Travel Spot: Las Vegas - Rick Moonen's RM Seafood

One of my goals on the trip to Las Vegas was to try and hit as many Top Chef Masters' restaurants I could. So how convenient that my hubby and I stayed at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino which housed several delicious restaurants, many of which had chefs that have been a part of Top Chef or competed on Top Chef Masters. With so many options and so little time, we made the decision to try and go to as many restaurants as possible and so as not to break the bank, sample various items versus having full menus at every location. We started with a lunchtime meal at Rick Moonen's RM Seafood.

Mr. Moonen is the champion of sustainable seafood and we had already heard how delicious his halibut was from the bride-to-be but upon looking over the menu, one item caught our eye: BBQ Pork Mac N'Cheese. As many times as I make pork barbecue in my house I never thought of putting it in macaroni and cheese?  Of course we had to have seafood and what better way to experience the freshness of seafood than sushi. We went with the Futo-Fireball roll: king crab, avocado, cucumber, spicy char, tobiko, kabayaki and wasabi citrus aioli. Incredible with the right amount of heat and definitely let the freshness of the seafood shine. We also ordered the crab cake which was light and of course delicious, but the star of that plate was the jicama with chipotle aioli...I almost licked the plate and cannot wait to find a way to recreate it at home! We finished our little smorgasbord with edamame served with Mediterranean sea salt and togarashi (a Japanese chili pepper spice that is now something else I need in my pantry!).

We loved our meal and if I ever go back to Vegas....I am coming prepared to dine there, and dine well!

Back from Vegas...and boy am I inspired!

Sadly I ended up with no computer access in Las Vegas but I had an incredible time (ha ha...not sure what made me think I would have the time or ability to blog from Vegas but I was hopeful!)! Mostly it was incredible because I spent time with my husband and some wonderful friends AND saw two of my wonderful friends get married but it was also amazing because I ate extremely well and met my goal of hitting as many Top Chef Masters restaurants as possible!! So this week I will be sharing my photos and experiences from those restaurants. For now, however, I am going to attempt to recover from a full day of work after a 12:30am arrival time!

PS. I know it's also Meatless Monday...check out these corn, black bean and pepper jack burritos!

Hurricane...and unfortunately not the drink!

So here in Hampton Roads we have been preparing for Hurricane Irene which we are feeling the effects from now but as this blog shows, as of now we have power! But since we are riding out the storm in a hotel (our neighborhood floods and hubby has to stay in town for his job) I am not doing any cooking! What I found fun was a local blogger's recent post about Recipes for Disaster and I started thinking about what we would do should we lose power. To the hotel I brought Nutella because well, I think we always have Nutella and of course peanut butter, crackers, bread, muffins...quite the carb party up in here folks! I did also bring in single serve containers of fruit, cereal and Kashi bars as well as some yogurt for as long as we have power. I am now craving a Nutella and peanut butter English muffin! But as far as recipes, canned chicken combined with mayo packets and relish packets from the hotel kitchen make yummy chicken salad, maybe even add to it some of my son's beloved Craisins to really class it up! I am allergic to canned tuna so that's out but I love deviled ham sandwiches. I am reminded of a few Top Chef challenges in which the chefs didn't have anything but fire, or a gas camping stove or no power at all. And I suppose if you need to get rid of some shrimp and/or scallops you have in your fridge...ceviche is always a show stopper! (Can you imagine, yeah, the power went out but we had ceviche and wine and peanut butter and Nutella for dessert!) Whatever you whip up, pay close attention to food safety guidelines and don't light an outdoor grill inside your house! See you on the other side of Irene!

Competition!

I had a blast competing in the Cooking with Passion, Top Home Chef of Hampton Roads Competition! Here's me, my fabulous sous-chef Ingrid is on the left and my competitor Joe and his sous. 

 Ingrid and I in the "heat" of battle!

It was an awesome day and I look forward to when the first episode airs! In the meantime, I got more cooking to do just for my family and this blog!!