The other day I thawed out some chicken thighs for a meal the next day. But with my new job responsibilities I didn’t have time to cook the chicken the next day. I didn’t want to put them back into the freezer so I needed to figure out some way to make them keep another day or so.

I had just made some corn bread pancakes with some buttermilk so I put the chicken in a bowl and covered them with the buttermilk I had left over and added about a 1/4 cup of Louisiana hot sauce.

So the next day I get home from work and the wife had already ordered pizza but I was craving something home cooked so I decided to throw this quick meal together. I pulled the chicken out of the buttermilk marinade, shook off the extra liquid and placed it in a baking dish with some sliced sweet onions.

I put that into a 400° oven along with another baking dish that had some Brussels sprouts, olive oil and garlic. I cooked both of those for about an hour, maybe a little less. I also boiled up some corn really quick.

This turned out to be a really delicious dish that required almost no work. The chicken was super moist and tender with a great flavor.

The pizza went pretty much untouched that night.

This recipe was submitted by a friend of The Rock and Roll Geek Show and host of The Homemade Hit Show, Tony Butterworth. Thanks, friend!

Tomatillo Salsa

Ingredients:

2 pound tomatillos, husked

1 cup chopped onion

3 teaspoon minced garlic

3 Serrano chili peppers

2 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

3 teaspoons salt, or to taste

1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

2 chicken bouillon cubes

1 lime (juice)

5 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Cut the tomatillos and onion into chunks and add into a blender with the garlic.

Place blended tomatillo mixture into a pot and add the remaining ingredients except cilantro.  Cook for 10 to 15 minutes under medium heat. When finished, allow to cool then add the cilantro and an extra chopped raw Serrano chili (if you like it spicy).

Optional:

Red chili flakes to taste (Can add before cooking)

Olive Oil (Can add after cooking – add a little richness)

Mirin (Japanese cooking wine, can add a little before cooking – sweet)

Roasted Anaheim chilies

Yesterday I finally got to cook some food so I spent all day in the kitchen. My favorite kind of Sunday.

I made a dish from the Cooking Up A Storm cookbook. The dish was Chicken and Sausage gumbo.

I’m going to try to take you step by step through my process with photos below.

Ingredients:

1   4-5 lb chicken cut into serving pieces
Salt
Cayenne pepper
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 cup chopped green bell peppers
1/2 cup chopped celery
About 2 1/2 quarts chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 lb andouille sausage sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup chopped green onions (white and green parts)
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
Hot cooked rice for serving

First I combined the oil and flower to make the roux. I stirred it very often for about 45 minutes till brown.

Here it is after about 20 mins. It’s a little darker

This is after about 45 minutes. It’s pretty dark. I probably should have made it a little darker but I was getting impatient so I moved on to the next step.

Next I added the chopped onion, bell pepper and celery.

I cooked this for about 10 minutes till the vegetables were really soft.

I added the chicken broth, stirred to blend well, then I added the bay leaf, thyme and chicken and brought it to a boil. Once it was boiling, I lowered it to a simmer and cooked it for 3 hours.

After 3 hours I added the sausage, green onions and the parsley. I tasted it to check the seasonings. I then added some cayenne pepper and some salt. Boy was it good!

I also made a seafood gumbo that I’ll give the recipe for at another time.

So my Sunday dinner consisted of 2 kinds of gumbo and some delicious corn bread pancakes.
The corn bread pancakes were good but I still need to perfect this a little bit.

Since I’ve gotten the new responsibilities at work, I’ve had almost no time to cook dinner so I’ve been bringing home takeout. A few days ago, I went to a place called Queen’s Louisiana Po Boy Cafe. It has 4 stars on Yelp so I was really looking forward to trying it, since Cajun food is on of my favorites. I picked up 2 twelve inch Catfish Po Boys, 2 large gumbos, an order of hush puppies and an order of sweet potato fries.  Total cost including tip- $60. Not cheap.

Hush puppies were ok. I’ve made better at home. The catfish po boys were delicious but they were pretty stingy on the fish. Hardly any there!

The sweet potato fries were lame. They were covered in cinnamon and none of us liked the flavor. I make sweet potato fries at home and they are much better.

The Gumbo was delicious. It is made with a dark roux, which according to all of the cookbooks I’ve read, is the secret to a good gumbo. You make the roux dark by cooking it carefully for a long time. My only complaint was that the liquid was not thick enough. There was one order that we didnt’ finish so I ate it the next morning. It was much much better the next day. The liquid thickened up in the fridge and it tasted fantastic.

I would go back again but I don’t recommend getting it to go. I think it would be much better there when it comes right off the stove. One other plus about the place was that they served Abita Beer from Louisiana.

On Monday night in Las Vegas we ate at a place called M & M Soul Food Cafe. I had read great reviews about this place and southern food is one of my favorites so I was looking forward to trying it. We walked into the place and were greeted my a really nice girl named Jerria and a huge security guard. We were the only white people in the place but still felt really welcomed by everyone there. Jerria took our order and then brought some corn bread pancakes to the table. These things were fantastic. I’ve never had cornbread served this way. The owner told us they discovered this method by accident when their oven stopped working so they poured the batter on the grill. I’m gonna start making my cornbread this way from now on I think.

For dinner we had:
Smothered chicken with cornbread stuffing and Mac & Cheese.
Fried catfish with collard greens, fried okra and red beans and rice.
Sweet iced tea.

If I lived in Las Vegas I’d be eating here at least once a week. The food was fantastic and the prices were reasonable. The service was also great. Everyone there seemed to love their job and care about making the best food possible.

If you are ever in the Las Vegas area I highly recommend this place.

Last night in Las Vegas I went to Hot n Juicy Crawfish in the Asian part of town. This place was on Man vs. Food and is kind of similar to SJ Crawfish in San Francisco. I got there at around 6pm and it was packed. I had 2 lbs of crawfish with the Hot n Juicy sauce medium spice. It came with a potato and corn. I ordered a half dozen sausage and an extra corn. We also got an order of sweet potato fries. It was really good but the waiter thought I was a girl then screwed my order up. I’ll forgive him since the food tasted so good.

My favorite Chinese takeout in San Francisco is Cheung Hing on Noriega St. If you are in the city and craving some fantastic roast duck or BBQ pork you should definitely stop in here. They have the best roast duck that I’ve had in San Francisco and are known for their BBQ meats. I’ve never been here when there wasn’t a line out the door. The woman at the counter always greets me with a smile and makes me skip to the head of the line. Last night I picked up some beef and stringbeans (best in town), some sort of fish plate that is fantastic, roast duck, five spice chicken, BBQ pork, combination fried rice and steamed rice. This is more than a family of 4 can eat in 2 sittings.

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For lunch today I made corn chowder. I’ve never made it before but I needed to use the corn I picked up on Sunday from the Farmers Market.
I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. I think it will be even better tomorrow. One thing I’d probably do different next time is to either use whole milk instead of 2% or cut down on the lowfat milk and mix some heavy cream with it.

The recipe is after the photos. Note: I quadrupled the recipe because I like to have a lot of leftovers.

The picture below is step 2 of the recipe. You add the stripped corn cobs to the soup to help make the broth. They get removed after 30 minutes.

Corn Chowder Recipe

[...]

Another place I frequent often in Japantown is a place called Tanpopo. I found out about this place from a Japanese friend of mine named Sonoo. I asked what the best Japanese noodle place was in the City and she immediately said Tanpopo. They specialize in ramen soup. They also have a ton of sake choices. I always get the same thing when I go here.

Karamiso Ramen, which is spicy miso flavor soup with boiled bean sprouts and sliced chashu pork. It is a huge bowl and really spicy. I am sweating bullets by the time I’m done eating it but it is delicious. It costs $8.50.

For appetizer I get Rebanira itame, which is sauteed beef liver & vegetables but since I didn’t have my glasses, I accidentally ordered Reba Karaage, which is deep fried beef liver. I was bummed out at first but it was actually very good. Cost – $5.50

I had a large bottle of Asahi beer to drink.

I left here tonight with a food high. Just enough beer to give me a slight buzz and just enough food to be quite full but not in a food coma.

Tanpopo on Yelp

Total cost: $21.90

I’m making french fries and sweet potato fries as part of dinner tonite. I just bought this Progressive Vegetable/French Fry Cutter yesterday for like $12.00. So far it seems to work pretty well for a lightweight item. I’d really like to have one of these Weston Restaurant Quality French Fry Cutters
though. Feel free to send me one of these and I’ll be very grateful.

I’m gonna cook these in the oven instead of deep frying them. I lay them out on a baking sheet and put some oil and salt and pepper on them. They taste great.