The New Chef's Journal

I'm a huge fan of burgers, but I haven't eaten beef or pork for about 8 years now. Of all the foods I've given up, a good juicy hamburger might be the one I miss the most. Baby back ribs are right at the top, too. I haven't found any sort of substitute for ribs. If any of my readers know of one, please let me know.  There are some decent burger substitutes out there; boca burgers are pretty tasty, healthy and convenient, but they really don't measure up to a real hamburger. After some searching, I found an amazing recipe for flavorful, juicy turkey burgers at offthebroiler.wordpress.com . The author of the recipe does a great job explaining the keys to a good turkey burger. One is to make sure that you use 93% percent fat free ground rather than the 99% fat free ground turkey. With the 99% fat free there is just too little moisture to have a really good burger.  Another key is make sure that your burger is very well-seasoned. Ground beef has a lot more flavor on i

Seared scallops are one of my absolute favorite foods, but they can be very difficult to get right. Their basic preparation is very simple - just sear them in a pan with some olive oil or butter. The challenge is cooking them for the perfect amount of time. There's a very delicate balance between scallops that are too raw and scallops that are overcooked and rubbery. Most recipes will tell you to cook them for 1 1/2 to 4 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the scallops. Generally, you just want to cook them until they've got a nice golden brown crust on each side. The recipe I'm using comes from the cooking blog bell'alimento . This recipe takes a basic pan-seared scallops and adds a saffron cream sauce. The sauce turned out thinner than I would have liked, but it still added a nice buttery flavor to scallops. I probably should have let the white wine reduce a bit longer. On the side I made balsamic roasted brussel sprouts with grape tomatoes and slivered

This is another recipe that comes from the Pioneer Woman , which is one of the absolute best food blogs around. I'm a huge fan of her work. There are so many good recipes on her site. I chose penne alla vodka, because its one of my favorite Italian dishes, but I've never made it myself. The vodka really adds a unique flavor to traditional tomato sauce. You can use whatever brand of vodka you want, but as usual, the better the ingredients the better the final product. I was really happy with how this dish turned out. To add some protein to the dish I sauteed some chicken with garlic, basil, parsley, salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper. Below are the original ingredients and directions with my notes in italics. Ingredients: 1 pound pasta (I prefer penne, but you can use whatever you want.) 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons butter 1 whole medium onion, chopped finely 2 cloves (to 3 cloves) garlic, chopped ¾ cups (to 1 cup) vodka 1 can (about 14 Oz.) tomato pur

Lately I've been thinking about ideas for dressing up simple dishes. This recipe is for grilled cheese sandwich with turkey, avocado, cilantro and a parmesan, red pepper crust. The recipe comes from Sunset magazine , by way of myrecipes.com. I was very happy with how this recipe turned out. The parmesan and red pepper flake crust on the outside adds a crispy and delicious layer to the sandwich. Muenster cheese is a big upgrade over the standard American or cheddar cheese. This recipe was really quick and simple, but it turned out amazing. I was planning on making a dressed up version of tomato soup to go with it, but settled for Campbell's due to time constraints. That may be an idea for an upcoming entry. Ingredients: 2 tablespoons softened butter 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1/2 teaspoon red chile flakes 1 large egg, lightly beaten 1/4 cup milk 1 cup coarsely grated parmesan cheese 4 freshly cut slices from a sourdough loaf 6 ounces thinly sliced turkey 1/2 avocado,