December 2010
70 posts
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Things I Think Are Stupid, Part 857
The New York Times Recipe Redux series.
Are you not familiar with it? The New York Times digs a recipe out of their archives, one that is beloved but dated. Then they send the recipe to some chefs, who take what appears to be a wonderful (albeit dated) recipe and make it into some insane deconstructed, many stepped, use-every-dish-in-your-home “revised” creation.
This week’s...
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The Joy of Cooking, Irma Rombauer
See, it’s not just me. Bad things come from mandolines. However, Dave got me a julienne zester for which I have super high hopes.
lazybookreviews:
No one in the history of human existence has ever mentioned using a mandoline to slice anything without the story culminating in “…and then we sat in the emergency room for three hours.”
I mean, I appreciate that you can slice things very...
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Things I Probably Already Knew
No-cook lasagna noodles are incredibly disappointing and I will regret not going back to the first store to get the dry lasagna noodles when I discover that the second store not only doesn’t have fresh noodles, but that they only have no-cook noodles.
Things I Didn’t Already Know and Would Not Have Been Able to Guess:
Neither Miccuci’s nor Paciarino have fresh lasagna noodles.
...
Everything Good Involves Eggs
Alright everyone. I had some chocolate and some cheese and looked into other animal shelters that didn’t give away my puppy dog to someone else, so I’m feeling better.
Let’s get onto the real business: Grand Marnier Soufflés with Creme Anglaise.*
I’ve made these for Christmas dinner two years in a row, and they are amazing. My uncle said they were one of the best...
Everything Good Involves Eggs
Alright everyone. I had some chocolate and some cheese and looked into other animal shelters that didn’t give away my puppy dog to someone else, so I’m feeling better.
Let’s get onto the real business: Grand Marnier Soufflés with Creme Anglaise.*
I’ve made these for Christmas dinner two years in a row, and they are amazing. My uncle said they were one of the best...
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Grand Marnier Soufflés
Oh god, guys. We want to get a dog (yay for pet ownership) so Dave and I went to the shelter on Sunday and met this one dog who was super sweet and squiggly and we filled out the paperwork for her and everything was great. However, the director isn’t there on Sundays, so we had to wait until Monday for the director to read over the application and then call us and tell us we could come...
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In Which I Win at Dinner: Salmon, Baby Boy Choy,...
This was written a while ago, and then I squirreled it away on my computer and just now rediscovered it. Remember when I cooked real food and didn’t just slice up citrus all day and end up having a cookie and frozen peas for dinner? That was great, wasn’t it?
Dinner last night [months ago] was fantastic. It covered the major food groups. And it was delicious. And it had some...
It has been a DAY
I am having a very strong drink and watching some Joss Whedon television magic.
To recap:
The marmalade was really hard. It nearly broke me. It’s all chopped up now and sitting in water doing I’m not sure what…becoming less bitter? Perhaps I should sit in water for 24 hours.
A whole bunch of Christmas gifts were stolen from my vestibule this afternoon (or not ever dropped...
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Marmalade
I decided that making and canning marmalade would be a nice Christmas vacation project for me that would result in little jars of homemade marmalade that I could give as gifts and enjoy on my own. And then we’d all pretend we were in Gosford Park and talking about how homemade marmalade is really superior to store bought while we spread it on cream biscuits and drink tea.
In my head, this...
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Stocking Stuffers!
My brother, the one that is not 10, is an economist. We’re having Christmas morning at my mum’s house, and my mum asked if we still wanted to do stockings, and if so, perhaps we could migrate to the stocking system she and her brothers had in which everyone brings a stocking stuffer for each stocking, wrapped. I said, great idea! I love stockings! But mum doesn’t need to go...
Stocking Stuffers!
My brother, the one that is not 10, is an economist. We’re having Christmas morning at my mum’s house, and my mum asked if we still wanted to do stockings, and if so, perhaps we could migrate to the stocking system she and her brothers had in which everyone brings a stocking stuffer for each stocking, wrapped. I said, great idea! I love stockings! But mum doesn’t need to go...
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Lessons Learned re: Food at Fancy Events
Dave and I went to an arty museum event. They posted photos online and the photo that we’re in involves us both scarfing food down our mouths like we’re never going to eat again.
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In Which I Win at Dinner: Salmon, Baby Boy Choy,...
This was written a while ago, and then I squirreled it away on my computer and just now rediscovered it. Remember when I cooked real food and didn’t just slice up citrus all day and end up having a cookie and frozen peas for dinner? That was great, wasn’t it?
Dinner last night [months ago] was fantastic. It covered the major food groups. And it was delicious. And it had some...
Lessons Learned re: Food at Fancy Events
Dave and I went to an arty museum event. They posted photos online and the photo that we’re in involves us both scarfing food down our mouths like we’re never going to eat again.
FOCUSFOCUSFOCUS
I am four hours away from a WHOLE WEEK of vacation* and I cannot focus.
* More than a whole week! At least eight days! I’M GOING TO DO SO MANY FUN THINGS WHILE I’M ON VACATION INCLUDING SITTING ON MY BEST FRIEND’S FAMILY’S RECLINING LOUNGERS IN MY JAMMIES WATCHING TRASHY TV.
FOCUSFOCUSFOCUS
I am four hours away from a WHOLE WEEK of vacation* and I cannot focus.
* More than a whole week! At least eight days! I’M GOING TO DO SO MANY FUN THINGS WHILE I’M ON VACATION INCLUDING SITTING ON MY BEST FRIEND’S FAMILY’S RECLINING LOUNGERS IN MY JAMMIES WATCHING TRASHY TV.
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“They had tostones at the snack bar at El Yunque National Forest (the...”
– Katy
You guys, your comments make me so happy. I am also thrilled by the idea of the rainforest snack bar expanding and opening a location near Katy and Jay’s house in Lowell.
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This is What Marriage is Like
I’m making hot chocolate last night, so I grate some fresh ginger into a small sauce pot, then grate some chocolate, then add a fair amount of milk (enough for two cups— one for that night, one for the next day), then some cocoa and half the amount of sugar that the cocoa container calls for because please, that’s just excessive, and get the whole thing cooking on medium low.
...
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This is What Marriage Is Like
I’m making hot chocolate last night, so I grate some fresh ginger into a small sauce pot, then grate some chocolate, then add a fair amount of milk (enough for two cups— one for that night, one for the next day), then some cocoa and half the amount of sugar that the cocoa container calls for because please, that’s just excessive, and get the whole thing cooking on medium low.
...
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“It’s more survivable than most people think. The key is avoiding nuclear...”
– An anonymous administration official telling the New York Times that it actually does make sense to train the public about what to do after a nuclear blast. (via officialssay)
As someone who worries about whether her downstairs neighbor is a serial killer, that maybe she’s going to...
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Restaurant Gossip
[This is going to be less exciting to those of you not in Maine, by the way]
Evangeline, a restaurant that I have been meaning to go to basically since I moved here, recently closed. Here’s the exciting bit: word on the street is that the owners of 555 might be planning to move open a more casual version of what they do in that space.
I think of 555 as one of the Fancy restaurants in...
Restaurant Gossip
[This is going to be less exciting to those of you not in Maine, by the way]
Evangeline, a restaurant that I have been meaning to go to basically since I moved here, recently closed. Here’s the exciting bit: word on the street is that the owners of 555 might be planning to move open a more casual version of what they do in that space.
I think of 555 as one of the Fancy restaurants in...
“They had tostones at the snack bar at El Yunque National Forest (the...”
– Katy
You guys, your comments make me so happy. I am also thrilled by the idea of the rainforest snack bar expanding and opening a location near Katy and Jay’s house in Lowell.
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Platanos
My friends were in town this weekend and we ate…a lot. We had strata for breakfast (eggs, bread, spinach, and gruyere), followed by stollen (a magical German fruitcake-type cake involving dried fruit and a hidden inner log of marzipan*), followed by soup, followed by many, many cookies.** There were breakfast cookies and snack cookies and lunch-dessert cookies and then pre- and post-dinner...
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“That was a sausage, wasn’t it? It had the dull thunk of a sausage.”
– I’m not always the person to take a hard line on cleanliness (that sounds worse than I intended it to), but when a sausage hits the floor, it’s reached the end of its useful life.
“That was a sausage, wasn’t it? It had the dull thunk of a sausage.”
– I’m not always the person to take a hard line on cleanliness (that sounds worse than I intended it to), but when a sausage hits the floor, it’s reached the end of its useful life.
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“Sauerkraut is one of those food items that I never questioned. It just appears...”
– Lindsay, who is in Peru and will not be eating sauerkraut with me. [SIGH]
In other kraut news, more liquid has been exuded, there are some bubbles on the surface (soap bubble or sea foam like), it is still deep violet, and it has started to smell faintly sour as well as ferment-y.
I think at some...
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Otis Redding Recorded Christmas Music
It makes me want to cry and also eat cookies and light candles and hang tinsel.
You’re welcome.
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Platanos
My friends were in town this weekend and we ate…a lot. We had strata for breakfast (eggs, bread, spinach, and gruyere), followed by stollen (a magical German fruitcake-type cake involving dried fruit and a hidden inner log of marzipan*), followed by soup, followed by many, many cookies.** There were breakfast cookies and snack cookies and lunch-dessert cookies and then pre- and post-dinner...
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How to Make Sauerkraut
Say you have friends visiting and it is winter (or basically winter) and one of them is half-German. You know what would be a great weekend activity? Homemade sauerkraut.
Your relevant experience is that for six months or so you had a sourdough starter living in your fridge, until you had a string of work trips in quick succession and it died.
Follow this recipe pretty much exactly, except...
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Weekend Plans
I have some friends coming up to visit this weekend. You know what our plans are?
Sauerkraut and Lebkuchen.
I am so excited I can barely stand it.
Do you know what lebkuchen are? They are fantastic Christmas cookies. I was going to post a picture and then I thought that maybe it would be better if I didn’t. They’re large disks, and they have a soft, slightly cakey texture, and...
The Dinner Lab →
My friend Katy started a food blog, which makes me super duper excited. She has a post titled “I realize that when I met you at the turkey curry buffet, I was unforgivably rude, and wearing a reindeer jumper,” and is that not just the best apology you’ve ever heard? It’s also a great post.*
This here post is about cookery and libraries. SERIOUSLY. Those are two of my...