Zoe and Gavin .com

I like sun-dried tomato pesto best on a sandwich, with steak strips. Last time we had it with sour dough bread and medium rare beef tenderloin. Basically, it tastes how I imagine heaven-food. We often eat this when Samuel is visiting, because the steak usually makes up for having a meat-free lunch (which, coincidentally happens often when he visits. Sam be man. Sam want meat. Meatless food not meal).

Not that I blame him I guess - - steak is GOOD. SO GOOD.

But back to the Pesto - this recipe is quite flexible. Go for the texture you want and taste, taste, taste! I’ve made it about 3 times with different amounts of this and that which I had on hand, and it has been good every time.

(Generally based on this)
Ingredients:

• 1++ cups sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 cups loosely packed fresh basil
• 9 cloves pressed garlic
• 3/4 cup chopped pine nuts and or chopped almonds ( i did roughly half and half, but saved some pine nuts to throw in at the end so they would stay whole)
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup red wine (experiment with the wine/vinegar, you might want like 1/4 cup of each if you don’t like tang or vinegar)
• 1/2 can or so of tomatoes.
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Place sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl and cover with warm water for 5+ minutes. Drain and pat dry.
   
2. Desperately wish you had a powerful fancy blender. Go and buy a mini chopper.
   
3. Discover that the chopper isn’t powerful enough to work on sun dried tomatoes anyway. Chop up the tomatoes as finely as you can with a sharp knife. (or until you’re bored). With a food processor/mini chopper/emulsion blender/regular blender combine all ingredients (except Parmesan) until it smooth-ish and well blended.
   
4. Then just stir in the Parmesan cheese. Also, if you planned ahead like me, add the rest of the pine nuts whole, because they are both yummy and pretty.
   
5. Taste it on something - baguette, pasta, steak sandwich.

Further Reading:
Apparently there is a small chance they you’ll get a bitter tasting mouth if you eat a bad batch of pine nuts. Thankfully it hasn’t happened to me yet!
Have an overwhelming supply of fresh tomatoes? Roast your own.
Pionner Woman cooks perfect beef tenderloin. Yum!

Yesterday we decided to make sandwiches for supper.

But, you say, sandwiches are for lunch! Yes, we know that– How are you going to be satisfied by a sandwich for supper!? Hey. There’s no need to interrupt. You’ll understand once you see the pictures.

Ingredients (top to bottom)

• Top half of cheese bun
• Honey Mustard
• A slice of Monteray Jack cheese with Jalapenos
• A slice of salami
• Thinly sliced sauteed vidalia onions
• Two strips of bacon
• Sliced green olives
• A few slices of Montreal smoked meat
• Thickly tomato slices
• Another slice of salami
• Romane lettuce
• Mayonaise
• Bottom half of cheese bun

This sandwich is not for the faint-of-heart. It takes real commitment to pick up a sandwich like this.

The sandwich looked lonely on the plate, so it came with some macaroni friends.

Now that’s a supper sandwich.

So, the new site design works in IE now. It’s not exactly the same as Firefox, (and Safari and Opera which work perfectly) but it’s pretty darn close. Pretty good for not having IE to test on!

Gavin and I made a yummy soup for dinner tonight. It was pretty garlicy and delicious. As in it had 3 bulbs of garlic in it. We got the recipe from SmittenKitchen.com 44 Clove Garlic Soup. I accidentally made it just a bit too salty. Don’t make the same mistake I made. What was the mistake? I think it might have been putting a bullion cube for 4 cups of liquid into 3 1/2 cups. Or putting too much salt on in the roasting stage. I’m not sure.

Also, if you’ve tried our favourite asian-style noodle salad and asked us for the recipe (mom blair) it’s on ThePioneerWoman.com My most favorite salad ever ever ever! Even if you don’t make the whole salad, the dressing is very delicious. And vegan. Very handy for when you’re having vegan company and you don’t know what to feed them! Plus it’s just so darn delish.

Also, in 31 days it will be my last day of class for this term. That means that in a month I will be 1/3 done this program! It’s all going past so quickly.

It may not look that different, but our website has undergone some major changes. Due to a technical difficulty beyond our control, and my haphazard method of backing up my files, we have had to change our website to a new server.

I decided to take the opportunity to upgrade our website. The good news is, all of our previous posts were saved. The bad news is, all of our comments were lost I saved the comments! Yay! That’s okay though, you will just have to make new ones!

You know the old saying, “All blog and no comments makes zoeandgavin a dull website.” Something like that.

I would also like to tell you that another Gustav video is on the way. I think you will be impressed with it! I am introducing a new character, Gustav’s wily sidekick Davis the beaver (care of Zeth!). The show will have more of a format to it, and it will be less than 5 minutes long. Oh, and I almost forgot - Davis speaks only english, and Gustav speaks only German. Chaos is sure to ensue!

Gustav needs your help! He wants to see your (yes, YOUR) food photography (and recipes)! Take pictures of your food. Email it to gustav@zoeandgavin.com. Gustav will show it to the world!

Viewers will vote on which picture looks the most delicious, and then in the next episode, Gustav will make the winning recipe (with magic, of course)!

Stay tuned!

Gavin

I know we haven’t updated in quite a while. School really cramps my style… But not to worry - it’s almost over!

The other day I tried my hand at making Cajun Blackened Catfish. Sometimes I try to cook things, and they burn, and I just tell people it’s Cajun. But this time, I pre-determined to make something Cajun.

I was going to take pictures, but the events that took place required my full attention, and I could not be distracted by using a camera. Plus, you need to be able to see to use a camera, a luxury that the fish decided I was not entitled to.

Blackening is a process of covering the catfish filet with various spices, and throwing it (literally, from a distance) onto a very (VERY) hot skillet. This sears the spices onto the filet and blackens the outside, while locking in the juicy flavour inside.

One recipe told me to make sure I do this outside. So I used the other recipe, that didn’t have such a warning. Other than that, however, the recipes were the same…

So, I buttered and spiced the catfish filet, pre-heated the cast-iron skillet to MAX (until a white ash started to form) and then chucked the fish onto the surface.

Immediately I realized that this was something that should be done outside. And at least 9 meters from any building. And with an oxygen mask on.

The house instantly filled with smoke. My lungs hurt, my eyes watered, I dropped the spatula onto the floor and ran for the window. In my attempt to blindly pry open the window, I bumped my head on the window shelf and knocked several plants onto the floor, dirt and all.

The smoke detector went off.

I squinted at my cast-iron pan, or where it should be, and I could not make out my fish for all the smoke.

I ran downstairs and opened the front door, hoping to create a cross-breeze to get the smoke out. Zoe closed the bedroom door to create a sanctuary from the smoke. I picked up the spatula, rinsed it off and flipped the fish.

It took a while for the smoke to clear, but once it did, there was an amazing smell throughout our apartment, and some very blackened fish sitting in the skillet.

Zoe says, “is it burnt? I mean, the bad kind of burnt?”

I cut the filet in half and put it on a baguette, creating what will forever be known as the Blackened Catfish Po’Boy. It was delicious. Almost worth the black lung.

I will definitely make this again, but definitely outside, on the BBQ.