Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Brie Crescents

I love brie en croute... Absolutely .... truly... adore it. But who has time to cart around an entire huge round of brie in bread? Not me... and it's soooo yummy when it's hot... My classic favorite is to take just a wedge of brie - $3.99 or less at Trader Joes... cut off the rind and spread Raspberry jam on top and then surround it with a tube of crescent rolls... Then, you give it a little egg wash and sprinkle sliced almonds on top... you can also add a few almonds to the middle with the cheese and jam. YUMMY!!!



I have been known to even just pick up a little package of melba toasts, top with a dab of brie and a dab of jam and pop them in the microwave for 7 seconds until melty to get the same sensation as the baked brie.



The pictures are of my latest idea... the actual crescent rolls as individual brie en croute... So I made half with brie and raspberry jam, sprinkling some almonds on top. I made sure to get the brie completely down the dough triangle and then put jam on top of the cheese before rolling up. Bake per the instructions on the container and *poof* Fantastic!!!
The other ones... inspired by a Giada episode that featured brie and nutella pannini... was simply brie with sugar free chocolate chips. OMG it was fabulous...!
I'm going to do orange marmalade, brie and dark chocolate soon... I might even skip the brie in a few because it sounds yummy.
The brie was all melty and good... the chocolate ones seemed to lose their cheese into the dough, perhaps because there was not enough of a moist part to it? I don't know... what I do know is that I will be experimenting every time i can get my hands on some brie and dough... LOL


Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Elvis French Toast

I have no idea if anyone else has ever made this recipe...but I like to look at it as my own creation. I'm writing a story and decided to make a character be pregnant with crazy cravings. And ... she was craving bacon. With anything. I'd seen some other posts on tastespotting about elvis sandwiches and things like that so here is my Elvis French Toast recipe.


2 slices bread
1/2 banana - sliced
2 TBSP Peanut Butter
3 slices bacon - cooked as crispy as you want it
Honey
1 egg
2 TBSP Milk


Spread approximately 1 TBSP peanut butter on each slice of bread.

Press banana slices into 1 side and drizzle with Honey. Lay the bacon on the opposite piece of bread. Press together.

Beat the egg with milk in shallow dish and dip the 'sandwich' in it, getting egg on both sides before putting it on a skillet- heated with butter.

Fry like French toast. Butter the top after you've flipped it. Repeat as needed.



I did choose to drizzle it with a little bit of sugar free maple syrup. (The honey I used was imitation so was also very low carb...)


It was so good. Try it... you just might like it.



Sunday, March 1, 2009

It's that time again...


Top Chef season 5 is done and in the books...

I'm not sure how I really feel about the choice that they made. I really wasn't at all that impressed with Hosea's cooking.

yes it was far better than mine probably would be in a competition of this nature but at the same time I wouldn't be all that intrigued to visit his restaurant.

I think that it was rather lame that the sous chefs were basically the runners up in the last three seasons - sorta... Casey and Richard finished 3rd in their respective seasons actually... although I don't think that anyone would dispute that Richard was by far the more talented chef over Lisa last season... he just couldn't muster up the final charge with everything else on his mind at that point.

I choose to call it the car curse. Because Carla also was swept away with that same issue.

Would it have been different if they had done the right thing and named Jeff the winner of the previous challenge, awarding him the car and then getting rid of both Stephan and Fabio before the end? Quite possibly yes. Because maybe Casey isn't with Carla... or maybe someone else picks the piece of Kings Cake that Hosea got....

After all, it was a distinct possibility. They all agreed that the three strongest dishes were Carla, Jeff and Hosea... but couldn't quite bring themselves to award Jeff the first place finish necessary in order to keep all three of them.

Previous seasons... when it has been a more Celebrity chef that was the sous chef, they did not do anything more than what was asked. If a flavor profile or a possible dish pairing was run by them, their job was to weigh in their possible opinion but it was not for them to make other suggestions. The few seasons that the sous chefs were not celebrities... well, lets just say that the sous chefs didn't do anything to reign in a potential disaster by being a voice of reason. Stephan and Dave for Tiffany in season one?

And at the same time... like last season, it would have been far better for Carla to be without sous chef on the final day. She would have stuck with her plan... and made what she knew had gotten her to the final. And Casey would have been impressed...

Anyway... that's my opinion.


They did a chef search in Seattle for the next season. I think they should film a season here or hold a finale here. I'd love to be able to go to an event for them. There are so many different things about this region that are appealing - fresh seafood... birthplace of starbucks... one of the oldest farmers markets... Yes we do have Whole Foods but how impressive would it be if they were all allowed their 1/2 hour of shopping through Pike place market? Especially for Restaurant wars... LOL Flowers and silk tie dyed scarves for table clothes... artwork for the walls. WOW!