You can now find the olive garden salad dressing recipe at RestaurantMenuRecipes.com, http://www.restaurantmenurecipes.com/olivegarden/olive-garden-salad-dressing-recipe/
How I Learned to Cook
One of my favorite books is called “How I Learned to Cook.” 40 of the world’s most fantastic chefs, including Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali, discuss how they learned to cook, why they they decided learn to cook, or what hepled them choose their particular style of cooking.
Next up, Heat. Followed by Nasty Bits.
Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce Recipe
It’s been said that, “Olive Garden has the best alfredo sauce.” Whomever said that is likely a genius. It is indeed fantastic.
What’s in Olive Garden’s alfredo sauce? Nobody really knows. Their website lists the ingredients, but the ingredients seem to be incomplete.
How many calories are in Olive Garden’s alfredo sauce? It doesn’t matter. It’s delicious.
I’ll tell you what I think the secrent to Olive Garden’s alfredo sauce is: basque goat cheese. That’s right, a Spanish goat cheese. It could explain the sharp bold flavor. Don’t judge the sauce until you’ve tried the sauce.
Hot, or Hype?
This is a constant issue for me…Is this restaurant hot right now because it’s good? Or because it’s hype? It’s not until I eat there that I can determine that…even Yelp reviews contain a whole lot of hype sometimes. It is about the most truthful that I can find though. There’s always someone to speak the truth in a review (or it seems like it at least).
Swingers-ahh, Swingers-with a name like Swingers, you would think, this is going to be one hot place. A friend previously warned me though, that this place is all hype. I ate there twice in one day last week. Why you ask? Or maybe you didn’t ask me that. The first time I ate there in one day, I had a turkey meatloaf with spinach and mashed potatoes and gravy. Nothing about it was good…the spinach actually tasted like lighter fluid to me (not sure how that would even happen). I did have one item that was good though; broccoli soup. I’m assuming it was from a can though.
Why’d I go back? I’m getting to that now, I just needed to stall a bit.
I had this feeling that the reason people liked this place so much was for its desserts. I mean, when you get in there you see cupcakes everywhere and they look great. They look Sprinkles great…they don’t taste Sprinkles great though. And the brownie ice cream sundae was absolutely terrible. Again the only saving-grace moment I found was in something that was likely spooned out of a can; the hot fudge was awesome…
Seriously though, when you can’t even get the hot chocolate right, and you’re a diner, you’re probably all hype. In this case, it’s true. Even the service is terrible. The first server was really nice, and sweet, and on top of her game, but the second server we had was terribly slow, and unattentive. The host was very odd toward us as well.
Oh, and finally, this was in the Swingers in Hollywood (just off La Brea and Beverly) and not the one in Santa Monica — haven’t eaten there yet, but I will when my sister comes to town. She likes Knocked Up and wants to check out Swingers in Santa Monica because that’s where Seth Rogen had breakfast with Catherine Heigal. I must confess, this is why I had any interest in the first place.
Thanksgiving or Bust
By Jason Hobbs
Well, I did it again — Thanksgiving at my own place. Three different places in the past three years. This time though, I used an untested oven. I’ve only been here a little while! Oddly, I have very long counters, with cabinets about a foot above them. It makes you wonder, why so much cabinet space, if the kitchen counter space is so terrible that nobody would want to cook in it?
Ahhh, but the food. The turkey cooked perfectly, in the perfect amount of time…at least on one side. The other side was about 20 degrees lower, and the cavity was about 40 degrees lower! What to do now? Well, I turned the turkey 180 degrees, and let it cook for another 45 minutes. The conclusion? The turkey was still moist! But why? I made a compound butter and put it under the skin. The fat saturated the meat, and BAM! Or uh,,,I’ll think of my own nonsense to scream. It was delicious though. The skin was crispy, the meat was “moist” (buttery rather actually, but it has a similar mouthfeel to water in meat). The compound butter consisted of kosher salt, black pepper, fresh sage, fresh thyme, minced garlic, and minced shallots — yep, that’s right; shallots!
The dressing, as with most Thanksgivings, was my favorite. It was a savory, sage, thyme, bacon and sausage dressing. It was crunchy on top, moist in the middle, and deliciously salty all the way through.
My mashed potatos consisted of sauteed garlic, shallots, and mushrooms, and was accompanied with a gravy made from turkey drippings and vegetable broth.
All was good. Friends and family at my house for Thanksgiving if always good — I’m just glad it worked out with all the problems I had that day.
Schwartz Bakery
Schwartz Bakery on Pico in West Los Angeles, is well-known to many, but a recent lunchtime trip to Haifa next door, is what gave me my first opportunity to encounter the delicious breads inside Schwartz. To be clear, and to the point, the donuts with cream filling are fantastic. Their Challah bread is no joke either. Very airy; great texture; good flavor — some of the best Challah bread in LA!
Mmm…Duck Fat
A bite of lamb cooked in duck fat
So, I found a place that sells rendered duck fat by the tub! Yep, I’m excited! I picked up some lamb on the way home and cooked it with some shallots and garlic. It was fantastic.
If you want to pick up your own tub of duck fat, go to Puritan Poultry at the 3rd and Fairfax Farmer’s Market.
