Albondigas

I made albondigas tonight, in chipotle with adobo sauce. I completely ripped it off from Firefly, and I have no qualms about it. One day soon I'll buy some puff pastry and make their mushroom tart, and then I'll never have to actually eat there again!

But I will.

We Got a Grill!

Devin and I finally got ourselves a shiny new grill. It's portable but we also ordered the tall stand for it. It's a propane grill, so we got a 1lb propane bottle for when we take it somewhere, and we'll get a 20lb one for when it's on its tall stand at home. This is seriously the coolest portable grill I have ever seen. Devin found us some massive t-bones, so we're making steak, asparagus, and zucchini tonight.

Here is a link to the grill. http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CGG-200-All-Foods-000-BTU-Tabletop/dp/B001TOWLTO/ref=sr_1_7?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1284924618&sr=1-7

We paid less than $200 for the whole setup, with free shipping, plus it came assembled. You don't get a better deal than that.

We're taking it out to the truck race next weekend!

Here we go with our feast. We made brats, too! Image uploading and linking are both being stupid right now so here's a link to the image. http://yfrog.com/6f3amqj

Also, check out my followers now. How cool is that?! Hi Chef Rick!

I met Rick Moonen! Oh, and I'm Done with School.

I've tried not to use smiley faces, but really. :) :) :) :) :)

I am done with school.

And he signed my chef coat.

First Day at Three Square

Today was actually fun. It's nice not to worry about running a cafeteria and dealing with people's annoying orders and requests.

We have a banquet on Wednesday night, so today we made stuffed chicken. We sauteed mushrooms and spinach, and stuffed them in chicken breasts with gouda cheese. Then we breaded them and fried them, and we'll finish them in the oven on Wednesday. We baked a couple off today and they were delicious.

That's pretty much my whole day, actually. Tomorrow we're working on the rest of the stuff, and Wednesday we're just serving it. We heard that Rick Moonen is going to be there, so I'm excited about that! This shouldn't be too bad.

Oh, I forgot the best part about working there! We listen to country music all day, and on my favorite radio station, The Coyote! Awesome.

Well Then...

Due to "management problems"* at Opportunity Village, I am going to work at Three Square for three days next week and be done with my externship.

*I'm not saying more to protect the innocent and to cover my own ass.

Restaurant Reviews: Craft Steak

Last night, Devin and I went to Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak at MGM Grand. It’s nearly the end of Restaurant Week, and this was our only stop!

We were excited by the menu, and had wanted to try the place for a while, so it seemed like the perfect time. We booked an early dinner, which meant that we got a great booth where we could sit next to each other and share food.

After we sat down, they brought us the most amazing fresh-baked bread. Think King’s Hawaiian rolls, but homemade in a cast iron pan and way more buttery. I’m not ashamed to say that we finished the first six rolls and asked for more.

Our drink orders were easy: Two Chimay Reds at $10 apiece. Chimay is pricey anyway, so this wasn’t a bad deal, plus this beer goes with absolutely everything! Dev isn’t a wine drinker, and I prefer beer as well, plus the wine list was really pricey, so we figured Chimay would serve us well.

The best part was when the waiter came to take our order. There was a choice of four appetizers, three entrees, and three sides, or so I thought. The waiter asked how we would like our steak cooked. Confused, I looked at him and said, “Oh, I’ll have the scallops.” He said, “You get everything.” That’s right, for Restaurant Week at Craftsteak, you get four appetizers, three entrees, three sides, plus two desserts, for $50 a person. Deal. So we said we’d like our steak medium rare.

Our four appetizers came out very quickly. I like quick service. The fennel salad was great; it was raw shaved fennel with a citrusy dressing. It’s not for everyone but I love fennel, so I finished the plate. The other salad, a cucumber-arugula affair, was good for me and not good for Dev. I think he had a problem with the flavor of the arugula, and he also dislikes cucumber. I love both, so I liked it. The roasted quail was amazing; even the grapes that were served with it tasted as if they had been fire-roasted. The buffalo mozzarella was also delicious. It was topped with a sort of bell pepper “tapenade.” I don’t like bell peppers, but these were roasted, and it tasted really great.

I’ll move on to the side dishes before the entrees. The side dishes were a sweet corn warm salad, a dish of shiitake mushrooms, and a potato puree. The corn dish was the best corn I’ve ever had. I’m not even normally a fan of corn, but I had seconds. The mushrooms, well, they were fantastic. I love mushrooms in almost any form, but the flavor of these mushrooms was perfect, just earthy and great. The potato puree was just about as good as the one I had at Robuchon, meaning that it’s about half heavy cream and half potato. The chives were a nice touch.

The entrees. Here is where we said medium-rare on the steak. We had both skirt steak and a prime beef flat iron steak. The skirt steak was perfect at a med-rare, but I think looking back I would have ordered the flat iron at a medium, since it was cut thicker. Both steaks were seasoned and cooked perfectly. The scallop dish was two sea scallops in a lemon cream sauce with some shaved fennel on top. I lucked out because Devin only wanted a taste, so I got to eat almost the whole dish. They were cooked perfectly, which you don’t always see with restaurant scallops.

The dessert course was more than I expected. The “Pastry Chef’s Selection of Confections, Ice Cream, and Sorbet,” turned out to be two composed dishes. One was a chocolate panna cotta with a caramel sauce, and the other was a peach concoction, with meringue, whipped cream, fresh peaches, and peach sorbet. I was surprised by how great the peach sorbet was. Not being much of a dessert person (unless it’s bread pudding!), I don’t usually judge places on their desserts. If desserts were very important to me, these two would have more than passed the test.

The service was impeccable, professional, and efficient. The layout of the restaurant is interesting. I’m glad we were among the first reservations, because we got a great booth in the back. I suspect they give the walk-ins the tables in the front that are open to the rest of the casino, including tacky people walking in from the pool in just their swimsuits.

Last year for Restaurant Week we went to three restaurants: L’Atelier by Joel Robuchon, Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill, and Bradley Ogden. I have to say that Bradley Ogden was by far my favorite last year, although we later went to Robuchon itself, the fancy one, and that was one of the best meals of my life. L’Atelier is like a teaser for the real Robuchon.

Back at Oakey

I'm back working at the other location for OV. It's nice because we get out earlier.

There is major drama going on at OV, complete with lying and threats, and this is all going on with management, not us! It's getting quite irritating and I can't wait for the next three weeks to be over.