Commando Goes Corbelli

Hi Everyone!

Savvy Cuisine's aprons are now being carried by Crobelli's in the Otay Ranch Town Center in East Lake! My good friend Cheri, formerly of the Candle Factory at Liberty Station, has a fabulous boutique right next to Macy's.

For inquires, call 619. 865.3085.

Savvy Cuisine Meets Up with FOCUS

Greek Salad on a Stick, catered by Savvy Cuisine. Recipe in this months upcoming newsletter!

A subtle warning to all wallflowers...

Thursday night at Wheel Works Savvy Cuisine got to mingle with San Diego's Fashion Industry Insiders and strut her culinary couture. There was plenty of sipping (on amazing cider and basil jungle juice) and snapping (with so many wonderful photographers wandering around).

These are a few snaps from the beginning of the soiree...

Savvy Cuisine's Aprons Are Debuted!

Savvy Cuisine Apron in "Commando"
Hey everybody!

What a great time we all had last night at the WGN/Ladies who Launch Holiday Party. Lots of wonderful treats (to eat and sip), outstanding networking, and a beautiful setting. Thanks to our fearless leader, Felena Hanson!

Salmon Pasta with Fresh Spinach

What do you do when you're starving, lethargic, trying to cut back on carbs, AND haven't been to the grocery store in (what feels like) weeks!?

You get creative what (little) you've got.

Or desperate.

Or both.

So, out of desperation, er, creative inspiration I came up with this little quick dish that served as a surprisingly easy AND tasty lunch.

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 can of a little can of pink salmon (leftovers)

2. 1 cup of rice pasta (also leftovers)

3. 6 whole cherry tomatoes

4. 1/4 cup of fresh baby spinach (from the bag, no effort required here)

5. 1 slice of prosciutto sliced

6. A few capers to taste

olive oil

lemon pepper

dash of h20

Get your saute pan hot and drizzle in some of your favorite virgin olive oil. Immediately throw in your fresh spinach, tomatoes, and rice pasta. Add a tablespoon of water here to reincarnate that rice pasta (its gets a little hard in the fridge). Add your fancy Italian dried pig, capers, and salmon. Season with lemon pepper to taste. You could also add Parmesan cheese, but for those you of watching the ingredient list like a hawk, this may totally eradicate all respect (what little is had) for the 6 ingredients or less principal. Make a choice you can live with here. I chose taste.

Terribly Complicated and Totally Tasty: Roasted Red Pepper & Marinated Artichoke Canape

Yep. That's a mouthful (and a delicious one at that)! But take a deep breath and down the rest of that White Zin like you mean it, because this app won't run up your grocery bill or keep you from primping to the max for your guests (the invited ones).

For this masterpiece of ingenuity I simply:

Opened a jar of Trader Joes' marinated artichokes

Opened a jar of Trader Joes' fire roasted red peppers

Found an open jar of capers also from the fine purveyor mentioned above

Sliced an almost stale baguette (sorry TJ, you don't get the props for this one)

Drizzled Extra Virgin Olive Oil (TJ)

And peeled a couple of garlic cloves

Just fire up your oven to about 350 and place your slices of French bread on a baking sheet. Drizzle with Olive Oil and throw them in for just a couple of minutes. Take them out and rub the raw garlic clove briskly over the bread. The bread (now nice and toasty) will absorb the garlic flavor. Press harder if you want a stronger garlic flavor. Place a quartered artichoke on each slice of bread, and strip of red pepper and one caper. Now, they go back in the furnace, but this time put it on BROIL. Watch carefully, this will only take a minute or two for the bread to get a nice golden color. Then, remove from the oven and plate up for your guests. They'll never know this took you two seconds!

The Watermelon Salad That Was

Well, this was my brilliant creation (albeit it not so inventive) that I brought (or intended to bring) to Godluck last night. The long story short is I gave up looking for parking after 40 minutes and after my salad my passed from this life and entered into the next. This little recipe is super easy and super sweet and savory, but has a limited life span. You really have to prepare it just a few minutes before you serve it to your guests and definitely DON'T pack it along for a road trip because in the after life, it becomes a pink, soppy, and sticky reminder that this life is too short to waste in the Volkswagen looking for free parking on a game night in downtown San Diego.

Well, aren't you dying for the recipe after that description...

Recipe

Watermelon cut up into pieces (not to small though because as you stir it, they break up a bit)

Goat/Feta Cheese

Fresh Mint (diced)

Vidalia Onion (or you could red onion-the goal is to have it sweet)

Vinaigrette: Grape Seed Oil, White Balsamic Vinegar, Kosher Salt, and Ground Black Pepper

OK. For those of you counting my ingredients like accountants for the mob, you might notice that if you count the ingredients in the recipe there are slightly more ingredients than the sacred number 6. For those of you that fit into the category above....use a bottled balsamic vinaigrette (and keep your attorney's number on speed dial).

For more information on the GodLuck Club, visit their website
godluck.org.

For more information on Great Light Tao, visit their website
taopractice.org

"Knowing others is wisdom;
Knowing the self is enlightenment."

-Lao Tze

GodLuck Salad

Religion, Faith, Spirituality, and Philosophy were the honored guests at last night's GodLuck Club. It was my first time attending this friendly group and I was welcomed right into their lives and to their table. The goal of GodLuck is the exploration of world religions by inviting representatives from different faiths to share the concepts, philosophy, theology, rituals, and (sometimes) rules, associated with that particular practice, while providing a welcoming and open space for the group to share their own religious upbringing and spiritual journeys and most importantly, to ask questions. Oh, and I forgot to mention the FOOD! Apparently the jug of coffee I ingested this morning has not been able to clear the fog from my brain. Everyone brings a dish, providing the (pot)luck of the evening, which reflects the theme of the discussion.
Last night was Taoism (say "DOWism") and a vegetarian dish was requested for the table. So, what does this once vegetarian, vegan, macrobiotic, turned everytarian make to satisfy a group of hungry spiritual seekers?
Salad. I guess.
I wanted to be clever and put a spin on the traditional cranberry, goat cheese, nut, and greens combo that's been so overdone...so I made a leap of faith and switched it up to Blueberries, Blue Cheese, Pears, Candied Walnuts, and greens. Whoo hoo. Way to mix it up Linnea. I was inspired by the GodLuck's new logo that has blue bits of inspiration in the branches and so my intention was to follow that lead and hopefully not overdo the whole "blue" thing.

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients: Organic Baby Spring Mix Crumbled Salem Blue Cheese Candied Walnuts Dried Wild Blueberries Dianjou Pears (sliced) Champagne Pear Vinaigrette (all from Trader Joes)

This is very difficult to make. Only the truly enlightened chef can master this salad. The discipline requires patience (to rip open those stubborn bags of salad), virtue (to wash your hands after handling the bleu cheese-ew), training (to use your last clean steak knife cautiously to slice the pears), and finally curiosity as you open the bottle of salad dressing. This all takes no less than twenty seconds.

Hey Felena! That's two recipes in a row for six ingredients or less! I'm on a roll.

Savory Scallops with Polenta & Spinach

This recipe is for Felena. Busy girl that she is, she proudly announced in her kitchen to me not long ago that a recipe for her needs to be "six ingredients or less!". It was a veiled threat to all those overly complicated creations presented every so carefully and colorfully by our friends Martha, Giadda, and Jacque with the magical assistance of television. All those ingredients already chopped aren't making life easier on a Wednesday night-the person who washed, chopped, and left it out for our above beloved chefs is really the savior (or the grande saboteur depending on how you look at this).
So, to all of you who can't abide more complication in your life or to those who only have six ingredients in their entire fridge...this one's for you!

Ingredients:
1. Scallops (dust with sea salt, ground pepper, and red pepper flakes)
2. Spinach
3. Polenta (I like the prepackaged kind from Trader Joes)
4. Lime
5. Cilantro (finely chopped)
6. Tapatio

Score your fresh or thawed scallops and dust with salt and pepper to taste. Saute spinach in Olive Oil. Warm sliced polenta either in the oven or in a saute pan until lightly browned. With all that done, now saute your scallops. I used a medium heat and only for a few minutes because I like eating scallops, not white chunks of tire tread. At the very end of your cooking, squeeze lime into your scallop pan.
To plate, arrange a small flat round of spinach, then a slice of your polenta, and then place your delightfully done scallop on top. Sprinkle the creation with some cilantro and dab some tapatio on the plate to trick your family and friends into thinking this is a five star restaurant creation!

Field Salad with Garbanzos and Feta

Finally! I have my new camera. Sigh (BIG).
Sorry, folks if you were concerned that you would have to stare at poorly colored Easter Eggs for the next few months. My point and shoot digital camera died a long and painful death and it took me waaay too long to replace it's worthless 7 mega pixel carcass. But, as I've been told my whole life, be patient, and the right...(camera)....will come along. And it did. Please welcome the Nikon D60 to the table and strap on your forks, plates, and of course wine glasses because this thing is going to be stepping up the bar for Savvy Cuisine and taking shots all over the place. Actually, I think it's focusing on me first and proving that I'm a complete amateur at photography, but it does it in such a nice, convenient, and professional way that I don't even care. This camera can walk all over me and I'm still going to sing it's praises and carry it everywhere I go (sending my poor friends scattering for fear of evidence being collected against them).

So, after a few hideous and random shots of furniture and the cat for the past couple of weeks, I finally tried food yesterday. I had journeyed out to The Vegetable Stand and after an obscenely long contemplation of how to spend the $2 I had with me, I finally grabbed a delicious and fluffy head of chicory lettuce. They were so nice at the stand, they rewarded me with a juicy red strawberry and it made me forget that white Range Rover that had chased my poor Volkswagen'
s bumper all through the windy roads of Del Mar to get to this place.
So, I arrived home, starving, and still a bit chased and hot from my drive so I dove right in to preparing myself a small salad feast for my lunch.

Ingredients:
A few leaves of Chicory, torn and washed
A sprinkle of Organic* Garbanzo Beans
What I had left of the crumbled Feta Cheese (from Trader Joes)
Four basil leaves (chiffonade)
1/4 of an avocado
1/2 of a Roma tomato

Dressing:
OK. I was lazy, hot, hungry, and tired. Not trying to squelch calories, but this works if you are trying to cut back.
A drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
A squeeze of a 1/4 lemon
Sprinkle of Sea Salt
Cracked Black Pepper

I topped off the feast with a glass of dry Riesling (I love working for myself), sourdough baguette and Port Salut. You could do this salad on a much bigger scale and serve it family style. I recommend NOT using the dregs of your feta cheese container like I did though.

Cleaning Up After The Easter Bunny

Has this happened to you? Be honest now. It's Monday and you've opened the fridge actually thinking it was the coffee cupboard (because you're nursing that Mimosa hangover from brunch yesterday) and found these colorful, odd shaped droppings in your fridge. It's a shock, right?
The first shock being that this is not the cupboard that you intended to open and admitting that you were cleverly deceived by an unfriendly and unsympathetic synapse in your sleepy brain.
The second shock is being forced to determine what the hell is shining all bright and pastel at you where the milk is supposed to be. (Where is that guy from CSI or maybe this is more of a job for inspector gadget). Anyway. There is shock. There is awe. And finally, hopefully, there is coffee.
But you still have this problem. How do you "dispose" of these delicacies. Because it seems terribly rude to just throw them out (like kicking Santa Clause). So you bring one to work but you forget about it in your bag and three days later your favorite bag is covered in shattered pink disaster and smelling like THAT mat at your gym. That idea sucked.
OK, so how about making something delectable and disguise the fact that these were your experiment to recapture memories of the past and then you drank too much and forgot that there was even a holiday much less a colorful token to commemorate the extravaganza. Great! Let's suppress.

Egg Salad

Ingredients:
6 eggs (peeled, ya, of course, and sliced anyway you want)
3 ribs of celery (peeled and diced very small)
1 small shallot (also diced)- you could also use red onion here or scallions
1 t dill
1 t yellow mustard (what out for the "node" at the top. EEW)
1.5 t (to taste) Garlic Ailoli Mustard (Trader Joes rides again)
1 C mayo
1 t worcester
white pepper
sea salt

Mix all of these fabulous ingredients together and refrigerate your beautiful ensemble. I usually give it at least a couple of hours. To serve it, I like making sandwiches on fresh sour dough bread with red leaf or romaine lettuce, finely sliced tomato, and Jarlsberg cheese.

What a delicious way to clean up the crap.

Guacamole

It's a staple of life here in Southern California, but I can't discount the origin of my love of this great stuff...the many greasy (more like grimy) spoons, dives, and stands of Chicago.
My mom first gave me a fork, some over ripe avocados, and access to the spice cabinet when I was five and I've been experimenting every since. I'm sharing my (current) favorite recipe for this green treat.

Ingredients:
3 Hass Avocados 1 Clove of Garlic 1 Clove of a Shallot 1 or 2 Limes 2 Roma Tomatoes Cilantro (chopped) Cracked Black Pepper Kosher Salt *Other great ingredients are ground cumin, ground coriander, onion powder, sour cream or creme fresche, and even finely chopped jalapenos.

Peel and mash your avocados to a nice pulp with a fork or pestle. After you have released all pent up anxiety, stress, and anger by the prior step in this process, take a cleansing breath and make sure that your utensil, er weapon, is still in the bowl and not lodged in any innocent bystander's eye. Then, crush your garlic and finely chop your shallot and add to the mix. Add your tomatoes, cilantro and salt and pepper and stir. I like to add the lime last. Sometimes you only need a quarter of a lime and sometimes you might need the whole thing. It depends on the consistency of your guacamole. If you are adding sour cream, you'll need less lime...you're making a dip after all, not a soup.

My favorite way to enjoy this (that is in fact that the guacamole has sustained the mixing process and managed to escape my eating the whole bowl) is to put this into fresh corn tacos, topped with shredded lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes!

Tortellini Soup

This creation is what my mom would call a "mustgo" dinner when I was growing up. Say it with all the flair that you like, insert a fake accent, or add a consonant that isn't there...it still means the same thing.
All this stuff must go out of the fridge!
It's amazing what you can create out of fear (of going to the supermarket at prime time) and loathing (of going to the supermarket at prime time). Look at this happenstance as a great opportunity to bring out your inner TOP CHEF. This is your dinner challenge and you're the only competitor. You're only obstacle is to carefully select your ingredients that will grace your creation and what will grace the inside of your garbage can. Being frugal should never land you in the E.R.
For my Saturday night mustgo, I prepared a tortellini soup all out of leftovers:

Leftover cheese stuffed tortellini from the freezer (already cooked)
Cabbage from St. Patrick's Day (shredded)
Pepperoni from I don't know where
Frozen tomato juice (that I saved from cans of tomatoes)
French Green Beans
Carrots
Celery
Onion
Parsley (fresh)
Chicken Broth (1 quart)

Preparation:
In a stock pot, melt butter and add onions, celery, carrots, and cabbage. Once that mixture is glassy pour in tomato juice and bring that to a boil. Once that is rolling, add chicken broth and parsley. Bring to boil again. Then it's time to add your tortellini and bring back to a boil. You can turn the temperature down so it's simmering at a fast pace and cook for about 30 minutes. The last 10 minutes of cooking, add the sliced pepperoni and green beans.
I added a tablespoon of pesto, some freshly cracked pepper, and sea salt to taste at the end. Garnish with some fresh Parmesan cheese!

The morale of the story here is, you don't have to have really fancy ingredients to make a very hearty and delicious meal. As long as you have some broth in your cupboard, and your basic carrots, onions, and celery you can create just about anything!

A Soda Bread Story

My grandmother loved to cook and made fabulous creations. She also loved to travel. She and grandpa made there way around a good part of this globe boasting the fact that they had never been on an airplane. They were able to boast that fact their entire years on this earth (which was 91 for her). One of their travels brought them to the emerald isle and on that trip my grandmother met a wonderful woman on a train (where else, except a boat...not too many options here) who gave her family's special recipe for soda bread to my grandmother.
I wish this was that recipe.
I love that story. It's so cool! But that soda bread recipe literally tastes like bonded dirt and doesn't look that much better.
This one, well, it is still a handed down recipe from my aunt who got it from her teaching friend in Georgia who was Irish. But it's not your "traditional" soda bread. This tastes good. It's practically like cake. In fact it makes a great accompaniment to tea, but makes even better french toast (with a little whiskey maple syrup).
Erin Go Bragh.
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The Tale of the Black Velvet and the Jackalope

Ingredients:
Guinness
Champagne

Fill half a champagne glass with champagne and wait to settle. Then slowly pour stout on top, and again, let it breathe a bit. That's it!


Once upon a time, my good friend Kari and I were introduced to the most luscious treat that ever existed and we were princesses (for exactly 24 hours).

Our tale begins with a very long day. It had been an even longer night that preceded this fine long day. Said night before did not end until 3am thanks to the fabulous pints and music at Gogarty's in Dublin. Three precious hours of sleep were granted to us before we had to scamper down a very narrow flight of stairs (try scampering down a Georgian staircase with 80 kilos of crap), and survive a very hairy cab ride to the train station where we dragged ourselves aboard and claimed a whole car for ourselves for the ride to County Clare.

Needless to say these two fair maidens were spent and looked it. A couple of hours later on the train and a bus ride later we were dropped off at the gate of Dromoland Castle. The kind bus driver had told us that the walk up the drive wasn't that long (famous last words). OK. We can do this. Not so bad, right? WRONG! All of a sudden a black Range Rover slicked by us, followed by an equally shiny and black Mercedes. Crap. This is not just the front gate...this is the main drive to the castle. Our humble plan of arriving in a thrifty and efficient manner now had us nearly blocking beautifully shiny and expensive traffic. Great. We must look like complete urchins. We concluded that the only reason no one had stopped and truly stared at us was that they assumed that we were the hired help and would be cleaning the toilets in this place. This thought also rendered us completely silly and soon the laughter was out of control, so not only did we look like mere peasants trespassing, but we also must have appeared slightly crazy as well. A stunning combo.

Thankfully, a good Samaritan appeared with a big golf cart and kindly asked if we were guests. Oh, she must have been blind. We didn't look like guests. Those ducks taking a crap on the green looked more like guests than we did! Bless her heart. She swiftly got us inside and checked in and after taking a zillion pictures of our room and sipping sherry we sprinted (carefully and regally) down to the bar/tea room where they were still serving lunch (thankfully). It was here in the midst of velvet drapes, priceless oil paintings, and fine linen that we were introduced to the Black Velvet. Obviously we were both eager for some hair of the dog and here it appeared on the menu like a mythical Unicorn here to save us from ourselves. This completed our transitions from mere urchins to true princesses in about 60 seconds. Ahhh (we sipped)...castle life! It was then that I glanced above the beautiful bar and spotted the mascot of the room (and who seemed to be carefully ignored by the well mannered guests surrounding us). Right above a piece that Christie's would kill for was a full scale JACKALOPE. Complete with a certificate of authenticity. I truly knew we were in the right place after that. Somebody has a sense of humor at the castle.

Who says fairytales don't exist? The glass slipper has fricking Black Velvet in it!

Cajun Crustaceans

I forget how many years ago it was when I first experienced the extraordinary world that is New Orleans. I remember my first impression though. It was in Pat O'Brien's patio on a slightly cloudy and sticky day in the quarter. I ordered my first HURRICANE and that was followed quite closely by my second. It was pure alcoholic decadence. I believed I had found the holy grail. It was pink, it was tall, it was cold, and the first sip felt like a sledgehammer to the head. I was in love!
Many of you who have experienced the quarter know what the holy trinity is (and for you NOLO virgins out there here's a hint: you won't find it in church, look in the kitchen). Well, I'm here to humbly suggest that there is a second holy (culinary) trinity and it is exemplified in a simple and decadent recipe that was passed to me through my former boss, Eileen (The QUEEN) and passed to her from a lovely Cajun lady who we proudly called a client and a friend.
For this Mardi Gras appetizer I marinated jumbo wild blue shrimp and then grilled them (thank you Evan!) and served them with this sinful sauce.


Ingredients:
Mayonnaise
Butter
Hot Sauce

Melt a healthy (wink) amount of butter in a saucepan, but don't allow to scorch! Keep an eye on it. In a bowl add mayonnaise and whisk in melted butter until the sauce is glassy. Now, drop in gradually your favorite brand of hot sauce (this time I used Tabasco) until the sauce becomes a light pink color. You basically add as much hot sauce as you can take. The sauce at first will offer a creamy texture followed by a sharp bite. That's it! Seriously folks. So easy.

This sauce is great as a marinade for fish, shrimp, or chicken. Smear on a sandwich or better yet, a po boy for an authentic sweet and spicy taste of New Orleans. Add a little roasted red pepper to the mix and you've discovered your own brand of decadence!

Quiche avec Amour et Brocoli

Thursday, February 12th was a Valentine Soiree at Be beauty in Little Italy. Juju and Tara hosted a fabulous and fun event decorated with yummy truffles and cupcakes from Honey & Bee Pastries and hors d'oeuvres from Savvy Cuisine! Of course I can't leave out the shop's famous and delicious libation, The Belezza which also made an appearance...well, who am I kidding...it was the star (as usual)! It was a special night and a great excuse to mingle, sip, sache, nosh, and shop on a Thursday.
Savvy Cuisine hosted a spread of mini quiche which seemed to disappear very quickly and as promised I'm posting the recipe here on the blog. A couple days later than I had hoped guys-so sorry!
OK, so I actually struggled to come up with an hors d'oeuvre that was going to compliment the sweet treats from Honey & Bee and pair up with the high standards of The Belezza. These are two savvy institutions in their own right so Savvy Cuisine better show up and represent! After careful deliberation, one panic attack, and some lucky incite I decided to go back to my french cooking roots and I dug out my syllabus from Cordon Bleu. One of my favorite things in school was making quiche, so I adapted their recipe for Quiche Lorraine and turned it into Quiche Brocoli instead. I also brought along the Quiche aux Champignons Sauvages recipe and tweaked that a bit into a simple Quiche with Mushrooms. Both recipes were originally for large quiches, but translate well into mini quiche which are great for brunch, lunch, dinner, midnight snacks, etc.

Caution.
The recipe below is rated M (for metric system). To give it your own rating of A (Last humans standing using a different system than everyone else, or otherwise known as American) use a scale (it will have the metric system on there) and/or use this handy dandy website which easily converts that which is unintelligible to a pure and simple verbiage that can be comprehended and mastered by everyone...GourmetSleuth.com

Short Crust Pastry
200g flour
100g butter
5g salt (about 1 tsp)
1 egg
2 T water
Mini Muffin Pan (24)

Garnish
100g grated Gruyere cheese
180g broccoli florets (blanched)

Filling
3 eggs
250 ml heavy whipping cream
salt, pepper & nutmeg

Whisk eggs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg briskly then add cream last. The cream works in better if it's sat outside the fridge for a bit. A bit. Not an hour.

First, coat your mini muffin pan with either a healthy coating of butter or spray with Baker's Joy. Then put it in the fridge to cool.

Measure and sift your flour into a bowl. Beat egg and water together until well mixed. Pour your flour out onto a cold solid surface and make a fort-circle the flour and then hollow out a hole in the center. The butter should be room temperature and malleable. Work it into your fingers and put little chunks on top of the flour surrounding the hole. Pour egg mixture into the center and sprinkle salt over everything. Work your dough with a pastry scraper gently cutting into the flour, butter and egg mixture. Do this slowly but deliberately. Too slow and you'll have egg on your foot in a second. Do it without deliberation and the egg might end up on both feet and maybe run off the other side of the table.

Once everything is incorporated smear the dough out with the heal of your hand. Don't knead it! That is what my chef screamed at me in French and it put the fear of God into me. I don't know what happens if you try and knead it and I don't want to find out. So, after NOT kneading it, but just smearing it, roll it into a ball, lightly dust it with flour and wrap it in plastic wrap. It goes in the fridge for 20 minutes to cool down.

After your dough has cooled, bring it back to the table again and this time, roll it out very thinly and evening with a rolling pin. For the mini quiche, I used the rim of a white wine glass to cut the shapes that I needed. Then place your dough into the mini muffin cups so that the dough comes up slightly and evening over the rim of the muffin cup. It now goes into a 345 degree oven for about 10 minutes. NO BROWNING! (picture that yelled in French too).

When your dough has cooked for 10 minutes brush lightly with an egg wash and return to the oven for about 3 minutes. (Still keep yelling NO BROWNING in your head, yell it out loud if you need to).

Remove your muffin tin from the oven and gently poke the bottom of the little quiches with a fork. Your aerating. If you don't do this, these little critters pop up huge and there will be no room for your filling. Let it cool for a few minutes. When you're ready to fill, place a few florets in the bottom of the quiche and then some sprinkles of cheese, then carefully spoon in your filling. DO NOT OVERFILL. Sorry for all the yelling in this recipe. French.

Cook the filled quiches for 10-15 minutes. They should get slightly golden around the edges. Remove them promptly and put on a rack to cool. They can be served at room temperature or if your guests are coming over later, just put them on a baking tray and warm up in a 175 oven for 10-15 minutes or so. Voila! You just made quiche! Bon Appetite!

A Dilemma Turns Delicious

Rice pasta with Vodka Cream Sauce and Tofurky Italian Sausage

Ever have one of those evenings when you come home from work, starving of course, and have been trusting the last couple of hours that the fridge does contain the dream meal that you've been drooling all over your desk about only to find mere bits and pieces of ingredients?! After the sad discovery, what next? Do you really just gulp down the last vinegary bit of that unnamed red wine on the counter, break open the slimy lunch meat and declare a feast??? How about NO. For two reasons. One, the heartburn that one gets from cheap and old wine is hardly worth that instant moonshine buzz that clouds your contacts for 10 minutes, and second...there must be something better in there. You just need to dig a little deeper and throw out that meat for Pete's sake (and yours).

I was faced with this dilemma a couple of weeks ago (only it was tart and surprisingly sparkling) white wine in the back of the fridge. Miraculously I survived the wine without incident and was able to procure a rather healthy dinner out of very minimal effort. (10 min tops)

My favorite meal on earth is any kind of pasta with a cream sauce. My love of carbs can never be satiated and could possibly be categorized as an addiction! I am proud of this. However, in an effort to consume less gluten I occasionally indulge in rice pasta which I accept with little to very inaudible grumbling. In fact, it's quite good and you don't feel so round after a meal of it.

So here's my little throw together meal of leftovers:

1 Cup of Rice Pasta
Leftover Vodka Tomato Sauce (from Trader Joes)
Leftover Cream
A sprinkling of Parmesan Cheese
Freshly ground Black Pepper
Dash of fresh pesto on top

In a saute pan, lightly brown your tofurky sausage according to the directions on the package. It's fully cooked already, you're just warming it up. Add your leftover tomato sauce and simmer for 10 minutes at least. Especially if you're dealing with leftovers, make sure that the mixture actually almost boils. You want to kill off any bacteria that has been accumulating and no that 10% proof old wine won't do any good against botulism. After you've reduced the heat, just add your cream and stir. Simmer for another few minutes until the sauce has thickened a bit. Now, if you want to fool those spur of the minute house guests. You could start out with some olive oil in the pan and saute some shallots or any other kind of onion that hasn't sprouted, as well as some fresh garlic, then follow the recipe. The onions and garlic will breathe new life into your (relatively) old sauce and a fresh sprinkling of parsley when everything is said and done will add a heavier cloak to complement the dagger combination your whipping up in your kitchen.

WARNING:
Do not overcook the Rice Pasta. Follow the directions on the bag/box/whatever extremely carefully. Make no sudden moves. Accept no phone calls. Don't leave the kitchen, and most importantly be ready to drain at a minute's notice.
If you don't heed this warning, start gathering construction paper, glitter, and felt because you'll have enough paste for two kindergartens' art projects.

1 Serving:
Tofurky Italian Sausage 270 cal 29g protein
Rice Pasta 200 cal 4g protein

*A small note to gluten folks, the tofurky does have wheat gluten in it (sigh). Pick your battles.
*Another note, you can't call yourself a vegan eating the cream sauce.
*So, all in all, this dish is intgrediential (part vegan and part gluten free). Just be accepting.

Day Old Pommes Frittes Make it to the Breakfast Table

Maybe like me, you have the occasional craving for fries. Nothing can stand in the way of this long standing desire for something crispy, hot, and (of course) deep fried. Not threatening fat stats or even deplorable calorie counts that can ruin a week in the gym. No way! I'm loyal...so to comprise I don't eat all of the fries that are bestowed on me with my double double.
So, after basking in the afterglow of my fried feast the evening before, I created an ode to hash browns with my beloved pommes frittes that were patiently waiting in the fridge.

Ingredients:
Your Day Old French Fries (what's left of them)
2 Eggs (beaten)
1 Cippollini Onion
Sliced Minisweet Bell Peppers
Chopped Cilantro
Dash of Seasoned Pepper & Salt
1/2 Roma Tomato
Small Handful of Blended Shredded Cheese (I like Mozzarella, Jack & Cheddar)
Avocado Slices
Corn Tortillas
1 T Canola Oil

Start with a hot pan and then add your Canola oil. Throw in your onion and your fries and saute them quickly until they become slightly browned. Add your peppers and tomato and stir a bit. Next comes your eggs and scramble the entire mixture until the eggs begin to fluff. At the very last add your cilantro and cheese and stir. Don't wait another minute! Scoop this mixture into warm tortillas and top with avocado and maybe some Tapatio!!

Overstuffed Mushrooms

My mom called me up the other day and said that she was trying to think of something to serve the neighbors when they come over for some wine and asked if I have any ideas for some appetizers.
I love adults.
I don't think most of my friends would gift a crap, much less notice if I invited them over for some wine and didn't have anything for them to nosh on. Mutiny might arise after the case of wine was finished, but then it's every man for themselves...you either jump ship or start into whatever is lying dormant in the freezer.
Back to mom. So, I was racking my brain, trying to think of what she would want to serve the Chardonnay loving crowd who will be driving (not because it's far but because it's fricking cold in Chicago) over to the house to escape cabin fever. My thoughts drifted to fungi, warmed of course. A tasty reward for braving the snow drifts and the black ice patches. For all you southern Californians who don't know what that means, let's just keep it that way. You're better off with your heads in the sand.
For all of us smart enough, er, lucky enough to be living in a warm climate, these mushrooms will be quite yummy on a chilly night when it hits 60 and we're grabbing our Uggs and clutching our fleece and taking about "winter" in very dramatic fashion. Devour a couple of these with a big glass of something fermented and relish the banishment of cold limbs and empty bellies.

Ingredients:
1 Shallot, diced.
18 White Mushrooms
1 T Butter
1 T Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic
2 T Bread Crumbs
1/2 C Whipping Cream
1 T Pesto
2 t Parmesan Cheese
Salt/White Pepper

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
You'll probably want to wash your mushrooms. Yeah. Gross. You know where they come from. The best way is to fill a bowl with cold water and squeeze half of a lemon in there and then let the lemon float. Wash the mushrooms in there and then remove one at a time, dry, twist of their stem, and place on a baking sheet. What's the lemon for you say? Ever had your mushrooms turn a horrible brown or grey color after washing the crap off of them? Yep. They are sensitive little things and the lemon actually keeps them whiter. Cool huh?
So, after you've removed all the stems, chop them up fine. Saute your butter, oil, shallots and garlic until the mixture is glassy. Then add your mushrooms stems to the pan.
Next add your breadcrumbs and stir. The cream comes next. Mix this in thoroughly until it is absorbed and then drop in some pesto and your Parmesan cheese. You can add salt and white pepper to taste just before stuffing.
Now, you get to stuff these little buggers. They should be all lined up on your baking sheet like good little sailors. Take a really small spoon (I like iced tea spoons) and carefully stuff each cap. In they go into the fiery furnace for 5 minutes.
Then, turn right around and broil them for 2 minutes. Keep a close eye. All stoves aren't created equal (mine sure isn't). When that timer goes off, quickly remove your tray and place on your serving tray or individual plates. That's it! Done! How easy was that??!! Now your adult guests won't be cranky that you didn't feed them and you're not so adult guests might try them and not crash on your couch. You're welcome.

The Party's Not Over

OK, New Years was last week people. Have we forgotten already? Has reality set in and spoiled the fun? Did Monday come on strong like a used car salesman and convince you that the fun is over and now it's time to invest in something exciting like having the carpets cleaned? Maybe Tuesday went a step farther to make you forget that champagne induced make-out session with that (hope he was hot as he looked) guy at your neighbor's? It's time to fight back! Let Thursday be the day where we beg the most important existential question of our time...
"Why does the fun have to stop and the bubbly cease to flow"??!!!
We should be celebrating for at least another week or so. God knows it's more fun than facing the reality of a dismal economy, global warming, and mass death on TV. With the spirit of "let's bury our heads in the sand as long we can" I proudly produce another way to utilize the champagne/sparkling wine/way too old grape juice that is now fermented stuff that is perched in your fridge. This year I found myself strung up on antibiotics and couldn't fully participate the way I wanted to, so I popped the bubbly at the precise moment the Z-pak ran out, but I think I was a bit ambitious for the magnum. Even with my drinking habit.
So, I find myself confronted with a rare situation...alcohol that I can not finish in one sitting! And so, to keep the party going I share with you now a cream sauce to die for. A new resolution in itself...cook with Champagne more often!

Ingredients:
2 Cipollini Onions (or one Shallot)
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Roma Tomato
1 tsp. Lemon Juice
2 tblspns. Fresh Basil (Chiffonade)
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 cup Champagne
1 1/2 cups Whipping Cream
1 tsp. Butter
1 tsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 tsp. White Pepper
1/2 tsp. Sea Salt


I've recently discovered cipollini onions and love that Trader Joes has these little beauties all peeled, cleaned, and good to go. Chop up a couple of those or use a shallot to be safe/boring. Add your onions and garlic to a mixture of butter and olive oil in a hot saute pan. Let the mix get glassy, but be careful not to let it get any color! Then add the tomatoes and saute for a minute or so. Deglaze with lemon juice.

Next...the champagne! Make sure your heat is still on high, boil this down to about a quarter to what it originally was. Like those chocolates sitting on your counter....
After that, reduce the heat to a simmer and add your cream. Reduce this just by half. Still a spoon in the mixture and see if it's coating the back, if it is, time to add your Parmesan. At the very last season with salt and pepper and stir in your basil. Whoo hoo! You're done.

This sauce works great with seafood. I just used this over plain Tilapia, but you could add some shrimp, crab, or lobster and put this over pasta. If you're not going to incorporate fish, you could just ignore the lemon juice all together. This sauce will hold up in the oven too and works well if you wanted to bake chicken.
Cheers!

The Beginning

I took this picture from our night cruise on the Seine in March 2002. Cordon Bleu sponsored a little outing for all of us student, perhaps feeling a bit sorry for all of us having endured three tumultuous days of intense scrutiny and pressure to perform for our chefs and prove that we deserved to be at this illustrious institution (I was already having my doubts…I could barely sputter out the right vowels to describe the dish I just plated that afternoon).

I remember that freezing cold night as I shivered with my new found friends against the dampness of the city (who said Paris was this COLD in the spring!?!) The strangers I had met 72 hours ago were now my soul mates. They too had given up a lot to come here like me, given up jobs, loves, homes, all for pursuing a dream. I was pinching myself to see
1. If I had frost-bite and
2. Is this still a dream?

From that freezing moment on (and a couple of kirs later), Paris became my home. I think Paris is the only city in the world that can do that to you. It intimidates you and tests you to see if you are really going to be a loyal to it, and then it just throws its arms around you at every turn and you wonder how you could live all those years never knowing the embrace of Paris. In its embrace is the subtle lesson of appreciating life and all its subtleties; that you can be completely happy living in a ridiculously small space, content in never having to own or drive a car, joy in sipping coffee and people watching, and the highest achievement of all…savoring the crusty tip of a baguette fresh from the bakery around the corner. Not that you don’t get lost along the way. The streets of Paris make sure that finding your way around is never easy, but that’s part of the adventure too. Even getting lost can be a treat when you look up in utter frustration only to find the exterior of Notre Dame is smiling down on your path.

Almost seven years later and after getting a little lost I think I’ve finally found where I’m supposed to be and applying it to my life here in San Diego. I created this blog, Savvy Cuisine as a playground of flavors and a carnival (without any analogies to clowns…eew) of ingredients in hopes of capturing the happiness and contentment that I had so many years and miles away. A place where the door is open and there’s a table just waiting where we can all come together and share our love for cooking and for the twists and turns of life! So let’s uncork, sit back, and toast to life’s journeys. Here’s to a new adventure, a new beginning, and a new life for all of us in this new year. Cheers!