I love Chinese take out and one of the things I like to order sometimes is pepper steak. Pepper steak usually consists of peppers, onions, and well, you get the idea: steak. Spiced Pepper Steak is pepper steak taken to a whole level with a blend of spices and sauces such as ginger, red pepper flakes, tomato, and soy sauce. All of these ingredients work their magic in the crock pot resulting in flavorful and moist soft slices of meat. I find spiced pepper steak is best served with rice. I made some garlicky brown rice in my trusty rice cooker. This meal is quite simple and right to the point. It satisfies one’s tastes buds while filling those hungry bellies!

Spiced Pepper Steak

• 1 pounds beef round sirloin steak, cut into 1/4  inch strips
• 2 tablespoons corn oil
• 1 cube beef bouillon
• 1  cup hot water
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 large green bell peppers, sliced
• 1 medium spanish onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 teaspoons ginger paste
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes, with liquid
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon pepper

Cut the sirloin steak into 1/4 inch strips and set aside

Combine soy sauce, garlic, pepper, and ginger in a bowl

Then add the crushed tomato sauce and whisk away

Set the sauce aside. This will be poured over the meat once they are placed in the crock pot.

Mix beef bouillon cube with hot water until dissolved, then mix in cornstarch until dissolved, set aside

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, heat the corn oil and season the beef strips with some pepper and brown on both sides for 2-3 minutes

immediately transfer the steak strips to the crock pot

Pour the tomato- ginger soy sauce mixture over the meat and then add the onions, green peppers, and a couple of more dashes of soy sauce

Lastly, pour the bouillon mixture and pour over the onions and peppers

Cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours, or on low for 6 to 8 hours. During this time go run some errands, watch a movie, drink some hot cocoa, and relax!

Serve with some garlic-y brown rice! Yum

When I was a little kid, I loved things like apples, American cheese, milk, playing with dirt, and eating boogers. I also despised stuff such as onions, peppers, reading, chick flicks, and rice pudding. My how times have changed. I now can’t stand fruit, American cheese, milk, getting dirty, and well, I certainly don’t eat boogers anymore. Yet, on the other foot, I love onions and peppers to death, I’m a big book worm, and chick flicks are still terrible. That leaves us with rice pudding.

Rice To Riches’ menu consists entirely of ride pudding.

This is the true test. And to tell you the truth, I actually haven’t even eaten rice pudding in eons. I was heavily persuaded to go and decided to keep an open mind. The place itself was very welcoming. A “futuristic decor” along with  funny jargons and jokes plastered to the walls, windows, and doors, was very fun.

The rice pudding has silly names such as Sex Drugs and Rocky Road, Take Me To Tiramisu, Fluent In French Toast, and a slew of others.

Not knowing what the hell some of these flavors are, you are allowed to sample many different puddings before you make your final pick.

My choice: Chocolate Chip Flirt which is basically chocolate chip rice pudding.

And can honestly say, I can scratch it off the list of things I don’t like. I’m a changed man and now very much like rice pudding now. Soo much lighter than true pudding with a twinge of a chunkiness. The chocolate was top notch. Thanks Rice To Riches for changing me into a rice pudding liker.

For one dollar more you can add a topping.

Once again, the choices have creative names such as Remedy (caramel vanilla sauce), Flourish (toasted buttery pound cake), Heart Throb (tender loving jelly), and others. To top my Chocolate Chip Flirt I chose Mischief (buttery graham cracker blanket). It indeed was buttery. It was indeed graham cracker perfection. A perfect blend to the rice pudding.

The rice pudding is served in different sized dishes from Solo (serves one) all the way to Moby (serves 10). The moby is seriously the size of a bucket. I could fit my head in this thing. That’s a lot of rice pudding! The dishes are so rad looking, one would be crazy not to wash this sucker out and use it at home to keep (I did).

I never thought I’d like rice pudding, but Rice To Riches made a believer out of me. So good.

Don’t forget to follow me on twitter @HurleyGraham

Rice To Riches

37 Spring Street

New York, NY 10012

www.ricetoriches.com

Prices: Solo $6, Epic $7.75, Moby $40, Toppings $1

Hours: Sun-Wed 11am-11pm, Thu-Sat 11am-12am

Access: 6 Train To Spring Street; R,W To Prince Street; B,D,F,V Trains To Broadway/Lafayette; J,M Trains To Bowery

Pizza, an Italian classic, an American favorite take out food. We have done a handful of recipes dedicated to pizza here at Simply Scrumptious. The most memorable one is Sausage and Veggies White Pizza which was a popular favorite here, but this homemade gourmet pizza takes the cake. Caramelized Onion, Salami, Mozzarella & Gorgonzola Pizza is inspired by gourmet specialty pizza shops, and is a simple pie with many different flavors happening on one plate. Usually most people go for sausage or pepperoni as their topping choice. We instead used, the often overlooked, salami. It makes a great choice for this pizza because of it’s perfect marriage of taste with the caramelized onions and Gorgonzola cheese.  Next time you’re in the mood for some gourmet pizza, make this no hassle, yet oh so yummy, dish!

Caramelized Onion, Salami, Mozzarella & Gorgonzola Pizza

• 1 rustic ciabatta flatbread (I bought it from Trader Joe’s)
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 2 slices salami, sliced
• fresh mozzarella, 6 chopped slices
• 2 tablespoons Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon parsley

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F

In a large skillet over medium heat add a tablespoon of olive oil and saute onions until they are soft and caramelized, approximately 15-20 minutes.

Place the Ciabatta flatbread on a baking sheet and drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil

Spread out the mozzarella cheese

Then add the strips of salami

Followed by the caramelized onions

Then crumble about a palmful of Gorgonzola cheese  all over the pizza and lightly season with parsley

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until cheese has melted

Enjoy yourself some homemade gourmet pizza!

God I hope the Jets lose. This is the team that just won’t seem to go away. The scab on your knee that never seems to heal.

They’re that tricky booger stuck so far up your nostril, you’ll need your pinky and a long finger nail to get it out. They’ve made it all the way to the AFC Championship game and because I live in New York, my eyes and ears are flooded with both Jets fans and bandwagon Jets fan (that’s most of you) touting their team to the fullest. It’s funny, before this season I never heard a peep from these guys. Needless to say, this weekend will be the first time in my life I’ll be rooting for Peyton Manning. I feel ill.

I made sure to go to the Waterfront Ale House on a non-football day to avoid all that pain.

As a matter of fact, it was a complete 180 with good food and a nice atmosphere. The WAH, as I’ll call it, describes itself as being a neighborhood bar and boasts of having one of the most amazing beer selections one can find. I don’t drink, but I suppose this is good to know to spread the word.

They have nachos on the menu? Well, guess we’re having nachos aren’t we? The item here is called the Super Nachos Platter and consists of warm tortilla chips piled with chili, onions, jalapenos, olives, tomatoes, cheese, and sour cream.

For a few bucks more you can also add venison chili, but we did not. I was very impressed with this plate. The chili had a smoky flavor and was quite meaty. It made for the scoop of each each nice and plentiful. So plentiful in fact that after all the nacho chips are gone, so much topping still remains on the plate.

WAH is highly touted in their sandwiches and bbq dishes. We had the pleasure of trying the Tuscan Chicken Club which was grilled chicken breast, fresh mozzarella, field greens and tomato on warm focaccia bread.

Such a simple sandwich with easy ingredients made perfectly well. Crispy, flaky bread and a juicy cut of fowl chomping down with soft cheese, yes each bite was wonderful.

On presentation alone, I’d give WAH a very high grade. Just look at the picture for the Hickory Smoked Turkey!

Splendidly arranged open-faced sandwich triangles plated with symmetrical side dishes complementing. Then there’s the ingredients: hickory smoke turkey served on open face farm house cheddar on 7 grain bread and jalapeno jelly. You’d think jalapeno jelly would spicen up the sandwich big time. Nope, rather it comes 0ut very sweet adding an interesting element to the fantastic pick of farm house cheddar.

You know that Southwestern Chicken Quesadilla looked pretty awesome on that menu. It was hard to say no to that one. Maybe another time for that any a chance to try other dishes as well. Booo Jets!

Waterfront Ale House

540 2nd Avenue

New York, NY 10016

www.waterfrontalehouse.com

Prices: Super Nacho Platter $10.95, Tuscan Chicken Club $9.95, Venison & Black Bean Chili $12.95

Hours: Mon-Thu 11:30am-11pm, Fri 11:30-12am, Sat 12pm-12am, Sun 12pm-11pm

Access: 6 Train to 28th Street or 6 Train To 33rd Street

I’m going to let you in on a well known fact about me. I was supposed to post this last night, but I was distracted by my obsession in a show with former CTU Agent named Jack Bauer. You see Jack Bauer is simply the man who kicks major arse.

For those of you who do not know who Jack Bauer is… shame shame on you! If you’re a huge “24″ fan like myself,  you know that you need to make a fast and easy dinner in order to mentally prepare for what is going to happen on the next episode.   Here’s a no fuss recipe that is done in a instant, just in time before the time ticker on “24″ goes off.  Campanelle with Onion, Turkey, and Goat Cheese is ridiculously easy to make and has a light creamy subtle flavor from the herb goat cheese which makes it a light dinner fare.

The following takes place between 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm…

Pasta with Onion, Bacon, and Goat Cheese

• 1 pound campanelle
• 4 slices honey turkey, chopped
• 4 medium red onions, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon basil, plus more for serving
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• ground pepper for taste
• 4 ounces or 1/2 cup soft chèvre herb coated goat cheese

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook turkey until browned, 5 to 10 minutes

Add onions, garlic, and basil to turkey in skillet

Season with basil and pepper. Cook the onions until they begin to soften and caramelize about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile cook pasta according to the package and drain

Add onion mixture to the pasta

Then crumble goat cheese and toss to combine.  Season once more with basil, parsley, and pepper.

Serve immediately and Enjoy!