from the tomatoes. Cut tomatoes into 8 slices without cutting all the way through the tomato.



Stuff tomato with tuna salad. Dress with ranch dressing and garnish with a few croutons around the plate and serve.

Easy spring and summer lunch or dinner ideas. And you got to love dinner ideas that only need a small salad plate to be served on. It's a very filling meal without making you feel heavy and gorged.



Beer Pairing Suggestion:

A nice clean pilsner is recommended. Fresh tomatoes and pilsners are made for each other. The tomatoes help bring out a sweet flavor on the beer. Czechvar or Neumarkter Lammsbräu are recommended. You can get the Lammsbrau in the states, but I am pretty sure they come in different bottles than the one shown in the link. It looks like their Edelpils bottle.

Read about Lammsbräu Sustainability. They are a bio/organic brewery doing so many amazing things that they put nearly all organic breweries to shame. Yes including New Belgium as amazing as they are. They run their trucks on salad oil, bought the farms north and south of them to control the water and clean it so that fresh water is brewing the beer, and they use all organic malts and hops. The pilsner is also very crisp, fresh and very hoppy. More so than the average pilsner. This is good for fish oils. Alpha acids in hops can get through tough fish oils like oils in cheeses. It cuts right through and allows the true flavors of the grains in the beer and the true flavors of the fish and cheese to come through. It's brilliant.

Quick And Easy Rocky Road Ice Cream With Marcona Almonds

"What do you want for Christmas?" is a very dangerous question. When I was asked that question last year, I immediately went for an eas answer, a childhood dream answer. An ice cream maker.

Now that I can make ice cream when ever I want to, I do. I found an easy, but good recipe for Rocky Road ice cream.

I have yet to experiment with various recipes. This one was solid enough, though I am tempted to try the recipes that call for condensed milk. It sounds fattening and awesome.

Source: Serving-ice-cream.com

                          Rocky Road Ice Cream Recipe

                                      Custard/Cream Style

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Chill Time: 1-2 hours
Ice Cream Maker Time: Approximately 25-30 minutes
Makes: 1 quart
Servings: Eight 1/2 cup servings

Ingredients:

2 oz (1/3 cup) unsweetened chocolate
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups milk
2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup chopped pecans or almonds (I used Marcona Almonds)
1/4 cup chocolate chunks or chocolate chips
2/3 cup mini marshmallows

Directions: (For an ice cream machine.)

Melt chocolate in a double boiler.

Slowly add cocoa powder, stirring until smooth.

Side Note: I added a little bit of the milk in while the chocolate and powered were melting and mixing. If I didn't it would have become a ball of chocolate. My make shift double boiler, metal bowl on top of boiling water, was too hot. So monitor your temps, or add the milk in early.)

Using a whisk, stir in milk. Stir until mixture is blended and smooth. 

Remove from heat. Cool.

Side Note: I put the chocolate mixture in an ice bath. It cools its fast, and is ready for in time for the next step to mix it with the beaten egg mixture.

Meanwhile, beat eggs 1-2 minutes until they are light and fluffy.

Gradually stir in sugar and whisk for 1 minute.

Add heavy cream and vanilla extract.

Stir in cooled chocolate mixture.

Chill 1-2 hours until cold.

Pour this mixture into your ice cream maker.

Churn for 20-25 minutes or according to manufacturer's instructions.

Side Note: I sometimes churn for 30 to 40 minutes. Sometimes it's just too soft to start adding in your extra ingredients. You want it to be soft so it will get mixed in properly, but sometimes it needs to churn a bit longer.

Add chopped nuts and chocolate chunks.

Side Note: I also added a few marshmallows in the churning. If you do this, watch how much you put in as it will start to over flow in the ice cream maker. 

I also used more nuts than the recipe called for. About two handfuls of almonds. And I chopped them coarse and large. Marcona almonds are soft and excellent for this kind of ice cream.

Churn 5 more minutes.

Remove from ice cream maker and place in a storage container.

Stir in marshmallows immediately.

Side Note: I mixed in extra marshmallows and chocolate chips. I layered it through out the container.

Enjoy your homemade ice cream!

Helpful Hint: Freeze marshmallows ahead of time so that when you stir them into your ice cream - the ice cream doesn't partially melt!

 

Beer Pairing Suggestion: Serve this with a delicious stout or porter. Or make beer floats with this. Berkshire Brewing Company's Coffeehouse Porter is a personal favorite for beer floats. They also have a very well balanced and totally underrated Imperial Stout as well. It's not too big or too thin, not too bitter or chewy. It's well balanced and would be good for a beer float.

I also used Berkshire's Coffeehouse Porter for a beer ice cream I made. It was Coffeehouse Porter with a molasses drizzle and chocolate covered pretzels. This was so amazing I cannot even tell you how amazing it was. The recipe is not up however, as I am still working on it. It needs some tweaks, but boy am I ever anxious to get that recipe up.

Up next for the old ice cream machine though, is Gianduja ice cream, and Key Lime Pie ice cream. Look for those posts in the near future.

Sonic Screwdriver Cocktails

I know I normally blog about recipes, food, and beer, but sometimes a cocktail plug is necessary. Especially if you are a big Doctor Who fan like I am and someone creates a drink called a Sonic Screwdriver.

This comes via drwho-online.co.uk by Liz Mulhern.

1 1/2 oz vanilla vodka
1 1/2 oz Blue Curacao liqueur
6 oz clear lemon-lime soda

Half-fill a clear 12 oz. glass with ice. Pour 1.5 oz Vanilla Vodka, 1.5 oz Blue Curacao, and 6 oz. CLEAR lemon/lime soda over the ice. Stir lightly, and Enjoy!

Classic Chef Salad

It might be snowing 2 feet of snow in Colorado currently, but it is technically spring time. Therefore we should start thinking about spring and summer foods. It's still pretty cold in the Boston area, but if we start sending out vibes and thoughts, maybe we can will it to be warm.

Well how about an easy salad? A classic chef salad. It's really easy to make, and if you make it Candice style, it's really big and hearty as well.

Ingredients:

Mixed baby greens
Carrots
Cucumbers
Green Peppers
Tomatoes
Sliced Deli Ham
Sliced Deli Turkey
American Cheese or Provolone or Monterey Jack Sliced
Croutons
Ranch Dressing

This is an open recipe. Feel free to add whatever vegetables you desire to this salad. And feel free to switch up your dressing.



Prep you vegetables by peeling your cucumber and slicing it. Halving your tomato and slicing wedges. Slicing your green peppers into strips. And in my case I had shaved baby carrots (not pictured). I simply halved them and then cut the halves in half.

I had to take a second picture of my tomato. It was probably the most perfect tomato I have ever handled. It almost looked fake or ones they use in fast food commercials when they want to convince you their ingredients aren't shit.



Building your salad. Again this entirely up to you. Salads should be free for you to build as you please. Place ingredients where you see fit or in their order of importance. If you are serving someone else, just make it look pretty.



I started with the mixed baby greens plopped right in the center of my plate.



I then scattered carrots and green peppers and cucumbers on the greens and placed my tomatoes around the plate.



Up next the deli meats and cheese. I used sliced monterey jack, and black forest ham, and a house smoked turkey from Whole Foods. The turkey was dry, but nothing a little ranch couldn't fix.



Roll the cheese into the turkey and ham and then slice the rolls. Place the slices evenly around the plate.

 

Dress with ranch (or dressing of your choice) and croutons.



This is a nice organic ranch from Whole Food's brand 365. Nothing fancy, but very decent.


I did not take pictures with it dressed and covered in croutons. I am a bit of a crouton whore and don't really feel like showing how much I can actually ruin salads with the amount of croutons.

 

I will give you an idea. I bought a 2 pound bag of croutons from Costco and there are only 2 people in my house. Yeah I know it's wrong on so many levels.


Beer pairing suggestion: I am going for an easy one with this salad. Allagash White. Something clean, effervescent, and light.

Other fun suggestions would be Great Divide's Raspberry Ale. Or even something fun like Unibrou's Ephemere, apple or cranberry. All of which are ligh style ales with fruit flavors that are not disgustingly sweet or over bearing. The nose on the Ephemeres are misleading as you will think this very robust, but isn't overkill on the taste.

If you want to get creative, a nice bread-y lager like Old Dominion Lager would work with this kind of a salad too. The smoked turkey, spiced croutons, and the earthy flavors on the mixed greens would all work well with a good bread-y lager. The sweetness would become more pronounced and become a pleasant marriage. Amber ales will also do the trick.

SIDE NOTE: When it comes to any salad, when you ad fruits and nuts, you can take real risks like pairing a scotch ale with a salad. I once attended a beer dinner event at Cambridge Brewing Company a few years ago where they had a salad with papaya, macadamia nuts, and arugula tossed with a little bit of olive oil and salt as it's dressing. There were other ingredients, but sadly I can't remember what they were, however I specifically remembered why this pairing worked. The simple ingredients were packed full of flavors. The nuts, the earthy taste on the greens, and soft mellow sweetness of the papaya all balanced and married perfectly with their scotch ale.

James Beard Award 2009 Finalists For Mass.

 

[Image via YumSugar]

The James Beard Award Finalists For Massachusetts. For a list of other states finalists please visit: Hugging The Coast where the states have been broken down.

Massachusetts:

Best Chef/ Northeast Finalist: Michael Leviton, Lumière, West Newton, MA

Best Chef/ Northeast Semifinalist: Tony Maws, Craigie On Main, Cambridge, MA

Best Chef/ Northeast Semifinalist: Marc Orfaly, Pigalle, Boston, MA

• Outstanding Chef Semifinalist: Barbara Lynch, No. 9 Park, Boston, MA

• Outstanding Chef Semifinalist: Ana Sortun, Oleana, Cambridge, MA

• Outstanding Restaurant Semifinalist: Hamersley’s Bistro, Boston, MA

• Best New Restaurant Semifinalist: Hungry Mother, Cambridge, MA

• Rising Star Chef of the Year Semifinalist: Will Gilson, Garden at the Cellar, Cambridge, MA

• Best Chef/ Northeast Semifinalist: Gabriel Bremer, Salts, Cambridge, MA

• Best Chef/ Northeast Semifinalist: Gabriel Frasca and Amanda Lydon, Straight Wharf Restaurant, Nantucket, MA

• Best Chef/ Northeast Semifinalist: Andy Husbands, Tremont 647, Boston, MA

• Best Chef/ Northeast Semifinalist: Steve Johnson, Rendezvous in Central Square, Cambridge, MA

• Best Chef/ Northeast Semifinalist: Michael LaScola, American Seasons, Nantucket, MA

The awards will be announced on May 3rd and 4th at Alice Tully Hall in New York City.

The best news about this is that a good portion of these restaurants are all right around the corner from my house. Oleana, Craigie (A bit further down the road), Salts, Rendezvous and Hungry Mother are all with in 2 minutes from me. It is however, disappointing that Eastern Standard didn't make it some where on this list.

And what's up with the beer categories? Why aren't they on there? More praise for wine and food and beer and food gets the shaft again. One honorable Mention was Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery announced as one of the finalists. Except he was announced as a Wine Enthusiast. He is well versed in wine and food as well as beer, but still we need to kick some fucking doors down and get recognized. Word!