Iron Chef: Tuna'tizer Recipe - Jolleen

Tuna'tizer

Ingredients

12 mini-pitas
4 oz. shredded cheese

1 can Bumblebee tuna (in water)

2 tablespoons Hellmann's Mayonnaise

1 chopped fresh celery stalk

6 fresh cherry tomatos (cut into 6ths)

1/4 fresh chopped white onion

1/3 teaspoon chili powder

1/3 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

8 oz. sour cream (inside sealed ziploc bag)

1/2 cup medium salsa

3 leaves of romaine lettuce

Tuna Salad

Drain can of tuna. In medium bowl, use fork to break up tuna chunks. Toss in fresh celery, tomato, and onion. Stir in mayonnaise. Add chili powder, garlic powder, and ground pepper and set to the side.

Mini-pitas

Cut pita's in half and stuff inside bottom with a double finger pinch of shredded cheese. Place on pan covered with aluminum foil. Bake for 5 minutes at 325 degrees.

Presentation Plate

Set largest leaf of romaine lettuce in center of plate. Put one scoop of tuna salad in center of lettuce, set one scoop of sour cream and one scoop of medium salsa on either side.

Tuna'tizer

Rip the romaine lettuce into pieces just large enough to cover tops of stuffed pitas. Fill each pita half with tuna salad mix, then cover with torn lettuce. Arrange onto presentation plate. Spoon a very small amount of salsa onto lettuce tops. Make small snip in one corner of sour cream ziploc. Squeeze a small amount of sour cream onto each tuna'tizer and serve.

Iron Chef: P'o'(y) Boy Recipe - Ernest

P(IN)O'Y BOY

INGREDIENTS

1 can tuna
4 teaspoons sandwich spread

hint of grape jelly (don't ask)
1 teaspoon minced celery
1 dash Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning
1 dash ground black pepper

1 hard boiled egg, sliced

1 teaspoon butter

1 slice American Cheese

1 leaf iceberg lettuce

1 pickle

TUNA SPREAD

Mix tuna, sandwich spread, jelly, celery, Creole seasoning, and pepper

in a medium sized bowl

BREAD

melt butter on a frying pan

cut open a French roll

toast both halves of French roll in frying pan

melt American Cheese on top half of roll

SANDWICH

place bed of lettuce on bottom half of roll

spread generous amount of tuna spread on top of lettuce

place 3 slices of hard boiled egg on top of tuna spread

place top half of roll

garnish with a slice of pickle

Iron Chef Harvey

IRON CHEF HARVEY

President's Day arrived with members of the Harvey Community ready to embrace it in all of its glory, however, some of us had plans not to have plans which eventually proved to be a problem. As excited as we were to do nothing, it grew tiresome and lunch ambled around at which point Andre, Ernest, and Jolleen found one another in the kitchen.

Jolleen was considering tuna, Andre was considering eating, and Ernest was merely considering. That is right, just standing around -- considering. What Ernest was considering is what we all found out. IRON CHEF!

From there was born a competition involving three cans of tuna and three members of the community --- cooking talent and ability varying. This proved to be neither here nor there...

Andre created a hot pasta based tuna dish using spaghetti, alfredo sauce, spices that will remain anonymous and undrained tuna.

Jolleen created baked cheese stuffed mini pitas filled with a tuna salad made with fresh vegs and topped with lettuce, a dab of salsa, and a decorative "s" of sour cream.

Ernest created an elegant pan fried sandwich reminiscent of a traditional Po'Boy only this one had a near bolied egg, sandwich spread, tuna, cheese, Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning (in honor of Martin, Ross, and NOLA), oh and just a hint of grape jelly.

Watch for the recipes coming really soon.

FYI: We were all winners as there were no judges other then ourselves and we all ate some of what everyone created and luckily, are still living to report as such. Admittedly, Jolleen did do an awful lot of complaining that Ernest was using grape jelly. He thought to use cabbage but was strong armed. ;)

on the road

Maybe I should blame Jack Kerouac for my recent ideas. But at a LaSalle U fundraiser today, I found myself in a strange conversation with a guy that biked from Montanna to the Yukon, as well as much of Alaska. He is writing a book about his adventure, and emailing me the chapter of drinking Arrogant Bastard beer in Chicken, Alaska. It's a real town, I swear. 19 people live there.

So my question is, do you guys ever worry that you're wasting your precious youth? Shouldn't we be going on long bike rides or driving across the country? We've all watched Office Space, and life is too short. Maybe we should make plans to do something crazy.

What do ya think? Try me. I just might say yes.

My current favorite line of any song: "I was born on the backseat of a Greyhound bus".

:)