Posted By Michelle on January 5, 2010

It’s a weird thing, living this far south. During this last summer we sat, envious and frustrated, and read blogs from people in the northern states who were reveling in the glory of their summer harvest vegetables. Us? Well, we just sat and waited for our harvest time.

That time is upon us, folks. We also have something that most of those other states don’t have - citrus. Yeah, sure, anyone can buy an orange at the grocery store just about any time of year. But the fresh off the tree, traveled just a few miles from farm to you, citrus is here and it’s time to make the best of it.

Back during the holidays, we were brainstorming some ideas for hors d’oeuvres for our “Very Sherpa Christmas” party. In actuality, we were just looking for a reason to pair something with white truffle oil, and we were struck with the idea of grapefruit.
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Posted By Michelle on January 3, 2010

Christmas is fast approaching now behind us and we can’t let it just slip by let it slip by without a nod to holiday food. But what to write about….. We’ve done turkey, we’ve done side dishes, I’m sure we’ve even done cocktails.

Well wait a minute; Americans don’t have a corner on the holidays. Granted, we probably have a corner on crass commercialism prior to the actual day, but when it comes down to it, not everyone is breaking out the turkey, ham, dressing and all those images that Bing Crosby evokes. We’re betting that most of the world doesn’t even do Bing for the holidays.

Alrighty then, which country is most deserving to have their traditions shared in print? Spinning the Wheel of Nations we’ve landed on Mexico. OK, we didn’t really spin a wheel and we just really like Mexican food, so we’re going to write about that, sue us.
What exactly is the standout dish of Mexican Christmas dinner? Tamales!

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Category: Budget Recipes, Main Course, Mexican Cuisine, On The Cheap, Pork, Side Dish | No Comments »
Tags: mexican christmas, mexican holiday, tamales

Posted By Michelle on January 1, 2010

Soon 2009 will be behind us. 2009 is behind us. Good memories and bad memories will get just a little bit more distant from our thought as we look to the New Year.

We’ve never been one to offer up resolutions because we never stick with them - except for that year Michelle vowed to drink more wine - but we do like to predict what will be the latest and greatest.

Here are our predictions for 2010…
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Category: American Cuisine, Budget Recipes, Our Comfort Food, Pork, Side Dish, Vegetables | 1 Comment »
Tags: black eyed peas, hoppin johns, new years dinner, southern tradition

Posted By Michelle on December 29, 2009

For some reason surprise guests seem to be the trend for the 2009 holiday season. Are ya feeling us?

We’ve already had a total of 7 10 unexpected guests and we haven’t even reached the mega-season for “dropper-inners”. Don’t get us wrong. We love our family and friends but there is a degree of panic that accompanies a phone call received at 9pm the evening before said “dropper-inners” will be arriving.

First phase of panic is inevitability “Dear god, we have to clean this house!” Second degree of panic is more along the lines of irritation “Dear god, our schedules barely allow us to breathe and now we have to entertain?” Third phase of panic is true raw panic “What will we feed these people?”

If you’re anything like a chef, then you have 1000 salts, spices, condiments and cheeses in your fridge at any given time and well, that’s about it. Smoked sea salt, no problem. Fresh goat cheese, check. Black truffle butter, got it, but anything else that resembles food is far fetched.
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Category: American Cuisine, Appetizers | 2 Comments »
Tags: blueberry, chicken sausage, goat cheese, holiday appetizers, new years eve, sausage, wonton chips

Posted By Michelle on December 9, 2009

Has anyone else noticed that Bison is showing up on more and more restaurant menus and being found in more and more grocery stores? Well, there’s good reason for it.

If there were a super hero meat, Bison would be wearing the red cape. It’s one of the most nutrient rich meats on the planet. It’s packed with iron and protein (duh) but it also has less cholesterol than chicken. And for extra measure it drips with zinc, phosphorus, niacin, vitamin B6 and B12. Bison also has very high levels of Omega 3 fatty acids and conjugated linolenic acid, ya know, the stuff found in fish and helps in preventing cancer.

It’s true; this American Plain’s beast is a wonder food. Maybe that’s why it has been on man’s food chain for, oh about 10,000 years.

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Category: American Cuisine, Beef, Main Course, Pork | 7 Comments »
Tags: bison, how to cook bison, low cholesterol meat, low fat food, low fat meat, omega 3 fatty acid food, stuffed bell peppers, stuffed vegetables

Posted By Greg on December 3, 2009

We met Skink. We actually, truly met the living breathing Skink, straight from the pages of a Carl Hiaasen novel. A true blooded, Native, nature loving, highly educated, grey bearded, wild man…a.k.a. a Florida Cracker.

Before we get a ton of emails, the term Florida Cracker was coined during the colonial era way back in the mid 1700’s. Simply put, it’s a Florida native who knew how to live off the mosquito infested, hot, sweaty, gator ridden, swamp that was once most of Florida. Back to Skink.

We received an invitation to attend the 11th annual Terra Ceia Annual Mullet Smoke-Off from an Orlando cyber friend whom we met through a Nashville food blogger buddy a.k.a. Cook Eat Fret. With only a 45-minute drive just south of the Sunshine Skyway, we found ourselves immersed in what seemed like a little island that time forgot. Beautiful old Cracker style homes dotted the pristine shoreline, an estuary tucked into banks of mangroves. With a few more twisting roads and a couple “I think we are lost”, we hit Cracker gold.

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Category: American Cuisine, Budget Recipes, Main Course, On The Cheap, Our Comfort Food, Seafood, cool shit | 12 Comments »
Tags: florida food, florida mullet, florida oysters, florida scallops, skink, smoked mullet

Posted By Michelle on November 30, 2009

As Thanksgiving approaches  in no less than 12 days- has already passed, we’ve been finding ourselves craving more and more fall inspired dishes. Maybe we’re a little jealous of Tampa’s lack of Fall or maybe it’s just that we are truly looking forward to spending time with our family, something that is hard to do as of late and this year we have a ton to be thankful for.

We’re buying a restaurant (as long as we can get the investors…why, you interested?) and Greg’s parents have FINALLY moved back to the area after doing an incomprehensible 16 years in Houston. What this means to us is 1. We get to see them more than twice a year and 2. This year’s Thanksgiving will be a merging of our entire families and 3. We get to cooked for them all.

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Category: American Cuisine, Appetizers, Breakfast and Brunch, Budget Recipes, Holiday, On The Cheap | 1 Comment »
Tags: chesthuts, christmas, cranberry, Holiday, pesto, thanksgiving

Posted By Greg on November 21, 2009

Last week we were sitting in our home office, getting ye ole office work done when a Gmail instant-message popped up. This wasn’t unusual as we use it to ask quick questions from food purveyors, friends, family, etc. Only this time, it was from our neighbor…who lived directly across the street. Like, not even 100 feet from our front door.

She was asking who we used to cut own lawn. We both scratched our heads at this question. Not because it is very obvious that we do not use a lawn service (the weeds and tall grass are usually a dead give away) but because she IM-ed this question rather than knocking on our door and asking us face to face. The whole process seemed far more complicated than it really needed to be.

At this very same time, Greg was writing new recipes. Molecular gastronomy recipes, which are – in the culinary realm – very complicated. That’s when it all became clear. The modern world had surpassed any instance of ease. It was all just too complicated.

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Posted By Michelle on November 2, 2009

I need to address a great offense.

In a comment made on the Tampa Tribune site, tbo.com, under our super delicious, amazingly simplistic, and shamefully affordable Grilled Guacamole Salad, a reader by the user name RobKay stated: “Its only a matter of time before some food nut comes up with deep fried watermelon. Like chocolate covered bacon, just because you can, doesn’t necessarily mean it will taste good”.

You sir, have offended my honor! (Insert Southern accent). I declare pistols at dawn down by the Big Muddy!

Bacon and chocolate could very well be one of the most delicious couplings since peanut butter and strawberry jam!

It all began last November. I had a culinary epiphany - while watching Tru Blood Season 1 - that apparently one hundred other complete strangers had as well. Bacon and Chocolate Chip Cookies. The salty smokiness of the cured bacon could easily accent the creamy, sweet decadence of the chocolate and the buttery crisp of the cookie. She gave it a go and the result was pure magic. She told every chef friend she had and they too became excited. It was as if we were Louis and Mary Leakey discovering hominid footprints preserved in 3.2 million year old volcanic ash.

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Category: American Cuisine, Baking, Breakfast and Brunch, Dessert, Holiday | 6 Comments »
Tags: bacon cake, bacon chocolate, chocolate cake, devil's food, mo's bacon bacon, vosges

Posted By Michelle on October 28, 2009

It’s the most wonderful tiiimmmmmeee of the year!

We don’t hear you singing! Oh, wait. Didn’t we open last year’s Halloween blog like this? Yes. Yes, we did. But that’s because It’s the most wonnnnnnderful tiiiiiiime of the year!!!!!

Some would say that we’re rather enthusiastic about Halloween. Others might say that we’ve got some issues that blur the lines of obsession and good taste. We think that it’s a little from column A, a little from column B. Of course, we have already been to Busch Garden’s Howl O Scream and Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights …twice. We’ll be hitting up Lowry Park Zoo’s Zoo Boo (because it’s awesome and SO freakin’  cute). Jobsite Theater just opened with a stage performance of one of our all time favorite zombie flicks ever; Night of the Living Dead (running through November 15th) and Saw IV, Zombieland and The Final Destination are still on the Ybor Muvico list. Not to mention, we’re hosting our own party this year!

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Category: American Cuisine, Baking, Breakfast and Brunch, Dessert, Holiday, cool shit | 3 Comments »
Tags: biscuit dough, halloween food, monkey bread, party food