In today's column, I promised a few more recipes from Doreen Sidor's kitchen. Below the jump, you'll find those recipes for Artichoke and Green Beans Romano, Maui Onion Rings and Filet Mignon with Merlot-Butter Reduction Sauce.
Here you see the latest new product from McCormick, the spice company. It's a "crusting blend" made with panko bread crumbs.
The blends come in three flavors: French onion, pepper and herb; Italian herb and cheese and garlic, lemon and rosemary.
The blends are used for creating a tasty crust on chicken, fish, pork or beef. I pried mine open and took a wiff and it smelled pretty good.
Since I've been covering food, I've noticed that the McCormick folks always seem to be riding the wave of the latest trend in spices. I know that's their job, but I have grown to appreciate the way they try to bring gourmet spice options to the grocery store at a fairly affordable price for everyday cooks.
First, they had the smoked paprika everyone's using. Then, they introduced a line of gourmet salts and salt blends. I have some of their French grey salt and Mediterranean spiced sea salt in my cabinet at home.
Panko is an extremely popular breading ingredient these days, so I'm not surprised to see this product. I do think that at 6.5 oz., the containers are a little small. How many chicken breasts do you suppose that'll coat?
When I tasted a pinch of the Italian herb and cheese, I noticed that it is quite pungent. Perhaps one could mix the crusting blend with a little plain panko to stretch it further.
If anyone tries one of these blends, please let us know what you think!
It's less than two weeks before Mother's Day (Sunday, May 11), which means some of us need to start thinking about the best way to treat one of the special women in our lives.
As an adult, it's fairly easy to send a card or flowers, call mom or take her out to a nice lunch or dinner. But as a child, it's a little bit harder to plan a wonderful day for Mom without a little help from Dad or another adult.
And sometimes Dad might be a little short on ideas.
For that reason, I was delighted to receive an e-mail lately from the Fruit and Veggie Guru that included simple recipes for delicious breakfast treats that kids can prepare for their mother on Mother's Day.
It makes me wish I had made breakfast in bed for my mother at least once.
I'm going to attach a recipe for strawberry breakfast pizzas. I'd love to hear from anyone out there who has a special food-related memory from Mother's Day, whether you were on the giving or the receiving end!
The answer to our glove question can be found in great detail on the Virginia Department of Health Web site here. For those of you who have checked a restaurant's inspection history, this is the same site.
Essentially, these regulations say that ready-to-eat food should never be handled with bare hands. That means raw food that will be eaten raw, such as a salad, and cooked foods that have already come out of the oven, such as a baked potato.
The rules go on to state that cooks should limit their handling of any food with bare hands.
Of course, nothing is that simple.
If you feel as groggy as I do on this rainy Monday, perhaps you'd just like to stare longingly at this lovely piece of food porn sent in by faithful blog reader Deb.
Deb promised to make something this weekend and send me a picture of it for my Fridge Magnet Flickr page, which has lately been neglected. If you've got any great food pics, e-mail them to me at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com or join my Flickr group.
This is rigatoni with chicken sausage and Parmesan cheese, served with a salad of asparagus, cherry tomatoes, crispy prosciutto, fresh basil and a lemon vinaigrette. That salad makes me drool.
I passed up the barbecued chicken this weekend in favor of barbecued country-style pork ribs. I've lately been working on perfecting my country-style rib recipe and I think I'm there. One of my favorite things about this dish is the affordability. I fed about 10 friends on Saturday night with $15 worth of ribs, and nobody went hungry.
I'll attach my recipe below. Someone asked for my red-skinned potato salad recipe, but I need to work on the ratios of ingredients. I'll pin that down and post that recipe later.
Well, I finally picked a perfect day to take a vacation day -- it's warm, sunny and beautiful. Almost too hot to do all the yard work I'm getting ready to start, but beggars can't be choosers.
I did check my voicemail at work and wanted to pass along that the health department folks called me back today. First thing Monday I'll share with you their take on this glove issue.
Thanks to everyone for chiming in on the topic. It seems to be a perfect item for discussion -- just about everyone has had a new and valid point to raise. Cheers to that!
This weekend, I plan to make my family's favorite red-skinned potato salad, complete with green vidalias and fresh eggs I bought on the market. Paired with some barbecued chicken and homemade cole slaw, I think we'll have a suitable spring feast.
If I'm lucky, maybe I'll find some morels when I go out hunting on Sunday. It may be too late in the season but I'm hoping all the rain showers and these days of warm sun will still have them popping up on the forest floor. Cross your fingers!
Have a great weekend!
I never got a call back from the Health Department today, so I can't update you on the glove-wearing rules in our parts. Such is the life of a reporter. As soon as I find out more, I will be sure to pass it on.
All of you cooking show addicts out there need to check out this fun quiz. The creator photoshopped the famous chefs out of their kitchens and it's up to you to guess which picture belongs to which chef! After doing this quiz, you'll surely know whether you watch too much Food Network. Report back on your score.
Steven Colbert fans might be amused by this video about the REAL battle in Philadelphia. And it isn't between Hillary and Barack.
Attention chocaholics! On our new Salem community site, So Salem, you can find a recipe for cookie crumb truffles by Michele Carder at Michele's on Main. She also offers up a recipe for making homemade chocolate.
Enjoy!
Yesterday's Front Burner column featured a photograph of two culinary students stuffing Roma tomatoes with mushroom duxelles.
An alert reader called me yesterday afternoon to ask me a question about that picture: Why aren't those students wearing gloves?
It's the second time I've heard that question since I started covering the food beat. The last time, I shot a video of a man making cheesesteaks without gloves.
Thinking back on Thursday's event, I'm pretty sure that some of the chefs did wear gloves while they prepared food. But more than half, I'm sure, did not. And since I've been hanging out with a lot of chefs over the past year or so, I've noticed it is not a practice that is always followed.
This morning, I called up Robert Parker at the Virginia Department of Health to ask him whether chefs are supposed to wear gloves. My bet is that they aren't required to -- otherwise, why would so many of them choose to go without?
"I think we're all starting to pay attention to that, and that's a good thing," Parker said.
I wanted to have an answer for you all right now, but Parker wanted to check with the proper folks at the health department for an accurate response. As soon as I hear back from him, I'll be back with an update.
Meanwhile, what do you think? Should chefs be required to wear gloves?
I know there are a few chefs reading this blog, so I'd love for them to chime in and answer this question: What are the issues that need to be considered here, from your perspective?
Chef Brett McKee, Oak Steakhouse, Charleston
For those of you foodies who haven't had a chance to see my Front Burner column in today's newspaper, here it is.
And for those of you who have, I'll bet you still didn't see the awesome audio slide show that was put together by photographer Stephanie Klein-Davis. Sometimes, we can read all day about great food, but it doesn't make the same kind of impact that a photo can.
Hanging around the kitchen while seven talented chefs put together a ritzy dinner for almost 200 people was one of the coolest experiences I've had on this beat to date. It sure was hard to squeeze down all my notes into one story, though (and some of my colleagues would argue that at 40 inches, I didn't do a very ruthless job of squeezing).
Here are a few highlights I didn't get to share:
* Chef Brett McKee of Oak Steakhouse in Charleston, S.C. was a joy to encounter. It's a good thing I'm not offended by cursing, because McKee curses like a sailor. As a Roanoke College graduate myself, I was proud to see what a fellow alumnus has achieved. Check out his restaurant Web site and let me know if you get a chance to dine there before I do.
* Chef Jeff Bland of U.S. Food Service introduced me to several easy, delicious hors d'oeuvres that would be a wonderful addition to anyone's next cocktail party.
Olivia Byrd at Rockfish in Grandin Village sent out an e-mail today announcing that, beginning tomorrow, they will serve breakfast on Wednesday through Saturday mornings. This is in addition to their highly successful lunch and dinner service and the tasty Sunday brunch menu.
The hours for breakfast are 7:30 to 10:30 a.m., and the menu will include fresh muffins, biscuits, egg dishes and espresso beverages. So if you live in the Grandin area and you've grown tired of microwaveable 7-Eleven fare, check out Rockfish.
This would be a good time for me to also mention that Rockfish recently opened a wine shop beside the restaurant that is open Wednesday through Saturday until 6 p.m. I want to say that the shop sells more than just wine, but I haven't had a chance to pop in yet.
In other food news, Roanoke's unofficial start to the summer season happens the weekend of May 3 when the Community School's 27th Annual Strawberry Festival and the 28th annual Virginia State Championship Chili Cook-off invade downtown.
