Okay, I lied. I got to my 140 character recipe sooner then expected.

So here we are folks, a milestone. The first blog post as and expantion on the #140recipe project I am starting on twitter. I am sure no one wants to read me blather on about it, so lets get right to the food.

The Tweet:

sautee .25# prk, .25# bflo, 2 garlic clv, 8oz shrooms, .25t chili flakes, salt and pepr in 2T bacon fat. toss with 3oz arugala and 8oz pasta

The Recipe

Orecchiette with Mushrooms, Arugula and Ground Buffalo

Time: 25 minutes

Yield: 4 portions

8 oz dried orecchiette pasta

2 T bacon fat

2 ea garlic cloves

4 oz ground buffalo

4 oz ground pork

8 oz mixed mushrooms

1/4 t chili flakes

1/2 t salt

1/4 t pepper, fresh ground

Begin with the pasta. Bring 4-6 quarts of salted water to a roiling boil than add pasta. While the pasta is cooking, begin the sautéed mushrooms and meats. Heat a sauté pan over med-high heat and add bacon fat (shame on you if you don't keep a small dish of this in the fridge.) Chop the garlic and add it, along with the buffalo and pork. Let the meats cook while you chop the mushrooms (any types will do.) Add the mushrooms and turn up to high heat. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté until all the water has evaporated and you get good browning. Turn down to a simmer. Check pasta for doneness. Once pasta is done, strain and place into a large mixing bowl. Add arugula and meat mixture to the pasta and toss gently, adding a few teaspoons of pasta water if it seems too dry.

Garnish this with either shaved Parmesan cheese, cherry tomato halves, or both.

I do hope you have enjoyed this #140recipe.

So, I am playing with the tangled web that is social media? I am tweeting a little bit now, and have found a game for myself. I am going to create recipes in 140 characters or less. You might see hash-tags like #140recipe or #recipe or #nomnomnom and maybe others, but I don't know if I will tweet the tags before or after the recipe. 140 is too valuable to give up some for tags.

I think I am going to start then including a link to this blog where I will try to include a couple of pictures and a full recipe. I do make this stuff. I don't just make up license-plate-abbreviation-style recipes that fit in 140 characters and don't taste yummy.

Please also note that all posts are subject to a delay of 1-3 days so I can have my editor (read: wife) clean up my atrocious spelling and grammar. So if you see a tweet but no post here, don't fret, it will land here shortly.

I will post tomorrow with the expanded version of of tonight's tweet, but as a teaser, here is tonight's #140recipe tweet.

sautee .25# prk, .25# bflo, 2 garlic clv, 8oz shrooms, .25t chili flakes, salt and pepr in 2T bacon fat. toss with 3oz arugala and 8oz pasta

Enjoy,

Saturday October 3rd. Cal vs. USC

Cheese and Crackers

Chips and Salsa

Texas Brisket

Homemade BBQ Sauce
(I know that is a sin, but I will let others do it. Better my home made sauce than some corn syrup laden abomination from a bottle)

Blue Cheese Bread Pudding

Potato Salad
Roasted and Grilled Veggies
With Romesco Sauce

Pignoli Cookies

Assorted Desserts

Wine

Margaritas

Beer

Sodas

Healthy? What gives you the right to tell *me* what is healthy?

So why is it that people seem to think that their one metric for "healthy" is the only standard by which all other people must live by? For example. If you are an office manager or a purchasing manager, or the global director of food service and you are in charge of stocking the break room, snack shelf, or 300 micro kitchens at your company think about what healthy means for everyone, not just what it means to you.

In this day and age of tailored dieting, what you think of as healthy is subjective. If you tried to eliminate EVERYTHING that was excluded from any one diet, you would have NOTHING left in the cupboards. Some people just look at calories. Some look for "organic." Some have cut out HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup.) Some are Vegan. Well now, you can not make sure everything in the kitchen is edible to everyone, however, you can try to make sure there are a few things for each possible diet. I am not saying you need 600 items to make everyone happy, but you all need to think outside of your own definitions of "healthy."

Don't just eliminate things that have a high sugar content, or a high calorie count. Poll your co-workers, and see what peoples' needs are. Beverage selections need to also be varied. Flavored waters, sparkling waters like San Pellegrino, AND a sodium free carbonated water beverage are examples of this. People will always want Coke, and Pepsi and other mass-market sodas, but you should add additional things like import sodas, not instead of. Even if you think it is better for people in the office to have an organic cola with no HFCS, some people will revolt if you take away their Pepsi. If cost is an issue, be realistic about that and let your employees know that something was removed because they are just too expensive, don't tell them it was because that beef jerky has too much sodium. Everyone is their own arbiter of health. If you want to make a difference, don't take away snacks that you deem to be unhealthy. Educate them by adding signs, or maybe a column in the company newsletter.

Snacks and drinks, when they are provided by the company are there as a perk to improve the work environment for all employees. If employees begin to feel that some outside force is trying to control their eating habits, then how do you think that perk, meant to improve morale is going to effect morale?

In closing, we all have different definitions of "healthy" and we need to respect those choices made by others. Food is a pleasure and a gift. Allow others to enjoy it as they want to.

Julie and Julia

So, I went and saw Julie and Julia tonight.

The food was divine, and the story more-so. I have not read the book, but now I want to. I also want to meet Julie and talk to her. I started blogging recently, (before I knew anything about the Julie and Julia story) and was amazed at the way I identified with the connection to food as an escape. I am a chef professionally, and yet, I still use food as a escape. Figure that one out.

I very much love the way Julia was portrayed. I was lucky enough to meet Julia Child, and she struck me in real life the same way she struck me in the film. The writing, the acting and even the cinematography were awesome. I am not going to go on and on, gushing about this film. Let's just say I loved it.

About the food. I have used Julia's recipe for Beef Bourguignon and loved it; however, I did not find that it needed salt. I think when this movie comes out on DVD I am going to have to get it, and have a dinner party, much like the one at the end of the film. Though because I do not have an amazing film location scouting crew, I will not have the rooftop patio to use.