Out of Office: Viva la Wasabi-cation

Special News Bulletin - I'm not behind my desk for a change! It's clearly not hot enough in the Pacific Northwest, I need to find a hell-on-earth inferno to scald the skin off my bones. Hm... where to go... how about right in the middle of Nevada? Great idea, Wasabi. Actually, it's more like I'm crashing Wasabi Dad's engineering college reunion which is taking place in Las Vegas, and I'll be living the high life (Miller, that is) in downtown, old-skool Vegas, because that's where the parentals like to roll the bones and feel the rush of $5 blackjack tables and lower minimums. Yes, indeedy, Wasabi Prime is slummin' it in Sin City, ready to hit the buffet lines, and looking forward to a few days being under the blog-radar.

I'll indeed be back. And yes, that's a threat.

I will be on Twitter, so stay tuned for drunken fits of 140 characters or less at @WasabiPrime as I'm pretty sure it'll be magical on so many levels.

The short break won't affect the posting, but either way, please check out all the amazing bloggers on the Om Nom Nom blogroll. I'm sure you already do, but I can't stress enough how fab all those folks are, so give them a visit and a shout-out.

If you're already caught up on blogs and wish to have your mind nosh on something more, check out my guest post on the Wisconsin Cheese Talk blog, where I've got a recipe about tasty cheese curds used in a sweet potato gratin. And when you're done with that, feel free to visit the folks at Serious Eats, where I'm helping out with their Market Scene series, showing off the wares of farmers markets; the first post was about a couple of markets in Bellevue and I'm working on another one for more Eastside cities, so stay tuned!

FoodTrek: Cuba Sunday Supper with Ventana

It seems like no one eats at the table, family-style anymore! Well, not nobody, but when you go out to eat, you're given your own private table, you have your private experience, and  if you have the most wonderful meal imagined, it's like it only stays within your own personal bubble. Half the enjoyment of food is sharing it with others and being able to exchange thoughts, comments and even personal memories that flavors often stir up. Belltown neighborhood restaurant Ventana is stirring things up on their own with their Sunday Supper events, serving a large family-style meal to a dozen or so guests. Recently, they created a Cuban themed dinner that got the whole table talking -- and eating!

Cuban themed Sunday Dinner at Ventana - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Ventana's one of those great neighborhood restaurants that feels like a local hidden gem -- it's in a prime spot and not overrun with tourists, the menu is always changing with the seasons so you know everything's fresh, and it's seriously got one of the most stunning views of the Sound, especially as the sun sets and the light literally changes every few minutes. Throughout the course of a summer dinner, the light changes from  bright afternoon sun, to that "golden hour" glow when the light puts a patina on everything, and then a dusky shade that's a mixture of the fading sun and the glow of candles on the table finally being able to cast their light. Hint, hint to Mr. Wasabi -- aren't we overdue for a proper Date Night?

Sunday Dinner meals introduced by Chef Conrad - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Executive Chef Joseph Conrad presented the three course dinner, personally introducing the menu items and describing the inspiration behind the meal. For the Cuban themed dinner, the purpose was authenticity. No squeeze bottle flourishes, spun sugar-caged presentations -- this family style dinner was meant to represent just that, a meal that a family in Cuba would be enjoying after a long, busy day. These were comfort foods, the same way we tuck into a plate of meat loaf and mashed potatoes on a Sunday dinner with family. It was a dinner meant to evoke feelings of home, loved ones and happy memories.

I  should have worn my elastic waistband pants - so much food! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

The first course included wonderfully savory curls of chicharrones -- beautiful crackle-surfaced, fried strips of fatty pork. It went well with the bright-flavored pineapple and creamy avocado salad, a very simple collection of cool tossed greens to balance out the crunch of the chicharrones. I wished I hadn't indulged so much with the addictive chicharrones, as the second course was, in a word, epic. Roasted corn on the cob with lime and parmesan, with a pimente espellete; massive Cuban sandwich with butter-soft braised pork, peppers, ham, melted cheese, compressed between a soft baguette; a heaping platter of escabeche, a traditional fish stew, this one using large chunks of swordfish in a spiced, flavored oil and tossed with pickled vegetables. So. Much. Food. For reals. And it was so wonderfully flavorful and hearty. I wished I could somehow extend my stomach to take in more of it, especially the escabeche, with the fantastic mixture of spice and briny notes of the pickled vegetables. I enjoyed being able to switch from using utensils to just handling the food, with the sandwich and the corn; everything was tactile and unfussy.

There's always room for dessert. Always. - Photos by Wasabi Prime

But Wasabi, get to the good stuff -- what about dessert?! My only regret was not having enough room for seconds. A pristine pyramid of sugar-dusted Cuban cinnamon sugar cookies came out, along with slices of sugar-glazed Cuban rum cake. The cookies reminded me of Christmas, when my mother would make shortbread covered in powdered sugar -- both decorative and a keen way of knowing if anyone snuck a cookie or two before dinner, as powdered sugar tells no lies. The cake was lovely -- sweet, buttery cornmeal batter, baked to a perfectly tender texture. The top was soaked in a sugary rum syrup that set into a slight crust, so it had a nice chew to every bite. Friends at the table made the best call ever -- they ordered tall glasses of ice-cold milk to go with their dessert. Brilliant, and again, food's ability to evoke childhood memories comes out. At this point the sun had nearly set, so the light was hitting the cake, making the glazed fruit glow like stained glass window panes. I need to say that we had no less than three photographers at the table, myself included, so the cameras were snapping like mad.

Back to the main point of having dinner family-style. You get to talk to people and you definitely get to meet new folks over tasty food, and that is fun times because everyone's happy and enjoying themselves. I was lucky to share a table with several friendly new faces who were very understanding of the snapping of food pictures. I was also very lucky to sit next to the amazing Valentina Vitols, who is both an exuberant soul and an incredibly talented photographer. Originally from Caracas, she explained how the cuisine in Cuba has similar flavors and usage of ingredients, and the meal was like a lovely whisper from home. This is what makes family style dinners so satisfying, as you interact with the people as much as the food.

If you missed Ventana's July Sunday Supper, don't fret, the next one is set for August 22nd, 6pm, with a Northern Italy theme, which I know will be as flavorful and boisterous as this last dinner event. If you're looking for a delicious way to spend a Sunday night, get your reservations set and prepare your appetites!

FoodTrek: Vovito Answers the Call of the Caffeinated Wild

I only spoke with Ariff and Shairose Gulamani for a short time, but I'm pretty sure they dream in gelato with a little kick of espresso. They have been living and breathing the art of coffee and frozen desserts in preparation for their new specialty coffee and gelato shop opening this week in Bellevue. This husband and wife dynamic duo combined their backgrounds of business and marketing, along with a passion for fine coffees and handcrafted treats, to create Vovito Caffè and Gelato, a dream come true for this culinary-savvy couple.

Buffy the Espresso Slayer Machine - Photo by Wasabi Prime

The concept is simple and elegant -- quality hand-crafted espresso drinks using premium coffee beans, along with a variety of gourmet teas, as well as fresh-made paninis and baked goods. To sweeten the deal, they offer over twenty different gelato and sorbetto flavors, all made using natural ingredients. They have two Slayer espresso machines, gigantic hand-built uber-professional espresso makers that cause coffee nerds to tremble with joy and baristas able to quickly go between high and low pressures, giving them incredible flavor control and power, literally at the flip of a switch. Seeing the two Slayer machines sitting side by side is a rarity, as there's only a handful that are in use in the country. The summer warmth is giving the Slayers a slow ease-in, but the morning weekday rush and incoming cooler months will be giving those machines the workout of their mechanized lives. Move over Buffy, there's a new Slayer in Sunnydale... I mean, Bellevue.

This will be their first week for Vovito to start working its java mojo on the first level of the luxe Bravern shopping complex-slash-Microsoft hive, slinging espresso beverages to the coffee zombie masses craving that kick-start to get them into their offices on time. They're in soft-opening mode with their official grand opening on Friday, July 30th, but as far as our caffeine-addled brains are concerned, there's finally a coffee place in The Bravern, and thank God. I knew enough people risking life and limb to scamper across the multiple lanes of NE 8th Street to hit the Starbucks every morning, like an officeworker version of Frogger. One could say Vovito is performing a public service, keeping the streets safe from cubicle jockeys darting out into morning rush hour with visions of quadruple-shot-venti-Americanos-with-room-and-a-splash-of-half-and-half, dancing in their glazed-over eyes.

Freshly made gelato and signature sweets from Vovito - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Public safety concerns aside, I had the pleasure of visiting Vovito on the first day of their soft-opening. For an unofficial status, the place was officially full. The incredible sunny weather helped drive people into the cool interiors to gaze longingly at the rows of gelato and sorbetto sitting in glossy mounds like an edible rainbow under glass. Rotating in a vertical display case were Vovito's chilled signature desserts, like their Coconut Surprise, a richly flavored tropical treat. I hovered over their signature offerings, but stuck with a classic, their pistachio gelato -- a personal favorite of Shairose. I was not disappointed, as it was sweetly refreshing with a pleasant balance of flavor. It wasn't just a big bite of sugar; you could pick out the natural sweetness of pistachio along with a little savory earthy saltiness. Belissimo!

Many people were getting their gelato and sorbettos to-go, but I recommend penciling-in an official Gelato/Sorbetto Break in the busy schedule, and enjoying it on-site. In a style befitting the cool modern Italiano touch, the creamy scoop is served in a brushed metal martini glass. It's literally a cool way to enjoy the treat as the metal also helps keep the chill on the creamy scoop as you take your time to savor it. I'm sure it's the summer talking, but the gelato and sorbetto offerings were sweet Italian music to my ears. Vovito's use of natural ingredients guarantee a more subtle feast for the eyes -- no weirdly bright colors or food dyes that don't exist in Mother Nature's bag of tricks. Some of the interesting flavors that I've made a mental note to revisit are their spicy chili chocolate, green apple, and even their bubble gum. I've had the mass-produced Smurf-blue bubble gum ice cream before to mixed results, however for Vovito, seeing how they've been respectful and creative with their ingredients, I'd be willing to give their playful take on a childhood flavor a try.

Coffee break just got a little fancier - Photos by Wasabi Prime

FoodTrek: Visiting Wine Fort Knox

It's not all fun and games, you know.There are up's and down's to being a food blogger and freelance writer, the down's being... oh, who the hell am I kidding -- there is no downside. You get to play with your food, meet cool people and every once in a while you are invited to check out interesting things, like the opening party of Wine Storage Bellevue.

Your bottles could reside here - luxury condo living for wine - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I'm the last person to say they're a proper vino expert. My liver and I appreciate wine, but I always feel like I'm the swine wearing pearls when it comes to gatherings with people who are in-the-know with bottled vintages of grapey-goodness. Will I know the correct terms? Am I holding the glass correctly? Are my teeth stained purple again?! So I was breathing a sigh of relief at meeting all the friendly, welcoming people at Wine Storage Bellevue, a specialty business that offers the service of secure personal wine storage lockers. Located a few minutes from the center of downtown Bellevue, it's at a Stor-House Self Storage facility that's been transformed into a Tuscan-style wine cellar, complete with stone archways, carved mahogany doors, and a Wine Resource Center that feels like a comfortable vintage sitting room designed for members to enjoy their wines on-site. Behind the lovely dressings is a high-tech Fort Knox of surveillance, personal key codes and security measures meant to keep every bottle feeling like they're meant for 007. It's a luxe vault that's meant to feel less like traditional storage and more like a private, affordable club for oenophiles.

High school locker room flashbacks, but with wine - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Walking among the cool, climate controlled wine storage with rows of cream-colored steel lockers, it's a bit like a high school moment of walking through the halls and hoping you haven't forgotten your combo and that the school bully won't jump out from a corner. Luckily, scant chance of any of that happening. You can't help but notice and appreciate the variety of locker sizes. When you hear "private wine storage" you immediately think of the serious collectors with a basement-sized collection of vintages, but then you see all the smaller lockers which hold up to 14 cases of wine or split locker sizes that hold a little less than that. While they have walk-in sized lockers that can hold up to 98 cases of wine, there's just as many smaller sizes that are meant for people who just love wine and want to keep their bottles protected from finicky weather spells or may not have the space in their homes to have a wine cellar.

I had a chance to chat with Patrick Gilroy, one of the family members behind Wine Storage Bellevue. Having several decades' worth of experience with construction, design and storage, they would be the experts to create this specialty business. Truly a family business, Patrick explained that his father's expertise with both construction and storage, combined with a love of wine was the spark of inspiration behind Wine Storage Bellevue, and the interior design skills of his mother helped create this Tuscan oasis in the middle of the city. The family had seen similar businesses start up in Texas and California, but this is one of the first of its kind in Washington. Patrick said that many restaurants will offer private wine storage, but the benefit of their business is the seven day a week availability and flexible hours (5am-10pm), along with the sense of security. It's a unique way to safeguard and celebrate one's bottled passions, along with providing a social atmosphere with their Wine Resource Center for members to gather and talk shop with favorite wines.

Opening party at Wine Storage Bellevue - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Wasabi Thanks to the Gilroy Family for hosting the opening party for their new Wine Storage Bellevue; give them a call at 425-453-2242 or visit their website for more information.

UnRecipe: Pesto, It's What's for Dinner!

Earlier posts have shown Le Jardin de Wasabi and you could see that the bulk of the harvest so far has been mostly herbs. Not wanting anything to go to waste, I've been snipping bouquet-size handfuls of lemon balm and mint, and making a non-traditional pesto. One of the best things it's been good for is slathering onto a just-grilled bit of pork for a pleasant summertime dinner!

Pork, Pesto and Potatoes - Easy P-sey Dinner - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Yeah, yeah, nuttin' fancy, but when you're in the middle of a heatwave, the last thing you want to do is be cooking over a hot stove and heating the house any more than you have to. Outdoor grilling has the benefit of keeping the heat outside as well as that fantastic grill mark sear with a fast cook time. Per usual, this meal had no real planning. I had defrosted some boneless pork chops and put them in a quick brine, had some leftover sweet potato gratin that I had made for a post on the Wisconsin Cheese Talk blog, and yes -- mystery herb pesto!

I don't think there's any Cardinal Rule that pesto has to be the combination of basil, parsley, Parmesan, garlic, pine nuts and olive oil. Pesto can really be any herby paste full of flavor, kind of like a tapenade, which I've also seen many variants on. The lemon and mint combine nicely for a light, almost Mediterranean flavor, and I added garlic, Parmesan and plain almonds for a bit of crunch. For the handfuls of herbs trimmed away, they buzzed down to about two jelly jars' worth of pesto. Granted, it looks more like the illegitimate child of pea soup and baby poo, but trust me, the flavor is there, and mixed into sauces or a topping over pork, poultry or fish, and it's delicious pea soup/baby poo.

Grillin' With Mr. Wasabi - Photos by Wasabi Prime

It was nice to use the grill -- we've not been using it as much as we should, considering it's summer, but seeing those lovely grill marks, it's a good reminder of why it's such a satisfying cooking process in both flavor as well as aesthetic. People love to see that cross-hatch of caramelized goodness, almost to the point where you want to take a Sharpie and start drawing them on everything!

As for the pesto, those two jars got quite a bit of meal-mileage; by the time this post went live, I'd used them to flavor roasted veggies, in a yogurt sauce to toss with a cold potato salad, breakfast frittatas, and another potato gratin as well as topping a few more pork/chicken dinners. By the time the last jar was scraped clean, I think our herb garden is due for another snipping, and this time I'll probably include more herbs including basil and parsley, making the mystery pesto that much more mysterious with flavor! Cheers to summer and frantic garden cooking!

Mixed Plate: July Gardenwatch

It's been over a month since I last posted about Le Jardin de Wasabi and I'm glad to say I'm able to gather more than a few handfuls of herbs. I can gather a handful of sugar peas, along with those herbs now! Woo hoo!!

Behold, my Green Pea-ness - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I've been regularly visiting the little forest of sugar snap pea plants, nabbing handfuls of green pea-ness (yes, say that out loud, in a crowded room, I dare you!), as well as snipping herbs, mostly to keep the plants from going totally out of control. I'm fairly certain the lemon balm and mint plants I have are plotting towards world domination, so I make sure to keep them on opposite sides of the yard and I harvest literal handfuls every week to keep their global anarchy at bay. But the sugar peas are kindly and amiable, as they continue to provide just enough to keep me supplied in weekly stir frys and salads. I tend to pick them when they're small, mostly because I like them tender, and it keeps them from sitting too long and becoming tempting targets for bugs. Cracking open a sugar pea and finding a big fat caterpillar in it is not a good way to get a meal going.

At the risk of personal health and provoking the ire of trained foragers, I've been gathering little red berries on this random bush that grows out of a dead stump in our yard. They're really tiny berries, super tart and it probably takes me over a week or two of steady picking to yield maybe a small jar's worth of jam. Mr. Wasabi calls them bilberries, I've heard them called currants, and when I look online I only find articles that heavily advise me to keep poison control on speed dial. But so far, we're not hallucinating or seeing spirit horses galloping in the sky, so I think we're good on our backyard foraging. With the exception of Miss Indy eating some "magic" mushrooms that grew in our marshy lawn and completely tripping-out, we've been very fortunate in nature's bounty.

Mystery Berries - delcious and non-hallucinogenic! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

But on to safer harvests -- I have to say our garden will most likely not yield any impressive veggie harvests due to our funky summer weather and regular raids by woodland creatures. I'm constantly sowing carrots because the ones that start growing just get eaten up, which has not happened in previous years, so clearly we have a new fuzzy neighbor that is most unwelcome. The chard I had growing got om-nommed by leaf miners, so I'm cutting bait and pulling the rows to put in something else. I still have seeds left and will likely replant for the fall, but in containers on the patio that are tougher for the bugs to get to. I've been a fan of onions and garlic as creatures great and small seem to steer clear of them -- I have scallions, shallots and have been planting our garlic that sprouts. I snip the greens from all those, which are great in soups, stir frys and a flavorful garnish, since the parsley I've planted is too young to snip. I've been trying to grow everything from seed, so it's slow going for some items, but I did pick up some basil plants at the farmers market -- had to transplant a couple of them into different pots, as two were nearly mutilated beyond recognition by slugs. Boo!!!

Herbal remedies from Jardin de Wasabi - note the wily mint and lemon balm! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

But as I've said before, hope springs eternal and gardening is the realm for optimism. I've got eggplant sprouts getting big and strong in the laundry room, set for an outdoor move, along with Walla Walla onion and broccoli rabe sprouts that are sprouting both indoors and out. The photos of the peat pots on this post are a little old, as the sprouts are probably over two inches high and at the risk of a serious jinx, I have to say, so far, so good. I moved several summer squash sprouts outdoors and nearly half of the sprouts got wiped out from insects, but there's seven or eight troopers that seem to be holding the line. I salute their Red Dawn surivorship and hope they get big, strong and squashy.

So wish the garden good luck and I look forward to posting regular updates as well as kitchen experiments with some of the harvested goods!

Keeping fingers crossed for the new kids on the gardening block! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

OMG A Recipe: Lazy Dinners With the Prime

It's been somewhat busy and I haven't had as much time to fuss over meals, but I refuse to defer to the drive-thru window. Not that I have anything against crispy fries or bizarre condiments called Horsey Sauce, but I regard them as a periodic indulgence, not an option, so even if our dinners are in the realm of humbler-than-humble-pie, whatev's, at least it's a home-cooked meal and it microwaves well for lunch the next day. Some of my go-to weekday dishes are ones where there's literally a handful of ingredients and you could easily qualify for the "10 Items or Less" lane at the grocery store. And you could probably include the six pack of beer without wondering if they're counting the item as a single thing or six cans.

Meat + Veggies = SIMPLE. - Photo by Wasabi Prime

More of a winter dish, but great in a pinch for rainy cool days, one of my favorites to make is roasted  veggies and sausage, served over beer-braised red cabbage. It's so simple because the ingredient list is just that. I'll just toss together some oil, salt, pepper and whole grain mustard with sausages and whatever vegetables are in season and oven-sturdy, and let the oven do its roasty-toasty work until everything's fork-tender and caramelized. While it's roasting, I'll slice up some red cabbage and cook it down with a bottle of beer, most likely some cheap bottle or can of something that was leftover from some random BBQ or camping trip. Come on, you know you've got that random mystery beer languishing in the back of the fridge -- let it find its special purpose and cook with it!

So this is suposed to be an OMG a Recipe, so basically the recipe is:

Combination of vegetables (onions, potatoes, squash, peppers, whatever)
Sausage of your choice, insert dirty joke here
Mustard, salt, pepper, vegetable oil to coat, and roast it all at 375 degrees. Bazam. Done.

Head of cabbage, preferably purple because it looks prettier than plain cabbage once cooked down
1 bottle or can of mystery beer that you don't know who left in your fridge
Slice cabbage thinly, sautee in a pan and add the beer as it cooks down and let the liquid evaporate off as the cabbage cooks down and gets drunk-alicious.

Easy cookin' for easy livin' - Photos by Wasabi Prime

One of my favorite simple homemade meals is a dish my mom made when I was a kid, which is pork tofu. And the reason why it's great to make is, that's basically all it is. Pork and tofu. Okay, and maybe some green onions. It's flavored with soy sauce, a bit of sugar and you can add more flavors like ginger or add more vegetables, but this is good, basic farmer food that's tasty over rice. I think my grandfather would make this for my mom and her siblings when growing up because they grew green onions, they always had a supply of pork and tofu was an easy staple to get. And my grandfather was a soy sauce fiend; he'd pour it over everything which made everything taste better and resulted in everyone now on high blood pressure meds.

So maybe some low sodium soy sauce is in order, but it's a good, easy meal to make, no real recipe required. It's one of those dishes where I always feel like I'm home when I eat it, and because I'm so eager to eat it, that's why there's no "ta-daaaah" shot of the finished dish. But I have to give props to Wasabi Mom yet again, because while meals like this weren't anything fancy, they were the staples of my formative childhood years and seeded the mindset that cooking at home is neither a chore nor a big production, and that as long it's homecooked, it's good stuff. And I mean homecooked, not prepared, as in, hey, I bought this premade, prepackaged pot roast sitting in weird preservatives and shoved it into the microwave to warm up before serving.

Cooking cues from Wasabi Mom - Photos by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Doing Minimal Harm With Chicken Parm

Minimal harm to one's waistline, anyways. I had been feeling my tummy's yearning for Italian food and threw something simple together for a quick meal that resulted in some minor respiratory difficulty and tasty Chicken Parmesan and Roasted Zucchini.

Stop coughing, you big baby, it's just red pepper flakes turned into an airborn weapon - Photo by Wasabi Prime

So the "minimal harm" part is a half-truth. I made a pantry marinara sauce with the last can of chopped tomatoes and a couple of cans of tomato paste, along with some dried herbs. Nothing fancy, I just needed red sauce and it seems silly to buy the premade stuff in bottles (more than likely sweetened with corn syrup) when there's canned tomato goods available. Before the tomatoes came into the picture, I added chopped garlic into olive oil warming in a pan, as well as red pepper flakes. Unfortunately, the oil was warmer than it should have been and I was very liberal with the red pepper flakes, creating an airborne pepper spray effect that permeated the kitchen and living room. It sent Mr. Wasabi into a coughing fit and while I was holding back my own desire to hack up a lung as I fanned the fumes into the stove vent, I insisted it was nothing and he just needed to cowboy up. Once again, a strong, healthy longterm relationship built upon the foundation of denial and insults. Dr. Phil, eat your heart out.

Aside from that kitchen incident, the meal was pretty straightforward. I had defrosted some chicken breasts and split them lengthwise to make them thinner. Lightly breading them and browning them in a pan, they chilled out until the anthrax marinara sauce was ready, and then nestled the little chickadees into the saucy pan. I layered the chicken with slices of Provolone cheese and shreds of Parmesan, and placed the whole pan under the broiler until melted and bubbly. I'm pretty sure this isn't the official way to make this dish, but I'm somewhat certain that if you went to Italy and asked for chicken Parmesan, they'd look at you like a crazy person and tell you to go back to America for your bowl of Spaghetti-O's, so I don't feel too bad about not being particularly authentic about this UnRecipe.

Cheesy, melty, roasty deliciousness - Photos by Wasabi Prime

As for the roasted zucchini, this was the voice in my head saying, "These roast beautifully and they'll be a healthy pasta substitute." I'm pretty sure this imaginary voice in my brain is a liar-liar-pants-on-fire. There is nothing as good as pasta. But I also enjoy having a meal and not having my stomach feel distended and in pain, as I seem to be suffering from both discomforts when I have bready things lately, so the zucchini won out. I'm starting to discover the particulars with the way we eat, with the extreme cutback of breads and pasta, seem to lead towards my stomach becoming Ground Zero for much umbrage when I do indulge in something carbo-licious. Does it stop me from having baked goods and other tasty treats? Hell to the no. Just beg my pardon in advance for switching into drawstring sweatpants immediately after a meal and stretching out on the couch as I fall into a deep food coma.

OMG a Recipe: How to Eat your Veggies (with liquor) and Getting into Drink Me Magazine

So, along with celebrating America's independence from our British overlords and a massive global alien invasion (thanks to Will Smith), the Prime is happy to celebrate a recipe getting published in Drink Me magazine, a booze-a-riffic publication based out of Northern California that has a jazzy way of celebrating the culture of potent potables. In their recent Issue 8 "Colors" theme, you can check out the Bourbon Roasted Chicken recipe, along with a side of carrots, because we all should eat our veggies when we're eating our booze.

Look Ma, I'm published! Get thee to Drink Me's website to download a copy!

Calm down, the alcohol gets burned off from the crazy heat of the oven or grill, if you decide to adapt this recipe for outdoor cooking. The resulting flavor is an oaky sweet glaze that makes for tasty eating. You can find all the details in the magazine, which you can download a copy online, on Drink Me's website. If you're in the California area, I hope you're able to track down a printed copy.

I hope you dig the recipe, I hope you don't burn the house down from saving too much Maker's Mark for yourself while cooking up some boozy chicken, and I hope you all had a great Fourth of July weekend and blew stuff up real good. Kaboom!

Seasoning the chicken and seasoning one's liver - Photos by Wasabi Prime