May the Pax Be With You. Seriously.

Greetings Sizzlings! Happy Monday... I know right? Those 2 words just don't mesh. 

I spent a lovely weekend in the country with MainSqueeze and ate some delightful treats. 

Speaking of delightful treats, you need to know about a new treat in Houston. Pax Americana. 

We had a reservation for Thursday night, and my entire week was spent in anticipation. We were a party of 7, so they offered to serve us family style; which is one of my favorite ways to eat. 

Here's the rundown of the #nomz. Photos will be below as well. Highly recommend, the staff was super knowledgeable and accommodating, and I love the general vibe of the place. I'll definitely be back. 

(Dishes in BOLD are TheSizzles faves from the meal): 

Beverage of choice: Evening Land Blue Label Pinot Noir by the glass and the Smoked Old Fashioned. REALLY tasty cocktail with a delightful drunken cherry as a garnish. 

FAMILY STYLE DISHES:

Farm Fresh Eggs, scallion kimchi aioli, chilies, herb salad, purple barley

Grilled Honeydew Melon, hazelnut vinaigrette, thyme honey, feta

(not featured on the online menu) Baby carrots cooked in general amazing fashion with some hints of curry and candied nuts. PHENOMENAL. I could eat these with every meal. Call me Bugs Bunny. 

(Also not on the online menu) Pan seared tile fish with a magical beurre blanc sauce and root veggies. Honestly, some of the best fish I've had in Houston to date. 

(not online either) Enormously humongous ribeye, cooked medium rare. I love steak, and I love slicing my steak instead of hacking into it like a rabid wolf. The spices on the steak were on point, but I think it could use a little work on the sear. STILL  a great cut of meat. 

Brisket, nine spice, potatoes, soured cream, black garlic, sweet onions

Sanguinaccio Fritters, horchata ice cream, lemon curd, candied pecans

Chocolate Custard, bittersweet chocolate hazelnut cookie, lemon mint sherbert

***Please excuse the quality of the photos, it was super dark and I was too hungry to get technical!***

carrots. dreamy dreamy carrots.

grilled honeydew

amazing amazing tile fish

Please excuse our friend "guau's" obscene hand gesture photo bomb,...

chocolate filled thangs

And there you have it, a new "must go" in Houston. We're so lucky to have this burgeoning food scene, And now I'll be getting back to the treadmill...

NEXT UP: music, recipes, recommendations and more! 

When you have leftover Kale...

Sizzlers! Since I've been trying extra hard to be good and cook at home every night, I bring you a new recipe. I know I've been gung ho about squash, but tis the season!

After the last squash recipe, I had some leftover kale and decided to use it or lose it. 

Butternut Squash with Lacinto Kale and Almond/Walnut Parmesan

WHAT YOU NEED:

1 bunch Lacinto Kale

1/4 cup slivered or roughly chopped raw almonds

1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts

1 TB Olive oil

2 large cloves garlic, minced finely

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

1 Butternut squash

THIS IS HOW WE DOOOO IT:

-Preheat your oven and roast your squash at 375 for about 30-45 minutes until tender, then set it aside to cool. Some prefer to roast the squash and then peel and cube, others peel and cube raw, then roast already cubed. I'll let you make the call. 

-In a pan, saute your garlic until fragrant, add your parsley, give it a nice little toss around with the garlic 

-Mix your almonds and walnuts with olive oil and salt, toss to coat

-Add your nut blend to the garlic/parsley to give the nuts a toast

-When you're satisfied with the toastiness of the nuts, add the kale, allow it to turn bright green, then add the squash. Toss the mixture together lightly, lower the heat and you're ready to rock!

-Serve the dish with a sprinkle of Grana Padano or Parmesan. You won't be disappointed. 

And there you have it. Delightful, easy, healthy and perfect for a chilly fall night. 

Lots of restaurant reviews coming up for you! For now, take it easy and Happy Thursday!

You are what you eat. Is that chilled cucumber soup?

Good Morning my friends! I'm feeling chipper today, which is surprising considering I was up till midnight last night organizing my closet and adding to my giveaway pile. 

After work yesterday, I knew I needed a mood boost, so naturally I went to Central Market. My heaven. I could spend hours in there, and I've known the wine guy for quite some time, so that always ends in me buying way more than I need. (Is that possible with wine?)

Anywho...As I perused the aisles and practiced as much restraint as I could, I toted my spoils to the car and eagerly sped home to get to cookin'. 

I now present to you, 2 new recipes that are perfect for fall and this lovely cold snap we're having. I wore boots to work today! (It's the little things)

Recipe #1

Spaghetti Squash with Italian Sausage & Lacinto Kale.

WHAT YOU NEED:

1 Spaghetti squash

1 bunch Lacinto Kale

1 large shallot

2 cloves garlic

2 links delicious house made Italian sausage from Central Market (if you can't swing this, then try to find something that errs on the side of fresh and not from a nasty box.)

Salt & Peppa to taste

WHAT YOU DO WITH THE THINGS YOU NEED:

-Preheat your oven to 375. Cut your squash in half, scoop out the seeds, make a huge mess (or not) and then lightly coat the open side of the squash with some form of oil. I used coconut oil. Lightly salt. Poke a couple holes in the rind of the squash with your knife (or in my case pretend your stabbing it to take out some aggression you've been harboring from the work day.)  Put the squash face down on your baking sheet and roast for about 45 minutes or until soft.

- When your squash is roasted, scoop out the insides with a spoon/fork/your bare hands and set aside. 

-In a pan, saute your finely chopped shallots and garlic until fragrant and softened. Add your Italian sausage. In order to do this, you need to take the sausage out of the casing. This is not for the faint of heart. But do it anyway because the end result is so #worthit

-Once your meat is cooked through, add your Lacinto Kale, stir a bit till the Kale is a  vibrant green, then add the squash and mix to incorporate. Don't furiously beat it together, just gently mix. 

-WHAM.BAM. You're done. Throw it on a plate and sprinkle with a dash of Grana Padano Stravecchio or whatever Italian hard cheese your little heart so desires. 

#nomcity

Recipe #2

Breakfast Chia Seed Pudding

If you are weird about texture and you don't like tapioca or things that are potentially "slimy" then you will likely hate this. Which is crazy talk because it's delicious & nutritious. 

INGREDIENTS/IMPORTANT THINGS:

I use small 8 oz. mason jars and pour ingredients into each one instead of making a big batch and making a mess when I try to put it into each jar. EACH TO THEIR OWN. 

IN EACH JAR:

1/4 cup milk of your choosing. I use unsweetened almond milk, but you can use regular milk, soy, coconut, eat your heart out. 

2 chopped fresh dates

1 tsp. agave nectar

1 small handful slivered raw almonds

3 heaping tablespoons black chia seeds

WHAT YOU DO:

SHAKE IT. Literally. That's it. Shake the jar so that the ingredients are mixed, and put it in your fridge for at least 4 hours. Take it to work the next morning and annoy your coworkers by telling them how good your healthy homemade breakfast is and glance condescendingly at their Pop Tarts and other various processed foods. 

The seeds will expand and congeal to form a "pudding" over night. Feel free to check your fridge every 30 minutes like I did. It probably makes it taste better too. 

So there you have it, breakfast and lunch and dinner for you! Stay tuned because I have some Butternut and Acorn squash raring to go! Enjoy the weather!

A #Nomcity for the books.

Greetings amigos! I'm in foodie rehab right now. I honestly don't even know how I ate so much this weekend, but it was like a delicious blackout that I never want to forget. However I spent my entire Sunday groaning and sipping Peppermint tea. I felt so gluttonous that I couldn't even crack open my new issue of Bon Apetit. The mere sight of food made me die a little. 

For some reason, the vast majority of my friends have fall birthdays, so a lot of my weekend was spent celebrating. 

It all started Friday. I had a very skinny soup for lunch, and then met a friend at Uchi for Happy Hour. I know Uchi does a lot of things right, but their Happy Hour just knocks it out of the park. So that happened. I went home totally content and very stuffed. 

Saturday morning I woke up to go on a nice run, but of course it started to monsoon. I really did have the best of intentions! I had a Birthday lunch at Caracol. I LOVE Caracol. I love the space, I love the staff, I love the menu and I can't even start on the food. Eight ladies who lunch gathered around a table and we ordered the hell out of that menu. 

Tuna tacos and raw tuna with ginger/coconut magic. 

Ceviche caracol. Conch ceviche. 

Blue crab miracle soup. 

All the girls pretty much ordered 2 dishes a person, and house "Caracol Ritas" abounded. It was one of the best lunch outings I've had in a WHILE. And it only got better when we gathered afterwards to drink some ice cold bevs and watch college football. 

Later that evening, for Birthday celebration Numero Dos, Foodie Photo Blog and I headed to Tony's for a MEAL. We had originally planned on practicing restraint and splitting several things, but yeah right. Of course my phone died, so all I have are the photos she texted me later that night as I was lying in bed hoping the button on my jeans wouldn't pop off and shatter a window. 

Tony's is truly a wonderful dining experience. I picked out a delightful Italian Dolcetto D'Alba to sip, and we split the Burrata Pugliese; fresh Oregon figs, Balsamic and some 'beer nuts.'  Our pasta entree were breathtaking; Capelletti al Midolo (Bone Marrow, House Made Ricotta, Cognac) and Pansoti (Squash Filled Pasta, Parmesan Puff, Sage Essence.) 

We also had the ribbons & squares ( ribbons and Squares of Ahi Tuna, Avocado, Soy Lime Vinaigrette) and then the grand finale was Birthday Souffle. Chocolate souffle with a fresh raspberry sauce and very fresh whipped cream. Un.REAL. If you've never been to Tony's, make it a priority. Another fun fact is that they can pretty much make ANY souffle you want. Our server informed us that "the sky's the limit" when it came to flavoring. Both of us stared at each other and after a couple minutes of feeling overwhelmed, we decided chocolate/raspberry couldn't be a bad call. 

So now you can see why my Sunday was spent in a food hangover. But guess what? WORTH IT. 

I know I still haven't finished telling y'all about Hawaii, and I promise I will! I also have some fun recipes coming up and lots of Holiday cheer! Stay dry, eat well and see you soon!

Sizzle Manifesto: Installation #1

As many of you know, I can talk the hind legs off a donkey. You might also know that I’m a huuuge fan of quirky sayings.

Personal favorite: I’m about as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Look me in the face and tell me you don’t think that’s just stellar. So much better than “OMG I’m like totally nervous.”

I decided to write some Simple Sizzle for y’all. You don’t have to take my advice, you might hate it, love it, not get it at all, but it’s my simple philosophy on life. Take it with a grain of salt, call me crazy as a loon; it’s just who I am and what I think.

Simple Sizzle on Diets & Not eating things you probably really want to eat:

Fact: My mom dabbled in modeling when she was younger and weighed less than 90 pounds on her wedding day. Her derrière was featured on billboards for Jordache jeans and she was a Hawaiian dancer. Soooo that was fun to know growing up when I sprouted 3 inches taller than she was by the time I was in the 3rd grade and realized sub 90 pounds just...wasn't even. 

While I’ve never struggled too much with weight, I’ve certainly had some porky moments. When you’re 5’4, five pounds can look like you’re smuggling a litter of kittens in your jeans. I’ve had winters where leggings were all I wore…not because they were en vogue but because they were all that fit the seventeen kittens I was harboring. Even the neighborhood squirrels gave me the side-eye wondering if all their acorns were hidden in my expanding leggings. We’ve all been there. And that’s totally ok.

What I’ve learned about dieting is that you really just need to find out what works best for you; it’s like fashion and knowing how “green is just NOT in my color wheel.”

I’m a bona fide, card-carrying, full-blown foodie. But you know what? It’s actually good for my waistline. I’ve gotten so hifalutin’ about my nomz that it’s so much easier for me to say no to the “sub-par” items I might see on the menu. Walking through a food court makes me cry a little on the inside, and I’ll starve before I eat something I think is not to my liking. I’ll eat rabbit food all week if I know I’m having a blow out dinner later in the week, and I also sometimes have accidents and wake up in the Whataburger drive-thru with a bag that smells like heaven and a Whataburger Jr. with ketchup, cheese and pickles only. I don’t even know how it happens, it just does. (Sometimes this also happens with Cheez Its, but who's keeping tabs?) But you obviously know that Whataburger is the only, ONLY fast food worth developing gallstones for.

What didn’t work for Mads*:

Being Vegan:

A couple years ago when I was in grad-school I decided to go vegan one summer. Like….full on vegan. No animal products AT ALL. No honey, eggs, NY Strip steaks, juicy lamb chops and the list goes ON. I felt fine, but damn near committed triple homicide to get my hands on just a tiny sliver of Brie, a luscious cut of Gouda, a nibble of goat chevre. Somewhere in my DNA there is a chromosome belonging to a mouse because I am a cheese RAT. Veganism and the lack of cheese just weren’t working for me. So I quit.  And don’t even get me started about the time I posted a vegan sandwich to social media in order to convince myself how amazing it looked. #pathetic #fakemeat #cardboardbread

Not Eating/Eating like a bird:

When my family comes in town to visit (visit=pillage the Houston Galleria and deplete their stock of literally everything) they always ask me if I have packed a snack. You see, my friends, I suffer from a serious medical condition called “being hangry.” When I’m famished and food is not on the horizon, I get snippy, fussy and dare I venture to say….betchy. At least I’m honest, right? So clearly the few times I thought starvation was going to get me where I needed to be, my hanger took over.

Pescatarian:

I love sushi, but I also love NY Strip steak. Enough said.

Paleo:

I think Paleo is the new Adkins or South Beach. Everyone's all excited and then 6 months later you catch them alone in the corner at Dunkin' Donuts bordering on diabeetus. (I KNOW it's diabetes, but the other one is more fun.)

“Omg that is for sure Paleo!”

“OMG yassss, it totally is; let me eat 25 sweet potatoes because that’s totally paleo.”

Know what I have to say to that? Bye Felicia.

Source

Gluten Free: 

I can't even. You might, but I can't. I love bread, I love pasta, I love muffins and I am totally and completely obsessed with Seeduction Bread from Whole Foods. May God bless the person who came up with that crack magic. I understand some people are allergic, and I'm so sorry. I just can't. 

What does work for Mads:

I eat a little bit of everything. I grew up in a home where bringing home a loaf of white bread was on the same level as me bringing home some fresh cooked meth. Peanut butter was the kind that was ground up in front of your very eyes at Whole Foods, and it was used on like your 100th Birthday (basically never.) My parents grew their own wheat grass and I was taking shots of it daily it before kindergarten. I’m dead serious; I couldn’t make this up if I tried. When my allergies got bad, my parents made me chase my tablespoon full of cod liver’s oil with a heaping glob of fresh horseradish. Holy sinus burn. But guess what? I grew up with the immune system of a superhuman and aside from swimmer’s ear every summer and a rogue case of Hay Fever too strong for the horseradish, I was good to go. So I’m totally one of those people who believes that food is medicine and can heal your body.

Do I eat MSG and GMO food? Most def. We live in America. It’s going to happen. The very air we breathe is polluted, so you think that 4 dollar Honeycrisp apple isn’t going to have some pollutants? It’s a damn designer apple, I guarantee you it wasn’t one of the first fruits in the Garden of Eden. 

The point is, don’t turn up a can of Cheez Wiz every morning. Turn down for what, you say? Start with baby steps. Sometimes I KNOW that my body needs the Whataburger Jr. Also, sometimes I go a whole week only eating homemade vegetable soup and fresh fruit. Once you get on a plan where you really learn about your body and the food you put into it, it kind of becomes second nature. I believe in a variety of eating habits personalized to your own body. So go out there and get to know what works for you; I promise it can’t hurt. Become a student of nomz. It’s definitely Sizzle Approved.

*Disclaimer: In no way are my comments here supposed to be nutritional guidelines or finalizing judgments on people’s character, genetic disposition and/or choices. These are simply my own experiences and opinions in regard to what works for ME, not you. So if you’re up in arms about me thinking you’re dumb because you’re on Paleo, you’re not dumb. You have a lot of willpower and I have mad respect. Ok? (Just puh-lease don't prove me right and let me catch you at Dunkin' Donuts with an insulin needle hanging from your arm.) Let’s all hold hands now. I love you all, even if you don’t enjoy the same nomz that I do. 

Chimi...changa? No. Chimichurri.

Hola amigos. I leave tomorrow. tomorrow. I can't even.

This week is recipe heavy, but I need to leave y'all with some stuff to do! I'll be posting from my trip, but recipes are always fun to try out. I love tweaking them to my personal taste and making them special just for moi. Try it out, lemme know, just don't burn the house down. 

So we all know I ain't scared of red meat. I've been making steak on Sundays lately since I love waking up early, having a delightful breakfast, and taking my sweet sweet time at the grocery store. 

For this particular meal, I wanted a juicy steak and some veggies. I decided on lemon parmesan roasted zucchini and opted to make a super zesty chimichurri sauce that I was literally licking from a spoon. 

To make your steak, please reference my Meathead Friday post. 

View fullsize

Now that you're a steak samurai, we can get on with it. 

CHIMICHURRI SAUCE:

I love this stuff so much. It's garlicky, zesty, a little spicy and I love how GREEN it is. You can put it on roasted veggies, chicken, salmon, spoon it into your mouth; I won't judge. I did it.

WHAT YOU NEED:

-3 fresh garlic cloves

-1 bunch flat leaf parsley, stems removed

-1 bunch cilantro, stems removed

-1/2 cup red wine vinegar

-1 shallot, roughly chopped

-1 jalapeño, dice and remove vein and seeds

-1 pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

-3/4 cup of good olive oil

-1 tsp salt. I'm a snob and use celtic sea salt, I also prefer Maldon salt to regular 'ole NACL (table salt for those of you who slept through Chemistry class).

WHAT YOU DO:

- You have two options here. If you're in a hurry, go for option 1. If you have time, go for 2. 

OPTION 1: Combine all ingredients, give it a quick swizzle, and let sit for 20 minutes. 

OPTION 2: Combine all ingredients in a food processor (I use my Nutribullet) and give it a swirl. It should be smooth. 

-If you went with option 1, do option 2 after the 20 minute infusion period. 

AND YOU'RE DONE. Taste it, add whatever you think may be missing. Some like to add more heat, you might need a bit more acid by way of more vinegar, or more salt. Whatever tickles your pickle. 

For the zucchini:

- 3 whole zucchini, scrubbed and chopped into matchsticks. You can slice in rounds if you feel like it. 

-Preheat oven to 350

-Juice of 1 lemon

-1 tsp salt

-1 tb olive oil

Mix liquids together and add in zucchini to coat with the mixture. Once they are well coated, spread them on your baking sheet and pop in the oven. After about 12 minutes, once you can tell they're cooked through, sprinkle with parmesan/pecorino/hard cheese of your heart's desire and broil for about 2 minutes to melt and brown the cheese. 

VOILA. #NOMCITY. 

I hope y'all love these and try them out for yourselves! Let me know! It's always so lovely to hear from y'all in the comments. 

Aloha for now, I'm off to the island but will be back next week!