The Grateful Foodie

While reading a self help book recently I found that I liked one of the exercises-one that says to Be Grateful. This is not new advice, but it is sometimes hard to be thankful when life never seems to go exactly the way that I would like. Still, there are a lot of foodie things to be grateful for.

As a sort of foodie I am grateful for all kinds of food, from apples to zucchini. Well, maybe not so much the zucchini, but it can be good. I am grateful for home cooked meals and store bought wonders-I am grateful for frozen dinners and frozen ice creams.

I am grateful for all of the modern things that make eating a pleasure and not a life threatening activity. I'm grateful for Organic Farmers and Livestock Raisers. I'm grateful for Whole Foods and Central Market and Krogers and Tom Thumb.

I'm grateful for Julia Child, Graham Kerr, Anthony Bourdain, Rocco DiSpirito, and Rich Davis. I am grateful for all the Pit Bosses in all the Barbecue joints I have had great meals. I'm grateful for all the line cooks, short order cooks, waiter and waitresses who have feed me when I have been to lazy to feed myself.

I am grateful for slice bread, sliced cheese, and sliced lunch meat. I am grateful for all the many pickles, sauces, and creams that can be added to a sandwich to make it something more than the sum of its parts.

I am grateful to live in the age of the Soda Pop, the Microwave, and the Fast Food Restaurant. I'm grateful for Dr Pepper made with Real Sugar, Marie Calender Chicken Pot Pies, and In-N-Out Burgers.

I'm grateful that The Wife is a better cook than my mother was. I'm grateful my father was so fond of milk and pastries. I'm grateful my father made the best tamales I've ever eaten. I'm grateful my Mother made a wonderful candy out of dried dates she called Dateloaf-so rich and creamy and amazing. I'm grateful to my little brother for still making it.

There are too many things to be thankful for in the world of a sort of foodie. But this is a good start.

Chicken Pot Pie

Having grown up in the Age of The TV Dinner my idea of a good chicken pot pie is one from Marie Calendar. The ones from Banquet were never really that good. I was surprised the first time I went to a restaurant and saw chicken pot pie on the menu-what, they can't make their own food?

But real people do from time to time make real chicken pot pies. I have even been known to make the attempt myself once or twice. But really, the frozen kind is good enough for a sort of foodie like me.

There is nothing quite like the taste of a good chicken pot pie. The taste and the texture and the wonderful blending of ingredients. It's one of those dishes that says home.

A Simple Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients

* 1 lb cooked chicken
* 1 cup chicken stock
* 4 ounces cooked ham
* 6 ounces carrots, peeled and sliced
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/2 cup heavy cream
* 4 ounces frozen peas
* 1 ounce butter
* 1 egg
* 3 tablespoons white flour
* 1 ounce parsley
* 2 bay leaves
* salt and pepper
* 1 double crust pie crust, for top and bottom

Directions

1. Cook the carrots in boiling water for 5-7 minutes, then drain.
2. Dice the chicken and ham.
3. Melt the butter and cook the onion until transparent. Add the flour and cook for a minute or so, then gradually stir in the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously and simmer until thickened.
4. Stir in the milk, cream, parsley, and bay leaves, season with salt and pepper, and heat without boiling for 2 minutes.
5. Remove the bay leaves.
6. Mix in the chicken, ham, peas, and carrots.
7. Pour into the pie pastry and even out.
8. Moisten the edge of the pastry with water, and top with remaining pastry. Make a hole in the top to allow steam to escape.
9. Bake at 375f for about 40 minutes, or until pastry is cooked.
10. Serve hot.

Glamour Cakes by Eric Lanlard

Glamour Cakes is a pretty book filled with pretty pictures. I have always had an interest in designer cakes which look more sculptures than confections. Gourmet cakes which taste as good as they look are a real treat.

Glamour Cakes has a few cakes recipes, basics like vanilla, lemon, and chocolate as well as a fruit cake recipe and a carrot cake recipe. But Glamour Cakes is not so much about making cakes as it is about decorating cakes. So there are also recipes for choux pasty and macaroons, and cake coverings of one sort or another.

There are a lot of creative cakes here, some are a bit too creative for my taste. Having worked with the Public is one way or the other for several years I have fond that people are stupid. They touch wet paint to see if it is really wet. They climb over things rather than walk around them. They touch hot plates as soon as they are told its hot. So I have a problem with a number of the decorated cakes in Glamour Cakes. They are decorated with glass beads and steel wire, silk ribbons, real flowers, and chocolate flowers reinforced with wire. My idea of perfect cakes does not include inedible components.

Not all the party cakes involve dangerous decorations, but they are put to use often enough to make me wonder about Eric Lanlards pastry skills. I know that the Food Network has those Food Challenge shows and they slap sawdust and 2x4s into all of their cake designs-Glamour Cakes are not custom cakes that are three feet tall and need bracing. It seems a little dangerous to me to make cakes in this way.

Among the other cakes shown in the book, I think any of them would make perfect baby shower cakes, birthday cakes, or wedding cakes. There is a nice looking cookie cake and a couple of very pretty baby cakes. There is also a design for a pretty Handbag Cake and a number of stylish cakes with bold lines and the look of printed designs. I think Glamour Cakes is a great little book for inspiration, but I wouldn't use wire and glass beads myself.

Hatch Chilies-A Sort of Foodie Hot Pepper

The Hatch Chili is not really all that hot, like most New Mexico Chilies it is more about the flavor and the feel than the heat. But if your one of those real wimpy types, even a Hatch Chili can be a bit spicy. I grew up eating Piquins and Jalapenos, so the Hatch Chili is just a great tasting chili. It's really good on hamburgers.

Both Central Market and Whole Foods have thier own Hatch Chili festivals. They roast the Hatch Chilies in the parking lot and the air is filled with that amazing nose tickling aroma. I like fresh Hatch Chilies myself, but the roasted ones do have a nice sweetness to them. I wasn't really paying attention this year and let The Hatch Chili Festivals pass me by. You can still buy the Hatch Chilies, but all the specila foods and the fresh roasting is over with.

Hatch, New Mexico has their own Hatch Chili Festival and I have never ventured out there to attend it. But it would be a sort of foodie thing to do, so maybe one of these days. I like the idea of a Hacth Chili eating contest and all those wonderful peppers everywhere. I'm sure they sell a lot of hot sauces as well, you can't have a Chili festival without hot sauce. I like a nice Habanero Hot Sauce.

Hatch Chili Salsa

2 cups Organic Roma TomatoesOrganic Roma Tomatoes diced
1/2 Red onion diced
1 1/2 New Mexican Hatch ChilesNew Mexican Hatch Chiles roasted skinned seeded and diced
1/2 bunch Cilantro chopped
6 Key LimesKey Limes juice freshly squeezed

Preparation

Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper according to your desired taste. Chill and serve with chips or as desired.

Keep in refrigerator up to 2 days.

Rocco's 5 Minute Flavor by Rocco DiSpirito

Rocco DiSpirito was one of those young chefs that everyone talked about being the next major talent of the foodie universe. I first heard of him when he was the sort of star of The Restaurant. This was a reality show which showed Rocco being a jerk with little sense of responsibility and no common sense at all. It was a great show-and I think it might have worked if they had found anyone besides Rocco to star in it.

Well, he's not exactly Gordon Ramsey, the Mad Cook of the moment, but he is at least an American. Hell's Kitchen was Gordon Ramsey's show from the start and I do like watching a man screaming at the help for a hour every week. Hard to image Rocco in that role, though he did act a bit nuts on The Restaurant.

Reality TV shows aside, Rocco does seem to be a big foodie deal. A quick Google for Rocco finds Mr DiSpirito's website sitting at the number 2 spot. RoccoDiSpirito.com is a nice looking site, though it seems that a lot of his activities are a bit out of date. Rocco is a busy fellow after all, and I know how hard it is keep things current.

Anyway, Rocco's 5 Minute Flavor-Five Ingredients, in Five Minutes, for Under Five Dollars a serving. I found this at a Half Price Bookstore for a dollar the other day. It's a surprisingly good book. At least, it's been fun looking at it and crunching some numbers in my head. Even though it is a few years out of date, the general idea of spending five dollars per serving still looks like it will hold up. I am also a big fan of the five minutes idea, being a sort of foodie means I only sort of cook.

These five minute recipes are not for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or Mac and Cheese either, but real foodie type stuff. Capellini with Littleneck Clams, Sauteed Pork with Snow Peas, Walnuts, and Beets, Warm Chicken, Feta, and Melon Seed Pasta Salad. They all look good in the photos, and look like they took a lot longer than five minutes to make. This might be a cookbook I actually use once in a while. Which might make me think a bit better of Rocco DiSpirito.