Pizza Time!

Anyone who knows Gabe knows his pizza's are amazing creations.  Having worked at a pizza restaurant before, the best part of seeing Gabe make a pizza - at least for me - is watching him toss the dough up in the air!  It twirls, it whirls, it's beautiful!  Unfortunately I didn't get to take a picture of that but I did capture the process.  Originally I had suggested a veggie pizza with red onion, red bell pepper, and some goat cheese.  Of course that was the bare bones and Gabe took it to a whole other level, even making his own sauce.

Here's a picture of the beginning stages (notice how organized he is!):

The sauce was made up of the following ingredients:  Red onion, olive oil, butter, fresh basil, bayleaf, kosher salt, sundried tomato, and dried oregano.

Gabe also decided to add eggplant, mozarella cheese, and sundried tomatoes to the pizza. Using some of the leftover eggplant, he fried and then breaded it with some leftover cousous and pine nuts from the veggie burgers.  (The mixture was ground up in a food processor to resemble bread crumbs).

The breaded eggplant was the perfect pairing with this veggie pizza.  The texture was crunchy and yet not oily so that you were left craving more.

Final touches included freshly chopped basil on top of the pizza which added flavor, texture, and color.  Now, I realize that the last 3 posts have been geared toward vegetarian meals and by no means is that the purpose of this blog, but the way Gabe prepares food you wouldn't even miss meat in these dishes!  The sundried tomatoes on top of the pizza added a chewy, meat like texture and could have been mistaken for sausage.

Fear not meat lovers, the next post will review his Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo in honor of Anthony Bordain's No Reservations final season episode, "Cajun Country."

_Peace and Love

Meatless Strikes Again!

Inspired by last night's veggie burger success Gabe did what he does best - he imagined an even better alternative!  These Italian inspired eggplant burgers were based on last night's recipe with some substitutions:

Cous cous for bulgur
Eggplant for pinto beans
Tomato sauce for soy sauce
Pine nuts for walnuts
Flat leaf parsley for sprigs
Italian seasoning for ground cumin
Sundried tomato and lemon zest for lime mayonnaise

Things that stayed the same:
Onion
Olive oil
Mayonnaise
Garlic

Once again, here they are cooking:

And here they are before I devoured them!  Ok, I only had one, but I wouldn't mind a second!

I told Gabe it felt like I was eating a real Italian sandwich and not realizing there wasn't any meat.  Yet another reason why I would consider going meatless!

_Peace and Love

Meatless!

So even though we've been planning to make veggie burgers we just haven't had the time. And then today during yoga (because that's when I think about the majority of what I will eat during the day) I thought, well, why not today?  After a quick trip to Sprouts we were ready to go!

The recipe came from Epicurious (courtesy of Gourmet magazine June 2008), Bulgur Veggie Burgers with Lime Mayonnaise.

Here they are cooking (and seeming very much like real burgers!):

And here they are all dressed up (including sweet potato fries with chipotle ketchup):

The result was amazingly delicious!  I've never had a homemade veggie burger before and loved the flavors of the lime mayonnaise, Worcester sauce (modified from the recipe), and crunchiness of the walnuts.  I also turned to Gabe at one point and said, "I think I can go vegetarian now after eating this."  Mind you, my original New Years resolution was to be a vegetarian and I lasted a mere 3 days.  But this "burger" was beyond my expectations and very filling!

_Peace and Love

A Trip to the Farmer's Market

This past Tuesday, Gabe and I stumbled across the Farmer's Market in Downtown Brea and were pleasantly surprised by the selection of produce and vegetables available.  However, before I could come up with another "chopped" challenge for Gabe, he immediately began to assemble ingredients together in his head and we ended up walking away with a basket of 3 figs and one bunch of basil leaves ($4 all together).

When he originally told me what he was thinking I was skeptical - a piece of fig, basil leaf, and goat cheese wrapped in prosciutto.  First off, check out the size of these figs!  We were told they were grown at a farm located in the City of Industry, close to where I grew up in Hacienda Heights.  I had never eaten a fig before so I was reluctant to pair it with basil, but I knew that I loved the flavors of goat cheese and prosciutto.  

The end product was beautiful and delicious!  Gabe came up with the name "Pigs are the Blanket," a twist on the common party snack "Pigs in a Blanket."  This was simple and easy to make and I highly suggest it for a quick snack or even an appetizer!

Prior to assembling the figs with the prosciutto, Gabe had made a traditional Catelonian snack - Tomato and Chocolate bread.  The tomato is rubbed against the bread and then crushed chocolate is sprinkled on top.  I know it sounds obscure and weird but it turned out to be quite savory and sweet!   Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of this but using some of the leftover baguette, chocolate (Dagoba brand, 74%), and prosciutto, he was able to make a second treat - "Ham and Cheese" sandwiches, or as I like to call them "Babies in My Belly!"

Assembly was once again easy (well at least for me, Gabe did all the work).  The baguette was sliced, lightly drizzled with olive oil, and toasted for about 5-7 minutes.  Then using some Brie that we bought at Sprouts market the small "sandwiches" were complied together. Finally, he added some of the chopped chocolate on top and once again it turned out great!

Overall everything cost under $25 (including the farmer's market purchase) and the snacks made for one great meal.  Pair it with a nice glass of wine and enjoy!

_Peace and Love    

A Blog is Born

I was raised to eat like a proper lady - no elbows on the table, chew with your mouth closed, eat whatever is in front of you (especially vegetables) and don't complain.  And then I met Gabriel, or Gabe as I call him.    You know when you're having a really great dream and everything is just perfect and you never want to wake up?  Well that's what eating Gabe's food is like - surreal, magical, intense, and delicious.  My hands are all over whatever creation he has made, my mouth salivates with anticipation of each bite, and more often than not I let out little groans of pleasure - yes, that's how great it is!  So, while my "lady like" manners might suffer, my stomach sure does get it's fill of unique flavors that are married together in a perfect combination of bliss.

And then I thought, well it would be selfish of me not to share these experiences with others and hopefully as a result more people will come to appreciate the raw and untrained talent that Gabe possesses.  So, this blog is intended to serve as a platform for just that (and if you are at all familiar with the children's book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, you'll understand where the blog title stems from).

Take for example the other night.  As Gabe and I had finished eating dinner we were sitting on the couch when he turns to me and says, "Do we have anything sweet to eat?" Unfortunately, or fortunately rather, we didn't.  But that's when it happened.  I jokingly told him I would give him a "Chopped" challenge.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the television show on the Food Network, participants are given a time limit to create an appetizer, entree, and dessert from four seemingly uncoordinated ingredients and then reviewed by a panel of judges.  As we searched through the pantry I came up with the following:

English Muffins
Butterscotch morsels
Cocoa powder
Eggs

The result?  These morsels of heaven that melted in my mouth...

He first soaked the English Muffins in an egg batter mix and then cut them up into tiny pieces.  Using the cocoa powder to create a chocolately flavor he mixed in butterscotch chips to balance out the flavors.  Then I believe he cooked them at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.  The texture was soft, almost like a bread pudding, and it literally melted in my mouth.  Needless to say we ate all six of them (thank God for hot yoga!)  The most amazing part was there was no recipe involved, it all came from Gabe's creative imagination (he also credits the endless hours we watch cooking shows as "research").

So, I can't guarantee that any recipes will be posted, and it probably won't be a daily blog, but on the days I do write I can assure you that you'll be in for a treat.  Stay tuned because I'm already working on my next entry - "Pigs are the Blanket" and "Ham and Cheese Sandwiches" (not your traditional flavors!)

_Peace and Love