"Of course, lager! The only thing that can kill a vindaloo!"

Still only a day behind on my once a week goal.  One of these days I will catch up.

Five points to the first reader (which I seem to only have a few of at the moment) that gets the reference.  I will mention it at the end of the week if you didn't figure it out.  No using the internet to cheat!

So my wife and I decided we wanted to see what Vindaloo tasted like.  From the reference we had for it (and yes, I am being vague for the sake of my cute little trivia question), it was supposed to be extremely spicy, yet somehow flavorful.  It is an Indian dish made with chicken, sausage, or mutton (sheep, since I didn't know and had to look it up) usually done as a simmer, marinade, or as a sauce added after the meat is cooked.  It is a curry sauce with a nice fragrant scent.

It was delicious, but not as spicy as we thought it would be.  We do plan on making it again and trying to see if a different preparation method will make it spicier.  Here is a picture of it all decked out with some corn and Coconut Ginger Thai Rice, along with New Grist GF Beer.

Next time, I think we are going to cook the chicken, then coat it in the Vindaloo sauce.  Maybe I'll even bake it in the sauce.  I need to find another way to bring out the spice full-on.

And the beer certainly did eliminate what spice I did encounter, so it is true after all.  Good thing I have more in the fridge for the next attempt at painful Vindaloo.

Here fishy, fishy! Be a good fishy!

So here is my catching up post, this time about fish.


This is the one thing that I make that my wife refuses to eat.  She eats tuna, but it isn't fish because it comes out of a can.  I remember a time when all I ever ate was fish sticks (when I was a child and long before anyone even knew that gluten caused problems) and that all other fish was yucky.  Now I love many types of fish except for Pollock, the fish that is used in all run-of-the-mill fish sticks.


A couple of weeks ago we found a new fish at Target called Swai.  Looking into it, it is a type of catfish, but from overseas to simplify its description.  It is a moderate mercury fish, so one that you can't eat everyday, but once a week is okay.  So I decided to try it today with a few flavor combinations, all out of the back of my head.  Be afraid.  Be very afraid!

 Swai fish baked with Thai Kitchen's Spicy Chili and Ginger Sauce

 Swai fish baked with Italian Seasoning

Swai fish baked with a coating of cayenne pepper, black pepper and crushed red pepper

So I made all three of these for dinner Thursday night along with some spinach, corn, and A Taste of Thai's Yellow Curry Rice, all as side dishes.

The first fish I thought tasted pretty good.  The sauce gave the fish a nice compliment, with it being spicy but not too much with a nice sweet finish.  As you can see by the picture, I almost forgot to take a picture of it before eating it all.

This would be the only one to taste good, but not because it was cooked wrong or the spices were done wrong.

The Italian one tasted watery, and I couldn't figure out why.  Sure, I should have added a bit of salt and pepper to it to bring out the seasoning's flavors, but it quite literally tasted like I was eating a glass of water.

It wasn't until I tried the makeshift Cajun fillet that I realized the problem (once I drank a full glass of water as it was most certainly not done right at all) wasn't the seasoning.  Swai is a rather flavorless fish.  It tastes like nothing at all, and I don't mean that it is unique.  It tastes like a glass of water.  The reason why the first one tasted good was just because of the sauce and that it penetrated the fish somewhat.  The Italian and Cajun seasonings never soaked in, so they just sat on the surface.  This experiment has failed.

I have eaten this fish before though with it being coated in Italian seasoning and bread crumbs, then fried in a skillet with vegetable oil.  That tasted much better than all three of these concoctions.  So Swai is a frying fish, at least for me, but if you want to add fish to your diet but hate the strong flavors, then Swai is the right one for you.  As an added bonus, it is a rather inexpensive fish.  The frozen 24oz bag that I bought cost about $6 at Target.


As an added bonus, I have this unique picture for all to see.

This is a picture of my lovely wife doing something she hasn't done since we met.  She is not only allowing one food to touch another, but she is willingly mixing them!

A new way to make pizza

So I promised myself that I would blog at least once a week.  For those paying attention, it seems that I missed a week already...and I did.  So tonight I shall be posting two new entries.


This week (and I do mean the week I am posting this) I ran around from store to store trying to find Kinnikinnick's pizza crusts.  I used to use the ones that Schar makes, but I have grown more fond of the softer ones that Kinnikinnick sells, plus you get twice as many crusts for the same price.  We hadn't had pizza in a while and we wanted a change of pace.  So I settled on making little pizzas with Schar's Crispbread.  I had done this in the past when I wanted a small snack, but this time I have chosen to experiment with some flavors to see what I will try net time on a regular pizza or as a snack.

14 varieties of mini pizzas.  Next time I do this I will make even more varieties.  Obviously, you can do whatever you want, but I wanted to try out some new things.  For anyone that has had the Crispbread before, it has the consistency of hardened Styrofoam.  In some regards it even tastes like it, but it is perfect with any topping.  I used to make these in the microwave with just sauce, cheese and pepperoni, but they came out soggy.  Ten minute in the oven at 300 degrees and they are still crisp with everything cooked up quite nicely.


Here is a list of what I made in this batch from top to bottom, left to right, and shown on this picture from after they were cooked.  Every pizza was made with 6 cheese Italian blend from Stop and Shop and Contadina Pizza Sauce.

1)  Just cheese and sauce - Tasted okay.  Kind of bland, but I am not used to eating any pizza without extra toppings.
2)  With added Italian seasoning - Much more flavorful.  Still missing something, but that is why there are 14 options to choose from here, though I chose to eat them all.
3)  With pepperoni - Now this is how I like it.  Tasted just like a regular crusted pizza.
4)  With fresh sweet peppers - The peppers were small yellow peppers I bought at the store.  Slightly sweeter than what I am used to putting on my pizzas, but they will do.
5)  With pineapple - Made a mistake here, so it didn't come out as good as it could have.  The pieces of pineapple were too big, so they overpowered the mini-pizza with sweetness.  Didn't taste the sauce at all.
6)  With hot pepper rings - This one was also a bit of a disappointment.  The peppers were not the best flavor for the pizza, at least not alone.
7)  With pepperoni and seasoning - Now it tastes just like the pizzeria, except smaller, crispier, and free.
8)  With fresh sweet peppers and seasoning - Better, but the peppers aren't meant as a stand-alone topping for me.
9)  With pineapple and seasoning - All I tasted was pineapple with a hint of seasoning.  Again, probably because the pieces were too big.
10) With hot pepper rings and seasoning - The spice made it better, but again, the hot peppers are not good by themselves.
11) With pineapple and hot pepper rings - This one didn't work at all, but mostly because, once again, the pineapple was huge.  There had to be one idea that flopped, This is it.
12) With pepperoni and fresh sweet peppers - This was almost two parts of my favorite pizza combination, but with sweet peppers instead of green bell peppers.  The pepperoni muted the sweetness of the pepper a bit, making it work a bit better, but still the sweet pepper doesn't quite fit in.
13) With hot pepper rings and fresh sweet peppers - Finally found a combination that works, using the two items that didn't work too well alone or with others.  You get the vinegary, spicy flavor of the hot pepper alongside the sweet and crisp taste of the sweet pepper.  Though it is nowhere near to being Thai food, it incorporates the balance between spicy and sweet quite well.
14) With pepperoni and pineapple - This would have tasted a lot better yet again if the pineapple was smaller.  My favorite toppings combination has always been pepperoni, pineapple, and green bell peppers.  I had no green peppers on-hand, but this was good enough.  Again though, next time I do it with smaller pineapple bits.


The next time we make pizza, I may do this again, but with even more flavor combinations.


By the way, this was going to be posted two days ago, but I fell asleep at the computer and didn't remember until this morning that I was posting it.  Now I have to do yet another post, followed by this week's entry, but I promised myself that i would enter something every week.

New Year, New Possibilities

So it has been a long time since I had posted here.  The need to get myself a job took precedence over everything else...but enough about that.  I got the job of my dreams (great boss, helping others, chances to make some great money) so now in 2012, I promise to post at least once a week.

Let me start the new year with my review of Red Robin.  My wife and I had dined there on New Years Eve as the craving for a burger won yet again.  Being that I have a gluten intolerance, we had to figure out a way for me to have a burger.  They do have a protein bun, but multiple layers of iceberg lettuce do not a bun make.  It worked for me in the early days of my GF life, but I quickly needed a more bread-like solution.

So we went to Pathmark to get some of Schar's Rolls for my burger.  They recently improved their recipe, so now they taste a lot better, but they still need to be toasted.  With buns in hand (no pun intended), we went to have our meal.

When the server found out that I had a gluten allergy, he returned with their allergen binder so I could see everything that was safe for me to eat.  Now I knew we could have the nachos with guacamole and salsa as all I had to avoid was the homemade chips (not that hard to avoid as they were huge), but once we went to order our burgers, I got the surprise of my life.

John, the manager on duty that evening, informed me that Red Robin now has their own GF burger bun on the premises for $1 extra.  I figured I might as well try it.  If it sucked, I'm sure they could have helped me out, plus you never really know if you don't try.  So I ordered their A1 Peppercorn burger, exchanging the onion straws for caramelized onions.

I actually had to ask to make sure they didn't give me a regular bun!  Their GF bun is moist, tasty plain, absorbs the grease and juices just like a regular bun and absolutely no gritty and crumbly texture. It tasted, smelled, felt and looked like a regular hamburger roll.  They didn't even have to toast it.  They couldn't as the toasters are for regular bread, but the buns are microwaved briefly.  John informed me that they had been working on this for quite some time as Red Robin knew they were slacking when it came to GF options.  They most certainly knocked this one right out of the park. They even have a system with their burger baskets, so if you go there and ask for your food to be GF, if it doesn't come in a yellow basket, ask for the server to make sure it was prepared properly.

Red Robin really outdid themselves this time and is once again my favorite place to eat a burger.  Well done guys! I'll be raving about this experience for a long time to come.

YUMMMMM!!!!

My sweet tooth may have met its match

It is kinda weird.  When I was a kid, I could never get enough candy, chocolate, and sugary foods.  Now I know I must be getting older.  I actually ate something today that was sweet enough to make me grab my bag of GF pretzels and chow down.

Today (yesterday if you believe the day ends at midnight and not when you fall asleep) I went over to Gluten Free Gloriously, another GF bakery that is near my home.  This one is much closer, located in Stirling Township.  They offer a wide variety of products including breads, cakes, pies, cookies, and other packaged goods that you can find in stores, but for cheaper prices at this establishment.  They offer GF foods in varieties that may or may not contain dairy or soy, but their main task is simply to be gluten free and delicious.  I talked to the owner, Kathie, in great lengths the first time I went there.  She is a lovely woman and a talented baker.  Unlike myself, she is only gluten intolerant and doesn't possess the Celiac gene.  I don't know if I possess it either, but it easier if I just live completely gluten free. To go back now and try to incorporate some gluten back into my diet will be more frustrating.

The one thing she doesn't make at her bakery is regular sandwich bread.  She has two types of wraps, Italian bread, even hot dog and hamburger rolls during grilling season, but no sandwich bread.  She explained it to me quite simply, "Udi's makes a great bread.  They have a wonderful recipe and it would cost me triple the cost of their bread to make my own."

Anyways...so I went up there today to pick up a couple of things.  I had been there before and bought many things the first time around.  The first time I shopped there, I bought a package of their cheddar wraps, some Italian bread, plain bagels (not theirs, but one they carry for sale...review coming soon), a chocolate dessert that I believe was called Chocolate Decadence, and a pepperoni pizza.

Their wraps are absolutely a staple item for me to keep on-hand.  I used to make my wraps instead of sandwiches and when I could no longer have anything with wheat in it, I felt lost.  Taco nights sucked even worse.  If I have a choice between a soft taco shell and a hard one, I always went for the soft shells.  Her wraps have made me so happy.  They come in two varieties, plain and cheddar.  I have only tried the cheddar so far.  They are kept frozen and defrost quickly just in the open air.  The one thing you need to get used to is folding them.  They are square-shaped.  You would think it wouldn't be an issue, but I seem to be unable to grasp how to fold them because they aren't circular.

I tried the Italian bread at her shop the first time I was there and I loved it, but I haven't even cut into the loaf I bought.  I am saving it for tomorrow for my family's gathering.  I hate when there is sauce that beckons to be sopped up in a piece of bread and I don't have any with me to eat.  The little I tried from that sample tasted just like the gluten variety.  Next time I buy some I will be making garlic bread with it.

The pizza was good and tasty, but I have grown fond of the crust that Schar makes as well as a new one I recently tried.  I will do a pizza comparison this week for these two crusts as I have been craving pizza again. It is a thin crust pizza with a nice, pleasant tasting sauce.  I prefer French bread and thicker crusts, so her pizza wasn't my style, but it is great in a pinch when you don't have the time to make one fresh,

The chocolate dessert I had, sadly, wasn't what I expected, but when I talked to her today, I found out why.  It wasn't so much a cake but more of a smooth pudding like consistency and it had a strange taste that I couldn't identify.  Found out it was coffee.  I love coffee, so maybe in this recipe it just didn't work for me.

Today I picked up some more wraps to have on-hand and the young lady working the counter (wish I knew her name, she is very helpful and knowledgeable) recommended that I try one of their small Lemon Meringue pies.  Yet another thing I really miss since the GF change...pie.  So I took the pie home, placed it in the fridge, and had dinner.  When I tasted it, my mind tried to find my inner child.  The child inside of me that loves sweets and prefers coffee made Beastie Boys-style (listen to the song "Intergalactic" and you will know what I mean) was cowering in the corner, unable to handle the sweetness of this pie.

Don't get me wrong.  It was delicious!  The meringue was light and airy, the filling was just tart enough and the crust was firm, yet delicate, but it was very, very sweet.  I got about three bites into it, put it back in the fridge to finish another time, and then went to the pantry and started noshing on some salty snacks to balance out my tastes buds.  I will finish it as it tasted great, but it was just so sweet.  Maybe it was because I wasn't really hungry, but I couldn't wait to taste it.  I suspect it may be too sweet for my blood, but I know that there are plenty of people out there that will love it.

Overall, I love that this place exists!  It is closer to my home and the prices are comparable to most other locations, and the added bonus that they also carry for sale other products for a little bit cheaper than stores sell them for.  I highly recommend everyone that lives in the area go there.

Taco leftovers for me on Monday...and my second attempt to tell my inner child who is boss and convince him that the pie isn't THAT sweet!