Fotocuisine

Congratulations to Jess at Hungry For Seconds for winning our last giveaway! Your San Francisco goodie package will be on its way as soon as I hit the post office! Also, read to the end for another giveaway and a sponsor announcement!

Last week, Central Florida had four hard freezes in six days. Normally, the rest of the county will have a frost and we stay slightly above since we’re close to the water. Not last week — mid-20s even where we were, and there was a skim of slushy ice on our canal.

We’re not used to weather like that, but more than our comfort, I was actually worried about my coconut trees. They usually can’t take a hard freeze, and even though it warmed above freezing in the middle of the day, four freezes a week made it a pretty tough week for them.

We’ve been getting a good harvest of coconuts this last month, even before the freeze. I thought I’d take advantage of them to make a red curry sauce. Christey wanted some skewered shrimp cooked on the grill, and they paired up nicely.

No lime in this coconut…(read more)

(Read to the end for a FotoCuisine Giveaway!)

Every year, I do a four-course Christmas dinner for family. The number of guests range from 10 to 20 depending on the year, and to which cities family members are traveling over the holidays.

Each year, I do a theme. One year it was “wrapped” foods, one year was green and red. One year we had four hurricanes in Florida, so I picked courses based on the names of the hurricanes (Charley, Francis, Ivan, and Jeanne). Last year, I did an Iron Chef theme where guests picked the ingredient a week in advance.

This year, I struggled with a theme. Work and life pressure has been intense this year, like a good chunk of America. Both of my brothers and their families would be away this year, visiting in-laws, so the guest list was smaller than usual. My mother half suggested Christmas-on-a-budget, and it immediately resonated with me.

I wanted to still do a four course meal, but I wanted to keep it refined, yet inexpensive. We would have six adults this year, so I planned a meal under $100. Cooking staples already present in my parents’ house (flour, mustard, olive oil, sugar, etc…) wouldn’t count in the ingredient cost. I surprised myself when I planned the meal, went shopping, and ended up with a bill of $79.

Menu inside…

I tend more toward the savory than the sweet when I cook, but you can’t beat these two words: POM cheesecake.

I wanted to do little mini-bites, and I also wanted to experiment to see if I could incorporate POM pomegranate juice into the cheesecakes themselves instead of just in the sauce. One of the best things about experimenting when cooking is tasting the results!

These would make great appetizers or desserts for a mingling crowd. Since we’re right between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s the time for winter school and office parties, and these little minis would go over pretty nicely.
More pics and recipe inside

Christey and I were excited to go to the 1st Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival in San Francisco next month. We were even more excited to hear that Bertolli Sauces was sponsoring 10 foodie bloggers, providing airfare and hotel to the festival in exchange for developing an appetizer or main course menu item using Bertolli sauces.

For our entry, Christey and I were batting around main course ideas. I was leaning toward using the Bertolli vodka sauce, and Christey suggested stuffed shells. I thought the two would match well, especially with a filling rich in roasted garlic, crimini mushrooms, and asiago cheese.

Well, our menu item worked out nicely in two ways. It was a really tasty combination (I had it for leftovers the next two days), and it won free airfare and hotel for one of us!

For the next few days, Foodbuzz will ask members to vote on their favorite menu items. The three winners will serve their food to guests at the Festival! So, starting later today, head over to the Bertolli Sauces page at Foodbuzz and vote for FotoCuisine to see Peter dish out some Bertolli Sauce shells!
Click on this link: http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/us/florida/1519710-bertolli-sauce-menu-item-asiago-roasted-garlic-and-mushroom-stuffed-shells and click on the “buzz it” icon (with green check mark by it) to cast your vote

After far too long of an absence (life and summer and day-job), we are once again joining the Royal Foodie Joust, hosted by Jenn, The Leftover Queen!

The Foodie Joust is a monthly competition that has been called the Iron Chef of the foodie blogs. It’s designed for fun, not stress — there are three ingredients to be used, but there is a month to come up with ideas and enjoy what everyone comes up with. There are also three categories of prizes: Best Overall, Best Picture, and Most Original. It’s one of the kindest and friendliest competitions out there, so it is a great place for cooks of all levels and any specialty to join in!

There are prizes of aprons and coffee mugs, but my favorite prize is the duty of the winner for Best Overall: they get to choose the three ingredients for the next Joust.

This month’s Jousting ingredients are:
Apples
Maple Syrup
Cayenne Pepper

I came up with seared scallops marinaded and glazed with maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, and cayenne pepper. I wasn’t sure if cider vinegar counted as apples, so I made a side-dish of savory “home fries” made with granny smith apples, along with bacon and videlia onions.

The Joust awaits inside….

Last month, we won the Royal Foodie Joust, hosted by Jenn, The Leftover Queen. As part of the prize (along with the coveted Joust apron), we got to choose the three ingredients for this month’s Joust.

I can’t help but play along, even though we’re out of the voting this month. I made a spicy tuna roll (red tuna, white rice, green nori), with a spicy sriracha wasabi sauce (red sriracha, green wasabi, white(ish) garlic/ginger).

Roll on in…

The folks at FoodBuzz were kind enough to send us a sample of Buitoni’s new Riserva Pasta line. We got a sample of the Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti — a folded semolina ravioli-like pasta containing portabello, crimini and roasted garlic with padano and parmesan cheeses.

The semolina, mushroom, cheese mixture just jumped out with its earthiness, so I was mulling over choices for sauce. I came up with a champagne cream sauce, with some New Mexico red chiles, with fresh oregano and lemon juice. I was shooting for the idea of an alfredo, matched with just a very little bit of smoky chile zing, with some greenness and sharpness from the herbs and citrus. It turned out to be a pretty good mix of flavors.

Simmer Simmer

I checked the mail today and in it was March/April’s Imbibe Magazine. Imbibe Magazine is one of the nation’s top drink magazine. They contacted us about a month or so ago about being in one of their articles on coffee. They liked the Honey-Espresso Glazed Scallops as well as our Coffee themed Christmas Dinner, and wanted to put my pictures and Peter’s recipe in the magazine.

I had completely forgotten all about it until yesterday, when I asked Peter if he had heard anything on it. He hadn’t, but today it came in the mail!

The picture/recipe they chose was the Honey-Espresso Glazed Scallops and with it they even mention that it was part of LeftOver Queen’s Royal Foodie Joust.

Mentioned online at the bottom under Recipes, Cravings.

-Christey

The POM Wonderful people have selected FotoCuisine’s Seared Duck Breast with Pomegranate Reduction as the winner of the 2008 POM Blog Recipe Contest!

Details, and the runners-up can be found on the POM Wonderful Blog.

You’ll notice the contest is in my name; there was only a spot for one name on the entry form. If it hadn’t been for Christey’s food styling and photographic talents, I doubt we would have been noticed as much.

Thanks to everyone who has commented on the original recipe, and especially thanks to those who attempted the dish and commented that it was an approachable recipe! We’ve had link-backs from Atlanta to Australia, and it’s really cool that people took an interest.

Over the next 11 months, I’ll be posting a pomegranate recipe a month which will appear here at FotoCuisine, and at the POM Wonderful Blog. Due to space considerations there (and my tendency toward verbosity), the FotoCuisine posts may be a little more detailed. So check back in, here and there! And thanks again from Christey and me for the encouragement and the visits!