fish baked in salt from jamie oliver

sometimes its the simplest meals, like this fish baked in salt recipe from Jamie Oliver. I've always had mixed emotions about Jamie Oliver - on the one hand i can never really tell if he is for real, but on the other hand, he puts out some great recipes with simple flavors that pack a punch and are easy for the home chef to prepare. i do love the entire concept of cooking in salt - so easy, yet so good.

how to make a bacon explosion

i've been a very, very bad blogger. even though i still cook a lot, eat out, stay up on the latest food news, and love love love food, i have been extremely bad about keeping up with sharing it all on codcheeks. i am hoping to change all that and i figured if i was going to have a grand re-opening, i needed to do something big.

this brings us to the bacon explosion, a culinary delight i read about in the ny times and found more information about at the bbq addicts website. my dad and i did a lot of prep work over the last six months to get ourselves mentally ready to perform this task, and it call came together this past 4th of july. of course we taped the entire process, and even after some serious editing, it still comes out to about 20 minutes of video, albeit one that is all about bacon, sausage, bbq sauce, and bloody marys. if you have the time, and love pork in all its forms, you can check the video out here.

if you don't have the 20 minutes to spare, below are a before and after picture of the bacony goodness. we ate this well after the rest of the meal was done, so it really qualified as dessert, and it was pretty much the best dessert ever.

thanksgiving 2008 menu

i haven't been cooking as much as i would like the past few months and what little cooking i have been doing, i haven't been writing about. thanksgiving has me pretty motivated though, so the goal is to try to catalog my thanksgiving kitchen escapades and get codcheeks back on track!

i spent the last few days deciding on a menu for thanksgiving and completed it, as well as my shopping list, a few minutes ago. any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated! i can't wait to hit whole foods tomorrow at get started.

the jacksons thanksgiving 2008 menu:

• roast turkey
• bread and sausage stuffing
• black truffle butter and white wine gravy
• cranberry tangerine conserve
• cider glazed carrots
• haricots vert with herb butter
• olive oil mashed potatoes
• roasted sweet potato rounds with garlic oil and fried sage
• apple-gruyère pie
• classic pumpkin pie

how am i going to sleep tonight??

Farmers' Markets in Louisville, Kentucky

Since Brendan is taking a break from food blogging, I decided to step-in with an update. We are now entering summer-time in Louisville. It has been lovely so far, not too humid or hot (except for a couple of weeks in late May).

We discovered that Louisville has a few farmers markets during the growing season. Great guide to local farmers market locations can be found here. The first couple visits to the Highlands market were disappointing in terms of produce, as there was only one vendor there selling green vegetables. The situation is improving now as more and more fruits and vegetables are ripening. What a different experience it is to be in a state with four seasons, where one has to wait for the fresh veggies rather then expect them all year round like we did in San Francisco. I have to say, it makes waiting for the spring that much more exciting!

The market had several meat and dairy vendors. We loved to see that, especially that the meat farmers were willing to take special orders for hanger steaks (oh, how we miss the Golden Gate Meats...).

Yesterday, I took advantage of the farmers market chicken and leaks and made a vegetable/leak infused soup. It came out fantastic. First, I made chicken stock. Once that was complete, I melted some butter at the bottom of a stock pan and added chopped up leaks, onion, carrots, baby buck-choy (pretty much whatever vegetable I could find in the fridge). I let the veggies get nice and buttery and soft. Added salt, pepper and some paprika to make things spicy. Then I added some of the chicken stock and let the whole thing cook for a while. After about an hour, I put the veggies and some stock in a food processor only to pulse for a bit (so it wouldn't become baby food). Then I poured back into the pan with remaining stock. I let the whole thing simmer for a bit longer, added additional spice to taste and voila! We had a wonderful spring/summer soup with chicken and toast for dinner. I just ate some tonight and have to say it was even better the second day!

now with more salt!

i could list a dozen excuses for why this site for all things food has floundered and then come to a grinding halt over the past few months, but who cares really?! it's time to move forward and start writing about food again!

i'm been thinking about getting back on the horse for a few months, and then yesterday my friend alex linked to this site from his site (check it out at www.thehungryfrenchman.com - i can attest to the fact that he is french and hungry!), and i was embarrassed about how long it had been since i had posted. so here we are. . . .

for those of you who don't know, i am no longer in san francisco. . . but it's ok. we moved to louisville, kentucky, and so far, so good! so now that i am situated and settled, and spring is upon us, and the farmers markets are ready to open, its time to start cooking, sampling, dining, and writing again. i've discovered some great southern cooking items and recipes that i'll start to share as well as anything interesting happening in kitchens around town, or the kitchen in my house (ye, when you move to kentucky you get to buy a house!).

i think my first dispatch from the bluegrass state will be about country ham. . .stay tuned.

Mango's - South Beach, Miami, FL - Guest Writer

Since the Man on the Street is happily married and when he travels for work, he rarely heads out to any restaurants and simply gets room service. However, when I was in Miami a month or so ago, my colleagues happened to head out to great restaurant in South Beach. I suggested that Matt write up a review of Mango's in South Beach. Here it is:

Sandwiched between a Caribbean breeze and the Vice-like neon glow a few friends and I strolled without plans down the famous Ocean Avenue of South Beach, Miami. A single truth, or what was once believed, shared among the trio of software salesman was that we were starved from eight hours of meetings and banquet food that was as attractive as pastel sport-coats and white pants worn anywhere outside of Miami. We needed a meal and cocktail that would be Miami-like, in order to return home to the January cold of the Bay Area and actually feel like we returned home from some place tropical.

Dropped off at the mouth of Ocean Avenue, we began to work ourselves through the heart of South Beach. While my two amigos may have felt more like Crockett and Tubbs, I felt more like the thug from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City preparing to forcefully hop into a powder blue caddy, incite a riot, and elude the police for hours. Consumed by the ocean air, neon glow, and Donatella Versace wannabe’s we strolled in search of cuisine perfect for the night. Walking among sidewalk diners and freshly legal temptresses spouting discounted meals and free bottles of wine for our business, our options seemed all to abundant and never-ending, however we would soon find they were not.

Ironically, the restaurant that captured our business and attention did not have a single discount to offer, but instead offered us everything our imaginations told us about Miami. Quickly, we were lured into Mango’s by salsa music blasted at deafening levels as women danced on the bar wearing bikini tops and pants that seemed spray-painted on. I do not recall much about the food other than I ate without complaint. The Mojito’s tasted imported directly from Cuba and re-enforced my belief that I too, could dance salsa. Our waitress was a Cuban doll with a smile that said “Sure, I’ll have another,” and provided service that exceeded every expectation when she dropped off our lime-marinated steaks and jumped onto the bar for a routine that took our minds off of the dinner we ordered and the negotiations training we previously went through with the alpha-female. The teamwork by the staff was admirable as everyone worked flawlessly keeping our attention. Another employee busting out of her top with spray-painted pants approached the table with test-tubes of booze, offering a unique, Miami way of taking a shot. Teased and straddled I had the best shot of my life and could not recall, for the life of me, what it was. For any guy within a five-hundred mile radius of South Beach, Mango’s is a must stop. Thirty-six pictures, four Mojito’s, and a satisfied appetite ( among other things) later, I walked out of Mango’s a giggly teenager, having seen everything I ever dreamed Miami of being.

So there you have it. It sounds awesome. I wish I would have gone out too, but the Man on the Street stayed home with my warm milk watching Matlock.

authentic italian episode #2: lamb and fennel stew

so i thought i would be doing one of these authentic italian posts a week, but reality has set in, so, after a delay of too many weeks, here is the only the second post. . . i would love to say there are more to some soon, but i don't want to lie anymore. . . well maybe a little more. . . so many more posts to come!!!

i was looking to make something quick and easy for some friends who were coming to watch football, as well as something seasonal, and this recipe just jumped out at me. it couldn't have been easier: brown the lamb, add some chopped onion, some DOP tomatoes, let it cook for about 10 minutes, add some chopped fennel, cover, and let cook for about 90 minutes - add some water if necessary along the way. simple recipe, basic ingredients, and it turned out great. i cooked some nice curly pasta as well and served it in big bowls.

the key of course is getting the best ingredients, and the guys at golden gate meats didn't disappoint. i went in on friday to and asked for some lamb stew meat and came back saturday to a big package of beautiful lamb. i did make a big rookie mistake thought - i wasn’t thinking and put all the lamb in the pan to brown at one time - it let out tons of moisture, lowered the overall heat, and suddenly i had gray meat. i stopped - pulled all the lamb out, got a second pan, and browned them in that pan in batches, then adding it back into the main pan where all the juices had already accumulated. slow and steady wins the race. it does go to show that it's tough to ruin a simple recipe, and that sometimes it easy to forget the basics.

some more photos below (i'm still trying to improve my food photography, so bear with me - you can see the whole set here):


overcrowding the pan


halfway there


dinner is served