Lunch

I thought I'd go healthy today, aside from the liquorice.  Kookaburra is amazing.  I will gladly relinquish some of my daily calorie allotment for those tasty treats.  Next to that, a delicious salami sandwich with lettuce and tomato, on wheat bread.  

Tinfoil Dinner

Tinfoil dinner and fresh corn with cilantro.

Easiest thing ever, but really good.

Potatoes

Onions

Carrots

Hamburger meat

Salt and Pepper

Seasoning

Water

Butter

We drizzled a touch of Cafe Rio dressing over it at the end.  It was super simple and REALLY tasty.

Best noodles I've ever had: Garlic Noodles from Crivello's

I discovered something amazing by chance the other day.  Melissa's parents took us to this fun little Italian restaurant in Murrietta, CA.  Diane (Mel's mom) ordered a dish that included a side of garlic mashed potatoes, but instead they brought her a side of vegetables.  Turns out they were out of potatoes for the night (apparently they go fast).  To make up for the mistake, they brought her a huge bowl of garlic noodles cooked perfectly al dente...

Crivello's Garlic Noodles

If you're not familiar with the term "al dente" it basically means noodles or veggies that are cooked about half-way.  They have a sort of chewy bite to them.  It's basically the ONLY way Italians eat noodles.  

Diane offered me a taste and I must sadly admit, I pretty much ate her entire bowl.  They were so good!  Crivello's makes their noodles in-house, so they are super fresh.  They had this light, buttery, garlickyness to them.  They were topped with a little salt, pepper, and parsley.  They were heavenly!  Best noodles I've ever had.    

I love a good...

1. Icy cold Coke with my meal. When I sit down to eat I don't want milk, I don't want wine, I don't want water....I want a coke, in a frosty glass with lots of ice.

2. Cheeseburger. Let me start by saying I am a purist when it comes to the cheeseburger. I believe that there are only a few things that belong on a good cheeseburger, namely: cheese, lettuce, onion, tomato, and condiment(s). I do not believe guacamole makes a cheeseburger better. I certainly don't believe that a heaping pile of bacon makes a cheeseburger better, although I have friends that sincerely disagree (those are almost fighting words).

What then makes a cheeseburger great? 1) Fresh, high-quality, never-frozen meat. 2) Fresh produce. 3) Symmetrically assembled. 4) Perfectly cooked. 5) Tasty portion of condiment.

3. Cry...after eating a delicious STEAK. A good steak will bring you to tears. There's a difference between a steak from some commercial restaurant (Outback, Chili's, etc.) and one from a real steakhouse like Ruth's Chris, Morton's, or Peter Luger's.

4. Something sweet after dinner. I don't know how I've done it, but I've trained my taste buds to crave something sweet in the evening. Favorite all-time desert? Peach Heaven. I'll show that one later...

5. Bag of sunflower seeds. My seed of choice: Spitz- Dill Pickle. The perfect flavor, the perfect seed! There is no better seed in the world. If you haven't tried them, I'd suggest avoiding this salty addiction.

Trifle

Melissa made a Trifle this weekend.

Heavy Whipping Cream

Fresh Berries

Angel Food Cake

Amazing.

The Cocoa Bean

This weekend Melissa and I were introduced to a new place to get treats: The Cocoa Bean. Our good friend Haley Henrie is a connoisseur of all-things-sugar, so when she said, "this place is amazing" we believed her. She did not let us down.

We got ours to-go. They come in these little boxes with a fork and a napkin.

I got an Italian soda as well.

We got raspberry chocolate and lemon blueberry. They were pretty darn good.

Kind of a fun little place.

Ann Burrell: Watching this makes me want to learn how to cook...

Ann Burrell. Italian cooking.

I like watching her because you can tell she really knows what she's doing. That's not always the case for people on the Food Network...

I'm not a huge fan of how Ann articulates things sometimes, but when she's cooking like this it doesn't really matter. :) Take a look...

4-hour Spaghetti Bolognese

Daylight Doughnuts

There's a little place in Pleasant Grove that makes some of the best doughnuts I've ever had. I feel like anything made from scratch is going to be delicious, especially doughnuts. My personal favorite is the Raspberry and Cream Cheese filled Bearclaw.

I picked some up for the office this morning...

The nice gals serving up my doughnuts.

It's a pretty small shop, maybe like 400 sq/ft.

No glazed here. Who likes glazed doughnuts anyway?

Kasey's BLT vs Boris' BLT

What is better than a BLT sandwich? Not much. Even a crappy diner BLT is pretty good. You can't really screw up bacon, lettuce, and tomato. It's amazing how great these three things taste together, especially between two slices of bread.

I can make a pretty good BLT (at least my wife thinks so), but I've heard there's a place in New York that does an AMAZING BLT: Choice Market. I thought I'd do a little comparison...

Kasey's BLT

Bacon:

I've started cooking bacon on a cookie sheet in the oven, instead of in a frying pan. It makes the bacon flatter and easier to pile onto a sandwich.

Bread:

I use thick white bread. And it HAS to be toasted. I can't imagine eating a BLT on non-toasted bread. That would be weird.

Lettuce:

I'm not too picky. Iceberg lettuce is good.

Tomato:

Large, not-too-ripe tomatoes. And I try my best to get the seeds out of them (sometimes those wet seed can make the sandwich a bit soggy, although sometimes the moisture is a good thing). I prefer to slice them pretty thinly as well.

Dressing:

Normal Mayo

Boris from Choice Market in New York's BLT(click link to see segment)

Bacon:

He cooks his in the oven as well.

Bread:

A really good wheat artisan bread. Very high quality.

Lettuce:

It looks like he uses plain Leaf Lettuce.

Tomato:

Big tomatoes, thinly sliced.

Dressing:

Here's the kicker: homemade Rosemarie mayonnaise.

Okay, so there's really no comparison. Boris' BLT is most-definitely better, but it's nice to know that even cooking amateurs can put together a delicious sandwich every once and a while. :)

The Kasey Wish-list: Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake

Stand's Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake

I learned about this milkshake from the Food Network show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." Chef Michael Symon describes his experience of learning about the Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake (click link to see his segment). He says the first time he tried it he ended up drinking 3 shakes in one sitting. Mildly gross. It's a place he says he visits every time he goes to New York.

I have a friend who is moving to New York City in September. He and his wife have invited us to come visit soon. We WILL be going to Stand and I WILL be ordering this shake. Maybe even three...

Chicken Enchiladas

So we tried a new chicken enchilada recipe this week:

Black Beans

Salsa Verde

Garlic

Onions

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Chicken Breast

Cilantro at the end

It was really good. Man, I love cilantro! I think I sometimes can go overboard with it, but tonight I didn't. :)

Charred Broccoli

Olive Oil

Butter

Garlic

Onions

Broccoli

Salt

Pepper

Parmesan

Really hot pan...

Lunch today: In and Out

Delicious, but regrettable.

Teriyaki Chicken, Jasmine Rice, and Parmesan Roasted Broccoli

Not bad at all for our first meal.

I love my cuttingboard.

Making the Teriyaki sauce.

I'm a fan...

Try it straight from the fridge. Something about cold dark chocolate is magical...

Caphalon

I'm pretty excited about our pots and pans.

Caphalon.

I'm hoping to add a couple of All-Clad frying pans to our collection this week as well.

Bristol Farms

While on my honeymoon a couple of weeks ago I was introduced to one of the greatest grocery experiences of my life: Bristol Farms. For those of you who don't know Bristol Farms is an extraordinary specialty food store with some of the best produce I've ever seen outside of a farmers market. I couldn't find a single flawed tomato in the entire bunch pictured above. We're talking perfect Heirloom tomatoes! Perfect Romas! It was amazing.

The only downside is the pricing. You certainly pay a premium for such wonderful products. I'm just glad they don't have them in Utah because I WOULD spend $60 for a bottle of Olive Oil, were it close by...and I don't even know why it's better, I'd just buy it. :)

Hello, again.

So now that I have an iPhone again I think I'll be able to keep up on the ol' blog. I'll be posting some new stuff very soon, maybe even today! Not that anyone really looks at this thing anyway. :)

We talk to the great open space as if it's filled with people listening to what we're saying. That's how blogs are at first, I guess...

Read on, Foodies!!