Cooking Catastrophe confession time: I stink at making omelettes. Oh, sure, they taste good, but what I really end up with is just scrambled eggs with sundry fillings. I’ve given up even trying to flip them because I always just mangle it, so maybe I should take this advice about using a cloth:
I had a lot of culinary adventures during my second trip to France in 2005, but not the kind you’d imagine. Traveling with a frugal mindset on a 21-year-old’s budget, my resourcefulness is what allowed me to finance the trip, so instead of going to 5-star French restaurants, I opted for more cost-effective dining. I’ll never forget eating le cheeseburger at a McDonald’s on the Champs-Élysées near the Arc de Triomphe, looking out of a huge glass window at the bustling traffic below.
During my time in Paris, I stayed at a hostel which had a shared kitchen area with a microwave. I stopped by a nearby grocery store to get something for dinner, and ended up with a microwavable quiche. It wasn’t the greatest-tasting meal, but the experience was all part of the adventure and something I’ll always remember! So when I got an email with this Quiche Lorraine recipe, it brought back those memories. I’m sure it tastes miles better than the quiche I ate in that dingy hostel! 😀
Do you have any special memories of food eaten during travels?
Here’s another yummy recipe from The Hundred-Foot Journey for you: Madeleines! Don’t these cakes look fabulous?
Are you doing any big cookouts this Memorial Day weekend? If so, check out this yummy recipe for Tandoori Chicken Wings inspired by the film The Hundred-Foot Journey, coming to theaters this August. Mmmm!
Jai and I were recently introduced to some new paleo brunch recipes during a sampling event at Natural Grocers in Gresham. Although neither of us follow the paleo diet, we’re always up for trying new food, and I did spend some time looking up paleo freezer recipes last summer just for something quick and easy to make. I wanted to share the recipes for the paleo brunch with you if you’d like to try something different for yourself!
This paleo brunch menu has been designed to feed 6 people for around $7.55 per person.
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Recipe by Karen Falbo.
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Recipe by Karen Falbo.
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Recipe by Karen Falbo.
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Recipe by Karen Falbo.
We also enjoyed Vegetable Latkes with this brunch – you can find the recipe for that by clicking here to visit MarksDailyApple.com! You can also find a ton of paleo and other recipes on NaturalGrocers.com.
Have you ever tried a paleo recipe before? What did you think?
At the beginning of April, I took an unforgettable trip to Florida, marking my first time in the state. Whenever I visit a new place, I love sampling area dishes and local specialties. I feel I achieved this in spades when my group ate lunch at The Catfish Place, where I ordered the most Southern dish I could find on the menu:
Fried catfish and shrimp with hush puppies, fries, cheese grits, fried alligator, fried green tomatoes, fried pickles, and a tall glass of sweet tea. I wasn’t too keen on the grits, but I liked everything else, including the gator – which tastes like chicken, of course.
Another novel experience was Medieval Times, a “Dinner and a show” experience where you watch a joust while eating chicken with your hands – no cutlery allowed!
We also ate at more conventional local restaurants, enjoying a fantastic steak dinner at Meliá Orlando – so tender, you didn’t even need a steak knife!
I also had a chance to try the famous 1905 Salad at Columbia Restaurant!
We were also treated to having personal chef Linda Page come to our vacation home and cook us a delicious dinner of lasagna and Tiramisu!
We got a little “Taste” of food history at Chocolate Kingdom, where we got a crash course on the origin of chocolate along with a tour of Chocolate Kingdom’s candy-making facility. I got a chance to dip a marshmallow in a vat of chocolate, which was fun!
Speaking of my sweet tooth, I really enjoyed nibbling on these goodies from the Sweet Escape Cookie Company during a Twitter party that we held!
Finally, I bought a couple of sticks of Gator Bob’s alligator jerky at Wild Florida for souvenirs. I got it as more of a novelty gift, Jai said it was actually some of the best jerky he’s ever had!
So tell me: Would you try alligator meat?
If you’re a Disney fan, check out the widget above for a recipe printable you won’t want to miss: Walt Disney’s very own family chili recipe! Also included are contemporary recipes for yums like Pineapple Upside Down Cake & Butter Cake, created by food stylist Chris Oliver in honor of the movie Saving Mr. Banks.
Do you have any favorite family recipes?
Earlier this month, I headed to the Windy City for the Chicago Auto Show. As tends to be the case when I travel, I sampled all kinds of interesting food during my trip!
When I arrived at the airport, I was met by a limo which took me to the hotel. It was stocked with beer and Tootsie Rolls – my kind of ride!
I stayed at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, where I found a package of Terry’s Toffee: Lemon Paradise waiting for me. I love toffee and I’d never had a citrus variety before. Yum!!
To welcome us to the auto show, Nissan hosted a reception the first evening that featured a variety of appetizers, taco bar, and a slider bar.
These were the first appetizers I tried when I arrived – yes, it’s a terrible photo, but I was too hungry to care. 😉 The dim, red lighting in the building made it so that I really couldn’t tell whether the little cone the waiter handed me was a mini chocolate ice cream, or a savory cone filled with Gyro meat. I shrugged my shoulders and said, “We’ll see” – and it was indeed beef and not ice cream. It was delicious, and also hilarious to not know whether I was about to taste meat or chocolate!
Another memorable part of the night was the fact that they had a beer van on hand!
The next morning, I attended a breakfast hosted by the Chicago Automobile Trade Association and the Midwest Automotive Media Association. We dined on a breakfast buffet including red velvet muffins while listening to a number of talks, including one from Robert Carter, the Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations for Toyota Motor Sales, USA Inc. He discussed everything from Toyota’s 2014 sales forecast to why you should never let a NASCAR driver borrow your car.
After breakfast, I had a busy morning full of press conferences and displays to view at the Chicago Auto Show Media Preview, from the Toyota Test Track and Muppets SUV to the debut of Captain America’s car. This helped me work up my appetite for the Economic Club of Chicago Luncheon.
We were served a pretty cucumber salad, some chicken that I wasn’t crazy about, and dessert. No one seemed to like the hazelnut macaroons but me!
The main speaker for this luncheon was Joseph Hinrichs, Executive Vice President & President of The Americas at Ford Motor Company. I also heard him speak during a lunch in December when I attended a Ford News Briefing in Dearborn, Michigan.
After lunch, I spent some time gawking at the million dollar car, and then stopped for a mid-afternoon snack from Chrysler!
The Chrysler 200 Snack Break celebrated the 2015 Chrysler 200 by importing 200 snacks from Detroit. They offered goodies from Sanders Fine Chocolates including chocolate covered espresso beans that kept my energy up during the trip home and yummy chocolate fudge bumpy cake that was a big hit with everyone! I also brought home a bag of pistachios as a souvenir for Jai, and unfortunately I’m not sure who made those since we threw out the bag.
Later that day, several friends and I decided to get a cab to Giordano’s Pizza for dinner. I was excited to see another tiny piece of Chicago during a packed trip, and I couldn’t wait to have my first taste of real Chicago pizza!
I ordered a traditional deep dish Chicago-style pizza, and it was everything I could have hoped for! So, so, so good! The thick crust was truly a “Pizza pie” and smothered in so much cheese – heavenly! I was absolutely, positively stuffed after one slice, but I insisted on a to-go box even though I wasn’t sure if I’d have room to take it home. You know how much I hate wasting food!
The day closed out with the Subaru Sweet Home Chicago 2014 party. This shindig had snacks by the barrel-full – and I mean that literally:
I was sorry that I was so unbelievably stuffed from the pizza, because they had so many delicious-looking goodies on hand! As the evening went on, I eventually made room to try a Subaru lollipop:
Or to be more accurate, a gluten-free, caramel-coated chocolate lollipop with sea salt. I’ve never been too big on the idea of salt and chocolate, but this was so good that I had seconds even though I was still full from the pizza. I also had an RC Cola Chocolate Cupcake!
After a late night at the party, I got about an hour of sleep and then got ready for the WOMMA “Driving Engagement” Award Ceremony & Breakfast. The most memorable part of my breakfast was the fact that it ended up all over the floor! There were no tables, and trying to eat off your lap while listening to a speaker and taking notes/photos = awkward. The disaster actually occurred before the ceremony started, when I put my plate down on my chair, since there was no where else to put it, and left the room for a minute. The chair appeared to be a flat surface, but apparently after I turned my back, the plate slid right off and splattered all over the floor! Several other media cleaned it up and Louise fixed me another plate, so when I got back I had no idea what happened until they told me. I sure know how to make an impression!
We had a little more time to look around, and then it was time to head back home. Since Louise and I had flights leaving around the same time, we had time to get lunch in the airport. We decided on Chili’s, and I had a very memorable adventure in the middle of the meal. I asked the waitress where the restroom was, and she said something about it being around the corner, but I looked and couldn’t see anything. I had to ask a second time, and she pointed across the restaurant to the rest of the airport, where I spotted a men’s room sign. I made my way out of the restaurant and towards the sign, and I saw that the men’s and women’s rooms were divided by a revolving door. So, I walked through the door, used the ladies’ room, and then headed back for the door when I saw a security officer who said, “You can’t go back through there – you left the secure area. You have to go through security again.” What?! As it turned out, there was yet another restroom that was hidden around the opposite corner that the waitress was talking about, but since she was pointing at a different sign to a second bathroom on the other side, I didn’t realize there was more than one. And for whatever inexplicable reason, the airport thought it was a great idea to split up the restrooms so that the men’s room was inside the secure area, but the women’s room was not. As I discovered later, there was a sign on the very opposite side warning that you were about to leave the secure area, but since there wasn’t one near the revolving door I exited, I had zero idea. I was panicking about having to go through security again since the first line had been so long – will I miss my flight? What is Louise going to do, stuck inside the restaurant with my suitcase? All I can say is thank goodness I took my purse with me, or I wouldn’t have had my ID and boarding pass. Mercifully, the second time through security was way faster and I made it back over to the restaurant in maybe 20 minutes. My food had naturally arrived by then and was a bit on the cold side, but it was still pretty tasty. 😉
That day proved to be very adventurous all around, since I arrived back in Portland to a freak snowstorm that made the roads impassable. Since Jai couldn’t come to pick me up – as the storm continued, Portland ended up issuing an emergency warning advising everyone to stay home because it was so dangerous – my awesome soon-to-be-in-laws ended up braving the road in chains so that I could stay at their house until the snow melted. I ended up snowed in Portland from Friday night until Monday morning! It was crazy – the only clothes I had with me were thin business suits, so I ended up having to borrow clothes from my sister-in-law so I wouldn’t freeze. When the roads cleared enough on Monday morning that the busses started running again, I layered pajama pants with one of my suits so I wouldn’t be cold on the way home! 😉 But the funniest part? I did manage to take my Giordano’s leftovers with me, since my suitcase conveniently has a pizza-box size pocket. I ended up eating my delicious leftovers over the course of several days while I was snowed in the house. Pizza: The perfect sustenance for snowstorms! 😉
Super Bowl Sunday is coming up this week, and if you’re hosting a gathering, you’re probably looking for some good Game Day dishes to serve. Frank’s RedHot are celebrating 50 years since the first “Buffalo Wings” were created using Frank’s RedHot Sauce mixed with butter, and since nothing says “Football Food” like a plate of wings, they wanted to share some of their signature recipes with you!
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To celebrate Game Day, Frank’s RedHot is giving away a fun little prize pack to one Cooking Catastrophe reader which contains:
To enter, check out the Rafflecopter widget below, which also contains the full official rules. Giveaway is open to residents of the continental US aged 18+ and ends January 30th, 2014 at 11:00 PM PST – sorry, no P.O. Boxes.
Your mother probably warned you about playing with your food, but sometimes it can be a good thing – at least when Twinkies and prizes are involved! Now through January 5th, 2014, Hostess is challenging you to decorate your Twinkies to look like the little minions from Despicable Me. You can download their sheet of printable cut-outs and decorate your Twinkie like a paper doll, or come up with your own design using frosting or other creative materials. Why would I do this?, you ask? Well, besides using up all those Twinkies you stockpiled last year, you can also enter to win some pretty sweet prizes! Uploading a photo of your decked-out Twinkie will qualify you for daily Despicable Me 2 Blu-ray drawings as well as the grand prize of a home theater system complete with a 30-disc Blu-ray collection and a year’s supply of Hostess products. To enter, visit the Hostess Facebook page and click on the Twinkie Minion Makeover tab.
Do you play with your food?
