A new band & a recipe too!

So the first one is in the books, it’s all going down from here folks, thanks for stopping by. . . 😉  WAIT, I’m just getting started!

For this post we’ll start off with the music, and it features a new band that I discovered just last night, The David Mayfield Parade.

Southwest Airlines is celebrating their 40th year anniversary so they put out a playlist of 40 different bands and it covers just about every genre of music, and they then gave you the opportunity to download all 40 songs off of iTunes (link to get the songs).  As I put on this playlist this song took to my ear because it reminded me a little of Johnny Cash from the intro, but then found the singer to have a yearning in his voice, and that yearning is matched I think to the lyrics (which are heartwarming all the same).  Anywho, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did/do.

Now on to the meal.

I would like to start off by saying RACHEL RAY, YOUR PREP TIMES ARE NOT AT ALL ACCURATE (at least for someone newer to cooking like myself).  Her prep time said 20 minutes, my prep time was somewhere around 45 minutes, I forgive you Rachel.  And this meal was more difficult than I thought it would be, but I have myself to blame for that.

I am not a very patient person, so I have yet to make it a habit to read the whole recipe prior to starting the meal, needless to say this causes several issues.  Case in point: it had me put flower in one bowl, eggs in another, and then breading in yet a third bowl; I was really confused.  This is because I had yet to read on that I was actually breading the chicken!  I had no idea!?!  But as you can see, I pulled it together for the sake of the chicken/my stomach.

Now this is the first time I’ve been really quite proud of myself in the kitchen (I know, it’s not saying much) but I breaded and then cooked chicken in oil on my stove for the first time ever!  And I didn’t even know I was going to do it because I hadn’t read the recipe directions!  What a fantastic surprise!!!

So I get done with the chicken and go, “phew!” that was far more difficult than I anticipated, and then moved onto cooking the spaghetti on the stove.  I get the spaghetti on and then look on the counter and think to myself, “wow, there are still a lot of ingredients left that I haven’t used yet. . .”, so I then read more of the directions. . .

Lo and behold I was supposed to start the sauce before I had started the chicken! (I think Rachel could have put her directions in a better order, but that’s just me).  So then I make a mad-dash to get this sauce done and well it got done but not without a fight on the stove. . .

I’m sure someone famous has said something about a dirty stove means good cooking happened. . . right?

But then the sauce magically turned into this:

Of which I was again really proud of!  As I had never made a sauce before!!!

All in all everything got put together in the end and topped it off with one of my favorite wines, a Joel Ott 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon.

So there you have it, my 2nd meal of the summer; Parmigiano and Herb Chicken Breast Tenders from Rachael Ray.  I had a lot of fun cooking this meal partly because I was doing things I had never done before, (if I had read the whole recipe it may have intimidated me!) and those new things turned out very well!

In closing for this post, I found new music and found some new skills I didn’t think I possessed in the kitchen, a great night!!!

Adios,

Joel

(and this recipe is located on the recipe page link at the top of the page)

Meal #1 – Grilled Shrimp

Alright folks, here it is, the inaugural meal of Eats w/ Beats!

May I present to you the meal of Grilled Shrimp!

 I created this meal on Memorial Day, and because of that occasion I wanted to use the grill, but wanted to grill something that I had never grilled before, so I brought in the shrimp!

I didn’t encounter any real issues in this meal, and was quite surprised in fact.  I had been warned by a co-worker that the shrimp needed little-to-no time on the grill and this was very true.  I timed it at about 1 1/2 on each side, so a total of about 3 minutes on the grill.

Here my little shrimps are basking in the glory of a bath of flavorful marinade (wow, that paints a picture doesn’t it? 😉 ) The marinade took about 15 minutes to put together and then had to sit for an hour at room temperature.

The hardest part for me was to kabob the shrimp, only because I am really terrible at small motor movements.  And the action of kabobing really took a tole on my patience, but alas I persevered!

Nothing like perfection on the grill 🙂

So in closing of this first post: the meal was quite good and I had the pleasure of enjoying this meal with my girlfriend Emily & roommate John.

About the only real problem I encountered was that the shrimp was done way before everything else.  I struggle at being able to time things correctly so that every part of the meal is ready around the same time, I hope this is something I get better at with experience.

And finally, what music did Joel cook with on this Memorial Day?

Well I did think about going the patriotic route (thank you to those who serve this amazing country we live in!), but I instead ended up with Maroon 5.  A band who I really fell in love with when their album, Songs About Jane, came out.  But since then I feel like all of their music is about sex, sex, sex.  But alas I partnered with my pale Pandora and created a Maroon 5 playlist.  It consisted of some fresh music that had a light, airy feel; which ultimately is the mood I was feeling as I cooked and enjoyed this first meal.

I hope you enjoyed this first post and I encourage you to share this with your friends and family!  Thanks!

Summer Goals

Welcome to Eats with Beats!

I am starting this blog as an outlet of some goals I set for myself this summer.

I am a rather skinny dood and my biggest goal is to gain 12 pounds, in addition to that I am guilty of not eating much, and when I do it’s not very good for me. So the a goal I made in conjunction with the weight gain is that I will cook 3 full meals a week, I enjoy cooking so this is a little added motivation to start and get into the routine of cooking.

So now you ask, where does the ‘beats’ part come in? Well that answer is quite simple, I am a high school band director and with that comes a passion for music. And to set this blog apart from just any other cooking blog I thought that I would pair music with each meal that I cook.

My hope is that as I work towards my goals of cooking/weight gain you will share in the tremendous glories/disappointments that I am sure I will feel along this journey, and with that you learn about new things about music!

Veggies on the grill

As a follower of this blog (maybe only 1 of you at this point) I ask that you give me feedback. If I write about something that didn’t go well in the kitchen please feel free to give me suggestions about how I could do it better, or if you have an idea of great music then bring it on! There is so much about cooking and music out there that I don’t know, and a part of this experience is about learning and growing.

Enjoy!

Joel