#4: Biolea Organic Olive Oil, Imported from Greece

Sometimes I question all the different types of olive oil out there. When a recipe calls for extra-virgin olive oil, what difference does it make where it comes from? I usually use a high quality Italian olive oil. But after doing a little bit of research online I find out that there is an entire foodie universe dedicated to olive oils.

For me, I only can really taste the difference when I am eating something simple that shows off the taste of the oil. When adding it to recipes, I have a hard time noticing any difference. I am not a big fan of dipping oils. After a visit to Napa Valley in California several years ago I got into some dried herbs that you add to the olive oils for dipping. They are really great. But that phase passed and now I usually only dip bread in oil when in an Italian restaurant and the oil is piled with freshly grated cheese.

My favorite food to eat with olive oil is tomatoes. I absolutely love sliced tomatoes with olive oil and salt. Sometimes I add balsamic vinegar. When I'm ambitious I add fresh basil and fresh mozzerella to make a Caprese Salad. Lately, I have been eating more of a greek salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives and feta cheese.

I purchased Biolea Organic Olive Oil since it was the brand suggested as #4 Greek Olive Oil on Food & Wine's 100 Tastes to Try in 2007. It cost $30 and I ordered it from Kaliroi Imports. The Food & Wine taste-testers gave this organic olive oil high marks. Biolea olive oil is made with olives grown at the Astrikas Estate in Crete. Only their olives are used and it is not blended with olives from anywhere else which makes it stand apart from several other olive oils on the market.

Like Kristen at Dine and Dish, I tasted this Greek olive oil in a variety of ways. The very first was to dip my finger into the bottle as soon as I opened it. But as I mentioned above, I don't really get into plain olive oil. The smell is amazing though it it is quite different from the Italian and Spanish olive oils I had right next to it for comparison. Next, I dunked a few pieces of bread into each of the three oils and tasted it that way. The Spanish was the lightest, barely with an olive flavor. The Italian was the strongest as the olive flavor hit you right away. And the Greek olive oil was in the middle. At first it has a very light taste and the olive flavor comes through subtly, but you definately get the olive taste at the end. It seemed to have the most sophisticated taste of the three.

I had to taste it with some tomatoes to really get the full effect. I made Tula's Country-Style Greek Salad. I'm not sure what it was, but using the Greek olive oil instead of the Italian olive oil that I used last time really made this already awesome salad absolutely amazing. The olives, feta and Greek olive oil blended together perfectly. I also used the Biolea olive oil when making the Eggplant Ricotta Bake. In this dish the olive oil is used to brush on the eggplant slices before roasting. I tasted the roasted eggplant before I put the entire dish together and it was really nice. So I can see a high quality olive oil also being used when roasting vegetables. But when I took a bite of the finished lasagna, there were so many complex tastes I could not pick out the olive oil. So this confirms my theory about not using the super-expensive olive oil in recipes with a bunch of strong ingredients.

Food Network Awards

The Food Network. Love it or hate it, every foodie turns it on every now and then. This evening I was looking for a recipe on FoodNetwork.com when I saw an ad for the Food Network Awards which will be an event held at the annual South Beach Food & Wine Festival (which this year has partnered with the Food Network for the first time) in February, 2007. The award show will be televised on the Food Network sometime in April, 2007.

The first-ever Food Network Awards combines the fun of Food Network with the glamour of South Beach to make a completely unique, entertaining, off-beat awards ceremony unlike any other. From a red carpet hosted by Ham on the Street's George Duran and walked by the likes of Snap, Crackle and Pop, to appearances by your favorite Food Network stars, this is a fresh, new awards show. The best part? We're asking our viewers to get in on the fun. Cast your votes now in our five viewer's choice categories and don't forget to watch the Food Network Awards, coming in April, 2007.

I am intrigued by this because I love award shows. AND, I love food. AND, we get to vote! When I saw the bright red "Vote Now" on their homepage, my mind sped forward and I put my judging cap on. This is important since I will be voting for the likes of Paula Dean and Emeril. And I suppose I will have to make my decision one way or another about Rachael Ray. I excitedly clicked my way over to the voting page . . .

Viewer's Choice Award Categories are:

* Favorite Comfort Food Combo
* Best Ballpark Eats
* "Professional Grade" Food Applicance You Can't Live Without
* Favorite Childhood Classic Read
* Favorite Cool & Classic Cocktail

You can't necessarily tell it from the category headings, but there is no voting for ANY Food Network show. The "nominees" are various foods, drinks, books, appliances and baseball stadiums. I felt fleeced for a moment but I voted anyways. I am slightly suspicious of advertising being incorporated into everything. But, the awards show could be interesting to watch - if they do it right. But Snap, Crackle and Pop being on the red carpet smells like overkill of advertising to me. There is also a sweepstakes you can enter to win a trip to the awards show.

Gordon Ramsay Makes Dog Food

Gordon Ramsay's 'F' Word was hysterical tonight. First, he decided to enter a dog food contest. So to determine which recipe to submit, he took one dish from each of his four chefs down to the dog pound. He then picked out a dog that looked like each chef and let the dogs pick the winner. One dog ate the fastest and cleaned his plate while one didn't even touch the food at all. That determined the winner and loser. So off went his submission to the contest.

Later he has some sir guy do a blind taste test with wine. There were three rounds and he had to pick which was the expensive wine and which was the "celebrity" wine. Bob Dylan, Olivia Newton-John and someone else were the celebrity wines. The sir guy got the first one correct but picked Olivia Newton-John's wine and Bob Dylan's over the expensive one. The Bob Dylan wine went up against his own which which he makes and sells so he even failed against that. I didn't even know Bob Dylan and Olivia Newton-John had their own wines.

When he ventures out to a single father's house to teach him how to cook for his two children he can't get a cab. Not because there are none available, but because he said something nasty about London's cab driver a few years ago and now no cab driver will pick him up!

In his restaurant he has three stock brokers as the amateur chefs this week. At the restaurant they served Sautéed potatoes with red mullet and anchovy (all 50 customers paid), Saddle of lamb with apricot and cumin stuffing (21 customers refused to pay), Summer pudding with lime crème fraiche (12 customers refused to pay). All goes pretty well, but Gordon doesn't trust them to make the dessert which is donuts. Below is a clip of him getting all frustrated with the amateurs (there is ALOT OF SWEARING) and it is the maddest he gets all episode, but it's classic Gordon.

Top 50 Things Every Foodie Should Do

The UK's Observer has a section called Food Monthly. I just stumbled upon an interesting list that they published a year an a half ago in May of 2005. While celebrating their 50th edition they enlisted several high-profile British foodies such as Nigella Lawson, Gordon Ramsay and Nigel Slater to help devise the list of The Top 50 Things Every Foodie Should Do.

It's a quite comprehensive list. There are some good traditional standards that every cook should partake in such as dismembering a chicken and boiling a freshly laid egg. But the fun comes in with some of the more adventuresome suggestions such as diving for sea urchins or making love in a vineyard.

I feel a bit empowered since I have already done a handful of items on the list. My absolute favorite is #15 stomping grapes. That is always something I have wanted to do even though I know I will look just like Lucille Ball. It has to be an amazingly good time. And I bet it's much harder than it looks.

I can think of a few things that aren't on the list. If I were asked to contribute, I would have added "Eat from a street vendor in a major American city." It doesn't matter if it's a hot dog on the streets of NYC or a tamale from the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago, our culture lies in our communities.

#15: Salty, Sugary, Crunchy. . . Popcorn!

I knew Aspen Kettle Corn was the first thing I wanted to order when I saw it listed as #15 on Food & Wine Magazine's 100 Tastes to Try in 2007. I love popcorn and it seemed more comfortable and familiar to me than other items on the list. I placed my order on a Sunday evening and received my popcorn the following Thursday. It arrived via U.S. Priority Mail. Their website mentions a two-bag minimum but somehow it allowed me to order only one. I wasn't paying attention, I thought I would get two. I wish I ordered six. Each bag is $6.00 and the shipping to Florida cost $7.50. And it is very, very much worth the price. I could smell it while I was carrying the box into my house and my mouth started watering while I was opening up my other mail.

Be warned if you try this: it is ADDICTING. You will CRAVE this. I couldn't stop eating it when I "tasted" it before dinner. And then I went at it again after dinner. Between those two sittings I ate half the bag. Just me, by myself. Well, my little parrot snuck a few kernels out of the bag and he loved it too. And of course I had to toss a few down to the dogs, but that only totalled about a handful. The rest was all me and I enjoyed every piggy bite of it. This is so good I'm going to be ordering it for my friends as housewarming presents and maybe place a few orders next Christmas.

Kristen over at Dine and Dish is spot on as she describes the back and forth between sweet and salty which you will experience. My first impression was that it reminded me of carmel corn. Very, very light and fresh carmel corn. And then the salt hit me and it reminded me of really good hot air popped popcorn. It is not greasy at all. And there is barely any corn syrup on it, just enough to give a nice, subtle sweetness. So it is still really healthy. There is no nutritional information on the package so I am not positive, but I think it is a pretty safe snack. I'd say it's great for the dieters out there to get a sweet fix in a healthy way, but I know there is no possible way to enforce any type of portion control because it's just too damn good.

So what are you waiting for? Go order some. Now. SOMEONE in your life has to like popcorn (if not you) and you will impress anyone you get this for. I know I'm going to be placing another order very soon.

eat, pray, love

I read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert a few months ago (I listen to the audiobook) and I have been thinking about it lately. I loved this book! Maybe it is where I am in my life right now, but I have never been truly been inspired by a book by the way I have with this one. It is a cross between a woman's growth into an independant self that she likes, her travel experiences, and learning about cultures and foods from around the world. The book is separated into three parts. Eat: she is based in Rome and explores Italy. Pray: she is at an ashram in India learning about herself. Love: she is in Bali winding up her adventure and setting her paces for the next step in her life.

I want to listen to it again and maybe I will. The book was different than I thought it would be. I thought it would be more about her travels, not about a woman finding herself. So I kind of tuned out some of the first parts when she was in Italy. But I got completely caught up in her and her experiences once she got to India. She practices meditation and she goes through thinking how tedious some of these practices are and how unrealistic they are in every day life. But then she gets swayed over by her guru. I found her path very interesting.

Some of my favorite parts is how she described her relationships and the people she meets from all over the world. And when she goes to these places she lives there for four months each so we find out what life really is like. The foodie in me absolutly loves the way she describes not only the food but also the culture and why their food is an important part of the culture. The audiobook is read by the author herself and she seems like someone who thinks and feels the same things as me. I want to be her friend :)

#25: Mmm... Cheese!

I love cheese. All kinds of cheese. Some people say they like cheese, but they really just like food smothered in cheese. I like just plain cheese. I enjoy cutting a little chunk and nibbling on it with some grapes. I don't even use crackers.

Today I received a package from Formaggio Kitchen. I ordered two Artisanal Swiss Cheeses so I could taste #25 on Food & Wine's 100 Tastes To Try in 2007. I ordered the two cheeses suggested by Food & Wine: Gruyere Vieux and Bündner Bergkäse Andeerer. The shipping to Florida was $20.49 for two-day delivery which I had to do since the cheeses are perishable.

I've learned a little bit about cheese through this process. When I tasted them I knew that I liked them both, but was having a hard time finding words to describe them. So I read about the cheeses a bit as I was tasting them. I paid attention to what kind of milk they were made from, their consistency, and while chewing I tried to find the flavors which the cheese company described. It's funny how when someone tells you something has a "medium-strong" flavor you can try and look for it and understand what they are talking about - but only while it is still in your mouth.

Both of the cheeses are made from cow's milk and come from Switzerland. Neither is a "Swiss" cheese with holes in it like we Americans are used to. They might be considered "organic" to some because the cows are fed in their pastures and the entire process seems quite natural and traditional.

Gruyere Vieux ($11.95) is my favorite of the two. It's a hard cheese that reminds me of manchego. I fell in love with manchego about five years ago when someone at a wine store suggested I try manchego cheese with my pinot noir wine. The combination is magical. And since then manchego has been my favorite cheese. But what I discovered today is that it's not necessarilly the way that manchego tastes that attracts me to it, it's the consistency of the cheese. It's solid but when you take a bite it kinds of crumbles or flakes as you chew it. There is almost a grittiness to it. The crumbles kind of dissintegrate on your tongue like salt does which I think is really interesting. Gruyere Vieux acts the same way. And I didn't realize it on my own, but while reading the description of Gruyere Vieux on the website, I do notice a nutty flavor. That must be why I like it so much.

Bündner Bergkäse Andeerer ($16.95) is softer to the touch than the Gruyere Vieux. I have never tried any other cheese that has a similar consistancy so I have nothing to compare it too. But the end result is a creamier texture while tasting it. There is an interesting story on Formaggio's website about this cheese. Apparently it is created by one of the only female cheese makers in Switzerland. The milk comes from one of only 5 small farmers and maybe these special touches are why this cheese has won several awards in the past few years.


note* 1 ounce of cheese is 3 Weight Watchers points.

here's my kitchen

Well, here it is . . . my kitchen. My workspace. The heart of my home. Ilva from Lucullian Delights (a blog based in Tuscany) asked for fellow foodie bloggers to share pictures of their kitchens. So here is my kitchen in sunny Tampa, Florida (which can not compare in its newness to all the glory and tradition in Tuscany - can you tell I want to live in Tuscany?). I do all my cooking here but I rarely eat here. Usually I eat on my couch. Sometimes I do sit at that counter to indulge, but that is where I sort my mail, spread out my cookbooks, write shopping lists and plan menus.

The first thing people notice about my kitchen is that it painted hot pink. I chose that color because i wanted my kitchen to be very vibrant and full of energy. I would have chose an orange but my bedroom and living room are shades of oranges and yellows and I like have different colors in each of my rooms.

My kitchen has just about everything someone could want except a convection oven and a grill. Well, everyting I could want anyways. I guess I don't have a food processor either but i'm working on that. I moved into this house in July of 2005 so it is still brand new. I live here alone so I have tons of space to fill it up with all my stuff.

If I had to improve anything in my kitchen I would add some more "homey" elements. But that is kind of hard to do in a kitchen that is surrounded with cabinets on the walls. That only leaves counter space and I like to keep that free for my appliances and for space when I make a mess cooking.

Second Season of Gordon Ramsay's 'F' Word Begins

The 'F' stands for food. Gordon Ramsay's 'F' Word is one of my favorite shows because it features chef's in their environment. Gordon always has some celebrity visiting as well. He steps out to the guests and gets their opinions on his dishes as they are served. There are also clips of himself at home offering teaching techniques and recipes. He also helps regular people who lack cooking confidence in their own kitchens to learning something new.

In its second season, which premiered last night, Gordon's taken up the challenge of raising pigs in order to teach his kids the difference between pets and food. The first season features raising of live turkeys to be eaten for Thanksgiving dinner. He and his family went to the farm to pick out the baby pigs to take home. He was warned that the picks will probably take over most of his year and not stay in a pen like the turkeys did. His wife will not be happy with that. It is interesting to watch the kids interact with the animals. They have alot of fun but they also know that they will eventually be their dinner. Gordon told his son that they would have bacon sandwiches this time.

Four local butchers were the amateur cooks who helped Gordon prepare a three-course meal for the diners at his restaurant. Those poor guys had a really hard time. Some of the guests even refused to pay for their food!

The second season airs on BBC America and will contain nine episodes with the finale scheduled for Sunday, March 4, 2007.

book review: Julie and Julia

I just finished the most interesting book. Well, interesting to me as a person on a cooking quest. Prior to this, I haven't sat down and READ a book in a long time. It's usually audiobooks while driving. I bought this book at the airport on the way home from Lake Tahoe earlier this month. It's called Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously.

Julie Powell is a 29-year-old secretarial temp. Unhappy with her job. Not sure what to do with her life. Not ready to have kids. She decides to take on a project: she will cook all of the recipes in Julia Child's famous Mastering the Art of French Cooking. There are 524 recipes all of which Julie plans to cook within one year - 365 days. AND she blogs about her experience. Her Julie/Julia Project blog is still available online.

I dream of doing something like this. I LOVE cookbooks. I buy them and look through them but then am usually too tired from reading to actually cook anything. I've been really making an effort to cook more and more lately. So I love this gal's concept and determination. In fact, I started rachel's bite as a way of having some ownership and sharing my experiences with my recipe cooking. You can say that this book inspired me.

What is really interesting is that a few months ago I listened to the audiobook of My Life in France by Julia Child. This was the last book she wrote before she died and it was all about how she got started cooking, cooking lessons at Le Cordon Bleu in France, her decision to write a cookbook about French food for Americans (Mastering the Art of French Cooking) which she wrote with two friends, and the beginning of her television series. That book was GREAT. Julia Child is a very interesting person.

I really enjoyed Julie and Julia because Julie is a real person, similar to myself, who is going to conquer this old cookbook and I got to read about her trials and errors. It is humorous too because she discusses all her frustrations in finding rare ingredients and the all the difficult techniques first identified by Julia Child. These are the typical things I go through almost every time i cook a recipe from a magazine or something on The Food Network (especially Emeril!). And it really is a different world now. Mastering the Art of French Cooking was first published in the 60s. Ingredients and kitchen gadgets have changed so much since then. And that book fills each recipe with butter and cream which seems so unhealthy now.

Of course the down side is that now I want to complete a similar project. I have no interest in cooking everything int Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I don't like French Food too much, even though I'd love to execute some of Julia Child's recipes - just to say I can. However I would like to make all the recipes in The Joy of Cooking. I would love to learn to cook all the basics in that one. Unfortunately that one has over 4500 recipes so it would take me years to complete. But who knows . . .

Below is a cute clip I found on YouTube which someone made highlight one of the funniest part of Julie and Julia . . . Julie's experience with attempting to get bone marrow for a steak recipe:

humble pie

i just finished humble pie by UK celebrity chef gordon ramsay. he is probably best know in the US for the reality show hell's kitchen. i can't believe i missed that one considering how much i like those type of reality shows and cooking shows. however, i have been watching the f word on bbc america which is another one of his shows and i love it. he is known as an obnoxious asshole. but really, he has had a hard life. he came from nothing and made something amazing himself. he could have been another statistic - like his brother who ended up a heroin addict. his story is amazing and he is really an inspiration for everyone.