Texas

Recently, me and the little guy were lucky enough to go visit my in laws in Texas while Ryan was busy doing an externship. I hate being alone. I get bored fast, my creative juices are stumped when I am always alone. So we woke up, got tickets and jumped in the car to head to the airport twenty minutes later!! Yes, I am a little nuts. When we left, it was eighty five and humid, so we packed shorts. We arrived, and well froze our hinies for a week. When we got home, we got very sick, we are finally going to the doctor now that we are better.
I share this not to sob(because we are so over that now) but because I have not been able to share any recipes. Sorry people. Well give me a week to get my rear in gear with school and we'll be back at it. Okay now that we have that covered here are a few favorites we threw together in the big lone-star-state.

Chocolate pie, that is to die for, literally!

Italian Wedding Soup, this stuff is amazing! I had to make it when I got home because it's Ryan's favorite.

We made cornbread, but it was a little bit disappointing. You see, I have this recipe I love and nothing has compared to it yet. We added cheese and diced green chilis. Yummy!

Moist cornbread:

1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk or buttermilk
1/4 cup oil
1 cup creamed corn
3 egg

Turn oven on to 300 degrees.
In large bowl mix together dry ingredients, first 5 ingredients.
In smaller bowl mix together wet ingredients, last 4 ingredients.
Add wet ingredients to larger bowl of dry ingredients.
Mix well.
Grease an 8-9 inch pan with pam.
Pour batter into pan and bake for 40 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

She Bakes!

So my wife has this unquenchable desire to bake!! It's kind of her outlet for all her emotions. If she has a tough day and needs to unwind... She bakes! If she did really well on a test and wants to celebrate.... She bakes! If she knows someone has had a bad day and she feels sad for them.... She bakes!!! Of course all this baking does come at a price. Usually all of this baking ends up as an endless supply of the most delicious pastries, cookies, cakes, muffins, cup cakes, etc, lying around the house!

To keep from doubling my waist line, I usually bring as much as I can to dental school with me and share it with my classmates. About once a week I'll get the comment, "This cookie is AMAZING!! How are you not the size of a walrus!!"

I'd been thinking about that lately and decided it's a really good thing I like to climb, bike, run, swim and workout as much as I do, other wise I probably would be the size of a hump back whale!

Thank goodness for exercise!!

"Retired" Sushi Chef

My love of cooking

For those of you that know us, know that we LOVE to cook! For me I look back at my life and think it was just meant to be. The majority of jobs that I've had all have been with food. Working at the food court at the University of Oklahoma, working the grill and managing at Chill Out in Provo, UT, bussing tables and then becoming a sushi chef at the Happy Sumo and my small go at serving at J. Alexander's this last summer. At everyone of these jobs that I had the chance to cook, I'd just itch in anticipation for the next time I got to go home and visit my family. I'd tap out my parent's food budget for the week and go buy supplies. I'd make them everything I'd learn how to make at my new jobs. It was awesome!

Working at the Happy Sumo was by far the best opportunity food wise I'd ever gotten. I started off as a busser. Cleaned tables about 4 days a week and milked the 50% discount on the sushi every chance I got. The restaurant got busy and they started looking for new chefs and when I found this out I definitely let the manager know I wanted to learn. Even though I'm as white as they come I figured they'd be better off training me since they new me than taking their chances on someone new!

I guess all the begging paid off because after 9 months of bussing tables they finally let me get my hands "fishy"!!

After 2 years of making sushi at Happy Sumo and several 50+ catering jobs making sushi for friends, family and classmates, my love for the culinary arts is sealed!!

Since starting dental school down in the south my opportunities to put my passion to work have been few and far between but I love every chance I get!

I hope for my family and friends and anyone else that gets the chance to read this blog that you can share in me and my wife's passion for cooking!

"Retired" Sushi Chef

Please, no judging

I tell ya, the past few weeks have been nuts. What do I do to relieve some of this stress besides cooking? Run and bike and lift weights and do aerobics and pilates.....you name it, I likely do it.

But wait....that is not all I do, I stock my freezer with naughty things to.

Lesson Learned

Let me tell you a lesson I learned when I first start baking. It is definitely not cool to substitute margerine or shortening for butter. Why?

Butter has the best flavor of all! It definitely dominates the world of cooking fat. Butter also has a melting point that is between margerine and shortening. What does this mean? Butter leaves your cookies chewy but they still have a little puff in them. If you like your cookies pancake flat, try the cheaper option, margerine.

Margerine has a very low melting point, so when making cooking they will come out very flat and likely very chewy. For those of you who care, it may have less calories, but it has a high amount of trans fat. Personally, I have found margerine is good for creating a unique texture in a few things, like poundcake.

Shortening, or what I like to call the pretty white fat. I really like to use all vegetable shortening, and I only like to use the good stuff. I'm not always an ingredient snob, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Shortening has the highest melting point of the three fats. For this reason, your cooking will not flatten out much. They may even end up looking like the same ball you put in the oven. Shortening also gives cookies a crispy outsides and cakes a fluffy texture.

Shortening is great for pie crusts, it helps make them flaky. I also like to use shortening in snicker doodles to give them that crisp outer layer.


Shhh, don't tell I have also experimented with lard. I made a pie shell and it was delightful. So flakey and yet I still loved the flavor. Let's keep that a secret though cuz I usually like to keep things healthy-ish.

Hey Good Lookin' What Ya Got Cookin'

A couple cooks, what? I know cheesy right? We just love it though. The both of us. Ry guy loves to throw down some sushi, and people love Ry when he throws down sushi. As for me, I just love the kitchen.
I love to cook all meals and of course, most importantly, dessert. We live deep down in the south and can never share our love for cooking with our friends and family, but thank you Internet for creating this opportunity for us.
I'm not promising any expert photos, and I'm no writer, but we will share with you lots of food. So put on your eatin pants.