Hi everyone!  This is a great recipe for crackers from my friend Chef Anna Vocaturo, Pastry Chef at Lincoln restaurant in Washington DC, right near the White House.  If your down that way you have to stop in and say hi!  Anyway, I made these with my friend Dom and they were amazing!  The best part is that you can customize your seasonings.  We made several different batches and I used a pasta maker to roll out the dough from very thin to medium which was similar to a wheat thin consistency.  Experiment and have fun with this recipe!  Thanks Anna!

Don't forget to post your favorite seasoning combination! 


Chef Anna's Crackers (olive oil and semolina)

1 1/2 cups semolina flour
1 1/2 cups organic all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup warm water
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Cornmeal

Flaxseeds, dill, smoked salt, smoked paprika, coarse sea salt, coarse black pepper, rosemary, sage, ect.

Olive oil/ truffle oil

Mix in mixer.

Take out and divide into 10 pieces, allow to rest, for at least one hour.

Roll out very thinly on floured surface. I use a pasta attachment on a kitchen aid to roll them out, it a little easier.

Place on baking sheet with cornmeal and brush with oil then add herbs.

Bake at 400 until golden

Turkey is not just for Thanksgiving

I had a very busy day yesterday and Tom grilled the turkey thighs that I brined in the morning and made a delicious salad!

Brine:  1/2 cup coarse Kosher salt, 1cup of apple cider vinegar, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of dry mustard, 1 teaspoon smoked garlic powder.  Mix together with about 2-3 quarts of water in a bowl.  Add 2 turkey thighs and and refrigerate for 8-10 hours.  Rinse before cooking

Dry Rub:  Rub turkey with olive oil.  Sprinkle with sea salt, Joe's 21 seasoning salute, hot Hungarian Paprika, cayenne, poultry seasoning, thyme, garlic and onion powder and rub.  Grill until done.

Enjoy

Dinner tonight:  Pan Chicken with veggies!

Olive oil, garlic, onions, thyme, Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute, cayenne pepper, hot Hungarian paprika, sea salt, garden zucchini, garden peppers, mushrooms, and chicken thighs!  Recipe to follow.

Hello everyone!  This is a tired Monday after such a beautiful Sunday.  Well I'm listening to the game and my wild rice is cooking.  Simple pan fried salmon tonight with fresh garden green beans.  Tom said he'd make the salad because I really don't feel like fussing.  Every time I start to make a salad I just keep adding tasty things and it grows and grows.  I just can't seem to stop myself, lol.  Well the rice is done so I'll talk to you later.
I ended up whipping up an appetizer on a whim.  I had some lovely large mushrooms that I wrapped in bacon, seasoned and broiled then baked.  When they were almost done I took them out and topped them with swiss cheese, put them back in the oven that I just turned off to let the cheese melt.  These are a quick yummy appy.  Try it sometime!  The salmon was wonderful!  My friend and Chef Anna taught me that when you pan fry fish you need the skin to be on the fillets.  Just press the skin side into some coarse sea salt, get your oil hot and put them in skin side down.  The skin gets amazingly crispy and is a treat unto itself!  The wine of the day is Stark Raving Red!  I bought it for the name but it was really delicious!  Fruity yet dry and very full bodied!  Great legs!  Good night and dee-licious dreams!

Please comment!  I really would love to hear about your creations.  Good night all!  xoxoxo

Cooking with Chef Joe Brown

Chef Joe Brown owner and Chef at Melange@Haddonfield
YouTube:  Cooking with Chef Joe Brown

http://www.melangerestaurants.com/

Ate there Friday night with Sheila (thank you Sheila), my niece Tara waited on us and my niece Erin and hubby Sebastian (Seb) joined us (welcome home from Argentina guys).  It was my first time visiting Haddonfield.  What a beautiful town and this guy is the bomb!  When he wasn't cooking, he was out and about the restaurant working and socializing the entire evening.  He is a really down to earth person and is an amazing chef!  His cuisine is a mixture of  Louisiana and Italian cooking.  I loved everything I tasted from the trio of soups, the Fried Oysters served over Horseradish Sauce, the Filet Mignon with Garlic Mashed Potatoes served over Caramelized Mushrooms to the Banana's Foster Crepes (my favorite)!  Sooooo delicious!  
His videos are on youtube.  3 so far and I'm looking forward to more!  Hope you get to go there!

Hey there everyone!  I'm so excited about tonights game!  The season opens with Big Blue vs. that other team.  LOL, as you can see I'm a Giants fan and that's been a tough gig.  I mean, we hung in there all those years and endured.  Ask any Giants fan, we hold our breath until they're in the playoffs.  Anyway I'm kicking off the season with brined boneless Chicken breasts stuffed with asiago cheese, roasted and topped with fire roasted jalapeno peppers, a fresh garden salad with romaine, kale, red and green leaf lettuces, peppers (bell and jalapeno), fresh cilantro, grape tomatos and apples with olive oil and balsamic dressing and fresh corn from the garden!
Please share some of your football faves so we all can have a great season with some new recipes!

  So, here we are at the end of the summer.  I'm still enjoying the fresh vegetables from our garden thanks to my husband, Tom.  Working two jobs makes it difficult to find the time to cook and eat in a timely manner so sometimes dinner can be at 9 or 10 at night.  I realize that time management is the key!  I'm not quite there yet, but I'm learning.
  Anyway, one of my favorite summer favorites is grilled veggies brushed with olive oil and seasoned with sea salt, fresh ground pepper, cayenne pepper, onion and garlic power (and yes I season the onions with onion powder too).  For odd shaped veggies I rub them to make sure that the spices are distributed evenly.  I then place them in a grilling cage that has an adjustable top.  Then grill away!  We like ours a bit crispy so they need to be checked frequently.  We discovered grilled radishes this season!    So very yummy!
  I'd love to hear about the types vegetables that you grill, your preparation and methods!

Cooking is me.  I create and I loose myself in the moment, imagining every taste from each different ingredient and blending them together in my mind before I add them.  As the smells rise up my heart rises up with them and soars.  I am part of my creations and I give myself willingly to everyone that consumes them.  Taste my love in every bite!