Days off = Cooking Days

I love my days off. As much as I enjoy my job, and I truly do, the beauty of a day off is that I have the time to do what I really love... COOK!

Today's menu started with GF waffles. My roommate and I awoke to the sound of thunderstorms outside our window--which was a great way to wake up because thunderstorms are one of my favorite displays in all creation, not to mention that my little porch garden desperately was waiting for that rain.

At any rate, nothing says comfort food more than a great rainy morning on your day off. So, I determined that some super strong coffee and waffles with a peach compote seemed to be the perfect recipe. (Yes--cheesy pun fully intended!)

After breakfast, the culinary bar was set pretty high, and I had some catching up to do on my day that was supposed to be rather productive. I got lost in a project, as is usually the case, before I knew it I was famished and the clock tolled one.  I, of course, decided all but too late that I wanted to make some "real food" for lunch. This limited my options to something that is able to be cooked from frozen.  Meaning on thing--fish!

As some one who randomly makes a peach compote to accompany he spur of the moment waffles, I clearly do not like to leave my culinary adventures to be half-assed.  So, you can imagine that f I was going to bake fish then I had to roast some vegetables along with it. Having the ingredients for ratatouille provided by my lovely mother (this is a little foreshadowing for my next episode of Big World, Tiny Kitchen). I realized that I needed to use some of these veggies up.  The mother of invention (at least when it comes to inventing in the kitchen) is utilizing your current resources, there are several things that I would perhaps have done differently had I different ingredients on hand, however I did not have those ingredients in my kitchen today. So without further adieu, my recipe which came forth from my utilitarian mentality. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Broiled Veggies with Lemon Basil Tuna Steaks:

2 frozen white albacore tuna steaks
1 bag of TJs frozen pearl onions
1 large Zucchini (thinly sliced)
1 large yellow summer squash (thinly sliced)
2 small white eggplants (thinly sliced)
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp Pampered Chef Citrus Basil Rub
1 Tbsp TJs 21-season salute
1 tsp red pepper flakes
3 Tbsp olive oil
and 1/2 tsp my secret ingredient

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Place frozen tuna steaks and frozen onions on a cooking sheet. Add pampered chef rub on fish then add salt, red pepper flakes, 21-season salute, and half of the olive oil on fish and onions. Bake for 15 minutes (cooking time may vary based on size of fish steaks.

Then pull out baking sheet and add veggies in top. Then pour remaining olive oil on top and sprinkle secret ingredient-finely ground black lava salt (optional). Broil to finish cooking fish and to cook veggies.

Enjoy with chilled white wine of your choice!

Big World Tiny Kitchen-Pilot

It's finally HERE! The Pilot is live!

I hope you enjoy it!

YouTube Description:

There is something about how food tells a story about the people who eat and/or prepare it that I love.  

After discovering the way food can teach you about the people and places unique to those flavors. I really started to delve into the concept of terroir--basically the idea that food takes on characteristics of the area it comes from.  And the more I learned, the more I wanted to know.  But seeing as I still couldn’t afford to travel to all these wonderful exotic places, I realized that I had to find a different way to experience them.  That’s when I discovered that I could start bringing these places home to me, through my cooking.    

About this same time, I started batting around the idea of starting an online cooking show.  That is where the concept for Big World, Tiny Kitchen was born.  I came to the realization that many of you out there share my same penchant for travel, and my same fiscal predicaments. Hence, why I am here today sharing my experiences with you all through this show.  My hope is that through this show you will find cooking as culturally and personally enriching as I do.

Cooking Show status update

For a long time now I have been promising to make a cooking show.  I am proud to say that it is finally here, I am actually doing it! It is hard to believe that it was nearly a year ago that this concept was born, and I know that there is still a very long journey before me and this show. (Especially before it becomes anything close to the category of professional.)  But, that's the beauty of life we're always on a journey and always growing.  So it is with the invention of Big World, Tiny Kitchen.

My first episode is finally filmed and in the process of being edited. My hope is that I can finally get it posted tomorrow...

Fair warning... this first episode shows every bit of nervous energy I was feeling.  That aside, I feel that with more practice this show will evolve into something not just fun to do, but also something truly interesting to watch.  My hope is that you all learn something and enjoy it, and even though I'm slightly embarrassed by my amateur quality and presentation I am also truly excited to share this with you all.  And, excited to continue to grow along with this new cooking show.  I hope you like it and will come back to watch it this week, after I have posted it to the blog.

For now here's a little intro/background on how the show was born:

There is something about how food tells a story about the people who eat and/or prepare it that I love.  

After discovering the way food can teach you about the people and places unique to those flavors. I really started to delve into the concept of terroir--basically the idea that food takes on characteristics of the area it comes from.  And the more I learned, the more I wanted to know.  But seeing as I still couldn’t afford to travel to all these wonderful exotic places, I realized that I had to find a different way to experience them.  That’s when I discovered that I could start bringing these places home to me, through my cooking.    

About this same time, I started batting around the idea of starting an online cooking show.  That is where the concept for Big World, Tiny Kitchen was born.  I came to the realization that many of you out there share my same penchant for travel, and my same fiscal predicaments. Hence, why I am here today sharing my experiences with you all through this show.  My hope is that through this show you will find cooking as culturally and personally enriching as I do.