Some sweet cravings..

I have been craving bread pudding among other unhealthy desserts for months now. I remember getting it hot off the smorgasbord when I was a child or as we walked through the lunch line at our local delicatessen with my grandmother(MaMa). I have had some really great interpretation of this dessert and some you could patch a block wall with. 

So I decided I want that sweet sweet treat again. Small problem with that; we pretty much eat strictly organic. Sometimes we will step off the organic train and that is all the reminder we need as to why we got on in the first place. Plus the ingredients in bread pudding are some of the most GMO you could find. So what do I do? I make my own, a quick trip to the grocery store and I have the haul. Organic Valley half & half, unsalted organic cream butter, organic madagascar bourbon vanilla beans, organic golden raisins, Florida Crystals organic & vegan demerara sugar, free range organic eggs, organic cinnamon & nutmeg. Plus the main ingredient Rudis organic whole wheat bread with a touch of honey. 

Only thing that wasn't organic was the Jameson Irish whiskey for the sauce, didn't think to look for organic whiskey. Plus I had just enough Jameson left for the recipe and we don't toss anything away just because its not organic, we just use it up and never buy it again. We have been on the organic path for almost 2 years now and I can say from our soaps, lotions, toothpaste and other hygiene items we are about 70% organic but our food is 99%. 

Enough of the babbling there will be plenty more of that later on....On to the real reason your here; THE RECIPE!!

Organic Bread Pudding w/ Whiskey Sauce. 

8 or 9 cups of bread cubed into 1 inch pieces. Left out to stale over night (or longer)

1/3 tbls butter

3 1/2 cups half & half

3 large eggs

1 1/3 cup Demerara sugar (sub brown sugar)

1/4 cup raisins

1 vanilla bean

3/4 tsp cinnamon 

3/4 tsp nutmeg

Pinch of sea salt

Start with your bread; cube it up and let it stale over night in a bowl or oven. I left mine for 3 days in a bowl, I'm a dad to a toddler and well my plans never seem to go as planned. Hers on the other hand seem to be timed just right for that. 

Use some of the butter to grease a 9 by13 inch casserole dish. 

Take 1/2 cup of your half & half, remaining butter and put it in a small sauce pan. Next cut your vanilla bean in half then split it to remove the seeds. Place the seeds, leftover bean and raisins in the sauce pan with your half & half then heat on medium. As soon as steam starts to form pull from heat and cover and let steep for 15 minutes (if mixture simmers remove from heat immediately). 

While vanilla mixture is steeping mix eggs, sugar, salt & spices in a bowl. As the 15 minutes rounds out remove the vanilla bean pods from the pan.Take the remaining half & half adding a little at a time to the hot mixture to bring the temp down. Once the vanilla mixture is cool pour it in with the eggs and spices. 

When everything is mixed well pour over bread and let soak for 30 minutes mixing it at the 15 minute mark. Preheat over to 350. Pour bread mixture into greased casserole dish and place in the oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Bread pudding will be done when middle is firm.

Whiskey Sauce:

1 cup half & half

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1 tablespoons cornstarch (maybe more)

3/8 cup irish whiskey

Pinch salt

1 tbls unsalted butter

In a saucepan turn to medium heat, add the half & half and sugar. Place the cornstarch and 1/8 cup of the whiskey in a small bowl and mix to make a slurry. Pour the slurry into the cream mixture and bring to a boil. Once the sauce begins to boil, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 to 5 minutes until thick. Remove the sauce from the heat, add the salt, and stir in the butter and the remaining whiskey. Serve warm over bread pudding.

If you don't eat organic like my family feel free to use whatever products you'd like to make this. Take this recipe and make it your own. I'd love to see your creations in the comments below. 

                          

Enjoy!

Da Kine of Place You'll Love

Since I started the new job and the misses started at home training for her new gig, we really haven't had any us time besides the few moments we relax on the couch together before bed. So on the day where we were both off we took advantage of it, I decided to stay out of the house doing this that and the other for as long as possible. We were doing this and that, we were talking about looking for someplace new to eat, this is every time we want to eat out occurrence so nothing new there. I had planned to take her to Pinkberry the night before, but the time at the gym kind of ran over and by the time we were showered and ready to go they had closed. So while out I decided we would get Pinkberry for sure but that doesn't fill you up.

Mid way through our entire day date the misses and I started to get hungry so we started looking for a small (by small I mean non-chain) place to get some good food, We drove by Da Kine and I'm a fan of food trucks, since the idea of food from a truck is sub par, most food truck vendors go above and beyond when it comes to quality food. So I had the Misses urbanspoon it based on the reviews and the fact we were starving and without any other hopefuls in sight we stopped by (and thank god we did).

We get out of the car and you could smell the wonderful aroma of all things great. It's a small food trailer where everything is cooked out of, they have all types of options on the menu, dinner plates, mix and match, samplers, and more. A few different drinks that you can't normally find, so we walked up scanned the menu, placed our order and watch as they cook our food, then take and hand chop the chicken and fill the styrofoam containers completely full.

We got our drinks and I should have got 2, the coconut water with pineapple was the best I have ever had, and I can't find the brand they sell anywhere else in town. The service was great, very quick to get the order ready. Now the seating is small like only one picnic bench under a tent, but what do you expect from a food trailer? So we opted to get it to go and headed down to cypress point park, found a nice spot under a tree for some shade. Then proceeded to open up the containers, the smell again was amazing as we look at 3 types of chicken Sweet Shoyu, Sweet'n'Hot, and Teriyaki.

All three were good, the sweet shoyu had great flavor and was a perfect match with the Sweet'n'Hot, the only complaint was with the teriyaki was a bit salty, more than to be expected. Besides the over dose of sodium the food was great, the chicken was cooked perfectly, not overcooked. We ordered a side of veggies and macaroni salad.

 I have to say that Da Kine has the only macaroni salad I have ever tasted and liked. The veggies were just steamed bag veggies so you can't really mess up on them. I plan to go back if I'm in that neck of the woods again, the food was great but not worth the trek from my house to just get some grub. If you're in that part of town and looking for some good food for a decent price that will not only fill you but give you something to eat later go check out; Da-Kine Hawaiian Café located at 3316 S Dale Mabry Hwy

Tampa, FL 33629 or visit their website at http://www.dakinehc.com/

We also hit up Pinkberry for some frozen yogurt and fresh fruit, then decided we needed to walk off all the food we ate from Da Kine and walked through Westshore mall for a few, over all the day date went well and I enjoy spending time with the Misses as she is the best company I could ask for.

Philly Lacks Phlava

This is one of the few restaurant reviews I have left to post, still working hard on the new clean eating goal, getting better and better ever day. I was cleared by the cardiologist so that's a plus. I hope to be in the best shape of my life by the time my baby is born 1/1/2012!!

So me and the Misses were out and about running some errands our normal weekend activity. When I got a craving (and I'm not the pregnant one) for a Philly Cheese Steak, after searching for a place close by I broke my code of going to small locally owned restaurants and went to Philly Phlava on the corner of Dale Mabry and Fletcher.

First off the place is small and covered floor to ceiling with signs and posters. Decorated with stainless steel and plastic. The overall look of the place you would think they have to know what they are doing with the sandwiches.We decided to share a sandwich with (onions, peppers, shrooms, and provolone) and some cheddar bacon fries.

 After overcoming the "sticker shock" we take our seat and wait for the food, now I've heard a few good things about this place so I hoped for the best. After realizing they charge for just about everything, air seems to be the only free thing there. Our food came to the table. It was very fresh and hot.

The quality of the food I would have expected from a sandwich truck not a place with philly in the name, the fries were boring and without the cheese and bacon I would have left them in the basket. I rarely ever give bad reviews and this one isn't "bad" really but more of a warning that you can get the same quality from the mall's food court or a sandwich truck for a better price. Their big thing is their rolls and those were just a little better than average.

So until I can find a really good Philly I will just stick to making them at home. So if your out and about and want to see what Philly Phlava is all about by all means stop in and see, but I won't be back. You can find it at; 13149 N Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33618

Taco Taco........Bus.?.

So if you Live in Tampa (and I happen to) you've heard about the 24/7 Taco Bus and if you haven't you need to figure out why? Its kinda like a landmark around these parts.

Like I said I have heard about it, but never have I tried it. Not because I didn't want to, its just a little ways from my usual stomping grounds and I usually get sidetracked and end up going elsewhere when we plan to go there.

That all was gonna change, after waiting for the mail to run (new company I work for mails checks) we head out to do some normal saturday errands. While out and about I ask the misses if she's up for some mexican food, and her being my wife she said of course when am I not! So we head down toward Hillsborough Ave to this famed Taco Bus, now don't let the name fool you......well it is a bus, but also a sit down restaurant. We pull up and the place is packed, and from what I've heard this is to be expected.

As we walk in there are only 2 seats left and there at the bar so we grab a menu and take a seat. More people walked in and soon had frowns on their faces that they had to either stand and eat or sit out side (a big no no in florida unless its water side or night).

We look over our menus and with some help from out waiter we go with the carne asada burrito combo with rice and beans. Our waiter took our order then rushed off to do the other 99 things he was doing. The food is made in an old bus out on the side of the building and they have a few updated buses too, but the original bus is still where the magic happens.

This hangs on the wall across from us, gotta love tampa and CL!

As me and the misses set there at the bar and look over the other menu items and notice the breakfast part of the menu (note to self come here for breakfast). We tried their hibiscus lemonade, which wasn't half bad. Our food comes, it smells delicious and looks great. Even though its on styrofoam served with plastic utensils, it's all about the food and nothing else here at the Taco Bus.

We both unwrap our burritos and take a bite, the burrito was over flowing with beef, with hints of tomato, onion, shredded cabbage, cilantro, and cheese. As I drew closer to the end of this fantastic burrito the ratio became closer to even, instead of the hints of toppings like it started, but there's no complaining here! The veggies tasted so fresh, well everything tasted fresh. Something you wouldn't expect from the name, but I've grown to realize to expect the unexpected. We made no joke about devouring our lunch combos. The food is better than any Mexican food I have tried in Tampa. It blows Moe's, Chipotle, and all the other chains away. From fresh food, to great atmosphere and the biggest one its ALWAYS OPEN!

As we polished off the plates thoughts of something sweet entered my head. I has saw a small dessert section of the menu so I reached and grabbed one. The only hard thing was to place the order, our waiter as mentioned above was doing about 100 things from the normal refills, to plating food, on to planning a catering event with the table behind us. He soon came over and asked how everything was, and took our order for Tres Leches Cake which the menu noted it was baked in-house so we gave it a try. Now I have wanted to try Tres Leches Cake for awhile but never got a chance until now. As hard as it was to get the waiters attention I can say this, our order was taken quickly our food and dessert was brought even quicker and drinks never went dry.  Back to the dessert, he placed it in front of us and we dug in, then stopping to take a pic, what can I say when the food is this good I almost forget about doing this.

We finish our dessert and pay our tab and head out to finish up our Saturday. So if you're looking for Authentic Mexican  for a great price and a fun location; Be sure to check out the Taco Bus at 913 E. Hillsborough Ave, Tampa FL 33604
813-232-5889 Their site is; http://tampatacobus.com

They also have a newer St. Pete location at; 2324 Central Ave St. Pete, St. Pete FL 33712. I haven't ate there so its on you to go and try it.

So if you're craving authentic mexican style food from ceviche, tacos, burritos, chilorio, and quesadilla be sure to stop in at the Taco Bus.

Tortilla soup recipe

Chicken:

1 (14oz) Chicken breast

Lime

Cover chicken with lime juice, then sprinkle with cilantro, marjoram, basil, paprika, dash of oregano, and black pepper.

Soup:

Evoo

1/4 c onion

1/8 c carrots

Squeeze 1/2 lime

3 tbls Cilantro

1 tbls Marjoram

1 tbls Basil

1 tbls Paprika

1/2 tbls Cummin

Dash celery seed

Dash sage

Salt

20 Grinds of pepper

1 can (14.5oz) Chicken broth

1 can (14.5oz) Fire roasted tomatoes

1/2 c Frozen corn

1 can (15.2oz) Black beans, rinsed

1/2 c Water

2oz diced green chilies

Bring to boil

Bake chicken on 350 till it reaches a temp of 160-165, shred in food processor.

Grill 4 corn tortillas on stove top, put shredded chicken in bowl, pour soup over chicken, cut/break the tortilla in to triangles and serve on top with a lime wedge.

Eat and Enjoy!