A healthy dinner option

Despite the fact that my body looks like it was built on grease, trans fat, and sugar, every now and then a healthy meal does make it inside my belly. Tonight was one of those nights. 

 The picture did not come out very well, but that is stir fried chicken breast with fresh asparagus, red onion, and baby portobello. 

I've tried to do these stir fries vegetarian before, but I truly do miss the meat component, and don't give me that tofu garbage. I like tofu as a part of a dish, such as in hot and sour soup, but it is not a meat substitute. 

This dish was amazing. I made a garlic sauce that I coated and sautéed the dish in for a minute prior to serving. This sauce didn't overwhelm the great taste if the asparagus, but just left a subtle hint of garlic.  The one thing I wish I did was have a bed of rice for the meal. The left over sauce would have perfectly flavored the rice.

For dessert I had a wonderful peanut butter cream pie from... You guessed it, Wegmans. A wonderfully dense pie of a peanut butter cream and Oreo crust topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.  Unfortunately for you I forgot to picture it prior to devouring it. Still some left so look for it in a future post. 

What type of Chinese food do you like to make? Or are you simply a take out type of person? What do you normally order?

Strawberry Fields

I'm afraid that this blog is going to turn into an unpaid advertisement for Wegmans food stores, but the quality of product they offer and the services they provide makes me more than happy to promote them. This morning I had a piece of what I consider the best breakfast pastry made, Manhattan Pecan Kuchen. While Kuchen is simply the German word for cake, the pastry that Wegmans makes is a cross between a coffee cake and a strudel. It is moist yet still flaky. In other word it is delicious. 

Yesterday, prior to the hot dog meltdown, my family and I did one of my favorite things, go to a local farm and pick fresh fruit. Not only does it help support local farmers and freshness in produce but it also teaches my daughter that food doesn't simply come from the supermarket and there is real work behind each and every morsel we put in out mouth. Yesterday was the end of strawberry season and was the perfect weather to take her out. 

We used to always go to a smaller farm in Chester named Alstede Farms. Their selection and quality is amazing. Unfortunately for me but fantastic for them, they were featured on the show Real Housewives of New Jersey some years back. This has caused their popularity to soar, and now it is impossible to go there on the weekend without having to deal with crowds. What this has caused me to do is search out more local farms to patronize. This particular day we went to Donaldson Farm in Hackettstown, NJ.

 

This farm was nice and I think one of the positives that it had over some others that I have visited was the limited selection. By not trying to offer every fruit imaginable in the Pick Your Own area, more area was able to be dedicated to the one fruit we were trying to pick. The farm also had a lot of fun things for kids to do, such as a petting zoo, pony rides and a large sand box. Inside the actual market was a great selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as a fantastic area of fresh baked goods. Prices were a little on the high side from other farms I have gone to but it wasn't bad enough to make me never consider this place again.

There was a huge strawberry festival the day before which made me afraid that everything would be picked over, but there were plenty of rows to pick from and at the end of the day we ended up with around 3 lbs of berries. Now to look up some great strawberry recipes.

 What are some of your favorite things to make with strawberries?

The end of a beautiful Sunday

First off, while I am doing my second post in a day, do not expect this. I am going to try and at least do three posts a week but hopefully more will be completed. 

Now to answer the question that is on everyone's mind: ”What time did the whining begin?"  She must have gotten up very early this morning because the hour of our discontent was around six, or right when we were sitting down for dinner. Nothing beats trying to relax with some perfectly seared meat than having a young child whining to you about how she now hates hot dogs despite eating them yesterday. 

We had a wonderful day today at the pool and then strawberry picking, which I will regale you with in tomorrow's post after I process the pictures. But now for our meal tonight. 

 Tonight was my first attempt at sliders. Usually I make my own burgers with 80/20 ground beef, cooked until medium rare and wonderfully juicy in the middle. Today I opted to get these pre made sliders at my favorite food store Wegmans. Not only is Wegmans great for the wonderful selection of food, but also because they offer an hour and a half of free child care for those that are shopping there. Have any of you tried to go grocery shopping with a 5 year old? Seriously, Wegmans could offer me horrible brand X food and I would still love them simply for the babysitting. 

These were a wonderful burger that had Swiss Cheese and sautéed portobello mushrooms mixed in. I've had them in the larger, normal-sized burger before, but the slider represented a slight challenge for me. I found that I should have cooked them a little less, but luckily the amount of cheese that was mixed in kept them juicy despite cooking them to a slightly more done medium than I am used to.  

When they were done I dressed them with a slice of tomato, some of my homemade half-sour pickles (blog post about these forthcoming), and my horseradish cream sauce I made for a roast beef I made the for a previous meal.

It was good, I've had better but these were decent and I may try them again, except next time I would probably just make my own.

What are your favorite combinations to have on burgers or sliders? Where do you side on the full sized burger vs. slider debate?

A lazy Sunday breakfast

Today I slept in. Doesn't happen often because I've been so stressed causing my body to get up at all different ungodly hours. It is amazing how when stressed the body, well, at least my body, doesn't allow itself the rest it needs to help cope with that stress. I woke up and my daughter was already up playing on the computer. God knows what time she got up. Guess I'll know by the time the whining stage starts tonight. When I finally strolled downstairs at 9:30 she was sitting there asking to feed the cat and for her own breakfast. That is when I noticed another thing lack of sleep causes: stupid mistakes. At the store yesterday I bought her cherry toaster strudels instead of strawberry. I didn't tell her and she didn't mention it but she must have noticed something because four bites in she said she was full.

Then onto breakfast for myself and my wife. Today's culinary day starts with fried meat, fried potatoes, and fried eggs.  I never told anyone that this blog was going to feature healthy food. Remember those failures I mentioned in the introduction, nothing like day one to showcase one.  Luckily both plates didn't end up failures.  

The picture on the left is the failure. That ended up being mine.  The egg stuck to the causing the yolks to break and not be "pretty" also on mine is Sriracha, or as I like to call it, the greatest sauce in the history of man. Both plates are similar with the sauce being the main difference. This is a simple yet delicious to make that is sure to please the meat eater in your life. Both plates taste delicious, the only failure is really the appearance. 

Fry the bacon until just barely crispy. Today I used uncured applewood smoked bacon, but any will do.  As the bacon is frying, microwave one more potato than people you are serving. For example today this was for my wife and me so I nuked three spuds. Dice the potatoes and some Spanish onions. Fry the potatoes and onions in the bacon fat until brown. At the end crumble the bacon into the potatoes and serve with a fried egg on top. When the yolk is broken and it coats the potatoes, there truly is nothing more warming on a great morning with the family. 

Debated on whether to put these blogs out as daily entries or as I type them.  Two responses on Facebook said as I write them so that is what you get for now. What do y'all think? This is also my first time posting from my iPad so I hope the format comes out okay. 

What is your favorite breakfast to make your family?

An Introduction

Hello and welcome to my culinary journey. That sounds pompous and ridiculous and honestly it is. Even the title of this blog sounds ridiculous but Unemployed Gourmet was taken already so this is what you get.

I am an unemployed marketing professional and have been so for about 6 months now. I have a young, precocious daughter and a brand new role as a stay-at-home dad that has me both excited and nervous at the same time.

My entire life I have always loved food. It started when I was 10 years old and my mother gave one of those oft heard mom ultimatums of "If you don't like what i'm making, make dinner yourself." Much to her surprise I did, and I have loved cooking ever since. To the point of almost entering culinary school when I was choosing my post high school education. I decided not to go that route because I didn't want to take the fun out of my hobby by making it a career.

I like cooking for my family and myself, and while I would love to say that I always make these elaborate meals that has my wife and daughter salivating, there have been a ton of failures that had us ordering a late night pizza and if the words chicken fingers or cheese fries isn't somewhere on the menu, more often than not, my daughter won't even think about it. It isn't all gourmet as the title suggest either. For example tonight was simple beef tacos.

The purpose of this blog is to share recipes I have used or am building and to show you that not every meal is a complete success but could just be a piece to the puzzle for the next meal to be better.

Thank you for joining me here, and I hope you find my ramblings both entertaining and informative.