Ratatouille 2010 Style

    This is my spin on the classic Ratatouille recipe I found online.  One of my best friends is a vegetarian or "veggie tales" as we call it, so lately I've had to step out of my normal protein based box and I am so happy I did!  This was my first time making and eating Ratatouille and I not only impressed my friends, but myself as well!  This dish was gorgeous and delish! I just wish I had a proper camera!!!
    Traditional Ratatouille calls for Eggplant, I've never been a big fan of Eggplant so I doubled up on the veggies!  I also had a good number of left over veggies after I put everything together!  I used the left overs to create Veggie Patties that I will put up in a later post! 

You Will Need



1 large casserole dish

1 large onion - I used a brown onion

3 - 4 Cups Bread Crumbs - Plain or Italian

3 large yellow bell peppers

3 yellow squash

3 medium sized zucchini

4 Roma tomatoes

2 1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese

2 tablespoons of an Italian seasoning Blend

2 teaspoons white pepper / salt / black pepper

2 - 4 tablespoons pesto - optional

Heated tomato sauce - garnish - optional

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees

- Slice peppers, zucchini, squash and onions on a mandoline slicer.  You can also do this by hand.

- Slice the Roma tomatoes about 1 - 2 centimeters thick

- I used some Spanish Olive oil to grease my casserole dish

- Start layering the uncooked veggies in your casserole dish however you like

- I layered like a lasagna would be layered as pictured below

- I started with zucchini, yellow squash, yellow pepper, onion, pesto drizzle, tomato, bread crumbs and then a layer of cheese

- Repeat this process until your dish is filled, leaving some room for expansion.

- Cover with foil and bake in the oven for about 45 - 50 minutes

- Remove from the oven and sprinkle lightly with Mozzarella cheese and place back into the oven just until the cheese is bubbly

- Plate and top with tomato sauce and small sprinkle of cheese

- ENJOY!!!

Stuffed Pork Loin Chops & Mashed Potatoes

This meal kind of came together at the very last minute.  I was originally trying to create a baked pork loin chop with asparagus and a cherry reduction, but with cherries not being in season, instead I ended up with these pork loin chops stuffed with Stove Top stuffing over mashed potatoes and seasoned gravy.  Due to time constraints and a hungry fiancee, the boxed stuffing was a quick pick for the flavor profile I was going for!  

You Will Need

4 boneless pork loin chops; preferably thinly slice chops

1 box Stove Top Stuffing 

(any flavor, I used their Cornbread Stuffing)

1 can roasted garlic cream of mushroom soup

2 pounds russet potatoes; washed, peeled, diced

1/2 stick of butter

1 cup of flour

1 teaspoon sage / thyme / salt / black pepper
3/4 cup of chicken cooking stock

- Preheat oven to 325 degrees

-  Follow the instructions on the Stove Top box to make the stuffing and prep pork chops while the stuffing cooks.

- Lay your pork chops out on a cutting board and make slits vertically and diagonally, not cutting all the way through the loin.

- Season each side with sage, thyme, salt, and black pepper, working it into the slits

- Remove the stuffing from the heat and transfer it into a mixing bowl and allow to cool

- Add 2 tablespoons of the roasted garlic cream of mushroom soup to the stuffing

- Mix thoroughly

- Start filling your pork chops by scooping out a small round of stuffing and filling the slices you made earlier

(photo colors are off due to it being an iPhone camera, sorry!)

- Add chops to foil lined pan on a flat roasting rack so the chops cook evenly on all sides

- Bake at 325 for about 30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the chops or until the inner temperature is over 145 degrees.

- Plate directly on to a dollop of mashed potatoes and garnish with seasoned gravy!  Enjoy!

Mashed Potatoes

- Fill a large pot with water and set aside

- Wash and peel all potatoes

- Cube and place potatoes into lightly salted water and set to boil on the stove top

- Once the potatoes are EXTREMELY tender, pull from heat and drain using a colander

- Place the potatoes back into the cooking pot

- Mash potatoes using a potato masher, if you do not have one a strong whisk should work just fine

- Add heavy whipping cream or milk to the mashed potatoes mixing as you add

- Whisk briskly and add cream/milk until the desired texture is achieved! 

- I season my potatoes with lots of butter and Lawry's Seasoning Salt...So wonderfully yummy!!!

Seasoned Gravy

- Melt about a 1/4 cup of butter in a medium sauce pan

- Be careful not to burn the butter.  As the butter starts to foam, slowly add the flour and mix with a whisk as you add.  You're making a basic butter and flour rue, here is a link for another recipe for a rue using olive oil and butter.

- Once your rue is cooked and there is no longer any white color, start adding your cooking stock, slowly whisking it into the rue.

- Add salt, black pepper and very little ground sage 

- Add enough stock so the rue turns into a liquid a little bit thinner than a normal gravy consistency.

- Bring to a boil and turn heat down to low, mixing occasionally.

- Spoon over plated chop and potatoes 

The Flavor Bible

This book is one of my best kept secrets!  The book is aptly named, as it's full of every flavor, spice, cooking style...!  I love this book so much and I've used it to come up with a lot of the dishes I will be featuring on my blog!  If you love cooking as much as I do, this will be an amazing addition to your cooking collection!  Here is a link to purchase right from Amazon.com!

BUY ME!

LA Breakfast Burrito

These breakfast burritos are an all time fav at my house!  I officially named them after our roommates LAuren and Auren who would eat them everyday if they could!  They are SUPER easy to make and take less than 30 minutes!  I've done a number of different variations of this burrito, but it's all left up to the creativity of the person making them!  So here's the basic recipe!

You Will Need 

5 large eggs

1 pound bacon

2 -3 cups of Mexican style shredded cheese

2 teaspoons chili powder / pepper / salt / garlic salt

4 regular sized flour tortillas

2 tablespoons butter

- Fry up your bacon in a medium sized skillet or fry pan.  I use an entire pound when I make these, this allows me to give a couple strips to everyone as they wait for food!  Finish cooking bacon and set aside to cool.

- Crack your eggs into a bowl, add spices and salt & pepper, mix just until the spices are worked into the eggs.  

- Melt your butter in a medium sized fry pan, be careful to not burn the butter.  If the butter burns, it's best to wash the pan and start all over.  Eggs cooked with burnt butter not only taste bad, but also look horrible!

- Scramble the eggs and set aside.

- I assemble these burritos on a lightly heated griddle pan, as shown in the picture above, but if you have sensitive fingers you can assemble on a cutting board or counter top and then move to the griddle pan.

- On your griddle pan, warm the tortilla on each side, just enough to be able to roll it without it cracking.  Lay down a generous layer of shredded cheese, top with torn/chopped pieces of bacon and eggs.  Roll the burrito up away from you making sure the sides are secure within and push to the top of the pan.

- Assemble the other 3 burritos and toast on top and bottom to ensure yummy melty cheese!!!!

- Garnish with your favorite salsa, sour cream and guacamole!  Or better yet, garnish with all 3!!!

Serves 4 people 

Beef & Black Bean Tostadas

These are super fun to make and look really gorgeous!  There are a couple different options for the shells, I chose to make them using some fresh tortillas we bought from the Vallarta, but you can pick them up from most local grocery stores.  

You Will Need

1 pound ground beef

1/2 white onion

Salt

Pepper

Cayenne

Chalula or Tapatio

1 can black beans

 ( I used Fresh & Easy Organic Black Beans)

1 head iceberg lettuce or prepared bagged salad mix

4 fresh flour tortillas or ready made shells from your local grocer

Mexican Style Shredded Cheese

Fresh diced tomatoes 

Mexican Style Beef

1 pound 80/20 ground beef

1/2 white onion - diced

1 tablespoon olive oil or butter

1 clove garlic - minced

Salt / Pepper / Cayenne - to taste

1 - 2 tablespoons Chalula or Tapatio
1 can black beans

- Open the can of beans rinse, drain and set aside.

- Melt butter or heat oil in a 12 inch skillet or fry pan.  If using a fry pan cook on medium to medium high heat.  Add onion to butter/oil and cook until the onions are almost translucent.  Be sure to not burn your butter or get your oil too hot.  You don't want to burn your onions.

- Add minced garlic and mix thoroughly with cooked onion

- Add ground beef and spices

- Brown the meat while continuing to mix onion, spices and garlic

- Add hot sauce and black beans to pan -  

- Cook thoroughly and set aside 

Fill your shells with the salad mix or chopped lettuce, top with the Mexican Style Meat and bean mixture, top with cheese and garnish with fresh diced tomatoes and sour cream!!

You can do this meal so many different ways, I chose to mix the beans in with the meat because I personally HATE getting to the bottom of a tostada only to have the shell soggy from the beans soaking through! Also the recipe above can also be used with Chicken and pinto beans in place of the beef and black beans.

 - The Shells


Here is how I made the shells at home.  Please be careful when doing this!!  I'm pretty good at working with fryers and hot oils in general, so if this is your first time trying to do this, please BE CAREFUL!!

I used a 15in wok and the round fryer bin from my tiny little 1 quart deep fryer.  I added about 1/2 of a bottle of Veggie oil to the wok and let that heat up to about 350 degrees.  You can test the oil by dropping a small piece of tortilla in the oil and if it starts to cook and fizzle right away, you've got the right temperate zone.

I laid the tortilla on top of the oil in the wok and placed my round fryer bin at the center of the tortilla and gently pressed toward the bottom of the wok which causes the oil to spill into the "bowl" like shape and cook the inside.  That process should take about a minute or two.  You can roll the tortilla around using the handle of the fryer bin to make sure all the sides get to a perfect golden brown, this also prevents the tortilla from getting stuck to the sides of the bin.

When your tortilla is a nice even color and holds the "bowl" shape its done!  It should lift right out of the wok as you lift the fryer bin.  Be sure to drain any oil out from inside that shell before completely removing it!  Let it cool for a couple of seconds and shake the fryer bin to free it from the now tostada shell!  Fill and enjoy!

I will add pics to the above procedure to make things easier! 

Top Bar Burger / Lake Balboa, CA

Top Bar Burger is easily one of the best burger places I've been to in the San Fernando Valley.  That's saying a lot, especially when you think that the SFV is home to so many great burger joints like The Stand and The Counter.  My fiancée and I, along with our roommates ventured out in the heavy rainfall to try this place suggested to us by a couple close friends.  Driving up you would not expect this place to offer the quality of food and service that it does, so the 4 of us were tremendously surprised when we dove into our meals.  Pictured above is the Utah Burger which, as you can tell, offers a generous helping of steaming hot pastrami on top of an already juicy all beef patty!  I personally devoured the Texas Burger which is a Rib Eye steak "patty", baked beans, an over sized onion ring, BBQ sauce and Colby-jack cheese!  It was delish!  It was pretty much a unanimous decision that we would be returning!

If beef and/or red meat isn't for you they also have a wide variety of chicken burgers, salads and hot dogs!  Along with a stacked breakfast menu and prices that work for any wallet size, I'd definitely say this place must be on any one's list of places to dine!  In a time where everyone is looking for that right edge to appeal to the masses, sometimes simple fresh ingredients give even the most refined pallet an awakening! 

Check out their website for more information, hours of operation and full menu!

Check out Top Bar Burger on Yelp!

Back At It...Again!

I lost track of this blog when I changed jobs, luckily I remembered the password!

I now will try to update this as much as possible!  I know so many of you ask for recipes and I'm horrible about getting them too you!  So hopefully this will go a long way in helping me get information to you all!

-Ashley