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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

Tempura Veggies with Awesome Sauce and Voting Polls are Open

We had a sushi night last Saturday and it was amazing! I’m doing a 40 day yoga challenge and one of my commitments was to NOT eat meat… so I haven’t had any meat but some occasional seafood. I’m halfway through it and doing well. 🙂 See the end of post for details on how to vote for my Marx Foods entry!

These tempura veggies are a light and tasty snack or side to a meal.

Serves: 4

Prep: 10 min

Cook: 4 min or until lightly golden

Ingredients for batter: 

• 1 C. Flour
• 1 TBS Corn Starch
• 1 1/2 C. Club Soda
• 1 tsp. Salt
• Peanut oil

Veggies:

You can use what ever veggies you would like. I like sweet potato, bell peppers, Carrots, and Brocoli. Make sure you don’t slice too thick.

Awesome Sauce:

• 1/2 C. Soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. Sesame oil
• 1 TBS. Green onion
• 5 Thin slices of ginger, fresh
• 1/2 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. Lime juice
• 2 TBS Rice wine vinegar

Instructions:

1. Slice veggies and make sauce.
2. Heat fryer oil to 375 degrees.
3. Coat veggies in batter, shake off remaining batter and fry for 3-4 min.  Doing small batches at a time.
4. Place on paper towel. Repeat until done.
5. Serve with sauce.

Please vote for my submission to Marx Foods, I made a Chile, Yuzu, and Jasmine Tea Granita, it was DELISH!  The voting polls close Thursday evening! Thank you so much for the support!

ZestyBeanDog Has Been Deep In The Test Kitchen…

Sorry I haven’t been around much, I’ve been experimenting as you may already know. This is my second year to be involved in The Food Experiments Culinary Battle. I cannot wait for my husband and I to compete against Austin’s best amateur chefs!  This stuff isn’t easy but it sure is FUN. Last year I was not on top of my game at all, this year I’m more than ready- so look out! 🙂

Last weekend we went to the Houston Experiment because my friends Lori and Dave were competing. It was a great time and we tried so many great dishes and some not so great dishes 😉 They made an awesome beer braised pork belly on a bed of drunken slaw. They didn’t place this time but I’m sure next year they will bring the heat  x100! The winner of the Houston Experiment were actually our table neighbors at the Austin Pork Experiment on 2011: Magic Hops / Pork & Grits Under the Influence. They had a great dish, and the public thought so as well! They will be coming to Austin to root on the Taco Experimenters as well as going to Brooklyn to compete! My friends Lori and Dave and my parents will also be coming up from Houston to support the ZBD, among many others in Austin! Much love to them!

Evan and I have been experimenting for the last month and half and I must say we are quite happy with our taco! It’s sure to be a crowd pleaser-no doubt! Tomorrow we will meet at the Gingerman for our “Meet and Greet” (aka sizing the competition up) with the other chefs. The grand prize is a trip to Brooklyn to compete with all of the other winners from around the world.

I wonder what’s in that smoker… You will find none of our secrets here so stop looking! 😉

If you live in Austin/or are going to SXSW this is the place to be on Sunday buy tickets in advance. You pick the winner, enjoy 25 sweet sweet samples of topnotch food and beer from Brooklyn Brewery. See you there! Now back to the kitchen (and work).

Marx Food’s Dessert Challenge Voting is Live: Please Vote for ZestyBeanDog!

PleaseVote for Bacon and Vanilla Fregola Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting Click HERE to vote 🙂 

The polls will close at noon PST on 12/8, so make sure you vote before the deadline! The winner of this poll is going to receive $100 worth of baking ingredients (of their choice) from MarxFoods.com. They recently added some great items to the store…think of how much baking you could get done with a quart of premium vanilla extract…you’d sure be busy! There’s also bulk dried fruit, specialty sugars, yuzu juice, elderflower syrup….the list is long and delicious!

Thanks for all your help 🙂 Cheers!

After a little time off, a Warrior Dash, and some baking from Evan I’m getting ready for Thanksgiving!

Hi Everyone! I took a week off from blogging and now I’m back! I was busy getting some things in order and having some fun as well 🙂 I will share a few snippets of what I’ve been up to and what’s coming up from the ZestyBeanDog!

I’m getting ready for Thanksgiving now and I’m very excited! I’ll be cooking for 8 people this Thursday. I’m doing a nice organic and free-range local turkey. I’m considering brining it, but I have never brined before… any tips or thoughts on brining? Do you brine and why?

Lastly, I will be in a sweet blogger desert contest starting December 4th, stay tuned for details!

Over the last 10 days we:

Made a pizza with green beans on it …

Evan made some awesome strawberry banana nut bread for work

My friend Hannah and I ran in the Warrior Dash, Evan spectated!

It was so much fun! It’s a 5k trail run with obstacles to conquer! We finished in 43 min, we were 194 out of 809 in our age/sex bracket and 2118 of 6052 people. We were just running for fun…but didn’t do too bad 🙂 

Before

After

Now back to the grind 🙂