Roasted cream of mushroom soup

Mushrooms are some of my favorite things in the world and I love soup in general.  I had a hankering for cream of mushroom soup.  I don't care if the temperature outside is hot, I'll still drink hot coffee and tea and eat hot soup.  Using my Bruce Lee approach in picking out the best features of the good looking recipes, I saw leeks and shiitake mushrooms as pretty interesting additions to the base of the soup.  Trader Joe's has frozen leeks which is great to use in a pinch.  I chopped up my mushrooms into larger chunks than usual I think, I think thinner slices might or a small dice might actually be better for the soup.  Overall it was good, thought I thought the shiitakes were pretty overwhelming- they just have a such a strong taste compared to other mushrooms that it was all I tasted and the chewy texture takes away from the creaminess of the soup I think.  I'll have to make a mushroom stock next time since it seems I can't just put cooked criminis and button mushrooms in water and make soup because the flavor is really weak. Next time.

For some reason I can't upload modified pics, it only uploads them what they originally looked like.  Oh well. 

Girls who can tenderize my meat: Nadia Giosia

The Cooking Channel is the channel that Food Network was back in the day: more shows about cooking and the world of food rather than food entertainment or whatever they're showing.  One of the things about watching a new channel is that there are new televisions chefs to get acquainted with.  On the Food Network rotating cast of characters revolved around Emeril, Bobby Flay, Giada, Rachel Ray, etc.  Which is nice and comfortable but sometimes you need to get exposed to different chefs, new personalities, and different interpretations of food. 
The Cooking Channel has a show called "Bitchin Kitchen" with this sort of punk rock girl in a cocktail dress cooking food and with this Rock n Roll/Punk Jersey Shore Italian act going.  The cooking is good and the show seems to have a Good Eats entertainment vibe in that there are little skits and characters and a theme to each episode.  I haven't figured out Cooking Channel's tv schedule, and since it's not like the Food Network in that they don't replay the same shows over and over I haven't really watched her show enough but it's actually kinda cool. 
Anyway, I think she's kinda cute some times too and she wears high heels and a dress in the kitchen usually, which is interesting but I don't hate it.

Lightened up wrap (?)

Had a hankering for pastrami so looked on the intertubes for suggestions and ran across a pastrami bacon wrap that was 'lightened up a bit from it's originial version at a deli shop.  It basically consists of pastrami, bacon, swiss, and sriracha.  Sriracha has a little bit of sugar so, as strange as it may sound, I mixed that with a little bit of mayonaisse to lighten it up carb wise.  Otherwise I basically kept the recipe the same.  I think the sriracha is a nice sweet touch to offset some of the smokiness of the meats in the wrap. 
Oh and I looked at the carb content of the lavash wraps a little closer and saw that it was 5 carbs per serving.  I have no idea how you figure out how many servings are in a single large of lavash is using mathemagics I figured it was about 20 grams of carbs per wrap.  Not bad as half a wrap is all that's needed for anything really but sort of disappointing.

Lavash Pizza

So one of the things I do now while trying to cut down carbs is looking at the nutritional facts more and more.  I've read somewhere that around 50 carbs a day is a pretty good goal to in that low carb fat burning mode.  To put that into a little perspective- a can of Coca-Cola has about 40 grams of carbs, and a piece of Wonderbread has 15 grams of carbs.  I ran across some flax seed lavash, a very flat middle eastern flat bread.  It's almost thinner and a lot more fragile than tortillas; it's breaking apart as you pull it from the bag.  But it's only 5 grams per piece which is pretty amazing.  One piece is probably a couple feet long too.  I've tried using it create a burrito but it falls apart way too easily.
I had a hankering for pizza so I did a grilled pizza with it.  Just brushed it it a little quickly made herb garlic oil  (I may need to use more next time to keep the bread from getting too crisp.) tossed it on the grill for a minute or two, took it out and topped it, put it back on the grill (turned off) with the cover on for like 45 seconds.  It was pretty good, basically has all the flavors of a pizza,  and a nice way to help with any cravings. 

Slice n' dice

Since I've been going grocery shopping basically everday one of my favorite spots is Pacific Ranch Market in my hometown of Orange, CA. It has a lot of specialty items and there's a great butcher and deli section. Like I'll go there if I'm looking for a goose or something. The prices are way too high in general so everday stuff I'd go somewhere else. Anyway, while shopping there during the week I saw a sign advertising knife sharpening. The next day I went to get a couple knives sharpened and it's totally amazing on how much of a difference it makes.
A few years ago browsing food related web sites and forums was a huge part of my everday routine. One of the topics that a ran across was kitchen knives. There seems to be a little subsection of people who are really into their knives, how to sharpen them, collecting, etc. I guess Japanese kitchen knives are really specialized- one for vegetables, one for blow fish, sashimi. They're really cool, they almost look like mini samurai swords. I finally decided to buy one after thinking of getting one for a couple years. The cheapest Japanese chef's knife may be over 100 bucks so it's a major purchase by my small standards. I've seen some knives that go for thousands of dollars, it gets pretty crazy. I just bought one on the cheaper side but it seems to be highly regarded by the internet Japanese kitchen knife crowd. I'm pretty excited.

Back in action

It's been a long time world. I'm sure there's no one here but well,that's ok. I'm just leaving a little mark on the world, like that lone cave man who painted pictures on the wall. Anyway at least I've been cooking a bit more. Things have changed in my life so I have a bit more time dedicated to myself I guess you can say. I've been trying to go a bit more low carb or cut out as many carbs out as possible so that usually means more grocery shopping for meats and veggies and more cooking. I'm not totally strict or too crazy about counting carbs or anything. For example, I think a burger and fries is probably one of greatest things ever, so I'll leave room for a great one every once in a while than lousy ones every couple days or something. Anyway, just a small update, I hope I can keep this up a bit more.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries Review

First post in a while but I haven't totally forgotten about you!  I consider myself a hamburger connoisseur - I think a good hamburger is a thing of beauty.  So simple, yet so much potential for soul satisfying goodness.  The first time I heard about Five Guys is when Obama stopped by one on his campaign for presidency.  And this was when his coolness and buzz rating was off the charts, so hey, Five Guys must be awesome if the future president (you all knew he was going to be the president) is getting his munchies there.  Too bad it was a predominantly East coast chain.  But fancy burgers have been a little trend lately.  For example, Denny's introduced a more gourmet burger with 'hand-made' patties just about a year ago.  Actually an improvement I say.  So it was only a matter of time before Five Guys made it over on the West side I guess. 

I walk in, there's a load of signs plasted along the windows facing the street with quotes from various media sources about how great the burgers are.  'Zagat rated'  'Best $5 burger'  Yadda yadda.  And there's a bunch of newspaper and magazine clippings posted everywhere.  Yes, I get it, there's a lot of hype about this place.  The menu is simple enough though you do have to choose your own toppings.  The lady at the register was helpful enough.  I basically chose the 'Everything' burger which I figured was the standard.  It doesn't actually include every topping under the sun despite the name- I think it was: mayo, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard, grilled mushrooms, and grilled onions.  I was asking about the cajun fries but the cashier lady let me have the regular fries with the cajun seasoning on the side since I was a newbie.  Thanks lady. 

I didn't bring my camera and I'm not quite sure how to get pictures off my new crappy cell phone so no pictures, but next time.  I hate to pass judgement on just one tasting anyway.  But here's my first experience. 

A burger from Five Guys is pretty awful.

It's an impressive looking burger.  A couple of thick beef patties (1/3 pound each?), a load of toppings.  Taste wise it's the flavor is not there, it's totally underwhelming.  I tried a couple more bites, still the same result.  I tried a few lonely grilled mushroom that fell out while taking the first bite and that thing was rubbery and tasteless.  I'm a freak for mushrooms, it's one of my favorite things in the world.  So much umami fun-ness in those suckers but these sad things were just filler.   I start to pick apart the burger to see what did have flavor.  The meat patty by itself pretty bleh.  I think they use lean meat because it wasn't juicy at all and they cook their meat well done (according to the menu or something I read).  At least the tomatoes and pickles were good. I actually did see one lady sitting next to me shaking a packet of salt straight onto her burger.  It's not a good sign when people have to season their own food to taste it.

The fries are great though, they're those boardwalk type fries that are nice a thick yet crunchy.  The cajun seasoning is fine, it's like Red Robin's seasoning salt or whatever, it's definitely good to get on the side.