Food for Thought: Ento Box
It looks delicious, doesn’t it? Until you find out it’s made out of bugs, unless you’re in to that kind of thing.
A group of students in England started a new project titled “Ento Box”, part bento and part entomology. The idea was to work with chefs to design food made from bugs that make them seem much more palatable and desirable. It makes sense to go in this direction because bugs are high in protein and easily sustainable so it’s only inevitable that one day, it’ll become a part of our diets. Or is it?
I don’t think I’ll be eating crickets and grasshoppers in my lifetime, nor would I be a happy camper if I were tricked into thinking it was sushi.
What do you think?
Read the full article here
Quick & Easy: Bacon Fried Rice
Bacon fried rice. Need I say more?
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
2 cups rice (white or brown)
4 slices of bacon
½ onion, finely diced
4 scallions, finely sliced
1 tbspn minced onion
2 garlic cloves
1 cup frozen peas
2 tbspn vegetable oil
3 tbspn soy sauce
chili garlic sauce (for spice; optional)
Optional Garnishes:
scallions
Directions:
Cook the rice according to directions (about 1 ½ cups of water to 2 cups of rice).
While the rice is cooking, lay out the bacon on a foil-lined cookie sheet and place into a cold oven. Bake at 400˚. Once the oven reaches 400˚, keep a watchful eye on it because the bacon should be close to crispy and done (about 2-3 minutes after oven reaches 400˚).
Once the bacon is done cooking, place cooked bacon on a paper towel to dry. Transfer the bacon fat into a large skillet (be careful!) and add the onions, scallions and garlic. Cook on medium-high heat until the onions are translucent and the garlic is fragrant. Add peas and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
Once the bacon cools, crumble. Then, with the skillet still oily, scramble the eggs. Transfer to a bowl.
Use a paper towel to wipe off any remaining residue. Add the vegetable oil and when it’s hot (not smoking), add the white rice and lightly fry for 3-4 minutes.
Mix in the onion/garlic mixture, scrambled eggs, crumbled bacon, and soy sauce. If desired, add additional soy sauce and/or chili garlic sauce to taste
You might notice something else besides bacon. I threw in some chinese sausage in there last minute!
Enjoy!
Quick & Easy: Shellchiladas
Who knew combining pasta and enchiladas would make such a good weeknight dinner?
It’s a small venture away from something you typically see. Jumbo shells, enchilada-style? As you may or may not know, my husband and brother-in-law are half Mexican so I could see why they were skeptical at first. After a few bites, I noticed head nods and soon enough, cleaned plates.
Credit for “shellchiladas” goes to the hubby.
Serves: 3
Ingredients:
12 jumbo pasta shells
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 (10 oz.) can enchilada sauce
1 tbspn minced onion
¼ tspn dried oregano
¼ tspn ground cumin
¼ tspn dried basil
½ cup refried beans
Shredded ‘Mexican 4-Cheese Blend’
Optional Garnishes:
chopped tomatoes
shredded lettuce
cilantro
hot sauce
crema mexicana (or sour cream)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚.
Cook pasta shells according package directions.
While shells are cooking, cook beef in a large skillet until almost all brown. Add onions to beef and cook until onions are fragrant and translucent. Stir in oregano, cumin and basil.
Add about 3/4 can of enchilada sauce and 1/2 can of refried beans. Mix well.
Using a small spoon, fill each shell with beef mixture until each shell is plump. Be gentle! You want to be careful not to tear the shells.
Place shells into a 9x13 baking dish. I lined mine with aluminum but they did stick when I took them out, so I would be careful. Pour the remaining enchilada sauce evenly over the shells, cover and place the dish into the oven for 20 minutes.
During the last 5 minutes of cooking, sprinkle the shredded cheese over the shells and cook uncovered for the remaining period.
Garnish with desired toppings!
A New Year’s Resolution: Eat Better
Happy New Year!
What does this mean exactly?
Well…
1. A new year means trying to sweep under the rug all of the failed attempts in years prior to make exercising a habit. This is when we can all confidently say, again, that we will exercise and lose xx pounds without anyone remembering what we said last year.
2. It means that those who frequent the gym are more than likely complaining about it being too crowded and start counting down the days until it’s back to normal again. It’s always inevitable that people start dropping off like flies.
3. It also means that the Oreos and Klondike bars will stay on the shelves at the grocery store a couple of weeks longer than they usually do.
Many years of failed attempts and witnessing my spiral downwards mid-year every year, I decided that I was going to try something different.
Resolution #1: Eat better
Yes, it’s pretty general. True, it’s not as cliché as “lose weight”. BUT, it also means that if I accidentally miss one day of my Insanity workout, I won’t feel like a failure which means that I would be less likely to lose hope and give up on every single resolution I have for the year.
A few tips I’m going to try to follow myself:
1. Keep up with produce that’s in season. And if you have to, subscribe to a service (if available in your city) that delivers farm-fresh produce. In Austin, we have services such as Greenling and Farmhouse Delivery.
If you don’t have access to that, keep up with what’s peaking with the Epicurious Peak-Season Map or just take a stroll through the farmer’s market.
Use ‘em to challenge yourself to cook something different and outside-the-box.
2. Set aside a comfortable number of days per week to cook at home and plan it. Dedicate one day a week to sit down and plan meals for your x number of days. Print out calendars, bookmark recipes, have it somewhere you can view on a daily basis, put up a chalkboard menu board in your kitchen. (Mine is 5 days per week and I have dedicated Sunday morning to plan so I can go grocery shopping Sunday afternoon for the week.)
3. Subscribe to a magazine or, for free, food blogs. As an artist, I find inspiration in various places every day. This also applies to the inspiration to cook which, for me, can be found in magazines or blogs. Once you get those glands salivatin’, you’ll be in the kitchen in no time.
Clean Eating, Magazine
Cooking Light, Magazine
food gawker, Aggregated Blogs
Skinny Taste, Blog
smitten kitchen, Blog
taste spotting, Aggregated Blogs
4. Skip the snack aisle! Except for the first grocery trip of the month. This one is always easier said than done. Always. It takes every ounce of will power in my body to not look down the snack aisle and see rainbows and unicorns. But, rest assured, it can happen. It has happened. Buy a handful of moderately healthy snacks to last through the month and ration it out to last.
So there you have it. These are the goals I’ve laid out for my top resolution of the year. It seems fairly easy to do, doesn’t it? :)
Holiday Hostess with the Mostest!
Hosting a dinner isn’t easy and the nervous thoughts never fail to ring in your head while you’re preparing dinner. Rid yourself of the extra stress by preparing a few quick hors d’œuvres beforehand for your guests to pass around and snack on to keep them occupied. It’s always a good conversation starter, too.
2. Puff Pastry Mini-Cinnamon-Rolls with Pistachios
The State Fair of Texas
By the State Fair of Texas, I mean the Mecca of Anything You’ve Ever Dreamt of in Fried Form.
I haven’t been in 6 years but since we’re now living in Texas again, it was worth the drive. It hasn’t changed much, or at all, besides the fried food offerings. Fried bubblegum, fried beer, fried moon pies, fried bacon, fried salsa, fried guacamole,.. you catch the drift.
I wanted to try as many interesting fried things as I could, but it seems like after a 3rd order and the $20 spent, there was a tinge of guilt falling over me.
1. Deep Fried Frozen Margarita
Let’s just say this gave me a stomachache the moment I swallowed it. I still don’t understand what made this a deep fried frozen margarita. It definitely wasn’t frozen but obviously just fried.
What was fried? I have no idea.
Would I recommend it? No.
2. Fried Salsa
This was delicious! Surprisingly delicious! They served it with a spoonful of queso. The outside was crusted with tortilla crumbs that created a nice crunchy texture on the outside. Once you bit in to it, the salsa oozed out. I’m tempted to recreate this at home, if I can muster up the willpower to fry something myself.
3. Chicken Fried Bacon
…a.k.a a heart attack waiting to happen. There was more batter than there was bacon inside of it and the oil was penetrating the paper try. It was salty and tasted like I was expecting. I wish I would have spent my 12 coupons elsewhere.
Salsa Roundup: El Chile Salsa a la Charra
Where: Whole Foods
Price: $6.99
Spice Level: None
Rating: 
Oh my joy! One of the first restaurants I tried in Austin on a visit here from SXSW was El Chile. I loved it! The free chips and salsa were delish and their prickly pear margaritas were addictive. Had I known then what I know now: they bottled and sold their own salsa.
I’ve mentioned before that I absolutely prefer local salsa over large names found at Target or Wal-Mart. El Chile is located on the east side of Austin with a sister taco stand, El Chilito, a few doors down. Their salsa is better than good, it’s amazing (and award-winning).
Enough about that.. let’s move into the salsa itself.
The consistency is close to liquid–there are no chunks of tomato or chunks of anything for that matter. You better be good at balancing because it can get messy since the salsa can just slide off your chip and all over your white shirt (speaking from experience). You can taste the simplicity yet the flavors are so bold and rich with a hint of smokiness.
What’s even better is that it’s composed of only 5 ingredients: roasted tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, salt and apple cider vinegar. How they made those 5 ingredients taste like heaven? That’s beyond me.
This looks promising: La Dolce Vita Food and Wine Festival
Monday Morning: Cheers to Fall
Apologies for the hiatus, I was away in Spain for a bit and came back to chaos. Since I’ve been gone, fall must have slowly rolled in. The early mornings and late evenings have been brisk and beautiful here in Austin. What better way to celebrate fall’s arrival than with a few fall cocktails?
1. Smoretini
Ben & Jerry’s ‘Schweddy Balls’
Ben & Jerry just announced a new flavor, ‘Schweddy Balls’, adding on to the plethora of other unique flavors (and names), such as Jimmy Fallon’s creation for Ben & Jerry, ‘Late Night Snack’, which consisted of vanilla bean ice cream with a salty caramel swirl and chocolate-coated potato chip clusters.
‘Schweddy Balls’ is made with vanilla ice cream, rum, fudge-covered rum balls and milk chocolate malt balls and was named to pay homage to a previous Saturday Night Live skit
Deep Fried Texas Salsa™ - This spicy medley of jalapenos, roasted garlic, onion, tomato, and pepper is rolled together, dipped in masa, and covered in crunchy tortilla chips. Into the fryer and served with warm, deliciously creamy queso.
Quinoa Stuffed Poblano Pepper in a Tomato Sauce
My husband and I are on yet another diet, which limits our intake of carbs and junk food and to eat in small portions.
Since we’ve moved, it’s been challenging to cook every night when there’s something else always lingering. Like painting a room. It’s been a little over a month now and I’m trying to get back in to the swing of things.
I was craving stuffed peppers and came across these beautiful, dark green poblano peppers at the store. It’s easy to make and there’s a lot of options to stuff it with. Adhering to the low carb mentality, I opted for quinoa.
Serves:
2 with a bit of stuffing leftover
Ingredients:
2 poblano peppers
1 cup shredded cheese (preferably a Mexican blend)
toothpicks
..for the stuffing…
1/2 quinoa
1 cup broth (chicken or vegetable)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 lime, juiced
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup frozen or canned corn
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne (or to taste)
2 teaspoon chili powder
…for the tomato sauce…
2 cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoon ketchup (or tomato paste)
S+P to taste
Optional Garnishes:
sprig of cilantro
sour cream
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚.
In a small saucepan, add quinoa and broth and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 11-13 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed. Let stand a few minutes and fluff with a fork.
While the quinoa is cooking, roast the peppers. (See below for roasting instructions) After roasting, carefully cut a slit, making sure not to tear the pepper, from the top (base of the stem) to the bottom tip of the pepper. Remove the seeds. *Caution: you might want to wear gloves to remove seeds!* Wash remaining seeds off with water.
Saute the onions, garlic and jalapenos until onions are fragrant.
Add saute mix to the quinoa, along with the cilantro, soy sauce, lime juice, tomato sauce, corn, cumin, cayenne and chili powder. Mix well.
Once the mixture is done, carefully stuff each pepper with enough mixture to fill the entire pepper. Use toothpicks to secure the opening.
Mix together the 2 cups of tomato sauce and ketchup, add a little S+P to taste and pour it into a baking pan. Spread evenly.
Place the peppers on top of the tomato sauce and put it in the oven. Bake, covered, at 350˚ for 20 minutes. Uncover the peppers and sprinkle with cheese. Continue baking another 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.
To serve, scoop some of the tomato sauce at the bottom of the pan onto a plate. Carefully place baked peppers on top and garnish as desired.
PS. Don’t forget to remove the toothpicks!
Enjoy!
How to Roast Peppers
On a gas stove: Place peppers on the burner, making sure they’re close to the flame. Char each side of the pepper until the pepper has a nice burn on all sides. Don’t worry, the cracking noise is a good thing! Remove from the heat once all sides are blackened and place in a zip lock bag. Close the zip and let sit for 5 minutes. Once you remove them from the zip lock bag, place them under cold water and the skins should easily come off!
In the oven: Place the peppers in a baking dish skin side up. Broil ~7-8 minutes, then flip the peppers and broil an additional 7-8 minutes. Place it in a zip lock bag. Close the zip and let sit for 5 minutes. Once you remove them from the zip lock bag, place them under cold water and the skins should easily come off!
Salsa Roundup: Native Texan Fire Roasted Salsa
Where: Central Market
Price: $5.99
Spice Level: Medium
Rating: 
Now here’s a mantra I can stand behind:
“Nothin’ but honest to goodness honest to goodnessness. That’s why Native Texan Brand Salsa is made with only the best of what Texas has to offer.”
Because of my affinity for local products, this salsa screamed at me from the shelf. I checked the consistency, because my favorite kind of salsa is the runny one. The kind of salsa that doesn’t even attempt to cling on to your chip. Check!
I grabbed the Fire Roasted jar, being in the mood for something smoky, a bag of Xochitl chips (thank goodness they had them) and went on my merry little way forgetting to even look at the other flavor profiles they had on the shelf.
Overall, it’s definitely one of the better salsas I’ve had in awhile. The consistency was perfect: not too runny and had just enough clumps of ingredients to dig up. The spice bite was just right and the smokiness wasn’t overbearing.
Once I run out, I’ll probably be driving back to pick up another jar.
A Clean Erase
I painted a whole wall in my office with chalkboard paint last weekend. Barely writing on it, I noticed that when I erased the wall, it wasn’t clean and left a trail of chalk behind. I didn’t want to scrub it off too hard with the fear that it would scratch or erode the surface of the paint.
The solution: Use a rag or a lint-free cloth, dab it in a little Coke (Dr. Pepper works, too) and start erasing. Don’t worry, the soda won’t leave your wall sticky. It’ll return the chalkboard wall to it’s original state, free of any traces of chalk drawings!
Monday Morning: It’s a Wang Thang
I love me some chicken wings, especially the asian-inspired kind. I’ve tried various recipes and these are my top four.
They’re super easy and will make for a quick, albeit messy, weeknight meal. Or better yet, buy some beer, make ‘em all and invite some friends.
3. Sriracha Sweet & Spicy Wings
Enjoy!
