Create Your Own Recipe Book

I frequently get e-mails from Epicurious, a wonderful website that hosts Bon Appetitt and Gourmet magazine recipes. I’ve used quite a few recipes from these sites myself. I used to be a subscriber to both publications, but I decided if I needed a recipe, I’d just go online.

The other day I received an e-mail from Epicurious declaring I could make my own recipe book (they call it Tastebook) by following this link. One can create their own book by selecting 100 recipes of one’s choice. It allows you to create a cover for your recipe book, a title, description, and you get to browse around for recipes. You can even add your own personal recipes to the book. There’s even a preview book option so that you can take a look at what you’ve done so far and make changes if necessary. The recipes have all been divided into chapters titled “Appetizers & Drinks”, “Meat & Poultry”, etc. 

So far, I’ve added 24 recipes to my book….I still have a ways to go. I’ve already selected quite a few tasty dishes, such as: Goat Cheese Ravioli with Bell Peppers and Brown Butter, Roasted Salmon with Horseradish Creme Fraiche, Beef Braised in Barolo wine, and Sea Scallops Brochettes with Orange-Saffron Aioli, to name a few. I can’t wait to try these out!

After you select your recipes and your book is complete, you can purchase it for $34.95.

Not a bad deal at all…..I think this would make a great Christmas gift. Feel free to check it out and pass the word along.

Weekend Update

On Saturday, J and I had our friends M&N over for dinner and to watch the Grindhouse movies. I love to cook, so I found a couple of new recipes to try in addition to some that I’ve made before. Here’s what was on the menu:

Stir-Fried Shrimp with Spicy Orange Sauce (sauce consisted of OJ, honey, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and chili paste)

Asian Green Beans (seasoned with ginger, garlic, green onions, and Oyster sauce, mixed with some sliced roasted red peppers)

Herbed Basmati Rice (mixed with some garlic, green onions, fresh basil, thyme, and pine nuts)

and for dessert, I made profiteroles (cream puff pastry stuffed with vanilla ice cream, drizzled with caramel and chocolate sauce)

Everything turned out great. The food was delish (if I do say so myself). The profiteroles were a hit. It is seriously one of the best desserts in the world. After eating it, you don’t feel overly stuffed. Everything that I made is pretty simple. I’d share any of the recipes if anyone is interested.

After dinner, we watched both the Grindhouse movies: Planet Terror and Death Proof. J and I actually saw both movies in the theatre when they featured them together and the only thing that is lacking from the movies is the fake movie trailers in between the films. The producers of the film (those damn Weinstein bros.) decided to sell both films on their own and eliminated the hilarious fake trailers altogether. Oh well, at least J and I know we aren’t missing anything. We all enjoyed the movies and majority of the funny scenes. There were some gruesome and gory parts, but it’s all fun and enjoyable.

If there are Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn) and Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs) fans out there, I’d recommend buying the both Planet Terror and Death Proof and adding it to your DVD collection. These are good, really good.

Guys and Dolls

Can I just say how much I love the theatre? I am such a fan of musicals because they’re so much fun and I get so engrossed in the acting, singing, dancing, and costumes. L and I went to see Guys and Dolls today at the American Musical Theatre. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the theatre and I love, love, loved it. I love the characters of Sky Masterson and Nathan Detroit and their lady loves – Sarah Brown and Miss Adelaide. It was a really fun show. I’m glad I decided to get tickets and go. I’ve been wanting to go to a show for sometime now, it feels good to actually have done it.  

I am considering being a season ticket holder since it involves holding tickets to 4 shows during the 07-08 season:

1. Little Shop of Horrors
2. Cabaret
3. Beauty and the Beast
4. A choice between Mamma Mia or Jesus Chris Superstar (in my case, I prefer Mamma Mia)

I can’t wait till the next show. I hope they bring some more excellent shows for the 08-09 season. I’m excited for the current ones so far. Most of the other shows are not until January. Can I wait that long? I hope so.

Our Little Visit to Saratoga

Yesterday turned out to be more than what we expected. J and I decided to go to Saratoga (it’s about 15 minutes from where we live.) J’s always driving through Saratoga to go up into the mountains on his bike rides. He’s also a fan of Cinnabar wines and they have a tasting room in downtown Saratoga. It’s a cute road with little boutiques, cafes, and restaurants up and down the street. Why we never went there before is beyond me. I instantly loved how pretty Saratoga is, it’s nestled right below the mountains and the scenery is beautiful. We stopped off at Cinnabar and did a tasting, which only cost $5 and we got to sample 4 wines, plus a dessert wine. We got to sample 2 white wines: a Marsanne and Chardonnay and 2 reds: Mercury Rising Cab and a Lodi Petit Verdot. They were all excellent. Really good wines. I liked the chardonnay especially. I’m used to Chardonnays being very okay, but this one was very crisp and clean on the palate. The dessert wine we tried was an Ice Wine and it’s pretty tasty — it was very sweet, but it would go nice with a fruity dessert or something. We bought 2 bottles of wine from there – J bought a Cab Sauvignon and I bought a Paso Robles Valdiguié (which is a limited release from Cinnabar). Haven’t tried it or anything…but it seemed interesting enough and I’m always up for something new.

After we left Cinnabar, we walked around downtown for a while. We decided we’d eat dinner there, but none of the restaurants were opening until 5 or 5:30. We checked out some of the menus hanging outside the restaurants and we decided we wanted to eat at la Mère Michelle. We still has an hour to kill before dinner so we stopped by this wine shop called Uncorked. I didn’t even realize there was a wine shop besides Cinnabar. We had a good time in Uncorked. We both did a $10 tasting and got 3 different wines to sample: a Fess Parker Chardonnay, a Page Mill Cab Sauvignon, and a Mann Syrah. They were all okay. I wasn’t crazy about any of them. It was just nice to sit down and enjoy some wine. The wine selection the owner has is great. There are a lot of good wines in his shop. We left with 6 bottles or so.

Once we were done at Uncorked…we headed over to the restaurant. It’s set inside a Victorian house. The restaurant’s been around since 1972…so it’s vintage. We were seated at a table near the windows. They had all the windows open, so you got nice fresh air flowing through. I was wined out….so I didn’t pursue anymore wine, but J did and he ordered a bottle of 2002 Grgrich Hill Zinfadel. By the way…they have a huge wine list, featuring lots of known wineries and wines. We were impressed by their list. For starters I got the Baked French Onion Soup au Gratin and J got the Mixed Green salad. They make everything fresh so it was a good 15-20 minutes before my soup came out, which I appreciate, because you rarely go places where they make it from scratch as you order it. Well, the soup was good….fresh and hot, but in my honest opinion, it lacked a little something. It needed more flavoring or seasoning. I’m always used to the soup being a little saltier. Oh well….can’t complain too much since everything else was delicious.

I ordered the Prawn and Scallop Cakes Topped with Lobster, which sits on a Lemon Vodka Caviar Cream sauce. J ordered the 20 oz. Bone-in Rib Eye. Both our entrees came with candied carrots, steamed broccoli, and scalloped potatoes. Can I just say that everything was superb and delicious. The prawn and scallop cakes were to-die-for…such a nice change from the traditional crab cake. I got 2 cakes on my plate and both were topped each with a lobster tail. I love lobster and this was wonderful and fresh. The scalloped potatoes were delicious! They were so creamy and so tasty. It’s not like any scalloped potatoes I’ve had before. This was wonderful. J’s rib eye was just as good…cooked to perfection. He ate the whole thing! All 20 oz of it. After our delicious meal, we ended on a sweet note with 2 scoops of the restaurants homemade double vanilla bean gelato. Yum yum yum.

We will definitely go to la Mère Michelle’s again….but only for a special occasion. It is a bit pricey for the meals. We will return to Saratoga for another excursion in the future.

We Are Crazy, Yes, We Are

So a few months back, J and I decided that we wanted to buy a puzzle, put it together, and frame it. We both like M.C. Escher and we decided to get the 1,000 piece puzzle of the picture below, titled Relativity. We thought the image was cool and would be appealing in our home. Well, we started working on the puzzle 2 days ago, and all I have to say is this: “Why us?” At the time when we thought the puzzle would be great and cool, we didn’t realize how hard it was going to be. Let me tell you, I love puzzles. I do. I can finish a puzzle in a day or two. Yet, this puzzle will be another story. Since Saturday, I finally pieced the edges together. It was tough…really tough. Not only is the image black and white, but a lot of the same images are all over the picture — the stairs, the alien-looking people, the trees, dark doors and windows. So now I have a new strategy that will help me (see how it’s me working on it…J gave up!) I sorted the pieces into categories, so it will allow me to work on certain sections at a time. I do look forward to the end and once I do complete it, I will celebrate!