Italian Sausage and Vegetable Soup

I know spring has sprung over most of the country but our mild winter seems to drag on. In fact, it snowed just the other night at the ski resort and was below freezing here in town. As a result, we are still craving warm, filling meals. Whether it be lunch or dinner, this soup is great for warming up on a cold winter day. This is another one of those "throw it together" recipes.  For this soup, I use the vegetables and noodles I have on hand. Essentially, anything you prefer will do!

Italian Sausage and Vegetable Soup
ingredients

• 1 lbs sweet italian sausage
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 4 cups broth
• 12 oz frozen vegetable mix (mine had peas, lima beans, carrots, corn, okra, and potato)
• 14 oz can great northern beans, drained
• 1 cup dry pasta

directions

1. In a stockpot or Dutch Oven, brown sausage with minced garlic over medium heat. Stir in broth and vegetables. Reduce heat, and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. 
2. Stir in beans and noodles. Cover and simmer for another 15 minutes or until noodles are tender.
3. Season with salt and pepper to your liking and serve. 

Egg Chorizo Breakfast Skillet

In a time where everyone is all about Paleo this, Whole Foods that, and any number of other diets, we are still all about home cooking like our grandmas'. Simply put we will probably never be on those diets. Berkeley enjoys sugar, meat, gluten, fats, and diary just too much to have anything other than those things. This breakfast/brunch is a definite indicator of that! 

It is a fairy simple meal and can be made for one or for many depending on the size of your skillet. Just cook your meat, add your hash browns, and then add and cook the eggs. The result is a fluffy gooey egg surrounded by crispy potatoes and spicy chorizo.  The soft yolk mixes with a oils from the chorizo to make a great sauce to bring it all together. You could even go a step further and smother the skillet in cheese before serving!

Egg Chorizo Breakfast Skillet

makes 3-4 servings
ingredients

• 1/2 lb beef chorizo, casting removed
• 1 medium onion
• 2 cups of shredded hash browns
• salt and pepper
• butter/oil (optional)
• shredded cheese (optional)

directions

1. In a medium to large skillet, cook chorizo over medium heat until firmed up and browned. 
2. Stir hash browns and diced onion into the chorizo and drippings. Oil or butter may be needed if your chorizo is lean. Cook the hash brown mixture uncovered for approximately 10 minutes until the bottom is golden brown and crispy. Turn potato mixture. 
3. Make 3 or 4 evenly spaced wells and break an egg in each. Sprinkle each egg with salt and pepper. 
4. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 10 minutes or until the egg is set. Optionally, sprinkle with cheese and let sit until cheese is melted. 

Tinderbox Kitchen

Before this past Thirsday night, the closest I had been to a Valentine's Day date, was me and one of my very best friends going to chinese buffet together instead of with boys as College Freshmen. We got semi-dressed up, we put on makeup and we headed out for a great dinner. The night ended with us splitting a small bottle of Smirnoff and watching girly show. As I mentioned yesterday, Valentine's Day, isn't a big deal for us. It has nothing to do with the commercialism or any of the other anti-V-day sentiments that are out there. We just don't make a big deal about. In the 4.5 years we have been together, we had never gone out on a Valentine's Day.

Since the rest of the country is looking for a great time on February 14th, many restaurants offer deals and specials for the night. One of our favorite local haunts was offering a special and Berkeley decided this year we were going to go out on Valentine's Day! After an unfortunate experience with our original place, we changed our plans for the evening and ended up at Tinderbox Kitchen.

Located in the Southside area on San Francisco Street here in Flagstaff, Tinderbox Kitchen advertises "American Comfort Food... Redefined" and they deliver. We started with "The Board". It is the housemade charcuterie plate served with artisan cheeses, chutney, and "other goodies". Our board featured a duck ham, venison keilbasa, duck liver pate, country terrine, a soft milk cheese, housemade cracker, chutney, olives and sweet pickles, and a stone ground mustard. It was a great spread of delicious meats, cheeses and goodies that set the pace for the rest of the dinner.

Berkeley went the Sirloin Tip Filet medium rare with original mashers, mushroom ragout, watercress and house steak sauce. Berkeley was beyond impressed! He devoured that steak. It had a nice sear on the outside and was cooked perfectly on the inside. Also served with the steak were house made salt and vinegar chips. They had a great saltiness and the familiar tart of vinegar. The chips finished with a slight sweetness since malt vinegar was used. The mashers were a perfect side.

I went with the Seared Sea Scallops. They were beautiful large scallops cooked perfectly and served over a cauliflower fondue with fried butternut squash. I was blown away. The fondue sauce was mild and provided a great complementary flavor to the scallops. The side of fried cauliflower and butternut squash was delicious and filling without being too much.

We were so very happy with our dinner and drinks. We are excited to go back and try more entrees from their menu as well as heading over to their "cocktail lounge" The Annex for more bar style food. We highly recommend Tinderbox Kitchen. The food was amazing and the staff and service was exceptional. Even for a typically busy night in the service industry they were great about making sure our needs were met without being overbearing.

El Guero Canelo - Sonoran Dog

As a food lover, I enjoy watching food tv shows. Not all of them, but a lot of them. One of my favorites is Man v. Food! If you don't know about this show, Adam Richman (host) travels to different American cities to explore big or unique foods before taking part in a legendary eating challenge at a local restaurant. 

One of the first episodes I ever saw was Tucson. In that episode, Adam travels to the Southwest to take part in Lindy's Diner OMG Burger Challenge. Before he got to the challenge he stopped at two Tucson staples: Mi Nidito and EL Guero Canelo. This episode that add fuel to spark a fire that turned into a nearly four year obsession of sorts. It even led me to marry a man from Tucson ( I am TOTALLY kidding!!). 

When Berkeley and I first met (2007) he always told me about these bacon wrapped hot dogs with pinto beans, tomatoes, onions, jalapeño sauce, mustard, and mayo stuffed into homemade steamed buns. Hello Sonoran Dog! As time went on I somewhat forgot until I saw the Tucson episode of Man v. Food. When I got to see this little gem of deliciousness I really decided I needed to try one. After more than a dozen trips to Tucson, and roughly four years, Berkeley surprised me the weekend after Thanksgiving and I FINALLY got to try one of these bad boys. 

Ladies and Gents, may I present you El Guero Canelo's Sonoran Dog!

I really was not expecting this since we were going from the house Berkeley grew up in, down to the historic house his parents just purchased. I was planning on being in the car most of the day so my hair was a mess and I didn't have a touch of makeup on. Despite that, in the interest of full disclosure, I give you my "real authentic bite for a Mexican hot dog" (hint see 3:42 of the video linked above). 

This 7 inch hot dog was a mere $2.49 and packed a punch of flavor. It was everything I expected and more! Some people have said that I just like the style. To be honest, I have had Sonoran style hot dogs at other places, like The Lumberyard here in Flagstaff, So I wasn't going in completely blind. I really just loved this version. It was perfect to me.

The dog itself was better and more flavorful than your standard hot dog frank. Add the bacon and its a real wiener (har har har). The beans weren't too overpowering and did not create a sloppy mushy mess as in other versions and the cold tomatoes, mayo and mustard added a lightness and freshness to the warm proteins. The only disappointment: I wanted at least three more!

As a little side note a lot of reviews on yelp and urbanspoon have users complaining about flies. First, these reviewers seemed to have been visiting in the desert in the middle of summer. Secondly, they went to the South Tucson location. There are at least four different El Guero Canelo locations. The original location in South Tucson was a taco stand that they have since built some covering around but is open air on two sides. Berkeley took me to the North Tucson location which is completely enclosed. That being said Berkeley says he had never had a problem with flies any time he was ever at ANY El Guero Canelo location. 

Another one of the complaints on popular review sites was that El Guero Canelo was a fad that was only popular because the Sonoran Dog was featured on the Travel Channel. Along with my Sonoran Dog, Berkeley ordered one of his favorite things. Check back on Wednesday for more about that giant burrito in the photo above!

Squash Experimenting

The last Sunday of the Farmer's Market, we picked up two butternut squash. One was used in my version of a Squash Makhani. The second I used for experimenting last night. I spent most of the day looking through websites trying to find something. I came across this recipe for stuffing the squash. I am so unhappy with the result, I am not going to do a full post.

The hardest part of the whole thing was getting the flesh of the squash out without ruining the shell. The recipe (and many others) say roast the squash at 400 for 40 minutes and it should be easy to scoop out. It wasn't. At 40 minutes it was still hard. In the process of getting the flesh out, I cracked one half of the squash so it ended up laying flat. The other half ended up with a hole in it from the skin peeling off with a section of the meat.

After cooking the filling, which was the best part, I put it all into the squash for the listed 20-25 minutes. We started to eat and the squash itself was quite bland. It was dull and rubbery. We saved some of the leftover flesh and squash shell and later this week I am going to try making soup with it. Stuffing Squash will need to be revisited at a later date.