| Food |
[Aug. 16th, 2009|08:33 pm] |
Friday was some vegetable stock with cilantro, loads of mashed garlic, poached eggs and olive oil drenched bread. Not a big hit in America but it is tasty.
Today was sausage hoagies. What you can't see is that the bread was toasted with a crust of parmesan. I may never do it without that crust again. That was so tasty. |
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| Food |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|08:44 pm] |
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A few years ago I asked my mom for any of the recipes she used to make for us kids when she was busy going to school and working two jobs. She proved to be very uninformative. She couldn't think of anything that she used to make from back then. So now every few months one of these foods pops into my head.
They weren't great foods. Fish sticks were a staple on Fridays. It wasn't till she got remarried a few times and started getting better jobs closer to home and that paid much better.
Today one of those foods popped into my head. Taco salad. Ground beef, taco seasoning, ice burg lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, tortilla chips, sour cream, green onions, jalapenos, and olives. I called up mom to see if I had it right. This is the first time I have bought ice burg lettuce. But I knew that it couldn't be sub'ed out. The crunch wouldn't be there with something else. Normally I avoid ice burg like I would avoid the fleas of late 14th century European rats.
So I made it today. I haven't eaten this in at least 22 years. But the first bite confirmed that I had gotten the proportions exactly right. I washed it down with some hard apple cider. While it gives me fond memories of childhood I am now just a little upset that I never got hard cider as a kid because it was a really good accompaniment to this fatty American classic. |
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| Brown food |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|08:50 pm] |
I made my second roast in 10 years. First was a pot roast. This was a beef roast. A friend was coming over so I made him some brown rice that he brought down from MN 3 years ago. I never cook it unless he is coming over and have more than an hours notice. Which is to say never.
I have never cooked a meal so brown. Served with homemade stout made it even darker. Both the gravy for the meat and some of the rice is mushrooms. Tasty. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 19th, 2009|08:29 pm] |
Zucchini and squash noodles with seared sliced port roast, feta cheese and butter. It is pictured here just some red and black pepper away from really awesome.
And in case you thought that the knitting was done I will be finishing a teddy bear shortly. A goth teddy bear. Wasn't sure if it was going to be a teddy bear or a teddy cthulhu for a while but have decided that the kid will get a bear. |
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| food |
[Jun. 18th, 2009|12:54 pm] |
Tasty Breakfast is Tasty
| Yesterday I made a roast. First time in almost a decade since I had done that. Roasts have never really been my idea of a good time. But since network infrastructure is part of the food budget here and I spent almost 20% of that budget on a new router and modem this month and needed to cut back on food costs. So I made a roast. It was and will continue to be tasty. Picks some other day.
But I cut up too many potatoes for the roast. So I made mashed potatoes out of them for a future day. This morning I wanted some breakfast. I also had half an unused yellow squash. I took some finely chopped squash, a minced clove of garlic sauteed them. Mixed them and an egg into some of the mashed potatoes. Plopped three spoons of potato mixture into some hot oil in a non-stick pan and waited for magic to happen. Removed them from the pan and fried up some eggs.
Best left over breakfast ever. |
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| Food |
[Jun. 7th, 2009|08:27 pm] |
I was cooking up some teriyaki chicken which required skinless chicken thighs. So I was skinning all that chicken and thinking it would be a shame to waste all of that skin. So while the oven was preheating I took some of those skins and trimmed them up. The application of a frying pan and some heat made some very tasty skins. Which everyone knows is the best part of the chicken. Well its a tie between the skin and the little nib of meat on the thigh. You know the one that is barely a whole bite and is the tenderest and juiciest part of the bird. |
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| Food |
[Jun. 3rd, 2009|09:22 pm] |
I haven't been posting enough food pics lately.
Its like strawberry shortcake but its make with corn bread. Take some (homemade) corn bread and poor some honey on it. Put some (homemade) whipped cream on it. Top it with more fresh strawberries than you should. |
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| knitting |
[Jun. 1st, 2009|12:08 am] |
 | In the picture on the left is a partial bottle of mead that a friend made. When he made it there was some honey sweetness in it 6 months later when he handed it to me. Four months since then it has finished fermenting in the bottle (woops on his part) and has some lighter fluid traits now. Good stuff if your are drinking one shot at a time.
Second up we have a wine bottle cozy and some ginger wine. Not as lacy as I wanted it but happy with the results. I have a mead I am making and I am going to make some much brighter cozies for those bottles. This cozy will also work on 750 ml bottles of beer so I can see some use for this as a holder of Unibroue, Allagash and Avery bottles in the very near future.
The ginger wine is everything you always wanted in a ginger ale but is not carbonated, is 13% ABV and reminds me a lot of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster but with ginger instead of lemon. Good stuff in moderation.
The last bottle is the only crappy Carmenere wine I have ever had. So its slowly turning into vinegar where it will serve some useful function in its all too long life. |
I made some Guinness today. Made some whipped cream for berries and corn bread desert. Tasty day.
Did a force killing of the yeast in the mead I am making. Now to remove all the yeast, spike it with some saffron and bottle it. Shouldn't take more than a month or two :)
wine cozy, basic pattern idea from book "one skein wonders". a few alterations, using two yarns knit together. cascade yarns baby alpaca chunky for body and rowan kidsilk aura (75% kid mohair, 25% silk) for some fuzzy quality to it. less than one skein of each. |
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| Ramen |
[Apr. 8th, 2009|06:52 pm] |
I love to eat and make good food. I also like to eat noodles. Not just those high end Italian style ones from my mothers half of the family but those low end Asian ones that come in a plastic bag and cook up in 3 minutes. I don't normally eat more than a bag a month but with my cooking skills cramped by my broken wrist I found myself going out to the Asian mega market to restock my stash. I got about a dozen different kinds. I have become a real big fan of the ones made from vermicelli bean noodles. One of the great things about them is that they normally only have 12%-75% of your sodium for the day while other ramens can contain up to 200% or more. Remember that the next time someone says salt is the main cause of high blood pressure and that Asians who eat this stuff every day don't have the blood pressure issues of Americans. It is amazing what a diet with less than 10% meat can do to ones health.
When I go to load up on noodles I have a few basic guidelines.
1) Pick up at least three bags of stuff I have had before and liked. You never know when someone else may have to eat it and while I have no issue eating something I have never had and know nothing about other people at least want to know that they won't die from eating something.
2) buy at least two flavors of any brand I have never seen before. These companies go out of business over night and you may never get a chance to taste it again.
3) the uglier the packaging the more vital it is to buy it. With a name like crushed kitten brains it has to be good!
4)no matter how premium the noodles are they are still in the budget because no one charges $2 for one bag of even the priciest raman. So don't be afraid to buy the one marked at $1.49
5) Noodles that have a sticker written in English them with their nutritional values and ingredients on them aren't nearly as cool the ones that have no English on them at all.
6) as an extension of #5: don't bother with Top Ramen. In the 90s they put out crap flavor after crap flavor to expand their market base but never once did it cross their minds to up the quality or use Asian based flavoring ideas. Tomato flavor? Chicken ranch flavor? What the fuck were they thinking? And is it too much to ask that Chicken flavor taste like chicken and not toasted and ground up chicken bones with MSG?
Today I ate a bag of Mì Chay (wheat noodles) that were nấm hương (mushroom) flavored. Packaging was a dreadful yellow clore with a big mushroom on it. The mushroom is cheaply printed with just 3 three colors (black, red, yellow with white blackground) that just screams "this company isn't around any more".
Ingredients are as follows: wheat flour, salt, glucose, mushroom flavor, ribotide[0], edible oil, vegetable, edible spices
I am so glad that they specified that the oil and spices are edible. Hope I don't have a allergic reaction to "vegetable". :) Since the oil was solid at room temp I can assume that it was palm oil. Best thing to do get the most out of solidified oil packets is to toss them in the boil water for a few seconds to loosen them up before opening the packet.
[0] Ribotide; Trade name (Japan) for a mixture of the purine derivatives, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate, used as a flavour enhancer for savoury. Thats a lot of chemistry there. Almost like salty primordial soup in fact. If we could get this by the bowl it would be pure umami joy. |
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| food |
[Mar. 22nd, 2009|08:30 pm] |
I have been hording rarer cheeses and cured meats in the last few weeks. Today I decided that some fruit might help cut the skag with some thing a little healthier.
Meats: pepperoni (left), dried chorizo (right), soprassata (center)
Cheeses: hickory smoked cheddar (top), aged irish cheeder (second), very aged gouda (third), smoked provolone (fourth), huntsmen (bottom),
Fruits: mini pears (top left), asian pears (center), blood orange (top right), mango (bottom center), kiwi (bottom left)
Of course when making this kind of dinner it is a good idea to start with a small plate, have lots of tupperware or zip lock bags, and start with the cutting the fruit first so that you don't fill up on the skag. |
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| you cant till the italian |
[Dec. 22nd, 2008|09:02 pm] |
I have made clams and spaghetti too many times to count. I have played with variations enough that my recipe for it looks nothing like my mothers from which it was based on.
A little over a week ago I got a craving for French food. So I got my mise en place together and have be
en doing French food since then. Never really having a recipe in mind just knowing that I had the essentials of a french meal available and sorting it all out before I walked into the kitchen.
Today I had it sorted out. I was going to make some clams with some bread and some baked brie. I was planning on putting a little cream in the juice left over from cooking the clams but that plan went right out the door as soon as I tried the broth. Next thing you know I have 3/4 of a pound of fettucini in a gallon of boiling water and was busting out some frozen basil from this summer.
It was clams and spaghetti but it was done with French technique.
Clams, Shrimp and Spaghetti
2 tbsp french butter
2 large shallots
2 cloves minced garlic
2-4 tbsp fresh basil
2 cups white bordeaux
1 pound clams (mahogany or other)
1/2 pound large gulf shrimp (optional), shelled and devained
4 tbsp fresh/frozen basil
2 tbsp french butter
3/4 pound fettucini
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
+ scrub the clams. standard rules apply
+ heat a large skillet that has a lid over medium high heat
+ add first batch of butter and let it melt
+ add shallots and saute until clear (4 min)
+ add garlic and basil and saute for another minute
+ cook the pasta
+ add the clams and put the lid on
+ stir or shake once in a while and add shrimp after about 5 minutes
+ cook for another 5 minutes
+ take the clams and shrimp out and set them aside
+ remove clam meat from shells and reserve the meat and discard the shells
+ add last of the butter to the broth
+ when pasta is finished cooking add the shrimp and clams back to broth
+ drain pasta
+ pour the shrimp, clams and sauce over the pasta.
+ garmish with parsley
+ serve
It was the first time I had ever made clams and spaghetti from scratch. I had always used canned clams because it was always a 'this is tasty and gets us by' kind of comfort food when I was growing up. Don't know why I never tried to use fresh clams before other than the cost difference. And that difference isn't much out here in VA. Two cans of clam bits is almost $5 and a pound of fresh clams is $6. Figure in the cost of extra clam juice in a bottle that always makes the cheap clams taste better and it is even cheaper and tastier to do it from scratch. I will have to do this one again. |
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| beer |
[Dec. 13th, 2008|08:09 am] |
Today we went out for some birthday celibration. Among our guests was a drunk Irish-American. You know the type. Green shirt and shaved head. After trying to start a few fights we managed to get him in the car. So that the others could enjoy the after hours over at IHOP I offered to take him in for the night. I poored him some beer from the tap and put in Army of Darkness. In an effort to get some food in him I cooked up some rolled tacos. The way he ate them was.. well for lack of a better term... cute. He ate them with a fork. He would cut off bite sized pieces with a fork and dunk them into the sour cream and salsa and eat them. I have never seen that befor in my life. He has passed out on the couch and is no longer feeling the need to punch people in the face. All is well with the world. |
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| rage a complaint |
[Nov. 16th, 2008|09:53 pm] |
Attention Sam's Club: American's waste enough food as it is. Your commercial saying that we should carve apples as candle holders just makes it worse. This ranks up there with pumpkin carving as one of the things that starving people in other parts of the world hate about us. |
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| in just seven days |
[Oct. 27th, 2008|08:17 am] |
A week ago I figured that McCain would start offering up the idea that we should vote for him so we can have a split ticket of Dems in the Congress and a Rep in the Whitehouse. I figured if he does that then he will loose. While American's do love that kind of split and have done it many times in the past if my memory is correct any time that someone says this is a reason to vote for them they loose.
Today McCain floated the idea that we should vote for him so that the Dems won't have a lock on government.
---
A week ago I noticed that with consumer spending in the tank and commodity prices crashing we might be set up for a deflationary situation. I am now putting off buying gas because it is dropping so fast. It just doesn't make sense to fill up early when you can put it off a day or two and save 14 cents a gallon. I have been cleaning out the pantry instead of buying new food. Prices of corn, rice and wheat are falling just as fast as oil. The food riots of a year ago seem like a thing of the past and not the future. With my efforts and everyone elses we might just see a deflationary economy in a very short time. |
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| Food |
[Jul. 17th, 2008|08:27 pm] |
I was reading a brewing book that mentioned the difference between one wild plant and the farmed version. Alton Brown also has a habit of pulling out ancestral forms of domesticated plants. So I thought I would pull together some examples myself for consumption by you people.
Domestic tomato vs its 1 cm wild stock.
We all are familiar with 'baby' corn. How about the grass seed like wild corn?
I find these when walking around. The closer to the the North Carolina boarder the more you find until you hit Pungo where they grow the domestic crop. When you first see the wild ones you are wondering what that tiny red speck on the ground is. When you get up close to it you might think it is the smallest raspberry you have ever seen until you remember that raspberries don't grow on the ground.
 
Eggplant grows to less than 3 cm in the wild.
 
My thanks for anyone who can find a good pic of ancestral celery and the modern stuff.
In fact I think I will borrow a page from Miriku and do a Bring Me.
Post me some pictures of Ancestral vs domestic:
1) turkey
2) chicken
3) broccoli
4) slut
5) banana (cross section with seeds please)
6) teddy bear
7) radio
8) carrots
9) wine grapes
10) celery |
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| Baked goods |
[Jul. 7th, 2008|06:33 pm] |
I made some corn bread the other day. 5824 asked if we could do anything like add cheese and peppers to it. I said we had peppers but no cheese. She didn't like the sound of that. I offered her honey for a sweeter corn bread. She approved that and then wondered how much we should add. I told her there was no reason to look it up, we can just add as much or as little as we like.
At this point she started to panic. She explained that bread was baking and you can't just add things like honey to a baked good without doing research first. I advised her that corn bread isn't really baking. We could add butter, pork fat, honey, bacon, cheese, peppers and many other things without even thinking about the amounts.
Besides, I told her, if it was baking I wouldn't do it because I am not that kind of guy. So I after adding 3 or 5 tablespoons of honey I mixed it up and put it into the pre-warmed and buttered cast iron pan. She asked me how long it would take. I told her that it might take 15 to 25 minutes. This earned a retort of "Thats not the kind of range one sees in baking!". I said "See, I told you it isn't baking. Its corn bread. To completely different things."
Once it was done (22 min) she buttered it up and tasted it and didn't care if it was baking anymore. The honeyed corn bread tasted like a slice of her childhood and she wasn't going to worry about it because the proof was in the (honeyed) corn bread.
I am having a hard time not baking. In the last year have started making some bread, whole wheat cracker style pizza crust and other items like quiche. Making these and maintaining my no-bake status is getting tougher every time preheat the oven.
X-posted from another group were corn bread was on the menu. |
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| El Pollo Loco |
[Jul. 2nd, 2008|12:30 am] |
A few weeks ago I got a craving for El Pollo Loco. Unfortunate for us there aren't any here in VA. So I went and got myself a precooked rotisserie chicken, some salsa, some avocados and other things needed to recreate the taste of unhealthy health food.
It was a good meal but it wasn't the same. Then just days after that I found out that a mile from the house they will be breaking ground on an El Pollo Loco in just a few more weeks. Now I will be able to buy it cheaper than I can make it. Joy.
Now we just needs a Jack closer than 6.5 hours (by car) away and an In and Out some where closer than 6.5 hours (by plain) away and I will be much better adjusted. Sadly the only Roberto's style taco shop closed down and TJ is just too far away. |
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| food update |
[Feb. 3rd, 2008|08:05 pm] |
I just updated my websites recipe page so that you can see if something is Vegetarian, Kosher, or has Dairy or Pork in it before clicking on the images. Now I just have to update the ascii section which hasn't been touched in a year. |
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