Dirty Fried Rice + Mushroom "Scallops" + Creole Coconut Sauce

The king oyster mushroom "scallop" may be The Chubby Vegetarian's most famous dish. It has been served in not one, but two of Memphis' finest restaurants. Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen served it at their annual all-vegetarian "No-Menu" Monday, a dinner where what you eat is up to the whim of the chefs. It's always wonderful and tasty. They called my dish TCV Scallop. I was so, so flattered. The faux scallop has also been spotted at Wally Joe's Acre Restaurant in East Memphis as a garnish on one of their beautifully plated entrees. I borrow enough from the excellent ideas of all these guys, so I am happy to have something to give back.

This is my new way to do it. I took the classic flavor New Orleans-style dirty rice and made it into fried rice for the base of this dish. This part alone is great for a light meal or lunch, but adding the wonderfully meaty king oyster mushroom scallops and the rich Creole Coconut Sauce on top make this dish truly special and really unique.


King oyster mushrooms are really easy to find nowadays. Whole Foods always carries them -- along with a variety of other cool mushrooms -- in the produce department. If you are feeling adventuresome, head out to the nearest Asian grocery. They will have huge king oyster mushrooms.


Dirty Fried Rice + Mushroom "Scallops" + Creole Coconut Sauce
(serves 4) 

Dirty Fried Rice (recipe follows)

1 pound king oyster mushrooms

1 can light coconut milk
1 teaspoon Old Bay
1 tablespoon creole mustard

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon oil

1 clove garlic (minced or micro-planed)

sea salt and cracked black pepper (to taste)

celery leaves and fresh thyme (to garnish)

First, prepare Dirty Fried Rice according to the recipe below. Next, cut king oyster mushrooms into 3/4 inch rounds to resemble sea scallops. You should end up with about 15 slices (more if your mushrooms were smaller). Place slices into a medium dish or a bowl and cover with the coconut milk. The richness of the coconut milk is essential to the flavor and texture of this dish. Allow mushroom slices to marinade in the coconut milk for at least 20 minutes and up to an hour. Fish the mushrooms out and lay them onto a clean dish towel. Reserve one cup of the coconut milk to be used in the sauce. Dry both sides of the mushroom and sprinkle generously with Old Bay seasoning. Heat a 10-inch frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the butter and oil. Once the butter has melted, cook the mushrooms in two batches. Sear each side for 3-4 minutes or until nicely browned. Drain mushrooms on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Pour off excess fat from the pan and into an old coffee can or milk carton. Do not scrape out the bits of brown (fond) that are stuck to the bottom of the pan. Immediately add the reserved cup of coconut milk, mustard, and garlic. Stir with a whisk over medium heat until heated through.

To assemble the dish, place 1 1/2 cups Dirty Fried Rice on a plate and top with three mushroom scallops and a tablespoon of the creole coconut sauce. Garnish with celery leaves and fresh thyme.

Dirty Fried Rice



2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup white rice (I like jasmine rice.)
1/2 cup celery (small dice)
1/2 cup carrot (small dice)
1/2 cup shallot (small dice)
1/4 cup dry-packed sun-dried tomato (small dice)
1 cup button mushroom (about 5, small dice)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
scant 1/8 teaspoon clove
1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke
3 tablespoons oil
2 eggs (beaten)
2 tablespoons soy sauce (I like Braggs.)



Bring the broth and tomato paste up to a boil in a large soup pot. Add the rice, cover the pot, reduce the heat to low. Allow it to cook for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and allow rice to cool completely; this will take another 20 minutes -- if you try to make fried rice with warm rice, you will end up with a gummy mess! 


In a large mixing bowl, toss together the celery, carrot, shallot, sun-dried tomato, mushrooms, garlic powder, thyme, crushed red pepper, sage, clove, and liquid smoke. If you have a wok, now is the time to use it. Place the wok (or your largest frying pan) over high heat. Allow the wok to get hot without anything in it. This should talk 3 minutes or so. Add the canola oil. Once it starts to smoke, gently pour the beaten egg into the hot oil; this is cool to watch. Once it it almost dry (this only take a few seconds), add the vegetable mixture and toss it around the pan like crazy using a large serving spoon. Use the spoon to break the egg up as you stir. Allow vegetables to cook for two to three minutes or until they start to take on some color and then add the rice. Mix it all up and add the soy sauce. Cook another two to three minutes or until everything is heated through. Remove from heat and cover with a large lid to keep rice warm while you cook the other components of the dish.

King Oyster Tacos

Oyster mushrooms? Lobster mushrooms? Look around and you will discover that when people describe mushrooms they often use the flavor of seafood as a frame of reference. Why, you ask? Well, mushrooms and seafood actually share many of the same flavors and textures with one another. That makes many mushrooms great to use in place of seafood in many dishes.

One of my favorite mushrooms is the king oyster. It is really a weird little guy. A good sized king oyster will be about 5 inches long and about as big around as a peeled banana. The flesh is white, and it has a diminutive cap. Unlike most mushrooms, it's prized for its stem but not its cap. The flavor is mild, and the texture is chewy and meaty. The first time I ever had one, I thought I had been given meat. No joke. As a nice bonus, they pick up and display the flavors in a marinade very nicely. Slice them into rounds to simulate scallops, or slice them longways to use like little fish filets.

3 large king oyster mushrooms (thinly sliced long-ways)

1/4 cup of olive oil

3 cloves garlic

4 fresh sage leaves

juice of 1 lemon

splash of rice vinegar

chili powder

s & p

Everything but the chili powder goes into an airtight plastic container. Add enough water to cover, and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight. Remove from marinade and towel off. Sprinkle with a good-quality chili powder. Grill over a hot fire for about 2 minutes per side. Serve with warm tortillas, sour cream, shredded cheese, cilantro, diced tomatoes, and avocados. Round out the meal with grilled corn and frozen mango margaritas. Ole'!

King Oyster Mushroom Scallops over Ponzu Soba Noodles

As most of you know, I'm not a fan of processed food. There was a moment of desperation, and in that moment, starving and unable to think, I purchased a can of sriracha peas. They looked harmless enough, so I read the label. Nothing too offensive, I thought to myself, so I cracked them open right there in the aisle of the Target. They were...interesting. I think that they are mostly garlic powder, but they also had an intense saltiness, heat, and a hint of sweet. I knew I could use them for something: a crunchy coating on some tofu. Or even better, use them as a dredge for my king oyster mushroom scallops.

Ponzu Broth:

1 Not-Beef bouillon cube

2 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)

3 green onions (sliced, white parts only)

zest of one orange

2 tablespoons mirin

1 tablespoon sesame oil

splash of Braggs or soy sauce

3 cups water

Bring all ingredients to a boil then remove from heat. Make sure the bouillon cube has completely dissolved.

King Oyster Mushroom Scallops over Ponzu Soba Noodles

2 king oyster mushrooms (sliced into 1 inch segments)

olive oil

salt & pepper

1/4 cup sriracha peas (pulverized in the food processor)

ponzu broth

2 serving dried soba noodles

2 carrots (shredded with a julienne peeler)

3 green onions (green parts, sliced on the bias)

chili oil (like La-Yu)

Braggs or soy sauce

Score the tops of the mushroom slices. Drizzle each with olive oil, sprinkle with black pepper and a little salt, and lastly, dust each mushroom with the sriracha pea crumbs. Bring broth to a boil and add noodles. Once they are soft, add the carrots and remove from heat. Sear mushrooms in olive oil over medium-high heat for 3 minutes per side. (Do not overcook the king oyster mushrooms as they will become tough.)

Remove mushrooms from the pan and arrange them onto a bed of noodles and carrots. Garnish the dish with green onion, chili oil, Braggs, and another dusting of the sriracha peas. And then, try to look coy when someone thanks you for the wonderful seared sea scallops.

Vegetarian Tom Yum Soup (Oil Free and Vegan)

Anyone who reads this blog knows that we are very susceptible to the power of suggestion. We hear a dish mentioned, and we just absolutely must make it. At the I Love Memphis blog, the Tom Yum soup at Shanghai was mentioned as one of the 10 best things this year. (View the complete list HERE.) 

Anytime I eat Thai food, I always longingly stare at the Tom Yum on the menu. It always contains shrimp stock and chicken stock -- it's just how that soup is made. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and come up with a great vegetarian version of this classic soup. 

Kombu is the key here. It's a sea vegetable, and it has the highest amount of umami of any vegetable. The part of the shrimp, a classic component of this soup, is being played by king oyster mushrooms which, as you can tell by their name, have a very 
seafood-like texture and flavor. These elements paired with the fragrant punch of the broth, the spiciness of the sambal, and the acidity of the lime make for one great bowl of soup.


Vegetarian Tom Yum Soup

2 stalks  lemongrass
1 quart low-sodium vegetable broth (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
3 lime leaves
1/2 inch sliced ginger
1/2 ounce kombu (about 3 small sheets, rinsed)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon (or more)  sambal
2 tablespoons vegetarian fish sauce (or soy sauce)
4 cloves crushed garlic
1 cup tomato wedges
1 red pepper (sliced)
1 cup full-fat coconut milk  (like Whole Foods 365 brand)
1 1/2 cups sliced and quartered king oyster mushrooms
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1 lime (quartered)

Trim the ends off of the lemongrass and peel away the first two layers. With the back of your knife or a frying pan, beat the lemongrass until it splinters. Cut into 4 pieces and set aside. In a large saucepan, bring the broth to a boil with the lemongrass, lime leaves, ginger, kombu, brown sugar, fish sauce (or soy sauce), and garlic. Cover and reduce the heat to a simmer; allow this mixture to cook for 20 to 25 minutes. Strain out the solids leaving only a fragrant broth. Return the broth to the saucepan over medium heat. Add the tomato, red pepper, and coconut milk. Allow the tomato and pepper to warm through. Just before serving, stir in the king oyster mushrooms. (They're easy to overcook and become rubbery of they sit in the hot broth for too long.) Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with cilantro and a squeeze of lime. (Serves 4 as a starter and 2 for dinner.)

Sea Bean Cakes with Lemon Aioli

I saw them. I just never picked them up. They were right there next to the mushrooms. I think maybe I was distracted by the blue foot, hen of the woods, or the fresh chanterelles. I'm talking about sea beans. They are a funny-looking little vegetable that reminds me of coral in form. The flavor is intense; they taste like the sea. The briny, bright flavor is a great addition to the vegetarian cook's bag of tricks. Here I pair the seafood-like texture of king oyster mushrooms with the seafood-like flavor of the sea bean to create a delicious vegetarian version of a crab cake.

1 cup king oyster mushrooms (diced)

1/2 cup sea beans (diced)

1/4 cup fresh parsley (minced)

1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning

1 1/2 tbsp mayo

1/4 green bell pepper (small dice)

1 egg (beaten)

3/4 cup bread (torn into small pieces)

1 1/2 cups panko or cracker crumbs

olive oil

pepper

Cook mushrooms in a frying pan over medium heat for a few minutes until tender then set aside to cool. Fold all of the ingredients except the panko together in a large mixing bowl. You want it to be light so don't over work it. Portion mixture with an ice cream scoop, roll in panko, and pat into a flat disk. Repeat. Set cakes on a tray and place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. This will help them stay together as they cook. Fill a non-stick frying pan with about a 1/2 inch of oil and place over medium heat. Remove cakes from the freezer and pan fry in batches until golden. Squeeze the juice from 1/2 a lemon into a 1/4 cup of mayo, add pepper, and mix. Serve this on the side of the sea cakes.

Two Tarts Eat as One

Sorry, I could not resist -- again. It's just too much fun to pun. Well, if that is annoying, then ignore it. What you see is really a leek and king oyster mushroom confit tart with lemon-goat cheese along with an arugula and basil pesto tart with heirloom tomatoes and parmesan cheese. Today was the last day of the Whitton Farms summer CSA, and I got majorly inspired by what was in my bag this week. Thank you, Keith and Jill!

The Wife's tart dough:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup vegetable/canola oil blend

1 cup of ice water

1 generous pinch of sea salt

Throw it all together, stir, and add extra flour to coat and to lessen the stickiness if needed. Roll it on out and let TCV deal with the rest of the prep work himself while you catch up on The Hills, the greatest scripted comedy in television history. 

For the leek and king oyster mushroom confit tart with lemon-goat cheese:

2 leeks (washed and cut into 1/4-inch disks)

2 medium king oyster mushrooms (cut into 1/4-inch disks)

2 tablespoons butter

2 ounces of lemon goat cheese

1/2 cup white wine

Melt butter in a large pot and then add the mushrooms and the leeks. Cover and allow to cook over low heat for about 30 minutes. Remove lid and add wine; allow to reduce. Spread thinly on 12-inch tart crust and crumble goat cheese on top.

For the arugula and basil pesto tart with heirloom tomatoes and parmesan:

2 cups arugula leaves

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/8 cup olive oil

1 thinly sliced heirloom tomato

1/2 cup shaved parmesan

Combine pine nuts, arugula, basil, and olive oil in a mini-prep. Next, spread mixture on 12-inch tart crust. Top prettily with tomatoes and parmesan.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, and then brush with an egg wash. Return pan to oven for 5 minutes. Remove and serve warm. 

The Chubby Vegetarian Mushroom Debris Po' Boy at The Second Line

We are super-pumped to be a part of the po' boy menu at Chef Kelly English's brand-new restaurant, The Second Line. You see, my dad always told me, "Son, surround yourself with good sandwiches, and you can't go wrong!" Wait, maybe it was 'people' not 'sandwiches.' I forget! 

Well, in either case, both things hold true here. When you go to The Second Line, you'll be surrounded by good sandwiches named after good people. There's the Johnny Snack that's inspired by Chef John Currence, and The Verno that's named for sports talk show host Chris Vernon, and The Besh BBQ Shrimp which is Kelly's mentor John Besh's own recipe. And lastly, there is a sandwich called The Chubby Vegetarian Mushroom Debris (pronounced day-bree), which is our recipe we developed and tested with Kelly. We feel blessed to be in such good company!

It all stared with a conversation with the chef. "I've never had a po' boy that was intended to be vegetarian, but still rang true," Chef English told us. "I don't want a sandwich that's been so gussied up it no longer resembles a po' boy," he continued."That's exactly what I want, and I know you are up to the task!" 

With that vote of confidence, we got to work making lots and lots of sandwiches! First there was the Andoullie Eggplant Po' Boy, a sandwich stuffed with grilled and spiced eggplant which was a close runner-up, then there was the "K.O.," which was beer-battered king oyster mushrooms and sea beans. We briefly toyed around with the idea of using jackfruit, then got weirded out by the fact that it was a canned product. 

So, we tried the same jackfruit preparation on mushrooms…bingo! I don't want to oversell it, but it really is amazing! Fresh portobello or crimini mushrooms are braised in red wine with celery, carrots, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves. The mushrooms form their own meaty and flavorful broth during the braise, which is then spooned generously onto a pistolette and garnished with pickles, lettuce, tomato, and mayo.

 "A po' boy has to drip down your arm with the first bite," Kelly is fond of saying. So we wanted to deliver just that. It's a wonderfully messy thing! "What we ended up with," he said, "I couldn't be prouder of, and it is one of my first recommendations I make, to any type of 'vore: carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore." So, go and gather up some good people and surround yourselves with good sandwiches at The Second Line!

Here are a few insider tips. The filling itself is vegan, as is the bread, and there's no cheese on it, so the sandwich can easily be ordered without mayo -- if you are into that sort of thing. The O.G. po' boy from the menu can be made with the Chubby Vegetarian Mushroom Debris gravy, and that makes it a T.C.V.O.G. It comes with French fries piled on the sandwich -- if you are into that sort of thing. 




The Chubby Vegetarian Debris Po Boy at The Second Line

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large white onion (thinly sliced into half-moons)
2 medium ribs celery (thinly sliced)
2 medium carrots (thinly sliced)
6 cloves garlic (smashed)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried, crumbled porcini mushrooms
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
2 cups vegetable stock
4 to 5 large portobello mushrooms or 3 8-ounce packages of crimini (*thinly sliced)
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon vegetarian Worcestershire
Hot sauce to taste
3 12-inch crispy French rolls (split)
Pickles, sliced tomatoes, mayonnaise (vegan or regular), Creole mustard, and thinly sliced iceberg lettuce (to garnish)


In a stock pot over medium heat, add the olive oil and heat until it starts to shimmer. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and cook until nice and brown. This takes about 20 minutes with some occasional stirring, but it's worth it. The flavor gained from all those brown bits is amazing!

Add the garlic, thyme, porcini, bay leaves, and red wine to the pot. Scrape up any bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pot, and cook until it looks dry, about 1o minutes. Add the stock, sliced portobellos, vinegar, tomato paste, and Worcestershire. Once the liquid starts to simmer, reduce to low heat, and cook, uncovered, for 45 minutes. The liquid should have reduced significantly at the end of the cooking time.  Serve heaped onto several French rolls garnished with pickles, sliced tomatoes, mayonnaise, Creole mustard, and cabbage. (Serves 6.)

*I slice the raw mushrooms about 1/8-inch thick on my meat slicer. I lay the mushrooms flat and slice disks. This way there are lots of large slices and tons of great bits and pieces.

King Oyster Mushroom Scallops on Melted Leeks topped with Apple & Cucumber Slaw

I'm still not sure about the texture of king oyster mushrooms. They are chewy. That is to say, they take a lot of chewing, which is a little weird for us vegetarians. So this time I decided to braise them in a mixture of butter, white wine, garlic, and parsley. I left them in a dutch oven for about three hours, and they still were not as tender as I'd like. They were delicious, and I think I'm on the right track; maybe they need more time, or maybe I need to turn up the heat a bit. I really don't know quite yet, but I'll get there. I may ditch the whole braised idea and sous vide it next time...if only I knew how.

+++Update+++ 12/09/10

No need to braise them. Just drizzle them in olive oil, and sear them in a hot pan for about 3 minutes per side.

Here I served the scored and seared mushrooms on a bed of caramelized leeks. The slaw of English cucumber and organic apple was simply dressed in equal parts honey and rice vinegar. I garnished the dish with parsley leaves and drizzled the whole thing with ponzu.

Spicy Paella with Seitan, Sausage, & Mushrooms

Sofrito, socorat, paellera...learning to make paella was like learning a whole new language. With a little help from Mark Bittman and his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, 

I was on the right track in no time. Paella, he explains, is a Spanish comfort-food dish usually consisting of sausage and seafood with rice that has been seasoned with saffron and a sofrito. After reading Mr. Bittman's entry, I was feeling better about my decision to make this for a dinner party. This was good considering that Michael and Kelly would be over for dinner in a few hours, and I had never attempted a paella of any kind before in my life. I was determined and pretty sure I could make it turn out edible.

Let's start with the pallera. It is a large, flat, metal pan with two handles traditionally used in the cooking of paella. I don't have one, and you probably don't either. So I just used my largest flat-bottom All-Clad skillet without a nonstick coating. It worked great. 

Now on to the sofrito. 'Sofrito' is a generic term for a spanish spice mixture. I looked at a ton of recipes and came up with a recipe of my very own. Collect the following ingredients and meet me at the food processor:

1/2 white onion

1/2 green pepper

1/2 red pepper

3 cloves of garlic

1/2 bunch of cilantro

2 tsp ground fresh chili paste

1 tbsp tomato paste

enough olive oil to get it all moving

Put all ingredients in the food processor. Turn it on, drizzle in olive oil, and leave it on until your veggies are finely chopped. Transfer this mixture to your paellera; cook over medium heat with a few more tablespoons of olive oil until most of the moisture has evaporated and it has taken on a paste-like consistency. You have done it; you have just made your first sofrito. You can use this in black bean soup or as a tofu marinade or for anything you want to be spicy and delicious.

For the next step, you will need:

3 1/2 cups vegetable stock

a few pinches of saffron threads

2 cups arborio rice

more olive oil

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Heat the stock and add the saffron to it. With the stovetop on medium-high heat, throw the rice into the pan with the sofrito and a few tablespoons of olive oil. Coat the rice in the sofrito and oil. Add three cups of hot stock to the rice and stir. 

Here is where you can get creative. I topped my rice with diced zucchini, tomato wedges, shelled edamame, Field Roast sausage, grilled seitan, and king oyster mushrooms. It was quite a feast, but you can make yours as simple or as elaborate as you'd like. Arrange your toppings as you would the toppings on a pizza and throw it all into the oven. After 20 minutes, add the remaining stock and then stick it back in the oven for another 20 minutes. Right before you serve the paella, put it back on the stovetop over high heat for about 4 minutes. This will 

develop the socorat, the crunchy rice at the bottom of the pan that is so wonderful. Chop some fresh herbs and sprinkle them over the top. Serve it with a nice salad. (We had spring greens with orange rounds, olives, and a sherry vinegar-olive oil dressing.)

The meal was rounded out with a wonderful syrah and a bottle of sparkling wine from Austria. Michael also brought fresh hot sauce he made from a family recipe. For dessert, The Wife served us hot tin roof sundaes made with homemade vanilla ice cream, chocolate cacao nibs, cayenne peanuts, and caramel. (She is very proud of her first attempt at homemade caramel, especially since she made it up herself as she went along. Funny what not planning ahead and not getting the proper ingredients can force you to learn!)

In Our Kitchen

The Chubby Vegetarian blog is all about inventive new vegetable recipes and wild, one-off experiments. Our first cookbook, The Southern Vegetarian: 100 Down-Home Recipes for the Modern Table, gathered all the Southern dishes that we make over and over again. Our love of cooking vegetables has taken us from our Memphis, Tennessee home to the James Beard House. We're proud to have been featured on The Food Network, in the The New York Times, in The Local Palate, by Woman's Day, and in The Washington Post…

…And most recently, on TheKitchn.com today! 

We so hope you love cooking with us. Look around some and let us know what works for you -- hopefully, you’ll land on lots of new ideas you hadn't thought of before and find some intriguing vegetable recipes to try. Below is our take on why we do what we do in the land of BBQ and how we learned to cook in a healthy way that's appealing to everyone. 

Oh, vegetables: you want to eat more of them because they make you feel great, or you need to eat more of them to displace some of the more dubious items on your plate. Either way, the question remains about how to take the natural, whole foods we all should be eating and transform them into something you and your family will crave. 

Our answer is simple: treat vegetables like a piece of meat -- really! We rub a pastrami cure onto beets and slice them for reubens, we BBQ spaghetti squash and slather it in a wonderfully spicy and rich Southern sauce, smoky lentils are tucked into tacos, and king oyster mushrooms are seared and served like little scallops.

On the blog as well as in our book, it’s not about replicating meat; it’s about moving vegetables from side dish to the center of the plate. It’s not about limitations or what’s missing; it’s about seeing the possibilities inherent in each beautiful vegetable and realizing its potential. Most of all it's about making delicious food that happens to be vegetarian.

For us, eating was not always about health. In 2008, when we started this blog, we were a combined 100 pounds heavier and now we know, a bit deluded about what we were actually eating. I mean, one of us is a strict vegetarian and has been for about 25 years,  and the other eats veg most of the time and has for ages…how bad could it have been? 

After making all the mistakes and going through our own health struggles, we became brave and driven enough to try something different. We both got with the program: running, biking, yoga, and eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and nuts and whole grains. We’re not satisfied with picking at a boring old salad everyday -- we were set on to making ‘healthy’ a little stealthy, appealing, and even more delicious than our old way of eating. 

We wouldn’t dream of life without hot dogs, tacos, or even steaks, so we figure out better ways to prepare them, or as we say in the South, to fix ‘em. All in all, what we strive to do through TCV and our book The Southern Vegetarian has turned out to be a mission for helping ourselves and others, and it's a passion that changed our lives for the better. Let’s eat well and enjoy it, let’s be strong and full of energy, and let’s get in the kitchen and cook something awesome, and then let's pull up a chair and all share a meal together. 

-- Justin & Amy