Father Feeds Flock!!!

GUEST CHEF....SUZY MILLER! Our BFF's and fellow foodies, the Millers, are the guest chef's for the Memorial Edition of Father Feeds Flock!!!!  The Millers are my son's godparents, and the "better half" Suzy is a fellow food nerd and we bounce ideas off each other now and again.  Their garden expands through their whole yard quite impressively.   They whipped up a paella spread for us that was unique and TD4  (To Die For, if you've never met my mother).  They called it Asian Paella, and it had chicken, snow peas, baby corns and many yummy-ness-es.  forgive the sun, as it has blown our this iPhone photo  For dessert we had Reid-made vanilla ice cream with lavender/mint shortbread cookies crumbled over it!  I have to say that I did NOT think this would taste as good as it did!!!!  It complemented the ice cream very well, and added a crunch that took it too another level!!! Oh wait.... I almost forgot the best part.............. The Miller'...

I was inspired from surfing several food photography sites, where I saw a vegetable turin that looked so awesome.  Later that day, a recipe popped into my head while driving.  Combine the veggie technique, and then pour something over it to make it savory.  Eggs, cheese...wait thats a quiche. So I got a pie crust, sliced some zucchini, yellow squash and onions, and gave them a quick broil with olive oil, garden rosemary and s/p.  Then I lined the bottom of the pie crust with them and poured in my egg/milk/ground mustard mixture and topped with cheddar cheese and the left over veggies. This turned out great.  Simple and delicious!

Thought process was rock solid.  New take on a crab boil...do it on the grill with similar ingredients you would see in a traditional crab boil.  corn, potatoes, shrimp, catfish & imitation crab added broccoli, onion and orange slices (we forgot to get lemons).  I put garden rosemary and chives along with some old bay seasoning. then put it on the grill in my cool new mesh grill pot. catfish, shrimp and lump imitation crab meat marinated in crab boil seasoning. Here is where I went wrong.  Both those spices are pretty high on the spice scale.  Whole dish got thumbs down and we won't eat it, its too spicy.  I LOVED it!!!!  I agree that it was very spicy, the heat eventually got to me towards the end. cooked separately on the grill, seafood was cooked in a little butter and rosemary infused olive oil. catfish had just began to break apart when I served it, so next time I will add that a little after the others. Dumped it all on this big pasta plate ...

I bought some chicken breasts, acorn squash, asparagus with little other thought than, this will be dinner. The free form process of coming up with what eventually became this, what pretty cool. I put the squash into the oven first, with a little butter, salt and paprika. I noticed that we had some beets and radishes left over, so I spontaneously added roasted veggies when I combined carrots, onions and broccollini.  The beets and the radishes gave this such a great flavor, I could have put anything else with it.  The broccollini crisped up and gave a nice texture and crunch. Our Chef Pipin Steamer (leftover from a long ago product shoot) did not disappoint again, cooking the asparagus to perfection. I had let the chicken sit with some lemon zest to marinate, so I thought that a nice light sauce would go great.  Garden dill, juice of 2 lemons, half/half, butter and a pinch of sugar and corn starch, turned this inot a sauce that then turned the meal into something to ...

I used 2 kinds of chocolate chips and a little half and half for our chocolate fondue last night. It has wonderfully morphed into the best tasting frosting I've ever tasted. It didn't harden back up, but has a soft, spreadable quality. I had to do some scientific testing, so I spread some on a slice of poundcake.  It passed the test!

So I took the family to Taste of Addison this weekend.  Basically a bunch of local restaurants get together and sell 3 or 4 items cheap so you can sample new things.  I had a few new things and some tasty classics.  Started off with mudbugs!  boiled crawfish, napkins were scare, so this was dangerous.  Wet naps to the rescue a few minutes later. Also sampled some chicken curry, stuffed meatball sandwich, cuban tamale, chicken empenada,  steak and guiness pie, Korean BBQ - bulgogi sub, chocolate fondue.  Also got a couple of free samples of sake  ;) We were so stuffed, even at small sample size portions. They also have a midway and so carnival type rides and games.  Zachary won this tiger popping balloons with darts. We purchased a cool Himalayan salt lamp that claims to help with migraines and snoring.  I'm skeptical, but its cool to look at so if it doesn't work, its still art.  If it even helps my snoring a microscopic amount.....

So my next step in my foodventure is going to be to enter some cooking/recipe competitions. We had mentioned a want for taco salad, so I set out to create a unique taco salad recipe. I created a basic taco meat with ground beef and chicken, browned with tomato paste, salsa, onions and garlic, cumin and a bit of cayenne pepper.  shredded lettuce, alfalfa sprouts and cabbage mixture provide the ruffage.  chopped tomatoes and onion and cheddar cheese are sprinkled around the taco meat, which is placed in a ball on top. I took some ranch caesar dressing and added some salsa, half and half, cilantro and crumbled gorgonzola cheese, this was drizzled over as a dressing.  Garnished with a lightly fried tortilla shell and some avocado slices. This is NOT the recipe I would enter into a contest, but what we wanted to eat.  for the award, I would alter in this way... I made one, but didn't photograph it.  The initial test was positive. Taco Salad Sandwich- using ...

So had the urge to cook it up tonight, so marinated a whole chicken with olive oil, lemons, garden thyme, lemon zest & s/p. let this hang out in a ziplock all day in the refer. So dinner time comes around, and I slap this thing on the rotisserary, my mother, always and purposefully. flubbed that word.  I took out 3 cubes of some frozen homemade pesto (dill and pecan pesto to be exact).  This survived the freezing process, but did need a little help.  A splash of olive oil and lemon juice and we were back in business.   Veggies ended up being a saute of broccollini, snow peas, mushy rooms, bean sprouts, garlic and ginger. Nice wedge salad, doctored the blue cheese dressing by adding half/half and some gorgonzola crumbles. I sliced the wedges so that the dressing would seep down. The last thing is that I stole a plating technique from Whiskey Cake, and trimmed all the bones out of the quarter chicken, until the wing, which you could grab and rip off and have a b...

Zachary wanted steak tonight, and I wanted to cook as I haven't cooked much in the past 2 weeks due to lots of late nights working. So with groceries purchased, I started marinating the steak with rosemary olive oil and s/p.  I cut up the cauliflower, and added the green beans and a few broccoli crowns from the garden, added cheese, half/half and cheese-it crackers.  It is nice to start having enough yield from the garden to create meals.  This turned out VERY awesome and we will do it again.  The green beans and broccoli added such a great flavor.  The blue cheese wedge salad is becoming my fave. I put the steak in a hot cast iron skillet and got a good sear on it, then I threw in some shallots and chopped mushy rooms, a pat of butter and then I put the skillet in the oven to complete the cooking process. I've got the cooking itch, so I expect I will be posting some photos of some yummy meals soon!

so now anyone can post comments, if you don't have a google or yahoo account, you can post anonymously. I want the good, bad and ugly comments!!! challenge me, tell me my food sucks, tell me its awe inspiring, tell me to try chicken livers, ask me why I did that, ask me to try this food blog/site/recipe. Blogs are interactive, so use technology...even if its just to say "wow, I should try that"

Went to Kroger to get veggies cause we've had meat and fish a lot lately, so I was going to stick to something light.  Then I saw the bright red awesomeness that is tuna steak.  Got one big steak to feed all three of us.  Rubbed a little olive oil and s/p and cooked it in a cast iron skillet.  I undercooked it twice and had to go back on the heat, and therefore ended up a bit overdone for tuna, but still pink in the center.  A little red would have been better, but this did not disappoint. I paired it with a smaller version of the dish I had in mind, roasted veggies.  Broccoli, zucchini, beets, mushy rooms, orange pepper and celery gently roasted in the oven.  Wedge salad to round it out.  I tried caesar dressing on the wedge.  Not as good as blue cheese, I'll stick to that.

I've been a bit lax as to setting up photo shoots, cause, quite frankly, its a pain in the butt and sometimes a complete waste of time.  There are many nights that I take photos, but for whatever reason, I'm not feeling them, or the food just looks gross.  I don't want to post it if it doesn't LOOK good (anymore)...even if it tasted awesome.  YOU aren't tasting it...I did....you just get to view it....with your eyes...so if it tastes great and the photos do not translate...you do the cypherin on that. Therefore, a  lot more has been hitting the floor, scrutinized much harder now. But that doesn't mean we haven't had some interesting food adventures. I've been using a LOT of herbs lately, starting with the easter "herb ham", but steaks, vegetables, marinades....almost everything is getting a large portion of garden herbs.  I have an abundance of rosemary, chives, cilantro, dill, mint, basil and thyme. Recently I have made turkey/beef meatlo...

I look forward to writing about the meals that these will one day become.  I never had a green thumb and  would regularly kill plants.  Watching some home and garden television, trial and error, lots of patience and hard work, and I think I'm finally starting to have a "yield" out of my garden.  Mainly just a meal or two, here and there, along with several supplemental meal roles per plant.  I'm set on herbs, will be rolling in peaches, and hope to get enough figs to enjoy a few and make some preserves. watercress Basil  chives  dill blackberries  figs  cilantro  grapes  Green Beans  jalapenos  lavender  mint  oregano  peaches  raspberries  sage  squash blossom  squash   thyme  heirloom tomatos