Me and my assistant went to the grocery store yesterday, the first day after the storm for it to be open and it was chaotic. Not as bad as the day before the storm but it was still pretty bad. Trying to cram pass people in the isles. Finding the right ingredients and finding anything organic was hard even. I suppose it has been rough for the store itself to receive groceries. Anyway, we got what we came for.

• 1 lbs ground beef
• ½ yellow onion
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 14 oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 4 oz can of mushrooms
• 1 jalapeño
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbs ketchup
• 1 tbs dried oregano
• salt & pepper to taste

We got home and immediately started cooking. She helped me mince the onion, chop up the bell peppers and crush the garlic cloves.

I heated up a large frying pan with some olive oil and started frying the onions, adding the meat after the onions got soft and let sear until almost all the meat has colour. I added the bell peppers, garlic, jalapeño and mushrooms stirring and giving more colour to the meat and vegetables. Lastly I added the can of tomatoes and the oregano. Let it boil up for a little bit and then add salt and pepper to taste. Ready to serve!

As I said earlier it can probably be used as a bolognese on pasta as well but I prefer eating it by itself, maybe it’s just me. Enjoy! :)

I rushed home after a long day out and about and started preparing the kitchen. I started out by making the marinade. I went with something sweet, something foresty, something different…

My balsamic/forest marinade:

• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp honey
• plenty of thyme
• 2 tsp rosemary
• 2 tbsp juniper
• 2 cloves of garlic
• dash of liquid smoke

To make it you just have to mix everything together basically. I added everything in the order of my recipe (it’s an original!) got out the garlic press for the garlic cloves, crushed the juniper with the back of a knife and halved all the rosemary leaves. Stripped the thyme sprigs off of its leaves and mixed. While letting the flavours mix I prepared the skewers.

Here’s what I used:

• 1 lbs deer steak
• 1 orange bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 yellow squash
• 10 portobello mushrooms
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 jalapeño

Cut up everything into similar sized squares, with exception for the jalapeños of course. I cut the mushrooms into pieces of four. For the squashes I first halved them and then chopped them. Some of the steak pieces were long and thin so I wrapped up onions and jalapeños in some. Like hidden goodies.

Brush the marinade over the skewers. And put into the oven to broil for about ten minutes or until vegetables is starting to get golden. The venison will stay pink/red when broiling.

Boil up some rice and mix all of these ingredients in a big bowl.

• Rice
• Big handful of Italian parsley
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 lemons

It’s all ready to serve. I wish I had a barbecue or one of those grilling pans, but broiling things in the oven works almost as well. Extra thanks to the liquid smoke. It really gave it that barbecue flavour!

After 10 mins of broiling

Served on top of lettuce with a side of rice

Anyway.

Here’s my attempt on recreating past evenings but in my view of American style.

The sandwiches:
Bagles
Butter
Green bell peppers
Tomatoes
Pepper jack cheese
Mushrooms

It’s basically a steak sandwich without the steak. Just stack it up. I chose bagles because it’s American and fun. They also taste best amongst American bread when heated up and get the crust crispy. The green bell peppers because they are less sweet than yellow, orange and red.

No pepper jack?
If you don’t have pepper jack cheese you can just cut up a jalapeño and put it together with any mild regular cheese.

Its a fairly simple recipe :)

(This recipe easily serve 4-6 people)

Ingredients:
3 cups of bread flour
1 package of dry active yeast (the recipe I did said 1/4 oz but I used 5/16 oz no noticeable difference)
2 tablespoons of oil (I prefer using olive oil)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup warm water (for the yeast)

How I did it:
First I mixed the flour, sugar and salt together in a big bowl. Separately I mixed together the warm water and yeast. When the yeast had fully dissolved I put it into the flour mix and added the two tablespoons of olive oil and mixed it around until it was a smooth ball of dough (I also added some extra olive oil when the ball was done, in my experience pizza dough has always been shiny with grease and that’s how I will continue to have it) Cover up the bowl with a towel or even plastic wrap and let rise for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Dump the ball of dough on a smooth surface, like a big table (or in my case a bar) and work the dough around a little bit. Add tidy bits of flour if still sticky. Start flattening it out to a pizza shape or if you’re doing it in a pan just put it in a pan and flatten it out to the corners. Here I tried to be Luigi and toss my pizza but I will not do that again, I failed miserably – its a lot harder than it looks!

When pizza was flattened out and in place I added my toppings. I chose not to make a “traditional” pizza but more of a “Me” pizza, so I added tomato sauce on bottom. Onions, shrimp and jalapeños on top of that. A LOT of mozzarella cheese and lastly some mushrooms and salami.

Place in the middle of oven for about 20-25 minutes (until cheese turns golden brown is a good indicator for you who forget time)

I must say this was my most delicious creation yet, although it might just have to do with my pizza craving growing bigger over the past few months.