Beets are beautiful

My love of beets is a recent phenomenon.

Mostly I have eaten beets in salads.  I am somewhat obsessed with Trader Joe's Beet Salad.

This was my first attempt at actually cooking beets myself.

The two most common methods are roasting and steaming.  I decided to go the roasting route.

First I peeled and diced the beets.

Then I tossed the beets with some oil, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper.

I roasted the beets on a foil line baking sheet at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes.

Once the beets cooled.  I made a salad with spinach, goat cheese, walnuts, balsamic basil dressing and of course, Beets!

I like beets alot because of the way that the earthy flavor compliments the goat cheese.

How can I talk about beets without paying tribute to "The Beets" legendary rock group from the cartoon Doug?  Lets take a moment to remember the musical genius of such songs as "Killer Tofu" and "I Need More Allowance."

Fair Food

I went to the San Diego County Fair last Tuesday....it took 2 hours of traffic to actually get there, but luckily we got free tickets handed to us by a random stranger at the entrance!  Another plus was that it was $2 Taste of the Fair Tuesday, and lots of the food vendors were offering small sample plates for just $2.

Can't beat that!

Hands down best $2 spent:

Cheese Curds!

We also had deep fried artichokes, but I ate it before I remembered to take a picture-Oops!

Steve got some $2 BBQ Pork thingy

Since all the food we were eating was only $2! I decided to splurge and buy us some $9 beers to take the edge off.

$2 chicken nachos.

$2 Pizza on a stick.

Then I went for Cheese on a stick! Couldn't resist...

I wanted to look in the gems and mineral building.  And I came across an interesting display:

Food made out of Rocks!

chocolate truffles guaranteed to chip a tooth..

I'm surprised they didn't have Rocky Road Ice cream (HAHA)

OK I'm sad I can't think of more good rock jokes right now.....

Pecan Pie

My dad has professed pecan pie to be his favorite dessert, so I took it upon myself this father's day to make my dad a pecan pie worthy of a king!  The pecans were practically priced at their weight in gold, but alas they are pretty high up there on the hierarchy of nuts..but anyways that's another story for another blog post.  Anyways, I have made a few pecan pies in my day.  I decided to stick with something simple and traditional.  I found this particular pie recipe on a blog featured on my favorite website in the world FoodGawker.com:

 http://burnmenot.blogspot.com/2010/11/perfect-pecan-pie.html

Last year I made one with chocolate and bourbon in it as well, and the crowd proclaimed it too sweet!

Pecan pie is already really sweet as is, adding chocolate is just over the top!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups shelled pecan halves
1 cup golden or light corn syrup
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
9-inch unbaked deep-dish pie shell

The only other thing that I have ever used corn syrup for besides making pecan pie is making caramel.

Anyways, just mix everything together.  Add the pecans last and just stir until combined.

Pour into an uncooked pie shell and cook at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

The results are delicious! 

Tiramisu

This was good. And oh so easy!

I obtained the recipe from this lovely blog:

http://www.creamandvanilla.com/2011/02/easy-peasy-tiramisu.html

I made this for a dinner party last week.  Steve had invited some friends over because he was making lasagna so I decided to go with the Italian theme and make tiramisu!

I got home from work, made this in about 20 minutes and then popped it in the fridge for later!

Very easy recipe! The hard part was finding the lady fingers!

Ingredients

Lady fingers

7 oz cream cheese

1 Pint Heavy Cream
1/2 cup of powdered sugar

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
1 Cup of extra strong coffee completely cooled (I used instant coffee)

4 Tablespoons Kahlua (My addition! Not part of the original recipe)
3 Tablespoon or more of cocoa powder

You whip the cream until peaks form.  Then add in the cream cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar and beat until combined.

I went to two store before I found lady fingers! Vons-no! Albertsons-no! I found them at Ralphs in Hillcrest.

Make a coffee, Kahlua concoction and then lightly dip the lady fingers. 

Cover with half of the whipped cream.

Then repeat the process for a second layer.

Sprinkle cocoa powder on top.

And the stick in the fridge for a while for the flavors to meld together a bit.

Behold a masterpiece!

It was light and sweet and perfect!

I will be making this again!

Moussaka

I really like eggplant a lot, but I have had mixed experiences trying to prepare it myself.  I have made moussaka once before successfully, but I've stayed away from it for a while due to my second, inedible attempt.  Also it is a time consuming recipe so you don't want to spend two hours making it and then have it not come out tasting anything but super delicious!  OK so start by pouring yourself a glass of white wine.  Some wine is going into your meat/tomato sauce so it's already there ready and waiting...so what are you waiting for? Start drinking! Recipe adapted from:

http://www.gastronomersguide.com/2009/08/moussaka.html

Now back to the eggplant.  It is a very delicate situation when working with the elusive and fickle aubergine.

Eggplant preparation requires slicing the eggplant and then salting both sides and then leaving in a colander for at least 30 minutes.  Then you rinse the eggplant and pat dry.  Then you fry the eggplant on both sides.

Then you drain the eggplant on paper towels.

In the meantime cook your meat sauce.  Cook half of  a chopped onion and two cloves minced garlic in oil.  Then add 1 lb ground beef and cook until browned.  Then add in 1/2 cup dry white wine, a 15oz can of chopped tomatoes, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, parsley and oregano.  Cook until liquid is reduced.

Then you make a bechamel sauce.  Mix 4 Tbsp. butter with 4 Tbsp. flour to create a paste.  Bring two cups milk to boil.  Add in the butter and flour paste and mix until the sauce thickens.  Then add 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese and stir until melted.  Then add in 1/8 tsp nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

Once you have everything prepared you can start layering.  You can start with eggplant if you have enough.  I only used one eggplant so I didn't feel like I had enough for two layers.  I put the meat as the bottom layer, then topped that with eggplant.  The bechamel sauce is the top layer and then any extra cheese can be sprinkled on top of that.

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

3 Meals on Maui

Here are some pictures of my top 3 meals in Maui.

#1 The Hula Grill

http://www.hulagrillkaanapali.com/

We were walking back from the beach looking at the menus of different beach side restaurants, and were intrigued by the chef's tasting menu.  For $25 it got you a starter, entree and dessert. 

Olive oil and a sweet chili sauce.  You mixed them together as a dipping sauce for foccacia bread.

My sister and mom both had the ceasar salad for their starter.

I went with the crunchy beet and Asian pear salad.

My dad got the hand wrapped pot stickers.

For the entree we all ordered the same thing; Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi!  So good!

For dessert there was the choice of Hula Grill's famous ice cream sandwich

Or coconut creme brulee.  Both were amazing!

#2 Aloha Mixed Plate

http://www.alohamixedplate.com/

Second best meal would have to be at Aloha Mixed plate where the "Paper plate meets million dollar view."

Very traditional luau fare, also very affordable prices, and YES, breath taking view included!

Got there at the tail end of happy hour. Had a couple of perfectly executed Mai Tais.

I ordered the Hawaiian Plate:

Kalua pig and cabbage, lomi lomi salmon, poi and haupia.  Served with two scoops of rice and one scoop of macaroni salad.  Couldn't finish. $8.95.

Inside the small plastic containers from top to bottom.

Haupia, a traditional coconut milk based gelatin-like dessert.

Lomi lomi salmon- kind of like ceviche, a tomato and salmon salad.

Poi- notorious paste like substance made from the mashed up corm of the taro plant. Not a fan. 

#3 Bar and Grill at the Westin

Well, in all truth this was probably not in my top 3, but it's the only other meal I took pictures of!  This was at the Westin hotel I think? Anyways, the food was extravagantly priced and I found the overall dish to be too salty. 

What you're looking at here is a flat bread smeared with goat cheese and loaded with greens, beef strips, bell pepper strips, onions and mushrooms.  The mushrooms were crispy-fried maybe?  The beef was super salty as was the dressing on the greens.  Notable was the goat cheese, and Yes that is why I ordered this dish.

The goat cheese is from a local Maui dairy called The Surfing Goat Dairy http://www.surfinggoatdairy.com/

Delicious and on the menus everywhere.  If I ever go back to Maui I would take a tour of the dairy.  It was kind of out of the way so I didn't get the chance this trip.

The food on Maui is fresh and amazing.  Everywhere you go you can find fresh seafood, fruit and vegetables!

Thank you mom and dad for some amazing meals!