Rattlesnake Chili Winter Bite

I consider myself a pretty daring or open-minded eater. I've eaten some things that some folks, maybe most folks, might consider pretty offensive or at the very least, provacative. I've eaten snails, insects, brains, eyes and even testicles. But, I had not until tonight ever sunk my fangs into anything so venomous as a snake. So, when I saw rattlesnake at the butcher counter, I didn't think twice about putting the serpent reptile right alongside the eggs, garlic and ginger beer already in my shopping cart. I bought this prairie eel frozen and shipped in from wherever they round these things up from. It's an ugly creature even without it's fangs and rattle and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it once I got home. Another guy in the market district was telling me a lot of people like to make pasta sauces, but he preferred just to saute the cubed meat in a little butter and garlic. Neither sounded all that enticing and I started thinking about the animal and what it represented. Jalapenos immediately came to mind. I thought of cumin and onions and lime and beer and, alas... chili! Sounded like the right idea to me. I researched a little more about cooking rattlesnake and learned that it's meat though similar in taste to chicken, was a bit more chewy in texture. I par boiled it for about two hours in chicken broth and lemon juice and some herbs. Later, after I let it cool. I decided to pull the meat off of the bones. This wasn't the easiest thing to do as there are so many bones in a snake. I used a pair of needle nose pliers and de-boned it much like you might a fish. Once the meat was separated, I chopped it and pan cooked it in garlic and butter before throwing it in with the tomatoes and beans. I added a bay leaf, cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper, a jalapeno pepper, a bell pepper, chicken broth and fresh lime, salt and black pepper. I simmered for about two hours and really let the flavors blend. The chili turned out delicious, and to the curious delight of everyone who had the opportunity to try it. Ultimately it was served with a little shaved cheese and fresh tomatoes with a Pacifico cerveza and a shot or two of premium tequila on the side. This was a great meal and a lot of fun.

Thyme for Chicken Soup

It's winter. It's cold. My throat hurts. My stomach's hungry. Grandma's dead and I want some chicken noodle soup. Mmmmm, chicken noodle soup.

Carrots, celery stalks, onions, throw in some parsnips and turnips. Chop everything. Add garlic, salt, peppercorns, a table spoon or two of olive oil, throw a bay leaf into the chicken stock, egg noodles and, oh yes... fresh thyme. I love thyme and use it a lot, but often forget to think about it's medicinal qualities. The healing properties of thyme have been know for centuries to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Before antibiotics, it was used in bandages. It is also an antiseptic and used in teas to aid in the healing of cough, inflammation of the throat and bronchitis. It was used to incense temples and in the middle ages, it was given to knights because it was believed to bestow courage upon them. Why wouldn't you put this in your soup? I feel better already.

Swordfish ''Chop'' wrapped in Prosciutto

Tonight's dinner was something all together special. Not for any particular reason, other than the particular cut of swordfish I prepared. A little known, and lesser prepared cut of fish known

as a chop. There are only two chops per fish, and the larger the fish, the larger the chop. The chops are not dissimilar from a veal or a pork chop, only the bone on the chop of a large sea creature comes from the collar bone, cut from right below the head of the animal. Most fish mongers will throw or give away this cut, however a few chef's have wised up to it's delicacy and delight. My friend Henry Dewey, owner and chef at the Penn Ave Fish Market gifted me this awesome piece of meat and suggested I pick up some prosciutto from another local strip district market called Parma. When Henry suggests something, I usually do what he says. At least when it comes to fish and food. The prosciutto I purchased was as promised, some of the best I've tried. Last night I prepared a shrimp and prosciutto pizza, but I'll blog about that some other time. Tonight, however, after seasoning my swordfish chop with salt and pepper, and laying some fresh sprigs of thyme, I delicately wrapped the fish with the cured Italian ham and tied it with some butcher's twine. I squirted a little lemon and lay a few chives over the proscuitto and threw it in the oven for about 25 minutes. What came out was so good, I could hardly believe I'd prepared it myself. The fish had a buttery melt in your mouth consistency combined with the saltiness of the Italian meat married into what I can only brag was nothing less than culinary genius. Thanks again Henry...

On Cloud Nine

Pittsburgh has never been a city known for it's fine cuisine. Pittsburgh is known for French fries and cole slaw on sandwiches and ranch dressing on everything. Fortunately Chef Rick DeShantz at Nine on Nine thinks a little differently about food. Every dish on the menu, from apps to desserts is imaginative, mouth watering, plated with a painters eye and ultimately delicious with every bite. The art that comes out of this kitchen could be on the walls of any respectable gallery if it wasn't so damned good to eat. I want to list a few of the whole line of amazing plates that come out of this kitchen; Heirloom tomato salad with grilled watermelon, cilantro, yuzu (an asian citrus fruit) aji amarillo ( a yellow pepper sauce) and queso fresco, and that's just the first dish on my list! Hungry for more? Ever have skate wing? The skate at Nine on Nine is plated with potatoes and Kalamata olives, pine nuts, French beans, lemon and a caper coulis that looks like an abstract expressionist pop art fusion plate when it's all said and done. How about dessert? Nine on Nine takes it the whole nine yards to put you on cloud nine and they definitely don't stop short on dessert. Pastry chef Theresa Corbett dresses all of her sweet deliciousness to the nines for the final dish to come to the table. For example, she does a Ricotta cheese fritters desert with lemon curd, blackberry sauce and coffee custard and as if that weren't enough, throws in a Sambuca lemon sorbet! You will get laid after bringing your date here. HaHa, but all jokes aside, Nine on Nine is one of the best fine dining restaurants in the city and the same thing could be said about it if it were relocated to any city in the world. Top recommendations from this eater.

Poblano Time

Chile Rellenos are one of my all time favorite Mexican dishes. I love the melted queso blanco or mozzarella cheeses melting out of the mildly spicy poblano pepper, sometimes filled with ground beef or chicken. It takes a little patience and time to prepare the stuffed peppers at home, but it's fun and worth every minute of it. After roasting the poblanos and peeling them, they are really tender and can rip apart easily so you have to be delicate when you cut them open to remove the seeds and stuff them. Cut about halfway down and remove the innards, then stuff with the cheese and in my dish this afternoon, I used ground lamb meat that I seasoned and pre-cooked. After the peppers are stuffed and pinned together with toothpicks or wooden skewers, I dipped them in a batter of whipped egg whites and then roll them in a thin layer of all-purpose flour. I seasoned them with a little salt and pepper, cumin and cilantro. Finally just drop them in hot oil and turn once to cook evenly. These rellenos today gave a little trouble and didn't coat evenly because they were really delicate at the dipping point. But even without a full batter coat, they were still really delicious.

Chicken and Rice and All things Nice

I'm always coming home late and getting hungry even later. I knew I had some chicken drumsticks, but wasn't sure what I would do with them. Everything in this recipe just seemed to follow suit. I grabbed the apples, onion, celery, tomato, green chili, garam masala, chili powder, cumin, tumeric, asafateida, ginger, garlic, dried coconut, chicken stock and rice... oh yeah. I seasoned the drumsticks, sauteed the onions, celery,green chile and apples in the ginger, garlic and spices, added the chicken stock and tomatoes, threw in some dried coconut, cooked my rice separately and 25 minutes later had one really tasty Indian dish.

Northside's Urban Gardens

I had the pleasure of spending a few hours in the Green Millennium Children's Garden and the Olde Allegheny Garden in Pittsburgh's Northside this morning. My friend Laura Winter has been tending the children's garden for the last fourteen years. Local kids from the neighborhood as young as 18 months get to come and work in the garden, digging up potatoes and worms, learning about the different varieties of plants and herbs, and even how to compost. There is a great mural for the community to admire, and everyone is welcome to stroll through and take a sniff as it reads on the sign at the Olde Allegheny Garden which is in a lot directly across the street from the children's garden. Plant varieties of all kinds populate the two plots, from edible flowers like nasturtiums and lavender to delicious herbs such as lemon balm and thyme and mint and oregano. The garden also hosts tomatoes and tomatillos, beans, squash, eggplant, sunflowers and a few less common species such as the elephant amaranth so called because it grows to resemble an elephant head and trunk and the Egyptian walking onion, so-called because it grows upward and then bends over to replant itself and then grows upward again and continues to bend and replant itself so it kind of ''walks'' around it's garden patch. There are also benches and rock paths strategically placed for the community to enjoy the garden and all it's wonders without trampling through and wreaking havoc. A giant rain barrel was also delivered today which will help to irrigate the garden for years to come. These two gardens are a perfect example of what can be done on empty lots in urban neighborhoods to not only beautify city blocks, but also get the community involved with positive and healthy opportunities.

Oaxacan Sabor

I've been hoarding a red Oaxacan mole for months now. It's so good, I didn't want it to disappear from my cooler. As if somehow knowing it was there, was as good as eating it. That idea is quickly realized to be a false statement as soon as it is prepared and the first bite taken. I love almost everything Oaxacan, and at the top of the list is the Oaxacan mole. This particular chunk was sent to me from one of my closest friends after a recent trip he made to that amazing Mexican state. To cook the mole paste, just thin it out in a little chicken broth and the citrus from an orange, occasionally adding a splash of water to thin it out more as it cooks down. I boil and shred the chicken and toss that in to the mole sauce. In the meantime I cook the rice in water and broth and make a tomato, onion and cilantro puree to add to the rice when it's ready. I also made a cabbage salad as a side dish, as well as some baked corn with a spicy chipotle finishing sauce. I will miss not having the mole in my refrigerator, but I will savour it's sweet, rich flavor for the rest of this evening. Que Sabor!

Bombay Breafast

This is one of the easiest and most flavorful breakfast dishes that I often make. I don't always make it with the kale, but today I did.

Just take a hot buttered pan, add a pinch each of cumin, tumeric, and chili powder, crack in your eggs, but don't scramble. Instead just break the yolks so it runs yellow over the whites of the eggs. Cook for a couple of minutes and then just flip the eggs over. The red and yellows from the spices really pop to make a beautiful palate of color and the aroma is so eye-opening, you will barely need your coffee. Today, I also cooked kale in chicken stock with garlic and onions as a bed for the Indian eggs. If you have these three spices on hand, which I highly recommend you do, you can make this in a matter of five minutes. It doesn't get any easier than this.

Penn Ave. Fish Market- The best place on Earth

So far in this blog, I've only written about the food that I buy and cook and eat at home, but I don't always eat at home and in fact about three or four days out of the week I drop into my favorite lunch place on the planet, Penn Avenue Fish Company! http://pennavefishcompany.com/)

Everything that's good about good food is served on every plate they put out. It's healthy, fresh, delicious and beautifully presented every time. Angela and Henry put a whole lot of love into what they do and it's obvious by the daily packed house at lunch that the people of Pittsburgh approve. I always feel better walking out of this place, than I did going in. PAFC is also the only place I buy my fresh fish. Every fish is bought whole and cut into steaks or filleted on the premises almost as a kind of show for the public to watch. They also sell whole fish, scallops, crabs, shrimp and anything seafood. PAFC should be part of Obama's heathcare reform!

(Note: PAFC photos were taken with an iPhone, so quality is not great)

Spring Pasta after a Summer Rain

This is just a pasta primavera. There is nothing sexy or exciting about it really. I just wanted to make something for dinner using the chopped and bagged vegetables that would otherwise probably go bad. I had bagged up half of a zucchini and a quarter of a yellow squash. I had a chunk of onion and the rest of the asparagus and the back of an eggplant wanting to be used. Leftover tomato went in, a third of a bell pepper, carrots and the basil I'd already pulled from my garden, but hadn't used. I poured in what was left in the carton of cream, added a little chicken stock and melted in a couple of cheeses to thicken it up. There was a nice summer rain this evening, reminiscent of spring showers, so the pasta primavera topped with a basil flower worked out just fine.

A New Hamburger In Town

I don't eat a lot of hamburgers, but I can't seem to get the idea of a new burger out of my thoughts. Not the traditional ketchup, mustard, lettuce and tomato burger that's available in almost every restaurant on every street in every town in America, but the unopened recipe book on burgers. The one that never really got published. I've made a near complete menu of burger ideas that will water almost anyone's mouth in concept and taste, and I haven't run out of ideas from there. There is really no limit with what you can do with ground meat, be it beef, lamb, pork, salmon, tuna, buffalo, kangaroo, or vegetarian and raw food burgers! I've had a lot of fun with a lot of these versions of hamburger concepts with two buns and a patty, but never once in the traditional sense. I plan to share a lot more of these ideas here on this blog, but for now, I'll just post this one for your senses.

The hamburger pictured here was an herbed lamb burger I made recently. I made an apple cole slaw and a chive sour cream sauce and placed the patty on a bed of baby spinach. This ain't your backyard burger.

Chicken and Eggplant Strata

I couldn't pass up the eggplant from the the Southside Farmers Market this afternoon, and I grabbed a beautiful bundle of radishes for my salad too. I had the chicken breast, the San Marzano canned whole tomatoes, the Italian scamorza cheese and the aged Piave, and of course I had the garlic, onions and basil on hand.

I boiled the chicken first in order to shred it with a fork once it was cooked and cooled. I sauteed the garlic and onions and added the

chicken in with those for a few minutes to absorb some of the flavorings, I then added the tomatoes which I mashed to chunks and poured a little wine in, then stewed for a good 30-40 minutes into a nice sauce. I cut the eggplant into 1/4 inch slices or so and when the sauce was nice and mixed, I placed some sauce at the bottom of a baking dish and then layered the eggplant, chicken and tomato sauce and the scamorza cheese. I also layered in some fresh basil and shaved the Piave cheese over top. I placed the

baking dish into the pre-heated 350 degree oven and cooked for another 25minutes.

In the meantime I made a fresh bibb and basil salad with radishes, tomatoes, purple onion, green pepper and lemon cucumbers which look like lemons, but taste like cucumbers. I whisked up a simple olive oil, white wine vinager, mustard, honey, ginger and garlic dressing. A little salt and pepper to taste and it's finished.

This was a great salad that was simple to make and a great meal that stacks beautifully and looks great on the plate. Also, I love having leftovers of baked Italian dishes. Somehow the flavors just concentrate that much more over night and the re-heated dinners are just as delicious if not better. This is also a great lasagna style dish that omits noodles for anyone watching their carbohydrate intake and for those of you who are not red meat eaters.

Potatoes Under A Midnight Moon

I woke up early this morning hungry for potatoes. I grabbed some asparagus and shitake mushrooms from out of my fridge, some garlic off the counter and chopped everything including the potatoes into small 'bite-sized' pieces. I melted some Amish butter in a skillet and added the garlic and potatoes. After about 10-12 minutes, I added the onion and continued to stir every once in awhile for another 6-10. I then added the asparagus and mushrooms for a final 3-5 minutes. This would have been a fine breakfast just like this, but the next ingredient made it something altogether addictive. Midnight Moon is a California goat cheese that has an intense nutty taste that is... magical! This might be the best cheese I've ever put between my lips. It's like a first kiss with every bite. Wow! I just wowed breakfast potatoes!

The Blight of the Tomato

There is a rampant outbreak of tomato blight throughout the northeast and mid-atlantic this summer. The tomato blight is a strain of fungus that caused the great potato famine of Ireland in the late 1800's. The strains are different, but the illness can jump from one species to the other. The hot weather and sun help slow down or sometimes stop the fungus from spreading, but unfortunately for most of the farmers and gardeners in this region, the weather isn't forecast to cooperate.

Ghetto Grown

Braddock Farms is an urban farm spread across eight city lots on the edge of the severely dilapidated borough of Braddock. Outside of the farm is a virtual wasteland. The streets are populated only sporadically, an ailing hospital is dying a few blocks away, a Dollar General is the only other market in the area, and the rest is a whole lot of nothing but abandoned steel mills and the tears of history. The low income housing and the people who live there are clear on the other side of the main drag, a good eight or nine city blocks from the farm. I was told by one of the farm workers that the residents who are in the area don't often make it to the farmers market that is there for their benefit, primarily because the borough has set strict rules on the farm's market hours, from 2:30-5:00PM. "A lot of these people work and just can't make it down on time" he said.

The farm is run in part by a non profit organization called Grow Pittsburgh (www.growpittsburgh.org), which is largely modeled after a bigger NPO called Bioneers (www.bioneers.org). This summer, the farm was also tended to by six local urban youths who did so as paid interns. The Braddock Farms urban farming project is in it's third season and making a valiant effort. Aside from the blight of some of the tomatoes this year, all of the other crops seem to be doing very well. There are melons, different varieties of greens, beans, and berries, there is a peach tree, there are peppers, herbs of all kinds, radishes, sunflowers and quite a few more options growing on the farm. I would love to see this happening in all of the urban neighborhoods around the city that really don't have the market options of the more affluent neighborhoods. For now it is a small oasis on the edge of a slum that with a little luck and a lot of love hopefully won't turn out to be just another ghetto mirage.

Simple Swordfish

I was pretty exhausted by the time I got home this evening, but I'd had the swordfish from PAFC (http://pennavefishcompany.com/) in the fridge for two days and didn't want it to go to waste. Besides, I had a great recipe in mind since the beginning of the weekend. Using the mint I'd bought at the farmers market on Saturday and the basil from my herb garden on the deck, I whisked up a very simple olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper, lemon and herb dressing to coat the swordfish steak and then simply pan cooked it about three minutes on each side until just cooked through. So easy, so healthy, so good. I added a little side of tabbouleh I bought at the local Lebanese market and cut fresh lemons to squeeze onto my plate. I almost stuffed my face with a slice of greasy pizza in the South Side, and I know I'd have felt a lot worse right now. Healthy eating is so fun and so simple with just a few minutes of preparation. And, I am completely rejuvenated. "Mens sana in corpore sano," a sound mind in a sound body.

Kefalotyri Breakfast

I picked up some kefalotyri cheese from Stamooli's Market this past weekend and thought I'd use it in a baked egg breakfast this morning. I sliced some zucchini and yellow squash, chopped some onion and fresh peppermint I purchased at the Saturday Farmers Market. I sauteed the chopped onion to translucency while steaming the zucchini and squash in a separate pot. I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. When the vegetables were finished steaming, I added them to the onions and sauteed with the peppermint for five more minutes or so. I whisked two eggs with a pinch of nutmeg, salt, pepper and the kefalotyri cheese. I put the sauteed vegetables into a baking dish and poured the egg and cheese batter over them, then baked for twenty minutes...

This is a great baked egg dish. You can be really creative with the ingredients and the pie-like appearance of the dish. This baked kefalotyri dish was all about flavor though. The sweet evergreen taste of the nutmeg really opens up in your mouth with the salty nutty taste of the kefalotyri. Then add the mint into the mix and it's really delicious. The lightly browned eggs with the green zucchini and yellow squash really pop out nicely in color too. I will definitely make this again.

I am that I eat

A friend suggested I start writing blog content for other people as a secondary income of sorts. Although he did tell me it wouldn't be lucrative in the beginning, it would be fun and had potential to grow if people liked what I wrote and sent traffic my way. I have never posted a blog, maintained a blog, followed a blog, or even returned to a blog I have taken the time to browse or read. I am not a blogger and never really understood the concept until recently. I thought about my friends idea, but with my lack of experience and without the nerve and verve to author a blog for award, I have decided a little practice of the craft was in order.

This blog is the start of something new. I intend to blog a great deal on my diet, as the blog title suggests, believing it ought to be personal, descriptive, genuine and straight from the horses mouth so to speak without necessarily being kosher, if you catch my drift.

I love to cook and I love to eat and I love to photograph what I cook and eat, so I hope to accompany most of my writing content with great images as well. I often research recipes, but never follow them with any rigor and prefer to "method" cook with my eyes and my ears and my nose and of course with my teeth, my tongue and my tummy. Most of what I cook and eat is off the cuff and based on whatever I have in my ice box. I do love to grocery shop, particularly at farmers markets and the produce and meat markets in the Strip District here in the city of Pittsburgh.

As the blog title may also suggest, albeit metaphorically, I am that I eat will also be about everything I "consume" or experience in my daily life as I am living it. Everything I see and hear and touch and smell and even think or dream about, I hope to put down into this blog. Not only as a record for my own benefit, but as a sort of menu that you too may want to savour.

Bon Appetite!