Taco Shells "Guerro" Style

So, this is where you start. Corn tortillas from the store...not the uncooked ones, but the soft ones.....heat a skillet pretty hot with a bit of oil. Then do this........................

Once you have this started, maybe you can settle this (monkey #4 likes to have our full attention as soon as we get home)................

OK, so I got that problem settled, well distracted to say the least....and then you have to fold your taco shell so it makes that little cup thing.........once you hold it there for approximately 20-30 seconds it will get all nice and brown then do drop it on to a paper towel to drain.....and you'll get this. (below)

Anyway, fill with whatever taco meat you have prepared, with some cheese, avacado, lettuce, green (or red) onion, sour cream and of course Tapatio. (I'm currently out)

Enjoy!

Easy as cake, piece of pie

1/2 pkg egg noodles
1 can tuna
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

OK, so cook your noodles, do cheese while that cooks and pre-heat oven to 350. mix cooked noodles, tuna (drained), soup and most of the cheddar in a bowl. Place all of that in a cooking pan (those loaf shaped ones are the best) and top with a butt-load of cheese. Put in oven for about 20-30 minutes (until cheese begins to brown) and remove from oven.

Tuna casserole is one of the ultimate comfort foods, especially on a rainy day.

Enjoy!

Tips to remember when baking late at night

First of all, this is why I don't bake. Too much to freakin' remember. I've already got A.D.O.D. (Attention Deficit Obsessive Disorder...yes, I made it up)

OK, so I'm supposed to be making some damn cupcakes for my kids' pre-school/daycare Valentine's Party.....thought it would be cute to make them in this tray that J bought for another project. Tray is too shallow and it just wasn't working. So, I put the cake batter in a cake pan to make a cake....GREAT, not like I wrote anything down for Monkey #3's class....but it was in writing that I was bringing something for #4's class. I go to make the frosting and I realized I didn't buy enough butter......dammit! It's 11:30 p.m. I'm going to the store to buy some damn frosting......f-it! (sorry for the strong language)

By the way, the cake is from scratch and the batter tasted dang good.

Frittata (repeat offender)

So, this morning, I was trying to think of a way to make these fritattas more filling. The first time I made one, I used potatoes and sausage. No one really liked it that much. Today's wasn't much different, but I wanted to share it with you "three".

8 eggs, beaten
1T Veggie oil
1T EVOO
1/3C Milk
Handful of Spinach
1 Potato diced (optional)
1/2 sm onion, diced (optional)
1/2-1C grated cheese (your choice, I used sharp cheddar)
garlic salt
pepper

Dice onion and potato, toss in skillet until potato is cooked through. (season with garlic salt and pepper to taste) Place potato in a bowl and set aside. Beat eggs, add EVOO and milk and mix well. Pour eggs into pre-heated 10" skillet, until eggs set somewhat. Add potatoes, onion and spinach...let spinach settle....then add cheese.....put in oven (350 degrees...right?) for about 7-10 minutes, remove when cheese is barely brown. Slide it on to a cutting board to cool for a few minutes so the cheese is easier to cut and serve.

My kids call it "eggie pizza" and love fritattas. At any rate, give it a try and let me know what you think.

Later!

Chicken Fried Rice.......mmmmmmmmmmmmm

I made fried rice tonight but didn't have many of these ingredients.....still turned out OK. By the way, you can do this with tofu, shrimp, pork or whatever you want to put in there.

2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1T Vegetable Oil
2 diced carrots
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup frozen peas (unless you have fresh)
2 cups cooked jasmine rice
1 egg
3 chopped green onion
1-3T Soy Sauce (I prefer low sodium)

Dice chicken breasts and place them in a bowl with a small amount of soy sauce for about 30 minutes before cooking or while you heat the skillet/wok. Heat wok/skillet with oil, toss in minced garlic and before it starts burning toss in chicken, once chicken begins to brown, throw in carrots and chopped green onion. Once carrots begin to sweat a little, throw in other veggies (did I mention you should be cooking your rice by now....in fact the rice should just about be ready) When chicken is nice an browned, your rice should be done....spoon rice into wok (add a little more oil, if needed) and mix well....I like to do that chef toss thing with the wok/skillet...it makes me feel good about cooking...like I'm doing something. Make a little coliseum with the rice so there is a space for the egg on the pan....crack egg right into the skillet/wok and then start working the egg into the rice...watch it cook before your eyes...ooohh...aaaahhhh.....add soy sauce and mix it in well......

Cheat code: pick up some rice at the Chinese take out place on the way home from work.

Fun garnish: Once you're done chopping your green onion, take the white ends...cut off the hairs, then do a criss cross cut in the white portion...place in a bowl of cold water and watch them bloom like little flowers (Thank you, Wolfgang Puck for the idea) You'll impress your friends and the kids think they're cute.

Penne Pasta w/ Cajun Hot Links and Chipotle Shrimp

Holy Moly! This is one HAWT little number. I got addicted to Food Network's Next TV Food Star series a year or so ago and thought that Guy Fieri was going to win. He did. Anyway, on his show, he brought it with the title recipe.
I have slowly been amassing the ingredients needed to make this luscious looking dish. There will also be a challenge on figuring out what to feed #3 & #4. They won't eat anything but eggs, oatmeal and cheerios...oh wait....Mac 'N Cheese too. (that was the main dish this evening.) On top of that my wonderful wife wasn't so sure about it, but I think I've talked about it enough that she's willing to go with me on this one.
Maybe next year, I will try to get on that show and become the next Bobby Flay....he's a hack.....kidding....he's only like my favorite chef. He would eat Jack Bauer for lunch.

Editor's Note (2/6/2007): Due to a recent bout of Stomach Flu after eating a hot link sandwich, the Caddywampus Cafe will NOT be including this dish on their menu. It looks great and still sounds great, but we do not want to irresponsibly upset any stomachs.

Sloppppppppyyyyyy Jooooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So who remembers the Manwich? It's a tomatoie seasoned loose meat sandwich. Who wants to remember to buy a can of stuff called "Manwich"...sounds like bad, gay porn. With that leaving a horrible visual scar on your brain, I'll get on with the food from Saturday night's dinner.

1.5 lbs ground beef
1 cup of ketchup
1-2T of Worchestire Sauce
8 burger buns (whole wheat if you got 'em)
(3 ingredients, really?) Yes, that's right, 3 main ingredients and the bun for functionality.

Brown meat (7% preferred) add whatever seasoning you like. Some people might actually use peppers and onions, but with young children (who still didn't eat the food) you want to get it as edible as possible. Once meat is brown, add ketchup and worchestire and reduce down to a thick-ish sauce.

Slap it on a bun (cheese too...if you want).......and watch their faces light up with childhood memories of that thing I mentioned at the front of the post....I can't repeat that name anymore.

The Weapons of Our Warfare

Hello. I'm Brian, and I'll be guest blogging here occasionally. Since our premise is easy to throw together fare, I thought I'd share a few of the things I consider Kitchen Essentials. Whenever I think of the words, "last minute", "extra guest" and "not enough" in the kitchen, I have a selection of "go to" items that can assist in turning junk in the fridge into edible food.

A selection of various oils and vinegars. Pictured here, Garlic, Red Wine, Basalmic, Spicy and Malt Vinegars. Also, Olive and Aromatic oils. I also try to acquire or create various "infused" olive oils when I can. I guess you can infer from the picture I am partial to the Star brand.

These are my life savers, so I buy them in bulk. Powdered onion, powdered garlic, and a McCormick italian seasoning blend (which contains marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano and basil). The onion and garlic are especially helpful for sneaking flavor into food without tipping off picky eaters.

Knorr Chicken and Tomato Chicken bullion. When it just "needs" something. It's saved many a bland soup or sauce.

Last is a personal preference, but I find an assortment of chile and pepper sauces essential. They are all different. Here, I am out of any Chipotle or Taco Sauces, but I usually keep several brands on hand. Also, in my opinion, Gebhardt is the only real option when it comes to Chili Powder. Nothing else even comes close.

Not that you have to run out and buy all this on your next shopping trip, but I find these items invaluable. They all keep for a pretty long time, so they can be picked up a few here and there, until you build a collection of "little tastes" to add to your favorite recipes or improvisations. Next up is a little soup that is easy and fast that I love to whip up.

Homeade Bolognese Sauce

So last night I tried something that Pascal recited to me one evening.


EVOO
1/2 onion, diced
2-20 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb of ground beef (I used turkey)
4-6 vine ripened tomatoes (rough chop)
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
1 package of spaghetti (I used angel hair...I love angel hair)


Heat a pan w/EVOO, put in onion and garlic, soften onions, add meat, brown (salt and pepper to taste), add roughly chopped tomatoes, let it reduce. (You can add some tomato paste if you'd like, I would have had I been in its possession) Sprinkle Parmesan and mix in. Oh, I forgot...prepare pasta according to package. (al dente is best) Depending on how you like to serve it, you can pour the sauce over the pasta or mix the pasta up. I mixed it up because I didn't have enough pasta for a lot....I had to stretch it out a bit

.

Breakfast for dinner, anyone? (edited w/recipe)

So last night on my way home, my wife calls me....."what do you want for dinner?"
We're trying not to eat out/take out so much...so I ask, "Do we have any eggs?"
To which my wonderful wife says, "mmmmmmmmm, bacon and eggs!"
We agreed, hang up and then I get another call, "So I'm standing here wondering if I should get this whole wheat pancake mix."
I say, "we can make it at home, I'm sure I have a recipe at home."
So, we agree on that and once I get way into the process (I'll post the recipe tonight), I find out I am missing Baking Soda.......CRAP! They came out way too dense, but if you put enough butter/syrup on them....they're fine.....if you put enough butter/syrup on them, they're fine....(keep saying that...maybe you'll believe it)

Well, at least the bacon and eggs were good.

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat germ (yes, wheat germ....don't worry, it'll be ok)
1 1/2t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1/4t salt
3T butter
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 cup of milk

Mix all dry ingredients first. (whisk, fork, whatever you like to mix with)
in a separate bowl, mix liquids
mix them all together
Pour 1/3 cup at a time on a medium heat skillet (here's the tip I was never aware of) do not let your skillet smoke (not that kind of smoke.....get too hot). The key is a medium heat skillet as to not burn your pancakes.

Serve with syrup or jelly or both! Of course, bacon and eggs go very well. Enjoy!

P.S. We should be hearing from a new contributor soon.....Mr. PlatypiMuse himself, Brian Norwood. He has a table here.

Repeat Offender

We had the Chicken Parmesean again tonight. It turned out great....but I did not use the flour....and it was pretty dang awesome, I must say. My wife said it was really, really good too.

Someone share a recipe!

The unholiest of unholies in the food world: the Casserole

My wife made this amazingly easy and delicious casserole. Yes, I said it..."casserole". It's called an enchilada casserole, and using "enchilada" in its title is a stretch at best.

Wanna know how to make it? Well here you go!

1lb ground beef

1 can of Hungry Jack (or your favorite instant biscuit)

1/2 an onion

1 sm can of enchilada sauce

1 1/2-2 1/2 cups of shredded cheese (your pick of type...usually cheddar and jack)

Now, take the onion cook it until tender, add beef (or turkey) and brown it. Then pour in your enchilada sauce to cover the beef and let that simmer. Turn oven on to 350 degrees (F)

While your meat stews (ha!), open your canned biscuits (wear protective eye covering due to the explosive nature of opening these things...again, "HA!"..I know I'm not funny to anyone but me) and tear into chunks to line a 9"x13" pan , pour saucy meat over biscuits and put in oven for 20 minutes; add cheese. Let this cook for another 10 minutes or so (until cheese is melted and browning) remove from oven and enjoy!

Like I said, this was one of the biggest surprises my wife has brought to the kitchen and it was wonderful. You can dress it up by adding diced green chili's or use some Tapatio hot sauce once it comes out of the oven.

My wife is one of those I can try anything and usually get it right, the first time, type of people. It's one of the many reasons to love her.

Try it and love it, teach your friends that a casserole can be made and still taste great!

Easy Shrimp Chowder

Alright, ya'll. I finally have another actual recipe up here. This is an amazingly easy thing to make. The hardest part is deveining your shrimp....actually I think finding somewhere that offers tail-off, peeled and uncooked shrimp is harder....but my wonderful wife found it. By the way, I got this from Southern Living magazine a couple of years ago. I'm sure it will turn up there again. They do re-run recipes from time to time.

1.5 lbs of uncooked shrimp (peeled/deveined)
1 sm yellow onion, chopped
2 cans of Cream of Potato soup
3.5 cups of milk
.25 tspn cayenne pepper
1 cup Monterey Jack Cheese

Ready, Go! Sautee onion in boiler with some butter (eyeball this one). Add milk soup and cayenne, bring to a boil. (Now be careful and stir frequently because milk has a nasty reputation for sticking to the bottom or burning easily.) Add cheese continue stirring until melted. Add shrimp until it turns pink. Remove from heat and enjoy. This should serve 12 cups of soup.

OK, I'm hungry.

Someone try it and let me know how you like it.

How do you.....

....get your kids to eat vegetables? We used to make turkey meatballs with food processed vieggies (i.e. spinach, zuccini) in them. Really easy to make.

Take a package of ground turkey (dark meat...white meat ruined #3 on them), mix (by hand) with 1 egg, 1 piece of bread from the food processer, with the veggie of choice. Then roll into balls, place on cookie sheet into a 350 degree pre-heated oven. Cook for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

They're great to put in marinara on a French roll if your kids won't eat them.

During a conversation with Pascal about the same thing, he suggested a 20 minute bolongnese spaghetti sauce and I'll blog about that later.

Share with me how you get your kids to eat veggies.

Catering

Ok, so this Saturday I worked a small Christmas Party Buffet for 16 people. The menu was Free Range Chicken (I noticed they were on the small side probably due to the fact they're not all genetically freaked out) in a wild mushroom and Cognac sauce, Potatoes gratin, and vegetables julienne. (Sorry, I left my camera at home....I'll remember next time)

Anyway, the food was great and the party was fun for the guests. I was working my tuccus off to make sure they were happy. I even did a beer run after I got all set up. I would complain about not getting a tip, but they customer was happy and the Events Coordinator hooked me up with a ton of food once I got back to the kitchen. A lot of my friends and co-workers ask me how this works and I thought I would take the time to have a catering workshop at the Caddywampus.

Usually, I just show up at the event and serve the food, but occasionally, I will get the call to do one by myself. (These are the ones that get the most questions.)

When I do the "solo" gig, I go to Pascal's and pick up a Cambro that gets stocked with the hors'd oeuvres, a tray of entree, and 2 sides. I will also get the lettuce and fixings to mix once I get there and put the dressing on the side or in the salad.

Once I arrive, I set up the buffet with the chaffing dishes brought in by the rental company or provided by the restaurant...these are pretty easy.

There ya go! I just set it up, let them know what it is and that it is ready and they're off to the feed bag.

The hard part is once the customer gets comfortable having a food server in the house, they have you jumping through hoops to get wine poured in all different directions, serving desserts, coffee and just keeping wine around. The other hard part is telling them you're leaving and they'll have to fend for themselves the rest of the night. (ha!)

It was a fun night and I'll re-live a conversation I had with the owner of Pascal's, Pascal Olhat, in a different post.

More about the London Broil

Someone asked me to tell more about the London Broil. All I knew about it is that this is not always the easiest to get right. The night I took this picture, I think it was quite a bit over cooked. I had taken it out earlier, but it was just too pink in the middle for the rest of the family. When one has kids, you must make sure you cook it all the way through because consistency is key. I like to let it marinade for a day or so, but that doesn't always happen.

Some nights are better than others, but it usually turns out pretty well.....just not this well done....ha!

Thank you all for visiting the Caddywampus and please come back to contribute your thoughts and stuff.

My second job

I have a second job as a server for a Pascal's Catering of Newport Beach, California. This is one of his busiest times of year too. So the best part for me is that when I'm serving I also have the opportunity to watch this chef of French styled cuisine. I haven't had the opportunity to ask him too many questions at this point. he seems a little unapproachable, but I'm hoping to overcome this fear. Yes, he is just a man, but he's a little kurt with people from time to time. I like him when I've had a normal conversation with him, but he really gets down to business when it is time to work.

The food is always amazing and this past weekend was no different. He was serving a seafood buffet from the grill. He did

I am hoping to post an interview with some photos of his food.

London Broil, Sauteed Green Beans and what?

Now the other night, I was all excited because I was going to have some red meat. Couldn't wait....big ol' slab of London Broil. Now I had to decide what to have with it. I had just purchased some fresh green beans (subconciously knowing what I was going to do with it). Next I was wondering what my starchy food was going to be. Mashed Potatoes, YUM! No, West, your potatoes are bad; what else do you have? Hmmmmmmmmmm, corn? no. Is there enough salad to have? Oh wait, the kids need to eat something, too. In the mean time, Monkey #1 asked what we were going to have and asked if we could have MacNcheese. "No," I said, "it doesn't go with what I am making." I look in the pantry and could find nothing else. so #1 got her wish. We had a beautiful meal of London Broil, Green Beans sauteed w/sweet onion and Kraft Macoroni & Cheese.

Thanksgiving 2006

Ok, so we went to J's Aunt's house down in South Orange County. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time visiting with the family. Monkey #1 spent the week at Grandma's in San Diego County so it was super great to have all the monkeys together again for the car ride home.

We had a very yummy Turkey with what I'm guessing is the "standard" in stuffing. It's not the same as what I grew up with down south, but was pretty good. We had what was called "dressing" which was a cornbread based stuffing cooked in a 9x13 pyrex pan and it was yummmmmmmmmy. At any rate this was still really, really good. Take a look at the Turkey.

Then J's cousin brought his smoker and smoked a ham. We had a heck of a time keeping it lit....hahahahahahahaha! (singing the Jepardy theme while I wait for the photo to upload)

The best part, however, was that he also did some baked beans! I guess they would be called "smoked beans". Check 'em out.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the side dish of all side dishes. This is a long standing tradition in my wife's family. It was originally called "Berry Mallow Caserole". It is yams, marsh mallows cran berries. Can anyone guess what name has been migrated into? Since I only about 4 readers, I won't let it go any longer. It is now called "the Barry Manilow". Sorry for the build up, but that's about as good as it gets. Unfortunately, my wife will not allow the recipe to be spread all over the internet. (and she is one of the 4) Here is the picture.

As you can see, it was quickly scooped up. I thought it was silly and I'm not that big a fan of the ingredients; so, this took me a couple of years to aquire the taste. Now I love the Barry Manilow (in small doses), but it is a great side for your Thanksgiving.

Anyway, this was my Thanksgiving at the Caddywampus, which wasn't really at the Caddywampus. How was yours?

Last Night's Dinner: Simple Salmon

This was one of the lamest dinners I've made in quite a while, but I got great reviews from the wife.

It was so simple, I'm ashamed to post it, but I haven't posted in a while.

A nice sized piece of salmon filet with EVOO, sprinkled with lemon pepper and garlic salt put in a 350 degree preheated oven until cooked through (flakey against a fork). This piece of salmon had no skin, so I wouldn't suggest grilling one like this. It makes it difficult to flip unless you're really good at greasing your grill grates which I am not.

Anyway, we were kind of out of food, so we had some canned fruit as a side dish and I got great reviews from J and #1.

Well, there you go...I'll have pictures up from the Thanksgiving feast at my Aunt-In-Law's house. (Turkey along with Ham and Baked Beans on the smoker)