Pineapple Chicken, Asparagu and Potatoes.

This is my first full course attempt and it was a journey and a half. First off I just want to say that I hate chicken. It's fatty and it's bloody and it is weird on the fingers and I can't stand in. I'm a terrible cook. Huge props go out to my sister Yvonne who cleaned most of the chicken for me while I cooked her ground beef. Teamwork.

Below is the recipe for the Pineapple Chicken. Basically Asparagus and Potatoes are no brainers, so they should be pretty easy to figure out. Unfortunately the chicken didn't work out as planned. I over cooked it, thus creating a dry piece of meat, but I added pineapple as an option on the side and when put together tasted quite delicious.

Ingredients:

• 6-8 pieces of chicken
• 1/2 cup of soy sauce (I found this to be too much. It overwhelmed everything else and I was trying to find a way to dilute the smell and flavor.
• 1/2 cup of pineapple juice. (I didn't have, couldn't find, pineapple juice. So I blended a pineapple. Worked the same.)
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 tbsn of brown sugar
• 1tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 1/4 ground pepper

Recipe

1. Combine the ingredients above in a sauce pan until you reach desired flavor. I added some white cranberry juice to dilute the flavor, it worked a little bit. 
2. Pour over chicken and let it marinate for 2-3 hours or overnight. I did two hours.
3. Cook over charcoal for 30 minutes or until done.

Thoughts

I feel it could have been better, but for a first attempt it's not too bad. I guess. Here are some pictures. Check them out and enjoy.

Today's book of the day is a chicken cookbook.

The Cooking Light Cook's Essential Recipe Book

1. Grilled Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Sandwich
2. Chicken Tetrazzini
3. Jerk Style Chicken

Apple Toffee Cake

I'll be making a fun dinner later this week, but today I decided to make a dessert for after dinner today. I had to consider a few things while making it. First off my parents have dropped chocolate for lent. Props to them. Secondly, I needed a healthy choice that would work for my family.

I decided to take the journey never traveled by my family and make some Apple Toffee Cake. Today's recipe and directions are borrowed from The Canadian Baker.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups of diced apples
• 3/4 toffee bits (Skor bits)

Topping

• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 3/4 cup of Skor bits

Directions

1. Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl. I used a medium bowl, was a terrible idea. 
2. Use electric mixer to mix until light and fluffy.
3. In a second bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. Add to creamed mixture alternatively with sour cream. Three additions of the dry and two additions of sour cream.
5. Fold in toffee bits and apples. 
6. Spread evenly in a lightly greased 13x9 pan.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
8. To make toppings, combine all ingredients in a bowl until mix is crumbly.
9. Sprinkle evenly over batter.
10. Bake 35-40 minutes or until finished.

Now, I know what you're thinking. It looks like a crumbly cake thing. Well, that's exactly what it is and boy is it delicious. I'll be honest, when I dug in for that first bite, I wasn't entirely sure what I was digging into, but it is DELICIOUS. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts.

You got the cake, the apple, the toffee and it all comes together for an amazing lasting flavor. It isn't too much for the taste and it's not too dry, it's just perfect. I got plenty left, so who wants some?

Book of the day is a dessert book. So check it out, dig in and enjoy some sweet discoveries.
The William Sonoma Collection has over 40 recipes including:

• Double chocolate chip cookies
• Creme brulee
• Apple pie

Banana Strawberry Smoothie.

This recipe takes about five minutes and will yield a serving for two people, or an adult and a small child. 

Ingredients

1 frozen banana, peeled and sliced.
2 cups of frozen strawberries, raspberries or cherries. I chose raspberries, since they are what I had on hand.
1 cup of milk.
1/2 cup of plain or vanilla yogurt. I chose plain yogurt. It was all I could find on the shelf available to me. If you want vanilla yogurt, you can always add vanilla extract at a later date.
1/2 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, or do what I did and just crack open a box of orange juice and go nuts.
2-3 tablespoons of honey. My honey was cold, so I just opened up and squeezed straight into the blender.

Directions.

Put all the ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth. A good minute at least, I didn't blend that long and have one giant awkward lump waiting for me at the bottom of my smoothie.

Doesn't that look delicious? It tastes alright. I'll be honest, I hate bananas and the banana overpowers everything in the drink. It's also a little chunky thanks to the strawberry, but I'm not going to sit here and complain about it.

So, there you have it. My first recipe and review. More to come. Seriously.

Today, I Promise.

It's 12 O'clock on a Sunday and the regular crowd settles in. There's an old man sitting next to me, making love to his bottle of gin. He says son can you teach me a recipe, I'm not really sure how it goes, but it's hot and it's sweet and I tasted it complete when I wore a younger mans clothes.

Okay, I know, terrible attempt at a remake of Piano Man, but give me a break. Give me a Kit-Kat. It's late, or early depending on how you look at it and I am out of my head. It's been a while since I've written here, about four days and I feel like I owe you all an explanation. So here it is, I have been sleeping and curing myself. That being said, I feel much better and am ready to take on my first cooking attempts this week.

Today, I do plan on giving in to the blender and getting my hands dirty. I'll be whipping up a smoothie for myself to enjoy. A Banana-Strawberry smoothie. I also plan on posting the recipe, a picture of my completed monster and my thoughts. I'm hoping it turns out delicious and I'm hoping I don't accidentally set fire to anything inside my house. I'm a man and I'm using a blender, something has to go wrong. I'm no Gordon Ramsey, I'll be surprised if I make it out with all my fingers.

I plan on having it up later today, hopefully before 15:00 p.m. So tune in and get yourself a recipe for a sweet smoothie to start up those taste buds as we prepare ourselves for a magical journey of food victories and disasters.

Until then,

Chef101

I'm Working on it.

I knew this would be hard, but I didn't think it would be this hard. I'm slowly getting over my recent illness and I've lost my interest in food. I know what you're thinking, I've been doing this for a little over a week and I'm no longer interested, something seems off.

I'm still going to blog and I am going to EVENTUALLY get around to cooking something, but I can't bring myself to cook when I'm...

a) Not hungry.
b) Getting nauseous at the smell of everything.
c) Lazy.

I'm working on it, I promise.

Until then, I got a fun question for the week, maybe stir some conversation on the boards.

Do you ever go to the fridge multiple times in the day, hoping that it mysteriously filled up with foods that look appealing?

I find that I'll go 2-4 times and search around for something that looks god, but lets be honest there is never anything I'm interested in eating. So frustration.

Speak up, it's your turn.

Book of the day is something for the healthy followers.

Some popular recipes are:

• Portobello Pizza
• Chicken Kiev
• Cheesy Enchiladas
• Tiramisu

The Problem with the Food Network

The Food Network is great, don't get me wrong. I love watching chefs making great meals at reasonable prices. Unfortunately TV wasn't designed for the Food Network. Someday when Smell-O-Vision comes into play, the Food Network will be great, right beside the flower network and the "name that smell" network. Until then, we are all forced to watch and hate the Food Network.

Let's be honest, you're all like me. You turn on the Food Network to watch one show, be it Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver you throw it on and start watching. But then you get hooked. The next show comes on and they're making Carrot Cake with Oreo layering. Then a show about cupcakes is on. You've officially fallen into the trap that the Food Network is. You can't watch one show on the Food Network, you have to watch multiple shows. This isn't a bad thing, you get some great ideas. But the Network loops itself after four to six hours. You can only stay trapped for so long, unless your mind pulls the "watch it later and get the recipe later" trick, then you're stuck forever.

Currently I'm watching "COOKIN FOR REAL." Listen to me when I say this DO NOT WATCH THIS SHOW. This woman, is way too happy to be cooking. First off she is making the perfect meal for your guy or your chick, how do I know this, well she has told me three times. Next, she tries too hard to be your friend. I like that Jamie Oliver wants to make dinner for his friends, that's good. He's got life outside of cooking, but this woman has no one. She loves sage. I don't care, but I can't turn away. Damn you Food Network. Damn you.

To my readers, I'm going to post a cooking book of the day starting today. Some things to look forward to at the end of all my posts.

So to my nerdy readers, check this book out and buy it for my birthday!

Recipes included:

• 
  Twin Sun Toast
  Tusken Raider Taters
  Sandtrooper Sandies
  Boba Fett-uccine

Japan, This Ones For You.

This post is my way of sending my thoughts to the people of Japan. I've been following the events the past few days and I am on top of all that is happening. Two days ago when the earthquake hit Japan and the tsunami washed ashore, I was shocked to see the pictures and hear the stories of how terrible it was. Continuing into today though, we see that there has been an explosion at the nuclear facility and that over 9000 people are missing from one town. In days to come, I hope the Japanese people that are lost are found alive and that we can put aside and move on from any nuclear disaster.

To all my Canadian followers, by texting the word ASIA to 30333 you can make a $5 donation through Red Cross. The $5 will appear on your phone bill.

To find out more information about the Red Cross visit the link here.

Let's Meet the Meat!

To cook with certain meats, you must know your meats. I have chosen four meats and I will share some of the most interesting facts. I hope you learn something.

CHICKEN

• In 2007, 21 percent of a chickens weight was contributed to the breast.
• The average American eats over 80 pounds of chicken a year.
• There are over 3.6 billion chickens in China.
• Skin color is determined by what the chicken eats.

BEEF

• Brazil is the worlds largest beef producer.
• Argentinians eat about 140 pounds of beef a year.
• Beef is graded on it's color, texture and appearance. 

 LAMB

• American lamb has the most meat on bone, compared to other imports.
• 35% of Americans have never had lamb.
• Lamb is preferred by more men than women. 

FISH

• Fish supply about 7% of the worlds protein.
• Annually about 90 million tons of fish are caught.
• 10% of the fish caught are cod. 

 All facts were taken from this site. Click here to learn more.

Star Trek

Two days ago, I said I'd make smoothies. As it turns out I'm in no condition to be making smoothies. Today, I'm in no condition once again. So once I am well I will make something, until then everyone just hang tight and watch some Star Trek. It will make you feel a little bit better and you can use it to get over your lack of entertainment, aka this blog. I'll keep trying to post once a day. It won't be much, but enough to keep going.

Until then,

Chef101

The Problem with Being Sick

Everyone loves a sick day. Whether that be from work, school or just life in general. That being said, if you could plan your sick days, or they always fell around the same time each year, it would be a bit easier to plan things. Then you have the wave of highs and lows in a sickness. You're sick, sicker, sicker, then you feel better, you feel great and then another wave of sickness hits you and you're back drowning in Kleenex.

I am currently riding this wave and it is terrible. Terrible is an understatement. Yesterday I was feeling good, today I'm feeling like crap. Make up your mind body, either get better or don't. Don't float me back and forth between health and sickness. Had I known of my continuous illness I'd have held off on this blog for another week. You can't cook when you're sick, unless you're cooking for yourself, which I will be doing tomorrow, as a heads up.

This won't be long today, but tomorrow will be my first recipe posting. I'm going to start very, very, very easy and make a smoothie. Nothing big, but it will be tasty and is  great way of replenishing nutrients when you haven't eaten much due to sickness.

Until tomorrow,

Chef101

Who, What, Where, When, Why post?

I hope you notice that I didn't add the How. The How is obvious. Clearly I am typing this to you upon my 19th Century typewriter, removing the finished document, handing the recently inked paper to my colleagues and copy and pasting this bad boy on to this site we all use called blogger. I'll pause briefly to give you time to understand everything I just said.

Basically this post is to sum up everything I said in yesterdays post and add some fun new facts that will surely impress and keep you coming back for more!  So lets get started.

WHO
Look around and you'll see that my name is Sean. I'm a sports writer and videographer for a hometown newspaper and I love it. I have absolutely no experience in food. I am a longtime lover of basically anything involving peanut butter and chocolate.

WHAT
This blog is a few things. It's a way of me getting back at my sister who told me I can't cook. It's a way for me to learn new exciting dishes and sharing them with you. Each dish post will start with the recipe, followed by my review of how easy it is to make, my reaction, my families reaction and finally a picture of the finished product.

WHERE
This is a big one and a general pain that rings deep within my parents hearts. Basically I will be destroying their kitchen during my food exploration.

WHEN
I will be cooking dinner every Thursday, so every Thursday after dinner come here and you'll find a recipe for a meal designed to feed 6-8 people. Other times I may cook just for myself and will therefore make enough for one.  I will post a new blog every day though. Sometimes I will involve you the readers and inquire as to what you would like to see me make on future dates.

Finally, WHY
Well, lets be honest, why not? In all of my free time, I needed something to keep me busy. I want to learn how to cook, I want to become a healthier eater and I want to finally impress my sisters with my cooking skills.

Over the next few days, I'll attempt to keep you interested, without babbling too much. Tomorrow, I'm thinking of making myself a smoothie or two. So once I find a good recipe, I will begin preparation for the first of many food triumphs or disasters.

Until then,

Chef101

You Can't Cook

It's always been a task to come up with what to blog about. Being a journalist, there were many times in school that we had to develop blogs and maintain them. I could never figure out who or what to write about, let alone imagine have it becoming something either myself or my readers would eventually grow to love. Today, I decided to attempt blogging once again, not for you who may be reading this, but to keep my mind busy when I'm not off hunting stories for the next issue of the paper.

This afternoon I woke to the voice of one of my sisters who reminded me that though I may be sick, I still needed to get up and couldn't sleep the day away. This same voice, who would later be the encouragement I needed to start this blog. I made my way to my family room to join her and my mother in a relaxing afternoon breakfast of soup and tea. If I knew how to make anything else, I would. The tea as usual was delicious, but the soup was a day old and the added chicken broth would have been better alone. It wasn't the food or the drink that interested me most though, it was the show we were watching.

The show, Come Dine With Me, is about four people who each have a task of creating a full meal and a night of entertainment. If you've never seen the show before and I hadn't, I was a little surprised to see how far some of these people were going to impress their guests. I'd only caught the end of the show, but the last contestant was going all out. He started the evening with drinks, followed by homemade soup. Then he introduced the main course, followed shortly by dessert and then an extravagant fireworks show to finish the night. The other contestants loved his food, though if it were up to me, just the fireworks alone would have done the trick. To wrap this up quickly, the winner of the four would win 1000 pounds, or just over $1500 Canadian.

It was here that I opened my mouth to make a comment that would later inspire this very blog itself. While, I do not remember word for word what it is I said, I do remember what my sister said. Very bluntly and loudly, she looked at me and said, "YOU CAN'T COOK." She knew the facts, I'll give her that, but to call me on it so early in my day just seemed so unfair and rude. Here I was chasing a dream to be a famous chef on a television show and she's crushing it with the truth. So, I let it sit. I let it float around me like it always did. I'd offer to make dinner and I'd immediately becoming the joke of the house.

I can't cook anything good, I'm not saying I can't, but I can make some things. The last thing I made was "Yoda Stew" or "Rootleaf Stew" which is the green mush Luke Skywalker and Yoda are seen eating in Star Wars Episode 5: Empire Strikes Back. It didn't turn out great, but it wasn't terrible. If I had pictures, I probably wouldn't post them as it didn't look that tasty. Before that my cooking ability went as far as making stew and adding beer for flavoring. I hope you're getting the picture. I am a terrible chef and I need an upgrade. I Can't Cook. I guess you could call me a Slow Cooker. The Slow Cooker.

I'm a late bloomer when it comes to cooking, but I'm ready to make a change. My longtime friend came over a few weeks ago and my parents laughed at the idea of me making him breakfast. I could have done it, add some milk to some cereal, put some bread in the toaster, ta-dah, breakfast is served. Unfortunately my friend had bigger thoughts of scrambled eggs with bacon and waffles. I wish I could make that. I'm hoping that in time, I will be able to make that.

Now that you know how this blog came to be, let me explain it's purpose. First off, I need a reason to write and I need to write about something that I have no experience in. Cooking is my challenge. Secondly I aim to not only teach myself new dishes each week, but teach you, my readers some new meals that you can make for your friends and loved ones. Finally I aim to eventually be able to sit down and watch an episode of anything on the Food Network, turn to my sister and say "I CAN COOK THAT." Not out of spite, but as a way of overcoming the challenge she laid upon me.

Without dragging this on for any longer than I already have, I hope you will visit my blog and follow my cooking mishaps and victories for weeks to come. I hope you can take something from it and add input to make it better.

Until then, take care and happy cooking,
 
Chef101