We’re looking for some help. Anyone want to hop on the Foodgeek staff and write some articles? If you join our team we’ll send you free schwag! Write one article, we’ll hook you up with a MFG hat. Write three, a free MFG re-usable grocery bag. Writer five or more, I’ll send you a t-shirt!

Pretty much anything goes here. We’re geeks that love food and have a soft-spot for pastries. We’ve covered everything from snacks, to dinners, to restaurant reviews, and product reviews. If you’d like to help us out, we’d love to have you. If you’re coming from another blog, we’ll plug your site and link-back to your place for some mutual love.

If you’d like to write for MFG, please contact me at chef (at) myfoodgeek.com.

The My Food Geek couple were again lucky enough to be invited for a Restaurant Week preview, and were matched up with Morton’s the Steakhouse located in the Gaslamp District. Although a steakhouse is not the type of restaurant we would normally gravitate towards since our food preferences lean towards small portions that are light on meat, we still do appreciate a good steak once in a while, and Morton’s supposedly serves some of the best available.

There was a bit of a mix-up with our reservation when we arrived, but the staff were very polite, and once it was straightened out, we were seated promptly, offered drinks, and brought a warm loaf of egg onion bread, which was light, fluffy and delicious.

We were feeling a little under-dressed, having both just come in our casual work attire, but that didn’t effect the professional attitude of the army of staff that seem to be working. Our server Mary was very friendly and knowledgeable, and treated us to the full Morton’s presentation of food selection, which I found quite impressive, and included a look at the many prime cuts of meat, as well as an ornery looking ~3 pound lobster. We also heard her interacting with a few other tables near us, skillfully and thoroughly answering their many different questions about the food, including about menu items from many years ago that were no longer offered, but smoothly offering other choices and customizations that would be similar.

The Restaurant Week menu included a choice of two different salads. I ordered the Morton’s salad with anchovies, and the geek got the caesar. I was impressed with the blue cheese dressing on mine, because although I like the flavor of blue cheese, I usually find the dressing too heavy, but this dressing was not heavy at all. The anchovies were optional, but I happen to love them, and these ones were particularly good. I’m a little spoiled on croutons since the geek always makes large, olive oil-fried croutons with his caesar salads, and the caesar came with small, traditional, baked croutons, but they weren’t bad, and the caesar dressing was tasty.

We both order the single cut filet minion with Sauce Béarnaise, since it seemed a shame to come to Morton’s and not get steak. The other two entree options were Chicken Christopher in Garlic Beurre Blanc Sauce or Broiled Salmon Fillet with Chef’s Sauce Beurre Blanc. We also had the choice of any side they offered, which gave many choices. I order the sauteed fresh spinach with mushrooms, and the geek got broccoli with hollandaise sauce.

The filet was truly fantastic, in my opinion. It was the tastiest steak I’ve had the pleasure of eating, and the Béarnaise was a delicious accompaniment to it. My only minor complaint was that it came out closer to medium rare than the rare I asked for. I know they would have happily made me a new one more rare if I had mentioned it, but since both rare and medium rare are tasty preparations to me, and I was enjoying it thoroughly as it was, I opted not to mention this. The sauteed spinach & mushrooms were a little heavy on salt, but still very tasty. The hollandaise sauce that came with the broccoli was quite good, and didn’t seem to be separating at all as it sat, which happens so frequently with that sauce.

We were shown the whole dessert spread before moving on to the dessert course. The choices for Restaurant Week are Double Chocolate Mousse or Crème Brulee, pretty standard fair. I got the Crème Brulee and the geek got the Mousse. The Mousse was rich and heavy, and little leaning towards a rich pudding rather than a standard mousse. The Crème Brulee was very well prepared, and served in a shallow dish, which I strongly prefer, giving a higher Brulee to Crème ratio! I finished up the meal with a nice cup of decaf.

Overall, this was a very good meal, and I would definitely recommend Morton’s to anyone looking for an excellent steakhouse with top-notch service. Restaurant Week gives a great opportunity to try out this high class steakhouse for a discounted price.

I’m not usually a big New Years Resolution sort of guy but I thought this year I’d make some resolutions for My Food Geek. Here’s the list (in no particular order).

Post more regularly. I have yet to keep a good posting schedule and it’s about time I try to make that happen. I am challenging myself to post two, maybe three, time per month. Wish me luck.

Use my cooking books and gear. This one is a compound resolution:

• Make use of all those cool gadgets I have: IE – ice cream maker, chocolate temperer, food dehydrator, etc.
• Make at least one pastry/dessert each month from one of the many cookbooks that are collecting dust on my shelves.
• Make interesting (savory) dishes from said cookbooks/magazines and POST about them.

Update a few really popular posts. I wrote my Almost Foolproof Macarons post over two years ago and it continues to be my most popular post. It’s obvious that everyone is still crazy about macarons and there are many questions left unanswered. It’s time to delve deeper into the topic and place all the answers to the many questions I have received over the years in an easy-to-read post.

Another post that keeps getting attention is the Veggie Burger post from almost as long ago. I’m guessing that there is either a lack of good homemade veggie burger recipes or these really are that good. I will try to do my best to out some of the other veggie burger recipes out there and make even have a burger-off to find the best.

Eat more grains and vegetables. I’ve recently discovered barley and I feel like I was missing out all this time. There’s plenty more whole grains and vegetables to be had out there and I plan to eat as many of them as I can.

Give away some schwag! Last year I had a bunch of MFG gear printed up and never got around to giving away. I’m thinking some sort of contest or cook-off. If anyone has some ideas, please hit the comments!

Lastly, have fun with my blog again. My Food Geek turned FOUR on December 10 and I feel like I may have started to abandon it. It’s time to stop sacrificing new posts because the photos weren’t perfect or the dish didn’t come out exactly as I intended and start having fun and showing what sometimes happens to even the best of us.

The foodies here at My Food Geek were lucky enough to get invited for a Restaurant Week preview, and given a small selection of locations to choose from. The geek unfortunately had to work the evening of the preview, so I (the eater) invited another food appreciating friend to join me for a preview meal at Amaya at the Grand Del Mar. It happened to be my birthday that day, September 15^th, which was especially appreciated!

We arrived at the posh resort, which feels quite remote after winding through the quiet local roads and past the guard house, and found ourselves a bit overwhelmed by the huge estate which didn’t appear to have any hint as to the restaurant’s location. It wasn’t clear on entering where there might be self-parking, so we let the valet take our car, and asked for directions to Amaya. With additional help from two friendly staff members on our way, we found our way there.

On being seated, we were soon greeted by Wine Director Jesse Rodriguez offering to help us select wine from his enormous wine list. This is clearly someone who not only loves wine, and loves to share his knowledge, but is also has the knack for drawing his audience in with his friendly enthusiasm for the choices. He found some great choices by the glass for both my guest and I with a light, crisp Spanish white for her and a rich, berry-flavored red in the Parr Selection Syrah for me.

We were next treated to two selections each from the first course items featured for Restaurant Week. First was the Golden Tomato Gaspacho with Avocado Parfait. This was very tart and refreshing, and the creamy avocado parfait matched the strong vinegar of the cold soup perfectly. I have a feeling there may be some people that this selection would be too vinegary for, but as a sour flavor lover, it was perfect to my palate. My guest commented that she enjoyed it much more when taking up a little of the parfait with each spoonful, which smoothed out the flavors nicely.

Second was the Terrine of Smoked Duck and Foie Gras served with mache greens with aged balsamic strawberry compote and grilled baguette. Mache are among my favorites green, being such delicate leaves with just a hint of sweet. They were wonderful with the strawberry preparation. The terrine was magnificent, and brought to mind perfectly melted, smoky butter on the grilled bread.

For the main course, the chef informed us that the Restaurant Week selections were not ready to be prepared yet, so we should select whatever we wanted of their regular menu. My guest got the Seared Sea Bass I selected the Duo of Beef. The sea bass was served on a bed of wilted arugula with king trumpet mushrooms and roasted chicken au jus.

My Duo of Beef included a petite filet on sweet corn and smoked bacon succotash as well as slow-braised short rib on mashed potatoes. One of the Restaurant Week choices will include short rib, and if is anything like the short rib I got, then I highly recommend trying it. It was absolutely melt-in-your mouth tender, and pieces easily fell away when pierced with a fork.

After thoroughly enjoying our main courses, we were brought dessert. The desserts were also not off of the Restaurant Week menu, and this was the first part of the meal that didn’t “Wow” us. My guest was brought toffee cheesecake with citrus tuilles, and I was brought peanut butter chocolate pudding with peanut butter ice cream. These are both very heavy choices, and not what either of us would have chosen on our own. When our waiter discovered my disappointment with my dessert, he offered to bring me something different, and I next got a baked alaska. This was much lighter, with strawberry and mango sorbets and guava chiffon cake inside. The meringue on the outside was extremely sweet, as is normal for meringues, but a bit too much for me. The dessert seemed well prepared, just not the right choices for my guest and I. I imagine one of the planned Restaurant Week dessert selections would have worked out better for us: Spiced Sugar and Lemon-Filled Bombolonis with Raspberry-Buttermilk Ice Cream, Caramel Praline Crunch Bar with Bittersweet Chocolate Sorbet, or Pavlova with Fresh Berries with Lemon-Poppy Seed Sherbet, Minted Vanilla Syrup.

Overall, the meal was a wonderful experience, and I would definitely recommend Amaya. The service was outstanding, and the food was wonderfully prepared and presented. Also, if you want to have a prix fixe meal and can’t make it during Restaurant Week, they offer a chef’s tasting menu for $40 all year round.

Today we mourn the death of my old iMac. You were a good computer, you were easy to use, and you allowed me to edit all of my photos for MFG. Your passing comes at a tine when I was about to update the blog, work on the backend a little, and generally get back to business. I hope you are happy in that place that dead electronics go. Thanks for all those good years and for your constant Time Machine backups to an external drive. Your memory will live on in a newer, sexier, more sleek body.

You will be missed,
Chef

The Good

• Fancy new magazine-styled layout
• Comics!
• Appetizer links to fun foodie news
• Improved photograhy

The Bad

• Post counts were down
• Excuses came easy
• Posts about not posting
• Not enough pastry

Big changes happened last year for the foodgeek household. We sold our house in MA and once again moved cross-country, back to San Diego in September, to start over again. All of this excitement seriously impacted the post counts. Getting a house ready to sell, packing up a house, and driving 3000 miles is quite the time-consuming task!

Resolutions are in order for 2010! More posts, improved photography, more fan-interaction, and possibly some foodgeek merchandise. Some subtle site tweaks were made recently: a fancy new logo, a group photoand updated about page, and access for mobile web devices. We’re going to stick with this slick theme for the time being, even if it is a bit time consuming to use.

Please stick with us in the new year, send us requests, send us your recipes to try, challenge us to a cook-off, or just say hi. We love to hear from everyone!

I’ve been having a huge bread jones these days. After lurking on www.thefreshloaf.com for several hours looking at all the recipes, tutorials, and message boards, I decided on making a plain white French bread. This French loaf uses only the simplest of ingredients: flour, water, yeast, and salt; yet, made properly, has a flavor that you would not expect from such a miserly array of ingredients.

I didn’t have to do all that much to get a recipe together that I liked. I took my inspiration from the blog’s creator, Floyd. Floyd’s daily bread is a very wet dough that produced a real nice loaf with a very good open crust. I wasn’t happy with the huge mess it made so I modified his daily bread recipe somewhat. I made some adjustments in the flour and water measurements he used, converted it to a more friendly and scalable format, IE grams/weight, and tested it out. The overall result was just what I wanted: open crumb, good flavor, and a great crust.

In modifying this recipe, I also got to learn a new way to prepare the dough. This dough is not kneaded in the usual sense. After the poolish has risen, all the ingredients are mixed together into a rather ragged dough and left to sit. This process is called autolyzation. While sitting, the gluten forms in the dough on its own without any outside assistance. After the prescribed amount of time, the dough is turned onto a flour surface and folded, much like puff pastry, and let to rest. The process is then repeated two more times and then the dough is shaped, proofed, and baked.

This new method of making bread helps create the open crumb structure that is much desired in an artisan bread. It’s also a good technique to keep in your bag of tricks if you want to make some bread and don’t have a mixer or the desire to knead for 10-15 minutes.

French Inspired White Bread
Recipe adapted from Floyd’s Daily Bread, http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/mydailybread

Poolish:
110 g flour
230 g water
1/8 teaspoon yeast

Dough:
520 g flour
300 g water
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 teaspoon salt
All of the poolish

To Make the Poolish:

Combine all the ingredients together and mix with a spoon until all the flour is incorporated. Leave overnight (8-16 hours) in a bowl covered with plastic wrap.

Making the Bread:

Combine all ingredients together is a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until all the ingredients are mostly incorporated. Cover the bowl with a towel and set aside 30-60 minutes (autolyse). The mixture will not look like a dough at this point, don’t worry, it will soon.

Flour your work surface generously and gently remove the dough from the bowl. Flour your hands and the top of the dough and gently stretch out to a rectangle. This will be a little messy, but work quickly and gingerly and you won’t get too messy. Fold the dough into thirds by folding the left side of the dough into the middle and the right side over the left. Fold into thirds from the top to the bottom in the same fashion.

Place in a bowl and cover with a towel and set aside 30-60 minutes.

Repeat the process two more times, flouring and folding the dough each time. Place the dough back in the bowl each time and let rest for 30-60 minutes.

Remove dough from bowl and preshape the dough. Allow the dough to rest for 5-10 minutes and then complete the final shaping. Allow the dough to rise until 1.5 times bigger. Slash bread and bake in 425F oven for 30-50 minutes.

This soup is such a hit at my house, words can’t really describe it. This is one of the eater’s favorite dishes and it gets requested quite often. It’s easy to make, it doesn’t take long, and it tastes real good.

There isn’t much else to say, other than:

EAT.THIS.SOUP.

Pasta Fagioli
1/2 box of orzo (8oz)
2 14oz cans diced tomotoes
2 14oz cans of white beans (like great northern or cannellini) – drained & rinsed
1 onion – diced small
4-6 cloves of garlic – sliced
3-5 slices of hard cheese like romano or parmesan, preferably the
end of a block w/rind
1-2 stalks of celery – diced (optional)
olive oil
crushed red pepper
oregano
salt & pepper

In a med-large pot saute onions and celery(if using) over medium heat in olive oil until onions are soft and translucent.

Combine garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper, and salt & pepper with the onions and cook until fragrant.

Incorporate the tomatoes, white beans, and the whole piece of cheese with the onion mixture and cook a few minutes to combine flavors.

Add 4-5 cups of hot water to the pot and bring soup to a gentle boil.

Pour orzo into the soup and cook for ~10 minutes. Stir the soup every few minutes as the orzo tends to stick to the bottom of the pot. Let stand for a few minutes until the orzo thickens up.