My wife and I had the pleasure of trying our friend Spencer’s homemade Seafood Spaghetti Sauce this past weekend, and we both agree, it was 100% delicious, not to mention the simple ingredients. It consists of Onions, Garlic, Tomatoes, Fresh Basil, Sea Salt, Cracked Black Pepper, Heavy Cream, Mushrooms and Fresh Parmesan. All ingredients were blended accept for the mushrooms. They were added after blending so they could become soft in the reheating of the now creamy sauce. Trust me when I say “It was a work of art.” It was like watching a great chef in a famous restaurant show you how it’s done by making this amazing dish look about as easy as making a box of Mac and Cheese. Lucky for you, I documented the entire process with photos that can be seen in the following slideshow. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 Sweet Yellow Onion
6 Cloves of Garlic
12 Roma Tomatoes
1 Lb of Shrimp
6 Large Scallops
1 Lobster Tail
1 Package of Sliced Mushrooms
Heavy Cream
Fresh Basil
Salt & Pepper

We hope that you might find the time to try one of our many recommended recipes while enjoying a wonderful vacation rental in Arizona provided by Arizona Lodging Experts. Arizona Lodging Experts has been offering premier property management in Scottsdale, Phoenix and the surrounding area for over 12 years now. Contact them for all your rental needs in Arizona.

I love to cook for my beautiful wife Lolis whenever possible, and there are several reasons why. We save money overall by not going out to eat, plus I feel that I can “whip up” a pretty darn good meal when I get the cooking itch! Case in point: This past weekend when I made Spicy Pork Chops with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Coleslaw and Sweet Corn. Total cook time took about 2 ½ hours and everything turned out very, very good.

I started by cooking the pork chops, since they need to cook for 1 ½ to 2 hours at 325. This way they can cook slow and easy and come out tender as can be. In our large casserole dish, I added a little extra virgin olive oil and about a ½ inch layer of beef broth, so the chops don’t dry out during cooking. Then I mixed the spices for the pork chops, which included the following ingredients:

Black pepper
White pepper
Kosher salt
Chipotle powder
Chorizo powder
Garlic salt
Season all
Lawry’s season salt
Mrs. Dash lemon pepper
Ground Coriander seed
California chili powder
Cayenne
Paprika
New Mexico Chili Powder

Nothing too heavy, all in moderation and light on all salty spices, so the perfect balance. Cover every pork chops front and back with the great spice mixture and put in the oven for the first hour. Set the timer. Once the timer goes off, you want to take the chops out of the oven for a moment, grab a spoon and “spoon” some of the juice in the pan over the chops to marinade even more, then put back into the oven for another 30 minutes to an hour. Make sure your chops DO NOT dry out. You can add more beef broth if needed. At this point, you would begin the additional sides you intend to pair with your pork chops so everything it finished at the same time. Here are our finished pork chops that cooked for 2 hours at 325 degrees. Doesn’t that look good…?!

My goal is this. I am hoping that one day, maybe a rental guests who might be staying in a wonderful rental in Arizona provided by Arizona Lodging Experts, the premier property management in Phoenix, AZ, Scottsdale, and many other areas, might see my blog and try one of my meals and give me some feedback. I know my wife Lolis likes my cooking, and so do my sister Acacia, my niece Caitlin and my Papa Rick, but I am dying for some outside feedback, good or bad. That is my wish for 2011.

Spicey Pork Chops

Cooked To Perfection

Pork Chops, Coleslaw, Garlic Mashed Potatoes & Corn

I have a wonderful appetizer that you can serve at your next family gathering, and it will be “love at first bite”! This recipe was inspired by the Jerome Brewery in Jerome, Arizona.

This recipe is called Chef-Shea’s Artichoke Bruchetta.

Here are the ingredients you will need.
(This recipe feeds 3 to 5 people)

3 Medium to Large Artichokes
1/2 – 1 Cup of Mayonnaise
1 5oz Container of Shredded Parmesan/Reggiano
Ground Black Pepper (to taste)

First, you will need to steam the artichokes in a large pan for 40 to 45 minutes so the leaves and heart get nice and soft. You will want to add water about every 15 minutes or so to ensure that you don’t run dry during the steaming process. It can evaporate fast if you’re not watching. Cover the pan and let the steam go to work, checking every 15 minutes when you add water.

Steamed Artichokes

Once the artichokes are steamed to perfection, you can remove them from the steamer and place them on a large plate to cool for a few minutes. You don’t want to “dive right in” and begin shucking and scraping the leaves because they are piping hot right now. Let them cool a little, but not too long.

steamed for 45 minutes

Now, after a short cooling down period, you want to begin to remove the leaves one by one and scrape each leaf from top to bottom with a spoon to scrape off all the wonderful soft “meat” and then put the goodies you scraped in a bowl for mixing later. You will get a good amount of scrapings from the leaves, which you will add together with the artichoke heart, once you reach the heart of each artichoke. For each heart, all you want to do is scrape off the fuzzy part on top of the heart and cut off any of the green stem left on the bottom, so all you have left is a clean artichoke heart, like so.

Now we need to mash the artichoke hearts with 1/2 cup to 1 cup of mayonnaise, depending on how much scraping you end up with, and a 1/2 cup of parmesan reggiano cheese. Add ground black pepper to taste. Mash with a fork until creamy and spreadable.

creamy artichoke goodness!

Turn the over to 400 degrees.

Next, you want to arrange some slices of bread on a baking sheet and spread your fresh bruchetta over as many pieces as possible until the mash is all gone. You also want to sprinkle a little more cheese over each piece as well. When the oven reaches temperature, you want to place the cooking sheet in the oven on the middle rack and set the timer for about 8 to 10 minutes. Here is the end result!

Ready to eat!

My wife and I love to use a nice fresh round loaf of Italian bread. This tasty treat will delight everyone who tries it. Not all the Property Management Companies in Phoenix give away secrets like this. Enjoy!

Next, put the chicken in the oven (middle rack) and set a time for 1 and 1/2 hours. Now, just sit back, enjoy a cold drink and wait for the magic to happen. For some amazing reason, which I am truly grateful for, the Stubbs sauce breaks down during the cooking process and mixes with the oil and broth to create this amazing spicy oil-juice that you can save and use on other dishes such as “Chef-Shea’s Spicy Chicken Green Chili Cheese Enchiladas”, which I will share with you another time, I promise!

(Sneak Peak)

Spicy Chicken Green Chili Cheese Enchiladas

Once you finally hear the timer go “ding”, it is time to sample some of the best chicken breast you will ever taste!

Spicy Chichen Breast 325 degrees - 1 1/2 hours

You can serve them any way you want to, maybe with a side of veggies and mashed potatoes and a side salad, or maximize your dish and make some tasty spicy tacos or spicy chicken cheese enchiladas. The chicken is fork tender now and full of great flavor. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do, and don’t forget to save the juices in the pan for later use.

Happy Eats Everyone!

And to all of our visitors that are renting our Vacation Rentals in Phoenix Arizona or any of the premier Homes, Townhomes or Condos from Arizona Lodging Experts, we hope you too can enjoy some wonderful home cooked meals and margaritas during your stay “thanks to great blogs like these”!

The Real Deal Holyfield Margarita.

Today I am sitting here under a catus enjoying the real deal holyfield margarita, whipped up from scratch by yours truly. I promised in a past blog that I would share my recipe with the world at large. So with no further delay, as promised, for your eyes only, the real deal holyfield margarita.

First of all you’re going to need some supplies, and by supplies I mean some good tequila, some fresh limes, fresh oranges, simple syrup, crushed ice and most of important of all a good blender…-not! No Blender folks, this isn’t a restaurant version of the margarita, served up frozen so as to deaden your taste buds, thus getting you to drink more margaritas and spend more money. We wont be pulling the wool over your eyes here folks. This recipe is for discriminating taste, for the person that enjoys the fine taste of tequila. Were not looking to mask the flavor of the tequila, but enhance it. A good margarita, like any good drink should have a beginning, middle and an end.

For this recipe you are going to need a Boston Shaker. Most liquor stores will carry them, if not try searching the Internet.

For my recipe I’m using a modest $30 bottle of Corralejo tequila.

Add 1.5 oz of tequila 

1.0  oz simple syrup (Simple syrup is 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. Heat up water, add sugar, and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool, bottle and place in fridge)

1.5 oz mixed fresh lime and fresh orange juice (equal parts)

Take your serving glass and place crushed ice inside to get your glass nice and frosty.

Fill Boston shaker half full of crushed ice.

Add in all of your ingredients.

Put the shaker together and give it a good shaking.

I will shake my margarita for no less then 100 shakes.  When your done your boston shaker should be frosty.

Strain and pour your mixed drink into your serving glass.

Now if this isn’t the best margarita you’ve ever had let me know. The Phoenix Rental Management team looks forward to your responses.

I hope that some of our guest at Arizona Lodging Experts, when staying in one of our luxury vacation homes will take the time to try this recipe out while having a pool party. Iguarantee it will be a smash! And remember if you need a bartender to mix the drinks for you just let me know, I look quite smashing in a Speedo.

My father always told me to follow my passion. One passion of mine that is at the top of my list, more than anything else is creating delicious and awesome recipes. I always read cookbooks for the initial inspiration for my recipes but always end up adding my own twist or spin to the recipes. And when cooking I always cook by taste and only use measurements for the few dishes I cook that require precise measurements, like when making a roux or savory crepes.

The first time I had the Mexican Salsa called Picco De Gallo, which literally translates to “beak of the rooster” Gringos will call it Fresh Salsa! I’ll never forget that first taste of the fresh salsa. I was 18 and living in Hermosillo, Sonora Mexico. I went only for vacation, met a girl and ended up staying. All the taco stands serve up carne asada tacos wrapped up in corn or flour tortillas, grilled green onions on the side with fresh cut limes and a tub of Picco De Gallo. I was never given a recipe for Picco De Gallo but I have concocted my own take on it. It is a real easy recipe, requires no cooking and honestly this is a recipe that would be next to impossible to completely mess up.

Basic Recipe:

Ingredients:

5  large tomatoes.

1 large white onion

½ cup cilantro leafs chopped (Cilantro can usually be found in the produce section near the parsley. (Do not try to make this recipe with parsley. It’s not even close to the same flavor and your recipe will end up tasting like something you would use for pasta sauce)

1 garlic clove crushed.

2 jalapenos with seeds and stems removed for mild flavor

2 jalapenos with seeds and stems for medium heat.

4 jalapenos with seeds and stems for hot heat.

Sea salt or kosher salt to taste

Juice of 1 lime.

Preparation is real basic; simply dice and chop up all ingredients as follows and place in a large missing mixing bowl.

Chop your tomatoes into small chunks. The smaller the better.

Dice your onion into very small pieces.

Remove the cilantro leaves from stems and discard the stems. Chop up the leaves and place in bowl with chopped onion and tomatoes.

Crush garlic and add to bowl.

Add your jalapenos to taste.

Add the juice of one lime

Sea Salt or Kosher salt to taste. I usually start with 1Tblspn of salt.

Mix all ingredients well. If you have built up a tolerance to Jalapenos like I have you can use the tools god gave you to lightly crush up the tomatoes and mix the bowl of salsa up. If not you can use surgical gloves or a heavy wooden spoon and really get the salsa mixed well, crushing tomatoes somewhat in the process. Taste for salt and add more if needed.

This recipe always taste best after sitting in your fridge over night to let the flavors fully develop.

Now the next time you come to Arizona and you rent an Arizona Lodging Experts vacation home, and you are having a poolside party you will have the perfect dipping salsa. If you enjoyed this recipe make sure you bookmark this page and stay tuned for my super secret inside tips to making the perfect Carne Asada Tacos, Guacamole and of course the perfect Margaritas to round it all off while staying at Vacation Rentals In Phoenix.