It's game time. The surround sound is on the beers are cooling and the bets are all in. Its the end of March Madness and you invited your old college buddies to your man cave to watch the championships. You've even dusted off your college sweater. Now all that's missing is the food. You wander into the kitchen to bring the snacks out. You return with the mediocrity that is store bought chips, hot wings that scorch taste buds and a couple of pizza boxes. The game is horrible and your friends are left with nothing else to do but talk about how the game should have been and your food sits there untouched and forgotten.
Its hard to stray from the common foods that seem to pop up at every sports event, like that obnoxious Friend of your friend that is never really invited but finds himself on your couch game day. Lets be honest we love pizza and chips and wings they're easy to eat with one hand allowing you to use the other to make obscene gestures at the TV. Why cant we have them ate out gatherings and actually enjoy the way they taste. So i did my research and came up with some recipes for game day,The final four if your will....
Wings(Duke):The favorite to take it. Very consistent yet bold with their high-flying showmanship. In the past they've brought the heat to the table causing the competition to be left on the side line. But with all the hype, can they keep the heat or will they come up short and snap under pressure?
PG-<Spicy Buffalo>
C<Garlic Chipotle>
SF<Sticky Asian Wings>
PF<Bourbon wings>
SG<Lemon Garlic Pepper>
Pizza(Michigan state):The people's choice. They've managed to slice through the competition and come up on top before. Known for their unity as a team and each player's ability to stand alone.This could be their year. If they manage to keep it together, it should be no problem to deliver.
PG<Spicy Mexican>
C<Meat lovers>
SF<Veggie chicken>
PF<Hawaiian style>
SG<Gorgonzola and rosemary>
Burgers(West Virginia):A lot of people are on the fence about this one. But one things for certain even throughout the beef and the constant grilling they stayed together. On some days, they come off greasy and burned out but they may be a chance for them to get a grip and last to the end. Significantly bigger than the competition it's just a matter of timing and technique.
PG<Smash Burger>
C<Lamb Sliders>
SF<Bacon and gorgonzola stuffed burger>
PF<Aloha Burger>
SG<Grilled Chopped steak>
Chips N Dip
PG<Nachos>
C<Spinach Artichoke Dip>
SF<Southwestern Layered Bean Dip>
PF<Guacamole>
SG<Homemade Potato chips>
My race affects my education, which affects my living condition my living condition affects the food available to me, the food available to me affects my health, which determines my life expectancy, All in all, as a minority I have no chance......
With the current economic situation, many Brooklynites are slowly being forced out as the growing number of manhatanites are migrating to the outer boroughs. As I sit here in the office with A view of the Empire State Building it’s a reccurring thought on how this will affect me and someday my children. When you look at the facts, the chances of me affording to move back into my old neighborhood in Clinton Hills Brooklyn are unlikely. While it was an upcoming black community when I lived there, it has been transformed into a resting ground for the small dog carrying, organic munching, young Caucasian that now roam the streets. While I'm happy the neighborhood is starting to grow into a diverse community, I'm a little pissed off that in order for healthy food options, better education, and overall better living conditions, the rich had to move in.
I currently reside in Mariners Harbor, in Staten Island, where the closest supermarket is a Western Beef about 8 bus stops down. I have to travel pass the projects catch a bus and walk few blocks to buy "fresh" produce. The fruits are never organic, the meat fed things other than grass, and the aisles filled with fatty sugar-loaded snacks. In the time it takes for me to make a round trip, I can walk to the fried chicken spot 2 blocks away from my house and buy a twelve piece bucket with fries for half the price and eat it all. By sacrificing nutrition for convenience, I'm shorting my life expectancy. I read an article that clarified my day to day struggle. I started noticing things. In the bodega, where I order my sandwiches and buy my snacks that there were no healthy alternatives. After speaking to my mentor at my internship, I was informed that it was purposely done this way so that the products that sell the most are more accessible. And more times than not, these items are not the healthiest choices. When I walk into a store in neighborhoods where African-Americans are the minority, I find the opposite. It all suddenly became clear that due to my socio-economic status, I was at a severe disadvantage and my chances at moving up the ladder of success was crippled because of the food I eat.
I started looking into test scores of students in neighborhoods that were abundant in organic, fair trade and fresh produce suppliers. I compared them to the test scores of the kids in Brownsville, where the super market, was in poor shape. The well-off kids beat them by a landslide. With the cost of living in Brooklyn slowly climbing, it won’t be long until the lower class are slowly pushed out making distance to healthy foods available further and further away with each passing year.
Although this is thoroughly depressing i refuse to let it become a hurdle. Ive slowly been educatiin my freinds and family on the benifits of organic food. And although we have to travel a little extra to get better ingedients it will pay off in the end.
It started at birth. From the moment the milk entered my mouth I felt a connection. The spoon had been sitting over the fire for nine long months, the nipple just served as the syringe. By the age of 13 I had developed a pallet of a king. My mind snatched away at the very smell of food. My heart skipped a beat, butterflies swarmed my abdomen, her skin smooth and blemish free. I grasped her, using my hands to explore the curves, awaiting the moist rouge flesh that slumbered inside craving the tangy taste on my starving buds. My grapefruit stirred emotions in me. Like a chef who masterfully whisked lust and guilt into heart stopping milliseconds.
Popping my Organic cherry
It was awkward the first time. I had ventured inside confident of my shopping ability but unsure of how I would be received. In search of sweets I ventured deep inside determined to come out victorious. I was in whole foods and for the first time ever I was lost in a super market. Previously that week I went to Trader Joe's on an intern mission to fetch nuts and Cliff bars to satiate our hunger throughout the day. I figured that all markets would be the same I would enter find my organic free trade morsel and be taken care of by a sincerely polite cashier.
My experience was the total opposite I mean sure I found the chocolate and I paid a pretty decent price but the fellow shoppers treated me as if I should be mopping the floors instead of standing beside them debating if I should buy the local fruits of the organic ones flown in from the west coast. To top it all off as I stood on the line and watched in confusion as the cashiers called the next guest I was abruptly told by a fellow shopper that I cut the line I looked at her as if she was crazy and told her that I had been on this line for 5minutes and that she was supposed to be in the other line. The man behind me with a smile on his face told me I was to look up at the monitor suspended above us and then wait until my color flashed with the cashier’s number. I quickly went through a cycle of emotions starting with embarrassment then anger ending with envy because in spite of my confusion the idea was efficient once fully understood.
I recently returned, though I vowed never to, and found that I enjoyed myself. Now that I was comfortable with my surroundings I swaggered down the aisles greeting the other customers, concocting recipes in my head, relishing in the abundance of such fresh ingredients. I thought to myself that I'm lucky to have found such a place at a young age, at the pivotal point on my culinary journey.
Chocolate, oh love of mine....
Chocolate has always held a place on my pallet. Always comforting and sweet, or dark and bitter when I felt adventurous, my very own culinary girlfriend. In all it was more like a school crush, Chocolate was the popular girl in the class and as much as I liked her, I never got to know her. Her Friends always got in the way
of her true potential, every time i approached her, peanut butter or caramel interrupted and let's not forget but the other nuts she hung around with.Once I reached high school and started to come out of my culinary shell, I noticed her again. It had been a while since we last spoke because she started to get too
clingy always popping up at every holiday,dressed as a hersheys kiss hiding in my easter basket sleeping in my chrismas stocking, pushing herself upon me. Then one day we came across each other in the supermarket.I hardly recognized her.She was free of all her impurities and alone.
I found that she was prone to mood swings the less i knew about her the sweeter
she became when i received more content from her she turned bitter and dark. In such an intimate setting, it wasn't long before I started to unwrap her, break her down, really dive deep into her past. She had traveled the world separated from her parents in Africa and shipped to Europe after she matured. There she went through
many changes when she was adopted by the Swiss, blossoming into one of the most popular girls around. She tells me of her ancestors who came from deep in the jungles of south America and were often requested by the kings and queens of the land and cherished by the common folk. We grow closer as I learned more of her life
like how she came to north America and ended up in so many homes how she inspired many faux cocoa candies and how her home is being ravaged by farmers. The poison that is fame has created a high demand for her, leading to children being forced to work in order to finance her travels.
Its hard for me to swallow, getting this close and seeing her in this raw form was a shock. We part ways. Our most recent encounter more than enough to tie me over. I promise her we'd meet again hopefully under
sweeter circumstances. As I walk toward the kitchen I see my little brother holding a snickers in his hand I ask for a piece, actually happy that she kept in contact with those nuts all these years.
To start the week of right ill start your morning off with a delicious chocolate breakast for more chocolate breakfast treats click the link at the bottom of the recipie enjoy
Chocolate Drizzle Banana French Toast
(5 servings)
4 eggs
2 cup whipping cream
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp orange zest
2 day-old white bread -- 1-1/2 to 2 inches thick
1 large banana -- mashed
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp semisweet chocolate
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Whisk together eggs, cream, spices and orange zest.
Slice bread in half horizontally without cutting all the way through the whole slice of bread. Stuff each pocket with half the mashed banana.
Heat your skillet over medium heat. Melt butter to cover bottom of your pan.
Dip bread slices into egg mixture, generously coating each piece.
Place in your skillet and fry until browned. Flip over and brown other side. Remove from your pan and place in your oven for 10 minutes.
Melt chocolate in a double boiler.
Remove French toast from oven. Cut each piece of French toast on the diagonal and drizzle melted semisweet chocolate over them.
Dust French toast with icing sugar and serve with fruit slices as garnish. A single sprig of mint atop each serving is the perfect kiss of love.
This delicious treat works as either as breakfast or desert. Can you imagine having chocolate for breakfast every morning? I can!
Have a great breakfast! Or desert! It works both ways!
Teen Wolf Teddy would like to thank Mr Breakfast for this recipe
Reinventing school food
It's 5Th period and my stomach has been whispering to me all day.The minute hand slowly treks around the clock allowing for the hunger to settle in. As the bell rings and the mad dash to the cafeteria begins, a wave of energy crashes my body's nervous system, allowing for a semi-instantaneous transmission to the front of the lunch line. I enter my ID number and pick up a tray. I'm greeted by a sloppily assembled sandwich, suffocating in a plastic wrap prison. I sit down, disappointed by the meal I am forced to consume. Putting my better judgement aside, I take a bite and allow my dignity to slide down my esophagus.
In the decade that I've maneuvered through the public school system I've had my fair share of both good and bad experiences with school food. In elementary, pizza and tater tots were the epitome of gourmet dining. In Middle School the black cloud of embarrassment would hang over my head if I dared step foot in the lunch room. When I arrived to Food and Fiance i was surprised to see that the premiere culinary arts High School in NYC served their students sloppy Joes. I mean for crying out loud the Stuyvesant kids get a bridge couldn't we at least get Emeril Lagasse inspired pastas? After a while, I just stopped venturing into the cafeteria, finding it more filling to hang out in the library or the hallways.
One day I was short on cash and my hunger and discomfort were doing a weird tango in my stomach. I stood on line vaguely recalling my validation code issued in freshman year. I picked up my tray and was served a grilled chicken sandwich I added a generous portion of salad from the salad bar and grabbed a tangerine.Then it hit me, why not create my own grilled chicken salad? I had all the ingredients in front of me, why not experiment? And since then, I've been transforming the daily blah school menu into something exciting and fresh, simple gourmet.
Breakfast
School breakfast usually doesn't have that many defects. It's fairly simple; you get eggs AND bacon, cereal, the occasional pancakes or a bagel. This was the easiest to spruce up because it generally doesn't require any outside ingredients. With cereal you can get a serving of dairy grains and fruit by adding banana slices to your cereal. If you bring nuts from home, like walnuts, you can get protein as well. If you have a few dollars to spare, you can buy some fresh strawberries to substitute the banana. You could also go for a cream cheese bagel and add slices of strawberries to it and have a whole new experience.
Lunch
With the left over strawberries and nuts, you can take a boring grilled chicken and salad bar combo and make a fresh spring salad. Slice the berries and roughly crush the walnuts (or almonds) toss them into the salad and shred the chicken on top. If you have time at home and if you don't mind carrying it around with you, make a raspberry vinaigrette. Most schools always have a salad bar, so its less of a guess and check and a little goes a long way.
With the omnipresent hamburger and fries you can concoct your own special sauce with the packaged condiments that they offer or like the vinaigrette, bring a small container of a homemade version.
All it take is a little creativity, initiative and resourcefulness and you can chef up a delicious meal with the ingredients offered to you in the cafeteria. Now only if we can get our own bridge....
What makes a burger good.
There's a certain mystique behind the beloved burger.what separates your home made concoction from the ones served up at shake shack, in & out, even my personal favorite five guys. On average, Americans consume about a hundred fifty million tons of burger a year. The burger is the paragon of the fast food success story from the common man's meal to an international sensation. But what exactly makes a burger so good?.
Good burgers come from great cows
To raise a perfect bovine for consumption you need two things, a cow and a food source, Now with the current debate between grain VS grass fed cows, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration.Grass fed cows provide a more lean healthy beef, up to 17,773 calories can be avoided annually by switching to grass fed.By natural methods of breeding and ranching, your final product will undoubtedly be tastier and healthier by far.
Meat-in the standards
Use fresh ground beef not those frozen hockey pucks they sell next to the Eggo's in the supermarket.Use a sirloin brisket and chuck mixture to provide texture & flavor to your patties.season your meat lightly with just salt and pepper, u don't want to overpower the flavor of the beef.
When cooking the pattie keep the heat controlled. You don't want to burn the beef and u don't want it sitting on the grill in the pan too long. using minimal oil provide's for a nice crispy crust of beef, Building that texture base for.....
The bun; always toast lightly u will be able to tell the difference.
The cheese should be added to complement your beef and bun. not hide it. The cheese should melt well, give a little tangy punch and that funky flavor.
Vegetation all depends on your personal preference but you want to complement the beef.Tomatoes add fresh juicy taste, pickles give crunchy sour and onions add a savory component.
Beef is the base, Pork is perfection
Adding bacon has no downside It generally makes everything taste better
The sauce is no secret
This is really optional honestly i don't like sauce on my burgers for the most part, but on that rare occasion that i do, add sauce i make my own. just experiment until you find what suits your taste buds best. Here's a recipe so you can use it as a guide.
Mayo+Ketchup+Garlic+Black pepper+Brown sugar and crushed red pepper flakes The Mayo- Ketchup-mustard ratio should be 2:1:1 with everything else added to taste.
Well there you have it follow these directions to build the a delicious burger that will blow your Friends out of the water Fresh ingredients and a little love goes a long way. check out this guide to making a shake shack burger in your very own home no more long lines.
