A little late today, but here is my recipe for Blu-Crab Soup!   This is my FAVORITE soup!

Whenever I serve this for guests, I melt a pat of butter over the top of the soup.  Inevitably, someone at my table exclaims, “Is that a PAT of butter melted on top?” – to which I reply, “Yep, it sure is, ENJOY” – they always do!

Blu Crab Soup

16 ounces shelled, cooked blue crab meat
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon Olive oil
1/2 large brown or white onion, grated
1 garlic clove, grated
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons dry Sherry
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon mace
Kosher salt and pepper, to taste

.

In your food processor, add the onion and garlic and “pulverize,” until “liquidy.”  In a deep stockpot, melt the butter, melt the butter and Olive oil.  Add the grated onion and garlic and saute lightly, until translucent.

Add the flour and stir completely for 2 minutes.  Slowly add the milk, cream, Sherry, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, mace and salt and pepper.  Whisk together until smooth.  Add the crab and continue to cook, until the soup becomes thick — about 30-40 minutes.   Serve hot.  Cheers!

At our cooking class Cindi cooked up an easy and delicious Crab Bisque from the Medifast Cream of Tomato Soup.

You can use crab, lobster, imitation crab or a combination of both. Man-O-Man this was so good.

Watch Cindi whip this up.

I love being able to cross my legs and bend over and tie my shoes. It’s the little things in life that you miss the most when your overweight.

I am now the dominant force in my life. I’m in control not the food and it’s all GOOD.

If you fall off the diet wagon…it’s ok because you can take it off easily and quickly once you get back on program.

You have the power to make your life great!

Joyce Blonskij, Health Coach & TSFL Client.

I love being a health coach. Sharing my journey and coaching others. Best of all helping my family and friends lose weight and get healthy! That’s what it all about.

We took eating and dieting to a new level today! Using Medifast Eggs, Cream of Tomato Soup, and Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal….Cindi cooked up a wonderful afternoon.

Putting variety into your day-to-day menu can help you stay on program and lose weight. We got lots of great new ideas, and with the holidays here …this was perfect timing.

Cindi prepared and demonstrated a wide variety of delicious meal ideas.  She started by baking cooking and made the house smell wonderful.  Did you know that from 1 package of Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal you get 10 cookies! We decided cookies and coffee makes a great mid morning or evening meal replacement.  This is a must make!

Take Shape For Life Menu Of The Day

by Chief Cindi

Stuffed Bell Peppers with Turkey

Tilapia & Broccoli

Mushroom Omelet

Asparagus Omelet

Zucchini Omelet

Crab Bisque

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

Biscotti

If you missed this event… you can watch the videos and get cooking tips.

 done

I’ll be posting clips all this week… 

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We’re getting healthy during the Holidays!

For a complete list of recipes email me at Joyce@Blonskij.com

 To contact Cindi for all your party and catering needs:

Cindi Chilelli

(916) 956-6450

cindiscucina@yahoo.com

I had this at work today. It was freaking delicious. For some reason it’s also pretty much the only good soup they make.

Tangent: Why is it that vegetable bisques often are more wholly wonderful that seafood bisques? Because seafood bisques are often so rich that you become sick of the taste about halfway through.  Don’t get me wrong, the flavor of a crab or lobster bisque is absolutely delightful… just in mini doses (Thomas Keller knows this… Thomas Keller ENFORCES this). But a vegetable bisque can finish quite nicely. You feel like you’ve eaten a whole meal and not even too full. Often vegetable bisques are healthier too because you need less binding agents to smooth out the soup (seafood ones need a great deal to mute the sharpness of a well-made seafood stock).

Today was the grand opening of the new Ray’s the Steaks location in the Navy Building in the Courthouse neighborhood of Arlington.  For those of you who don’t already know, Ray’s the Steaks was previously located on Wilson in Rosslyn in the same shopping center as Ray’s Hell Burger. I stopped by to make a reservation and to check out Michael’s new digs. The owner, Michael Landrum took my reservation himself! He is so nice and reminded me I could call and make reservations now too. I could have called, but I decided to stop by to do a little scouting for our group Valentine’s Day dinner this Saturday. At the old Ray’s location, seating was first come first serve – no call ahead reservations! 

All the doors were open and as I walked into the reception area I realized it was because the entire place was smokey. Grease fire maybe? Mishaps are not uncommon on opening nights, but the interesting part was that none of the diners seemed to care! Not only did the diners look happy, the people walking in were not deterred by the smoke either! The food is that good. I can’t wait to enjoy the crab bisque, a big steak, the amazing sides, a glass of red wine, and a slice of key lime pie. This place has to be my favorite place to eat…anything.

Ray’s the Steaks 
2300 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22201

What a rainy day!  We always get the riff of storms off the hurricanes that hit the gulf coast.  Yes, we live about 8-9 hours from New Orleans, but we get some good storms from them.  You should see the lake!  HUGE waves, at least for the lake.  I’m glad that Mike brought the boat in, it would’ve gotten the crap beat out of it.

My sister in law (SIL) went and stayed with my other SIL to avoid the storm.  I believe that most of Mike’s family stayed put in that area.  A few friends that live in Slidell left.  Oh and Mike’s second cousin (who had lost pretty much everything in Katrina) are here in town, again keeping away from the storm.   I haven’t heard of any damage reports from friends or family yet, but I’m hoping and guessing they got less than expected!  I’m pleased with the number of people who DID have sense to evacuate, despite the lack of stormage that really came.  Lesson learned!  I love that the Republican convention was scaled back, and President hope McCain helped put together care packages ~ IN OHIO!  HA!  Get a little closer there!  Oh well, at least he helped!

Michael got a call this morning, and was roped into head coaching Brennen’s flag football team. YEAH!  I feel complete!  I get to be head coach Mommy and provided snacks!  What’s really cool, is they go by NFL teams, and of course, we picked the Saints!  WOOT!  Good die hard Saints fans, even in the (many) bad seasons!  I can’t wait to see their team shirts!

With the storm, I went out and got a yummmy bowl of crab bisque from Fisherman’s Wharf.  It’s so good, thick and chunky!  I brought a bowl of gumbo to Mike, hope he enjoys it!  The resturant has a great deck, and is just around the corner from us, by boat and car.

Funny kid quip of the day:

Timmy:  Can I have drink?

Mommy:  No, it’s my coffee.

Timmy:  Ok (runs off)

Timmy:  (returns with Pizza Planet Buzz Lightyear mug)  I has coffee water.  MMMMM!

Loves it!

Ok, diet is good, pretty much no sweets or soda.  I am eating this wonderful and probably loaded with fat bisque though!  I did not go to the gym yesterday, as I worked extra Sunday night, and I didn’t go today, well because I have this wonderful soup to eat.  Ok really, I ran some errands and brought some Starbucks to my MIL.  I may go tonight, but certainly in the morning!  I’m trying to convince my new friend Priscilla to join!  She used to live next to my MIL, and has 3 little girls, 2 who are in school.  I know she reads this, so now she MUST join!  Brian, do you hear that!?!?!?!?

Ok, laundry time!

By Christine Moravec

Last week I had the pleasure of finally experiencing a piece of wine country that I’ve been meaning to visit for years: COPIA, the American Center for Wine Food & the Arts, a nonprofit organization located in downtown Napa.

Fellow SacFoodie, Amy Kull, along with a small group from our San Francisco office (COPIA is a new and very exciting client for FH), came together for a day of meetings. We got to mix business with pleasure when we broke for lunch and joined the public for that day’s Taste of COPIA event.

COPIA describes these weekly lunches as “part cooking demonstration, part feast” and I would add that it contains equal part wine education with a pinch of comedy – it was a blast! Taste of COPIA is a lunch that is held every Friday and an occasional Saturday/Sunday, with a culinary theme that changes monthly. For the month of January the theme was From Here to the Next County: Sonoma.

We walked into the theatre-style room that features a beautifully staged demo kitchen. Each seat was set for a three course meal with three full wine glasses at each setting. The interactive cooking demo began with Jacquelyn Buchanan, director of culinary programs, who introduced the theme and various local ingredients that she would be using in that day’s meal. The full menu included:

• Dungeness Crab Bisque
• Cheese Tortellini with Roasted Butternut Squash, Goat-Cheese Walnut Sauce and Arugula
• Blood Orange and Campari Granita

While Jacquelyn began cooking we watched her via overhead flat panel TV screens that showed the view from cameras focused above the range. Lily Peterson, wine educator, introduced the wines and explained several different pairings that she would like us to explore during the meal. Like most of the ingredients, the wine also came from Sonoma Country: a sparkling J Cuvee 20 Brut, Landmark 2005 Overlook Chardonnay and Emeritus 2005 Pinot Noir. I was excited about the Emeritus because it was an inaugural vintage from the founder of Sonoma Cutrer: it was subtle and fruity and a fantastic complement to the walnut sauce in the main dish.

Jacquelyn prepared each dish as we were eating it; she answered questions regarding ingredient substitutions, cooking techniques, and where to find certain ingredients locally. At the same time Lily explained the wines in an approachable manner – why she chose the three varietals, how to pair wine with food, and how to identify certain characteristics in each – she also shared fun facts about the wineries themselves. Lastly, Nick Landino, the kitchen manager for Julia’s Kitchen, came on stage and prepared the Blood Orange and Campari Granita and accompanying Hazelnut Campari Biscotti while it was being served. Each attendee is given copies of the recipes to make at home. Our group loved it all: the food, wine, personalities, presentation – bravo!

Taste of COPIA is a great way to get to know wine and food and the relationship they have with each other. I can’t wait to take my next out-of-town guest, adding COPIA to the “Moravec special wine country tour.” Check here for the current month’s theme and menu; cost is $50 general/$40 member and well worth it. The theme for February is “A Mardi Gras Feast: Let the Bon Temps Roll!”

On a side note, COPIA grows ingredients in its on-site organic garden for use in the lunches, as well as in the menu at Julia’s Kitchen. It was raining the day we went, but here are a few fruit/garden shots:

This crazy-looking fruit is part of the citrus family. It smells fabulous and is called Buddha’s Hand.

Winter Citrus Fruit Bowl