Food, Podcasts Elizabeth Fuller Food, Podcasts Elizabeth Fuller

Happy Hour!!

Episode 4: I took notes so you didn’t have to….We talked about the following in this episode….

Making Sushi at Home: don’t be intimidated by this…it’s a lot of fun and a great way to use up those little pieces of veg left in your fridge from the week!

Let’s start with the sushi rice… This is a great recipe from Gimme Some Oven.

Here’s a few essentials I mentioned in the episode that you will need:

Let’s get rolling! Here’s another great video to get you started from Gimme Some Oven!

How to spice up your happy hour at home:

The blind taste test! It’s a lot of fun! Just remember when you do it think of the theme and try to get as many of the same things as possible in that one theme. For example if you pick popcorn, pick a flavor or plain and buy as many as possible…taste away! It’s so much fun! Or if that doesn’t do it for you do a fun zoom with friends or make your partner play a card game with you like Skipbo, Phase10 or Farkle. We actually always bring one of these with us to a brewery or on vacation. They take up next to no space and are super fun to play with just two people.

Appetizer Ideas:

This vegan dip is AMAZING! Here’s the chili garlic sauce I mentioned. I use this in a lot of my stir fry sauces I make and it saves me from chopping up additional garlic in the sauce because I think it’s garlicky enough! Serve it with some pita chips or cut up veggies. It’s really filling and packed with flavor.

Oh these cauliflower wings are incredible! Pro Tip with the wings… when I made these the coating did get a little too “wet” from the egg mixture. I added a little flour into the coating once it did get a little too wet and it seemed to help. Going slow and doing just a couple at a time and making sure shake the extra egg mixture off the cauliflower pieces before you dip is key. I turned these into tacos for a week night dinner and also made a simple avocado lime crema, added a little shredded cabbage and put them in a small flour tortilla.

Avocado Lime Crema:

  • 1 avocado

  • 1/4 cup of sour cream

  • 1/2 of a juicy lime

  • 1 TBSP of freshly washed cilantro

  • Season with sea salt and pepper

Put everything in the food processor and blend well

Here’s the cooling rack I use to turn my oven into an air fryer on the convection setting!

Bruschetta Bar Ideas:

  • Try to visualize two or three finished bruschetta ideas. Like for example a classic tomato with basil, a port wine mushroom with taleggio, roasted cherry tomato and whipped ricotta with aged balsamic drizzle or roasted butternut squash, creamy goat cheese and fried sage leaves. Once you pick a couple grab those ingredients and put everything out buffet style so your guests can mix and match themselves and go on their own little mini food adventure!

For the oven roasted cherry tomatoes:

  • 1 or 2 containers of cherry tomatoes still on the vine if possible

  • Olive Oil

  • Salt and Pepper

Set the oven to 350 degrees, place the wash and dried cherry tomatoes on a sheet pan with a good drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Give them about 10 - 15 minutes in the oven until they just start to split. Pull them out and set them aside. If you can leave them on the vine that’s great for presentation!

For the mushrooms:

  • 1 - 1/2 lbs of mixed sliced mushrooms (cremini, white button, shiitake and whatever else you can get your hands on)

  • 1/2 of a small shallot finely diced

  • Sprig of fresh thyme

  • 1 teaspoon of port wine or marsala wine

  • 2 Tablespoons of olive oil

  • Sea salt and pepper to taste at the end

Over medium heat in a sauté pan add in about tablespoon of olive to start. Once this is warmed put shallot in the pan. After shallot is softened and translucent, about three minutes, add in the additional tablespoon of olive oil, sliced mushrooms and sprig of thyme. If the olive oil is soaked up immediately by the mushrooms you can always add a little more. Make sure the mushrooms are coated well in the oil and then just leave them alone. Let them caramelize and brown up a little in the pan for about five mins and then give them a stir. Leave them for another five minutes to caramelize a little more. Once they are looking beautiful, cooked and caramelized add in the teaspoon of port wine. Stir everything together and let the alcohol cook off, it should only take a minute or two. Pull off the heat and season with a little sea salt and pepper.

  • Crunchy Maldon Salt which comes in both a classic and smoked. The salt is gently smoked over oak. This is a finishing salt and really elevates your dishes!

Nicky, aka Poodle and Chad’s Ranch Dip:

  • 16 oz container of sour cream

  • 16 oz container of chive cottage cheese

  • 1 packet of hidden valley ranch powder dip/dressing mix

Mix everything together in a bowl and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours. Serve this with your favorite seasonal cut up veggies, pita chips, pretzel chips…well pretty much everything goes well with this!

A few extra apps we love in our home:

And of course our amazing chat with Sarah! We talked all things wine and I learned so much! Here’s a link to the NY Times article, we both encourage you to read this and help amplify their voices. If you get into “blind” tasting, which turns out doesn’t mean with a blind fold, here’s a link to the deductive tasting sheet.

If you are interested in doing more of a deep dive watching the Somm series, here’s a link to the second movie.

Remember “shelf talker” cards = bad… “staff pick” card = good and always ask the wine shop owner or buyer for the shop for help and advice. Try to support your local smaller retailers if possible too.

A few great local shops around here in the New England area that Sarah loves and may sell some great organic wines (if you are interested in trying them) are the Wine Bottega in the North End of Boston on Hanover St. (I personally love this spot and remember when it first opened as I lived next door!). Social Wines on West Broadway in Boston is also great. Don’t forget Maine and Loire on Washington St in Portland and if you are in Portsmouth, NH go to Raleigh Wine Bar which is currently closed but will reopen in March.

If you want to keep learning more about wine, please head over to the Wine Folly site. She has an amazing amount of information and great passion for what she does.

And of course if you want to connect with Sarah directly to speak with her more about wine, hire her to stock your personal wine collection, hold a virtual wine tasting with your friends or handle the wine for all of your events you should! She’s amazing and we love her. Her personal email is sarahmackinley181@gmail.com or her instagram is @sarahmackinley .

Beth Fuller is a Boston based Food, Product and Lifestyle Photographer. One of the best ways to support the podcast and Beth is to write a review wherever you listen, like the podcast on your favorite platform and please keep Beth in mind for any photography projects as a gal has got to pay her bills!

If you have a question and want it to be featured on the podcast please email either the question or a voice memo to letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com. Are you on instagram? Tag me in your food adventures, @letsgoonafoodadventure. Do you want to work together with food and product photography, drop me a line here!

xoxo

Beth

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Food, Podcasts Elizabeth Fuller Food, Podcasts Elizabeth Fuller

A “Healthyish” Food Adventure….

Episode 3: I took notes so you didn’t have to….We talked about the following in this episode….

Food “Gadgets” we talked about…

And here’s a couple more items that I didn’t get a chance to talk about in the episode but thought it would be worth including!

  • A cutting board mat, this helps your cutting board not slip all around while you’re slicing and dicing!

  • Stick Blender, I use this for dressings, for my cauliflower mashed “potatoes” and certain soups.

  • A Smaller Rolling Pin, I don’t know why but I only use a smaller rolling pin and have for years!

  • A Really Good Pepper Grinder….I know what you’re thinking… $50 for a pepper grinder. Yes! It’s amazing, I’ve had mine for over a decade and I love it!

Can you freeze your extra herbs? Kind of…. I think epicurious does a nice job of explaining this…

Here’s a link to a mortar and pestle and a great online spice shop!

Meal Planning and Chatting with my good friend and personal trainer, Kristen! For all of her training services, in person or virtual please contact her at kristen.scontras@gmail.com. Her current virtual workout classes are Thursdays at 9am and Saturdays at 9:30am. It’s a great group of women, with fun music and a killer workout! If you’d rather train with her in person and live in the Portsmouth of Kittery area reach out to her and she will get your butt into shape!

I have now made this dutch baby three times in one week!! And if my trainer says it’s ok then don’t tell me twice! *Pro Tip: Let the batter come to room temp before you pour it into the warmed cast iron pan and it will puff up better in the oven!

And if you live in the Portsmouth Area, these Bahn Mi tacos are Kristen approved! So go forth and chow down!

If you want to join Kristen in making the greek new years bread, Vasilopita, here you go! Just remember to follow the recipe!

Beth Fuller is a Boston based Food, Product and Lifestyle Photographer. One of the best ways to support the podcast and Beth is to write a review wherever you listen, like the podcast on your favorite platform and please keep Beth in mind for any photography projects as a gal has got to pay her bills!

If you have a question and want it to be featured on the podcast please email either the question or a voice memo to letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com. Are you on instagram? Tag me in your food adventures, @letsgoonafoodadventure. Do you want to work together with food and product photography, drop me a line here!

xoxo

Beth

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Food, Podcasts Elizabeth Fuller Food, Podcasts Elizabeth Fuller

Happy New Year!!!!

Episode 2: I took notes so you didn’t have to….We talked about the following in this episode….

Easy, Comforting Vegetarian Pasta Dish – serves 2

You’ll need:

Extra virgin olive oil

¼ of a medium onion 

1 stalk of celery 

1 clove of garlic, cut in half and remove germ  

Handful of cherry tomatoes 

Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

1 can of cannellini beans and chickpeas (drain, rinse and set aside) 

1 bay leaf (fresh if you have it)

Enough chicken stock or veggie stock to cover the beans in the pot

Salt and pepper to taste

½ package of ditalini (or any smaller pasta)

Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano Cheese 

Warm the olive oil in the pan on medium low heat and sauté the garlic, watching it so it doesn’t burn but caramelizes slightly and flavors the oil. You can remove it at this point or leave it in for a more garlicky flavor. Add in the onion and celery, increase the heat to medium, with a touch of salt and pepper. Sauté until these are translucent. Add in your crushed red pepper flakes, if using, and the tomatoes. Sauté this for a minute and then add in both kinds of beans along with the herbs and stock. You want the stock to cover everything in the pan but not too much more. You can always add more. You want the beans to breakdown and become super creamy. If you add too much stock it will be too watery. Bring it to a quick boil and then reduce the heat so it is just slowly simmering. Give it a stir every five minutes or so and keep your eye on the stock level. Add a little more if the mixture looks too dry. After about 35 – 45 minutes everything should be looking and smelling really good. At this point taste it again and season with salt and pepper to your liking. 

While the beans are finishing on the stove in another pot add in water and salt for the pasta. Add in enough salt that your pasta water tastes like the ocean. Taste your water friends! Once it’s boiling add in your pasta and cook to the package instructions and to your liking, no judgement if you don’t like al dente. Once it’s done and before you drain the pasta, pull out about a half a cup of the pasta water you may or may not need this for the bean mixture. 

Alright now it’s time to plate! Man oh man am I hungry!! Put your pasta in the bottom of the bowl, add a few scoops of the bean mixture on top (if the beans are too thick then add in a tiny bit of the pasta water until it’s creamy enough for you), top with a little extra crushed red pepper if you like, shave some parmigiano reggiano or pecorino romano cheese on top and then drizzle some of your best olive oil and buon appetito! 

Now for that slow roasted salmon! Again the world is your salmon oyster my friends so get creative! I think the folks at food52 do a great job at explaining the technique, here!

If you are craving to take a vegetarian or vegan food adventure but don’t want to try the fact meat products below are a few recipes that you might want to dive into from the love and lemons food blog and oh she glows!

https://www.loveandlemons.com/portobello-mushroom-tacos/

https://www.loveandlemons.com/vegan-meatballs/

https://ohsheglows.com/2018/07/12/smoky-jackfruit-chicken-salad/

https://ohsheglows.com/2014/06/17/ultimate-green-taco-wraps-with-lentil-walnut-taco-meat-vegan-gluten-free/

Now on to my lover of winter citrus including those amazing little bundles of joy better known as kumquats! Here’s an article from Food and Wine with 14 amazing chefs and what they like to do with them beyond just snacking on them! And remember to snack….wash them, put them in a bowl and pop them in your mouth! :)

Shari thank you so much again for chatting and I just love what you and Steve are doing with your weekend recipe club! And I can’t wait to have both you and Steve on again to talk more!! I know it will inspire so many more to do the same! Below are Shari’s top picks, I can’t wait to make them! Also if you have a good Filipino Chicken Adobo recipe please pass it along. Shari and Steve would love it!

https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/barbacoa-recipe/

https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Sichuan-Pork-Wontons/

https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/side/other-side-dish/easy-chinese-egg-rolls.html

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016754-butter-chicken

http://www.sophisticatedgourmet.com/2009/10/new-york-style-bagel-recipe/

Beth Fuller is a Boston based Food, Product and Lifestyle Photographer. One of the best ways to support the podcast and Beth is to write a review wherever you listen, like the podcast on your favorite platform and please keep Beth in mind for any photography projects as a gal has got to pay her bills!

If you have a question and want it to be featured on the podcast please email either the question or a voice memo to letsgoonafoodadventure@gmail.com. Are you on instagram? Tag me in your food adventures, @letsgoonafoodadventure. Do you want to work together with food and product photography, drop me a line here!

xoxo

Beth

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