I have a new love...

And it's raclette...

It all started a couple of weeks ago... we went to dinner at a friend's house and were told that dinner was to be raclette. I expected fondu of some sort, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was in fact a bit like fondu and a bit like Korean bbq. And a ton o' fun!

When we started, it looked a little something like this...


When we finished...not so sparkly...

But in between was magic!

Our hosts set us up with lots of different meats, two kinds of marinated beef, two kinds of marinated chicken, two different shrimps, roasted peppers, asparagus, hummus, carmelized onions, bruschetta mix, olives, and lots of cheese... I am not certain if raclette is a certain type of cheese, or if it's just a way of doing cheese (though I did read that tradtional raclette is with boiled potatoes---not on the diet!). I am sure you can do it with any cheese provided that it's a good melting cheese because the oozey cheesiness is really one of the best parts.

But with this type of raclette, it's not all about the cheese. Oh no...

First we cooked some meat...





Lots of meat... cooking it up...


While the meat cooks, you start gathering all the fixings in your little shovel with some cheese to put under the grill...

Then you let it grill up all nice and lovely so that the cheese bubbles over and you can shovel it in your mouth!


And my plate of fixin's was a thing of beauty...


It takes a long time to prepare and eat all this glorious food, and the whole time you can just chat and laugh and talk about your favourite flavour combinations!

We loved it so much, we borrowed our friend's raclette and had it at our house with some visiting friends this past weekend... posts on that to follow...

Dinners...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, G and I have embarked on the South Beach Diet. It's been good so far, we've finished Phase I and had some weight loss. Mine might be a bit over the top because I was sick and didn't eat for four days, but whatever works!

We've been cooking an enormous amount at home. I should say that G's been cooking a lot, but I have had my moments....

First up... Italiano.

This was a pretty easy dinner. You take a chicken breast and brown it on one side, flip it over to let the other side cook. Spread on spag sauce of your choosing and grate some cheese. Let cook. For sides, we made a zuke and mushroom saute with a green salad. It was a good dinner, really delicious.

We also had chili one night...


Lots of beans and meat... stewed together with onion and peppers and tomatoes then topped with aged cheddar and sour cream. A really nice dinner.

When we were out at the grocery store, we ate a lovely shwarma salad...


Salad might be a bit of an overstatement. It was essentially an enormous plate of meat with some shredded lettuce, sliced tomato and sauce. It was pretty good, but it took AGES to get to us... we think we tripped them up with the no rice no bread issue.

G made a really good smoked turkey and lentil soup...


It was amazing. FULL of veggies, which is pretty good since I don't eat lots of veggies unless pushed.

Soooooo.... the South Beach Diet. Biggest complaint is the amount of aspartame you're supposed to eat. I just don't do it. I have found that by cutting out the sugar and everything in my day to day food (no processed bread, pasta, etc), I can really taste the aspartame in anything, especially diet coke. G has splenda in her tea and she hates it. Plus, I am not keen on eating all the low-fat cheeses and whatnot because they have no flavour. So, it's a slightly amended South Beach for us, and while we enter Phase 2, I know G is ready to add back some stand-bys like oatmeal, etc. More delicious dinners soon!

Ooh...I lied...

It's not all post-diet yet!

I used to eat McDonald's all the time. Really, back in the heady days of youth, I would go to the gym and drive-thru McDonald's (or Bueno) on the way home... I don't eat as much fast food by half here. First, fast food isn't as convenient as it was at home. I don't drive and something about walking fast food home for 20 minutes just doesn't resonate. Also, it's not that cheap here at all.

But the threat of a diet and all that makes you do crazy things... and one of my things was a little farewell for now McDonald's dinner...


Really, the double cheeseburger was my ultimate pig out food when I was in high school... honestly, it's ridiculous. I don't eat them very often because I think I could just eat them until I was unconscious. Why don't I feel that way about something good for you, like salmon or broccoli?

A New Year A New Diet... but first... A Pasta Feast!

Well. G and I decided that after the new year and pre-vacation, we'd go on a little diet, so pretty soon, G's fabulous creations in the post-diet era will be seen... but as anyone knows who has ever been on a diet knows, the night before deserves a fest of some proportion.

G and I wanted a casual night that wouldn't cost a fortune and would give me a good healthy does of pasta and bready goodness. Cafe Diplomatico fit the bill because it's fairly close to our house and is almost always filled with people. This is a nice thing. I know that their food isn't the best and it's not snazzy downtown Italian food, but sometimes you just want to kick back someplace warm filled with chatting people eating and drinking and just enjoying themselves. And then you know where to go...

And first up was the bread.


It looked like it was going to be hot, but alas, it wasn't. But it was tasty. Fluffy and fresh, a really good showing.

We then decided to have an appetizer, which we always say we won't do and always do anyway. They had a crab and lobster dip that G thought sounded good... so we gave it a go...


It was tangy and creamy. One side of the plate had baked chips and the other side had fried, but no one mentioned it! So G and I are just chewing away on our respectively different chips until G notices the differences. Then I ate all of her side... it was better.

For the main course, I filled my hearts desire...fettuccine alfredo with chicken parmesan. I like the parm there because it's very simple and the chicken is so crispy that it just bursts with goodness when you bite into it. It's very satisfying. The alfredo tastes very homemade, where sometimes it's really good and runny and sometimes it's not so much... does this happen to you?


So it was a good blowout to the whole carbs thing. I mentioned before that we started the South Beach Diet. It's only no carbs for two weeks, and we are adding the carbs back slowly on Friday because our two weeks will be up. The two weeks are good, I think, not because carbs are evil, but because it makes you think of different things to eat...and I must say that G has really risen to the challenge...some good things are coming up...

Sonic...

I've extolled the virtues of the Cherry Limeade. I have.

But there is one little thing that I have missed for the last few trips home that had to be corrected. The double sonic burger and fries.


I really don't know what more needs to be said.

All We Do is Eat.

It's sad but true. I've said it before, but it's never more obvious than when I am updating the old blog. When I go home to Tulsa, all I want to do is eat. And eat. And eat. And spend time with Mom and D. And then eat. And then I come home to Toronto, and we start eating all over again. *Sigh*

Thank goodness I love food so much!

One afternoon, we had lunch at Zio's. When I was in University, I used to frequent Zio's quite a bit. It wasn't expensive, it was outside of Norman, and it was a nice break during law school. Now, when I am back in OK, it's a place where you go when you are really hungry and what a good inexpensive lunch.

We went early, so this may explain some of the issues. That's right, issues. Zio's is a chain restaurant, owned by the people who own Mazzio's pizza. It's normally really good, but when we went in December, it was not so god at all.

EXCEPT for the pepperoni bread. Basically a pepperoni calzone served with dipping sauce.


It looked promising when it was set down on the table. And then I cut into it. It WAS promising...


Oh yes. It was delicious. Really cripsy cooked, but soft and tender on the inside. The cheese was gooey and the sauce was fresh and lovely. We should have just stopped there.

I ordered a caesar salad because I was having a craving. It arrived...


Standard. But ICKY. It tasted like it had dishwater in it or something. My Mom tried some, too, and neither of us could quite place the off flavor, but it was definitely there.

Pushed aside, my pasta arrived. This pasta is one of my decadent favorites. It's a five cheese pasta, and I have to say that I like it was a little side of tomato sauce to cut the richness of the cheese.


Blah. It wasn't terrible. I didn't not eat it, like the salad. But it wasn't really good like I remembered. I should have had the chicken artichoke pasta. All in all, a disappointing lunch. Thank goodness there's my brother's baked pasta feast that he made Christmas Eve to take away the pain...

That's a good baked pasta!!!

Taco Bueno ... It just wouldn't be HOME without it!

I don't know what it is about Taco Bueno. When I was in high school, we ate there for lunch ... ALOT. It was cheap, it was tasty. My family had many many dinners there. During college, I ate there all the time. And whenever I think of home, it's just one of those places that I want to go back to...

Taco Bueno is a regional Tex-Mex chain. There are a number of them in Tulsa and some surrounding states. It's not the best food, not at all. But there's something crazily familiar about it that I really love. I can eat a bean burrito and recall sitting there in high school with my friends, talking about whatever it was we talked about back then...

Last year, I had a bad Bueno experience and never thought I'd eat there again. Hardy har har.

This year, I ate their TWICE! And both times I had the exact same thing "Chicken Nacho Salad -- no lettuce; Bean Burrito" -- yes, Chicken Nacho Salad without lettuce rules. I didn't take pictures the first time...

Yum. Tortilla chips with queso, chile, diced tomato, chicken, and shredded cheese. SCORE! The tortillas in the cheese sauce get satisfyingly mushy while the ones on the edge still have crunch. This is really good with jalapeno's sprinkled on top, though due to my sensitive tummy issues, that would be pushing it a bit too far.

I complement the nacho salad with a classic bean burrito. Hard to photo in a dark room...


The bean burrito's don't have a lot of beans in them these days, but the tortillas that Bueno uses are very good. And honestly, they are the same ones they have used since I was a wee lass.

So yeah. Taco Bueno. If you don't have the nostalgia, is it worth it? I'm not sure. But it's mighty tasty with a tasty memory intact.

Coolest Company Christmas Party EVER!

(I started this post on Christmas Eve!!! Because I can't sleep and am just laying here in bed with a fever, I thought I'd finish it up... I have a few partially done posts...)

This year for our company holiday party, my boss wanted to shake things up a bit. She had been talking about wanting to do a cooking class for some time and this year, we made that happen. On the menu were a number of things that we weren't sure were going to get a stellar reception, but at the end of the day, were a-okay!

The way the class was designed was that we were divided into teams/groups and each group prepared one of the courses. First up was a potato, kale and sausage soup...


The soup was delicious! Then came the fig, arugula and parmesan salad...


From there we moved on to lamb chops with caramelized cauliflower and roasted carrots (as the artichoke course wasn't finished cooking).


Yum! Then came the artichokes...


Then came dessert... a halva, orange blossom water and pomegranate creation with clementines... very Christmasy...


The room where the class was held was very cool... it was a real catering kitchen...


And the stations were set up so that everything you needed for your course was laid out in front of you. For example, here's the salad fixin's...


It was good fun. I recommend Viva Tastings for anyone interested in a good corporate event that makes you interact with one another... It's located downtown, which is convenient, near a subway stop, and just all around good fun.

What's Your Sick Day Food?

It's been a crazy few days for me, mostly due to the complete blur they have passed in. I would imagine that out of the past 48 hours, I have been awake for a whopping 5 or so of those hours, an hour and a half of which were spent at the walk-in clinic being told that I feel crappy because I have such a high temperature.

Wow. A revelation.

If I think about it, I have probably been coming down with this cold/flu combo since Wednesday. On the plane to Calgary, I felt really sore and uncomfortable. Not well at all. By Thursday, I had a wicked headache that I credited as a bad migraine. Friday, the headache was a dull roar but I was shivering hot and cold and feeling terrible. When I got home, I took my temperature and watched it go up as the weekend went on.

Today is the first day that I haven't slept all day. I still have a bit of a fever and I was able to do some work from home and just lay about. After my lack of eating (which, might I add, never happens to me), I finally felt a little stab of hunger today and decided to try and work my way out of the bedroom and into the kitchen for a little food prep.

Alas. What's a girl to eat? There's the combination of my being sick and not feeling like eating anything and being on the South Beach Diet as we lead into the final days before vacation... hmmm...

And then inspiration struck. HUEVOS!!!


And it was amazing. Really really really good. And simple. And fast. And finished in enough time so that I didn't pass out from standing up for so long...

Quick and Easy Huevos Rancheros (or some facsimile thereof)

Take a couple of spoonfuls of your every day canned (drained and rinsed) black beans and put them in a small skillet. Add a couple of spoonfuls of salsa. Turn on a medium burner and let the really salsa-y taste cook off. While cooking mash just a few of the beans with the back of the spoon. After a bit (maybe 7 minutes) crack two eggs into the pan and turn the heat down and cover with a lid. Cook for 3 minutes. Then lift the lid and grate on some cheese (I used a five year old lovely cheddar) and then put the lid back on for another minute or so. Slide into a bowl and dig in.

I will say that this was quite the meal for a girl who's eaten very little for four days.

The plague hits.

I know it's been ages since I've posted. I had a business trip recently and when I returned, I started running a massive fever and have been sick in bed. I just got up to do a little work and I am on my way back to bed... stay tuned... new posts will follow soon...

tulsafoodblog.com

Many thanks to www.tulsafoodblog.com who asked to repost some of my recent Tulsa reviews... You can see me here: http://www.tulsafoodblog.com/blog/dinner/abuelos-mexican-food.

I have to say, it's quite flattering that they asked to reprint my Tulsa blog postings because I was reading their blog like crazy prior to my trip home to determine where to go eat!!! Many thanks!

Buddy.

My Mom has adopted a new family member. The cat Buddy. He's completely mental, but a total cutie..



He's a hard cat to get photos of because he doesn't sit still!!!

My bro makes pie.

I already showed you the plate of Christmas Dinner (and I am showing it to you AGAIN in the serving bowls below). But I neglected to add the most important element... My Bro ("D") makes a mean pie. And this year, he made TWO mean pies...

Pumpkin...


And pecan...


I don't like pecan pie (and am not all that crazy about pie, to be honest), but the pumpkin was great. Here's just a quick selection of the other things we had...

Cherry Limeade.

It was TOTALLY lime time. Sonic Cherry Limeade is the best thing ever. And from like 2-4 or something, Sonic has a happy hour, so indulging in my favorite cherry limeade only cost 80cents. That's a bargain in US or Canadian dollars.

Wanna make your own? I guess this site shows you how...

BBQ in Broken Arrow.

Living in Toronto has a bit cramped my BBQ loving style. Now I will grant you, there are some okay places. But there's nothing GREAT and so it happens, every year when I start to fly over the great state of Oklahoma in the giant metal bird, I start craving bbq.

This year, we wanted to try something a bit different. We'd heard that Stone Mill BBQ was quite good and decided to give it a go.

It feels like a bit like it's in the middle of nowhere...but it's really worth the drive...

First off, I had myself a big ol' glass of iced tea.


Ahhhh. Iced tea at home is a thing of beauty. No sugar or sweetener. Just a delicious pot of delicious brewed tea icey goodness. I love it.

But I don't drive out to Broken Arrow to have iced tea. (In reality, I don't need to leave to home to have iced tea, my brother's is the absolute best on the planet earth. He has a system, don't ask.)

What I did drive out to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma for was some bbq. And I got the three meat platter...


Alrighty then! It's smoked polish sausage, the most AMAZING chopped brisket I have ever had, and luscious smoked pork tenderloin, complemented by fried okra (the best my Mom said she's ever had), baked beans (score!) and some meh potato salad. And a pickle, and a peppe, and an onion slice.

Now I am not embarrassed to say that I ate just about every bite of this. Hey! It was lunch time and the only thing I'd had to eat that day... AND I am not at all embarrassed to say that I also ate more than a healthy serving of these...


Yep, the best fries. Really really really good. We hadn't ordered fries, not as a side, not at all. But the table next to us did. They looked so amazing that my brother and I had to get a side to share. Whoa.

So the bbq at Stone Mill is pretty nice. I really enjoyed it and would absolutely go back again.