A Bird of a Different Feather

So it has been a few days since my last post and I thought I would share with you some of my foodie adventures. First I went to the meat market here called Granzins and saw they had some more unusual options in the poultry department.

At this point they may look like bacon wrapped play dough but I assure you these are the tastiest morsels of goodness. They are quail breasts wrapped in bacon stuffed with pickled jalapeno. For my first time cooking these I popped them into a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. The bacon was not crispy so I browned them in a frying pan. When all was said and done they came out like this:

Needless to say they look much more appetizing cooked. I know some of you may be wanting to gag at the thought of eating quail, but don’t knock it till you try it! Thank you to Granzins Meat Market in New Braunfels, TX for this excellent combination. The next time I pick these up I think I’m going to brown the bacon first and then put them on a plank and let the plank add some smoke flavor. For you hunters out there wanting to cook you dove breasts, I’ve been told you can cook them in the same way. Wrap a piece of jalapeno with the dove breast and some bacon and cook them any way you want! Let me know if you have heard of any other methods of cooking fowl! Until next time, stay curious!

Roast Chicken

Well I think it's about time that I post again. It's only been two months shy of year!

So I recently read Anthony Bourdain's Nasty Bits, great book by the way, and Anthony asserts that every one should know how to cook a few recipes. One recipe he insists upon, is one must be able to roast a whole chicken. So I felt it was time I finally took a crack at it. Ok ok let me go ahead and admit, I followed a recipe............GASP! I know, but in my defense, one must learn the alphabet before they can write. In my case I needed to learn the basics first.
So I followed Jamie Oliver's roast chicken recipe. Let me Just say it was AWESOME! The aroma that came out of my oven is like none other. It was pure comfort that made one feel they are really home.

First, crank your oven up to 475 degree. Then you start chopping your vegetables that go in the pan. You start with the basics, carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Cut them into medium chunks and drizzle with olive oil and toss them in the pan. Next you will want to season your chicken with olive oil, salt and pepper. After well seasoned grab some fresh herbs from the garden, rosemary, thyme and sage in my case.






Then take a lemon and pierce a few holes with a fork. Throw in the microwave for 30 seconds to get the juices going. Put the herbs in the chicken first then put the lemon on top of the herbs in the chicken cavity. Put the chicken on top of the veggies in the roast pan.



Throw this in the oven and immediately turn the heat down to 400 degrees. Cook for 40 minutes and baste then cook for another 40 minutes and VOILA!


I want to thank Jaimie Oliver for making the best roast chicken recipe which can be found in his cookbook Jamie's Food Revolution.

Now you may be asking, so are you going to do anything different? Well ya but for right now we only need one chicken. One thing I would do different is season the chicken a day in advance. I read an article saying that a chicken can be seasoned two days in advance. I am a big fan of pre-seasoning. When I posted that I cooked a chicken on Facebook my dear uncle gave me a great recipe for chicken breasts with broccoli and horseradish sauce. So just like my uncle gave me a recipe, I ask you for some chicken ideas. I think I also might experiment with new herbs and see what flavors come out. For now I'll try to post again in less than 365 days. Talk to you soon and stay curious.

Starting out

Well I wanted to start this blog because I have always been curious about new, and old, kinds of food and cuisine out there. For those of you who take time to read this blog will learn that I am very adventurous with my food. I have eaten everything from guinea pig in Ecuador to a chicken nugget at McDonalds. I want to learn as much as I can about food, wine and anything else in the gastronomical world. If you have any suggestions for food, wine, booze or what to eat after a long night of boozing it up....I want to know. For now I will start with this topic: Barbecue.

I have been using what I call a vertical smoker in which the heat source is at the bottom of the smoker and the meat is about 2 feet above it. I have found that when I smoke ribs, pork of course, I can not get the fall off the bone texture that I found in Memphis, TN. Does anyone have any advice as to how to better use one of these smokers? Thanks and I'll post again later.