Yes, it’s expensive.  But I dare you to use it once and then try to give it back.

My love affair with the KitchenAid Stand Mixer began when I saw it at the Bay way back when.  I’m a total sucker for all the pretty colors and I couldn’t even cook or bake worth a lick way back when.  I just wanted to buy it and touch the smooth steel of the prettily colored motor head.  Does that sound very wrong?

When my Hungry Piggy spouse man finally surprised me with my very own bright cherry red one this past Christmas, I hate to admit that in a very sick way, he stuck me very willingly barefoot in the kitchen for good.

I haven’t left and I haven’t looked back.  In turn, he gets to eat all the nutella meringue, muffins, loaves, cakes and cookies I can make to his hearts content.

Don’t blame me when we’ll need a crane to get him off the couch.  I’ll smile lovingly and point my guilty finger at Big Red.

(Big Red ROCKS!))

They deliver directly to your door for a nominal fee on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, and they are nicest people to work with.  One of the best things as well, is that I’m encouraged to try new vegetables and recipes with what fresh ingredients I receive in my bin.

Their produce is fresh and delicious and they sell other grocery items as well like milk, eggs and anything else you can think of buying when you go grocery shopping.

Anthony Bourdain is like bacon = GOOD!

BEHOLD! THE BEASTLY TURBACONDUCKEN!!!

If you don’t know what the heck a tur-bacon-duck-en is, it’s a chicken, stuffed in a duck, stuffed in turkey and then it’s all lovingly enveloped with strips upon strips on yummy bacon.

This is not for the weak and skinny my friends.  It’s all go big or go home with side dishes of homemade cornbread stuffing, fresh homemade bread, mashed yam potatoes, beet medley, homemade gravy…overall homemade EPIC-ness!  You can find recipes for all these yummy sides here.

As soon as we took the bird out of the oven, we could see the difference the fatty succulence of the duck made in terms of making the whole turbaconducken experience one of the juiciest morsels of combined meats on the planet.

Here’s a picture of all the Thanksgiving sides as well.

And here is my plate in the aftermath. (My Hungry Piggy spouse man John actually managed to clean his plate, but I was too full to look over at him to take a snapshot!)

We highly recommend the turbaconducken for any family gathering.  Don’t worry about de-boning all the birds and putting it all together yourself, your neighborhood butcher should do all the prep for you so all you have to do is put this beautiful creation in the oven and just let it cook.

Now that we’ve tried the turbaconducken we’re not looking back, in fact in addition to the turbaconducken, there seem to be bigger and better things on the horizon.  We’ll just leave you with this must-watch video to see what we’re talking about

Ok – this is it – honestly, this is the last Food post…for today Don’t hate ’cause we love our food

Piping hot out of the oven! And because I am a food freak, I also had to take a pic of the plated results…

People wonder what we do with all our time together. Well now you know

A lazy Sunday afternoon, a lovely drive up to the mountains, and a visit to a meat house our friend Alex has been raving about ever since we arrived in Costa Rica.

I was sensing the perfect set up for a great story, except I was too busy eating my face off to really take notes for it

As we drove up the mountain we could smell the mouthwatering aromas of BBQ and we could see smoke coming out of what looked like a ramshackle shack.

Why is it that the best food almost always comes out of places that look like this?

The minute we parked the car we could see the place was packed with locals – definitely a great sign of good things to come. You could smell good food cooking the whole 30 second walk into this totally unpretentious restaurant. And once you walked in you could see everything cooking right before your eyes.

This is the heaven meat lovers can only dream of going to when they die.

Our friend Alex, had already warned us that there are no Small portion sizes here – only Medium, Large and Extra Large. Boo fucking hoo – what crazy person who already saw the food on the BBQ would even contemplate a small pussy order? Seriously – GO BIG OR GO HOME!

As this was our first time here, John and I naturally wanted to try everything on the menu. So we did – and oh how glorious it was!

We ordered huge steaks, pork chops, chicharrones, baked potatoes, plantains with cheese, bbq pineapple, corn, tortillas and the best pickled jalapenos that more than satisfied my sour cravings I’d been having ever since we arrived in Costa Rica.

Oh I guess I should also mention that the place has a nice view as well – if you could ignore the huge anal probe satellite ear poking out in the middle of nowhere.

If Anthony Bourdain ever did a food show in Costa Rica, this would be one of the first places we’d bring him!

This place easily scores 4 out 5 Big Bellies. I give it a 4 because I wasn’t too keen on the corn they served, but otherwise everything else was great!

Patty -and- John Final Rating = 4 Big Bellies outta 5

]]> http://www.hungrypiggies.com/costa-rican-bbq-mui-bueno/feed/ 0 http://www.hungrypiggies.com/olla-de-carne-costa-rican-beef-soup/ http://www.hungrypiggies.com/olla-de-carne-costa-rican-beef-soup/#comments Tue, 15 Feb 2011 07:38:20 +0000 patty http://www.hungrypiggies.com/?p=84 Very homemade, very rustic and very comforting. An amazing soup that somehow always tastes like a Mom’s traditional recipe no matter what restaurant we get it from. This particular order was from a family restaurant near the Volcan Irazu.

This is usually it’s own dish, unless you get a boca (appetizer) size. Served with a side of rice, the soup bowl is deep and massive as it’s packed full of beef broth, big chunks of meat on the bone, yucca, potato, corn and other local vegetables.

Whether you’re just really hungry, in need of comfort, sick, or hungover – get it while it’s HOT!

We were so touched when our friend Alonzo invited us to his home in Limon, Costa Rica to spend three awesome days with his amazing family over the New Year holidays. Here is the part of our trip about all the delicious food we got to make and eat.

Our friend Alonzo had already been telling us what a great cook his mother was, but getting to learn how to make the food and eat and eat and eat it was really another experience altogether.

And another huge bonus was getting to eat his Grandmother and all his aunts tasty treats as well! If good food is a sign of warmth and welcome, then Alonzo’s family completely outdid themselves in making us feel at home and a part of their family.

So to begin our food journey in Limon, we have to start with Mama Solano’s Authentic Costa Rican Tamales.

Tamales are a big thing for Christmas time in Costa Rica. The tradition is that every family makes their own and package them up in twos to give away to family, friends and neighbors.

Mama Solano gave us ours for our first breakfast in Limon and they were delicious. A perfect blend of cornmeal, meat, vegetables and a light spice. All conveniently wrapped up in a banana leaf.

The preparation of homemade tamales seems quite extensive and while we got the recipe for it, I don’t think John and I would try this on our own – I think we’d need at least 2 more people just to help prepare everything, much less put it all together and it probably still wouldn’t taste as great as Mama Solano’s.

Next up – Mama Solano’s Costa Rican Carne. A meat dish with a tantalizing tomato salsa sauce served for lunch with patacones, which she taught me how to make!

The tomato sauce that Mama Solano made here was phenomenal! It was seriously one of the tastiest sauces we’d ever had, with a well balanced hint of garlic and blended peppers. Made with fresh ingredients and Mama Solano’s special touch. I think John should remember how to make this sauce.

Anyhow, everyone knows that John is the big chef in our family, even Mama Solano. As such, she was very determined to make a cook out of me by the end of our three day stay.

And that’s how I learned how to make authentic Costa Rican Patacones! See? I made these!

Patacones are simply deep fried plantains, but because it’s such a simple recipe with so few ingredients it really made it that much more difficult to make well.

Apparently Papa Solano is the master at making patacones – unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to try them. So for now John will just have to eat mine!

Now we get to Sweet Abuela and Alonso’s aunts cooking. We were told that Sweet Abuela makes fresh chicken soup for everyone every weekend. Here is her mouthwatering Sopa de Pollo.

On it own, this soup was comforting enough. But with rice, John and I almost moved into her home immediately. This was by far the best soup we’ve had in Costa Rica.

Right after the soup we had to try Alonzo’s family jam-filled cakes too

By this point, I think Alonzo’s family had all gotten a pretty well rounded idea as to how much John and I love good food. I also think they found me to be a bit on the strange side as I had to take pictures of all the food!

But to us, good food is worth talking about. And by this point we were getting pretty stuffed, though we knew there was more to come. Like the family BBQ. So taking pictures was a good way to rest up and make more room in our bellies.

Costa Rican BBQ is really, really good. I don’t know if it’s the meat, or the fact that it’s usually served with tortillas and chimichurri. Whatever it is – it’s GOOD! And speaking of chimichurri, Alonzo’s Aunt makes an amazing one.

Chimichurri is basically a tomato salsa-like salad, used to serve as an accompaniment with BBQ meats and steak and the like. Made predominantly with tomatoes and cilantro, you can easily see how refreshing this side dish serving is.

By the end of this evening, I think John and I had literally gained 10lbs and were pretty well spoiled with homemade Costa Rican cuisine.

On our final day Mama Solano was not done with me in the kitchen yet. And she taught me how to make fresh handmade Corn Tortillas and her famous Rice and Beans.

Here is me attempting to make tortillas from scratch.

Mama Solano was extremely kind and patient with me as I slaughtered through her teachings. It’s a lot more complicated than it looks, because you need to get everything from the preparation to the consistency to the actual making of them just right.

But it was fun to make regardless – the crazy Chinita in Mama Solano’s kitchen entertaining the folks by making tortillas.

Finally we get to the main event of the weekend – Mama Solano’s famous Rice and Beans with Chicken.

For a little background on Rice and Beans in Costa Rica, mostly everywhere everyone serves the typical Gallo Pinto – which is just beans and rice. With Limon being on the Atlantic side of the country, there is a lot more Caribbean influence to a lot of the cooking.

So the Rice and Beans that Mama Solano makes in Limon, is actually more of a coconut beans and rice super creation. And the chicken she makes does melt off the bone like it looks like in the picture!

I won’t give away her recipe here, though I honestly don’t know if I can replicate her recipe. Besides from ingredients like the freshly shredded coconut she gets specifically from a little shack in Limon, her years of experience and all the love she puts into this really makes this a special dish all her own.

And so our food journey in Limon comes to a close. Our actual tour of Limon is to be continued in a future post so stay tuned!

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