4-Hour Chef By Timothy Ferris
I most probably don’t need another cookbook because I already have a lot of those sitting in my baker’s rack but I’m always open to buying a new one that I think is interesting enough and will teach me new recipes and tricks in the kitchen. I saw this 4-Hour Chef book from Tim Ferriss blog and it sure caught my attention.
4-Hour Chef could actually be the 2nd installment of Tim Ferriss’ book 4-Hour Body. People who bought it wanted to know more so they’ve clamored for healthy recipes, and anything else they could learn to help them in the kitchen and continue with a healthy lifestyle. This is how 4-Hour Chef came about.
The book showcases techniques in the kitchen that any novice could learn in just a matter of time, and delicious recipes to make with ease. 4-Hour Chef has been called as the cookbook for people who doesn’t like buying cookbooks. I’m a passionate homecook who wants to learn as much as I can in cooking and get more ideas in dishes that my family and I could enjoy. Hey, the halthier the recipes, the better. I would love to have a copy if this book sometime. If you do too, check out Amazon for purchase.
Pizza Games, Anyone?
If you and your family, especially the kids in the family, love pizza, then I’m guessing you will all love building pizzas online too. I did. I haven’t shown my kids yet because I wanted to test out the games myself first. I had such a great time building my pizzas. First one is the virtual version of a meat lover’s pizza using a square dough. I filled it up pepperoni, bacon, sausages, then cheese. There are options for veggie lovers pizza too of course. or you can combine meat and veggies. The adventure here is being able to pick the style of the dough, different meat or veggie toppings, and how you want to load the cheese. The possibilities are endless. You can put whatever you want, or don’t put the toppings you don’t like at all. Just load it with pepperoni or just cheese if you want. Who’s going to stop you? No one, that’s for sure.
Ghirardelli’s EAT…BLOG…REPEAT!
Imagine my excitement when I received an email from Ghirardelli Chocolate asking me of my address so they could send me samples of their new chocolate products and flavors as part of their 160th year celebration campaign, EAT…BLOG…REPEAT! How can a chocoholic say no to that?
Domino’s Artisan Pizza: Spinach & Feta
I “won” this Domino’s Artisan Pizza 2 weeks ago through Facebook. Finally, I was one of the lucky ones who got the timing correctly. There’s a certain hour when you could enter and get 1 free pizza but it’s all about great timing. It doesn’t last all day and they give it to a certain number of entries.
White Chocolate Decadence Cake
I wish I could say I made this White Chocolate Decadence Cake so I could brag profusely about my cake decorating skills, but alas, I didn’t. I bought it at Wal-Mart for $7. As much as I love cooking and fiddling in my kitchen, I’m not ashamed to admit in buying store-bought cakes once in a while. Especially when it looks good such as this one and the price is right.
Got Milk? Chocolate Magical Milk Straws
My children received this pack of Got Milk? Chocolate Magical Straws back in January from their grandmother in New York. I’ve never heard of it until that day. Nan knows all the cool stuff. The magical straws are basically straws with flavored bits inside. No need to cut the straw at all. You just use it like a regular straw.
Pastini Pastaria
Have you heard of Pastini? It’s a Portland, Oregon Italian restaurant which offers more than 30 authentic pasta dishes using fresh and local ingredients. Some of their pasta dishes include Ziti with Winter Squash and Gorgonzola Sauce which has roasted butternut squash, gorgonzola cream sauce, leeks, garlic, nutmeg and thyme, over ziti pasta. Another one of their delicious pasta offering is a Chicken Cacciatore with Rigatoni dish. The chicken is simmered slow in the traditional cacciatore sauce, cremini, porcini mushrooms, carrots, red and yellow peppers and white wine. Besides the main entree of pasta, there are also antipasta, salad, soup, and authentic Italian desserts.
Pastini is also a place that offers gluten free Italian restaurant menu. And if you’re looking for a Portland Italian catering, it’s available at Pastini as well via the lunch specials catering. Their combos are only less than $10 each but they’d be happy to help you out in creating a menu for office parties, seminars, and other events
You can find Pastini if these following Portland locations: Northwest 23rd, downtown, Northeast Broadway, Southeast Division, Cedar Hills Crossings in Beaverton, Bridgeport Village in Tigard, The Old Mill in Bend, and NW 9th St in Corvallis.
Check out Pastini if you’re ever in those areas.
DiGiorno Tuscan Style Chicken Crispy Flatbread Pizza
I like thin crusted pizzas. I prefer that over the regualr crust actually. So I got excited with this DiGiorno Tuscan Style Chicken Crispy Flatbread Pizza. Thank God it’s not delivery, hahaha. Errrmmm….. whut? Never mind….
Lunch At Mi Casita’s
We went to lunch at Mi Casita yesterday over in Dunn. A perfect way to welcome the 81° weather to match our blue spring dresses. That was our first time to eat at Mi Casita. Our usual Mexican digs are La Cocina and Fiesta Mexicana. There’s another Mexican restaurant in Dunn that we went to months ago but it’s so terrible I can’t remember the name anymore. It’s either Las Brisas or El Charro. Maybe the acid reflux I got afterwards is contributing to my memory loss.
Anyhooo, the second we entered Mi Casita I knew I was going to like it. The ambiance is fresh, smooth, and quiet. The seating is booth style with tall back wall. Tall enough to keep kids away from the other booth. I’m sure you know what I mean. There’s a bar just like the aforementioned Mexican restaurants but it’s not that close to the booths. I like the open space going to the booths. Unlike at La Cocina or Fiesta Mexciana where there are added tables and chairs in the middles of the walking area. I can’t help but feel awkward when walking to my table at those places. I try to walk sideways to avoid accidentally hitting someone in the head with my huge and full purse. There’s also that awkward feeling not to look at a table while walking just in case a person is chowing down something and couldn’t help but have an open-mouth at that exact moment. Know what I mean?
Shrimp Scampi W/ Fettuccini
What exactly is a Scampi? According to Seaffod Experts website;
Scampi is a type of lobster and is one of the world’s finest delicacies. There are, however, other species frequently referred to as scampi. For example, in the Midwest region of the US freshwater shrimp (Macrobrachium Rosenbergii) are referred to as scampi. So again, what exactly is scampi?
Is scampi a crawfish? Is scampi a crayfish? No, scampi are small clawed lobsters that unfortunately look a little bit like a crawfish. But they definitely shouldn’t be confused with the freshwater crawfish, which is primarily from the Gulf of Mexico and China. Crayfish is another name used for spiny lobster, and if that’s not confusing enough, in the southern US crawfish is called crayfish!.
“Scampi” is actually the tail of the “Nephrops Norvegicus” which is more commonly known as the Norway Lobster, Dublin Bay Prawn (although its not a prawn!) or langoustine. According to Wikipedia, the Nephrops Norvegicus is an orange pink lobster that grows up to 25cm in length and is typically found in the North East Atlantic, the North Sea and parts of the Med.
In short, Scampi is not how the dish is cooked, it’s actually a small clawed lobster that looks like a crayfish. But I bet you when you hear the word scampi you’d think of shrimps cooked in butter, white wine, lemon juice, with some sort of pasta, either spaghetti, linguine, or fettuccini noodles. Now that you know what a Scampi really is coz it certainly doesn’t hurt to know food trivia sometimes, let’s cook shrimp scampi with fettuccini coz that’s what we’re familiar with.
