Chicken Sausage & Tortellini

This is a typical conversation that happens somewhere between 3-7 pm, almost every single day:

"So what's for dinner?"
"I don't know."

"What's in the fridge?" (usually in reference to what type of animal proteins are thawed and ready to be cooked)

"Umm, there's some ___"

"What are we going to make with that?"

"I hadn't really planned on anything."

"Hmm, what can I make with ___ without going to the store?"

Sometimes the "without going to the store" factor works out in our favor, and other times it does not.

Today, the protein du jour happened to be some of Aidell's chicken mango sausage.  When I heard that was the thawed meat, it called to mind an old recipe I had picked up from one of the cooking demonstration stations at good ole H-E-B in Texas!  Sure enough, I still had it in my recipe box.  I pulled it out and decided I was going to sort of follow this recipe as a "skeleton" recipe and make it my own.

So, here we have it, folks!

Larena's Chicken Sausage & Tortellini

Prep time - approximately 20 minutes, makes approximately 5 servings

Ingredients:

• ~20 oz rainbow tortellini - cheese
• 1 package of Aidells chicken mango sausage, sliced in ~3/4-inch thick slices, or whichever chicken sausage you prefer
• 2 teaspoons caramelized garlic slices with the oil, or use 3 cloves of fresh sliced garlic
• 1 Serrano pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup olive oil, divided - 2 tbsp for cooking sausage
• 1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 8 large basil leaves, sliced into 1/2 inch wide strips
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp King Cajun - Cajun cream sauce spice
• Red chili flakes and/or cayenne pepper to taste

1. Cook the tortellini according to the package instructions. Since you will be finishing the tortellini in a large skillet, be sure to only use the lowest cooking time listed on the package. Be sure to stir occasionally and not hard boil it too long to prevent the tortellini from bursting open.
2. As soon as you toss the tortellini into the boiling water, put the 2 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. (stir the tortellini!) Saute the sausage, garlic, and Serrano pepper until the sausage is lightly brown. Use some tongs to flip the sausage so both sides of the slices get a nicely browned edge. (stir the tortellini!) Cook for 4-5 minutes.
3. Once the tortellini has finished boiling, strain it and add the tortellini to the skillet, add the remaining olive oil, and stir to distribute evenly. Add the Cajun cream spice, basil leaves, and cherry tomatoes. Stir again to distribute evenly, and then top with the freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
4. Garnish with a few red chili flakes and/or cayenne pepper according to your spice preference.

Optional ingredients: fresh sliced mushrooms and/or ~1/2 lb uncooked & unshelled/deveined shrimp added at the same time you cook the sausage, garlic and Serrano pepper.

For the nutritional values of this recipe, you can log it through the My Fitness Pal application.  Just search for "Larena's Chicken & Sausage Tortellini."  Disclaimer: this nutritional value calculation is just an estimation.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/view/137730541440173

Bite of Seattle 2012

As usual, the Bite of Seattle was a tasty, tasty blast!  The Bite of Seattle is always my favorite festival of the year.  There are plenty of food vendors to choose from, there's a comedy stage, and they even have cooking demonstrations! 

My favorite part of the event is always the Alley.  It's a program hosted by Tom Douglas, and it benefits Food Lifeline.  For $10, you get a plate with one featured sample from 7 local resterauteurs.  They do vary the menu day by day, and they had 15 total restaurants participating this year.  We always make sure to stop by Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  96% of the proceeds go straight to the mouths of those who need it the most here in Western Washington.  Last year, funds raised by The Alley allowed Food Lifeline to provide nearly 86,000 nutritious meals to hungry people.  That's a huge benefit!  This really is a great cause, so I strongly encourage everyone to participate again next year and beyond.  Beyond that, it's a tasty, tasty charitable event, and it's a great way to try out 7 local restaurants in one sitting!  If find yourself at the Bite of Seattle and can't figure out what to pick for lunch or dinner, keep it simple and just go with the Alley!  There are always clear "winners" (and sometimes "losers") on the plate, so you'll be able to find out which restaurants you want to visit later on.


The Bite Cooks (sponsored by Viking) was wonderful too.  Oh, how I want one of those stoves!  She will be mine.  Oh yes, she will be mine...  As usual, Thierry Rautureau did a fantastic job as the emcee.  If you want to learn more about cooking, this is a great opportunity to learn some tips in the kitchen.  Thierry and some of the local chefs provided some excellent cooking tips (including some I covered in my video).  This is also a great opportunity to get out and meet some of your talented local executive chefs, sommeliers, and mixologists.  They also do audience give-aways if you pay attention and answer some questions at the end, and we made off with a nice little bonus!

Speaking of Thierry, don't forget to watch Thierry on the Top Chef Masters, Wednesday night, July 25th (tomorrow!) on Bravo.  Good luck, Thierry!  We're rooting for you!  Thierry is a simply amazing chef!  This is going to sound like a very "mom" thing to say, but he's already a winner in my eyes!  We would go to the viewing party at Luc tomorrow night, but it would be very late for us.  Of course, Thierry already knows the outcome, but he's under contract to not tell anyone who won. 

I was kind of surprised to find out they didn't have a camera crew filming the Bite Cooks event this year, so I'm significantly less bummed about losing the competition :)  But hey, budget cuts happen!  Fortunately Festivals Inc gave all of the contestants $50 in Bite Bucks due to their flawed voting system.  Hopefully they will fix the voting system next year.  Even though I truly don't care about the money, I don't think I'll bother with it again next year since the payout just isn't worth the effort.  But who knows, maybe one of these days I will start including video demos here on my blog.  Instructional video blogging is a lot of work - especially when you don't have a camera crew!  I did get a chance to meet Bonnie, one of my fellow contestants, and she was super sweet!  She would have been a great presenter too!  Oh, and yes, I did make my video private.  If you ever want to see it, you will need to send me a private message or put a comment on this page. 

A few of the featured chefs at the Bite Cooks have items featured on the foodie 100 list!  The Stumbling Goat has the Anderson Valley lamb T-bone on the Foodie 100 list.  We spoke to the executive chef, Joshua Theilen, at Stumbling Goat about this dish since we haven't had the opportunity to try it just yet.  We found out they are sourcing their lamb T-bones from a different place than Anderson Valley.  Obviously it's still a lamb T-bone, so it still counts!  We will have to go check them out sometime this week.  Incidentally, Joshua won the Bite Cooks Cook-off competition on Saturday, and he won $200 for his favorite charity.  Congrats, Joshua! 

Thanks to the Bite Cooks, I also found out about a wonderful winery called Sozo.  Sozo is a winery that helps provide anywhere from 1-25 meals (per bottle) for orphans, widows and homeless who lack basic needs.  The name "Sozo" is a greek word that means "to save."  Each bottle has a number on the front part of the label, and that number tells you how many people will be fed with your purchase.  That's right, you can drink wine *and* save lives, people!  I'll totally toast to that!  I know what you're thinking: "A charity wine?  It probably tastes like swill!"  You're dead wrong.  They had some wine to sample at the wine garden, and I tried a bottle of the Pinot Noir.  That was a fantastic Pinot Noir!  Their goal is to sell only quality wines while saving lifes, and they have a very talented and well-renowned vintner working for them.  When they go to restaurants to sell their wines, they don't even lead with the "This wine saves lives" bit.   They have the sommeliers and restaurant owners try the wines, and then they tell them what they're all about.  The only downside is that you can't just go out to a grocery store and buy their wine.  You can find it on their website (link above) and at some local restaurants.  They also had some bottles for sale at the wine garden, so I picked up a bottle.  That's right, I saved 10 lives by adding a bottle to my wine fridge.  Everyone's happy!  If you want some great quality wines with an even better excuse to drink - check them out!

I couldn't help but notice there were significantly less vendors this year than there were last year.  Out of sheer curiosity, I looked up the booth prices.

$350 for a Hand-crafted or specialty food product booth (not too bad)
$1700 + 16% of sales for a 10x10 Restaurant Booth (16%?  ouch!)
$2975 + 16% of sales for a 20x10 Restaurant Booth (dang!)
$3175 + 16% of sales for a 20x20 Restaurant Booth (double dang!)

I get that the festival doesn't charge admission, so they have to make their money somewhere.  I was really astonished to find out how much they charge the food vendors!  Wow.  So get out there and support your local food vendors!

The Comedy Stage also had a few talented comedians ... and they had a few "eh" comedians in my opinion (but hey, I'll be nice and won't name names!).  Kermit Apio was a hoot!  With a little bit of self-deprecating humor combined with some very important life lessons for the gentlement out there, he had a great routine!  You should definitely check him out if he ever tours through your area.

All in all, it really was a great festival!  If you didn't get to check it out this year, you missed out!  There's always next year!  It will probably be July 19-21 2013, so mark your calendars!

Bite of Seattle - Bite Cooks Video Competition

For the last 30 years, the Bite of Seattle has been one of the biggest festivals in the Pacific Northwest. In 2003, there were 60 restaurants participating with over 450,000 visitors. That is a LOT of foot traffic!
The Bite of Seattle is by far my absolute favorite festival in the Pacific Northwest. This year will be my third year in a row. One of my favorite parts of it is The Bite Cooks event!

The Bite Cooks! is an interactive and high energy live cooking entertainment showcase located on the Fisher rooftop for everyone to enjoy. Participants include some of Seattle’s finest chefs and local culinary experts who will spice up the stage with creative programming segments and cooking demonstrations. Local chefs will compete in a Bite Cook Off!, where they will be given three mystery ingredients, a small pantry of basic cooking staples and leave it up to the audience to judge there final entrée. The winner will be crowned The Bite Cooks Master! All demonstrations will be done on a fully-equipped stage provided by Viking. Mmm, Viking.

They have recorded this event indoors for the last few years, though this year they are going outdoors. I hope the weather cooperates!


Over the last few years, I've had several friends tell me "You should have your own cooking show!"


Alrighty, friends: now it's time to put your money where your mouth is.  Well, actually it's time to put your votes (via mouse-clicking) where your mouth is!

This year, for the second year in a row, The Bite Cooks is holding a home video contest.  Home chefs are invited to prepare a recipe that represents "Fresh Northwest" cuisine, and demonstrate the recipe in a 20 minute video.  The winner will receive $100 in "Bite Bucks" certificates and $350 worth of Viking kitchenware.  Mmm, Viking.  Beyond that, the winner gets 20 minutes of fame (albeit on local tv ... through Comcast) to demonstrate their recipe with Thierry Rautureau.

I was not aware of this contest last year, but I am totally participating this year!  I am super excited to submit my video!  :)  In case you can't tell, I love learning and sharing knowledge with others - especially when it comes to food!

Now, this is the part where I must shamlessly ask my friends to get out there and vote for my video! Pretty please?  Sorry for the low production value of it.  What can I say?  I'm more of a videographer than a chef!

Here is the link to vote for my video. Please feel free to forward this to your friends and get the word out. Even if people do not want to vote, I at least hope they can learn something and enjoy the video!

I've sort of racked my brain to select a recipe to submit to the contest, and I have put a LOT of work into this video.  I have plenty of great recipes to submit, though they might not all work well for a 20 minute segment.  Plus they don't all fit with the "Fresh Northwest" theme since I'm not originally from the Northwest.  Barbecue contest?  Oh yes!  Tex-Mex cuisine contest?  The judges in this region wouldn't know what hit them!  Baking competition?  The fat kid within me squeals with delight!  Recipes using bacon?  Oh it would be ON!  Northwest (summer) cuisine?  Oh, hrm...  Yeah, it was difficult, but I think I've picked a winner.  I hope the judges think so too!

Wish me luck!

What to do with a chub of Salumi's salami?

I recently sent a very dear friend the most glorious gift anyone could possibly send: the gift ... of pork.  *cue the angels standing below the Salumi's flag, singing an aria chorus as they look up into the heavens*

Of course this friend doesn't truly know how glorious this gift is just yet.  You see, I sent this salami chub to a friend in Texas.  She has only tried salami from the local grocery store chain called H-E-B in Texas.  Obviously this had to be remedied!  Don't get me wrong, I still love H-E-B (and miss that place immensely!).  They're just not known for their quality salami.  Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I did her a true "favor" since she will be forever spoiled!

So she received her chub of Salumi's DaVino salami in the mail yesterday, and she sent me a message saying "It smells wonderful.  Now what to do with it?!?"

We-heh-heh-hell then.  First of all, the best thing to do with a perfect artisan salami chub is to cut it with a meat slicer.  If you don't have one, call around to your local deli or butcher and ask if they will cut it for you.  Some places will charge a nominal fee - $.50 or so - to slice meat.  You want to slice it very thin - thin enough where you can sort of see through it and you won't have to really bite down your teeth to cut through it.  You don't want it sliced so thinly that your slicer isn't able to capture a fully-round circle with it.  My slicer will do that with the lowest setting sometimes.  That's right, folks, I have a meat slicer in my kitchen.  I'm not even sorry.  I included a link for it in my widget below in case anyone is interested.

You can create a sandwich just like Salumi's would!  You can use sticcole or giuseppe bread (think: ciabatta bread).  Add some olive oil with some finely minced garlic as a base to the bread, add some olive tapenade, provolone cheese, lots of salami (maybe about 2 layers of very thinly sliced salami), some grilled onions and Italian peppers (pepperoncini's if you like them).

I would also strongly recommend putting the salami on a pizza.  My personal favorite combination is pepperoni, white onions, and some Italian sausage on it.  Need specifics?

Fine, you twisted my arm.  I am hereby giving you my pizza crust recipe.  That's right, my very own first recipe that I am sharing on this blog.  I am making blog history today!  Of course I reserve the right to perfect it and not tell you how I've tweaked it.  You get what you pay for, folks! :)

Larena's deep dish pizza dough

• 1 1/2 cups of warm water (105-115 degrees)
• 1 package of active dry yeast, or 2 1/4 teaspoons if you use yeast from the jar
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of Kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 3 1/2 cups of bread flour
• extra olive oil for the baking pan

In a large bowl (preferably a KitchenAid stand mixer bowl), add your warm water, and sprinkle the yeast onto the surface of the water.  Let it sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is bloomed and dissolved. Basically you want to see lots of bubbles that moved around, and you shouldn't see granules of yeast anymore.  If the yeast is not dissolved at the end of the 5 minutes, stir it completely to finish dissolving.  Tip: If you have a clear glass KitchenAid bowl, it will be easier to see when it is fully dissolved.  Also, make sure your yeast is not expired!  If you use regular flour instead of bread flour, your crust will be just a little more tough.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, and sugar and whisk the ingredients together. 

Next, add your regular mixing paddle to the mixer.  Add in the dry ingredients and the olive oil to the bowl, and mix at a low speed for 1 minute.

Remove your mixing paddle and replace it with the dough hook.  If you do not have a stand mixer or a dough hook attachment, then you will need to start kneading old school style!  Knead using the dough hook on low to medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic.  This will take about 10 minutes with the stand mixer.  If the dough still seems too wet, sprinkle it with a little more flour. 

Lightly coat the inside of a large glass or metal bowl with olive oil.  Toss the dough into the bowl, and turn the dough until it is nicely coated with oil.  Loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set it in a warm place until it has doubled in size.  I recommend either putting it in a (clean) dishwasher near the heating element after it had finished a cycle (don't turn the dishwasher on while the bread is in there!), or you can heat your oven to 150-175 degrees, turn off the oven, and place the bowl into the warm oven.

Using a deep metal baking dish, coat the bottom of the pan with a bit of olive oil.  Tip: You do not want to use a glass baking dish because it will make the dough soggy.  A metal baking dish will ensure a crisp crust bottom.  Take the dough out of the bowl, and spread it around the bottom of the metal baking dish - to the edges - until it largely resembles the shape of your dish.  Press the dough all along the bottom of the baking dish to prevent bubbles.

For the actual pizza, preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Coat with your favorite pizza sauce (according to your taste), lightly sprinkle some Italian herbs or Herbs de Provence, spread about 2-4 cups (according to your taste) of mozzarella cheese, and add the Salumi's salami, white onions, pepperoni, and (cooked and cooled) Italian sausage.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until the cheese is fully melted and has a few golden spots.  The crust should be a nice light golden color.

Enjoy!

Today, a friend asked me for cookware recommendations.  I cannot recommend Viking and All-Clad enough!  Their stainless steel pans are awesome.  I am including a link below in my widget.  Don't bother spending the extra money for the copper core pans.  Maybe one day I will post a blog about what each pan is purposed for!