I am still working on a name for this video recipe as the title sounds a little too desserty. If you have any ideas, feel free to comment. I usually like to include the main ingredients in the name, but maybe in this case I should have just gone with "JJ's Magic Meatloaf," or "Mitz-a-loaf."
I had some leftover buttermilk in the fridge and I wondered what would happen if used it to replaced the milk in my meatloaf recipe. I know you've read my various posts on buttermilk's delicious, tenderizing effects on meat, so at least my idea had some proven food science behind it. So, I decided to go for it, and was very happy with the results.
This meatloaf recipe is very flavorful, and as the proverbial description goes, "melts in your mouth." As far as vegetables, I only used onions, but their sweetness, along with the simple brown sugar glaze were a great counterpoint to the others flavors.
Even if you don't use this exact recipe, you should try your own famous meatloaf recipe with buttermilk. Its effects were subtle, but noticeable. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 2 1/2 lb ground chuck 1 onion, diced 2 tbsp butter 1/2 tsp dried tarragon 1/2 tsp dried Italian herbs 1 tsp black pepper 2 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 cup ketchup 3/4 cup buttermilk 2 eggs 1 cup plain breadcrumb 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp hot sauce Glaze: 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 tbsp Dijon 1 tsp cider vinegar
This past weekend I attended San Francisco magazine’s annual epicurean event, FallFest '08, which benefits the fine folks at Meals On Wheels. I was covering the event for Foodbuzz, and even though I was given a ticket, I was determined to post an objective, unbiased report. The challenge is if I'm eating free food, and drinking free wine, I tend to praise it more than if I was paying for it. Being a food blogger, I'm bound by no moral or ethical standards for objectivity.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I was very impressed with what San Francisco magazine managed to pull off. Organizing 43 restaurants, paired with 43 wineries, along with chef demonstrations, and live music, is no mean feat. By the way, whoever was in charge of weather should get a raise. It was the most beautiful fall day imaginable - clear blue skies, brilliant sun blazing at that lazy, low autumn angle, and a cool breeze too perfect to describe.
The event was held at Justin Herman Plaza, near San Francisco’s Waterfront, in the shadow of the Ferry Building. On entering the event, I received an opaque oval plate for my food, and a sparkling new Riedel wine glass. Equipped, I turned on my camera, and proceeded to graze my way across the grounds.
The food highlights, some of which are pictured here, will be explained in the video clip below. As far as the wine, I only had two glasses, so I can’t really comment other than to say the vinophiles in attendance seemed very impressed. I noticed something odd, especially for events like this, it was crowded, but there were no lines. There was plenty of room to move around, yet it felt cozy and intimate.
There were two disappointments. First, the official water for this fine event was not delicious San Francisco tap water, but bottled Fuji water. I'm no geography expert, but Fuji is so not local. I will assume since this was a benefit for Meals On Wheels, that Fuji kicked in some cash to be involved, but I would have left the info regarding how "green" their water is back on the island.
The second, and most disappointing, was the presence of Top Chef contestant, and fledgling San Francisco celebrity chef, Ryan Scott from the Mission Beach Café. When I saw him, and his full head of thick hair, I was so excited, as I figured I could do a whole blog post ripping him and his food. I would expose him as the overrated, untalented, reality show pretty boy, he must so obviously be.
But, then I met him. Much to my chagrin, he was very nice, extremely courteous, and happily chatted up the guests. He even graciously posed for pictures with lots of ladies, and a few well-groomed men. Even worse, he can cook! His pork and white bean crostini was to-die-for, and in an informal poll I took, was voted to be the outstanding bite of the day. Congratulations Ryan, and thanks for nothing.
In conclusion, I will say in all honesty, I'll definitely be attending FallFest '09, even if I have to pay for my own ticket. Coming from a media freeloader such as myself, there is no better recommendation. Enjoy the video slide show!
Last week, while looking at my traffic stats, I noticed an unusually large number of visitors from Singapore. I followed the trail to a blog called Xiaxue, which had linked to my chocolate lava cake video. As I read the post, I was shocked to see the blog's author, Xiaxue, had sent me a comment, but that I never replied!
Even worse, I noticed the website had received numerous awards as Asia's top blog, and that Xiaxue was a bona fide Internet superstar. As you know, I religiously answer every single comment and email I get (except for the ones I don’t), so I quickly emailed her to find out about her ignored comment.
She quickly replied and said she wrote this long teary comment about how my recipe had aided in her quest to get hitched, and she told me to keep on blogging. I was so excited to get an email from such an important person for a change, instead of the usual stuff I get from you people.
I thanked her, and offered to film any recipe she wanted. She asked for creamy mushroom pasta that she gets out, but wants to make at home. So, this video recipe was her food wish. I watched a couple of her videos and learned that she likes to be called Yan Yan, which explains the recipe's name.
By the way, she said that Xiaxue is almost impossible to pronounce if you're not Chinese - which I took as a challenge, and as you'll hear in the clip, I try on several occasions. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil 3/4 lb white mushrooms, sliced 1/4 lb shiitake mushrooms, sliced salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste 2 cloves minced garlic 2 oz sherry wine 1 cup chicken stock 1 cup cream 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh chive 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon 8 oz fettuccine
I’m very proud to announce the official launch of the Foodbuzz Publisher Community! For the past year, Foodbuzz has been deftly developing partnerships with food bloggers, and building their Featured Publisher program. Today, they made the announcement official, and I wanted to let all of you know, and to offer my hearty congratulations.
As an active member of their Featured Publisher community, I have enjoyed watching their site explode with foodie content, and always find it a great source of inspiration. I just received the press release, and was thrilled that my "Found on Foodbuzz" 24-course meal was included!
Here is the official press release:
LAUNCH OF GLOBAL FOODBUZZ BLOGGER COMMUNITY LEVERAGES REAL-PEOPLE, REAL-TIME POWER OF FOOD PUBLISHING
San Francisco – October 13, 2008: Foodbuzz, Inc., officially inaugurates its food blogger community with more than 1,000 blog partners, a global food blogging event and an online platform that captures the real-people, real-time power of food publishing in every corner of the world. At launch, the Foodbuzz community ranks as one of the top-10 Internet destinations for food and dining (Quantcast), with bloggers based in 45 countries and 863 cities serving up daily food content.
“Food bloggers are at the forefront of reality publishing and the dramatic growth of new media has redefined how food enthusiasts access tasty content,” said Doug Collister, Executive Vice President of Foodbuzz, Inc. “Food bloggers are the new breed of local food experts and at any minute of the day, Foodbuzz is there to help capture the immediacy of their hands-on experiences, be it a memorable restaurant meal, a trip to the farmers market, or a special home-cooked meal.”
Foodbuzz is the only online community with content created exclusively by food bloggers and rated by foodies. The site offers more than 20,000 pieces of new food and dining content weekly, including recipes, photos, blog posts, videos and restaurant reviews. Members decide the “tastiness” of each piece of content by voting and “buzz” the most popular posts to the top of the daily menu of submissions.
Foodbuzz currently logs over 13 million monthly page views and over three million monthly unique visitors. “Our goal is to be the number-one online source of quality food and dining content by promoting the talent, enthusiasm and knowledge of food bloggers around the globe,” said Ben Dehan, founder and CEO of Foodbuzz, Inc.
The Foodbuzz blogger community is growing at a rate of 40 percent per month driven by strong growth in existing partner blogs and the addition of over 100 new blogs per month. “The Foodbuzz.com Web site is like the stock of a great soup. The Web site provides the base or backbone for bloggers to interact as a community, contribute content, and have that content buzzed by their peers,” said Mr. Dehan.
Global Blogging Event Demonstrating the talent and scope of the Foodbuzz community, 24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs offered online food enthusiasts an international, virtual street festival of food and diversity. The new feature showcased blog posts from 24 Foodbuzz partner bloggers chronicling events occurring around the globe during a 24 hour period and included:
“24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs” captures the quality and unique local perspective of our food bloggers and shared it with the world,” said Ryan Stern, Director of the Foodbuzz Publisher Community. “It illustrates exactly what the future of food publishing is all about – real food, experienced by real people, shared real-time.”
About Foodbuzz, Inc. Based in San Francisco, Foodbuzz, Inc., launched its beta Web site, foodbuzz.com, in 2007. In less than a year, Fooduzz.com and its community of over 1,000 exclusive partner food blogs have grown into an extended online property that reaches more than three million users.
Tho X. Bui, Foodwish.com fan, and fashion icon, sent me this Youtube clip of, well, I'll let him explain, "…for the 2008 Tour de Fat (one less car!) parade, my friend Joe Strutmann and I rigged up my homebuilt tandem trike and turned it into a mobile grilling station. We served two-dozen burgers and collected a little bit of money for the UMOM's New Day Family Shelter (shelter for homeless families). A fantastic fun time. I'm wearing my awesome "A Hollandaise Can Sense Fear" T-shirt from Foodwishes.com."
He raised money for charity, and promoted my shirt! Well done!
This tennis ball-sized black truffle was brought to our table last night so we could smell it and decide if, for $15 extra dollars, we wanted it shaved over one of our courses. We decided to just go with the free whiff. It was our 9th wedding anniversary (and 19th year of cohabitation), and we dined at La Folie, one of San Francisco's top French restaurants. We had a great time, and a great meal, and Chef Roland Passot even shaved some of the truffle over our scallop appetizer as an anniversary present!
I am still working on a name for this video recipe as the title sounds a little too desserty. If you have any ideas, feel free to comment. I usually like to include the main ingredients in the name, but maybe in this case I should have just gone with "JJ's Magic Meatloaf," or "Mitz-a-loaf."
