Menu for Sunday:
Rosemary Roasted Leg of Lamb with Mushroom Burre Rouge.
Chili-Lemon Shrimp Saute
Seared Sea Scallops in a white wine garlic sauce
Boiled Dungeness Crab (delicious as is!)
Oyster Cornbread Dressing
Roasted Garlic-Dill New Potatoes
Brussels Sprouts sauteed in Garlic and Olive Oil
Honey-Orange Glazed Baby Carrots.
and …. White rice …. I’m so asian!  Haha

And Pupusas courtesy of our local salvadorean!

Hopefully I'll have pictures soon!

-Jimmy

Growing up in NY I got to live in many different places.  One of the places I found myself living (Before I moved to California) was in Melville, NY.  I stayed with the pastor of my church  Pastor Alan and Laurie Warren.  It really was an amazing time as I learned a lot from them.  Not as much as I should have but I still learned.

One of the traditions that the Warrens liked to do was making Polish Christmas Rings.  The week before Christmas Pastor Al would prepare the dough by hand and roll up the Christmas rings to share with close friends and family around him.  It was always a treat to be able to share in a family tradition.  He's been making it for 35 years and the recipe has been passed down and shared from generations.

This year I desired to share in the tradition and since they consider me an "adopted" son, they were happy to share the recipe with me.  Sorry guys I'm not allowed to publicly post the recipe.  I will tell you that it's a pastry dough made with sour cream filled with brown sugar and nuts and topped with a cream cheese frosting.  It is delicious and this is the season to be sharing and giving.  Fresh baked goods make great holiday gifts and is always appreciated. 

What are some of your family traditions?  Have you blessed anyone with your gift of baking?  I'd love to hear any of your stories!

I haven't written here in a while.  I wonder who still reads this?   Doesn't matter who.  I'll just write.  

hi! =D 

The First Competition is closed and in the books!!     And it looks like we have some amazing food out there!  Thank you to Lillian Huang Fuentes aka Sweets by Sillianah and Krista Ariellee Rodriguez aka Gypsy Got Soul and Kelle Bransfield Barth made Peanut Butter Chocolate Biscotti!

Just check out the amazing pictures!!

Black Bottom Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake Courtesy of Sweets By Sillianah

Seafood KareKare and Yema Peanut Candy Courtesy of Gypsy with Soul

Kelle's Peanut Butter and Chocolate Biscotti!

You can view both their blogs above!

As for me,  Here's what I made!

Peanut Crusted Chicken Breast with Sauted Broccoli Slaw and a Chocolate Chili-Peanut Sauce

 Originally I was going to bake my chicken.  When I got home from the store, I thought I had eggs left.  Lo and Behold My Father ate all the eggs!!  So I couldn't make a proper breading.   So I just chopped the peanuts with my handy Food Chopper from pampered chef smashed down the peanuts into the chicken and Pan Fried them. 

Here's a list of ingredients for the Chocolate-Chili Peanut Sauce:


Chocolate-Chili sauce
1/4 Cup Chicken Broth, 1/4 Cup Heavy Cream, 1 Jalapeno, 2 Cloves of Garlic, 2 tbsp Onion, Salt, Pepper and 6 Xocai Nuggets.   I combined everything except the chocolate into a pan and set it to boil down for 15-20 minutes until everything is soft.   Add the mixture to a blender and put in the chocolate.  Blend until smooth.

Peanut sauce:
1/4 cup Peanut Butter, 1 tsp Rice Wine Vinegar, 1//2 tsp Sesame Oil, 1/2 tsp Onion Powder, 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder, 1 tbsp Soy Sauce, 1/4 cup Chicken broth.  Mix everything together Well till it becomes a nice dipping sauce.  That's it!  Just make sure everything is seasoned well!

I had a lot of fun with peanuts.  I hope you did too!

-Jimmy

#so you think you can cook!

My cousin and I came up with an idea to have a competition of sorts.   We're going to take turns choosing a universal ingredient to cook with.  She will make a sweet application to the ingredient and I will make a savory application for it.  We'll choose an ingredient on the 15th of the month and post the blog sometime in the first week of the next month.

Our little competition is open to anyone.  Unfortunately, there is no prize but think of it as a way to show your creativity.  My cousin and I will both post any pictures that you take of your food.  There is no money involved and no entry required other than telling us you wish to participate.  We'll start off with some fairly easy ingredients then we'll progress to some harder ones.

Happy Cooking!






Allez Cuisine!

-Jimmy

So I'm back from NY and I have so many stories.  I can't fit it all in one blog.  In fact, I think you'd have to meet up with me to hear them all!  So give me a call and hang out with me!   What??  O.k. Here's one food story for you!  
My first weekend in NY my cousin Lillian who is the mastermind behind Sweets By Sillianah invited me along to meet a few of her Foodie friends in NY.  I met a married couple Andrea and Jeff who blog on High Low Food Drink, I also met Justin who owns Just Cook NYC and Hazel who blogs on Tasty Pursuits.  

I've never meet an online foodie in real life before.  Sure, I've met people online during my MMORPG days, but this is different.  We actually have something other than video games to talk about!  FOOD!!  We went to Pio Pio and they had this delicious Peruvian Roasted Chicken with a creamy green sauce that tasted spicy, salty and so fresh!   There were so many discussions going on around the table, but the one thing that kept popping up was.  What's in this green sauce? 

On the train ride home, i told my cousin that I think I can duplicate the sauce and she challenged me to do it.   So I figured, Let's just look to see if it's online first.   There were some versions of it and some of them looked good while others didn't.   Some post a chimichurri as the "light green sauce", WRONG COUNTRY PEOPLE, while others were just baffled.    I found one that looked fairly close and I tried it.  My recipe is an adaptation from a lady at Serious Eats . 

• 1 Large jalapeño, including seeds and ribs
• 1 whole Aji Amarillo Pepper (the store didn't have paste)
• 10 sprigs cilantro leaves and stems, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons cotija cheese 
• 2 medium garlic cloves 
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Squeeze of Meyer Lemon (I forgot to buy limes =( )
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise

It tasted so good though, I decided to make a steak sandwich and pan sear some chicken on the spot to eat with it.  Can you say, "Food Coma?" 

Chuck Steak Sandwich with Cilantro, Roma tomatoes and lettuce

Pan seared chicken breast with Peruvian green sauce

Thanks for reading - Jimmy

I know I've been slacking i my posting as of late.   I've been neglecting my wonderful fans.  (all 7 of you.  There's not many of you and that makes you all more precious!) 
Anyways this post is just an update about what i've been doing and what I'm going to do.   I've been doing some gardening as of late so I have some fresh veggies and fruits to work with.  That has taken most of my time.  I started 2 types of home based business.  Pampered Chef and I'm also in the healthy chocolate business!  I lost 10 lbs so far eating chocolate can you believe that? 

And .....   I'm going to NY!  I will be gone for 12 days.  You can see all the wonderful food and activities on my facebook acocunt!  I'll keep updated there!