I've been wanting to get a Sous Vide for at least a year now. What's a Sous Vide you ask? In french it is translated to under vacuum. The idea is pretty simple. You want to get a pot of water to a certain temperature and keep it there. The Sous Vide device is what regulates the temperature. The reason they call it under vacuum is that you put your food in a vacuum sealed bag. It's a really easy device to use. You set the temperature of the bath to get the meat/fish/chicken/vegetables to there perfect cooked temperature and keep them there without overcooking them. Restaurants have been using them for years and I first heard about it watching Top Chef. 

Its already been a month since our last recipe for Chef Joel & Jenn where we recreated an incredible Spaghetti Carbonara. Have I mentioned how much I miss Europe? The last month or so how has been insanely busy (a lot more on that in a future post) but finally we found some relief two days before Christmas to try a new dish. One of my favorite things to cook are what are labeled as one pot meals. Its just easier. There is less prep, less cooking, and less cleanup. So when I stumbled upon this recipe I knew we had to try it.

Back on Day 13 of our Epic Europe Trip 2014 I had my first ever Spaghetti Carbonara. OK it might not have been my first time (I think it was) but it was by far the most memorable. We had that fantastic dinner at Thats Amore and some of the best pasta I've ever had. I promised Jenn when we got back we would try our hand at some Spaghetti Carbonara and that's exactly what we did last Sunday.

Jenn and I went back and forth on where we should go out to celebrate our first five years of marriage. We landed on The Melting Pot in Irvine. We've been there a couple of times before and more then the food the experience is always a blast. This would be the first time we've gone there without a Groupon and it didn't disappoint. 

This past Friday marked the end of Jenn's half-day Fridays at Taco Bell. To help ease the pain of a full Friday of work I picked her up at her office and we drove across the street to Irvine Spectrum to get some dinner. In the past couple of months Jenn has finally come around to my way of thinking and has started to fall in love with Sushi. Finally! With her new found love for Sushi we wanted to check out Wasa Sushi which got pretty good reviews on Yelp.

In the last couple of years I've started to fall in love with Mediterranean food. One of my new favorite places to get takeout is Blue Mediterranean Cafe in Newport near the 73 freeway. I get either the Kafta (so good there) and the Beef Kebabs. Thus was the inspiration for our latest recipe to try out Steak Kebabs.