Chicken Lettuce Wraps

One day I was looking for a gluten-free chicken wrap recipe, and came across this. I found this recipe relatively easy to follow, and adapted some of the ingredients to either items I had in my pantry (like using olive oil instead of grapeseed oil) or took out some things I didn't have on hand (such as the daikon radish). Below is the video and link courtesy of Food Network. Enjoy!



Recipe Link at Food Network

Summer Recipes: Lemon Granita

Here's a simple and easy dessert recipe to make, a lemon granita. Granita is nothing more than an frozen ice sugar solution that's fluffed up before serving, and a classic in Sicilian households. This recipe serves 6, so if you want to make any portion of that batch, its really easy to scale.

1.25 cups of lemon juice, freshly squeezed (could take anywhere from 5-7 lemons)

Lemon zest from 2 lemons

1 cup superfine sugar (This is just regular sugar that's been further ground to smaller crystals)

2 cups water

1. Heat the lemon juice, zest, and sugar in a small saucepan for about 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes, take the sugar mixture off the heat and let it cool. The last part is important, because if you don't, not only will the mixture not freeze properly, but the container you place it in could break in the freezer from a temperature shock.

2. Add in the water and mix well.

3. Pour the mixture into a shallow dish, and place in the freezer.

4. About every 30 minutes, use a fork to scrape crystallizing mixture from the sides of the dish, and mix into the center of the dish.

5. After approximately 2 hours, the granita should be ready. Fluff with a fork and serve in cups. Add some additional lemon zest for garnish.

The good thing about this granita recipe is that it goes very well with any kind of seasonal fruit you have available. Mix with strawberries, limes, cherries, or any other fruit you desire, and enjoy!

All of this has happened before...

Below is the trailer of the second half of Caprica season 1, set to start in January (ie, way too far from now). I've enjoyed the intelligent writing of most of the first half of season 1, and thankfully from the looks of the trailer the show starts to feel a bit more like its action filled brethren BSG...

Bungie's Epic Farewell to Microsoft

Latest Trailer from Bungie to entice customers to buy its final Halo title. The trailer below is the story of Halo:Reach, due out mid September. Video courtesy of IGN.

More Halo: Reach News & Previews

Potato Salad with Bacon and Barbecue Sauce Recipe @Food and Wine

Below is a link to a recipe hosted on Food and Wine website. What isn't better for a summer salad than potatoes, bacon and bbq?!

Image owned by Food and Wine Magazine

Potato Salad with Bacon and Barbecue Sauce Recipe - Laurent Tourondel | Food & Wine

New Restaurant Brookville in Charlottesville, VA

Harrison Keevil has a new restaurant in Charlottesville, VA. Personal review to come after I've visited the new restaurant. Below is a Google Map of its location, along with some links to articles detailing the opening of the new restaurant. More to come...


View Larger Map


100-mile chef: Brookville’s lunch a taste of things to come | The Hook News Blog

C-Ville: Restaurantarama - Makeover in Gordonsville

Minor Blog Updates

Hey everyone, I've added minor tweaks here and there to the blog, most significant being the addition of Share buttons on each post, so that you can share any posts that you like. Feel free to add on Twitter or Facebook!

Happy Weekend!

This video probably sums up my excitement for the weekend after a long week...Happy Weekend everyone!

November can't come soon enough

Facebook Movie Trailer...um, what?

I'm surprised that there's even a movie about the creation of Facebook, but even more surprise that Justin Timberlake has a role in it...

Master Chief is in Halo: Reach

Article @ IGN

Preview of Microsoft's answer to Wii.

Courtesy of IGN, here's a video explanation of what Kinect actually is, and whether its worth anything at release time. I personally feel like it has potential, but I haven't seen anything yet that's impressed me.

Kinect at IGN.com

Red Sesame Pork

This is called Red Sesame Pork because the two main flavors in the sauce for this are red wine and sesame oil. This is a very simple dish to make, and it has classic oriental flavors.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp red wine
2 tsp sesame oil
crushed black pepper
pork tenderloin (anywhere from 1-2 pounds)

Directions:
First thing to do is to either heat a pan on the stove to medium heat, or to start a charcoal grill. Season the outside of the pork loin with salt and pepper. Once the grilling surface is ready, you'll want to place the pork onto the heat. While the pork is starting to cook, you'll want to mix together all of the sauce ingredients. Use either a basting brush or spoon to cover the pork in sauce. After about 4 minutes on the grill, you'll want to rotate the pork 90 degrees, and baste again with the sauce. You'll want to repeat that step roughly every 4 minutes to ensure that the entire pork gets glazed, and so that the caramelized glaze does not burn and turn bitter. Using a meat thermometer, continue rotating the pork until the internal temperature reads that it is done. Enjoy!