A view of the Paris, Las Vegas resort from across the street at the Bellagio, with that resort’s lake in the foreground  So, what did we do on day two in Las Vegas?

We had lunch at Emeril’s in the MGM Grand. It was scrumptious. I’m not a very big fan of his (at least I don’t like his cooking show style) but I thought the food was outstanding. We relied on the server to tell us what to order – my DH had scallops with an Asian cabbage and mushroom side vegetable. I ordered their (fish) Pan Roast with shrimp jambalaya. The pan roast was delicious mahi-mahi and shrimp, both highly seasoned and blackened. Then the server said we just had to order the banana cream pie. Moi? Oh, yea. I did. She told us it takes over 20 bananas to make a whole pie, and over 18 hours to make. Haven’t yet figured out how or why so many, but I ate most of it myself. DH had a few bites, but I’m guilty of eating way too much of it. Outstanding, and worth ordering again.

Took the east-side monorail from one end to the other.

Took a nap

Went to the Bellagio to watch the water show (three times)

Had dinner at Circo (pronounced cher-co), a Mediterranean upscale restaurant in the Bellagio. Overlooks the lake so we got to see the water show more times. After my big lunch I wasn’t all that hungry, but we both managed to eat a light dinner. A nice green salad with a bagna cauda dressing. I ordered the restaurant’s signature dish, ravioli stuffed with goat cheese, Swiss chard, and swimming in a delicious sage and butter sauce. My DH ordered a rabbit dish stuffed with sausage and the same salad. He ordered dessert this time – a bowl of four scoops of gelato. That I probably wouldn’t order again (I had a few bites), but the rest of the meal was worth every penny. The restaurant is pricey, no question, but we had window seats and the service was impeccable.

Then, the highlight of the day, we attended the show O at the Bellagio. It’s the Cirque de Soleil that’s been playing there for about 10 years. Amazing. Spectacular effects with a huge pool. Most of the performers swim – some of it synchronized, some acrobatics. It was fabulous. We had 2nd row seats – well worth the extra cost. And then we walked back to our hotel – about 3/4 of a mile or so (we felt virtuous, like we’d walked off all those calories we consumed today).

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I spotted you as I walked by in the casino yesterday. You were dressed up in the kind of 4th of July garb my mother was fond of. She was a lucky gambler. She would walk up and down a few aisles to find just the right one with red, white and blue embellishments on your face. You were a 25 cent machine. Not up there with the high rollers, but certainly not the low-lifers like your nickel friends. My mother was very circumspect about having a relationship with any of your kind before she’d even spend a few minutes in your company. So, as you sat there blinking your lights at me, I wasn’t sure, but I mentally communed with my mother before I decided to sit down and begin a relationship with you. I carefully removed just one single dollar bill from my wallet. No going out on a limb with someone until you know them better. I thought I’d invest just that much before you and I had any further congress.

So, with trepidation I decided to just barely put my toe in the water, giving you a mere quarter to spin your sparkly rolls. My husband was standing beside me for this venture, to make sure I didn’t do anything too rash. I pushed the button. Up came a 7. Another 7. Oh, and yet another 7. Your lights went into overdrive. You voice went into a giggle of tinkling tones. I think you were very excited about having me converse with you. Were you trying to impress me? Or lure me?

So what did you do? You just handed me $20. Just like that! You must not have liked the last friend you had and you hoarded your loot. I just sat there, staring at you – looking deep into your eyes. Trying to see your soul. I couldn’t quite tell what you were thinking, though. I wasn’t sure. My mother gave me a sign. You see, she knew you better than I do. She said take it and run. I did.

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A bit of family trivia: my mother, who died in 1997, bless her soul, loved to gamble. She maybe visited Las Vegas once or twice a year. Originally it was the penny machines she and my dad played. Finally she moved up to the nickel machines and won. Then she really moved uptown to the quarter machines. They were her favorite, I think. She and my Dad played Keno too. She won regularly. Now, I’m not talking big money here. But on her last trip to Las Vegas (my Dad had died earlier that year, and my DH and I brought her here in 1996) she won several hundred dollars. She wanted so much for me to enjoy the slots as much as she did. She’d hand me $20 here and there to keep me playing. The $50 I’d “given” myself to play disappeared in a flash. On one trip I recall she won about $1,000. She got this cute grin on her face when she’d tell the story. I knew she kept her gambling winnings in a little bag in her lingerie drawer. After my mother died in 1997, some friends of mine came to help me sort through all the stuff. Darlene came to find me with a small drawstring cloth bag in her hand. She said, “Carolyn, I found this in one of the drawers.” Sure enough, there was about $500 in the bag – bills and whole dollar coins. I cried. It was just waiting for her next trip. Thanks, Mom. So far I’ve only invested a quarter of it.

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The back side of the Strip, through tinted windows of our hotel, The Signature. We’re on the east side of the Strip between Harmon and Tropicana Streets, fyi.

So, as I announced yesterday, we’re on a road trip. First stop: Las Vegas, where we haven’t been in 12 years. Oh, how it’s changed. The Strip is just jammed with people and cars (on the surface, no sign of a recession here!). We checked into The Signature, a lovely non-gambling hotel that’s connected to the MGM Grand. Our neighbors own two units in this sort-of resort. Don’t know exactly how it works – if they reserve their unit (a small suite), as their guests we can stay in it very inexpensively. About half the going price. Nice. It’s a beautiful suite (with a small kitchen, even) and sitting area. When our neighbors aren’t using it, the hotel rents it out.

On recommendation from Rachel, a good friend who comes here a lot more often than we do, we ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s Bar & Grill in the MGM Grand. I didn’t take pictures (sorry), but my DH had Wolf’s own pork bratwurst with mashed potatoes and cooked red cabbage. I had a lamb Panini with couscous. Both dishes were delicious, per our respective mmm’s. My DH enjoys his Diet Coke a lot. They refilled his glass twice. $10.50, thank you. I had two glasses. That was $7.00. Total bill for lunch $64.00. Now we know to savor the first glass and forget the refills. Naturally, they didn’t mention the extra charge. Our lunches were $22 (his) and $16 (mine). It was a bit of a hike to get there, too. My DH, who is a double amputee, can walk about half a mile without any difficulty, but more than that and his legs begin to hurt. So after lunch and walking out to Las Vegas Blvd, we exited stage left and returned to our room for a little rest! A very helpful MGM Grand employee told us how to return to the hotel and bypass most of the casino portion, by way of a shortcut.

Last night we went to see Stomp Out Loud, the show that is “music” by odd instruments like metal trash can lids, plastic and metal trash cans, push brooms, sticks, boxes filled with noise-making pellets, whisk brooms and shovels. We saw Stomp many years ago and just loved it. This one, Stomp Out Loud, is a special show created just for Las Vegas. It was so unbelievably fun and entertaining. The actors (musicians cum dancers cum drummers), do a lot of moving around the stage (dancing, jumping, running and stamping of their feet) with their oddball instruments, banging them in every which way possible to create the rhythm and the show. The oddest “song,” if you will, was done with flexible rubber hoses. Depending on the length of the hose, and diameter, when it’s popped on the floor, it makes a tone. The lead dancer/drummer of the show (probably in his 30’s) got a scholarship in drumming at the University of Nevada. I didn’t know they HAD degrees in drum, let alone that somebody would fork up a scholarship for one. He was SO good at it, though. He was a master at creating music and rhythm with clapping, slapping and hitting his chest and legs. With the exception of a few grunts, “eh’s” and one or two “oi’s” there was no speaking for the entire performance. Amazing. All the performers were slim and trim (they get a good cardio workout in every performance!). If you’ve never seen any of the Stomp shows, I highly recommend it. Until I did a search just now, I didn’t know they had a DVD out (not of the show but other similar Stomp acts). If you click here, you’ll go to YouTube – watch part of one, and there are other similar videos down the right side of the YouTube screen. If you don’t know anything about rhythm and music made in such ways, you’ll be wildly entertained. The show plays in its own theater in Planet Hollywood, just a few blocks from our hotel.

Today we’re going to explore a bit more – maybe I’ll take a walk on my own. I definitely want to see the outdoor water show at the Bellagio. Because of going to Stomp Out Loud, we didn’t go out to dinner, but after the show we went to Yolo, a little restaurant and bar in Planet Hollywood and ordered freshly made guacamole and house-made chips. That was “dinner” and it hit the spot. By looking at the menus, dinner prices are off the charts expensive. Years and years ago we used to do the buffets here in Las Vegas, and Lake Tahoe (my mother and father were huge fans of buffet restaurants), but we eat too much. So we swore off of them long ago.

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For the next few weeks, my DH and I are going to be on a road trip. We decided last Fall that we’d make this a domestic vacation year. My laptop is going with me, and assuming I can get internet access, I’ll be posting a few things. Likely no recipes, as I don’t think I’ll be doing much, if any, cooking on this trip. I have a few corny trivia things I can post if I have nothing to share. But probably I’ll give you some photos here and there, and likely a bit about the road food. So, stay tuned. . . first destination is Las Vegas where we’re going to see O, and Stomp Out Loud. Then we’re off for some sightseeing.

image from www.freefoto.com

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I’ve wanted to make this recipe so I could share it with you, but it never seemed to be the right menu for it. But I took dessert to friends the other night, and thought it would be perfect. This is an EASY recipe. You buy a store-bought angel food cake (or make your own if you’d prefer), mix up the filling/frosting, grate a bit of chocolate, toast some almonds and put it together. It probably took about 30 minutes to assemble, including toasting the nuts. The picture above doesn’t exactly show the layers – the lighting wasn’t good enough, I guess.

This is a Phillis Carey recipe, from a cooking class I took with her several years ago. The filling (which also is the frosting on the outside) has mascarpone cheese in it, with a whole lot of whipped cream, some cocoa and espresso powder, a bit of powdered sugar and Amaretto. You slice the cake into 3 layers, drizzle a little Amaretto on each layer, then put a cup of frosting between each with some grated chocolate, then slather the remaining around the top and outside. Then the toasted almonds are lightly pressed on the frosting. That’s it. Done. Be sure to refrigerate it for at least four hours before serving.

I’ve never made it with Cool-Whip, but am sure you could – and it might be just fine. This particular time I ended up buying mascarpone that had tiramisu flavoring in it (my mistake), so I added a small tub of Crème Fraiche to the mixture too. The recipe calls for 2/3 cup of powdered sugar – I think it’s way too much, but use your own judgment. If you made a from-scratch angel food cake, it would be larger than the store-bought ones, so you might want to spread the filling a little thinner (or make just a bit more of it). If you really wanted to be decadent, make a little chocolate sauce to drizzle on top. My DH doesn’t eat many desserts and his verdict was: “this is the best dessert you’ve ever made!” I disagree – there are some other desserts I’ve made that are perhaps better, but HE thought this was the best. He did his best to get as much of the leftovers as he possibly could!
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The first time I had posole was my first visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico. That was about about 20 years ago, I’d guess. It was a culinary tour, and the guide packed in 4 days of day and night eating, shopping, museums, tours and more food. It was heavenly fun. The food was out of this world. If you’ve ever had a food epiphany, then you can relate to what I felt on that trip. I realized I was truly enamored with Southwestern food.

I’d never even heard of posole (poh-so-leh) until that trip, and hence learned that traditionally it’s a pork and hominy stew, typical of that region. Likely you can find it in Texas too, probably Arizona as well. In the stores there you can buy posole mixes (yes, I bought one). Hominy isn’t something I buy at all – I bet I’ve only purchased it a couple of times in my life (canned). But hominy is a requirement for this recipe. However, I didn’t have any. What to do? I used garbanzo beans instead. Not exactly authentic, but close.

In my repertoire of recipes I found one for posole made with chicken, so it at least gave me the formation of this recipe since chicken was what I had defrosting for the evening meal. The soup came together in rapid order – maybe not quite 30 minutes, but almost.

The recipe I was reading suggested you add a can of enchilada sauce. Well, I didn’t have that either. So I made my own. Well, actually, I just added the ingredients to the soup. Then I added in my own tweaking here and there (chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, some powdered cocoa), and now I’ve got a new soup recipe for my collection. This soup was fantastic if I do say so myself.

Now, I will say, I used Penzey’s turkey soup base concentrate for this recipe. And, if you read my blog piece a few days ago, you know that I’m a huge fan of Penzey’s soup bases. And once again, it provided a delicious depth of character to what was a relatively simple soup. The spinach is added in at the last and is barely cooked. I used baby spinach, which made the bites manageable. If you buy regular spinach, you’d best chop it up a little.

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Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click link to open in MC; 14 includes photo)

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So, I was reading the blog post over at Accidental Hedonist, and immediately I was transported to about 1965. Allow me to set the stage  . . . I was about 23 years old. My first husband was an officer in the U.S. Navy (air). His air group was deployed on a carrier, and we’d made plans for me to travel for several months from country to country in Asia as I followed the ship around from port to port. It was my first international trip. I was a totally inexperienced traveler, besides being on my own abroad. The Vietnam War intervened, but I decided to continue the journey, even if I spent more time alone. First I went to Japan for a couple of months, and then on to the Philippines, where I met up with two other wives.The carrier carried on, and the three of us wives went to Hong Kong, a few days before a monsoon started, as part of our around-Asia special airline ticket. We stayed at the Hong Kong Hilton.

Let me just say that the two other wives were far more worldly than I. They’d both been PanAm stewardesses for some years before marrying their pilot husbands. I was (and am) a relatively shy-type not given much to reveling and drinking much alcohol, nor dancing with men I didn’t know (or even men I did know except my then husband). So, upon our arrival in Hong Kong, the other two wanted cocktails and dancing; I wanted some dinner and sleep. They went to the sky bar and I went to the small cafe near the lobby.

As the only occupant in the small cafe, I received exemplary service. I tried to understand the menu. It was in Chinese with just a few minimal words in English, German and a couple of other languages. Nothing appealed to me much, but there was this one spaghetti dish. The word bolognese was in it and I knew I’d seen that in Italian restaurants. The other word I didn’t recognize. But, it was quite inexpensive. So I ordered it. With great anticipation, the dish arrived and I dug in. Ewwwwh! It was chicken liver sauce on pasta. It was horrid. I tried a second bite of just the pasta I could manage to extract from the sticky, grainy sauce. Nope, it wouldn’t go down. Being on a very strict budget, I couldn’t order something else. I pushed the food around, drank some ice water and didn’t know what to say to the waiter when he came to my table and pointed at my plate, asking questions in what he thought was English. I couldn’t understand anything he said. I was too embarrassed to try to explain with more pointing or making screwed-up ugly faces.  I ate the saltine crackers on the table, and drank a second glass of water. Back then I was still testing the waters, so to speak, of international travel. I was very sensitive to my inability to speak the language.  Today I’d be in a financial position, thankfully, of saying I’ll order something else and do my level best to smile a lot and be pleasant. Do you have any similar experiences? I’d love to hear about them – leave a comment – click the link below. So, my advice: if you don’t understand a menu in a foreign country, ask questions.

Graphic at top created at www.wordle.net

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I was chatting with my friend Cherrie the other day (she and I spend some time always talking about food – what she’s making, what I’m making, restaurants, etc.) and she was telling me about how she made one of my lamb stew recipes that I’d posted awhile back. Then she said when she tasted it, it was blah. Blah, I thought? How can that be? The stew I made was absolutely fabulous with flavor. She’d made it exactly as written. The lamb was from Costco, just like mine. I had to contemplate that conundrum for a bit. How could two stews be so different in taste? The recipe wasn’t that complicated. Didn’t require any particularly unusual ingredients. Then a light went off in my head. It’s the broth. I’d put a fair slug of turkey broth concentrate in that stew that was almost like a soup.

Hence I’m posting about something that I had begun to take for granted. No longer.

Years ago, I used to buy those little cubes of chicken bouillon to flavor up things. That’s about all there was out there unless you made your own stock (which I’ve done, but don’t choose to make anymore except the day after Thanksgiving). Eventually you could buy loosely packed dry chicken broth granules (still can, I believe). Of course, you could buy canned broth too. But if you were making soup that needed 2 quarts, for instance, that was a heck of a lot of cans to buy and lug home, open and throw out. That’s why I preferred the granules. Then along came the little jars of hydrolyzed protein with a modicum of flavor. And lastly, the sealed, waxed boxes of broth, which I use regularly too. But the underlying problem – to me anyway – was the amount of sodium in all of these products. Even that stuff Better than Bouillon. Have you even looked at how much salt is in them? Salt is cheap – a whole lot cheaper than chicken meat or buying hydrolyzed protein, so of course, the “superior” minds (read: greedy) of American business, always looking out for our better health (right?) would use salt as the overriding flavor. Hey, if they can fool us into thinking it’s chicken broth, then they’ve made another product the unsuspecting homemaker and cook will buy.

Some years ago I read a story about hydrolyzed protein and wasn’t all that thrilled with the process and what products made with it might do to our bodies. So generally I used the cardboard boxes of broth or the loose granules. For a lot of years that’s what I did. And it was only a few months ago that I read about Wolfgang Puck’s own brand of broth that was noticed by either food magazines, or Cook’s Illustrated, or maybe it was Consumer Reports. I don’t remember now, but whatever I read indicated Wolfgang’s was really good. So I’ve been using that too (it’s expensive, so I don’t use it for just anything).

Meanwhile, I decided to try some of Penzey’s soup bases. They do not contain hydrolyzed protein (yea!). The first ingredient on the chicken base (my most used one) is “cooked chicken meat.” Well, it’s about time somebody decided to give us what we want – the main ingredient is chicken! I’ve come to rely on these jars of concentrated broth. I merely dip my small spoons into the chicken goop and pull out a little dab and add to whatever I’m cooking. I never measure – I just use a clean spoon. I use it anytime I need broth and merely add water. They do require you to store them in the refrigerator once opened. That’s about the only down side to these. (And in all fairness, I will state that the second ingredient is salt. At least it’s not the first one.)

At the moment I own three of them (chicken, turkey and seafood). In my next order to Penzey’s, I’m ordering beef and vegetable too. So, if you have come to trust me – may I recommend to you that you click over to PENZEY’S and place an order for these SOUP BASES. DO IT NOW! And while you’re at it, try some of their Korintje or Vietnamese cinnamon too. And cumin. And garlic  (the most recent catalog had a write-up about how the Penzey’s folks finally found a garlic grower willing to do what Penzey’s has wanted forever – somebody to cut OFF the little brown stem part). I use fresh garlic almost all the time, but I may order some of this dry garlic just to try it. And just in case you don’t know me very well – no, I’m not getting paid by Penzey’s to tout their stuff. I simply believe in their products and have been nothing but happy with everything I’ve ordered from them. You likely will be too. And whenever you make anything that requires broth, I think you’ll be amazed at the flavor! In a recent Cook’s Illustrated or Cook’s Country, Penzey’s chili powder did not fare well. Number one winner there was Spice Islands.

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My refrigerator was filled with leftovers. You know the feeling? It seemed like every nook and cranny of my refrigerator was crammed with little round and square plastic containers. My DH loves leftovers (thankfully) and is very happy to have a meal with nothing but little dishes of this and that. So only a few of them end up in the garbage disposal. And even though I love to cook, and enjoy sharing my recipes here on this blog, there are still evenings when I simply don’t feel like cooking. Some of those times I don’t want to cook AT ALL, so we go out. But like the other evening . . . I had some of the moist leftover chicken remaining from the delish roast chicken (the one that Martha thinks the potatoes are better than the chicken – remember that one?). It was a warm evening. What sounded good was a salad. But I didn’t want to start from scratch hunting for some new recipe. What I was craving was a Phillis Carey recipe. Her Mexican Chopped Salad to be exact. But I’ve already blogged about that one. You see, as a food blogger (and likely many food bloggers have the same “problem”) I’m always looking for a “new” recipe to write up. I still have plenty of recipes of my own collection that haven’t made it up on these pages yet, but I didn’t have any chicken SALAD recipes that haven’t already been posted. So, what to do? Well, I decided to make Phillis’ salad as best I could – and remind you how tasty it is.

Unfortunately I didn’t have all the ingredients, and I wasn’t willing to make a trip to the store. But I DID have the ingredients for the dressing, which is what makes this salad anyway. So, I pulled nearly everything out of the crisper and composed a salad. The only ingredients I really wished I’d had were fresh corn and radishes. Corn, particularly, adds so much (to me anyway) to a main entrée salad. So, I’m going to give you the dressing recipe again. If you want to see the full recipe – the original – click on the link above.

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My DH went to a football game a week ago Sunday. The Chargers, in San Diego. He had a great time with the guys, all family. Initially, though, the group met in the parking lot for a lunchtime tailgate party. Dave didn’t have to bring a thing. There was food galore, of course. And early-on he spotted a big container of pickled carrots. His heart raced a little bit. Hmmm. Maybe carrots like the recipe we’ve been coveting but can’t get. It looked like them – with onions, garlic and jalapeno chiles swimming in the pickling liquid. We’ve wanted the recipe for the home made pickled carrots at our neighborhood Mexican restaurant, Jalapeno’s. They won’t tell anybody anything about the prized family recipe. Even the local paper asked and was refused.

So, Dave tasted. Wow. They were great. He started asking around – who made these carrots? Finally found him – Doug – he’s made them himself for over 30 years. Didn’t remember where he got the recipe. But he gladly shared it with Dave.

The second thing Dave told me when he got home was, “I think I’ve got the recipe for Jalapeno’s carrots!” (The first thing was the abysmal score.) He knew I’d be delighted to hear about the carrots. Indeed. As Dave rattled off the brief recipe, I quickly jotted it down. Dave went out and got the ingredients earlier in the week, but I wanted him to help me make them – just in case he had forgotten anything about the recipe. Sure enough, he forgot the sugar, so that was added. And, salt wasn’t mentioned, so I added that in myself.

Are they good? Absolutely they are. I’m going to tweak the recipe a little bit next time we make them – less of the jalapeno pickling liquid (I like heat, but these were too hot for my taste) – probably more sugar. But the method will be identical. We did learn that slicing the carrots a consistent depth is important (we used the mandoline for most of them) – I’m only guessing at the ¼ inch thickness. Doug sliced them lengthwise in planks. Jalapeno’s slices them in coins. Take your pick!

Here’s how they’re made: you parboil the carrots and onions. Don’t overcook them, though. Then you combine them with some of the juice from a can of pickled jalapenos. Just the juice. And maybe one or two of the pickled jalapenos themselves. And garlic. And Mexican oregano. Now Doug told Dave that buying Mexican oregano was the secret to the brine. Nothing else will do. And not to EVER be tempted to try Greek or Italian or any other type of oregano. Mexican oregano has a different aroma, and it usually includes lots of the flower pods too. Dave had to try two or three stores to find it the other day. Nearly a quart of white vinegar is added, and some water. You refrigerate it overnight, then serve. Whoopee! You’ll find notes in the recipe below about the changes I’ll make the next time I make these. Doug’s recipe was rather loosely verbalized, so we’ll tweak it as we go. And yes, we’ll make them again! Doug did remind us that the jalapenos vary (just as they do when fresh) – sometimes they’re hotter than others – so naturally the pickling liquid can be hotter one time than another. So unless you really love heat, use less rather than more until you test your tongue!
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