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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Lunch at PHO FUSION

Chicken Pho Soup

Stuffed Duck Wing OMG!!! (not on the menu - you gotta know someone to get this dish)

Lunch at Pho Fusion

Pho is addicting, but it's a healthy addiction. Pho fusion is one of my regular stops for lunch. Pho is the Vietnamies soup that is becoming very popular accross the nation.

The broth is slow simmered for 9 hours. Flavored with star anise, cloves, cinnamon stick, grilled onion, and grilled ginger. It is served with a plate of fresh herbs and sprouts. Jalepenos and Sreracha add the heat. Simply awesome. As for the stuffed Duck Wing Pho-get about it. It's not on the menu. Although it doesn't hurt to ask if Hai (the executive Chef) will make it for you. GOOD GRUB PHO SHO' - Shannon
Pho Fusion Asian on Urbanspoon

Friday, January 29, 2010

Augustine Grill

Had a great lunch today with Erin Seabold, founder of The Seed, at Augustine Grill in Castle Rock. The restaurant is set in an old Victorian home. The atmosphere, service and food were excellent. I didn't have anything fancy, just a really good hamburger that was well-seasoned, topped with blue cheese, bacon and green chilis. If I weren't trying to lose weight, I might of had two! The fries were delicious as well. They had just the right amount of salt and were cooked perfectly. Not something I find everywhere, that's for sure. I'll definitely be back. I hear they're famous for their quiche.
Augustine Grill on Urbanspoon

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Dinner for Drew

Made some yummy dinner tonight...

Grilled Filet Mignon
Mushrooms in a (light) cream sauce -- pan deglazed with Cognac (yum)
Sauteed Sweet Bell Peppers and Onions

Monday, January 25, 2010

Dinner Club at Bob and Deb's

We have a dinner club with some friends of ours. We get together once a month at each of our homes, on a rotating basis. There's a few things we can count on at these dinners:
1. We will have a hell of a good time.
2. The food will be good (and it varies greatly...which is fun!).
3. The wine/drinks will be good.
4. We can't wait for the next one.

So this dinner was at Bob and Deb's place downtown. ALL of the food was delicious. Below are some pics of the spread she prepared for us. Shannon will need to fill in the blanks with the wine and whatever else I missed. Thanks for a great time!! Grub-a-dub-dub.

Incredibly smooth Jose - thanks Bob!

Cheese Bites with Grape Relish

Stuffed Endive with Apples, Blue Cheese and Toasted Walnuts

Pear Salad with Honey Lemon Dressing

Potatoes and Shallots ready to be roasted

Pork Wellington with Roasted Mushroom Sauce (sooooo good)

Ginger Creme Brulee


The bird is the word!!!

Contributed by Debbie Borgerding (thanks Deb!!)

I love quaint neighborhood businesses that have survived the “Big Guys”, you get treated like family and they love to share everything they know about their craft! Ok….so let’s talk about the “Bird”….Chicken, Turkey, Duck, Dove, Pheasant and the likes….nobody does it better than Wheat Ridge Poultry and Meats!

I have been frequenting this cool market for years and years. On a trip to the countryside of Loire Valley a few years ago…I lived my dream…we rented a French Farmhouse in a village, I got to shop the local markets everyday, come home to cook, drink wine and eat fabulous meals in our beautiful courtyard. The chicken was the REAL thing there. Fresh chicken, vineyard white wine, wild mushrooms, fresh cream and fresh herbs…need I say more? Didn’t taste even remotely close to our bland bird here, except for the poultry at Wheat Ridge Poultry and Meats… darn close there!

Truly folks, try this little piece of heaven…in addition to Poultry, they have a great selection of meats, farm fresh eggs, homemade pies, seasoning mixes, fresh milk and much, much more. Order your Thanksgiving Turkey there…you will have to wait in line but worth every second! With all due respect….forget about the Whole Foods and Tony’s experience and check out the quality, price and then look at the smiles across the table! They also have their own Meat Processing Plant for Wild Game. (Close to the Highlands) Grub on!

Wheat Ridge Poultry and Meat
5650 W 29th Ave
Wheat Ridge, CO 80214
303-233-0757

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Venice Ristorante & Wine Bar



Venice Restorante
is amazing, Great service and great food. I had the Chicken Cacciatore and it was awesome. I consider myself fairly advance in my cooking skills but I wouldn't even try to duplicate this one. It's not your standard Cacciatore. It is much richer and has Calamata Olives and house made Italian Sausage. Recently Andrea Bocelli sang live here for a wine and dinner night. The place is beautiful and really looks the part. Venice Restaorante gets top marks from this guy. - Shannon - Grubissimo
Venice Ristorante Italiano on Urbanspoon

Monday, January 18, 2010

Drew Sister's Birthday Dinner





Had a great meal for my sister on Friday.

Manuel cooked a beautiful Prime Rib Roast. His method was different, but it worked great. High heat (~500) for 45-60 minutes, then turn it off and leave for 2 hours. Do not open the oven during this time. The roast will continue to cook and be medium to medium-rare. Don't forget the rest time after you take it out of the oven. The crust on it was sooooo good.

My brother, Grant, made Tyler Florence's Ultimate Potatoes Au Gratin. It was ridiculously good.

I made an appetizer...baguette, seared scallop, basil oil and kosher salt.

My wife made an awesome ice cream cake.

Thanks everyone! Happy Birthday, Maren!

Friday, January 15, 2010


This was breakfast last weekend. It's a perfect example of the more simple the recipe the more important good ingredients are. Free Range Eggs from Whole foods and fresh baked French Bread, Sea Salt and Tri-Colored fresh ground pepper from Penzey's Spices. The coffee was fresh ground Kenyan coffee. It was easy and simple but delicious. - Shannon - Grubizle Fo Shizle

How to cook a steak

After cooking LOTS of steaks in my life and having plenty of bad ones at restaurants (ok, some good ones too), I wanted to share the proper way to cook a steak.

1. Buy a good quality steak with good marbling. Marbling is fat. Fat is flavor. If you don't want to think about fat, then don't eat steak! As long as the marbling lines are skinny, the fat will melt into the meat and you won't even know it's there. Steak without marbling is just not worth the money. Costco sells Prime (the best quality) steaks relatively cheap, but you can get a good steak just about anywhere. It really depends on the selection that day. One of the best steaks I've ever cooked came right after the Stock Show (seriously). It was a regular New York Strip from King Soopers but the marbling was soooo perfect, it just melted in my mouth. Ahem, anyway, I digress

2. Seasoning. You can marinate a steak or use all kinds of seasonings, but I prefer the KISS principle...Keep It Simple Stupid! I rub olive oil all over the steak and then sprinkle generously with fresh ground pepper and French Grey Sea Salt. I use coarse Kosher salt in just about everything, but I really like the Grey salt on steaks.

3. Rest #1. Ideally, you want to season your steaks and then leave them on the counter 30-60 minutes before you cook them. Getting them to room temperature helps the steak cook more evenly and quickly.

4. High heat is essential. This is the mistake that most cooks (home or "professional") make. Using high heat to cook a steak will create a nice crust on the outside and lock in the juices, creating a beautiful and delicious contrast. I hardly every order a steak in a restaurant anymore, unless it's a Prime steakhouse like Del Frisco's, because most people don't understand this.

5. Where to cook it. I prefer a grill over a skillet, but both work well. The flavor on a skillet steak will definitely be different than on a grilled steak, but hey, work with what you have.

6. Cooking time. Every grill is different, so it will take a few times to dial in the right combination of time and heat for your particular grill. For a "normal" cut (not 2" thick), I like cooking mine about 3 minutes, then rotating it 90 degrees. This will give it nice grill marks and also create more crust (because more area is touching the hot grates). After a total of 6 minutes, flip over and repeat for another 6 minutes. For me, this results in a medium (pink center) steak.

7. Rest #2. After cooking, leave on a plate or platter for 3-5 minutes (longer for really thick cuts), lightly tented with foil. The steak will continue to cook during this step so you want to take it off the grill a couple minutes BEFORE it reaches your desired temperature. This step is essential because it allows all the juices to stay in the meat, resulting in a juicier steak. If you didn't do this, the juices would run all over your plate and your steak would be dry.

8. Grub on. I think you know what to do in this step!

-- Drew

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Taste of Thailand



Had lunch today at Taste of Thailand. It's right across from Swedish Hospital. I first ate here last year with my good friend Donna. I love the quiet, calm atmosphere. The people are really nice and the food is delicious.

I had the vegetable soup (really clean taste, mildly spicy, not bad) and the Kow Pad Kra Prow, which is a typical Thai street dish with fried rice, basil, garlic, onion, chiles, broccoli, cabbage and carrots. I added chicken to mine. It felt like comfort food to me, well-seasoned and mildly spicy. I said "mmmmmmm" alot (to myself, since I was eating alone).
It was voted Westword's Best Thai restaurant in '95, '96, '97, '98, '99, '00, '09. -- Drew
Taste of Thailand on Urbanspoon

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Working on site

We're working on the slideshow headers on our blog. Hang tight while we figure it out.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Hapa Sushi


We went to Hapa Sushi for lunch Saturday. These are some pics of what they call The Multiple Orgasm Roll and with good reason so we ordered two. The other platter contains some Uni (my favorite food in the world) and a couple of other rolls. One of them was a Fresh Water Eel roll called a Cheeto Roll and the other was just a California Roll covered in Flying Fish roe. The food was very good and as always the service was top notch. Hapa Sushi is a good Sushi bar, I know a thing or two about sushi and this place it good. Have I had better? Sure. but that is coming from a guy who would live off Uni and Monk Fish liver if I could. I like the stuff the most wont try but if they did they would love it. By the way Hapa has both Uni and Monk Fish Liver so give it a try next time. Grub-a- Dub Dub - Shannon

Funnies

Drew's recent eats


Sunday's dinner...Carnitas sandwich with Larimer Hot House BBQ Sauce, tomatoes, mayo and avocado. YUM!


Sunday's breakfast...Omelet with dried epazote and mexican cheese, bacon.

An awesome tip for making risotto

An awesome tip for making risotto - One important thing when making Risotto is to keep the stock that you are adding hot so it doesn't lower the temperature of the risotto. Most of us use a pot with a ladle which can be a little messy. Try putting your stock in a Tea Pot and pouring in as needed. This also makes it easy to do with one hand while stirring with the other hand. - Grub Up - Shannon

Friday, January 8, 2010

Dinner for Drew

Made a Vegetarian White Bean Chili tonight from the New England Soup Factory Cookbook. It was really good, but I'm a meat guy and would have liked some chicken or carnitas in there. Even better would have been some crusty bread to soak up the good stuff at the bottom of the bowl. Oh well, it was healthy and tasted good. Not a bad combination.

How good does this look?!?!


Eric's lunch yesterday (owner of Larimer Hot House)

Thursday, January 7, 2010


A kitchen Gadget I can't live without, The ol' Lemon/Lime squeezer. You can't make Ceviche or a good Margarita without it. - What kitchen doodad are you lost without? - Shannon

Talk about a serious Grub Chub

A USDA Prime Rib Eye with a compound Uni Butter served along side Duck Fat French Fries. I don't have a picture because this is a family site. Get your Grub on - Shannon

Drew's Top 5 Treats of 2009

Shannon's Birthday Cake (yes, the one on the left is a cake!)

My Birthday Cakes

Beautiful
Baby Shower

Zombie Barbie

My wife is awesome. Check out her site... http://www.tanettestastytreats.com/

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

No talent cooking at its best

Jack N Grill


Jack N Grill Burrito, These people know how to make a burrito. I prefer it with red and green chili. As noted on Man V Food these burritos are delicious. I have tried most of them now and have come to the conclusion that one could close their eyes and point to anything on the menu and not be disappointed AND,,The staff is as nice as they come. I love this place www.jackngrill.com- Shannon
Jack-n-Grill on Urbanspoon

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Recent eats from Drew


On January 1st, made some grilled new york strips, mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms in cream sauce. Yes, I overcooked the asparagus. Everything else was deeeeeeelicious.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Great idea for new food enterprises

Saw this article in the Denver Business Journal. Great idea for a small food business! -Drew

Independent restaurants join up to battle chains

Saw this article in the Denver Business Journal. -Drew

Recent eats from Drew

For Christmas Day I made chorizo and roasted poblano queso. I wasn't sure how much of a hit it would be since my inlaws don't like spicy food, but I barely got any 'cuz they ate it all up so fast!

I made at least 10 more of those quesadillas I mentioned below. I couldn't get enough of the carnitas and good mexican cheese. Thanks to Shannon for hounding me to buy the Costco carnitas. It's so easy and delicious.

Other stuff I've made recently that I really liked...
Homemade french fries - must double fry, salt generously as soon as they're out of the oil and eat immediately
Croque-monsieur - YUM! Basically a kicked-up ham and cheese. I've wanted to make these forever. Thank goodness I did.
Peppermint Bark ice cream and warm brownie
Manchego cheese and dry salami

Recent eats from Drew

Christmas Eve at my Brother's house...
I made chocolate truffles (Grand Marnier, Kahlua, plain, toasted coconut, raspberry) and quesadillas with carnitas and roasted poblano peppers.

My brother, a huge Bobby Flay fan (for good reason...everything he's made is really good), made Mini Open-Faced Steak Sandwiches on Garlic Bread with Aged Provolone, Caramelized Onions and Parsley Oil. They were ridiculous!

My sister made ceviche for the first time and it turned out great. So did everything else. Thanks, guys!