As many of you know, I spend a good bit of time helping my friend Nicko with his site Chef Talk. In fact, Nicko is the one who got me started on this whole food writing thing.

First off, I just finished a 3 part series on grilling. The 3rd part is on barbecuing and indirect grilling and can be found here

Also this month, Nicko, Chef Talk and Mad Cow Cutlery are giving away a 3 piece set of F Dick knives. Check it out for the Offical Rules.

And as always, if you have never checked out Chef Talk, it is a wonderful resource for all things cooking related and we have one of the most welcoming community forums around. Come check us out!!!

Okay, so this post has nothing to do with food so if that is all you are interested in then come back later and I’ll have a new recipe up. But for those of you intrigued by the title of my post, here’s the scoop. Starting on July 1st, I have my first gallery showing of my art work. Granted, it is only at the gallery of the local public library, but I am excited nonetheless! Yes, besides a full time job, helping to raise a daughter and 2 two dogs, and write a blog, I also dabble in digital art. While some of my work is playing with photo manipulation what I really enjoy doing is working with fractal programs to create images that are somewhat minimalist in nature and yet infinitely complex.

In preparation of my show, I have put up a simple site that showcases some of my work. If you are interested you can check it out here at digitaldreamsbypm.wordpress.com. Take a minute to check out the galleries and tell me what you think!

I came to a conclusion this weekend. I am terrible at keeping friends. It’s not that I am a mean or vile person. I am very personable and make friends quite easily, but I am terrible at keeping long term friendships alive. I have moved around alot in my life, both somewhat as a kid and more so as an adult and I have come to the realization that I tend to close out chapters of my life, when I move, to the point of letting old friendships fade away. You psychologist types out there would probably tell me that I do this to protect myself from the pain of leaving friends and loved ones behind as I move on with my life, and you’d probably be right. It’s a coping mechanism that has suited me well, in the short term, but I am now realizing that, in the long run, it wasn’t such a great thing.

So what has brought about this epiphany? Well, this weekend we got together with a couple of my old friends from culinary school, who are now married to each other. It was a fun time, hanging out, at the park, grilling out for Father’s Day, and enjoying the company of old friends, but as conversation turned to others we went to school with I realized I had pretty much lost touch with everyone and only knew about their lives by what they posted on Facebook. I then realized that it was the same with many other chapters in my life. I had made many wonderful friends, but, with a few exceptions, had allowed all those relationships to fade away.

Thanks to Facebook, I now have the chance to try and reestablish some of those friendships, but I wonder if that is even possible. I’m not the same person I was years ago and neither are they. We’ve had so many years to grow in different directions I wonder if there would even be any common ground any more. But even more importantly, I hope I have learned my lesson, and will not follow the same path as I have in the past.

But enough of my maudlin, introspective mood. That’s not what you came here for. You can to check out the new dishes I have created and the recipes I have come up with. Well, the next few posts will revolve around some of the food I prepared for our Father’s Day picnic/cook out.

These skewers that I am sharing with you today are pretty simple but require a little work the night before which leaves you with more time the day you are preparing them. Make sure, if you are using bamboo skewers that you start soaking them the night before you plan on cooking. If you don’t they will go up in flames and your skewers will fall part during cooking which is a pain!

Onion Balsamic Glaze
1 onion, large
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup water
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup granulated sugar

Peel and slice the onion. Place in a sauce pot along with the oil and saute until just starting to brown. Add the water and cook until almost all of the water has evaporated. Add the vinegar and sugar and cook until reduced by half. Remove from heat, allow to cool slightly then blend until almost smooth. Chill.

Beef and Mushroom Skewers with Onion Balsamic Glaze
makes 16 skewers-serves 6-8
3 pounds sirloin roast, trimmed of all fat and silver skin
24 cremini mushrooms, large
2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, minced
5 cloves garlic, peeled, sliced and lightly crushed
1/4 cup olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
salt
Onion Balsamic Glaze
16 skewers (I use bamboo, but if you have metal skewers they can be used also)

Cut beef into cubes approximately 1-1 1/2″ square. You should end up with about 48 cubes. Place beef, rosemary, garlic, and olive oil in a zip lock bag. Sprinkle with black pepper to taste and close bag. Gently massage bag to evenly distribute oil and seasonings over beef. Place in fridge and marinate overnight. Soak skewers, overnight, in water.

The following day, cut mushrooms in half. Make skewers using 3 pieces of beef and 3 mushroom halves, starting with a mushroom half and alternating with the beef. The mushrooms will have a tendency to split apart when being skewered. To avoid this press them gently, but firmly down on the skewer while roating the skewer. This will prevent most of the mushrooms from splitting. Season with salt and more pepper, if desired and grill over medium high heat, trying to keep the bottom, exposed, part of the skewer from sitting directly over the coals.

Grill for 3-4 minutes then flip the skewers over to cook the other side. After 3-4 minutes longer brush with glaze and cook 2-3 minutes longer. Longer than that and the sugar in the glaze will have a tendency to burn. If you like your meat a little more done, cook longer before adding the glaze. When done remove from grill and allow to rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

Well, I survived another successful tailgate. This was the second annual Men’s Day Out tailgate. Last year it was me, my father, and my father-in-law. This year my brother joined us for the fun. I have to admit, I wasn’t as ambitious this year as I was last year, with the menu. Time just kind of seemed to slip by and next thing I knew it, it was Saturday and I hadn’t started any prep for Sunday’s game. This year’s menu was:

Beverages
PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon)
Rhubarb Refreshers (a mix of homemade rhubarb syrup, rums and seltzer)

Food
Chips with Horseradish Dip
Black Bean and Jicama Salad
Macaroni Salad (store bought-I feel so ashamed!!!!)
Bourbon Mustard Marinated Boneless Pork Chops
Onion Buns
Watermelon

Being in store for a hot, sunny day I didn’t want to go overboard on the food and just have tons left over. Just enough to keep us full and satisfied so that we wouldn’t have to spend too much money on the outrageously priced food in the stadium.

Despite having to watch the Brewer’s lose yet again, for which my father-in-law seemed quite happy (he’s a Cubs fan so any time the Brewer’s lose he’s happy!), the 4 of us had a great day watching baseball, drinking a few beer and enjoying the afternoon.

I’ll try to get a few of the recipes up in the next day or so. Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!!!!

I don’t like to get political on this blog, which is devoted to food and not politics, but I couldn’t stand by and not comment on the recent happenings here in Wisconsin. We recently saw the passage of bill that would allow the sale of raw milk, to consumers, in the state of Wisconsin (currently it is illegal). Unfortunately, our governor, in his “wisdom,” decided to veto the legislation. Yet another way our government plays babysitter, not allowing us to make these kind of decisions for ourselves. Governor Doyle claims he vetoed the bill due to the concerns of the public health sector, while proponents of the bill claim he was swayed by the lobbyists of the large dairy agribusinesses. No matter what the case, I disagree with his veto and those that chose to buy and/or sell raw milk will continue to be “criminals” in the eyes of our government.

Like so many other things we do, there is risk involved with consuming raw milk. But shouldn’t it be up to the individual to decide what is right for them? Is it the government’s job to “protect us from ourselves” and act as our babysitter?

While I could rant on and on about this, I won’t. If you wish to read more about this issue you can check out the news article here. Hopefully, this will come up again in January once Wisconsin’s new governor is in place. And hopefully, this time the governor will see fit to let us make our own decisions.

I’d like to thank everyone that entered my 1st Anniversary giveaway, and thank you all again for making my first year of Once a Chef… successful! To determine the winner, I numbered all the comments I received both here and on Facebook. I then chose one of those numbered posts randomly using the random generator at random.org. The winner of my first giveaway, “Grilling for All Seasons,” is Shirley Koachway. Congratulations Shirley! Look for your book to arrive in the next week. And again, thank you to everyone for supporting Once a Chef Always a Chef!!!!

Ten days ago I wrote the arrival of my new toy, a Bradley smoker. Due to crappy weather, work, and other obligations I finally just got around to using it, and as you can see by the picture above I didn’t waste any time in trying a number of things out. The highlight of the initial run was the hot smoked salmon. Sorry, you’ll have to wait for an upcoming post to hear all about it as I think it deserves a page all to yourself. All I’ll say is that despite slightly overcooking the salmon, it came out tasting fantastic and still moist. Even my wife, a hardcore salmon hater, didn’t spite it out immediately!!! That’s big praise coming from her.

Since I waited so long to use my new toy, I couldn’t stop at just the salmon. I wanted to try a number of things, so I also bought a large package of chicken thighs. I seasoned half with a traditional BBQ while the other half was seasoned with Penzey’s “Tandoori” seasoning. If you have never heard of Penzey’s before, I urge you to check out their website. Their spices are not cheap, but are of excellent quality! Unfortunately, the tandoori spices got kind of lost in the heavy hickory smoke I used on the chicken.

Finally, because I love them so, I had to do a rack of ribs. Cooking them slow and low, this 2 1/2 pound rack took almost 5 hours to cook, 3 of those hours cooking in glourious hickory smoke. In the end they were tender, moist and bursting with smoky goodness. I finished the ribs with a Maple BBQ, which I will need to re-make sometime as it was one of those “just toss into a pan” kind of sauces.

Now that I got my first fix of barbecue from my new toy I can’t wait to play some more. Some friends and I were talking and I think a Pulled Pork party is in the cards for the near future and once summer hits with full force I’ll be doing a smoked gazpacho, using tomatoes that so a brief spin in the smoker for just the lightest touch of smokiness. I can’t wait!!!

It’s hard to believe it has been a year since I started this little venture, and while I started this more for my own sake than for anyone else’s, I hope that you, my readers have gotten as much enjoyment out of reading this blog as I have in writing it. I started this blog for very selfish reasons. I wanted an outlet for my culinary creativity, one of the things my current job lacks. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job and I love the life it has allowed me to live over the past year, but as with every job there are pros and cons, and one of the cons of this current job is the lack of much culinary creativity. This blog has helped fill that void. While I may have started out writing in a vacuum and for selfish reasons, but what I have discovered over the year is a vibrant and talented community of food bloggers. I am still amazed at many of the bloggers out there, and awed at the time many of them spend working on their blogs. I am humbled by the look of many of these blogs. There are a number of bloggers out there whose photographic skills should be making them lots of money, and creativity that shines through is inspiring. For a long time chef, who had been feeling rather burnt out for the last few years, this community has injected me with a renewed passion for my craft.

To thank my readers for the support they have shown throughout the year I thought I would do a giveaway on my first anniversary. Since I am a huge fan of grilling and barbecuing I thought a book on grilling would be appropriate.

I am giving away a copy of Rick Browne’s “Grilling for All Seasons.” The book came to me via the folks over at Chef Talk and later this month or early next month you will be able to read my review of the book there.

To enter the giveaway leave a comment below saying you would like to win. To get ab additional entry become a fan of Onceachefon Facebook. You can also get another entry by following me on Twitter at Alwaysachef. If you already follow Onceachef just state that in a comment and you’ll get credit for those. That gives you 3 chances to win. You have until the end of Saturday 5/15 to enter. Good luck and again thank you for supporting Once A Chef!!!!

My new toy arrived recently, and I can’t wait to play with it!!! My Bradley smoker showed up on my doorstep last weekend, and although I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, I am so excited I just had to share! Isn’t it beautiful? I can’t wait to try it out and let you all know how it does. If anyone has suggestions for what to make, please let me know!

Last Saturday I took my daughter out to the woods. Not only would I get a chance to spend some time with my 3 year old as we stomped through the woods, but it also gave my wife a little quite time without the 2 of us. Besides, though a little early, conditions seemed pretty good for hunting down some morels. The trip was both a success and a failure. No morels were found, but the land around the creek was bursting with ramps (wild leeks) of which I grabbed a few handfuls. I’m planning on heading back sometime this weekend to dig some more.

I also got to spend some time in woods with my daughter, which was a delight. She bounced along the paths, stopping at every other flower to point it out to me and to tell me how beautiful it was. Squirrels and birds of various sizes and colors captured her attention at every bend, though it’s surprising that anything ventured within 1/2 a mile of us as she babbled constantly and squealed and laughed with delight at every step. We spent 10 minutes following a toad I had scared up while hunting for morels and another 5 inspecting a dead fish that had washed up on the banks of the creek, though not too closely. She threw rocks at the water and chased after the occasional lone duck, finding fun and delight at every step. I found myself thinking about what a huge difference just a year makes in the life of one so young. Last year at this time, the woods, though wondrous to her, definitely did not hold the same allure that they do now. She explored, but never strayed to far. This time I had to race to keep up and constantly warn her about getting too far ahead. Oh, to be 3 again and once again view the world with awe and wonder, instead of the eyes of a jaded, relatively cynical 40 year old.

Crab Stuffed Shrimp with Linguine and Ramps
serves 4

6oz crabmeat
2 Tbsp. onion, minced
1 Tbsp. celery,minced
1 Tbsp. red bell pepper, minced
8 Club crackers, crushed (or 12 Ritz crackers)
2 Tbsp. mayonnaise
salt
pepper
12 shrimp, large (U-10′s are best)
2 Tbsp. butter melted
12oz linguine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup white wine
1-2 Tbsp. tarragon, minced
1 cup ramps, cleaned and chopped
1 1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Combine, crabmeat, onion, celery, pepper, crackers and mayo together in a bowl and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 450°F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta, per the directions on the package making sure to cook it al dente. Peel and devein the shrimp, making sure you cut only deep enough to remove the vein. Flip the shrimp over and cut open the shrimp from the underside, being careful not to cut all the way through.

Divide the crabmeat mixture into 12 portions and form into a loose ball. Place crabmeat on butterflied shrimp and curl tail over to hold the crab in place.

Once pasta is done drain in a colander and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking. Place the shrimp on a cookie tray, drizzle with the butter and place in the oven cooking for 7-9 minutes or until the shrimp is done. Meanwhile, in a large, nonreactive skillet place the wine and the garlic. Reduce over high heat until the wine is reduced by 2/3′s. Add the cream and reduce by 1/2. Add the tarragon and ramps, cook for 1 minute then add the pasta. Heat through, add the parmesan cheese and adjust seasoning with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Divide the pasta among 4 plates mounding it in the center. Place three stuffed shrimp around the pasta and serve.