You are my lobster

My other half suggested that we started doing a nice weekend dinner like trying the different cuts of meat from Whole Foods, getting seafood from our local Santa Barbara fish market, etc... so we did! I wanted to reproduce a classic steak dinner, but then I found out our local seafood market had live Maine lobsters on sale so I decided to make a surf and turf with classic sides.

I bought 3 1.5-2lb. live Maine lobsters and 2 dry aged ribeyes from Whole Foods.

Very live lobsters and great steaks.

I've eaten a ton of lobster growing up but the only time my other half really had it was when we went to Jamaica, and I wanted to recreate a lobster dish he had. I made lobster in 3 ways: lobster "roll," lobster in garlic and butter sauce, and steamed.

Trio of lobster: steamed, sauteed in garlic butter, and lobster "roll"

I didn't buy a cracker for the lobster and we used a hammer. It was my first time using a hammer and it was CRAZY. Shell and meat were flying everywhere! And it took a good hour to get all the meat out, but it was a fun experience! But I think I'm going to invest in a few crackers..it's so much more efficient.

The motherload. Such sweet, sweet meat.

For the lobster "roll", I seasoned chunks of lobster with ground black pepper, granulated garlic, green onions, parsley, red pepper flakes, and lemon juice mixed with some of the good stuff from the lobster head "green gunk" and a little dab of mayonaise for creaminess. Instead of placing it in a roll, I placed the lobster on top of a toasted crostini. It was the most perfect bite of food...rich and creamy, with the fresh taste from the onion and the acid from the lemon juice that breaks through it.

I don't eat or cook with butter when I don't have to, but this was a special occasion. The first time my other half had lobster was in Jamaica and he had it in a garlic butter sauce and I wanted to recreate it. I melted some butter, added garlic, parsley, ground black pepper, and sauteed some lobster claws and tails for him. I didn't try it, but he said it was really good.

Butter melting.

Garlic, butter, seasoning and lobster.

For the steaks, I seasoned it with ground black pepper and granulated garlic and used my Palm Restaurant cast iron skillet to sear it and then continued to cook it in the oven. The steak cut like BUTTER and melted in your mouth. I barely chewed. It was one of the best steaks I've ever had.

2 1lb. dry aged ribeyes

Beautiful grill marks.

Beautiful medium rare.

As for the sides, I made cheese fries topped with green onions, mac n cheese topped with bacon, and corn. I had thought about making fresh baked french fries, but I had a lot of other things going on so I baked frozen french fries, topped it off with a mix of cheeses and cut green onions. The mac n cheese was from the frozen section at the market because we didn't need much and if I were to make it, we'd have a ton of leftovers. Frozen mac n cheese.. I know. So sue me. As for the corn, I was going to get corn on the cob, but I had a few cans of corn and had to use it. With simpler sides, it made my life a little easier because after cracking all those lobster shells, I got tired.

Cheese fries.

The entire meal (not my portion). Steamed lobster tail, lobster sauteed in garlic and butter, lobster "roll", corn, mac n cheese with bacon, and half of a rib eye.

The meal was so good. The lobster was sweet and lush. The steak was tender and melted in your mouth. The sides were a great accompaniment. All the sides were finished, but we had a great amount of lobster and steak leftover.

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia

Ring My Bell

My other half's mother had given me leftover ground beef with taco seasoning and I wasn't sure what to make with it, but after scouring my fridge and finding an open jar of tomato sauce it came to me! Stuffed bell peppers! Mine consisted of onions, garlic, brown rice, bell pepper I took off from the tops that I cut off, the seasoned taco meat, and green beans cooked in a red wine tomato sauce with some chicken stock in my Le Creuset dutch oven.

I took the core out of the bell pepper and roasted them for 10 minutes at 350.

Peppers pre-roast

I sauteed the garlic, bell peppers, and garlic in EVOO. Then I added the brown rice and cooked it with some chicken stock and the tomato sauce. I put the cover on and let it cook. Later on, I added the ground beef and green beans and continued to let it simmer down (Sorry, I was charging my phone and forgot to take a photo!).

Sauteed onion, garlic, and bell peppers in EVOO

Once the stuffing was done, I stuffed it inside the bell peppers and roasted them off for 15 minutes at 400.

The finished product! Although it may not look like it, the peppers have a nice char on them!

The inside! It cut like butter.

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia

Carbs, Carbs, Carbs

I went to a graduation party at a beach house over the weekend and I wanted to contribute a snack for my other half's family, so I decided to make a blooming bread for them because carbs makes everything better! 

 My other half's mom bought a sourdough bowl from Costco, but you can use any type of bread you want like roasted garlic, olive oil and basil...anything that makes you happy. I scored the bread and stuffed the crevices with green onions and cheddar cheese. I sauteed a white sweet onion and garlic in EVOO with a simple seasoning of ground black pepper and garlic salt. Stuffed the sauteed onions and garlic into the bread and topped it off with more cheddar cheese and green onions. Placed it in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 and voila! A delicious, golden brown goddess with gold emerged!

 I wanted to keep this simple because I knew there was going to be other snacks and didn't want people to get too full before dinner. What I like about blooming bread is that there is no certain way to make one or a certain recipe you need. You can put ANYTHING you want in it! Like for real. Mushrooms, asparagus, tomatoes, peppers...anything you want to do, you can. Most people enjoy cooking with butter but I don't so my to-go fat to use are EVOO and Grapeseed oil infused with garlic and basil. 

Onion and Garlic Blooming Bread. Crusty and crunchy outside with a soft melty ooey gooey inside.

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia

Pizza, Pizza!

I wanted pizza without all the grease and heaviness of the dough, so I made my own BBQ chicken pizza on multi-grain english muffins!

The first component is the sauce. Instead of putting just BBQ sauce on them, I mixed BBQ sauce with a sweet tomato sauce and added Cholula, cayenne pepper, ground black pepper, and granulated garlic. The sauces combined created a sweet and smoky flavor (like if I had added bacon) to the pizza.

The second component are the onions atop the pizza. Normally, they are raw red onions, but I made a little twist to it. I caramelized 1 large white, sweet onion and reduced it with red wine, balsamic vinegar, and red pepper flakes.

The third component is the cheese. I'm not a cheese eater, so I just bought a bag of Mexican blended cheeses (Pepper Jack, Mozzarella, Cheddar, and Colby).

The fourth component is the chicken. I used cut up chicken thighs, seasoned with ground black pepper and granulated garlic. I pan fried the chicken with my infused garlic and basil grapeseed oil. The oil gave the chicken a great crust and enhanced the flavor.

Popped them in the oven at 350 degrees to crisp up and it off with some spring onion for a crisp and fresh taste.

Onions caramelizing in red wine and balsamic (I added more red wine after this photo).

The finished product! BBQ Chicken Pizza on a Multi-Grain English Muffin.

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia

Faux Roux

I've been wanting to eat creamy foods that I normally don't eat... like the clam chowder I made over the weekend and today was no exception. I'm not a big fan of mac and cheese but for some reason, I REALLY had a craving for it. So, I made a healthier version of mac and cheese without butter and cream. I used my 4.25 quart Le Creuset pot and made a faux roux using olive oil, flour, nonfat milk, and added some chicken stock. The noodles were whole wheat rotini and penne, which gives it a nutty bite and healthy, too! I crushed a 100 calorie Cheez-It pack I had and sprinkled it on top and placed the mac and cheese in the oven to keep warm.

The seasonings I used were: ground black pepper, garlic, garlic powder, garlic salt (I really like garlic), smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, and parsley

When I served the mac and cheese, I added chopped up spring onions.

My OGSJ (onion, garlic, spinach, and jalapeno) mac and cheese.

I also made peanut butter and banana pancakes for my other half.

*All my photos are taken with my Samsung Galaxy Note II and I don't use any filters, but maybe I should start too...

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia

Seafood, Eatfood

Sushi. How can something with a couple of ingredients be so delicious? I swore off going to sushi restaurants for the past month and a half because I was DETERMINED that I was going to make my own. It took a month and a half because when the weekends rolled along, I was either busy, out of town, or lazy. Alas, the day has come! I went to the Santa Barbara Fish Market to get my ingredients: 2lbs. of ahi tuna, 1lb. of hamachi (yellowtail), 3lbs. of littleneck clams (I also bought 2lbs. of littlenecks at Whole Foods), and 2 trays of uni.

The clams were bought to make clam chowder. I'm normally not a fan of clam chowder because I don't like creamy soups, but that craving needed to be satisfied and I was not going to buy store bought clam chowder. So, I made my own without butter or cream (I never use butter or cream, sorry Julia). I also am not a huge fan of bacon, but it'll give the soup a smoky flavor, so I bought 3 slices of jalapeno-garlic bacon at Whole Foods. The final product was a perfectly thick corn and clam chowder. The greatest feeling was seeing that only 1 clam out of the 5lbs. not opening up! I thought my other half would need to pry open the unopened clam, but it opened up quite easily. Great results for my first chowder!

Ingredients for the Corn and Clam Chowder:
5lbs. of littleneck clams+clam liquid
1 can of corn+liquid
1 large white onion
3 small organic red potatoes
ground black pepper
thyme
smoked paprika
garlic+garlic powder+garlic salt
cayenne pepper
1.5 cups of non-fat milk
1 cup of flour

I used my amazing 7.25 quart Le Creuset.

Jalapeno-Garlic Bacon.

The chowder may not look like much, but it was really good!

I used the hamachi to make hamachi jalapeno sashimi. Normally, yuzu sauce is needed for the recipe, but I decided to make my own citrus sauce for the sashimi. I squeezed juice from an orange, grapefruit, and lemon. Added ground black pepper, a splash of low sodium soy, a few slices of jalapeno and voila!
I sliced the hamachi as thinly as I could, topped them off with jalapeno slices and drizzled my citrus sauce on top. It was the perfect bite of melt in your mouth fatty hamachi, with citrus cutting through the fattiness and enough heat and crispiness from the jalapeno. Amazing.

With the ahi, I made a simple spicy tuna with sriracha, ground black pepper, and a tiny bit of sesame oil. I used the ahi in a roll with brown rice and sliced cucumbers and made a little spicy tuna don and topped it off with a piece of uni. Uni is delicious on its own, so I made 2 brown rice uni nigiris and ate the rest by itself. Delicious.

I know my photos aren't that great, but I'm trying to get more light into the apartment to make it look better.

Until next time!

CheFelicia

My New Xanga

I was tossing and turning in bed at 3AM and then it dawned on me "What ever happened to my Xanga?". And with a quick search, I found my 11 year old self. It was awesome to read about my past and had me remembering things that I forgot had existed. Life was so(mewhat) simple back then. Now, this is my new, 24 year old "Xanga"!

I had bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco and had been eating it since Sunday and was itching to cook! Finally, all the meat on the chicken was gone and I was left with the bones. So, I decided to make a soup from the chicken bones and added in kale, spinach, asparagus, onions, and garlic (+ground black pepper, parsley, garlic powder, and chili powder). The soup was made with my Le Creuset 4.25 quart soup pot. I didn't add too much liquid and it became more of a braised vegetable dish, but still tasty. 

My other half HATES asparagus so I knew he wasn't going to have the soup. Instead, I made him 7-cheese tortellinis (from Costco, but I will make my own soon!) in a red wine tomato sauce with onions, garlic, and spinach (+ground black pepper, thyme, garlic powder, sweet and smoked paprika, chili powder, ground red pepper flakes, parsley, and balsamic vinegar). The tortellinis were topped with sungold yellow cherry tomatoes for some brightness and acidity. I didn't want to stop cooking and had leftover  beef loin so I deglazed the pan with red wine, seasoned the beef with garlic powder and black pepper and let the beef soak in the red wine. 

Until next time!

CheFelicia

Here Goes Nothing!

After telling myself I was going to start a food blog, I've finally done it! This will be a creative outlet for me to post photos of the food I create, good or bad, and restaurants that I have/will eat at. I do not use any recipes or measure anything out, I just cook.

So without further interruption, I introduce to you a simple smoked chicken sausage in a french baguette topped with sauteed green bell peppers, mushrooms, and onions in olive oil (I also added fresh pico de gallo, mustard, and ketchup to it but didn't take a photo) with baked yam fries, that I severely sliced my index finger and thumb for, but it was worth it!

Until next time!

CheFelicia