Anniversary Cherry Pie

Check out the cherry pie my wife made me for our 6 year anniversary!

It tasted even better than it looks. I can't bake a lick, so I'll try to get Brooke to post the recipe. It was one of the best gifts I've ever gotten!

Big n' Rich Mushroom Papardelle

Pappardelle with Asparagus, Porcini and Chanterelle Mushrooms, Pancetta, Speck and Marscapone Cheese.

WARNING: THIS IS A MANLY PASTA. IT'S RICH, IT'S HEAVY AND NIIIICE.

What you need:

Fresh pappardelle pasta
Two, large, fresh (not dried) Porcini Mushrooms
A handful of small Chanterelles (a cup's worth) or one large sliced up
Six asparagus stocks
Six slices of Pancetta or better yet a 2"x2" hunk (cubed)
Four strips of Speck - or a 2"x2" hunk (cubed)
One clove of garlic
Marscapone Cheese
Parmesan
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

I've been on a mushroom kick lately. I shop for my veggies at the Pacific Palisades Farmer's Market (8-1 on Sundays) and a few months ago, this mushroom guy showed up with the most incredible looking mushrooms I've ever seen -- Chanterelles bigger than your fist, huge fresh Porcinis, Shitakes, Maitakes, Morels, and a ton of mushrooms I'd never even heard of, like: Blue Foots, Yellow Foots, Candy Caps, Maitakes, Enokis etc. There's a whole, beautiful world of fungus out there that I'd never discovered and I started playing around and discovering all of their different flavors. Here's the chanterelles and porcinis I bought Sunday:


Jamie Oliver has an incredible recipe for wild mushroom pasta that is an absolute killer, and the best part is that it's the easiest pasta I've ever made. It can be done in under 5 minutes, seriously. The recipe is here and I suggest checking it out some time: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jamie-oliver/pappardelle-with-mixed-wild-mushrooms-recipe/index.html

I made it so many time in the past few months that I got a little burned out on it, so I decided to make another mushroom pasta with whatever I had in the fridge last night and this is what I came up with...

First off, cut up your pancetta and speck. If you have hunks, cube it small. If you have slices, just roughly chop them up. I like to roll the slices up, then cut them into strips, then cut the strips in half.

Get a pan going on high, and put in your pancetta and speck and drizzle with a little olive oil -- just a little, because the fat is going to start rendering in the pan and you don't want it to get too greasy. Cook for about 3 mins.

Now start some water boiling. Add salt and some olive oil.

Slice up your porcinis and chanterelles - I'm not super picky about how I do it. I may leave some small chanterelles whole, halve bigger ones, and make nice slices of huge ones. the goal is to keep them all roughly the same thickness so they cook evenly.

By now, your pancetta and speck should be starting to turn golden, so toss in the mushrooms, add salt and papper and let cook for about 3 min. Be light on the salt -- pancetta and speck are salted meats and will release salt into the dish. I've definitely over-salted things in the past when cooking with pancetta, so be mindful. You can always add more.

Finely slice up your garlic, turn the heat down to medium-high and add to the pan. Then give your asparagus a quick rinse, then quickly chop into 1" pieces. Add them to the pan.

At this point, your water should be boiling, so add your Papardelle and cook for 3 minutes -- err to the side of undercooking. Fresh pasta cooks fast and will continue to cook after it's out of the water. When the pasta is done, strain and add it into the pan. Turn the heat down to low and spoon in two tablespoons of marscapone. Mix and toss the pasta well -- the marscapone should melt and create a thin, creamy coating on everything.

Serve in a bowl, sprinkle on some parmesan cheese, maybe drizzle some fine olive oil over the top, add a pinch of pepper and get ready for a decadent meal! I suggest drinking a nice dry white wine with this to cut the fat and watching World Cup Highlights to sooth the mind. That's what I did anyway.

Enjoy!

Alex's Roast Chicken with Roasted Fennel and Beets

So "me main man" Alex, who helped raise my chefing game, recently had us over for dinner and made the absolute best roast chicken that I've ever had. I tried to emulate his recipe the other night and unfortunately, it wasn't quite as good. Don't get me wrong, it was good -- but not the new "best ever".

The chicken you see here was dinner on Sunday, though I forgot to take a picture before we dug in! So it's not quite as good looking as it once was, but you get the idea.

Roasting chicken is good times, because again, it's easy and it looks cool. When you put that golden bird on the table surrounded by roasted veggies, it just looks badass. By now you;re probably sensing a theme here. Easy food that looks good is what I'm all about. I may get adventurous once in awhile and break out the Top Chef cookbook -- but for the most part, I keep it simple.

So, here's what you need:

1 whole chicken
4 slices of pancetta
4 slices of speck, if you can get it
6 large beets
2 large fennel bulbs
1 large bunch of rosemary
1 large bunch of thyme
1 lemon
salt, pepper and olive oil.
2 roasting pans

Side note -- make sure you get yourself a nice organic chicken. I've heard that smaller ones are more succulent, so you may try to stick to one that's about 4lbs. I think part of the reason Alex's chicken was better was that he had bought it fresh from the farmer's market that day -- it had been killed that morning. Talk about fresh!

Another side note - Speck. I was introduced to the beautiful meat by Alex a few months ago and since then I have been totally obsessed with it. "Speck is a distinctively juniper-flavored ham originally from Tyrol, a historical region that since 1918 partially lies in Austria and partially in Italy." And it's been around for at least 800 years. For those of you who live in LA, I get my speck at Guidi Marcello on 10th in Santa Monica. It's wonderfully smokey and gives an intense and distinct flavor when you cook with it.

First set your oven to 350. Then cut off the beet greens, put them in a plastic bag and put them back in the fridge for another day. A lot of people throw away beet greens, which is a big mistake. They're really tasty! Now, scrub your beets under cold water with a firm brush. When roasting, I don't recommend peeling them. They cook better with the skin on and that's where all the nutrients are so get a clean brush or one of those green scouring type pads (not a brillo!) and scrub your beets until they're nice, clean and crimson.

Now, break out your cutting board, sharpen up your knife and cut the beets into eighths. Put the beets into a mixing bowl, drizzle on some olive oil -- enough to evenly coat them. Add salt, pepper and mix with your hands. Then put the beets onto a cooking sheet and stick in the oven. Set your timer for 30mins. When it goes off, take your beats out and give them a stir with a wooden spoon, then put them back in for another 30 mins. They should take an hour, but keep an eye on them. They should be soft to a fork, but not totally shriveled up!

Next, quarter your fennel and put into your other roasting pan. Drizzle some olive oil over the top of the fennel. Then rinse your chicken under cold water and pat dry. Now, take your index finger and slide it underneath the skin that covers the breast of the chicken -- be careful not to tear the skin. Slowly work you finger under the skin to create some space -- a little pocket of room over the breast where you'll be able to stash some goodies to season it. Repeat on the other breast.

Now take a slice of your speck or pancetta and slide it under the skin and cover the breast. You don't have to be exact or anything, but do your best to have it evenly cover the breast. Put two slices of speck and two slices on pancetta under the skin on either side. This will do two things - 1. season your breast with beautiful flavor and 2. help keep the breast moist. Take a couple of rosemary sprigs and some of your thyme and sneak it under the skin too.

Now, take your knife and slice the skin between the leg and the chicken. Take 2 more slices of speck and two more pacetta, roll them up and stick them into the cuts you created on either side to season the leg and thigh. Put a couple more sprigs of rosemary and thyme in each cut as well.

Now, generously rub your bird with salt -- inside and out. Then take your remaining rosemary and thyme and stuff it into the cavity. Now take your lemon, slice in half, stuff it inside the cavity and give it a squeeze. Put both halves of the lemon in if you can. Now stitch the cavity up with cooking string or cooking pins, and tie the legs together.

Last, evenly rub olive oil over the outside of the whole bird and put into the roasting pan. Try to make a little bed for your chicken with the fennel - so the bird is right on top of it. This way, the jus from the chicken will drip right into the fennel.

Last, and this is optional, put 1 cup of white wine into the roasting pan. This will help to caramelize your fennel and give a nice aroma to the chicken. Put the roasting pan in the oven and cook your chicken about 15 minutes per lb - so a four pound bird should take an hour. I usually pull my chicken out twice to see how it's cooking and to baste it with the juices in the bottom of the pan.

If you have a meat thermometer, the temperature to serve the chicken should be about 165 when taken from the joint between the thigh and the body. And monitor the chicken every 15-20 minutes to make sure the bird is browning, but not burning. if towards the end your bird is not fully cooked, but you like the level of browning on the chicken, just cover it with foil and stick it back in.

After about an hour, your chicken and beets should be ready to come out. Loosely cover the chicken with foil and let it stand for 10 minutes. If you try and carve a hot bird, you will massacre it.

After letting it rest, carve and serve with the fennel and beets. Drizzle some jus over the chicken and fennel and you should be in business!

Hakuna Frittata

In The Lion King, when Simba meets up with Timon and Pumba, they teach him their secret to life: Hakuna Matata, which means "No Worries". And a Frittata is exactly that, a no worries, delicious breakfast, that's sure to impress.

What's great about a frittata is that they look a lot harder to make than they really are, and when you present the dish, you look like a pro. A frittata has the exact same ingredients as a scrambled egg dish or an omelet, but it's presentation blows both of them away. And best of all - it's simple!

What you'll need (Serves 2):

8" non-stick or well oiled pan
Oven - set to broil
4 Eggs
Milk
2 Sausages of your choice - I'm using an Italian fennel sausage
1/2 a yellow onion
1 tomato
Gruyere cheese
Small handul of spinach
Small handful arugula
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil

Quick note about the pan size -- for 2-4 people, I use an 8" pan (my wife's sister and husband actually bought me a Calphalon fritatta pan after making them one), but you can use a 10" or even large if your going to use more eggs. For 2-4 people, an 8is nice because it makes your frittata nice and thick.

In terms of ingredients, this is just what I had in the fridge today, but really, you can make a great frittata with just about anything. I always like to have 1 meat, some onion, cheese, and a few different kinds of veg. Here I'm using spinach, arugula, tomato (really a fruit), but I could just as easily have asparagus, broccoli or whatever.

First off - turn on the oven to broil. Now, in a bowl, crack in your eggs add a glug of milk (like 1/4 cup), sprinkle in some salt and grind some pepper and whick the eggs until they're well beaten.

Next - get out a cutting board and slice up your sausages -- I usually cut them into 1/2 inch pieces. Put the sausages into your pan, put on high heat, add olive oil and start to brown. As the sausages begin to cook, slice up your half onion and tomato (I like to cut my tomato in big slices, then quarter each slice). When the sausages have some color on them, turn down to med-high heat and add the onions.

While the onions and sausages are sauteing (about 3 mins), give your spinach and arugula a quick rinse. Check on the pan -- if the onions look like they're getting nice and soft, add the arugula and spinach (if not keep cooking until they do). Add some salt and pepper to the pan and cook until the spinach and arugula STARTS wilting. Personally, I like my greens slightly underdone -- I find it gives better flavor.

Once the green are soft and have reduced in size so that they are manageable in the pan, turn the heat to med.-low and pour in your eggs. Let cook for about 3 minutes. The edges cook faster, so around the pan with a wooden spoon and push down on the more cooked eggs and let the uncooked portions in the center pour into the gaps you create. This will help to avoid having a runny center of your frittata. While you're monitoring your eggs cook, quickly grate about a cup of Gruyere.

After about 3 minutes, turn off the heat and place your sliced tomatoes on top. Next, evenly spead the Gruyere over the top. Now take the pan and put it in the oven for about 10 minutes -- or when the Gruyere starts to get a nice golden-brown crust on it. You'll see the frittata rise in the pan slightly as the eggs cook and get fluffy.

After about 10 mins, take the pan out of the oven and use a knife to press on the middle of the fritatta. I should feel pretty firm. If it is, let it sit for 2-3 minutes. If not, put it back in for a few more minutes. If the cheese is getting too brown, cover with foil before putting back in.

It's important to let it sit and cool -- this will make it easier to take out of the pan and easier to cut. You don't want this thing of beauty to fall apart on you! After you've let it rest, go around the edge of your pan with a knife and make sure the eggs aren't sticking to it. Get out a cutting board, take your pan and tilt it, using the knife to gently pry and slide the frittata onto the board. Let sit for another 2 mins, then slice, serve and enjoy!

Hakuna Frittata!

Classy Poached Egg on Toast - Less than 15 Minutes

Do you know the #1 reason why food in restaurants is better? Because they're better chefs? Because they have the best cooking gear? Because they prep for hours and hours? No, none of the above.

The reason why their food tastes better is because they use THE BEST INGREDIENTS. It's hard to build a Formula One race car out of junk parts or create a beautiful gown from terrible fabric. If you buy the best ingredients --- fresh, organic vegetables, fresh herbs, good pasta, spices, good cuts of organic meat, fine cheeses instead of Kraft etc., you will instantly raise your cooking game 1000%. Yes, you will pay a little more, but:

a) shopping will become an interesting, fun, educational experience.
b) your food will be much healthier.
c) the process will be much faster because you don't need to cook and season the hell out of your food for it to taste good.
c) your food will taste like the bombzo.

I'll get more into ingredients later, but to prove the point, here's what I made for breakfast today, which was really simple, fast, healthy and only took me 10 minutes.

Poached Egg on an English Muffin, with Pancetta, Arugula and Parmesan

What you'll need:
1 egg
poacher (can use microwave if you don't have one)
6 leaves of fresh organic arugula, rinsed.
1 slice of nice pancetta
fresh grated parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper

Add an inch of water to your poacher, drizzle a little olive oil into the one of the poaching cups so your eggs don't stick, and crack in your egg. Put a pinch of salt and grind some pepper over the raw egg. Crank the stove up to high and put the top on.

If you don't have a poacher, crack your egg into a small, microwaveable sauce dish (little white ceramic guys are perfect for one egg). If you don't have one of those, use a coffee mug - just make sure you put just a little olive oil in the bottom and smear it around with your fingers so your egg doesn't stick. Microwave in 20 second intervals until the egg is cooked to your liking. You can push on the center with your finger to feel how firm the yolk is getting.

While your egg is steaming, get your toast into your toaster or toaster oven if you have one.

**A little trick for toast when your making an egg sandwich type deal. You want your muffin to have some crisp on the outside, but fluffy on the inside -- and to be able to cut it with a knife with relative ease. If my bread isn't totally fresh, I'll dab a little water on the muffin (bottom and top) and toss it in the microwave for 15 seconds or so, until the bread is soft and moist. Then I put it in the toaster. This will make the bread crispy, yet soft and easy to eat under your egg, instead of a bulletproof rock.

While the bread is toasting, take your arugula and give it a quick rinse under the sink. Put it on a paper towel and pat it dry.

Check on your egg -- turn the range down to medium-high heat so you can control the cooking speed better. Push on the yolk with a butter knife or your finger. I like mine with a soft-boiled yolk, so I cook until it's medium firm. It's a feel thing, and don't worry if you over cook it or under cook it, it's going to be good either way. After a couple of times, you'll get the timing right.

Check on the toast -- when the top starts to look nice and golden, open up the toaster oven if you have one, put the slice of pancetta on top and set the oven to broil. This will get the pancetta nice and warm and get the fat to start to soak into the toast. If you just have a toaster, Fuhhgeddabowdit! The pancetta will taste just fine without being warmed.

By now, your egg should be done and you're ready to rock and roll!

Turn off the heat on the stove and take the top off the poacher. Then take your toast out of the oven and put on a plate. Grab the arugula and place it on top of the pancetta. Take the egg-poaching cup out of the pan, grab a butter knife and go around the edges to make sure the egg doesn't stick, then slide that puppy on top of your bed of arugula. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on the top, and finish by drizzling some olive oil on top (that's for you Jamie O.).

That, right there, is about as good of an egg dish as you're gonna get anywhere and it can be done in under 15 minutes! And, it should look beautiful as well.

Note - this picture is lacking the parmesan cheese.

Until next time.

Intro

I've always loved cooking. I started cooking creative scrambled eggs for myself when I was about 7, because on the weekends, while my parents were sleeping in, I would get up super early to watch all the cartoons (GI Joe, Transformers, Smurfs, Gummy Bears...dare I say Gem? Hey, I had sisters...anyway, you name it, I watched it) -- and during the hours and hours of TV with no parents around to feed me, I got hungry! I got bored of cereal and there was nothing good to microwave for breakfast, so I decided I needed to take matters into my own hands...

My first creation was scrambled eggs with onions, a meat (hot dogs, salami, ham, whatever mom had in the fridge), cheese and salsa. I would sautee the meat with the onions, crack in the eggs, scramble them around, add cheese and finish with some Pace Picante. They were damn tasty for a 7 year old, and I got trremendous satisfaction from the fact that I had made them myself. I also became a hit with my firends, for whenever we had sleepovers, I would cook everyone breakfast!

As I got older, weekend breakfast became a staple routine for my father and I. We had competitions on who could cook the best scramble combo. My dad used to always say, without fail, that whatever he was eating at the time was the "best ever", so no one ever really won or lost. After eggs, my dad taught me how to properly grill a steak (filet), and make some killer sauteed mushrooms. So those became my two go-to dishes. Scrambled eggs in the morning, and if necessary, a steak dinner. Those two dishes got me by until college. I couldn't really cook, but i could do two things well, which was all you really needed to impress the guys or cook dinner for a girl.

While I was in college, I spent a summer living with a guy, Alex, who grew up in Milan and really knew how to cook. Today he's one of my best friends and God-Father to my daughter. Alex is a true renaissance man, and from him, I've learned a tremendous amount about the finer things in life -- Art, Music, Wine and especially food. Because of Alex, food and cooking became a hobby of mine and it's one of the things that's given me great joy in my adult life.

So why the hell am I writing a blog?

Good question. The reason is that most people I know love good food. Who doesn't? And many people I know love watching cooking shows like Top Chef or Hell's Kitchen and yet, they don't cook themselves. Why? One simple reason: they're intimidated. Even if they have a cookbook and are following a recipe, they are intimidated. And because they are nervous about cooking, when they try, they're so worried about screwing up and what people will think when they taste their food that they don't have any fun and therefore just say "forget it". Or they say, "Oh, I'm going to go to cooking school so I can really learn how to do it right." Cooking school is wonderful, but let's face it -- 99% of the people who say they're going to go to cooking school never do. Even though most chefs and cookbooks tell people that anyone can cook, that it's easy, and provide things like "great receipes in 20 minutes or less" -- people who love good food still don't cook because they say, "Yeah, sure, 20 mins or less for YOU, a professional!"

Well, I'm not a chef. I'm just a regular guy with a job and a kid who likes to cook, and I'm here to tell you that it is easy. It is fun, and very satisfying to the mind, body and soul. There is nothing else you can do where you can be completely creative while providing essential nourishment for yourself and others. It's like painting a beautiful picture, and then getting to eat it! I'm here to share with you things that I cook on a daily, weekly, monthly basis and hopefully whoever reads my posts will get inspired to start cooking for themselves, friends, family and strangers.

Tyler