Flip That Toast

In addition to my self admitted fascination to cooking shows I have been recently enthralled by home improvement shows. The most favored are Flip That House and Property Ladder both of The Learning Channel (TLC). It’s a kick to watch naïve and, for the most part, unskilled people redecorate homes to try and turn a profit. They stumble and bumble while in the end they have a magically transformed money maker on their hands.

We are not ready to sell our place, but it has some miles on it and is in need of some improvements. Watching these shows has emboldened us to give do it yourself a try. If those knuckleheads can do home improvement why not us? Our first project began yesterday. We decided to cut down half the wall between the kitchen and living room to add a counter bar. Milwaukee Sawzall in hand we demolished lots of sheetrock and other good stuff. Happy with our day’s work I looked at my wife who had a lovely patina of sheetrock dust covering her. It kind of reminded me of powdered sugar on French toast.

Guess what I made for brunch today? You guessed it French toast, stuffed French toast to be exact. A simple recipe I’ve had on my mind for a while. I wish I could remember where I saw it first so I could give credit. But my mind fails.

I began by making a cream cheese and cherry jam sandwich on egg bread. I dipped each side of the sandwich in a mixture of beaten egg, heavy cream and a splash of vanilla. Then I pan grilled them in a little melted butter. Shook on powdered sugar and feeling decadent drizzled on some maple syrup. I have to say the results of both my projects were fulfilling,



Stuffed French toast

Little Burgers

I was kicked back watching Giada De Laurentiis’s new show Weekend Getaways. The location was Cascadia Restaurant in Seattle. During happy hour the restaurant offers their Miniburgers at a dollar apiece. My attention was immediately piqued. I grabbed the Tivo remote and replayed several scenes that showed the making and serving of the burgers. The presentation was inventive and I just wanted to reach into the television and snatch one of the little guys. Why did this product evoke such a reaction? It took me a couple of days to figure out.

During my teen years growing up in Maryland, just outside Washington D.C. one only had to be eighteen to drink beer. The identification cards of that day were not sophisticated and an enterprising seventeen year old could make a reasonable copy and go party in D.C. After the party one would stop at The Little Tavern hamburger stand whose motto was “buy ‘em by the bag”. I won’t entirely date myself and tell you the price but they were little, cheap and four or five hit the spot after a few brews. The little square patties of beef were cooked on a flat top grill with dehydrated onions and placed on little square buns. Later in life I found out that this recipe was probably a rip off of White Castle. At the time they really seemed unique. Well doctor, that’s what evoked a happy response to the burgers. That’s it! Little burgers + brew = party.

With The Super Bowl coming up how can I get some little burgers? Little Tavern is long since gone. Cascadia has a catering branch that will come out and cook some of their Miniburgers on site. They even have a Mini Cooper painted up real cool with their logo. This low bucks blog doesn’t have the coin to drag the Cascadia crew to Nor Cal from Seattle. Guess what? Sometimes you got to do things for yourself.

Life’s a Picnic little burgers.

The Menu
Little Burgers with condiments

Food Cost

40 cents each

Logistics
Just like hamburgers only smaller. Two ounce portions of ground beef with a 25% fat ratio were formed using a metal ring.

Small dinner rolls from the local super substituted for hamburger rolls.

It's a party!

Family Dinner

Without thinking about a reason or motivation I've removed myself from the blogosphere for a while now. Work and family life have separated me from my passion/addiction of food and bloggging. Just this week I've started taking a peak at the food news and felt that urge to jump back into the pool. I stumbled across several mentions of Thomas Keller's new restaurant Ad Hoc in Napa. The writers described family style service of luscious home style dishes at $45 dollars a person before beverage, wine, tax and tip. I thought about my shoestring budget, did the math and determined that if I took my family of six to this restaurant I would set myself back close to 500 large. Could I come close to feeding my gang a menu like that at Ad Hoc and not break the bank? I could and here's the result.

The Menu
Smoasted Trip Tip (smoked/roasted) with Chimichurri Sauce
Roasted fingerling potatoes and asparagus
Sautéed crimmini mushrooms with sherry and butter glaze
Mesclum salad with Meyer lemon dressing
Giant Cream Puffs from Costco
Two Buck Chuck Merlot

Food Cost
$55

Logistics
The Trip was brushed with olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cooked on a Weber Kettle with charcoal and mesquite wood.

Mushrooms were sautéed in olive oil and chopped garlic. Sherry added and reduced. Butter melted in after cooking.

Fingerling potatoes and asparagus roasted in 350 degree oven with a little olive oil

Come on over I’ll only charge you $25 a person including wine!