Steak with a stout reduction sauce

Well food is #1 in my foodietopia world.  Microcraft beer is #2 by far.  Today's recipe features a Guinness extra stout reduction sauce.  Fellas, if you want to impress your girl and cook her a good meal check this out. New York strip steak with extra stout reduction pan sauce, baby red ranch potatoes and bacon wrapped asparagus.  Welll here we go!!
Ingredients: 
    1 new york strip steak
    5 tsp stone ground mustard
    2 tsp olive oil
    1 Tbl butter room temp
    2 tsp all purpose flour
    3 garlic cloves diced fine
    1 shallot finely chopped
    1/2 cup beef broth
    1/2 cup extra stout beer (Guinness)
    1/2 Tbl packed brown sugar
    1 Tbl soy sauce
    6 small baby reds quartered
    1 Tbl ranch dressing seasoning
    1 tsp mice garlic
     chopped chives
     salt pepper
     8 asparagus stalks cut in half ( wooden skewers cut in half)
     2 to 4 bacon slabs
Spread 1 teaspoon mustard over steaks; sprinkle with Montreal seasoning.  Heat 1 teaspoon oil in large nonstick pan skillet over medium high heat.  Cook about 4 minutes on each side for medium rare.  Transfer to cutting board and let it rest.  Cut across the grain at an angle into thin slices and place on plate.

Take the asparagus and put on skewers, and then wrap with bacon and season with black pepper.  Cook on each side till bacon is nice and crisp.

Take baby reds and wash and cut in half, then quarters.  Place in a pot with 2 Tbl of olive oil and boil till soft, try not to over cook.

When done take the ranch dressing seasoning, salt, pepper, 1/4 stick of butter, and 1 teaspoon of olive oil and toss in bowl and garnish with chopped chives

Mash butter and flour in a small bowl; set aside.  Heat 1 teaspoon oil in skillet over medium.  Add garlic and shallots;  saute 1 minute.  Add beef broth, and bring to a boil.  Whisk in stout, brown sugar, soy sauce, 3 teaspoons of the mustard, and butter mixture. Boil until it reduces, about to 2 to 3 minutes.

Now put your plate together nice and neat garnish and enjoy with your girl!

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Rhubarb Pie

This blog is for ALL Foodies.  I will feature various culinary inspired chefs and bakers because its all about the food. After a very good meal its should be followed by an outstanding desert. Desserts are something I'm working on to master.  So while I'm still working on that I will feature Renee's Sweet Coner. She will bring various desserts to the blog. All of them I have tried and they are outstanding.  So no more wasting time! Welllll here we go! Renee's Sweet Corner! Enjoy


I love pie.  In my world, in the contest between pie and cake, pie wins by a mile.  I think its because of the crust, I love crust, especially whens its flaky and soft and fresh out of the oven.  There is nothing about pie that disappoints me, I can eat it in the morning for breakfast, as a dessert or even for my main meal.  Ahhhh, pie.  I think one of the reasons more people don't like pie is because they feel that the crust is too difficult to make.  But, pie crust, in my opinion is one of the easier things to bake once you get the hang of it.  The first thing to remember is that it is just three simple ingredients, flour, salt, and fat.  Now I love all types of pie, but my absolute favorite is rhubarb. And I feel for those of you who have never had the delicious tanginess that is rhubarb.  It is a plant that has ruby red stalks when ripe and it is these stalks that you chop up and cook into the deliciousness that is rhubarb pie.  For those of you who have never had rhubarb, I must warn you it can be tart, so most people will cook it with strawberries to tone it down and that is perfectly acceptable, however today I'm going to be just be showing you rhubarb in all its glory.  This recipe makes one 9 inch double crust pie, however for today I took that recipe and divided it into five mini pies for extra cuteness.

Rhubarb Pie


For the crust:

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup shortening *
6-7 Tbl cold water

Measure out the flour and salt into a medium size bowl and mix together.

 Add in the shortening and mix together with your hands or a pastry cutter until the dough resembles little crumbs.

 Add in the water  until the dough comes together.  Divide the dough into two pieces and roll out one of them.  This will be your bottom crust.

Place that crust into your nine inch pie pan.  Roll out the other piece and set aside.

* Some people do not like using shortening in their pie crust which is fine.  If you would like to use butter, substitute the same amount of butter for the shortening and proceed with mixing the ingredients.  However, you should place the dough in the frig for about an hour prior to rolling it out to give the butter a chance to set.

For the filling:

5 cups rhubarb, chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix together the sugar, flour, and vanilla extract.  Then add in the chopped rhubarb and mix together.

  Take the filling and pour it into the pie pan and put the top crust on. 

Crimp the edges to seal, and cut about three to four slits in the top so the steam can vent.  Place in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for 15 minutes and then lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 30-40 minutes until the crust is browned and the filling is bubbling.  If the edges start to get too brown, you can wrap the edges in foil.  Let cool and then serve.

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Festival Food

Its all about the food!  Tonight we went to the Taste of  Crown Point and I sampled what I thought would be great foods.  Now I must tell you I had one of the best polish sausages that I had ever had. This polish was a blue ribbon winner 3 years in a row.

 I see why, it was seasoned with garlic, pepper, and various spice and it had a nice snap.  There was flavor in every bite. Enjoy the pics.  If its something to be eaten, I will eat it.  If its a place to be ate at, I will be there.

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Arugula Marinated Artichoke Salad

Well here we go! I chose this salad because I had marinated artichoke hearts in the frig that I needed to use.  But I also chose this salad because it is perfect on a hot day when the last thing you want to do is turn on the oven and heat up the house even more.  The dressing is a salty tangy vinaigrette using pesto I already had in the refrigerator.  You can of course make your own pesto should you have the ingredients, but one of the best things I like about this salad is that it is a good way to use up ingredients that you might have just lying around because its really the dressing that makes this salad.  And if you want to be really unique, like me, instead of just placing the vegetables on top of the salad, mix them in the dressing prior to putting them on the arugula to really give them that added flavor. You can use this salad as a complimentary side to your main meal, or make this the main meal by added some grilled chicken marinated in the dressing, or any other meat or vegetable you might have on hand.

Serves 2
Ingredients:
                  4 oz of arugula
                  1/2 tomato
                  1/2 onion             
                  2 oz marinated artichoke hearts
                  2 Tbs pesto sauce
                  1 oz red wine vinegar
                  1 tsp minced garlic  
                  salt and pepper        
                                              
To make the dressing :
          Take the pesto sauce, red wine vinegar and minced garlic and combine it in small bowl and whisk it together.

For the salad:
          Next slice the onions.  Cut the tomatoes in wedges, and then quarter the wedges.  Chop the marinated artichokes.  Place arugula in a bowl and pour the dressing over the salad and mix together making sure the is arugula well coated.  Then take the arugula and divide it into two serving bowls.  Next take the onions and tomatoes and artichokes and place them in the same bowl the arugula was in, season with salt and pepper and toss.  Place on top of arugula in serving bowl and enjoy.

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My first step into the blog planet

Welcome to FoodieTopia!!  In this blog I hope to demonstrate to everyone my love and passion for food.  I like to take my own ideas and create recipes and I like to take established recipes and put my own unique essence into each one.  I want to inspire you with the same enthusiasm that i have in cooking and creating food.  This blog will hopefully demonstrate the versatility in cooking Vietnamese to fried chicken.  Most importantly I want to welcome you to my kitchen, so enjoy your travels through FoodieTopia!!

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