Fun With Your Food

I MET ALTON BROWN!!!

I can not BEGIN to tell you how excited I was to be invited to this event. A HUGE thank you to WholeFoods for hosting! Since high school, I’ve been watching Good Eats with my family.  I have more dvds than I’d like to admit and a couple of his other books as well.

Picture time:

What a nice welcome! Loving the cover of the book.  They’re my favorite episodes as well.

I was SO nervous at this point.  Yes, I brought some dvds with me. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Here’s how the convo went.

Me: “Hi nice to meet you Alton.  You’re awesome but you probably already knew that.”

Alton: “Aw, I don’t think so but it’s nice to hear someone say it! I’m a big dork really”

Brief argument about the difference between nerds, dorks and geeks takes place and I giggle, become even MORE star struck and take this picture.

Posing for the camera. Can you see that? His arm is totally around me… LOL I kid, I kid (but it IS people).  Wondering what the signatures on the books said?

“Cook smart”

Onto the nervous eating now:

Good Eats CAKE! Chocolate, of course.

Cheese filled tarts with caramelized onions on top.

Mushroom filled filo purses

A variety of chips- taro, sweet potato, etc.

Group shot with fellow bloggers and our freshly signed books- the cover folds out into a poster.

I’ve started tho thumb through the book and all the extra tid-bits of information and pictures that didn’t make it into the shows are fantastic!

Time to lay my still star stuck head to bed.  See you soon.

Teddy

Horchata

What’s my twist on Horchata you ask?

Since I’d never made it before I did a little research online and found quite a few recipes for horchata that didn’t require you to COOK your rice. They instructed to simply place the rice in a blender and make it into a powder.  NOPE.  That’s not working for me.  I cooked my brown rice in an excessive amount of liquid, a ratio of 8 to 1 I believe. Only then would I agree to blend it and strained it.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve had horchata that is grainy and plain gross.  I am convinced that cooking the rice in this manner prevents that. Is that all?  Is THAT the twist?  Pff- oh there’s more….

Coconut milk.

You know it’s one of my secret weapons in the kitchen. I couldn’t hold back from using a lil here either.  To summarize:

1) Cook your rice people!

2) Sneak in a lil bit of coconut for extra fatty/flavor goodness

Now, an official recipe is not yet formed but here are my “measurements” from this trial round

1/2 cup sweet brown rice

4 cups water

1/2 can coconut milk

1 cinnamon stick

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup agave (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a pot and let simmer for at least 1 1/2 hours.  Turn off and allow to cool. Once the mixture has cooled down remove cinnamon stick and blend well and strain through a very fine strainer or cheesecloth.

In the fall I like to drink this warm. It’s like a soothing cinnamon milk drink .  You can also serve ice cold in summer. Good all year round!

Teddy

Last weekend was particularly excited for me because a friend from school asked me to help out with a get-together she was cooking for.

Would you like to see pictures of what we made?  Pff OF COURSE you would (why do I even ask?)!

[View with PicLens]

 

We had black bean toasties, brownies and bliss balls. The whole crowd loved the spread and thanked us many many times. Looks like my first involvement in the catering world was a great success, no?

I’m still thinking that personal chef is more my style. I’m definitely open to anything at this point though. Hopefully I’ll get my foot in the personal chef door soon

See you later
Teddy