Well this shouldn’t be a tough one but naturally it is. We are both of European descent and both cook from our culture regularly so that wasn’t going to fly. Mexican? Nope – I have mad cantina skills. American? Jeff has that market cornered. I said Greek? Jeff said you can make Tzatziki in your sleep. I said Chinese? He hit me over the head with our 10 year old thoroughly seasoned wok. Sushi? African? Lebanese? No No NO! I was overwhelmed and frustrated and mumbling to myself as I stomped and whined my way all through the house. Then it hit me. I ran into the back room where he was working (more like avoiding me because I was getting bitchy…) I said HAWAIIAN!!! He stopped pretending to work and looked up. I said and what do those crazy Hawaiian folk love to eat? He thought for a minute and said SPAM?? I laughed and said YES! And there is nothing quite outside our comfort zone like overly processed meat!

Hawaii’s fascination with spam goes back to the time of WWII when American soldiers ate it as part of their rations and in turn introduced it to Hawaii. Fresh meat was scarce so the Islanders stocked up on this canned salted meat which required no refrigeration. It has remained exceptionally popular and one of the classic ways the Hawaiian’s eat it is called Spam Musubi (pronounced moo-soo-bee) I think I may have had spam once at a luau themed party I went to many years ago. Jeff has never had it and has made it quite clear to me that this is my baby and only I will be eating it. I told him please even President Obama stopped for a Spam Musubi snack while playing golf at Oahu’s Olomana Golf Links. You like golf!!! He said well when President Obama buys me some Musubi and a new set of Pings I’ll take it under consideration. I guess my you golf too so you must like spam equation wasn’t convincing. Jeff is a tough nut to crack.

Getting the Spam out of the can was probably the most unpleasant experience in all of this. It took some coaxing and stabbing and cussing on my part but as it gracefully slid out of the can making this god awful squishy sound and then hit the plate with a thwack my tummy turned just a little. I wondered just how uncomfortable did FoodBuzz want me to be? Enough is enough already here is a taco… I have never made them before I swear! But I made a Spam commitment to myself and Hawaii and I was going to have Spam Musubi today if it killed me. So I sliced up the slimy Spam and worked up a marinade:

For those of you playing along at home here is the recipe:

1 Can of Spam
Nori sheets, toasted
2 C cooked sushi rice (sprinkled lightly with seasoned rice vinegar and a pinch of sugar)

Marinade:
1/2 C Shoyu
2 T brown sugar
3 cloves garlic minced
2 T sweet Hawaiian onion, minced
2 T grated ginger
1 serrano pepper chopped
1 cayenne pepper, chopped
Splash of sesame seed oil

Tamago omelet if you so desire. I so desired and so experienced massive Tamago failure… (I took the recipe from the book Easy Sushi.)

But I salvaged one…

Mix all of the marinade ingredients together, toss in the slices o’ Spam, cover and refrigerate for about 4 hours. (I know the suspense is killing me too…)

To make a proper Spam Musubi you need a Musubi press. I happened to have a sushi press that I hoped would do the trick because this is Indiana and ha ha ha they may be outlawed here.

So after about 4 hours remove the Spam from the fridge. Take the Spam slices out of the marinade and fry them up in a pan. I even fried mine up in some bacon grease hoping that would LURE Jeff to the Spam side. He is not biting. Get them nice and crispy then remove to cool.

Lay the nori sheets on a flat surface. And place the frame of the press on top of the nori. Fill the frame 1/2 full of rice.

If you are using the illusive Tamago omelet lay that on top of the rice and then top with the Spam. Now take the press part of the press and press down the whole thing so that you press it into a nicely pressed layer cake of sorts.

Then remove the frame.

Remove the press and take the exposed edges of the nori and fold up over the roll, wet edges of the nori to seal. Slice into big bite sized pieces and enjoy!

So I had my first taste of Spam Musubi and I have to admit, once the Spam was marinated and fried in bacon grease and pressed into a roll with seasoned rice and tasty tomago it was pretty good. It won’t be a part of our regularly scheduled meals however. I will leave that to the Islanders.

I hope I haven’t completely scared you off my dear readers and if not, please take the time and tell FoodBuzz that you want us to be the next Duo of Food Blog Supremacy!

In typical Jeff fashion I run my mouth and end up having to eat those stupid words and admit yeah I was a little harsh but she is use to it so it is expected.

So in case you care yes firewire skewers are probably the best creation for kettle grillers or grillers in general.  They are awesome bendable skewers that you can wrap around the inside of the kettle grill giving you more precious room to cram more meat on the grill (no they are not paying us, giving us anything free, or anything at all and in exchange for nothing they get free publicity for all 5 readers).

So now that my apology is done with and my sales pitch over this is really a good and simple straightforward beef kabob recipe.  The wonderful thing about this recipe is a lot of acid so going to tenderize the heck out of the cheapest cut of steak you can find so grab for that top sirloin that is 99 cents a pound.

For this recipe you will need:

1. Couple lbs of top sirloin or some cheap cut of steak (lot of acid in this dish which helps tenderize it). Cut the steak into a couple inch cubes.
2. 1/2 c vegetable oil
3. 1/2 cup soy sauce
4. 1/2 cup lemon juice
5. 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
6. 1/4 cup stone ground mustard
7. 2 t cracked black pepper
8. 4 big ole cloves garlic, minced
9. 1 shallot diced (It was a LARGE one…)
10. 1 t cayenne pepper (I just took one from the garden and sliced it up thin.)
11. 1/2 teaspoon coriander

Combine everything and let it set overnight.  Fire up your grill and grill away.

Not that freaking hard is it?

Oh yeah here is a marinade picture of the dish because apparently I had shaky hand syndrome when trying to take action pictures of the meat on the grill.

In all honestly the month off was the best thing and what I am calling Jeff Spring Cleaning.  It allowed me to distance myself and rather than cooking for a blog I cooked for myself.  When I finished cooking I did not instantly start positioning umbrellas or softboxes in the dining room to photograph.  Heck my umbrellas have not been set up for a couple of weeks and my kitchen table for all appearances besides the fact it is cluttered with mail, magazines, and other junk is a kitchen table.  Heck the last two dishes I tanked I was not stressing because oh no I do not have anything to showcase this week whatever will the loyal three followers think??????  Instead they simply were eaten with a smile on my face as I flipped through my best friend Tivo trying to find something.

Now that the sun is out, the garlic is starting to pop up through the leaf cover, and I am plotting the garden I am in a better mood.

This recipe is one of my favorite go to for a quick and simple meal because let us face it pretty idiot proof.  I mean seriously you throw everything in a bowl, you wait overnight, and then toss in a wok until done.  Heck even if you managed to undercook the chicken just throw it back in the wok.  However, it packs wonderful flavor and uses one of my favorite condiments of all times….kim chi.

For this recipe you will need:

• Couple cups of kimchi
• meat from 3 chicken thighs diced into 1 inch squares
• 3 cloves of garlic finely diced
• 1 shallot finely diced
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger finely diced
• teaspoon of toasted sesame oil
• Sambal and sriracha to taste (I used about tablespoon of both)
• Tablespoon of soy sauce

Steps to success:

• Combine everything but the chicken and taste. If you are happy then add the chicken if not adjust.
• Place in fridge overnight.
• Place wok over high burner.
• Add in a splash of high temperature oil (I used canola).
• Add in mixture and toss around until chicken is cooked through.
• Serve and enjoy over rice.

Back to the grind of work and hope everyone is doing great!

I work In Chicago. but I live life in Indiana. I find that when I am holed up in my mini mansion the last thing I want to do is anything that requires more then 5 sq inches of counter space because – hello – my kitchen is only 4 feet! And it is a mighty small 4 feet… Serious I made cookies over the holidays in it and almost died from flour inhalation.

It isn’t really conducive for much more then frying up eggs for breakfast or pouring a cocktail, but a girl still has to eat even when she leaves her most favorite cook all alone in the wilds of Indiana…

One of my favorite cuisines in which to eat is Asian. Sushi, Hot Pot, Fried Rice, Tom Yum, etc… it’s light (Perfect for that 10 in 10 I signed up for while swilling wine and eating cheese… um hello!?!), it is spicy… which keeps me warm when my radiator goes all ADD and forgets what he is supposed to be doing… (sounds like someone I am dating…) and mostly. Freaking easy AND so yummmmmy!

It should be made with thinly sliced rib eye. Get a rib eye, par-freeze it and then take it out and slice very thinly while the meat is frozen enough to stay firm but still pliable enough to get that dull blade thru that you have been meaning to sharpen but still haven’t, you know who you are… This is the absolute best way to make this… However. Rib eye can be pricey and we are supposed to be talking easy here. So. What I did for this exciting (insert cricket sounds here) presentation was get simple stir fry beef, and beat the crap out of it.

Actually, tenderized it so it could soak up all this marinade of awesomeness…

Whatcha need:

1 # of good beef. (chicken or pork, yes honey I said pork, also work wonderfully here) sliced thin
4 T soy sauce
1 T sugar
1 T rice wine
1-2 cloves garlic finely minced
2-3 scallions, thinly sliced
2 t sesame oil
1 t sambal
white pepper

The Hard Part

Now after you have sliced up and/or beaten your meat… oh geez all the censer-sensors just went off… place it in a large zipper bag. Mix all the marinade ingredients together and pour over the meat. Squish it up good, suck out the air, seal that baggie and toss it in the fridge overnight. Yes, I said over night. Can you do this without the overnight bath? Sure, for a minimum of 2 hours, but it wont be as goooood.

Next day, pull out the baggie o’ meat and the gather ye following:

More of Whatcha Need:

1-2 scallions, sliced haphazardly
sesame seeds
lettuce (for wrapping)
prepared white rice or rice noodles
more sambal, because you can never have too much…

The Tricky Part

Heat 1 T of oil in your pan over medium heat. Cook the meat until desired doneness.

Top with sesame seeds and scallions and serve with rice and lettuce for wrapping. Yes I know the photo doesn’t show any lettuce… wow you guys are so smart. I took this after I ate and well, it took a lot just to make sure I had enough meat and rice for photos. The lettuce, poor lettuce, sacrificed itself.

If Jeff was here I would have had to beat him off with a frying pan just to have meat left over so thank that lettuce… aaaannnd the censor sensors are buzzing again… damn.