Tag: food

A Quickie…..Cami Cakes

A dear friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) gave me a short list of places I should visit and try their eats. Cami Cakes was on that list. While out earlier this week I finally made it. I’m not even sure where to start about this place. I have gone to many places where the presentation was phenomenal from the opening of the door to the customer service but then fell flat on the taste of the food. Not so at Cami Cakes. I had the pleasure of visiting their Vinings location. The place was inviting and the staff friendly and most helpful. I wanted to try their Red Velvet cupcake but the young lady behind the counter would not sell me what she had been removing from the case. She said they were no longer fresh (so they aren’t all about profit but good eats). I opted for the Cami Sweetheart since I couldn’t wait for the fresh batch of Red Velvet. The Cami Sweetheart is Chocolate cupcake with a cream cheese filling topped with a chocolate glaze. It was delicious…the cake moist…the filling not too sweet…the chocolate glaze was the truly the icing on the cake. I was in cupcake heaven. I plan to visit their newest location that has a creamery……cake & ice cream. How could you go wrong?. They have several locations and also now ships across the states. Click here for more on Cami Cakes

The Showcase of yummy goodness

Presentation is KEY

The Cami Sweetheart

August 29, 2014
What’s in Your Pantry?
At any given moment I can whip up something scrumptious in my kitchen. All because I keep what i consider staple items in my pantry. Things I feel with a little time and some effort can be transformed into a meal. So what do I consider staples?
- Pasta (1 long noodle i.e. spaghetti or fettuccine and 1 short noodle i.e. macaroni or rigatoni)
- Stock or broth ( I keep chicken. beef and vegetable in the 32 oz size)
- Flour (all-purpose & self-rising)
- Rice
- Oil (I like canola for frying & olive oil for sauteing)
- Canned tomatoes (diced and pureed)
- Canned beans ( black, pinto red or your favorite)
- Onions
- Bell peppers (I prefer colored to green ones)
- Assortment of frozen vegetables (i.e. broccoli, mixed vegetables,corn)
- Ground beef
- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- Butter
- Eggs
- Milk
With a combination of just a few of these items you can have a wonderful meal. For instance you can make a quick pasta e fagioli ( broth, short pasta, diced tomatoes, a can of beans) or maybe a vegetable fried rice( oil, cooked rice, frozen mixed vegetables, onions) or even chili ( ground beef, beans, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers). Once you have the basics or the items that you use repeatedly in cooking you will always be prepared to whip something great up.

P.S. My pantry list is a little longer than the one I have included because I have a pretty sized family and lots of friends who like stop by to eat)

P.S.S. This post is dedicated to my son, Akeem, the newly wed and apparently the chef in his new household
August 20, 2014
All That Glitters Ain’t Gold

So in appreciation of all the time energy and MONEY we spent on their marriage, my son and his wife invited us, the parents, to have brunch with them at the Georgian Terrace. I was overly excited,it has been somewhere I wanted to go since I moved to Georgia. The Georgian Terrace is on of Atlanta’s Historic sites first opening it’s doors in 1911. I knew we would be in for a treat…..but all that glitters ain’t gold.

The Up View of the lobby in the Georgian Terrace

We were to have lunch at their restaurant/bar …The Livingston. It was beautiful….historic with a modern flare

Table for Four with a view

But that was where all the glitter started to lose it’s shine. I still don’t know our waiters name but let’s just say he left a lot to be desired. I was excited to see on the menu ( view Menu)Sweet Potato Donuts ( anyone that knows me knows that anything with sweet potato as an ingredient is going to be on my radar). We placed an order for the donuts to start with our teas and coffee and then ordered our brunch. There were 2 orders of the Livingston Omelet, 1 for the Black Truffle Omelet, 1 Double Cheeseburger, 1 Mini Quiche Lorraine and 1 Chicken Monte Crisco.

Menu

Sweet Potato Donut

The Livingston Omelet with a side of breakfast potatoes

Mini Quiche Lorraine with a shaved salad

Double Cheese Burger with house made waffle potato chips

My meal for the afternoon….
Chicken Monte Cristo

Now the presentations were nice but the tastes fell short. The sweet potato donuts were okay as a yeast donut but wasn’t enough sweet potato for it to carry it as a main ingredient. The omelet that my husband and son had both tasted way too salty. My son’s father-in-law’s double cheeseburger was over cooked ( actually he said it was burned along the edges) and his mother-in-law felt her quiche was just “alright”. As for me and my Chicken Monte Cristo, well, let’s just say the brioche bread was the best thing about the sandwich. It came off pretty mediocre. We all agreed that their potato products were really good. The house made waffle chips, the breakfast potatoes and the french fries were well done and very enjoyable. I really had high hopes for the meal here but my feelings were dashed. I hope it was that the chef was having a bad day but i will never know cause I’m not moved to visit them again.

August 17, 2014
Is the Doctor In???

So many people knock using jar sauce…well I use jar sauce. I don’t have the time to make sauce from scratch, so I do the next best thing…. I doctor up a jar of sauce. Now you may be asking what do I mean by doctoring a jar of sauce? Well we can compare it to surgery…we just aren’t cutting up any people. First things first you’re gonna need a jar of sauce. I went with Ragu because it was on sale.

Now here’s where the cutting begins. I started by dicing onions, bell peppers and portabella mushrooms.

I then took about a pound of ground beef and browned it off. Added some sausage and some diced bacon.

After I added the diced vegetables along with a can of diced tomatoes ( you see I like a chunky sauce).

Now what most people don’t understand about cooking is that it is not a true science. It’s about what you like and how it makes you feel. You have to find out what works for you and your palette and make it WORK.

I love, love , love a lot of garlic ( especially in Italian food). Maybe that doesn’t work for you ( guess what don’t add it). After that’s done I added the jar of sauce and began a prescription of seasonings. Thyme, crushed pepper flakes, kosher salt, black pepper, dried Italian herbs and some slow simmering……

Sauce fit for a king

Let your imagination and your taste buds run free when trying to doctor a jar of sauce. maybe you want to add just vegetables,,,, diced or shredded zucchini, carrots, spinach, sweet peas or maybe you want to try adding seafood, or alternative to ground beef…It’s all up to you.

Now because I’m always taking it to the next level I decided I would doctor the pasta, too. I used thin spaghetti cooked according to to package directions. Then I sauteed garlic with red pepper flakes in olive oil, making sure not to burn the garlic ( nothing worst than the taste of burned garlic)

Then I added the pasta with some of the cooking water and minced parsley. Time to serve it up

Go buy a jar of sauce and get to doctoring.

BCJ2U

April 12, 2014
Gettysburger….

If you’re a “Scandal” fan, of which I am, you have heard on several occasions them mention the infamous burger joint Gettysburger, Well you can only imagine the shock and awe that came across my face when I found out that Gettysburger did not exist. How was I gonna replicate one of their burgers, for the mid-season premier, if they didn’t really exist. In my mind I had already planned this post detailing how I went about gathering ingredients, prepping and then preparing my wonderful version of a Gettysburger burger. what would I do now?

I did the next best thing. I created a burger I felt would exist on the menu at Gettysburger. I created the Insde-Out Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger with a side of Garlic Parmesan Steak Fries. I went as far to make the pickles from scratch and a chipotle mayo for the buns. I mean if you gonna go with something that doesn’t exist why not go all out.

I used half of an English cucumber cut on the bias. I then brined the slices in a heated mixture of salt, sugar, a crushed garlic clove, a few red pepper flakes, fresh dill, a bay leaf and vinegar.

Viola …..Pickles….. well they became pickles once the liquid cooled.

Then for the burger I did what my Mom taught me to do oh so many years ago. A package of onion-mushroom soup mix, black pepper, worcestershire sauce, an egg and a handful of breadcrumbs. Once combined I made a thin patty and placed a slice of cheddar cheese that I folded in half along the center of the patty. Then I made another patty and placed that on top of the first sealing the cheese in the middle.

Now all I had to do was cook them. I am about the slow and go when cooking a good burger. Medium heat and I never flatten the patty while cooking ( your squeezing all the luscious juices out…who wants a dry burger?). Haven’t you been told to not play with you food? Well don’t fiddle with your burger while it’s cooking let it do what it has to……that’s cook. I only turn my burger ONCE during cooking.

Besides the pickles and the burgers I also made a quick spread for my burger buns, Chipotle Mayo. I took a 1/4 cup of mayo and added 2 teaspoons of chipolte salsa ( you can find it in a can in the international section of your supermarket) and mixed. Depending on how spicy you like it you can add more or less of the chipotle salsa.

As for the Garlic Parmesan Steak Fries it was simple ( no I didn’t make the fries from scratch) I prepared a bag of steak fries in the oven ( I try to avoid frying as much as possible). I sprinkled them with some olive oil to help crisp them up in the oven and dusted them with a mixture of kosher salt and black pepper. About 5 minutes before they were to finished in the oven I heated a 1/4 cup of olive oil and 1 1/2 tablespoons of minced garlic. I pulled the fries from the oven dumped them in a bow,l added the heated olive oil along with a handful of shredded Parmesan and minced parsley. Then I tossed everything together making sure the fries were well coated. This was the end result of my hard work ( not that hard )

Yeah if I were running the Infamously Fictitious Gettysburger this would be on the menu.

March 1, 2014
And so it begins……

I’ve been wanting to start a blog for some time now…..Hell I’ve been told I should start one by way too many people, if I should be totally honest about it. So here it is…..The Chef In Pearls. I think that title embodies so much of who I am today. I take great pleasure in creating food and sharing it with people, especially the ones I love. And well as for the pearls ( one of my favorite accessories I own) I love …love ….love… fashion. I think my Mom created that little demon inside me way back when. I grew up wanting to own the clothing and accessories my mother had. Fighting my younger sister over which pieces we’d play dress-up with next. We knew what it was to have custom made clothing as well as shop in large department stores. We lived life as fashionistas without ever really knowing it. It was just apart of growing up. I owe my love of cooking to my Mom, too. She was the epitome of a host. Always coking and panning the next get together. I don’t know how she did half the things she pulled off but she did it. And she’s still doing it at age 70. I am thankful for these experiences because they helped to shape….The Chef in Pearls.

February 11, 2014