Battlestar Galactica premiere party on Friday…

it’s almost here!  that’s right nerds, Battlestar Galactica (BSG) premieres on Friday!  both seanalyn and i are preparing ourselves for this epic event!  i am hosting a BSG party at my apartment and inviting lots of hungry guests.  seanalyn and i will be brainstorming ideas and recipes for our themed party.

i searched around, found some great ideas online, and added seanalyn & mine:

a frakin’ Battlestar Galactica cake

Marisa from slashfood.com posted this amazing edible artwork by local baker/artist Zoë Lukas, who is in the process of opening up her own bakery in Philly.  The chocolate devil’s food cake is ‘filled with raspberry jam and ganache, iced with chocolate buttercream and ganache, decorated with chocolate ships and explosions, silver dragees and silver and gold space dust.’

the Cylon Jack-O-Lantern

Allison from seriouseats.com posted this incredible masterpiece with a working cylon laser eye.  although not edible, this would make for a great centerpiece at our party!  too bad i’m not that handy at carving pumpkins!

seanalyn’s idea

i love it!  she plans on taking the infamous Eye of Jupiter that Starbuck consistently obesses over and making a glorious fruit tart out of it.  (she is so clever!)



***pictures of her appetizer will follow after our party

my idea

i am thinking of taking those Pillsbury Crossiants, stuffing them with crab & cream cheese, and creating foldovers in the shape of cylon raiders.  i’ll give the illusion of their notable ‘laser eye’ with a slice of red pepper.



um, we’ll see how this one turns out!

lastly, the Battlestar Drinking game…

on this nerdtastic spacecast community forum, i found an awesome thread with some very creative BSG themed drinks, here’s a few i loved:

1. THE RED DRESS – (AN ODE TO NUMBER SIX)

· 2 parts Gin

· 1 part Pomegranate Juice

· 1 part Cranberry Juice

· a dash of Grenadine

Stir and Serve with a touch of ice in a slender Collins glass.

2. TWISTED MESSIAH – (THE BALTAR COMPLEX)

· 1 part white Tequila

· 1 part Ouzo

· 1 part tomato juice

· a dash of Worcestershire sauce

Shake and serve in an old fashioned glass.

3. SKINJOB – (CYLON LOVER)

· 1 part Bailey’s Irish cream

· 1 part Tequila Rose

· a dash of Amaretto

Shake and serve in a Shot Glass

what i loved even more is that there is actually a Battlestar Galactica drinking game with rules and everything!

please let us know if you have any creative ideas, thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc.  we absolutely love hearing from you!

<3 katie

Thankgiving recipes…with a twist

As I posted last week, we are planning an epic endeavor…Bacon Wrapped Turducken. Now man and woman cannot live on bacon bird alone…we need side dishes. Now we cannot do with instant mashed potatoes, no we are going for recipes with a twist on the traditional. Whether they are a unique family recipe or a new creation. Here are a few of the sides I am planning on making.

Mashed Cauliflower

I want to make this partly to try and attempt to balance out the Turducken (ok honestly nothing will balance out that besides some diet pills and exlax) but also just to have a bit different flavor than plain potatoes. Personally I’ve always loved mashed cauliflower just because its got a better taste than boring plain potatoes. My recipe is adapted from Dani Spires L’s Cauliflower Mash

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, peeled and quartered
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 head of cauliflower, cored and roughly chopped
• 1 cup sour cream ( prefer light sour cream)
• 1 cup chives or green onions finely diced
  
• ¼ cup of Pecorino Romano cheese
• 2 tbsp. butter or margarine
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
• paprika

Boil the cauliflower until it is soft…be sure not to overcook! About 8 minutes should be enough.  Allow the cauliflower to cool a bit then dump it in a blender with the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT for the paprika and chives.  Blend until everything is smooth then transfer back into a pot.  Stir until everything is warm then stir in the chives/green onion.  Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with paprika.

You could easily do some variations on this recipe…try roasting the garlic beforehand, adding curry for a spicy curry mash, more cheese for a cheesy cauliflower mash, or really anything else you would do to mashed potatoes!

Green Beans with Shallots and Almonds

I want to do something different than nasty green bean cassarole…honestly I dont know how this frozen canned soup monstrosity became a Thanksgiving staple.  Its the one dish I see getting passed over at every Thanksgiving dinner (except the grandparents…grandparents loooove green bean cassarole). So why not just do a delicious and light green bean side?  I mean with all the other rich heavy dishes we have going on, I want to save some room for Cesar’s homemade pumpkin pie.

Ingredients

• 1 large bunch of green beans (about a pound)
  
• olive oil
• 4-6  medium sized shallots
• lemon juice
• 1 cup sliced almonds (you could easily substitute walnuts)
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the green beans until they are bright green, about 3 minutes.  In a skillet heat some olive oil and saute the shallots until they are carmelized.  Toss in the green beans, a bit of lemon juice (just enough to coat the beans), the almonds and salt and pepper.

Voila! Easy huh?

So now that I have the green beams and cauliflower mash all figured out, i just need to figure out something to do with the sweet potatoes.  Im not a fan of the super sugary mini marshmallow sweet potatoes…so I want to do something different and more special. Im thinking either a cranberry and sweet potato dish…or ginger and honey sweet potatoes….something else that is a little more special.  When I figure it out, I’ll be sure to post it up ;)

OR you can help me out…anyone have any delicious and different sweet potato or yam recipes?

Turbaconducken….all that is good in this world

Just moments ago my friend Rob sent me proof that there is a God and he is made of pure bacon and love.
Behold…..

Turbaconducken

It is the perfect harmony of turkey, duck and chicken all harmoniously wrapped in bacon and baked to perfection. Corey James of Bacon Today describes every juice detail for creating this culinary masterpiece.

I am currently trying to convince all my friends that this is really the only option for thanksgiving dinner.

Only we want to step it up a notch and deep fry it! My arteries and heart are swelling just thinking about it.

Things I didnt know I could deep fry: Pumpkin

First off sorry Ive been absent the last two days, its been busy busy at work and at home (Im preparing to leave for Japan in about a week!). Speaking of Japan, I did have time to whip up something delicious and different last night….fried Japanese pumpkin!

I was at the farmers market the other day and spotted a kabocha squash which is a Japanese pumpkin with a green rind and orange flesh.

Its taste is quite similar to sweet potatoes and if youve had tempura veggies most likely youve had kabocha!

See that crescent moon shaped item in the bottom right corner? Thats tempura kabocha!

Anywho, so while at the farmers market I spotted a tasty looking little kabocha and began immediately fantasizing about battering it or throwing it in a curry. I just had to buy one and try it out! While it looked cute on my kitchen counter, I recided that last night was the night I would chop my precious little pumpkin up and eat it. Since Ive been making just a bit too much curry lately for my boyfriend, I decided to tempura it…I quickly realized I didnt have the ingredients to tempura batter it so I decided “Hey Im from Bakersfield and our motto is if all else fails, deep fry the sucker!”

Deep Friend Kambocha Pumpkin

Ingredients

1 Kambocha Pumpkin

1 egg

2 cups flour (I used spelt, but any just about any flour will do)

salt and pepper to taste

To prepare it I cut the top off and scooped out the seeds. I cut the pumpkin into quarters and I then boiled the pumpkin in water for about 10 minutes until the flesh was soft but not totally cooked. One it was cooled I removed the skin with a knife. its okay if a little bit of the green skin remains, just remove the hard part. cut the pumpkin into about inch sized cubes perfect for snacking on. next I beat an egg in a bowl and combined the flour with the salt and pepper…I actually chose to use lemon pepper to give it some pep. dip the pumpkin in the egg and dredge in the flour mixture. heat vegetable oil in a pan until it boils and drop the pumpkin pieces in. cook them until they are a golden brown then transfer them to a paper towel to drain. allow them to cool for a few minutes and serve!

I decided to serve them with sweet chili sauce and it was divine.

So who knew you could deep fry pumpkin? I guess it just never dawned on me to do so, but trust me its incredibly delicious especially if you are a fan of sweet and savory profile combos as I am. So with the fall squash harvest coming up I plan on deep frying every gourd I can get my hands on!