I want to take the time to welcome you all to my blog, and explain a little bit about me and how this site came to be. I created this blog to share my passion for both food and music. Back in the late 90's I was an aspiring hip hop artist/producer with a lot of potential. In fact, I was just a few songs away from my first major record deal when a tragic house fire burned my demo masters, lyric books and all of my equipment. My music career literally went up in flames that night. It was then I decided to refocus my energies. So, with no formal training in anything other than music, I turned to my other passion.. Food. I began teaching myself all different types of cuisine and working every job imaginable in the food service industry. The worked was extremely hard, but I was paying my dues and providing for my family. The harder I worked, the more I learned and the more passionate about cooking and food I became. After all of the hard work I finally got that formal training in both Culinary and Pastry, and now I have decided to share my experiences, recipes, and love of good food and music with you.



"So, follow me as I bring to you easy and symphonic recipes you can try at home that will make your palate sing!!"

Monday, April 11, 2011

Prime Sirloin


Well this dish is inspired by my love of Puerto Rican cookery. Moms's good old Bistec encebollado with a twist of New American and a little fancy knife skills. On this canvas (this is art ya know, lol) is a one pound prime New York strip steak smothered in an onion pepper ragout, garlic, plantain chips, an avacado mousse, avocado tempura and oh yeah, carrot lillys for garnish. I like to serve this dish with a nice side of arroz con Gandulez (rice and pigeon peas). Or just plain fluffy white rice with black beans.
Compost Workshop
Abono!!! That means compost in Spanish. I didn’t realize how many valuable resources are thrown away until I attended my first compost workshop. The workshop was held at Socrates sculpting park in Long Island City Queens New York .It was very informative and actually a lot more complex than I expected . We were demonstrated on how to build an indoor worm bin where you can actually place your compost items directly in the convenience of your own home (that is if you don't mind a box of worms in the middle of your kitchen ,lol). Or if you happen to have a garden in your backyard you can build another type of bin made out of either wood or cinderblocks. This technique is called hot compsting .Very interesting but for New Yorkers like me who don’t really have the time or space to do any of the above (yet I feel its important) ,there are several compost drop sites where you can drop off your compost scraps.
My first experience composting was when I was attending the Le Cordon Bleu Pattiserie program in San Francisco. California is a very eco friendly state that has compost bins found almost everywhere. Even some local grocery stores place compost bins next to garbage, and recycle bins .Out there it is a way of life ,so when I moved back to New York I wondered why my city isn’t as involved as Cali and maybe some other states. The city claims it's an issue of space and of coarse money but I feel it’s a poor excuse. So this workshop was very encouraging and I feel New Yorkers should be more involved in some way .For more information on composting ,learning how to building your own worm bin,hot compost bin, or the drop off site closest to you, contact The NYC Compost Project at:
Why compost ?
Compost provides vitamins and nutriants that are essential to plant growth. Composting is natures way of recycling by the decomposition of organic materials that are consumed by worms insects and microorganisms. Essentially what starts out as scraps is ends up as a nutrient rich fertilizer called compost ,basically.
Brief list of what you can compost:
Fruit scraps, vegetable grounds and coffee filters, tea bags, dry grains, fresh leaves , plants ,grass trimmings ,weeds ,flowers, seaweed, feathers horse poop, newspaper.
What is not recommended are meats, foods cooked it animal fat (because the smell is more likely to attract vermin) ,dog and kitty poop ,diseased plants ,glass ,medal etc .Go green !!!!!!or go to he!!!!!LOL!!!
www.nyc.gov/wasteless/compost.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Now that's an effen Brownie lol!!!

Brownie Time

Chocolate chip almond brownie ,white chocolate chantilly,a little dark chocolate paint on the canvas and a little chocolate stain glass for decor.It's a little ruff but the ice cream was melting my beautiful cannel of chocolate chip ice cream.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Balsamic Roasted Garlic Chicken

Balsamic roasted garlic chicken

This one of my favorite's Balsamic roasted garlic chicken,over a bed of arugula tossed with white peaches, snap peas cherry tomatoes golden currant's and feta, dressed with a white peach Balsamic vinagrette !!Oh can't forget the Toasted Cashew's somewhere in there!!... Let me know if y'all would like the recipe.

CERTIFY ME...LOL

Diplomas

2 of my proudest accomplishments.

WELCOME

This site is deditated to "Good Food", "Good Music" and "Good Friends". - Felix Castro