Roux Tampa

Dinner at 

the new Tampa hot spot... last night proved to be a good evening out.  This was test menu night.  There were four of us in attendance.  We would have liked to try everything on the menu, but alas our stomachs would not allow it.  But I will tell you what we did have.  

Off the appetizer menu, we ordered the Roux Cornbread, if you are a big fan of cornbread this is an item for you.  Everyone at our table loved it.  The next one we tried was the abita-beer-battered crab beignet, to die for, love, love, love this one.  Then we tried the char-grilled oysters, presented just as they would be in New Orleans.  I'm not such a big fan of oysters but I did like these, our friend Mimi who likes oysters any way you serve them, loved these. Next on the our menu was the smoked duck & andouille gumbo, Andrea tried this one and thought it was very good, she would have that again.  Mimi tried the mumbo, jumbo, seafood gumbo, she said her dish was delish.  I did try a bit of it and I thought is was pretty tasty.   I tried the roasted beet salad, which I thought was very tasty.  I wanted to try the mirliton & green apple salad, but they didn't have it for last nights test run.

Moving on to the main courses; Anne had "not your ordinary shrimp & grits"  it was love at first sight for her.  Andrea had the bayou bolognese,  she loved the sauce, they used angle hair pasta, it was supposed to be pappardelle pasta which she would have preferred.  I had the wild mushroom ravioli, which they touted as their vegetarian dish for the evening.  The absinthe-laced cajun tomato cream on the ravioli was very good. 

We tried a couple of cocktails from the bar which they are calling Toula's, French Quarter cocktails meet trendy mixology creations.  Anne and Mimi tried the Sazerac, which they've had years ago, and they really enjoyed remembering.  I tried the Pink Fairy, that was a wow from me.  I will definitely have that drink again.  I don't remember all what it had in it, but it did  have elder flower liqueur and I believe muddled basil. 

We all had the the Pinot Noir house wine with our meal and it was very nice. smoked duck  & andouille gumbo

There were a few mishaps, the service was reaaaally slow, but  the waitress was very pleasant, then the oven hoods went down and the place filled with smoke, but after it aired out, and the smoked cleared out we had a pleasant evening.  The interior was very New Orleans style with the red brick and the lighting.  They did a very nice job on the decorating that gets an A+.  I really shouldn't comment on the service, because it was a trial run and I'm not sure they have all the details worked out.  So we will definitely give them a second try.  It will be fun to have another good restaurant in the neighborhood. #rouxtampa  

The Vibrant Table

Saturday: Inkwood Books for a book signing by Anya Kassoff author of  The Vibrant Table.  Andrea stepped up to help out with preparations.  Anya is from Russia originally, presently lives in St Pete, Fl. and has just published her first book.  She has kept a blog about cooking and then was asked to work on a book and thus The Vibrant Table.

 Anya uses all fresh herb and seeds, she even grinds her own buckwheat, which we found out changes the color of the bread.  Andrea and I decide to fix a dish from the book before we went to the book signing. So I picked out the, Caramelized Fennel and Fig Pizza, which has a Buckwheat crust.  Andrea used store bought Buckwheat and the crust of our pizza was chocolate in color.  Anya told us that the Buckwheat you buy in the store is roasted ahead of time.  So when you grind your own Buckwheat it's lighter in color and fluffy.  When it's baked it comes out lighter in color instead of chocolate in color.  We all learn something new everyday. 

Anya prepared 4 dishes from her book. The first dish was a soup, Avocado Cilantro Soup, it was many of the guests favorite dish of the night.  Dish 2 was, Peach and Avocado Summer Rolls, now that was my favorite dish, it was cool refreshing and delicious.  It had this amazing sauce made with almond butter.  This is a great dish for a warm summer Florida day.  Dish 3 was, Pumpkin Seed Falafel with Grilled Peach Salsa, this too was a great summer dish, it is served in a lettuce or cabbage leaf and the peach salsa we a real treat.  Dish 4 was dessert, Berry and chocolate Crisp, another delightful hot summer dish. 
 We had a complete meal, and if you weren't there you missed out.  

Sunday night we prepared another meal from, The Vibrant Table, Zucchini Spaghetti with Nectarines and Pumpkin Seed Pesto, the Zucchini is prepared raw, Andrea and I decided we would probably cook the zucchini for a minuted or two next time. We even bought a sprializer, for making pasta out of zucchini and sweet potatoes. We enjoyed the meal, the pumpkin seed pesto was a new taste for us and it was a keeper.  The nectarines we bought at Greenwise Market and they were perfect, so sweet and ripe.  We have been shopping at Greenwise more often of late.  They have great fish, and the veggies are fresh and it's close to where we live.  I will have to bone up on my  photography, if I'm going to take pictures of food.  Anya's daughter did the photography for the book and it is beautiful.

Here's to eating better...

Salad Night: Slow-Roasted Salmon Nicoise Salad

Thursday: Fish; We often have a salad night.  We like to make them a bit more substantial if that is all we are having; after hearing Gale Gand, we of course had to try another recipe from her new book "Lunch", so we went for our desire "salad".  Recipe #2 page 160; Slow-Roasted Salmon Nicoise Salad.  The idea is you roast the salmon in the oven, slowly, well not that slowly, you bake it for 15 to 20 minutes.  It does produce a melt-in-your-mouth texture.  The recipe calls  for a 1-pound fillet of salmon.  The recipe calls for Icelandic or other salmon.  Generally we use wild King or Coho or whatever wild salmon we can get our hands on that's not too over priced.  The salad was amazing, we did use the ingredients stated in the recipe, but then we added other elements that were in our re-fridge.  We will do this recipe again, it was very tasty. (Keeper, as I say, to make sure we have it again.)

Here's to eating better....

Dip Right In

Wednesday:  Dip Right In, is an article that I found in the June issue of Health Magazine. So if you're looking for a dip that won't kill you diet this is the article for you.   The idea is you start with one base and add different ingredients.
The Basic is Hearts of Palm Dip, so this will be the basis
1    large garlic clove, minced
      Salt and freshly ground white pepper
2    14-oz cans hearts of palm, drained, rinsed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup plain Greek yorgut (not nontfat) or sour cream
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
      Pinch of cayenne pepper, or more to taste
On a cutting board, using side of a chef's knife, mash garlic with a generous pinch of salt until a paste forms.  Scrape into a food processor, add hearts of palm, yogurt and oil and process until well blended.  Scrape down sides of bowl, season with salt, white peper and cayenne and pulse until almost smooth.

per serving (1/4 cup),  80 calories, 7g fat (2g sat.), 2mg Chol., 2g fiber, 3g protein, 4g carbs., 273mg sod., 2mg iron, 52mg calcium  
 
The Asian-Style Roasted Carrot Ginger Dip, is the one we tried.  We've made this one several times and really enjoy the flavor of the roasted carrots and the ginger.  For dipping we used jicama, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, an assortment of peppers (orange and yellow), and some rice crackers.
If you're interested in the recipe, you can either find it at Health.com or email me and I'll send it to you.
                                                   
                       Here's to eating better...

Gale Gand, Chef amazing

Last night, Tuesday: Vegetarian:  Andrea and I went to Inkwood Books for a book signing by Gale Gand for her new book Lunch!  It was much more then we had expected, as we have been to many book signings before.  She spoke for about an hour and was very entertaining with lots of stories to tell.  You almost felt like she was your good friend by the time you left for the evening.  The owner of Inkwood, Stefani Beddingfield cooked several items from the cook book and set out quite a nice spread. Chef Gand did a short demo on her pea hummus, which in the book she calls Pea & Garlic Dip.  We have made Pea hummus before, but a nice added item she did was mint.  Wow it really changed the flavor of the hummus.  All in all we really enjoyed the evening, Thanks to Stefani, her staff especially Amanda and of Course Gail Gand.

Before we left to attend the book signing we tried one of the recipe's from the book.  Occasionally we just have a salad night, so we decided to try one from the book "LUNCH".  While I was out taking my mom to the acupuncturist, Andrea went to Fresh Market to find some Burrata.  Burrata is a creamy-centered mozzarella, which we discovered at Cheese Please last year (another independent seller.) 


Andrea had picked the Burrata with Grape Tomato & Celery Salad on page 163 in the book.  Andrea is not all that fond of celery so she used fennel instead.  Let me tell you it was a real treat.  We added to the meal roasted golden beets and left over enchiladas from Saturday night. Then we tasted all the goodies at Inkwood Books, that Stefani so graciously prepared. 

Roasted Beets:  Wrap the beets individually in aluminum foil and stick in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour, when they cool a bit peel off the skins.  In a frying pan toast cumin seeds, then add olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, mix together and coat the beets with the mixture.                                             Delicious....

                                      Here's to eating better, not saying that I always do....

Monday: Vegetarian:  With the heat approaching the morning hours, we have decided to move to the gym. The goal was to do 3 different things for 10 minutes each.  Bikes came first, the the row machine and then the stair-master.  Goal accomplished.

Fresh Fava beans have started showing up in the grocery. Fava beans are a favorite in our house.  Except for one thing, preparing them is a night-mare. Taking the little jackets off is time consuming. 
Dinner:  Fava Bean and Spring Vegetable Soup,  a favorite.  
This came from Bon Appetit / May 2000 issue 

You think, isn't this the wrong time of year to have soup?  Usually I would answer yes, but this soup is crisp and full of veggies.  It definitely is full of spring vegitables. The recipe calls for lima beans, we will often replace them edamame, only because we like them better.

Here's to eating better. 

Sunday:Dinner on the deck;  it was nice enough out Sunday night to eat outside.  The nights will soon be too hot and humid to eat outside, so we took advantage.
Dinner: last night grilled baby bokchoy, salad and grilled lakeside turkey burgers
Our first grilling experience of bokchoy; 1. it doesn't take very long, like 3 minutes, mixing together sesame oil and teriyaki sauce, baste on the bokchoy and grill.  Very tender and tasty. The salad was the same as Saturday's.  The Lakeside Turkey Burgers was our latest endeavor with turkey burgers.  I found the recipe on Whole Foods, it was delicious.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1/2   pound white ground turkey
1/2   pound dark ground turkey
6      sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, thinly sliced, plus 2 tablespoons olive oil from the jar
2     tablespoons chopped parsley (or 2 teaspoons dried)
2     tablespoons chopped basil (or 2 teaspoons dried)
1     teaspoon garlic powder
       salt and pepper
4     whole wheat buns or rolls
4     teaspoons mayonnaise or your favorite sandwich spread
       lettuce and sliced tomatoes
Method:
Place turkey in a bowl.  Gently work in sun-dried tomatoes plus 2 tablespoons oil from the jar, parsley, basil, garlic, salt and pepper.  Take care not to overwork the mixture.
Note: The the reason for the mixture of the two typed of turkey is moistness, the burgers are much more moist with this mixture of light and dark. 

Saturday: Vegetarian:  The Belmont Stakes, we were really hoping California Chrome was going to win it; it’s about time for another Triple Crown winner.  It would have been a nice fairy tale story.  But that’s not what I’m here to talk about today.  

I’m here to talk about food, yes that’s right food. I have been delinquent these past few months. We have tried two new recipes this past week, which we really enjoyed.  Keeping in the line of fewer calories these were pretty good.  I found a recipe in Fitness Magazine, February 2014 issue. 

Indian Enchiladas;  Can I say YUM, see recipe below.  We added to the dinner a green salad made with extra arugula and spring mix, dried cranberries, sliced jicama, sliced radishes, avocado and our favorite dressing Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette.  (See July 18, 2013 for recipe)

Serves 8 

Nonstick cooking spray

½       tablespoon canola oil

1        medium potato, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch cubes  (we used 1 large size new potato)

1        medium shallot, chopped (recipe calls for onion)

¼       teaspoon salt

1        16-ounce bag fresh spinach (recipe calls for frozen chopped spinach, thawed)

1 ½    cups light coconut milk

2        teaspoons curry powder (next time Andrea will make her own curry)

6        ounces queso blanco or feta cut into ½-inch cubes (we used the queso)

8        8-inch corn tortillas (recipe used flour tortillas)

2        teaspoons cornstarch

1 ½    ounces shredded Monterey Jack (about ½ cup)

2        tablespoons finely chopped cilantro (we use flat leaf parsley)

 1.    Preheat the oven to 375°.  Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with the cooking spray and set aside.  Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat; add potato, shallot and salt and cook, stirring occasionally until the shallot is soft and translucent about 8 minutes.  Stir in spinach, ½ cup coconut milk and curry powder and saute’ 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and gently fold in queso blanco or feta.

2.      Lay a tortilla on a clean surface.  Scoop 1 loosely packed cup filling mixture into the center of tortilla.  Fold in sides, top and bottom and place tortilla, seam down, in prepared baking .  Repeat with remaining tortillas packing them tightly. ( You may need to put a clean bowl or plate on top of the first few to hold them in place.)

3.      In a small bowl, whisk together remaining coconut milk and cornstarch; stir in Monterey jack and pour mixture over enchiladas.

4.      Bake 30 minutes, or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and let sit 3 minutes; garnish with cilantro.  

 Nutrition facts per serving: 303 calories, 13 g protein, 34 g carbs, 13 g fat (5.9 saturated), 2 g fiber,

 764 mg sodium

Monday March 3, 2014

Hello again, So its the third month into the new year.  Yes, I have started a diet and restarted a diet and now I'm restarting again.  Ugh, why is it so hard.  It's not like I eat a lot, it's just if I eat anything but protein and vegetables  I gain weight.  Not that I didn't have a good time in the interim, too many parties.   My birthday, my mom's 90th and what a party that was...So Andrea made 8 different cupcakes and they were amazing (about 150 of them).  I'll tell you what kinds and I posted them all to Pinterest. Cappuccino Cupcakes, Peanut Butter filled Chocolate Cupcakes topped with heavenly Marshmallow Frosting, Cinnamon Roll-Stuffed Cupcakes, Caramel Cheesecake Cupcakes, Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting, Salted Caramel Apple Cupcakes, Lite Triple Coconut Cupcakes, and last but not least Caramel Apple Cupcakes, my favorites were Cinnamon Roll, the Lite Coconut, and the Caramel Apple.  I did not try the Chocolate Ganache, but everyone raved about that one and the Peanut Butter one.  The Lite Coconut one melted in you mouth, if you like coconut you will absolutely love this cupcake.  We had Prosecco for the toast (that's my mom's favorite).  We did have beer, wine and a few hors d'oeuvres to start out with before the toasting began, every one had a great time especially my mom (Anne).

Starting over: An introduction to Andrea an amazing chef.

Well, where shall I begin.  So I have decided to revamp the blog and introduce my partner in crime, Andrea.  Andrea (A) is the real chef here, I love to look for the recipes.  I look on several web sights and in several magazines.  Andrea has a collection of magazines and cook books you wouldn't believe, so I will show you. Andrea loves to cook for people who love to eat and love to experiment with food.  I just love to eat.
We have been fixing up our small townhouse so that we could begin entertaining in our small house.  Since I was working full time plus... we never had a very neat place, it always looked like an office.  But now that I am retired we have had a chance to get the place in shape.  Our first guests will be Thanksgiving dinner.  My niece and her friend are coming from Atlanta and my friend from Brandon and my mom who lives two miles away.  I will keep you informed on the planning, preparation and eating of the meal.

Yes I am on a forever diet, I have my good and bad days.  But I have dropped about 8 lbs since I begin this blog.

Starting in September Andrea and I started an interval running/walking program.  We met these two gals this summer that were using it to train for a marathon, so we decided to give it a try.    It was developed by Jeffery Galloway.  On the days we don't run we go to the gym and work out with our friend Nan.

So now it is January 7th, 2014, I lied I haven't been blogging because we've been cleaning and painting and doing a little traveling.  I should have been because we have had some amazing meals.  When I have time in the next few days I will see if I can put them together for you, because there have been a couple I really liked.  I call them keepers, that way Andrea knows to mark that one down for repeats.

We did enjoy company for Thanksgiving, as Andrea's children put it, "now we have a grown-up house" well I doubt that, but at least it's a work in progress.  We did everything gluten-free this year, which was interesting.  Everybody seemed to like it especially my neighbor, who keeps a gluten-free kitchen. She was so excited because we had gravy and dressing that she could eat,  oh and dessert.  I of course liked everything.

We started out with an Aperol Spritz very tasty and a cheese tray.  Dinner consisted of a fresh organic Turkey, cornbread stuffing, green-beans with a pesto, roasted brussel sprouts with red grapes, smashed garlic potatoes, sliced oranges with olive oil and black pepper (an old Italian recipe).  2 desserts, peanut butter chocolate malt ice-cream thing that was amazing, and butterscotch pie that had a crust to die for,  so all in all it was a success, there were 7 for dinner and 3 more for dessert .