Category: Food & Wine

If you enjoy cooking the odds are you have your own favorite gazpacho recipe.

Since it is that time of year when the veggies are bountiful, Chef Bill Sr. would like to share with you his.

The tomatoes, cucumber and pepper are straight from the garden. The bread is from the supermarket. The spices are from Asia or a place just like it.

4 tomatoes

1 large cucumber (or half a very, very, large cumber in this case), chopped and peeled.

1 cup chopped Vidalia onion

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 healthy sprinkling of garlic powder

1 tsp ground cummin

1 tsp paprika

1 cup water

5 slices of bread (supermarket white is fine) diced with crust removed.

Mix the ingredients in bowl with your hands then put them in a Cuisinart or blender. Depending on the size of your mixing machine you might want to blend one-half at a time.

Chef Bill says that if you have any fresh garden basil consider added that during the blending.

Summer Garden Gazpacho

If you need a fast, easy and definitely non-vegetarian chili Chef Bill Sr suggests this:

1 lb chopped or ground lean beef
2 tbl salad oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1 cup raw rice
2 chopped fresh tomatoes (1 can of stewed tomatoes works as well)
1 cup pitted whole black olives (don’t chop)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup of water

Brown the beef in heavy skillet then remove it to drain. Heat oil in same skillet then add the onions, celery, pepper and rice. Stir until slightly brown then add tomotoes, olives, salt, pepper, chili powder and 1 cup of water. Add Worcestershire sauce. Put in Dutch oven and cook at medium heat for 30 minutes–lower heat to simmer and cook until ready to serve.

Easy Beef Chili From Chef Bill

A recent barbecue organized by Chef Bill Sr went a few extra steps that made it extra special.

There were burgers but the burgers were smothered in bacon and cheese. There was chicken wings in hot sauce . There was corn on the cob, and fresh garden tomatoes — thank you Andrew — smothered in feta cheese and garden fresh basil.

There was deviled eggs and homemade potato salad.

The hit, though, was Chef Bill’s shish kabob of shrimp, lemons and garden fresh cherry tomatoes — thank you Pat.

The feast started off with pina coladas and a tray of cold cuts that included summer sausage and sharp Irish cheese, that were birthday presents for the Chef — thank you Robert.

For the meal itself, the beverages were soda and beer. It is summer after all.

The desert was a masterpiece of fresh blueberries and fresh whipped cream decorated by Chef Miranda.

Super Barbecue Courtesy Of Chef Bill

Naomie Lane of WorldLifeStyle.com has created a list of the 20 worst possible, least healthiest snacks. We kind of agree with it. They are in no particular order of unhealthiness:

• Cheetos
• Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
• Pork rinds
• Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream Potato Chips — (fine by us, we stick to  Wise, Herrs or Utz)
• Skittles
• Haagen Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream
• Easy Cheese
• Ritz Crackers (really)
• Twinkies (as expected)
• Mrs. Fields Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Hot Pockets (no surprise here)
• Peanut butters with hydrogenated oil (peanut butters sans hydrogenated oil, however, is very good)
• Microwave popcorn (popcorn is a good snack but the bags in the microwave packages apparently impart funky chemicals.)
• Toaster pastries (no surprise)
• Frozen chicken nuggets
• Diet soda (our vote for the least healthiest food product)
• Cheez-Its
• Three Musketeers
• Sugary coffee shop drinks
• Canned fruit (this one surprised us)

For the reasoning go to the link.

The moral of the story is learn to cook for yourself.

Worst Foods For You

Former cook Jonas Mikka Luster has a great post on Quora concerning his 10 Commandments of Cooking. It’s worth repeating.

• Don’t lose touch with your food. Tongs and other contraptions only serve to keep you away from it. Losing touch, figuratively and literally, yields worse dishes. Touch your steaks, your salad, everything. Learn how it feels, smells, looks, and tastes.
• Try something new every month. Follow foreign cultures and preparations. Your life will be richer and your food better, even when you’re preparing common staples.
• Before you use the tool learn to do it with your own hands. Buying a julienne peeler is nice and can save you hours over the course of a lifetime. But only by learning how to cut, mash, grind, sear, saute, and whisk with your hands will you keep touch with your food and get the best results.
• Cook for others. Enough said.
• Use fresh where possible, canned where necessary and frozen when desperate.
• Taste everything. Repeatedly.
• Let your food items come to room temperature before throwing them into pans.
• Work clean and clean as you go.
• When cooking, taste. When baking, measure.

 10 Commandments Of Cooking

Tonight’s meal was Chef Bill Sr.’s delicious stuffed beef tenderloin served with fresh corn on the cob and homemade potato chips courtesy of Mrs. Chef Bill.

The feast started with a shrimp cocktail and a fresh garden salad.

The wine was an inexpensive but excellent (90 rating) Bogle Vineyards pinot noir.

It was truly a meal to remember.

Stuffed Beef Tenderloin — Tonight’s Meal

Chef Bill Sr. cheated a little to make tonight’s meal using a Lawry’s marinade for the Hawaiian Pork chops. There were no complaints though. Even the hummingbirds noshing at Chef Bill’s feeder were happy.

The feast began with a garden salad by Mrs. Chef Bill and included as sides sweet potatoes and grilled wax beans. The beans, bought fresh at the Produce Hut in Concord — a bag was 29 cents — were seasoned with a pepper sauce and grilled till they were nearly black.

Yes, it was a yum.

The wine was a Chateau St Jean Fume Blanc 2012 which actually comes from Sonoma County. That was also a yum.

Hawaiian Pork Chops — Tonight’s Meal