Sunday, December 20, 2009

Iron Chef and Oysters and Dino Steaks

Hello! I have got a pretty exciting post for you today! The day (culinary wise) started off pretty basic, with a little bit of a twist. After watching an Iron Chef marathon this morning, I was feeling inspired to cook up something both visually and tastefully appealing, so I decided to put a little twist on a classic, bacon, eggs and hash browns!





I made the "hash browns" first, just by chopping baby golden and red potatoes into medallions, and frying them up in a little olive oil with sea salt, fresh ground pepper and fresh rosemary. Then I cooked up the egg (my favorite way, sunny side up) and bacon at the same time. I just prettily tossed this onto the potatoes, and minced up the bacon and sprinkled this on everything instead of eating it "whole"! It was so flavorful, and you got a little taste of the egg, potatoes, bacon and rosemary in every bite! A very good start to the day, and my breakfast was so pretty (I am a strong believer in "you eat with your eyes")! The plates they have here don't hurt the presentation factor either...





To drink with breakfast, I had a big glass of eggnog. I cannot get enough of this stuff at Christmas!





After a nice and relaxing breakfast, I headed down to the beach (finally) with Ian!





It was rainy on and off today, and overcast the entire day, but still so warm (especially compared to Edmonton...I can't get over it)! I was very happy to see this gorgeous bay again as we rounded the corner on the path down to the beach!





And of course I had to take a photo of the beaching-during-the-winter specials: my yellow rubber boots. I love them! I should really wear these everyday.





With a mind that is hard to get the idea of food out of, I forced Ian to come search for oysters with me (we know exactly where the good ones are)! The rest of the beach is sandy, but there is one spot that's rocky, this is where all the oysters hide out! It was so much fun, and the bay was full of sea lions barking, I love that sound!





A little sampling of the oysters we collected!





It started to rain again, so we headed back to the condo with our goods to shuck these bad boys for a little appy before dinner!

Here is a happy food-lover with fistfuls of oysters fresh from the beach:





Eating oysters raw from the shell is the absolute best way (besides cooking them on an open fire on the beach, but it was a little rainy for that today). If you are like me and a major weakling, here's a trick to help you shuck!

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Place the oysters (or clam, or whatever) on a baking sheet, and pop them into the oven, but watch them closely!
As soon as you see them start to open a teeny, tiny bit, pull them out!
Then you can use just a butter knife to pry those suckers open!
Easy as pie.





Then just serve them on the half shell over ice! I like mine with horseradish. So tasty.





And of course we had to have caesars with the oysters...





As another appy, Mom made some labaneh! All she did for it was strain some greek style yoghurt over night in cheese cloth, and then add some fresh garlic, parsley and olive oil into it! Serve with crackers, pita or anything you've got! It is so flavorful.





For dinner I had one of the largest steaks, ever. It was incredible... As you can see, we eat quite a bit of steak in our family...





We just steamed some green beans to go with it, and had more rosemary potatoes! Very filling!





It was such a good day full of incredible flavors. I absolutely love finding my own food...it's so exciting, and rewarding! Hopefully the tide goes out soon so I can dig some clams and make a nice pasta with garlic, butter, parsley and white wine! That has got to be one of my favorite dishes ever, and one of the most simple ones too!

xoxo

Mariel

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