PHOTO COURTESY OF CHAD MARTIN, BEST BOYFRIEND EVER…..ACCORDING TO SHAUNA
Shauna, a good friend of mine, started dating Chad a few months ago and she told me that he loved food, so obviously he was good in my book! I had no idea how excited he was about his culinary creations. There was one night where he emailed me about how to use some ingredients and I said, “don’t worry…..if you mess up then just add hot sauce to it”. This fantastic dessert was not that meal. Chad is a creative food master!
Here is his dessert and his first submission to my blog (yes Chad, this is pressure to create more)
Ingredients:
1 cup blackberries
2 strawberries
1 tbsp. orange juice
1 tsp. milk
1/2 tsp. maple syrup
Angel Food Cake
Extra strawberries for garnish
Place the blackberries, strawberries, orange juice, milk, and maple syrup in a food processor and pulse a few times then pour on a piece of angel food cake. Use strawberries for garnish like Chad did and spell out something sweet. Then serve to someone who loves you.
The month is almost over so I have to say bye to June’s Food Blogger of the Month. It was very fun looking at every recipe you have cranked out of the past month. Jenn’s blog is growing more and more each day and she has a ton of fans that are eagerly awaiting her next post. I will always be one of them and I thank her for inspiring me to keep this thing going!
Thanks Jenn @ breadplusbutter.blogspot.com, you rock!
(I hope this works….by the way, I do work for Sound Bites so if this is a little biased then deal with it)
Yesterday, Rich and Steve from Sound Bites, took us all to Eastern Washington to show us where our hummus comes from. It was an early departure because the farms that produce our beans, seeds, and oil are about 2 1/2 hours away from the store where all the hummus is made (Tacoma, WA).
What makes our hummus special? Well, other than me working there I always talk about ingredients, use the best, be the best. Instead of using products from all over the world or cutting costs in order to just give you hummus we use products that are local to us here in Washington State.
Ok, I’m following you…….but what does Washington State have that can make hummus? Instead of using olive oil we use varietal grape seed oil. Instead of using Tahini we use Camelina seed. Also, we use beans grown in the state of Washington which are fantastic!
What is a varietal grape seed oil?
Well, I’m glad you asked! Grape seed oil is starting to become popular in restaurants and health food nuts all around the world but a lot of those consumers have no idea that the product they’re buying is at the bottom of the totem pole in the grape seed oil world (Grape seed oil totem pole is real, sasquatch is too).
Lori Ramonas and Eric Leber from Apres Vin
Different varieties of grape seed oil.
Apres Vin makes the best stuff in my opinion. Instead of taking all seeds from all grapes and pressing them into a buffet of grape seed oil, Apres Vin separates each type of grape seed then presses the oil to create individual types of grape seed oils……….varietal (OMFG I’M LEARNING SOMETHING ON A COOKING BLOG, CLICK THE EXIT BUTTON NOW!!!).
Wait wait wait, taking a seed and pressing it to get oil? WTF.
Well kids, I have some video for you….please be quiet while I turn on the projector.
MVI_0447
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This is what it looks like from the top. You can see the seeds in there before they are pressed into those tootsie roll looking things. By the way, the whole room smells awesome……like wine! 75 lbs. of seeds will make 1 gallon of grape seed oil, it takes 3,000 lbs. of grapes in order to make that happen!
Who makes “that” happen for them? Jim and the crew over at Fruitsmart, that’s who! They process all of Apres Vin’s seeds and they also process the grape seed flours that Apres Vin sells. Fruitsmart also works with other companies to produce dried seeds, seed oils, fibers and seed powders, fruit extracts, fruit juices, concentrates, purees, and blends. Want to do something with fruit? You go to Fruitsmart (Click).
Varieties of seeds, flours, etc……….
The white bags contain grape seeds
That’s a lot of oil, extracts, and concentrates!
Where do they get the grape seeds from? You’re asking all the right questions today!! Well, the seeds actually come from 25 different wineries in the Yakima Valley. We visited one of the suppliers for a wine tasting.
George Schneider and Patricia O’Brien are the owners of a small boutique winery that produces 800 cases of wine per year. Their focus is quality so they stay as small as they can in order to make sure the best product is going through their doors. You’re probably thinking to yourself right now, “well, the wine is probably really expensive”. I say to you, “nope”. They produce fantastic bottles of wine for under $20! They don’t sell in retail stores……..the only way you can buy their wine is by coming down to their winery or you can just jump online using this helpful link (VINE HEART)
Eric’s insider tip: If you ever make it to their shop then ask George about his smoked cheese, it is amazing!
Ok………so we know where the grapes come from then the oil and stuff but what about those camelina seeds you were talking about?
Oil, check. Seeds, check. What am I forgetting?!?!?!
Tom, from Central Bean, showed us his many varieties of high quality beans. Here is a quick video showing you the variety of beans Central Bean has to offer.
Thanks again to everyone involved in this tour. I will be expanding on this post later with separate posts for each of the companies profiled.I had a long, great day, and I’m excited to tell people about the journey their hummus made from farm to table!
I’ll leave the video up for 30 days, it’s a bandwidth killer so I can’t afford to keep it up much longer.
I’ve been receiving a few comments regarding the authenticity of my “Puerto Rican Recipes”. Let me just cut to the chase. I’m Puerto Rican…..these are my recipes……I don’t care if they’re traditional or not so stop bothering me about it. I cook things the way I want them to be and like I have said a thousand times, every Puerto Rican recipe is different from person to person. That’s one of the reasons why I love Puerto Rican food so much because it truly is a potpourri. You get Spanish, French, African, and influences from the other Caribbean islands in order to make some of my favorite meals that I label simply as Puerto Rican. Why do I do that? Because I grew up eating this stuff….my parents cooked it, my grandparents cooked it, and their grandparents did the same. I’m Puerto Rican……this is my blog….these are authentic Puerto Rican recipes. Enough!
Ingredients:
20 lb. pork shoulder or a “ham” cut
Dry rub:
1/4 cup cumin
1/2 salt
2 tbsp. cinnamon
1/8 cup paprika
Rub over pork then let rest overnight. I left the skin on so all I did was rub it under the skin. Don’t throw away the skin…..it’s the best part once it’s cooked
Infuse the oil with the annatto seeds then stir in the coriander, salt, cumin, and cilantro. Use this to baste the pork every 30 minutes….it will create an awesome dark red skin.
Lots of layers, textures, and tastes to this. This is an instant hit.
Ingredients:
Sauce
3 carrots, peeled and sliced thin
4 celery stalks, sliced thin
1/2 sweet onion
2 fresh garlic cloves, sliced thin
3 tomatoes on the vine, keep the vine because you’re going to throw it into the sauce
Fresh rosemary
Fresh thyme
Fresh oregano (Place rosemary, thyme, and oregano in a tea infuser)
1/2 tbsp. Urfa Biber (or black pepper)
Saute the carrots, celery, and onion until the juices are starting to release from the vegetables. Stir in the garlic, tomatoes, and vine. Using the vine like this will keep that tomato smell around…..it’s a cool technique so use it! Place the tea infuser stuffed with your herbs in then add the urfa biber, cover and simmer for 35 minutes.
3 lbs. fresh fava beans
Ok, this is how you cook fava beans. Remove then beans from the pods then take a large pot and fill it with water and 1 tbsp. salt, bring to a boil. In a separate bowl pour in a little water and ice and place it near your sink. Cook the beans for 10 minutes then drain and immediately place the beans in the ice water. Peel the skin from the seeds then let rest in cold water again. This is labor intensive, this is why you see two people doing this……..I was cooking at the time. Thanks Julie and Mindy!
Serve fava beans and sauce over a chipotle infused fettucine.
I’m hooked on vinaigrettes lately if you couldn’t tell. I was growing tired of the old Ranch and Mayonnaise on everything attitude so I’m trying to develop a few new substitutes. This isn’t Eric going healthy because I always have a happy balance point. Also, you see the picture of that sandwich……I’ll post a little more information about that soon.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white distilled vinegar
5 drops sesame oil
1 tbsp. sesame seeds
Fresh Oregano, minced
Fresh Thyme, minced
Fresh Cilantro, minced
Tarragon
Carrots
Green Cabbage
Red Cabbage
Mix them all together then cover and let rest in fridge for a few hours then serve.
I’ve had a pretty bloody, bruisy, and burny weekend. Lots of cooking and a little damage to the left arm. No problem though, it never stopped me from doing my thing.
Picture #1 happened while I was chopping down the 175 lbs. of pork. Richard and I were sharing a cutting board and we were in cutting frenzy. My dumb ass reached over to get some pork on his side and CHOP!!! It didn’t hurt and I simply grabbed a towel, put it on my left hand, and kept on cutting with my right hand. If I was at home I would probably yell and cuss but there were 100+ people there watching us so I played it off as best as I could.
Picture #2 happened while I was lighting my grill outside. The igniter is broken (it was a hand me down from my neighbor Bob) so I have to light it with a lighter and some paper to get close to the burner. Wow, that was stupid! The paper I grabbed had some sort of plastic on it and the plastic flew off the paper and right on my hand. I looked at it for a second and thought, “you have got to be kidding me”. Stupid.
Picture #3 happened on Friday during the pig roast. I was placing the weights back on the huge grill when my hand slipped a little and sizzle sizzle sizzle there goes my wrist.
Richard got a smoker for his birthday so we tested it out a couple weeks ago. This was also the same day I lost my camera so I finally found it and now am able to post these pictures! This was my first time smoking chicken thigh so I wasn’t sure how long I needed to cook it. It came out great and could have been cooked another 2 or 3 hours and still would have been fine. I cooked it for about 2 hours and it was just underdone so I had to cook it on the grill. Either way, I was ok with the work in progress.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. chicken thigh
Salt and pepper rubbed on chicken
I’m addicted to street food!!! I was meeting up with my wife to help her out before her promo in Seattle and on the way there I spotted was has become my new obsession, a street food truck!!! i was thinking in my head, “ok, drop this stuff off for Mindy then I have about 10 minutes to eat and head over to Bellevue to meet a friend for dinner”. Ruin dinner? Oh no…..just getting the evening food coma started!!!
I walk up and to my surprise it was Hawaiian/Korean food!!!! Spam, P.O.G. (passion, orange, and guava juice), Musubi, Kimchi, and more Spam!!! I was so excited that I just started snapping pictures, drooling, and just trying to figure out what is it that I wanted. The best part about street food is that it’s inexpensive and you don’t have to choose one thing, so I chose four! I chose the Spam Slider, Spam Musubi (block of rice topped with Spam and wrapped in seaweed), Aloha Sliders (Kalua style pork), and a nice refreshing P.O.G. to wash it all down.
F’ing amazing! It’s very simple stuff but the execution is flawless. I’m a street food stalker so Marination was a nice surprise for me. They’ve been open for 1 1/2 weeks and I think you’ll be hearing their name over and over again. They’re onto something great and I wish them the best!
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHAD MARTIN, BEST BOYFRIEND EVER…..ACCORDING TO SHAUNA 
PHOTO COURTESY OF BREADPLUSBUTTER.BLOGSPOT.COM
Different varieties of grape seed oil.
That’s a lot of oil, extracts, and concentrates!
Einkorn
You can’t go wrong with this burger.
Thanks to the folks over at Apres Vin for the bottle of Grapefruit Chardonnay Grape Seed Oil
My wife makes a pretty damn good salsa
