It’s Time For A Beverage.

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Nov. 27th, 2009

Happy Day After Thanksgiving, everyone.  Happy Black Friday!  I do hope you are not out there in the insanity, and if you are choosing to stay at home, here is a wonderful beverage to curl up with.  My friend Marsha Sorce sent me this for my birthday – Primula Flowering Jasmine Green Tea.

 

Juliet's Kiss Green Flowering Tea

If you are lucky enough to live in a part of the world where during this season it is cold, this hot green tea is the most comforting beverage I have ever experienced, both gustatory modality and visually.  If you live in a warmer climate during the fall/winter seasons, this is an excellent iced tea, also.

In addition to it being beautiful to look at and unique to taste, green tea is also good for you.  It provides a nice, mellow boost while being full of antioxidants and all sorts of other benefits.  We are not health nuts over here, but it is nice to know that something we enjoy ingesting is not hastening a slow demise.

Happy Holidays Everyone!  More food is on the way!

Fresh Carbohydrates, Anyone?

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Nov. 5th, 2009

As usual, I am behind on posting entries.  However, I like to have everybody’s hard work and effort stay up for a few days, so in this case, being behind is not a bad thing.

Below, we have another entry from Renee Tracy Springer – and the only e-mail sent along with the picture was to inform me that this was her first attempt at homemade French Bread, which, if it turned out, they were going to eat with homemade French Onion Soup.

From the looks of it, I would say it turned out, and turned out beautifully.

I am starving.  These posts are causing me to have a permanent case of the munchies.

 

Photo by Rod Stringer

And if that did not make you run to the kitchen for a nice piece of toast, how about this?

Photo by Rod Stringer

I don’t know about you guys, but I gotta git me some, gotta git me some…..

Thanks Renee and Rod – Last I heard from you two, you were in France, saying the food was delicious. It doesn’t look to me like you have to cross the Atlantic to get a good meal! Get home safe and soon, we miss you!

 

 

The Composer, Tomás Hradcky, Proudly Presents.

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, October 29th, 2009

Tomás has a specialty sandwich, and for years he has kept his ’secret ingredient’ to himself, until one day, when he was working late and had not eaten, he finally gave it up to me, as he was craving it and could not stop in the middle of a cue.  Now that’s dedication.

Below, Tomás Hradcky’s famous Tuna Melt.

photo by Kelly Mahan Jaramillo

It may look like a simple sandwich, but I have been given the nod to share with everyone what makes it so special.

In a large, non-stick pan, melt approximately half a stick, yes, half a stick of butter.  Using fresh, multi-grain bread, take two large slices and run them through the melted butter on both sides.  Add the tuna, which is Bumblebee Kosher White Tuna (it comes in a gold can).

Tuna ingredients:  Empty four cans of tuna into a bowl, mash the large pieces with a fork.  Put in approximately 2 tablespoons of Best Foods Olive Oil Mayonnaise, and about a third of a cup of Paul Newman’s Italian Dressing.  Mix until the tuna is completely saturated, but not soaked. Pour the dressing in bit by bit, to ensure that the tuna remains moist, not dripping. If it is a little dry, add more dressing, not mayonnaise.

Chop up four white pearl onions, add to mixture.  We have fresh chives in our yard, if you cannot get fresh, the store ones are fine.  Add approximately half a cup of chives, according to taste.  Add a few generous squirts of French’s Yellow Mustard, and mix, mix, mix.

A dash of Garlic Salt, a dash of White Pepper, and a dash of Black Pepper, mix some more.

The final ingredient –  a pinch, just a pinch, of McCormick’s Mediterranean Sea Salt.

Pile the tuna onto the butter soaked bread, and layer one slice of extra sharp cheddar cheese, then one slice of Jack cheese, another slice of cheddar, and another slice of Jack.

Cover the pan, keeping the heat low, and do not leave the room.  Wait for the cheese to start to melt, then carefully check the underside of the bread.  When the bread has turned a perfect, crunchy golden brown and the cheese is melted, the sandwich is done.

A tuna melt is a relatively simple sandwich, and personally it is one of my all time favorites, but I have never tasted one like Tomás makes.

Naturally, the composer is not officially in the contest, we just wanted to share his delightful, delicious tuna melt with everyone.  He gets a very special prize from me later in the evening.  :)

A Fabulous, Original Entry: PeteLoaf!

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Oct.20th, 2009

Hot and ready to eat!

I really should try to post contestants entries after I have eaten a huge meal, as the dish below looks and sounds like a little slice of heaven.  What do you think?

This entry is from Marsha Sorce, and she tells you all about it – I know I am going to attempt making it, but I believe the creator of PeteLoaf has a special touch – I just do not think mine will even come close.

“My husband Pete makes a terrific meatloaf. I don’t know the exact recipe, but I know that he uses Poquillo peppers in the loaf and his own blend of spices that includes smoked paprika.

He puts a lattice of par-cooked bacon on top, then the meatloaf goes onto the bacon pan and into the grill to be smoked with mesquite wood chips. I should probably explain the “bacon pan”. We cook bacon on a foil lined sheet pan in the oven. When the bacon’s done we put the sheet pan with the hot bacon grease on a shelf in the freezer, then when it has frozen you can peel the foil off and neatly dispose of the grease into the trash.

(We are on a septic system out here in B.F.C. so we have to be very careful about what goes down the sink and get very creative finding ways to recycle things or dispose of them without a major hassle.)

Pete has found another use for the bacon pan in the making of the meatloaf; he places the meatloaf on the frozen bacon fat laden sheet pan and puts the whole thing onto the grill. This simple step adds a huge amount of flavor into the loaf, and it ever so slightly fries the bottom adding another texture that, for me, is often missing in meatloaf. While it is not a very pretty dish, it is absolutely delicious and the photos do not do it justice. But as you can see in the second photo it is so good I couldn’t wait to dig in!”

Hot and ready to eat!

Well, I have to disagree with Marsha, the picture looks so good I am about delirious with wanting a bite.  I may have to fly them out here to make us dinner very, very soon.

Marsha was kind enough to stop eating and snap a quick one before it was gone

Below, our handsome cook and his gorgeous wife putting some of that pure protein energy to good use   Congratulations, Marsha and Pete – what does a poor, hungry writer have to do to wrestle your “secret spices” out of you?

P.S. – If anyone wants to know what B.F.C. stands for, go up to Marsha’s link, and enjoy reading her funny and informative blog.

Foodies Having Fun in Wolf Creek, Colorado!

Eat Dinner, See Film

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Oct 20th, 2009

The chef behind the lovely Oven Pot Roast, featured below, is Renee Tracy Springer.  She and her husband were in the audience at the “Action on Film” festival, where “American Dumpling” recieved the Alan J. Bailey “Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking” Award.

We cannot decide which is more beautiful, the Pot Roast or the Chef!

photo by Rodney Stringer

Today’s Entry – Oven Pot Roast

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Oct. 18, 2009

photo by Rodney Stringer

Below is one of our first entries, and every time I look at it, I am afraid no cow within a ten mile radius is safe.  This entry was submitted by Renee Tracy Stringer, and it was her very first time cooking an oven pot roast.

Renee describes her pot roast journey in her own words, below.

” I had to send this. It’s my first in the oven pot roast. Not sure why-

but I’ve only ever done them in a crock pot or stove top.

This went into the oven for 4 hours. We bought a 5 pound “bottom” at Whole (paycheck) Foods  yesterday morning and had it for dinner tonight. I know it’s hard to see the meat under all the veggies, but it was gigantic!

I was inspired by a new cookbook Rod and I found at a $1 book store (but it was in the expensive section- a whopping $5!). It’s the book that Julia Child and Jacques Pepin wrote together and this was Jaques Pot Roast. The recipe called for the lid to stay on the whole time and the meat sat in a mixture of water and wine, and by the end, no knives were necessary! It was great fun.”

Renee

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Well, congratulations Renee – for a first pass at a new recipe, I think we may have to have a special award for “Success on the Very First Try!”  We will come up with something – perhaps some exotic tea for that spiffy red teapot on the stove.

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Let The Cooking Begin! Part Two

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Oct. 11th, 2009

I have gotten so many great photos from my cooking friends, and I haven’t even e-mailed all of them yet!  So I thought it might be fun to turn this into a contest.  From now until the last day of the year, we are going to sort through and post the pictures of individual food lovers creations.

Whoever is the designated winner (and that is going to be tough, I can tell you right now) will receive a directors signed copy of the award winning film “American Dumpling”, a signed CD of the soundtrack, and will receive the “Top Chef” award on this page at the end of the contest.

Entry requirements: A photo or photo’s of your culinary creation, as many as you like, preferably with you in it, but not a requirement – a little bit about yourself, your dish – you can share the whole recipe, or, if it a “secret” please let us know – we love trying to figure out people’s secret cooking ingredients! Also, if you have a web page or blog and would like us to include the link on your entry, just let us know.

Second, third, and fourth prize will be a Steelers Terrible Towel from the heart of Steeler Country, Downtown Pittsburgh.

If you are not a Steeler fan, we have alternate prizes, to be determined.

Multiple entries are encouraged!  Send as many of your favorite creations as you want.  Every single entry will be posted.

Please send all photo’s and information to:

kelly@kellymahanjaramillo.com

Into the kitchen, everybody!  Enjoy!

Let The Cooking Begin! Part One.

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo, Oct 8th, 2009

Tomas and I are going to be representing “Dumpling” at the Chashama Film Festival in New York this month.  We are going to be answering the Q&A after the screening, which means I have to actually get out of my Steeler Pajamas and wear make-up!!  I have less than three weeks to accomplish this task.

So, in the meantime, we are having the ‘Posts’ section open to all the cooks out there who are having fun cooking and are proud of their creations.  Please send in a photo of yourself with your latest creation, and we will post it here. Update: we are turning this into a contest. See above post for details.

I will kick things off with a picture of me with my first attempt at a frittata.  Not to brag, but it was fantastic!  And without following a recipe – I just winged it and prayed to the food gods.

New and Improved!

Having fun with a new ‘posts’ page.

It’s a nice way to clear the head as I jump, dive, leap, spring, vault, bound & hop back into ‘writing‘.

Caffeine, fresh squeezed vegi juice, and excedrin – are beautiful things.

Now for a plug!

Caffeine provided by O’neill Coffee Company locally roasting coffee since 1951.

Fresh squeezed vegi juice provided by ‘Kelly Mahan Jaramillo‘.

Enjoy!

American Dumpling – The Feature Length Documentary

By Kelly Mahan Jaramillo

American Dumpling

A Simple Story of Flour, Water and Salt.

Festival Bound

Premièring at the Action On Film Festival July 24 – July 31, 2009

&

International Première September 8th at the International FIlm Festival Ireland in Clonmel Ireland.

For more updates on festival acceptances, please go to the “Festival” page, above.

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American Dumpling is a full length documentary about many diverse cultures and the one food they have in common – Dumplings.

Korey Kito

It presents itself as a simple story of flour, water, and salt, and how these ingredients bind us together in our search of  ‘comfort food’.

Warasawa Polish Restaurant

Nick Nishi

It is a narrative that focuses not on our differences, but on what binds us together as a society, regardless of our race, gender, or age.

Elina Lejman - Warasawa Polish Restaurant

Eileen Nelson, Writer, Director and Narrator of American Dumpling – both off camera and on – - grabs her videocamera in one hand, and her audience in the other,  taking us into people’s homes, their restaraunts, and ultimately, intimately, into their lives.

The Board

Eileen starts us out having fun and wondering exactly what is it we are watching and why,but as the story unfolds, we meet family after family, all from different cultures and backgrounds that have nothing in common  with each other except for one item – the dumpling.

The melting pot of America is the melting pot of the dumpling, and although each cook has their own unique little spin they put in the recipe, it still boils down to three ingredients that are absolutely necessary – flour, water, and salt.

In walking out of this film, you get the feeling that you have known all of the characters for years.

Al Raider & his daughter in-law Roberta Tishman

Heidi Gresko - Wabi Sabi Nouvelle Asian Restaurant

You find yourself looking into the eyes of someone you have never met, but you now recognize something you two have in common. Look at them long enough and you may see a spark of recollection, long buried. Oh, and you will leave the theatre absolutely starving, and nothing but dumplings will satisfy you.

It will all seem so familiar, somehow……..

Laura Ulsh

PRODUCER:  Eileen Nelson

CO-PRODUCER:  Darrell Hanzalik

COMPOSER:  Tomás Hradcky

SCORE CO-PRODUCER:  Kelly Mahan Jaramillo

EDITING:  Eileen Nelson

SOUND SUPERVISOR:  Darrell Hanzalik

SOUND MIXER:   Dave West

Stuffed Dumplings

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: EILEEN NELSON

Brian Kito - owner of Fugetsu-Do Japanese Confectionary

TECHNICAL SPECS

Running Time: 81 Minutes

DVD Video NTSC

American Dumpling

American Dumpling – The Feature Length Documentary

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