Wow! Check it Out!

The Marx Foods Contest : The Food Experiment’s ATX Smoke Experiment : The Austin Food Blogger Alliance Cook Book

Oh My!

There is a lot of crazy food stuff happening these days and I am LOVING it!  First of all the Marx Food Contest, It’s Easy Being Green has kicked off and I’d love your support. No email registering, hooha’s, or rings of fire to jump through, just a click and your done 😉 I did a Kiwi and Mango Nigiri which was fun and tasty!

CHECK OUT ALL THE CONTESTANTS AND VOTE HERE

I’m excited to finally announce what you all have been waiting for…  well at least what we have been dreaming about for the last 330+ days… THE FOOD EXPERIMENT’S are coming back to ATX. This year it will be the SMOKE EXPERIMENT and we are more than pumped in fact, words cannot describe our excitement. My awesome husband Evan and I are ready to do this and do it well! We have been experimenting and have a rock solid dish! It’s TOP SECRET and we can only tell you these two things, it’s smokey and delicious. If you want to hear more details and possibly subtle clues on our dish find us on Twitter or Facebook. Most importantly, if you are in Texas BUY a ticket to experience this first hand and prepare to have your world rocked with 25 different dishes and sweet sweet Brooklyn Beer! TICKETS WILL SELL OUT!!! You won’t wanna miss this, we guarantee it! We will be giving away a pair of tickets to one of our lucky followers soon so stay tuned!

SEE ZestyBeanDog’s PREVIOUS EXPERIMENTS HERE 

2012

2011

The AFBA is proud to release our very own community cook book out to the WORLD! We are taking pre-order’s for it now. It’s very exciting and yours truly, ZestyBeanDog will have a recipe published in it! Check out the appetizer section! All the recipes have been tested by someone other than the creator to ensure quality recipes! Get your copy on hold now!

Thank you all for your continued support throughout the years. Without you, ZestyBeanDog would not have the “zest” that it does for cooking and competing! You are all much appreciated! Thank you!

Much Love, Jen Daugherty

Kiwi and Mango Nigiri : It’s Easy Being Green : Marx Food Contest!

ZestyBeanDog has entered another Marx Foods Contest!  They are just too much fun to not partake in! Marx Foods send you a box of sample sized goodies and the rules are simple:  You have to use at least two ingredients and then blog the recipe. This time around there will be 2 winners, one from internal vote and one from public vote (that me means YOU, my dear friends). Voting will begin on Tuesday at which point I will add the new link to my blog. Then you can check out all the recipes and vote for your favorite one!  The winners get $100 in Marx Food Store Credit and you know I need that BAD!!! I’m all out of  YUZU juice! 😉

I chose to use the Bamboo Rice, Cardamom, and the Mint Herb Crystals to create a Kiwi and Mango Nigiri. This was a tasty and whimsical play on dessert and sushi that I will be making it again for sure, probably for a dinner party. The cardamom infused bamboo rice was subtle yet alluring and the slight crunch of the crystalized mint paired surprisingly well with the mango and bamboo rice.  I couldn’t resist doing kiwi not only because it’s green but also because I love it and the little seeds gave a great texture to the nigiri. The nigiri was then served with a orange honey marmalade and rice wine sauce. Overall it was a fun dish, to eat and to make!

Prep Time: 60 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Serves: Makes 8 Nigiri

Ingredients:

• .5 Cup Bamboo Rice
• 1 Cup Water
• 1 tsp Rice wine vinegar
• 5 Cardamom pods broken crushed with seeds
• 1 Kiwi
• 1 Mango
• 1 tsp Crystalized Mint
• 4 Mint leaves, small
• Marmalade

Instructions:

1. Boil 1 Cup of water add crushed cardamom pods and seeds, let sit for 10 min on simmer. Strain and reserve water for rice. 
2. Add rinsed bamboo rice to water bring to a boil, add 1 tsp rice wine vinegar, cover and simmer for 20 min or until done.
3. Cut up kiwi and mango thinly to arrange on top of rice.
4. Let rice cool for about 20-30 min.
5. Make 8 nigiri mounds with your hands and place fruit on top and garnish with crystalized mint and real mint.
6. Serve with honey orange marmalade with a splash of rice wine.

Enjoy with a glass of wine!

Check it out! Show some LOVE!

Hello Fellow Foodies!

Today is kind of a hodgepodge post… As you know from the last post I entered another contest via Marx Foods! It was a lot of fun because I got to experiment with cocktails and mocktails! I think the Pimmentine Cocktail is now a favorite drink of Evan and I’s! The clementine ice cubes are HIGHLY addictive! I have juiced over 35 clementines in the past 3 days to make more 🙂 Anyhow I would love it it you would be so kind to cast a vote for Zestybeandog! No email registration required, which is always nice, just a click! 🙂

VOTE HERE

Here is a peak into some food that’s been made in the ZestyBeanDog kitchen lately! Enjoy!

Chicken Bacon and Kale Roll Ups

Yard Bird with Bacon Mustard Glaze

Homemade Pasta Sauce

Escargot and Portabella Pizza

Quail Egg Pizza

Paella with Vegan Sausage

Spider Roll

Sushi

Caper and Tomato Trout with Crab Cake

Bibimbap

Eggplant Parm

Marx Foods Cocktails and Mocktails Contest

VOTE HERE

I’ve entered into another contest 🙂 … Marx Foods Cocktails and Mocktails Contest!  They graciously hooked me up with several ingredients to experiment with:  fennel pollen, saffron, long pepper, dill pollen, juniper berriesand dried pineapple. I love experimenting with new cocktails so I was very excited about this challenge. 

I know many of you will be in shock… but for this challenge I did NOT use Yuzu. Being a Marx Foods Yuzu Ambassador (it’s official, I have a badge), I know I have probably committed a Yuzu ambassador sin.  The truth is, I just ran out last week (had it been in the fridge we all know it would have been in there somewhere)!

Anyhow! I’m more than pleased with my results!

Cocktail:

Pimmentine Cocktail 

The clementine ice cubes make this cocktail over the top! When you get the little bits of fresh squeezed clementine it makes this drink extra special! The subtle hint of cucumber and saffron makes this drink a delightfully refreshing cocktail that everyone will enjoy!

Makes 2 delightful drinks

• 6 Clementine ice cubes (see below for instructions).
• 20 threads of saffron
• 8 oz Pimm’s 
• Gingerale
• Seedless cucumber
• Clemetine wedges (2)
• Ice, 6 cubes
• 1 TBS Meyer lemon juice
• 2 Slices of cucumber

Clementine Ice Cubes

• 3 Clementines (juiced) with pulp
• Ice tray

Place juice in tray and freeze overnight.

Instructions:

• Place 3 clementine ice cubes and 3 regular ice cubes in glass with slice of cucumber.
• Add 4 oz Pimm’s to each cup
• Take saffron threads and mix them with Meyer lemon juice until bright orange. Put half a TBS in each cup of Pimm’s.
• Top with Gingerale and Clementine garnish.
• Enjoy outdoors!

Mocktail:

Bloody Mocky or Mocky Mary

The perfect savory mocktail for the a.m. or p.m. !

Makes 2 Drinks

• 6 Dill Pollen, Long Pepper, and Olive Juice Ice cubes
• 11 oz Tomato Juice
• 1 tsp. Dill Pollen and Long Pepper, ground (2 long peppers, 1 tsp dill pollen) Use this mixture for Ice cubes as well.
• 1 tsp. Worcester sauce
• 2 Celery stalks
• 4 Dashes Tabasco
• Franks Red Hot Sauce

Franks Dill Pollen, Long Pepper, and Olive Juice Ice Cubes

• Ice Cube Tray
• Fill with olive juice almost to top.
• Place 8 drops of Franks in each cube.
• Top with 1/8 tsp. ground dill pollen and long pepper in each cube.

Freeze over night

1. Place 3 Franks dill pollen, long pepper, olive juice ice cubes in a cup.
2. In a shaker: shake 3 Ice cubes, 11 oz tomato juice, 1 tsp. dill pollen and long pepper mix, 1 tsp worcester  sauce. SHAKE well and pour over Franks Dill pollen, long pepper cubes and garnish with celery stalk.

This is a great bloody mary/mocky mocktail! It would even go great as a breakfast component!

Disclaimer:  I did not receive any compensation from Marx Food for this post.  All opinions are my own.

Marx Foods Fire and Ice Contest : Chile, Yuzu, and Jasmine Tea Granita

This granita is a flavorful multi-dimensional creation that starts off cool and tart and builds with a fiery heat from the Thai and tepin chilies. It’s a short lived heat that surprisingly keeps you coming back for more. It’s sure to take your taste buds on a roller-coaster!  I’m submitting this to the Fire and Ice Contest held by Marx Foods. I will post the link where you can vote for my creation as soon as it goes live. I appreciate the support as always! To read more about the contest click here. VOTE HERE NOW 🙂

Serves : 2

Prep: 10 min

Set Time: 3 hrs

Ingredients:

• 1/4 C. Yuzu Juice
• 1/4 C. Water
• 1/4 C. Jasmine Tea
• 1/4 C. Agave Nectar
• 1 Thai chile, ground
• 2 Tepin chiles, ground
• 2 Cherries, pitted

Instructions:

1. In a mortar and pestle, grind chilies, seeds and all.
2. In a small/medium pot combine all ingredients and heat to a simmer for 10 min.
3. Strain liquid, removing chilies and cherries. Reserve liquid and cherries.
4. Place liquid in a shallow container and freeze for 3 hrs.
5. Slice cherries and reserve.
6. Once liquid is frozen, churn up with two forks and serve, garnishing with the soaked sliced cherries.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer:  I did not receive any compensation from Marx Food for this post.  All opinions are my own.

Green Tomato and Bacon Pizza Pie

I bought some green tomatoes from Johnson’s Backyard Garden last Saturday and decided these babies are either getting fried or going on a pizza… Pizza it was and it was fantastic! Also today is the last day to vote for my Morel and Bacon Egg Rolls! If you haven’t voted yet ( I know many of you have, Thank you so much) please do! Vote here.

Prep: 1 hr

Cook Time: 20-25 min

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

Toppings

• 4 slices of Bacon, cooked until almost done
• Green tomatoes, 3-4 sliced (enough to cover pizza will depend on size)
• 8 oz Fresh Mozzarella, sliced into medallions.
• Olive oil, about 3 TBS
• Salt, pepper, fine herbs (whatever you like).
• 1/4 C. Parmigiano reggiano, the GOOD stuff!

Crust/Dough

• 1 (1/4 ounce) Package active dry yeast
• 1 C. Warm water
• 1 TBS. Sea salt
• 2 tsp Olive oil
• 2 1/2-3 1/2 cups Bread flour
• 1/4 C. Cornmeal

Instructions:

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed bowl.
2. Add sea salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cup flour.
3. Attach bowl and dough hook, turn to speed 2 and mix 1 minute.
4. Continuing on speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough clings to dough hook and cleans sides of bowl. Knead on speed 2 for 5 minutes. If making 2 pies split dough into 2 balls.
5. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top.
6. Cover, let rise in warmest place in house away from draft until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour).
7. Punch dough down each ball.
8. Roll out dough as you like and place on your cooking surface. (stone, tin, pan, etc.)
   To Top: lay down oil, herbs, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then place mozzarella on top, Then tomatoes, then bacon, Finally sprinkle with Parmigiano reggiano.
   Bake for 20-25 min until bubbly and golden
   Enjoy and Cheers!

Vote For ZestyBeanDog

Hi there everyone! The voting polls are open for the 4th Annual Marx Foods Morel Recipe Contest!!!  Please take a moment to vote for my:

Morel, Bacon, and Parmigiano-Reggiano Stuffed Egg Rolls with an Agave Yuzu Soy Sauce Infused with Garlic, Ginger, and Purple Scallions.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE

Please help me spread the word! Thanks and CHEERS!

Strawberry and Pecan Spinach Salad + OXO Giveaway : Good Grips Salad Dressing Shaker

Summer is here (I live in Texas remember) and that means it’s salad time in ZBD land. I love salads year round but there’s just something about the summer time that makes them taste better! Included in this post is a chance for you to win your very own OXO Salad Dressing Shaker! See details on how to win at the end of the post 🙂

Strawberry and Pecan Spinach Salad with a Lemon Poppy Yuzu Dressing 

Prep: 10 min

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 6-8 C. Baby Spinach
• 2 C. Strawberries, sliced
• 1/2 C. Pecans

Dressing:

• Juice of two lemons
• 1/8 C. Yuzu Juice
• 1/4 C. Olive Oil
• 1/4 C. Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 TBS. Poppy Seeds
• 1/2 tsp. Black Pepper
• 1/8 tsp. Sea salt

Instructions:

The Salad Dressing Shaker by OXO makes it easy to measure with the handy measurements on the side. Add in this order for ease: Olive oi to 1/4 marker, yuzu to 1/3 marker, apple cider to 1/2 marker, then add lemon juice and poppy seeds/seasonings. Shake well before pouring. Can store for up to a week in the fridge.

My thoughts on the OXO Salad Shaker…

I love everything about it:

• The rubber grip helps to well keep a “grip” on it even if you get a bit of oil on your fingers which is nice.
• I love the measurement marks, I usually eyeball but this helps me for writing my recipes for dressings out and being a blogger that comes in handy a lot.
• I love the simple spout thats sealed with a rubber grommet, it allows your finger to rest on top for added security. I haven’t had it leak out once no matter how hard I shake it. I’ve had shakers in the past where this is not the case and I end up with oil and vinegar all over my cabinets 😦 This simple design is actually the best I’ve seen. Best of all you can use it one handed!
• It’s BPA free which is a plus for times when making a warm dressing! No leeching BPA’s into your dressing is always a plus!
• It’s all sealed wonderfully so you can leave the dressing in the shaker for multiples days in the fridge, depending on your ingredients some may even last a couple of weeks.
• It says it’s dishwasher safe, but I know this product will probably last me much longer if I hand wash it, so that’s what I’ve been doing. I like my gadgets to last a long time 😉
• It holds a 1 1/2 C. capacity which is plenty for me.

I haven’t found any cons with this product and plan on doing a follow up in 6 months.

*I received 2 OXO Salad Dressing Shakers for FREE, one for myself and one to give away to one of my loyal followers. All opinions I have expressed are my own truthful ones. I have not been paid by OXO or any affiliated company to write this review. I signed up  for OXO’s Blogger Outreach Program.

Here’s 5 ways to enter to win: (doing all 5 means you have 5 entries) 🙂

1. Subscribe to my Blog if you aren’t already and leave me a comment saying you’ve done so or already are an awesome fan.
2. “Like” OXO on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OXO and  leave me a comment saying you’ve done so.
3. “Like” ZestyBeanDog on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Zestybeandog and leave me a comment saying you’ve done so.
4. “Pin It” (this post)  on Pinterest  and leave me a comment saying you’ve done so.
5. Share This Post on your Facebook page and leave me a comment saying you’ve done so.

I apologize for any inconvenience but this is limited to U.S. Residents ONLY. 

Good Luck! The winner will be announced May 1st 2012! Cheers!

Marx Foods 4th Annual Morel Challenge!

So I’d first like to say sorry for not having a pizza post this week, I’ve been sick for the past week almost.  Dry your tears everyone because I will be making it up to you with the most amazing pizza in ZBD history this week. 🙂 But for now enjoy this delicious recipe.

VOTE HERE NOW

I have entered into another contest with Marx Foods and this time it’s their 4th annual Morel Recipe Contest. Some of you may remember the Fregola Contest from a while back. ZBD took first place with the Bacon and Vanilla Fregola Cupcakes. This year the voting is a mix between public and internal! Voting starts 5/1/12-5/3/12. I’ll let you all know where to go to vote when the voting polls go live and would truly appreciate your support 🙂

Morel, Bacon, and Parmigiano-Reggiano Stuffed Egg Rolls with an Agave Yuzu Soy Sauce Infused with Garlic, Ginger, and Purple Scallions.

These are not your average egg rolls! They were incredible and I’ll be making these again for sure!

Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 5 min

Makes: 6 egg rolls

Ingredients:

• 1 oz Morels, dried
• 1/2 C. Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 4 sliced of cooked bacon, diced
• 1 Green onion, chive part, sliced very thin and chopped
• 1 TBS of Butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp Pepper, fresh ground black
• 1 egg, beaten (to seal egg roll).
• Egg roll wrappers 6
• Peanut oil, enough for frying

Sauce:

• 4 TBS Yuzu juice
• 3 TBS Light soy sauce
• 2 TBS Agave nectar, light
• 1/2 Clove of garlic minced
• 4 Purple scallions, sliced about a cm thick
• 5-6 sliced of peeled ginger, slice very thin

Instructions:

1. Reconstitute Morels 
2. Make sauce while you reconstitute Morels, By combining all “sauce” ingredients then place in fridge.
3. Chop up morels, grate cheese, chop bacon, and green onion chive and combine a medium mixing bowl with 1 TBS of butter and pepper. Divide into 6 balls
4. Lay out egg roll wrapper and place a ball of the mixture on the top corner and roll down until it’s a triangle, then fold in the corners and finish rolling, sealing with egg wash on the seams. Repeat until done.
5. Heat fryer oil to 350 F. once hot place egg rolls in and cook for about 5 min or until golden. Turning occasionally throughout the duration of cooking. Transfer onto paper towel before serving.

Serve with sauce and enjoy! Cheers!

Stay tuned for the next post, you won’t want to miss the OXO Gadget Giveaway! 

Marx Foods has provided me with 1 oz of Dried Morels to experiment with. I received the Morels at no charge to me and I am under no obligation to return the product but can keep it for me own personal use.

Team Zesty Bean Dog Takes FIRST PLACE Judges Pick in The Food Experiments Taco Experiment in Austin Texas!!!

Wow! I’m still so freaking excited that Evan and I won first place in the professional judges panel! I’m even more excited to announce that my two best friends (Liz and Kyle of Sous Me Alchemy) placed first in the public vote AND they will be going to Brooklyn to compete in December (we may have to pack it up and be your food groupies Liz and Kyle)! We both competed last year in 2011- ZestyBeanDog winning 3rd in Judges Pick. Ever since that day I knew I wanted to win first place!!! Our friends the Holy Smokers took 2nd Judges and 2nd Public this year, last year they were the Public champions and went to Brooklyn! Way to go everyone!

ZestyBeanDog made taco that was the “buzz of the afternoon” according to the judges. We made a Pecan smoked duck taco, topped with a duck egg and Brooklyn Lager aioli, a Yuzu Serrano quick pickle slaw, and corn tortilla crispies fried in duck fat all on the bed of a warm homemade flour tortilla (made at 5am that morning). We used all local ingredients from Austin TX. We were even told that our taco was a “smokey, ducky, juicy, crispy BLT of a taco which made the judges swoon”.

The days leading up to the big event recap:

• Friday, we started preparing things and collecting our last min needs like charcoal and wood chips, etc.
• Saturday I made a final shopping round to the Cedar Park Farmer’s Market, prepped even more evan deboned the ducks, I popped a pork shoulder in the oven (because we all have to eat too and that was the dish we made last year). Yes I know that may be crazy to cook two major dishes at once but it was worth it and the pork shoulder cooks itself basically! 😉 Smoked 4 ducks over the evening. Made the duck egg aioli and duck fat crispies! Even made a duck liver pate with all of the innards from the duck (thanks for that Lori)! Then sweet sweet SLEEP! (with a time change)….
• Sunday 5am = tortilla making time (it took me 5 tries to get these little things down over the course of 2 months). Slice 4 ducks, chop slaw, make yuzu sauce, and pack it all up! I know I must be forgetting something oh yes my camera (Lori and Dave go get it). Set up table and food, crack open first Brooklyn Lager… and prepare for the calm before the storm! Over 300 people came, the event sold out and reached capacity! There was even a CELEBRITY there Matt Lillard, from Scream, Scooby Doo, Ect… apparently he’s now producing his first movie: Fat Kid Rules the World and he tried our smoked duck tacos AND said it was amazing, he tried to come back for seconds… but we were out, I hope he voted for ZBD! Keep in mind this is event is going on all at the same time as SXSW, Austin’s Biggest event each year!
• When we got home we celebrated by opening a Brooklyn Black Ops (we won 3 last year at this event) and I made a pizza from scratch, sometime you just have to have pizza! Then we crashed hard! Competitive cooking takes it out of you! I’m still tired!

I put a lot of thought and effort into the vision of this dish as soon as I got that email from The Food Experiments telling me that Taco time was nearing! After several experimentations (some being slight failures and almost even changing our dish) we decided we had to do smoked whole ducks. My husband Evan was my biggest critic and that helped us win no doubt about it (even though I wanted to stab him with a fork a couple of times…). We work great as a team and when I want to give up or take an easy way out, he won’t let me no matter how much I fight it! Thanks for that E! Also thanks for rolling out of bed first thing in the morning and deboning 4 whole ducks 🙂 I’d also like to thank our friends and family that came to support us and watch it all go down, we really couldn’t have done it without you and of course the Brooklyn Brewery Food Experiments team led by Theo Peck- you are all amazing!

We totally took this competition on at full force and it it paid off, big time. I couldn’t be more happy with our placing in this event, to me judges first place is what I wanted all a long, the top pick by well known food critics in Austin. They know food, they know what makes it balanced and successful, and they know how to talk about it! I truly feel ecstatic that they chose our dish because they thought it was the best of them all- and to me that’s worth more than any trip or prize. The judges panel consisted of Addie Broyles from the Austin-Statesman, Claudia Alarcon of The Chronicle and Zagat, Virginia Wood, Food Editor of The Austin Chronicle, and local Austin Food Blogger Stella Floyd of Stella Cooks . Thanks to all of them for their hard work!

We did win some pretty sweet prizes though from the oh so gracious sponsors: A 12″ Anolon Skillet, a 4.5 Quart Le Creuset French Oven, a WHOLE brisket from Franklin BBQ (the BEST BBQ in Austin), a Wusthof knife, the Trailer Food Diaries Cookbook, a Microplane, T-Shirts, some SWEET Chameleon Cold Brew, and BRAGGING RIGHTS!!!

I’d also like to give a shout out to Marx Foods for expediting me some Yuzu at a great price! Thanks guys!

We made it in the media:

Culture MAP

Food Experiments

MSNBC

Brooklyn Brewery

Austin American Statesman

AustinFoodBlogs.net

To All My Fellow Bloggers…. Thank YOU for giving me inspiration and supporting me through reading and commenting on my blog you are what fuels my fire! Sorry for neglecting my blog over the past month and not being as active as I’d like on your incredible blogs! Cheers and MUCH LOVE!