Chili Weather

With the changing of the leaves and the temperatures dropping outside, it seems like it's getting to be chili making season. There's nothing like stewing some beans, beef, tomatoes and seasoning to celebrate the falling of the leaves and mercury. One of my favorite fall activities is to attend a chili cook-off fundraiser for the National Kidney Foundation. All kinds of competitors bring their best pots to hopefully earn bragging rights for the best chili. We've sampled chili from firehouses, local restaurants, and even chefs-in-training, and they all bring some good stuff, although some of the ingredients make me wonder...'what were they thinking?!?' What would you think of chili with venison or buffalo meat? How about pepperoni? Celery? Cashews?

And since you're thinking you might want to break out that old family chili recipe, check back soon for a tutorial on chopping onions quickly and without tears!

Playing With Your Food

Momma always said don't, but I say go right ahead! Coffee beans, limes, lemons and pineapples all make wonderful decorations for your tabletop. They even smell wonderful! So, the next time you are perplexed as to your table decorations, think outside the box, or maybe inside the fridge.

Christmas in July

I was priviledged to be in the audience of a floral design demonstration centered around Christmas at Baisch and Skinner this week. The designer/presenter was Frank J Feysa, AIFD, and he had some great ideas for banquets, buffets and centerpieces. Here are two of my favorite tall designs (always welcome on tables) because they don't take up much real estate.

This pearly willow, phoenix-style would be perfect for a buffet or as a centerpiece.

This inverted proportion design uses some modern floral elements and the wildly popular mercury glass vases. You can use this design in any season, just trade out some of the particularly Christmas-y items.

Hors D'Oeuvres Wedding Reception for 50

One colloquialism I find really entertaining is, "the wedding went off without a hitch." If there's no hitch, are they really married at the end?!? Last weekend I provided hors d'oeuvres for 50 of a special couple's closest friends and family. Here are some photos of the buffet and desserts.

Buffet and menu cards.
Antipasto skewers.
Fruit kabobs and pizzettes.

Chicken bacon brochettes.

Tomato, basil and feta pizzettes.

Twice baked baby new potatoes.

Fruit kabobs.

Parmesan flatbread.

Crudite shooters.

Crudite shooters.
Dark chocolate and peanut butter stacks, loaded carrot cake with orange cream cheese frosting and cheesecake with raspberry monograms.

Peel an avocado...without making a mess!

Here is my first tutorial, and it happens to be on avocado peeling. Which, in reality, occurs more from the inside-out rather than the outside-in, as you would be lead to believe by the term 'peeling'. Regardless, our finished product is the flesh of the fruit without a pit or peel. This is a great project for a taco night, when you need to add fresh guacamole to your repertoire (and thus, need to peel lots of avocados). You will need a large knife, a spoon, and the obligatory avocado for this project. To begin, hold the fruit in the palm of your hand with the narrow end at 12 o'clock and the wider end at 6 o'clock. Carefully, press the knife vertically into the fruit until the blade stops at the pit. Rotate the fruit to create two equal halves. (You may need to gently turn the halves in opposite directions to loosen the fruit from the pit.)

Now comes the fun (read dangerous and thrilling) part. If you do it the right way, all of your friends will say, 'ooh,' and 'aah,' if you do it the wrong way, they may ask, 'where do you keep the band-aids?' or 'which way to the nearest ER?' I must caution you to err on the side of too little effort, rather than risking injury with too much effort. Gently, but swiftly, embed the mid-section of the knife blade into the pit of the fruit. (You won't be able to push the knife in, it is really more of a 'hack'...a gentle, safe 'hack', that is.) After a few attempts, you will discover the amount of effort required to lodge the blade firmly into the pit of the avocado. The trick is to get the blade to stop approximately half way through the pit. Too far, and the pit cuts in half and the little trick doesn't work. Too shallow into the pit, and the outer layers of the pit will break off during the next step...and that is essentially like stripping a screw.

Once you have perfected the science of gently, but firmly hacking your knife's way into the pit of your avocado, the rest is the proverbial piece of cake. Rotate your knife (as though it were the hands on a clock), until the pit becomes dislodged from the flesh of the fruit.

Gently push the pit off of the knife (remember it is pretty well stuck on there, you may have to push firmly). Always push away from the blade. A little pinch behind the pit will usually work. Without cutting through the skin of the avocado, score it in slices or cubes (depending on how you are serving the avocado).

Then, take a large spoon (my soup spoons are the perfect size) and slide it between the peel and the flesh of the fruit. Scoop out any remaining morsels of fruit that are usable for your purpose, then discard the skin.

You now have a peeled avocado, with very little waste, and nary a mess to be found. (That is of course unless you were a little gung-ho on the hacking part, and you left the avocado and knife on the counter while you made your trip to the ER!) All that's left is to enjoy the 'fruit' of your labor in your favorite salad, guacamole, or all by itself. mmm....

St. Louis All-Stars

So, I'm sitting back, watching St. Louis show off its new Busch Stadium (and NL MVP Albert Pujols!) in the 2009 All Star Game, thinking about some All Star foods from St. Louis. Perhaps the oldest and most recognized consumables native to St. Louis are the bubbly adult beverages from Anheuser Busch. The AB brewery was started waaaay back in 1860, and is still a St. Louis icon! A few foods made popular in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (a.k.a. the St. Louis Worlds Fair) in 1904 are: Dr. Pepper, iced tea, hot dogs, hamburgers, peanut butter, cotton candy, and waffle cones (for ice cream). More recently, St. Louis favorites have come to include toasted ravioli, gooey butter cake, and crunchy-thin-crust pizza (of course, topped with provel cheese). What's the only way you can make these specialties any better? Make them chocolate, of course! Here is my favorite Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake recipe (thank you, Marla) for you to try at home.

8 TBSP (1stick) butter, melted, plus 8 more TBSP (1 stick) butter, melted , plus additional butter, for greasing pan
1 (18.25-ounce) package chocolate cake mix
1 egg, plus 2 eggs
1(8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3 to 4 TBSP cocoa powder (the more the merrier!)
1(16-ounce) box powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan

In large bowl, combine the cake mix, 1 egg, and 1 stick melted butter, and stir until well blended. Pat mixture into prepared pan and set aside.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the remaining 2 eggs and the cocoa powder. Lower the speed of the mixer, and add the powdered sugar. Continue beating until ingredients are well mixed. Slowly add the remaining 1 stick melted butter, and the vanilla, continuing to beat the mixture until smooth. Spread filling over cake mixture in pan. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Be careful not to overcook the cake; the center should still be a little gooey when finished baking. Let the cake partially cool on a wire rack before cutting into pieces.

What is it about the fries?!?

Our family loves to spend time at the pool. They have a great kids' play area with hoses, buckets, rope ladders and slides. They also have a concession stand. My husband is crazy about their french fries. He will make sure to have his $2.50 in order before we get in the car to head to the pool. Last night, he ate two batches. Of course, each one was consumed alongside copious amounts of ketchup. I'm fairly certain that these are your garden variety crinkle cut spuds, which begs the question...what is it about the fries? I'd like to think that I have a slightly more sophisticated palate. My favorite fries are at AT&T Park (formerly Pac Bell Park) in San Francisco. They are the famous garlic fries...served with chunks of freshly crushed garlic. They are so garlicky, you're likely to smell them in the air when you arrive at the stadium, and on your breath a week after cheering your team on to victory. Now, those are some yummy fries! Thanks to Jason DeRusha for his flikr photo of this regional specialty. Perhaps the thing that makes food taste so good is the circumstance surrounding its consumption...summer vacation, a victorious ball game, a family gathering, etc. I hope you have a chance to share some good food with great company over the next few weeks.