Ahi Tuna Sliders

It seems that sliders are becoming a big deal on menus these days. I'm not sure if it's the allure of miniature foods, or the ability to call a burger an appetizer and eat multiple ones that's the real appeal.  My favorite are the tuna sliders and what I do know is that making them at home is almost as easy as placing an order in a restaurant. 

Roughly cube the ahi before pulsing in the food processor.  This ensures that the tuna evenly distributes and chops.  A couple of quick pulses should do it.  You definitely don't want to turn on the food processor and let it go to town on the tuna. 

Add the good stuff.  You could substitute any seasonings at this point,  I'm thinking that adding cumin, green chile and garlic and salt would make some pretty phenomenal sliders as well.

I like them with sriracha, but you could also top with lettuce, asian cucumber slaw or whatever it is you like to top your burgers with.  Easy peasy meal...I prep the tuna the night before and let it marinate all day.  When I get home from work, I start the potatoes in the oven and when they are almost done, throw the sliders on to cook.   

Ahi Tuna Sliders

1 lb ahi tuna steaks minced

2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp of grated fresh ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 green onion sliced

slider buns

sriracha for topping (optional)

1. Mix the marinade ingredients together and stir into the minced tuna.  Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

2. Shape into patties

3. Heat grill pan to medium high.  Toast buns, remove and set aside.
4. Cook slider patties in grill pan for 2-3 mins, flip, cook 2-3 mins on 2nd side. 
5. Serve with sriracha and oven baked fries

Goal # 47, Ride in a Hot Air Balloon

I really didn't intend to go for so many "big ticket" items so close to kicking off my goals list, but Groupon had other plans.  It's hard to pass up a 1/2 off balloon ride when it's on your list of things do and experience right?  

What can I say about the experience? Well, lesson one: they don't go nearly high as they appear to be from the ground. I kind of expected all of the Las Vegas tract housing to look more ant like.  I'm pretty sure I could repel from this height.  If I knew how to repel that it is.

Red Rock Canyon from the air

Lesson two: it's called a hot air balloon for a reason apparently. This might be an activity better scheduled for a cool winter day because you can absolutely feel that hot, hot air each time the pilot hits the lever to shoot some fire up into the balloon. Even a 6 am September flight felt quite toasty oasty. But it is so very cool to look up and see this...

Lesson three: wide angle lenses are not appropriate portrait lenses, and portraits should not be shot from 9 inches away.  There's not a lot of space to move around in those baskets.

Lesson four: balloons do not go very fast.  If there is no wind, they don't move much at all.  It's more like floating up in the sky while taking in the view.  But oh the view.  Outstanding. 

All in all, so glad to have participated.  I think I expected more of a rush  like skydiving would bring, but it's really just a chillaxing, super mellow time.  No blood pressure rising.  No adrenaline released.  Not even a tiny bit scary(if you are not afraid of heights). And when we landed in the desert field, we had a fruit and mimosa treat awaiting us.  Not too shabby at all.

San Gennaro Feast

Slowly but surely, I'm learning the heartbeat of Vegas.  It seems that before fall begins(in the desert at least..)my new city begins to anticipate cooler days ahead by starting the festivals--who doesn't love a great festival? I can't believe how many there seem to be.  Everywhere you drive in town there seems to be a signboard on the corner with dates for one of the many festivals coming up....Asian Food Festival, Greek Festival, Pure Aloha Festival and the San Gennaro Feast to name a few.  

This weekend was San Gennaro and we headed down for a few hours of sunshine, carnival games and carnival food.  Exhausting, hot, but so much fun.  Chipmunk won her first stuffed Nemo with her spectacular fishing skills...who says a little determination and a lot of money won't get you the finest stuffed carnival toys?

For as much as I like adrenaline (ever tried any of the rides off the top of the Stratosphere?), I think Ferris wheel's are awful..the there's just entirely too much time to think about the fact that you are unnaturally high in the air.

The best rides are always the upside down ones.

I've seen funnel cake with whipped cream or even cherries before but the funnel cakes here were unbelievable: banana cream pie, brownie sundae, Oreo and s'mores.  The fried booths were frying everything from pop tarts, to Oreos to PB&J.  All of the options were pretty intriguing and it's a shame they don't do tasters so you can try everything.  Would have loved to try the fired PB&J.  But in the end, it's all about the fried potato options to me and San Gennaro definitely didn't disappoint.  The potato spiral was somewhere in between a potato chip and a french fry.  Happiness indeed.

Red Velvet Cake Mix Brownies

This week Vida contacted me and asked if I'd like a drawing she'd done of Brooklyn.  What a question!!!!  What was just as exciting to me as the seeing the drawing itself, was the fact that Vida contacted me out of the blue.  See, I've never met Vida.  She reads this blog and used one of the photos from the Boston Terrier Cake Pops aka Brooklyn Cake Pops post and turned it into a drawing.  How awesome is she and how awesome is her drawing of Brooklyn?! I am so in love with this drawing and how very personal it is and can't wait to have it framed...thanks Vida! LOVE this drawing and Brooklyn loves it too!

Not that anything can compare to the delightfulness that is my new drawing, but I thought I'd share this crazy tidbit I learned this week.  You can make "brownies" from a cake mix.  I know, it is crazy and it is true.

I volunteered to bake something for our office football jersey event.   I very rarely think these things through before I volunteer.   While I do like to bake, it's usually on the weekends and almost never on a Wednesday night at 8:00PM--definitely looking for something fast and easy.   I was one box short on brownie mix, but wondered if I could make something similar with cake mix. Google is beautiful...one quick search later and someone mentioned having success by adding fewer eggs and more fat...kind of like what you do with brownie mix.  Genius and have to say they were quite tasty.  The texture was very dense and brownie like and while three sticks of butter is crazy, it was for a potluck and it was so quick and easy.  

I used two boxes of cake mix and a large sheet pan.  I advocate removing 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup of the batter from the bowl before spreading it into the pan for no other reason that it was just a teeny, tiny bit too much for the pan.  It overflowed just by the smallest amount, but who wants to clean an oven right? Forgive the orange and blue sprinkles.  Everything this past week was orange and blue sprinkletized despite the agony of Monday's defeat.

Red Velvet Cake Mix Brownies

from Duncan Hines

2 boxes Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake mix

1 1/2 cups of butter, melted

2 eggs

1 cup water

chocolate chips(optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Combine egg, butter, water in a bowl. Add box mixes, stir until the ingredients are combined, and lumps are gone.
3. Add chips.  Remove 2/3 cup batter and pour mixture into the greased baking pan.
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes and place the cake on wire cooling rack. Cool entirely.
5. Frost brownie with cream cheese frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract

Israeli Couscous with Figs and Carmelized Onions

Think a recipe post in photos and captions only isn't possible?  Let me give it a try....okay, do have to say I toasted the couscous first...great flavor...and then cooked it per the directions on the bag(using veggie broth in place of the water).  The amount of figs, goat cheese, salt, pepper, oil and vinaigrette is per your own taste...I used 1 bag of israeli couscous, half a red onion, one full container of the Trader Joes figs (12 -16 oz?) and about 1/4 cup of crumbled goat cheese, 1/4 cup olive oil and 2-3 tbsp balsamic reduction.  Season with salt and pepper.

Okay, so maybe it's not possible to post a recipe with just photo captions.