Chef Debbie's Amazing Dinner at Radio Milano

Do you Twitter? I started just a couple of months ago am finding it addictive.

If you're so inclined, you can follow me at ChefDebbieCPC. I Tweet about my blog, recipes, the cook day or anything else I can say in just 140 characters at a time.

I follow lots of foodie people around the world ~ restaurants, chefs, food writers, etc. and when I happened to mention a couple of weeks ago that sweet husband and I would be in Scottsdale this week, I received a Tweet from Radio Milano.

So sweet husband and I left our resort paradise to have dinner at Radio Milano ~ and, boy, are we glad we did!

My food photos didn't turn out very well ~ not sure if it was the second glass of wine or the lighting. The service from the instant we arrived (free valet parking) to immediately being greeted at the door to our super server, Les, was stellar.

The menu is small but packed full of interesting choices. Sweet husband started with the roasted red pepper soup followed by a beautiful, perfectly cooked piece of roasted halibut served over sautéed spinach. A generous splash of the grilled lemon accompaniment and sweet husband was very happy.

I'm never one to pass up an opportunity for pasta and I certainly wasn't disappointed. When I'm in a new restaurant, I always ask the server what his/her favorite entrée is and I'm rarely unhappy with the choice. Our server last night was Les and I can honestly say if he wasn't such a talented musician, he could make a bloody fortune as a server. Attentive, knowledgeable about the menu and not too bad on the eyes, his recommendation of the linguine and clams was spot on.

Baby clams ~ lots and lots of baby clams ~ were tossed with a perfect prepared al denté linguine and all tossed in a light white wine, olive oil, butter and garlic sauce. In many restaurants the white sauce is heavy but here all I wanted was 3~4 more loaves of bread to soak up the sauce. Sometimes I embarrass myself when I pick up the plate and lick it clean so I (occasionally) try to act dignified and use bread to finish the job.

Even though we shouldn't have, and really didn't need it, we finished our wonderful dinner with the radio chocolate pudding ~ a creamy confection of chocolate decadence topped with an espresso meringue. We fought over the last bite!

So thanks to my new foodie friends, Daniel (the general manager), Joe (Twitter expert extraordinaire) and Les, super server. It was a wonderful dinner and Tim and I can't wait to return and try an entire new array of delightful delicacies.

Chef Debbie's Spoiled Brat Vacation Update

Spoiled brat is back, and back with a vengeance!

Whew! It's been a long time since spoiled brat has made an appearance and I was afraid she was gone for good...

This is the view from our balcony. The trees directly below us are full of hummingbirds and I love sitting outside in the afternoon visiting with Bacchus and watching the hummers zip by.

Yesterday we went to the Phoenix Botanical Garden and they are featuring an amazing Chihuly exhibit spaced all throughout the catci. His work has been carefully placed to enhance the natural beauty, grace and color of the surroundings.

I took 200+ photos of the catci, flowers and butterflies.

Here's one of the Chihuly glass exhibits and it's over 30' tall. Unbelievable! I'm can't imagine how they shipped some of these pieces. I can barely get a dozen wine glasses from point A to point B without breaking some!

So sweet husband and I just got back from dinner at Meritage Steak House. We skipped lunch so we could eat there and we still couldn't finish our entrées.

Dinner was prix fixes with soup, salad or cheese course, main entrée with starch and roasted asparagus and a choice of 7~layer chocolate cake or crème brûlée.

I had the smoked prime rib (every bit of 14oz which I couldn't even begin to finish) and it came with the most sinful sour cream~blue cheese~horseradish cream, garlic mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. Maple crème brûlée to finish dinner ~ cuz you just have to have something sweet at the end of a meal.

Tomorrow is another day in paradise. Up around 6:00 a.m.

Funny how I don't complain about getting up here at 6:00 a.m. to walk for 60 minutes while at home getting up that early going to work is, well, just work!

So tomorrow morning. Walk 60 minutes. Chef prepared breakfast. Pool for a couple of hours. Shade for weenie red head Debbie. Downtown Scottsdale for lunch and pop into a few shops. Back to the hotel to clean up and dinner at Radio Milano here in Phoenix.

Just another day in paradise.

Chef Debbie Hits the Jackpot(s)

So sweet husband took me to Las Vegas for a few days for my birthday last month.

I know. You're saying "But spoiled brat didn't you just go on vacation for, like, two weeks to Puerto Vallarta?"

Well, yes, I did. But that was months and months (OK maybe just five months ago) but it seems like a really long time ago and I really needed a birthday vacation.

So many of you've heard my video poker stories over the years and I'm sure even though you know me, you take the stories with a grain of salt.

Gotta tell you, if I heard those stories, I'd wonder too. So I decided to take photos of my jackpots ~ when I remembered.

And there were many times I didn't remember ~ or, rather, when the champagne made me forget.  

These are the jackpots I won during the first two days of my birthday vacation because I got sick and spent four entire days in bed.

But. Thinking about it. Four days doing nothing but sleeping and reading IS a vacation right there.

Lest you think that I spent my entire vacation sleeping, drinking or in front of the video poker machine, I did manage to get to a couple of very good restaurants. Besides our standard stop at Mon Ami Gabi for steak au poivre for sweet husband and filet and a couple of French 75 martinis for me, we ate at a wonderful little restaurant in The Venetian called Tia Toretto.

I typically don't order dessert after dinner but I always look at the dessert menu before anything else ~ well, except maybe not before ordering a glass of wine. But when I saw the dessert tray at Tia Toretto, I had to have dessert. The trouble was deciding which one to have!

All of their desserts are homemade and offered on that evening's tray ~ from the top around clockwise: Apple Cheesecake; Macadamia Tiramisu; Flourless Almond Chocolate Cake; Strawberry and Pistachio Torte; White Chocolate and Orange Layer Cake; Custard Filled Chocolate Covered Longjohn; White Chocolate and Pistachio Torte; Bitter Orange Chocolate Ganache Covered Chocolate Mousse. Yummy!

I had the Apple Cheesecake ~ it sounds boring but it was amazing! Thin slices of apples were painted with a raspberry glaze and then shaped into the rose design all around a creamy apple flavored cheesecake filling. Very simple but oh so good. Along with a glass of 20~year old Port, this restaurant was a Winner!

Still Searching for the Perfect ManMar Recipe

All is just about perfect in my little sliver of paradise.

Sitting on the balcony overlooking the bay, glass of wine by my side, our trip to Puerto Vallarta has been everything and more we’ve hoped it would be. Our resort is in the middle of the bay, about half way in between downtown PV and Bucerias, surrounded on 3 sides by mountains and jungle. For the first week, we didn’t do much more than eat, sip ManMars and take a nap every day.

We’ve spent the last couple of days exploring downtown PV, wandering the flea market, stopping every block or so to sample another $1 margarita, or just to sit and watch the people go by.

We found a great bar/restaurant overlooking the boardwalk called The Cheeky Monkey. We were initially intrigued by the $1 margarita sign advertising “Cheap, Chilly, Cheeky” margs so we decided to stop and check it out. Expecting a thimble~full of tequila~less ritas, we were surprised when jumbo margaritas with a good punch of tequila were delivered. And, then the monkey visited. Or, should I say, he jumped into Tim’s arms. Several margaritas later we sadly bid the monkey a fond adios.

We found another great restaurant off the beaten path where the daily special was $25 including soup or salad and a large glass of wine. Can’t go too wrong there, right? Sweet husband didn’t have the daily special, feasting instead on mustard glazed mahi. Fabulous! Jorge urged me to have the especial du dai and I begged for the recipe.

Below is the recipe for Cinnamon Shrimp. Or, at least I think it’s the recipe. It’s as close as I could understand with Jorge's broken English and my non~Spanish. I’ll try this when I get home and if it needs modifications, I’ll let you know.

I could get used to this!

Margaritas, mountains, dolphins in the bay every morning, star~filled skies every night and the sound of the ocean waves crashing right below me.

Today’s Spanish lesson ~ dos por uno Corona, quarto por dos margarita. These two phrases are very important if you find yourself at happy hour. Fortunately happy hour translates in every language and I’m heading down to partake now.

Adios!

Jorge’s Cinnamon Shrimp
butter
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 shallots, finely minced
3T sugar
1 bottle red wine ~ recommend dry red from Chile
1/2T cinnamon
Sesame seeds, toasted
Sauté shallots in red wine until soft. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Do not burn. Add sugar and cook, stirring, until melted. Add red wine and cinnamon. Cover with foil or tight fitting lid and simmer 45 minutes or until thick. Remove from heat. Strain, cool and keep refrigerated for up to 7 days.
Sauté fresh shrimp in olive oil until barely cooked. Remove from heat and toss in warmed sauce. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

I recommend serving this with coconut, lime and cilantro rice, sautéed fresh veggies and a large glass of red wine. This sauce would also be wonderful served over salmon or with pork or chicken.

Recipes, Margaritas and Fun in Puerto Vallarta

Hola mes amigos!

Sweet husband Tim and I are in Puerto Vallarta for two weeks and I’m on the mission to find the perfect mango margarita. We arrived Thursday afternoon to perfect blue skies, 80 degrees, sunshine and an ocean view that is breathtaking.

Spoiled brat that I am, we moved up to a top floor corner suite with a wrap-around balcony. And, there was nothing wrong with our original two bedroom suite ~ it just didn’t have as good of a view. I mean, let’s face it, if you’re going to spend two entire weeks looking at something, it should “something.”

So I’ve tried mango margaritas (ManMars) in quite a few bars so far and the winner right now is Claudio’s in Bucerias. It’s a little hole in the beach about a 25~30 minute walk from our resort but their ManMars are sweet and tart, with lots of mango and lots of tequila.

We stumbled on Claudio’s quite by accident. Sweet husband wanted to walk down the beach to the market. Spoiled brat needed to stop, rest and have a margarita. Well, more have a margarita than anything else. Viola! Claudio’s to the rescue. We enjoyed their ManMars so much that after we marketed, we went back for more! While on our second ManMars visit, we sampled what I called “Great Green Garlic Goop” more commonly known to the locals as Green Jalapeno Dip.

Amazing. Outstanding. Awesome. Wow. Yummy!

Here’s the recipe for Claudio’s Great Green Garlic Goop:

4 heads garlic
1 large jalapeno, top, ribs and seeds removed
1/4c onion, chopped
1/4c vinegar
1/2c olive oil
Cut the tops off the heads of garlic. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place garlic cloves on foil squares, top with olive oil, twist tightly closed and place on baking sheet. Roast 25~35 minutes or until garlic cloves are soft. Let cool.
Squeeze roasted garlic out of heads and into food processor. Add jalapeno and onion. Pulse until finely chopped. Add vinegar and blend until smooth. With food processor running, add olive oil in a slow, steady stream until garlic goop begins to emulsify. You may not use the entire 1/2c of oil. This should be the consistency of a runny mayonnaise. Serve with warm pita wedges.

This Spanish language thing is a breeze ~ tequila, enchilada, amigo, si, dos mango margaritas. More Spanish lessons in the days to come.