Out in the West Texas town of El Paso

Out in the West Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a barbecue joint. With apologies to Marty Robbins for my singing abilities, I have to tell you about Smitty's Pit Bar-B-Que where I met some yummy Texas barbecue.

Okay, so we had to go to El Paso to pick up Monique on Saturday night and I asked Bill if he wanted to try Smitty's with me. Since the "Texas Pit Bar-B-Que" restaurant was just a block away from us in Cloudcroft and we had already eaten there I figured Bill would be up for the adventure. I heard about Smitty's when I looked on Roadfood for restaurants to be on the lookout for while I'm here in New Mexico. So when I saw that Smitty's was listed there as the 'best barbecue in West Texas" and only a few blocks from the El Paso airport I knew I had to try it. But when I flew in to El Paso my flight was late and Smitty's was already closed. So I knew this could be my only chance.

Smitty's has been around since 1955 and when you look inside it's old school with a dash of new. Green vinyl booths are partitioned off and match the green vinyl bar stools. Texas longhorns hang on the wall near a Shiner Bock advertisement. It definitely looks like a place built in the fifties and the fact that it's so well taken care of speaks to a love of tradition. Of course there are modern elements too like the big screen TVs. The bar boasts an impressive collection of beer steins and vintage Budweiser collectibles abound.


Now, down to the food. The menu lists an extensive selection of meats, with beef brisket, beef ribs, pork ribs, corned beef, pork loin, ham, hot links, chicken breast and turkey breast. I got the two meat combo (with beef brisket and pork ribs) while Bill got the four meat combo (with brisket, beef ribs, hot links and chicken breast). The combos come with cole slaw, pinto beans, 'German' fried potatoes and sliced white bread. They were out of cole slaw so Bill got potato salad instead and I got double beans. The beans were good, but not as phenomenal as the Texas Pit BBQ in Cloudcroft. (Those were truly great beans!)I'm not sure what made the fried potatoes 'German' but they were good, peeled wedges of potato that had been deep fried. These were larger than wedge cut fries and were crispy on the outside and still fluffy on the inside.

The beef brisket was smoky, moist and delicious. It was a little on the fatty side but I noticed (after the fact, of course) that you could order it 'lean'. The pork ribs were slow smoked with a nice char on the outside and rosy hued inside, with the meat falling off of the bone. They were loin ribs, not baby backs, which can mean that they are not as tender but the long cooking process left these ribs succulent. Bill exclaimed over his beef ribs (and he says he knows good beef ribs!). Beef ribs can be tough and I rarely order them because I feel like a dog when I have to gnaw the meat from the bone but these were well cooked and the meat came away easily. The links were spicy enough that Bill didn't eat his usual pile of jalapenos (you can order a plain style sausage our waitress informed us.) The chicken breast was just that, a plain chicken breast, which Bill said was serviceable but dry, as plain chicken breasts tend to be. The only downside we could find was with their sauce. It was a thin, vinegar based sauce with a spicier version on the table. I usually really like vinegar based sauces but these were a bit overwhelming in their vinegarness. Fortunately the meat was flavorful enough that no sauce at all was just fine by me. (Bill likes the tomato and brown sugar-type sweet barbecue sauces so he was more upset than I was.)


Dessert is limited to home made rum cake (note the typo on the menu where it says 'run cake' not once, but two times) and commercially prepared cheesecake. The rum cake is the way to go, it is definitely made in house and tastes just like the rum cake my grandma used to make for Christmas. Moist sweet and just enough flavor of rum. Delicious.

Our server was a very polite young lady (she looked really young but she knew how to do her job) and she would excuse herself whenever she left our table. They sure know their manners down here! One caveat for the late night diner, while Smitty's hours are until nine in the evening, in reality they lock the doors at eight. Also, the strip mall Smitty's is located in is pretty deserted at night except for the rather intimidating looking biker bar a few doors down.

Smitty's has an extensive to go menu and if you're ever in the El Paso airport area, I suggest you stop by for some brisket and rum cake. If you take it on the plane with you I guarantee you'll make friends real quick as soon as that rich smoky aroma wafts through the plane. And if you go, tell the waitress the girl from Las Vegas who stole the menu (I offered to buy it but she told me I could have it) says hi!

Chile and Cheese

Okay, here is my latest find in New Mexico. I actually heard about this long before I got to Alamogordo and it was in the back of my mind to try one but hadn't really seen one on a menu yet. Then yesterday after we worked late, Bill and I decided to go to the McDonald's on base to grab a quick dinner before we headed up the mountain. Now most know that I only eat at McDonald's only rarely and usually under duress ever since I saw the movie "Supersize Me". But it was close (a few hundred yards from the office) and we were hungry. And they had the thing I had been thinking about - the green chile cheeseburger.

The green chile (I dasn't spell it 'chili' lest hoards of angry chile-philes beat me for blasphemy)is a staple crop in New Mexico and so I guess it was inevitable that it ended up on a hamburger, the staple food of America. It's exactly what it sounds like, a pile of chopped, roasted green chiles on a cheeseburger (in this case on the McDonald's double cheeseburger in lieu of pickle).

I thought it would be like the mild green chiles I buy in a can at home but these chiles had a bit of heat to them. The spicy flavor added some depth to a pretty average fast food burger and transformed it to a tasty treat. The heat from the chile lingered even after the bite was gone and made a great counterpoint to the salty fies. And I think the heat is the point, the mild canned chiles I am used to would have rendered the burger quite ordinary and pointless.

Now as I traverse the highways and byways of Southeastern New Mexico I am on the lookout for even better specimens of the species. (Although I doubt any will be able to match the McDonald's price of a buck.) I have found a list of the best green chili cheeseburgers in the state and a couple are either nearby or on my way to certain destinations. I'll report back the results, loyal readers, and encourage you to try this spicy addition to your boring burger.

What A Burger!

Okay, I'm still exploring the New Mexico area and learning about the foods in the area. Alamogordo is inordinately proud of it's chain restaurants and everyone keeps giving me funny looks when I ask about restaurants. They keep recommending Chili's and Applebees. No offence intended but I can eat their food at home if I want (and I don't.) I'm not knocking chains, I just want something different than what I can see in my own hometown.

Which leads me to my fast food adventure in Roswell, NM. (I'm making a video about my alien hunt, look for it soon at www.fnnygrl.blogspot.com) I was hungry and saw a couple of restaurants that looked okay but then I spotted what looked like a fast food restaurant called Whataburger. Well I was hungry and it looked good so I pulled in.

Whataburger is a family owned chain started in Odessa, Texas. (Hmm, yet another food from Texas that I like...moving to Austin is getting more and more appealing!)They now stretch across the south going as far west as Arizona. (Hint, hint to the Whataburger family...Las Vegas, NV is a great expansion location!) They remind me of a Texas style In-N-Out.

I knew it must be a popular place because it was crowded. You order at the counter and then wait for your food at a table where a nice person will bring it to you. It was so crowded on this particular Saturday afternoon that I didn't want to tie up a table for just me so I decided to use the drive thru and take my food to a nearby park. I also thought the drive thru would be quicker but when I pulled up I was informed by the nice young lady that it would be a ten to fifteen minute wait there too. Oh well.


Since it was all new to me, I went with the Double Meat Whataburger (add cheese), medium fries and small chocolate shake. I know, it's a lot of food but I'm a big girl and I was really hungry. But not that hungry. The Whataburger is HUGE. The menu says it's a five inch bun but I would swear that it's larger than that. And they don't skimp on the toppings. Three slices of tomato, lots of pickles, (again, the menu says four but mine had more than that)lettuce, diced onions and something they call their 'famous mustard'. I don't know what it's famous for, it tasted like regular mustard to me. I love stuff on my burger so I was in high heaven. The fries were thin, crispy and hot and were served in a square box, like the kind popcorn used to come in. The chocolate shake was thick and just right, not too chocolaty. They didn't have Heinz ketchup (which is a venial sin in my book) but I did like that it was in a square container instead of a packet which made it much easier to dip my fries.

Next time I'd probably get the Junior Whataburger because it's not quite as humongous. I'd also like to try breakfast since it's the first time I've seen biscuits and gravy on a fast food menu. The quality of ingredients was terrific and while the burger was a bit greasy, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing in my eyes and was probably due to the double meat, double cheese factor. (They also have a triple meat, triple cheese option and I would like to meet the person who can eat that!)

When I got back to Alamogordo, Bill said he was glad to hear there was one in New Mexico since his girlfriend Rhonda was from Texas and had introduced him to the chain. Roswell is over two hours away but there are also locations in Las Cruces which is only a little over an hour from the base. I think another run before I leave New Mexico is in order. Yummmm.

Easter + Ham = Delicious

So I made my traditional Easter Ham for dinner last night. Of course I'm several hundred miles from home working out of a stranger's kitchen so I had to be adaptable but my ham recipe is pretty adaptable I was okay.

First you have to choose a ham. I recommend a fully cooked bone-in ham. You can, of course, choose the boneless option but that's more like lunch meat than real ham. For my recipe I don't recommend a spiral sliced, plus, while pretty, you don't have the option of thick slices. I prefer the 'butt portion' over a 'shank portion', as they are smaller and easier to handle (less of that giant shank bone.)

Remove the ham from it's packaging and give it a quick rinse to remove any package juices. Pat it dry with some paper towels. Cut off any visible rind or extra fat. Sprinkle the surface with ground cloves. (You can stud your ham with whole cloves but then you have to be careful to remove them before eating because biting into a whole clove can ruin your meal. Trust me, ground is easier.)

Next you have to choose your moistener. You can have free reign here. Like it savory? Then rub it with liberally with mustard. If you like a pineapple or apricot flavored glaze then rub it with the jam or jelly of your choice. (Hot pepper jelly is delicious). If you want a honey ham. then, you guessed it, rub it with honey. Then take a box of brown sugar (I prefer dark brown sugar) and cover the entire ham. You are trying to get a thick crust of brown sugar over the ham, like a protective cocoon. If you haven't rubbed it with jam or honey (which helps the sugar stick to the ham) then mix the brown sugar with enough liquid to make it like damp sand which will help you make the crust. (Root beer makes a tasty addition and since I was away from home I used a local cherry cider which was fabulous.)You can't put too much sugar on. This is a messy process and you will be covered up to your elbows with sugar but hey, people pay lots of money for those sugar scrubs, so you are getting a great dinner and an exfoliation treatment at the same time.

Place the crusted ham, fat side up, in a baking pan. There will be a lot of drippings at the bottom of the pan so make sure the sides are deep enough. Bake at 300 degrees for at least three hours. The ham is of course fully cooked before you ever put it in the oven, but the longer you let it cook, the deeper the sugar will penetrate. Don't worry about it drying out, if you've gotten your sugar crust thick enough it will stay nice and moist inside. Just cover the outer edges of ham with foil if they are starting to look too done. Spoon the pan drippings over the ham every forty-five minutes or so. Mix a little extra brown sugar with the liquid of your choice and microwave to make into a syrup. A half hour before you want to take the ham out, pour this glaze over the ham.

This ham is so sweet and moist, you won't believe it, and your house will smell wonderful while you are baking it. Bill was avoiding the crusty edges (where there is a little fat) but once he tasted that sugar crust he went nuts. It's addictive!

Tamale Junkie

Do you know how there are some foods that you fall in love with and are then on an endless quest to find a good source for that food? That's me and tamales.

I think my love affair with tamales began when I was a little girl of five and my grandmother would pick me up from school to spend the weekend at her house. On the way home we would stop at the 7-11 and buy a tamale from a crockpot on the counter. It was an XLNT brand tamale and the wrapper was white plastic. They weren't tamales in a traditional sense, but the machine extruded version that you find in the south and in cans. (But XLNT is better than any canned version I could ever find.) But they were hot and fun to unwrap and had the basic elements of a tamale, which is cornmeal exterior and filling. I loved our little weekly ritual and I loved tamales.

When I got older my father would occasionally come home from work with a dozen or so homemade tamales. These were bigger and had a much larger dough to filling ration than what I had been used to but they were so much better than the extruded kind. The mother of one of my dad's co-worker's made these beauties and sold them to every now and then. What made these tamales so good to me was that the masa dough (the cornmeal part of the tamale) was spiced along with the filling. In fact, the masa was so good the filling was just the icing on the cake, so to speak.

Years of trying other commercial tamales inevitable ended in disappointment. Even most "homemade" tamales failed to live up to my taste buds high standards. After one particularly bad experience with a Cuban tamale (I'm not knocking the Cuban version, just expressing my preference for the Mexican version) I decided to learn how to make my own tamales.

Making tamales is a labor intensive, time consuming process, which is why they are mainly made for holidays and celebrations. I use a sturdy mixer to mix the shortening with the masa and it still takes forever to get it to the proper stage (you should be able to float a piece of the tamal dough on the surface of a glass of water in order for it to be the proper texture - which takes a lot of beating of the dough. I don't know how people do it without a heavy duty electric mixer!) Between making the filling, mixing the dough, assembling the tamales and steaming them for an hour, the whole process takes me at least two days. But since I can season the tamal dough the way I like it, I make tamales once a year or so. That's because when I'm done it takes me a year to forget how hard the process really is.

So in between my bouts of tamale making, I search the world for a ready made tamale to satisfy me. Most Mexican restaurants serve frozen tamales which are barely mediocre. I have yet to find a connection to a good homemade tamale, although some people roam my neighborhood occasionally, selling their tamales door to door. Since I'm pretty sure they aren't abiding by all of the health laws and I'm unsure of all of their ingredients, I shy away from the tamale black market. So I buy brand after brand of commercial tamales in search of a decent substitute for homemade.

Which leads me to my current location in Alamogordo, New Mexico. As I roamed the aisles of the Lowe's grocery store (I love grocery stores, and an unfamiliar chain brings on a field trip type thrill)I spotted a selection of tamales. Not surprising, since I'm not too far from both the Texas and the Mexican border. Now I prefer my tamales to be filled with beef and I like them on the spicy side, so I was happy to find a brand called Pedro's that made a spicy beef tamale. Pedro's motto is "Sirloin in a shuck" so I'm hoping that means they use good beef. Small tamales wrapped in a corn husk and bundled by the half dozen. I don't mind small tamales, that's the way I like them. being impatient, I microwaved mine (following the directions to wrap them in a wet paper towel first, to give them a good steam). They were such tasty little tamales, the closest I've had to my homemade ones that I've found so far. They weren't as spicy as mine but I think I may be in love anyway. Pedro's Tamales is based in Lubbock, Texas and if you check out their website Pedro looks like the kind of guy who knows his tamales.

So, in addition to eating gallons of Blue Bell Ice Cream, now I have to eat dozens of tamales. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it!

I Love the Blue Bell

Okay, I'll post later about the homogenization of American food and how regional brands and products are becoming a thing of the past. But I want to tell you about a regional food that lives up to it's reputation.

Many people rave about the foods they grew up with and the brands that only exist in their home towns. Pickled bologna, Faygo soda, even Oliverio's peppers from Clarksburg, West Virginia, close to where my mother grew up. Usually when other people (outsiders) try those foods they wonder what all the fuss was about. (I've tried pickled bologna and thought it was okay but I love those peppers, I wish they weren't so hard to get!) So when I heard people rave about Blue Bell ice cream, I didn't think much about it except that I'd like to try it sometime. (Of course, I'd never turn down trying just about any ice cream)

Blue Bell is a Texas based ice cream company that is still pretty regional, mainly Texas and the surrounding states. So when I got to New Mexico I figured I was close enough (it's only eighty miles to El Paso) that I might get a chance to finally try it. Sure enough, Blue Bell is available at the Alamogordo grocery stores. (The Wal-Mart Superstore has a small selection but the Lowe's Grocery Store has a big variety of both the ice cream and their novelty line. Support smaller retailers whenever possible!)

I bought a lot of ice cream. Hey, I heard this stuff was good and I needed to give it a thorough evaluation. So I got a half-gallon of "Moo-lenium Crunch" and a half-gallon of "Ultimate Neopolitan". And it's a true half-gallon, not that 1.75 quart bs that most ice cream retailers pull. But it's not cheap, a half gallon runs a bit over four dollars, which is more than I usually pay for national retail ice cream but less than the cost of most "super-premium" brands like Ben & Jerry's or Haagen-Daaz.

Oh my heck, is this ice cream good! I now understand and agree with all of the hype. The "Moo-lenium Crunch" is vanilla with chunks of chocolate and caramel and lots of walnuts, almonds and pecans. It's a great flavor for people who like lots of stuff in their ice cream. The nuts are great big halves and you can't take a spoonful without getting a whole lot of everything. They don't skimp on the add ins. But as good as it was, the best was the Ultimate Neopolitan.

I always thought of neopolitan as a sort of weird flavor. I like vanilla, love chocolate and I'm pretty lukewarm on strawberry. I'm sort of like Homer Simpson and I'd just eat my favorite flavors and leave the rest, till it gets freezer burned and thrown away. But I bought the Blue Bell because I figured it was a good way to try multiple flavors. So I scooped out a heaping bowl. (Why lie and say I took a small lady-like taste? We both know the truth.) First up was the strawberry, my least favorite...until now. This was honest to gosh strawberry ice cream. Not some artifically strawberry flavored pink goo but real ice cream with real strawberries swirled in it. Big honkin' pieces of strawberry, too. It reminded me of when I was a kid and we used to make ice cream in my grandma's hand crank ice cream maker. Trust me when I say this is a high compliment indeed. Next came the vanilla. Creamy, not too sweet, just right old fashioned vanilla. So delicious and now I kow why Blue Bell "Homemade Vanilla" is the best selling ice cream in Texas. It is wonderful and on a piece of peach pie was heavenly. (I'll post about the pie later!). Last was the chocolate and it was okay and by that I mean it was good but the strawberry and vanilla were so outstanding that it paled in comparison. It was a fine example of chocolate but I would have preferred a deeper chocolate flavor to stand up next to the others.

So now I am a Blue Bell devotee. My problem is that now I have something else I love that I can't get back home. (Except for shipping it, but that costs $120 for 2 gallons and even I can't justify that kind of expense!) So I'm trying to figure out how much ice cream I can eat in the next eleven days. Also, in looking at the website I can apparently get their ice cream in the Phoenix area...where there also happens to be my other illusive favorite, Ikea. Perhaps I'll have to rent a refrigerated truck sometime and bring back meatballs and ice cream!

Growing My Own

Okay, you know how much I love Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Market. I adore it,and I've made a new BFF, a wonderful gentleman named B.J. who works at the store in Sun City. He always stops to ask how I am and he encourages me to try the delicious things on the 'kitchen table' (like that takes a lot of arm twisting). Because of him I got some pluots, carnitas and a papaya. He's awesome.

But anyway, even though I love the store and buy my fresh fruits and vegetables there, I planted my own little herb garden in the hopes that this summer I can harvest a bountiful crop and make pesto and salad caprese and bruschetta and mojitos, etc. Above is a picture if the very beginnings.

There is something about eating a vegetable that you grew yourself that makes it taste extra special. And I love saving three dollars every time I want some fresh basil. So as things grow and we eat them, I'll post pictures of the home-grown, home-made food.

Something from nothing

Okay, remember my review of Hot n' Juicy Crawfish? Well, we ordered three pounds of shrimp for the three of us which seemed like the right amount but boy was it ever too much. We had a bunch of shrimp left over. So the next day we turned them into these super caesar salads. We actually had a leftover caesar salad kit (you know, the kind that come with lettuce, dressing, croutons and cheese? This one was from Fresh & Easy - gosh I love that store) and so all I had to add was some avocado and tomatoes. We peeled those spicy shrimp and added them. They were sublime. The combination of spicy shrimp with tangy caesar dressing and creamy avocado was to die for. We ended up with nine large shrimp apiece for our salads and we enjoyed every last bite.

This is an example of frugality. We could have abandoned those shrimp at the restaurant, leaving them to be thrown away. But in Gourmand Girl's house good food should never be thrown away. Don't be ashamed of the 'doggy bag'. Use those leftovers in a creative way and you honor the chef who created the food in the first place. When I was little and we would go to eat the $2.95 prime rib special, I would eat all of my salad and baked potato and roll and save my prime rib to make the most delicious sandwiches for school. So stop thinking of them as leftovers...think of them as planned overs, and let your imagination run wild.

Don't knock it till you try it

Okay, so I saw a link on a friend's blog to a recipe for apple dumplings which involved crescent roll dough and a can of Mountain Dew. It sounded weird. So weird I had to try it. So I did, and they were really good. With a little work, they could be truly great. My Grandma LOVED them. They reheated beautifully. They were simple to make and the recipe divided in half perfectly. I never would have believed from the ingredients how good these could be. And once made you never would have guessed what the ingredients were.

At Christmas I made a toffee candy that had only three ingredients, one of which was Ritz crackers. It was amazing and people loved it. But it was strange when I read the recipe. Again, it was so weird I had to try it.

Here is the moral of my story...when you find that strange, unique or weird recipe, try it. Maye it will be gross. Maybe it will be awesome. But you'll never know unless you try it. it's easy to stick with what you know, the safe, the tried, the true. But venture out, branch off. Be a food pioneer, blaze a new trail, you may just find that new territory is a great place to be.

The Underappreciated Chef

Okay, I bet this is a common theme, loyal readers, so Gourmand Girl has a question. Do you often feel disappointed by the reactions to your meals?

I feel this way most often at the holidays. I have spent weeks planning the meal, shopping for elusive ingredients, doing hours of prep cooking then even more hours cooking the meal itself. Then everyone sits down to the feast, eats it in like ten minutes, says thanks and leaves. You then spend the next hour crying into the sink as you wash the dirty dishes, vowing that you will never again waste your time and talents again making homemade turkey stock for gravy for a bunch of ingrates.

Don't get me wrong, I don't expect a Nobel prize for my cooking, and most of the time the best accolade a cook can hope for is to see people take seconds, or third helpings and stuff themselves silly (although a round of applause occasionally would be nice.) But sometimes it seems like it's hardly worth the effort.

I never understood this when I was a child, but children by nature are profoundly ungrateful. I remember once when I was little my mother spent an entire day making crepes. She made multiple fillings, mountains of crepes and presented it to up in high fashion. My father ate one bite and turned to her to ask, in a most unflattering way, "Is there paprika in this? I don't like paprika." Tired, frustrated and angry after her long day in the kitchen, my mother replied "Then don't eat it!" and proceeded to slam her tiny fist down into the middle of the crepe, sending filling flying out the ends. My brother and I looked at one another and quietly put our heads down and determinedly ate our crepes. I don't remember what the crepes tasted like but I do remember that I was determined to eat them no matter what because I didn't want to upset my mother. She is a small woman known for her saint-like patience (the Dali Lama has been known to admire her abilities) and it takes a great deal for her to get truly upset, but in the case of cooking, one little crepe set her off.

Of course, now I know why that crepe was so important. It wasn't about the food at all but the fact that my mother was trying to express her love for her family. She worked all day. She wanted everything to be perfect. And she wanted us to express our love for her by loving the food. Last night I did the same thing. I made a casserole, salad, broccoli and french bread, specifically catered to the tastes of my brother. I choose those things to say, "Hey, Bro, I love you so I made foods that you enjoy". So when he picked at the casserole and didn't even try the broccoli, my feelings were hurt. I wish he had said, "Hey, I didn't like the way the broccoli smelled while cooking and the casserole isn't my thing but I love you, thanks for trying." I wouldn't have felt so upset. But when I mentioned that he hadn't tried the broccoli, he got mad which made me mad and while I didn't throw broccoli at him (I know that's what you were hoping for) I did have to leave the room for a while to cool down. Because my feelings were hurt. Not because he rejected the broccoli but because by rejecting the broccoli he was rejecting me. It sounds so silly as I write this but I know some of you loyal readers will understand.

There are people out there for whom food is just a way to fuel their bodies. They cannot see food as anything other than a necessity. But for those of us devoted to food it is something else. It is a way to nourish our souls, express our creativity, expand our lives and show the world how much we care. Food is a metaphor for many things. And to have that food be unappreciated can be a blow that others don't even know they are inflicting. So when a meal is good, give it a little praise. Or a lot of praise. When it's not so good, give the cook a hug. Because even the simplest home cooked meal took thought and preparation and love. And it wouldn't kill you to try the broccoli.

Fresh & Easy

Okay, my post today is about my new favorite place to shop. Those who know me know that I have a bit of a grocery store obsession. I LOVE grocery stores. I love roaming the aisles, looking for new products, thinking about things I might make, planing future menus. So when a new store opens I get excited, REALLY excited. So last summer when my friend Jaysen told me a new store was coming to Las Vegas I was thrilled. I looked it up on the Internet. I Mapquested the locatons. And I waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, just before Christmas, the first five Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets opened. (Six more have since opened and five more are in the works - I'm really excited about that because one of the new locations will be much closer to my house.) I went to the new market and checked it out.

They are small stores, about the size of a free standing drug store. At first I thought it was going to be a lot like Trader Joes. I like Trader Joes, they have lots of gourmet products at really reasonable prices. But I can't do all of my shopping there. I have to go to Trader Joes and the to the 'regular' grocery store. But Fresh and Easy is different, I can do all of my regular shopping there. Now I'm not going to lie, they have a good but limited selection. You can get pretty much everything you need there but you aren't going to get a bunch of choices. There aren't 14 kinds of toilet paper, 600 different cereals, 8 brands of coffee. There is one, sometimes two choices. Need canned peas? They have them - but only the Fresh & Easy brand. Ditto for most items. Which is good in that you don't have to agonize over which one to buy but bad because they may not carry your favorite brand, or in the size you want, etc.

They specialize in really fresh, health food. Their quality is really high. Their selection is slightly upscale. And their prices are reasonable (better than the 'regular' store in many cases). What's not to love? They have a tasting area where you can sample their products. They don't have checkers in the regular sense but they always have people to help you and everyone who works there seems really nice. The aisles are wide, and the shelves are short - only about four and a half feet high for the top shelf. (Which may not be a big deal for you but my 4'9" mother loves the fact that she can get something off of the top shelf without climbing up or asking for help). The stores are always clean and seem to be stocked well (although several times I have seen their frozen section dwindle down. I don't know if this is an ordering problem or a supply problem but it can be annoying when their selection is limited to begin with.)

I love their meat department, it carries a HUGE variety and everything I have gotten there has been top notch quality. They have some interesting things in the meat department too, like chorizo seasoned ground pork. I have read a zillion recipes that call for chorizo but I have never made any because of the ingredients in chorizo. (Have you ever looked at the list of ingredients on the chorizo package? Ugh, it's full of really gross parts) But I may rethink some of those recipes now that I can get the chorizo flavor without the lips and snouts. (They also have dried Spanish chorizo in their deli section for less than half the price of Whole Foods.)

Now here is my super secret favorite part about Fresh & Easy (shh, don't tell anyone). Because they specialize in really fresh food, most everything is labled with an expiration date which is only a few days at the most away. So on the day the food is set to expire, they mark it down. Now I'm talking about still good food here, nothing that is slimy or gross and they are just trying to get rid of it. I have bought a lot of their marked down goods and they are great. Some of their markdowns are on food that is just reaching it's peak, like in the produce section. I've bought cucumbers and green peppers and lettuce that was in better shape that at some other stores but because of it's freshness date it's marked down. I've gotten shrimp that were fresh and sweet and lovely for only a dollar twenty-five a pound. Pork loins for half price. Grapes for seventy-five cents a package. Scones for less than a quarter of the regular price. It is a bargain shoppers dream.

So in the spirit of lists that has been going on in the blog world this month, here is a list of my favorite things at Fresh & Easy.

1. The English muffins. They are so good it's indescribable. Fresh & Easy is a division of the grocery giant Tesco from the U.K. so I guess it only stands to reason that the Brits know their English muffins. They are the best English muffins I have ever eaten. And I was never a big English muffin fan but now I am a devotee. Try them, I swear you will love them. And if you don't, I'll eat them for you.
2. I ring up my order but somebody else bags them. I don't mind ringing up my own groceries (I was a checker for 10 years after all) but I hate bagging them. So I love that even though it's self checkout, there is a very nice person who will bag my things for me. (They aren't called checkers, they call them customer assistants. Nice.)
3. The spinach salad with the beets, blue cheese and candied pecans. Those ingredients alone would sell me but the pomegranate-raspberry vinegrette is the clincher. So delicious. And though the salad says 'serves one', we easily get three salads from it.
4. The cut up apple slices. I hate most bagged cut up apple slices because whatever they put on them to keep them from turning brown tastes awful, so they don't even taste like apples anymore. But whatever Fresh & Easy uses doesn't change the flavor at all. The apples are sweet and yummy and since they are already cut up and in my fridge I'm way more likely to eat an apple as a snack than I ever was before.
5. The pork loin. Someday I'll post my oh-so-easy and delicious pork loin recipe. But to buy one for less than two dollars a pound makes it even better.
6. The cinnamon rolls - or any of their danishes really. They use a puff pastry instead of a yeast dough. Flaky and delicious.
7. The blueberry scones. So full of blueberries and really moist, like a big fruit filled biscuit. Anyone who has ever eated a dry commerical scone will know how terrible they can be, but these taste like you just pulled them from the oven. Again, leave it to the Brits to make a great scone.
8. The organic lemonades. Strawberry and mango are sooo good. And the ginger limeade is puckeringly tart but so refreshing, I'm going to make some type of adult beverage from it this summer.
9. The eggs. Jumbo eggs for the same price as large eggs at most stores. I love jumbo eggs, they are so worth the extra 20 calories. And Fresh & Easy eggs are cage free.
10. The tasting area (they call it the 'kitchen table'). They put our several things for you to try and they really want you to try them, they encourage it. I've tried potato wedges with chili, bagels and cream cheese, meatballs, cookies, juice, crackers. All good.

Okay so that's my Fresh & Easy story. If they ever need a spokesperson, I'm the gal. I'm in love, truly. Please shop there, we really need to support stores like this. I don't want them to go out of business like Raley's. I have converted my family and now my friends. The Gospel of Fresh & Easy as told by Shae. Go. I go every day. I'm not obsessed. Much.

Creative Deconstruction

Fast food is delicious, and the Gourmand Girl is quite a fan. Such a fan in fact that it can be a very bad thing. Fast food is like crack to the Gourmand Girl. It's my kryptonite. Moderation is definitely a keyword. So the best thing I can do is to try to make fast food just a teensy weensy bit better. (Better than it already is? C'est impossible!)

Last night the Gourmand Girl and her Gourmand Family took advantage of the special at the neighborhood taco establishment (Del Taco - Tuesday nights after 4pm the taco's are 3 for 99 cents). We brought a dozen of there babies home and with a little magic made them into terrific taco salads. For less than four dollars we made three giant, tasty and moderately healthy taco salads.

Fast Food Taco Salads
Open up the tacos and pour the filling into a bowl. Crush up a couple of shells and add them to the bowl. Add some chopped tomatoes, sour cream and salsa. Stir this mixture together. Divide into individual servings and enjoy.

By eliminating most of the shells and adding tomatoes and salsa you eliminate a lot of calories an add a ton of flavor. It's slightly less expensive than buying the ingredients to make the same thing and much faster (Hence the term fast food). And for the same price as the "Deluxe Taco Salad" on the drive thru menu, we made three salads. Economical, no?

So the next time you are hungry on a Tuesday night, why not try the crack, er, I mean, taco salad?

Gourmet Can Be Cheap

So, loyal readers, many of you know that the Gourmand Girl is on a major budget while she tries to eek out a living as a writer. But a love of food means I have to eat and I love to eat well. Sometimes it seems as though this is impossible. Well I am here to tell you that gourmet doesn't have to be expensive.

One of the secrets to eating well with little money is to buy things on sale. I have discovered a great new store called Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market that really helps me do that. (I will reveal the secret strategies of this store in a future post). So last night I fixed a 'gourmet meal' for six for only $8.00. The menu was Braised Short Ribs with Blue Cheese Polenta, Sauteed Mushrooms and Brussels Sprouts. Yum.

Why do short ribs appear on so many high end menus? It isn't an expensive meat, in fact it's pretty cheap. My guess is that it's because you have to cook them for so long for them to be succulent and tender. Well, that's what crock pots were invented for! Polenta seems very gourmet but I bet you wouldn't feel the same way if I called it cornmeal mush, even though that's essentially what it is. Polenta is really easy to make, too, especially if you buy quick cooking polenta. This can be hard to find but I get it at the International Marketplace or at the Jones Market. It's less than $2.00 a box and you can get several meals out of one box. I will say however tht there are no English instructions on the package but once you get the basic idea down, it's simple enough that you don't need instructions.

So, try my menu, I bet you'll get a lot of compliments. No one needs to know that the meal basically cooked itself or that it was inexpensive to make. Splurge on a nice bottle of wine to go with and enjoy!

Slow Cooked Short Ribs

1 lb. carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 large onion, cut into quarters
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 lb. short ribs, bone in, cut into pieces
1 can (14oz) diced tomatoes
3/4 c. beef broth
1/4 c. dry red wine, like a cabernet
1 Tbsp. dried parsley
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 Bay leaf

Put carrots, onions and garlic in the slow cooker. In a large pan, heat 1 Tbsp. oil over medium high heat. Salt and pepper short ribs and add them to heated pan and brown on all sides. Put the browned short ribs into the slow cooker on top of vegetables. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the diced tomatoes, beef broth, red wine, parsley, cornstarch and tomato paste so that the cornstarch is thoroughly combined. Pour over ribs. Add the bay leaf. Cover and cook on high for 5 hours. Skim off fat and discard bay leaf. Serve with polenta (or mashed potatoes or rice or good french bread, something to absorb that delicious sauce!)

Blue Cheese Polenta

1 c. quick cooking polenta
3 c. water
3/4 c. milk
1/2 tsp. salt
2 oz. good blue cheese, crumbled

In a saucepan, combine polenta, water, milk and salt. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly. Once it comes to a boil, reduce heat and cook until thickened, about 4 minutes. Stir in blue cheese until melted and creamy. Serve immediately. (It will get really thick as it cools, it still tastes good but it's not as creamy.)

Hot 'n Juicy Head Ripping

So, we tried a new restaurant on Friday, Hot 'n Juicy Crawfish. First let me say, go try it. The food is delicious, the decor is nice and the service, while slow, was friendly and efficient.

Hot n' Juicy Crawfish (4810 W. Spring Mountain Road, 702-891-8889, open daily from noon to ten p.m.) is a minimalist restaurant. It is not for the faint of heart. You eat in the style of a southern crawfish boil. Your table is covered in plastic and your meal will come to you in a plastic bag, which you dump in the table and start shucking and eating, pulling paper towels from the roll on your table to occasionally wipe your hands and face with. It is a place that gives you a plastic bib to wear, and trust me, you should wear it. You can choose from crawfish, shrimp, and crab which will be steamed in that plastic bag with your choice of seasonings. They have juicy cajun, garlic butter, lemon pepper or the special which combines them all. You will have to pull the heads off of your crawfish or shrimp, which is not my favorite thing and may not be very appetizing for the squeamish. You have to crack your own crab. No utensils are available except for plastic ones and some metal crackers for the crab. Once you de-head and peel your seafood of choice, dip it back into your plastic bag for some of the tasy sauce that is now covering your arms and hands. You can request your sauce mild, medium, spicy an extra spicy. Our server recommended that we order one step down as their mild was medium, medium was spicy, etc. The medium was just right for me and I like my food spicy. Any hotter and I may have regretted it. I got the special sauce which was awesome, with chunks of minced garlic along with the cajun spice. Food is market priced and on our visit that put the shrimp at $9.99 a pound, not at all overpriced for such large shrimp, which were perfectly steamed.

Sides are available, and for an ultra reasonable price you can add a potato or corn on the cob to your plastic bag. The cajun fries are wonderful, fresh from the fryer, hot and crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside with enough lip tingling spice to make me grab for a drink of water more than once. For those afraid of pulling the heads off of anything or with a total dislike of mess, they do have fried shrimp, fried catfish, chicken wings and a crawfish etoufee which is on my list to try next time. As you shuck your meal, you leave everything on your table, which after you leave the wait staff will just bundle the whole mess into that plastic tablecloth and throw it all away.

Which, combined with a trip to Memphis Barbecue yesterday, left Gourmand Girl pondering why it is so enjoyable to eat such a messy meal. It is perhaps due to our caveman roots that such civilized people enjoy such a visceral experience. To rip off the head of your meal or tear the flesh from the bone is primal. It isn't neat, which is terrible for some people. My grandfather would eat his sandwich with a knife and fork so I'm sure he would have been horrified to see bib wearing neanderthals like me happily ripping and tearing and eating like the primative beasts we am. Sure, I enjoy a seven course meal replete with utensils not used in the everday like an asparagus server or the ice cream fork. But there is something to be said for eating with your hands. There is not art, no edifice to stand between you and the food. Just food on a convenient rib, to taste the meat, succulent and unctuous as at falls away from bone in great satisfying hunks into your mouth. Add to that a tasty sauce and I'm in heathen Nirvana.

If you too love the occasional meal where you're just there for the food and you want a great big messy pile of it, head to Hot 'n Juicy Crawfish. Rip a couple of heads for me!