January 2011
70 posts
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Convalescing
I took the cone off Cashew while I was having lunch and could watch him to make sure he doesn’t lick or chew at his stitches. He took the opportunity to sit in front of the couch, gently rest his head on the cushion, and whine quietly.
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WatchWhat you’re about to watch here is an interpretive reading of a Chowhound comment about one woman’s favorite Silver Palate recipe (posted by Emily here, Chowhound thread here). Read the comment first, then watch the video.
I really hope interpretive readings of online comments becomes a thing, and I hope they are all as fantastically awesome as this one.
thingsiatethatilove:
...
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“I’ve been testing a theory I’ve had that a little bit of tawny port...”
– My boss, during our weekly call.
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College Cooking Lessons from Katy →
Katy and I went to college together, and she helpfully compiled a list of lessons learned from college.
I’d also like to add:
12. That awful smell in your kitchen that isn’t coming from the potatoes? It’s probably the squash rotting on top of your fridge. Those also smell like rotting flesh when they’re rotting. And p.s. it’s also dripping down the back of your...
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Cashew Returns from the Vet
I promise at some point I’ll get back to writing about cooking (and greek yogurt!), but first, imagine your dog had an umbilical hernia that got all weird and swollen (and the vet later said was one of the craziest she’d ever seen). You drop your dog off at the vet and then, six hours later, pick up the most strung out, pathetic ball of puppy you’ve ever seen.
Watch as your dog...
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“You can be too rich and too thin, but you can never be too well-read or too...”
– Tim Gunn (via elizabethanne)
To all those people in the world that complain about TV rotting our brains, I counter that without TV, we would never have Tim Gunn in our collective lives. I say this after having watched The Bachelor last night on TV, which, while a treasure, makes a pretty compelling...
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I Made the Baked Beans.
My grandmother had four children: two sets of twins. For at least a year or two, she was raising four children under the age of four. Based on my mum’s stories of her childhood, it is quite clear that she and her brothers (three boys!) were not running wild. I try to imagine this when I make my grandmother’s recipes. You know, my grandmother made this plus raised four well behaved...
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Breakfast
On Saturday morning, I made Mark Bittman’s cornmeal pancakes with vanilla and pine nuts for breakfast. This morning, I had plain greek yogurt topped with a little bit brown sugar, pomegranate seeds, and some slivered almonds.
Satisfaction with Breakfast, Predicted*
Vanilla Cornmeal Pancakes - 9
Yogurt with toppings - 5.5
Satisfaction with Breakfast, Actual
Vanilla Cornmeal Pancakes -...
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“And soon both your children are tearing their way through that bizarre and...”
– You know how much I dislike the New York Times magazine’s Recipe Redux series? As much as I dislike Recipe Redux, I adore the series that it alternates with, Cooking with Dexter by Pete Wells.
It’s funny, well-written, the recipes are good, and it feels very practical for home cooks. In...
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Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
lazybookreviews:
Oh, yeah. Most of that stuff is pretty gross. You shouldn’t eat it.
But what it mostly makes me think of is the two weeks after our dog was diagnosed with his brain tumor, before we had it taken out, when we thought he wasn’t going to make it.
So, every day, we would take him to the park and feed him a Sausage and Egg McMuffin. And he was SO HAPPY.
And then his surgery was...
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Restaurant Review: Tupelo
I try to limit the complaining here because 1. it is tiresome to other people and 2. ultimately, when you get past minor irritations, I have very little to complain about. However, I just had three straight days of work meetings in Boston, and missed the long weekend, and didn’t sleep well, and my train was delayed (as always) getting home last night, and now I’ve got lots of work to...
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Indexes/Indices*
I never really cared enormously about the index section of books until I started cooking a fair amount. But now I care a lot.
When I first get a cookbook, I like to read it front to back (or close to). I go through the introduction, and the section about cooking tools if there is one, and then I look through the pictures and get a sense of the recipes and see if there’s something I want...
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Milk Punch
Imaginary Person: Vrai-lean-uh, isn't it too bad that January, the coldest month of the year, is the month of abstinence and restraint?
Me: It is too bad.
Imaginary Person: We have three to four full months of snow and cold ahead of us, it is getting dark at 3:30 in the afternoon, our birthday is not for another two months, and we're supposed to be swearing off festive cocktails?
Me: I feel exactly the same way, why no more festive cocktails? I understand making an effort to get some exercise to avoid the atrophy of the lower limbs, but throw us a bone, you know?
Imaginary Person: I do know. But even so, eggnog seems a touch rich these days. I wish there were a cocktail that would take the edge off the winter and be seasonal without making you feel guilty about having dessert later.
Me: There is! The milk punch.
Imaginary Person: Tell me more!
Me: You mix one part rum, one part bourbon, four parts milk, and half a part maple syrup together (so, for example, 1 oz. rum, 1 oz. bourbon, 1/2 a cup milk, and 1 tablespoon maple syrup) together over ice and top with a grate of nutmeg.
Imaginary Person: This changes everything.
Me: It really does.
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Chicken Livers
I have come to believe that if you eat chicken regularly, knowing how to break down a chicken is maybe one of the most valuable cooking skills you could have.* You just get so much more when you buy the whole chicken. Case in point:
Our dog occasionally gets some intestinal distress (don’t we all?), and according to our vet, if your dog gets diarrhea, you should feed them chicken and rice...
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Milk Punch
Imaginary Person: Vrai-lean-uh, isn't it too bad that January, the coldest month of the year, is the month of abstinence and restraint?
Me: It is too bad.
Imaginary Person: We have three to four full months of snow and cold ahead of us, it is getting dark at 3:30 in the afternoon, our birthday is not for another two months, and we're supposed swearing off festive cocktails?
Me: I feel exactly the same way, why no more festive cocktails? I understand making an effort to get some exercise to avoid the atrophy of the lower limbs, but throw us a bone, you know?
Imaginary Person: I do know. But even so, eggnog seems a touch rich these days. I wish there were a cocktail that would take the edge off the winter and be seasonal without making you feel guilty about having dessert later.
Me: There is! The milk punch.
Imaginary Person: Tell me more!
Me: You mix one part rum, one part bourbon, four parts milk, and half a part maple syrup together (so, for example, 1 oz. rum, 1 oz. bourbon, 1/2 a cup milk, and 1 tablespoon maple syrup) together over ice and top with a grate of nutmeg.
Imaginary Person: This changes everything.
Me: It really does.
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Chicken Livers
I have come to believe that if you eat chicken regularly, knowing how to break down a chicken is maybe one of the most valuable cooking skills you could have.* You just get so much more when you buy the whole chicken. Case in point:
Our dog occasionally gets some intestinal distress (don’t we all?), and according to our vet, if your dog gets diarrhea, you should feed them chicken and rice...
1 tag
Behind-The-Scenes: Finding flavor
Check out the crazy photos!
On the other hand, if flavor doesn’t come from bones, I’m not sure I want to know that, you know? It’s one of those things I believe so strongly that it would rock my whole understanding of cooking and life and the universe to have it disproved.
americastestkitchen:
Another iPhone snapshot from the test kitchen for you. Last week, one of the...
Behind-The-Scenes: Finding flavor
Check out the crazy photos!
On the other hand, if flavor doesn’t come from bones, I’m not sure I want to know that, you know? It’s one of those things I believe so strongly that it would rock my whole understanding of cooking and life and the universe to have it disproved.
americastestkitchen:
Another iPhone snapshot from the test kitchen for you. Last week, one of the...
An Amendment to the Vanilla Bean Pudding Post
I had the pudding with sliced bananas and whipped cream with rum for dessert last night. It was really good.
An Amendment to the Vanilla Bean Pudding Post
I had the pudding with sliced bananas and whipped cream with rum for dessert last night. It was really good.
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Vegan week at thekitchn.com is kind of bumming me...
I also understand that I probably have a lot to learn from vegan week at thekitchn.com and it would expand my repertoire of meat-less dishes, which would not be a bad thing.
Still though. No dairy!
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Bunny Victorious!: Update: The Great Chard... →
Raleigh is having a tough time with swiss chard right now. I am very sympathetic, because secretly I think swiss chard is one of my least favorite greens. I LOVE kale, and beet greens (but honestly, beet greens are so likable, really tender and sweet), and spinach, and other ones, too, but swiss chard I’m kind of meh about.
However, I did once make a leek and swiss chard tart from smitten...
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“Tonight I made the Honey and Mustard Glazed Sausages from the Pure Simple...”
– Hat tip to Juli for sending me this email re: the honey and mustard glazed sausages.