Kelly the Culinarian: September 2008

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Finally!

Kelly the Culinarian will make a triumphant return on Wednesday!
I got my camera back from Best Buy's treacherous grips! However, they didn't actually fix the camera. Nor will they. Best Buy claims I dropped the camera, and therefore will not fix any of it. Here's a little industry secret: There's no such thing as "impact damage." Instead, if the camera body has any damage such as scratches or dimples, aka normal wear and tear, it voids the service plan.

I'm buying my camera from Aldi for $80. My German-made Aldi laptop has better customer care than Best Buy.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Update on camera

It's Stand Mixer Sunday and I'd love to be writing a tantilizing post about this great pizza dough I've found, but alas, my camera is still in the shop thanks to Best Buy's incompetence. They're holding my camera hostage because I won't pay a ridiculous $35 shipping fee because the camera has been "damaged" in their opinion and the service plan doesn't cover it. The saga continues.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Food find: Texas de Brazil

A friend had some online deal, so we went as a group to Texas de Brazil, the most expensive all-you-can eat place I've ever been. Here's the set up: There's a very nice soup and salad bar that you have to go to and get what you want. The salad bar has things like Parmesan from the wheel, fresh baby mozzarella, imported olives, authentic prosciutto and imported cheese. The soup of the day this particular evening was a Lobster bisque.

Once you've had your fill of salad, they bring new plates and warm rolls that are doughy and cheesy in the middle. Every diner has a card -- when you turn it to green, various servers throughout the dining area will come around with giant skewers of assorted meats. A waiter also brings garlic mashed potatoes and cinnamon sugar bananas.

The types of meat you can try are seasoned filet mignon medallions, flank steak, Parmesan pork or chicken, petite lambchops, lamb segments and who know what else. I hear that the location in Miami also has seafood, but hell, this is the Midwest and we like our meat.

Everything was delicious and almost justified the ridiculous $50 per person we paid. The filet mignon was tender and the pork was moist. The garlic potatoes were nicely seasoned and I enjoyed the salad bar because I got to try different foods.

Now if only I had a picture ... thanks again, Best Buy, for the crappy service.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Stand mixer Sunday: Low-maintenance breadfast bread

I'm always looking for a short-cut in the kitchen. I really like carbs in the morning, especially when it's filling enough to take me into lunch.

So this is a super hardy breakfast bread. Here's how I did it.

Take 1 cup granola cereal and 1 cup milk, mix and set aside for one hour.

Next, add

3 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon yeast

1 and 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup water

Mix the dough around until it's a loose dough. Set aside in a greased bowl to rise for 12 to 18 hours. Remove from the bowl and fold into a loose loaf, set aside for another hour.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a casserole dish with lid in the oven for at least a half an hour.

After preheating, remove the dish, place the loaf into the dish and shake to distribute the dough. Place the dish with lid into the oven for 20 minutes, then remove the loaf and replace in the oven for another 10 minutes to brown.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Sigh. My camera is on the fritz and in the shop. Well, it's in route to some horrible place that takes two weeks to get it fixed. I blame Best Buy. Why do I buy the service plan if there's always a suspicion I purposely broke my only camera that I use daily.

Until then, expect just words to be displayed in this blog. I'm crossing my fingers that it will be ready by Sept. 12.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Cooking with Kelly: Focaccia pizza

I'm on a kick lately of focaccia. When I saw a delicious-looking roasted tomato focaccia, I had to buy it. And at Jerry's, it was super cheap, I think $2.

So I took the circular loaf and cut it in half to open it like a bagel. Then, sprinkle about a cup of Italian cheese blend (or whatever floats your boat) in between with perhaps some pesto, sausage or pepperoni slice. I used whatever I had leftover. Place in the oven or microwave oven until the cheese melts, about three minutes.

Cut into quarters for a filling lunch. It has tomatoes on top, but I did enjoy dipping it in marinara sauce and sprinkling Parmesan on the top.