During my years in college when I was baking constantly, I noticed I was rapidly using my vanilla extract supply. And when your weekly food budget could quickly become decimated by having to buy a new bottle, I once broke down and bought the wretched monstrosity known as Iminitation Vanilla Extract, which has about as much in common with the real thing as a handful of purple Gobstoppers does with a handful of grapes. So I finally reached the point where I said enough is enough and figured there must be a better way to get vanilla extract than paying far too much at the local grocery store and there is: make it yourself. Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for the ‘Food Writing’ Category
Okay, so I’m going to make a sweeping generalization that may offend a few people.
Nerds, as a community, need to lose a few pounds.
I acknowledge that this is especially a bitch statement coming from a girl blessed with an Asian metabolism. I will preface this by saying that I definitely think that the priority is for people to feel good about themselves and their bodies no matter what their size. However, reaching for and maintaining a certain BMI is just healthy. I love you nerds, and I just want you to be healthy and feel good about yourselves!
And yes, I do believe that nerds are more likely to be overweight. Why? Because many nerds are not athletically blessed, so we tend to spend more time on our asses reading and gaming and blogging. Which is awesome, but it doesn’t burn many calories. Your D&D character might have +4 to endurance and +3 to athletics, but unfortunately, this does not translate to real life.
Also, fact, Think Geek apparel offers most of its items in an XXXXL. So…yeah.
Because my mother didn’t keep junk food in the house, I was able to stay slim for most of my life. However, sitting at my desk 50+ hours a week and having the freedom to purchase anything I wanted at Trader Joe’s destroyed my waistline within a few months of graduating college. So, a few months ago, Jesse & I decided to try the slow carb diet.
Within a month, I lost 10 lbs. Jesse lost 20 lbs.
As part of our ongoing series COOKING FOR ONE, we look at the challenges, advantages, and unique circumstances that people face when cooking by themselves. In this installment, we look at how to deal with grocery shopping for one.
If you think about it, the supermarket is a lot like an instance in World of Warcraft (WoW). It’s a central place that almost everyone will visit. People often times show up in groups. These groups tend to split into specific roles (fetching certain items, pushing the cart, standing at the deli counter). And, unless a hurricane or snowstorm is bearing down on your town, everyone that enters gets what they need out of it. If there’s a weather event looming? Well, it’s more like people spamming the greed button. Oh, and one more thing they have in common with WoW instances, they tend to suck when you have to go alone.
Grocery shopping for yourself is a very grown up task, and one of the first signs of independence. Grocery shopping for kids amounts to telling mom whether to get Jiff or Skippy peanut butter, and pleading for her to buy super hero popsicles. As with all situations in our Cooking for One series, the goal is to take a difficulty and make some positives out of it. While there are some challenges to being a lone shopper, soloing the supermarket definitely has its advantages as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s be completely honest for a minute. Is there anything better than really good fried food? Imagine the perfect piece of fried chicken. Crisp on the outside, moist on the interior. Or maybe it is fresh from the fryer french fries from McDonald’s. Hot and crunchy with just the right amount of salt. And I haven’t even mentioned fried desserts like doughnuts or fried Oreos. Whatever it is you think of, great fried food can stand up against any other type of cuisine.
All that being said, I don’t know how much frying people are doing at home. My guess is very little either because of health concerns, safety concerns or worries about it being hard. I’m not going to try and argue that frying is healthy. You’re submerging food in liquid fat. However, it can be done safely and with little or no fuss. Also, if done properly you can mitigate some of the health issues with frying so that after eating you don’t feel the need to fast for six months to make up for it.
Frying using takes place in one of two forms and with one of two types of coating. Either you are deep frying, immersing the food entirely in oil, or you are pan frying, in which the food is only about half submerged and is flipped over at least once during the cooking process. Food is either coated in a breading or flour mixture, or some form of batter. For this method, we’ll analyze each of the cooking methods and each of the coatings. As always, what follows isn’t a recipe but rather a how-to guide with tips for frying and frying well. Read the rest of this entry »
It is December 20th, which means a few things. One, Christmas is just around the corner, you’re probably well aware of that. However, the latter portion of December also brings us the annual release of the New England Brewing Company’s Imperial Stout Trooper beer.
Imperial Stout Trooper is a dark full beer with a chocolate/coffee taste. It is, by far, the best chocolate beer I’ve ever had, and while I won’t entirely speak for Jesse, he enjoys it as well. All the worse that this beer only arrives during a two week period in December.
If the name didn’t give it away, it is indeed inspired by Star Wars. Inspired might be a bit of a stretch given that the only relationship to the galaxy far far away is the name and the picture of the storm trooper on the label. Admittedly, this is the first thing that attracted Jesse and me to it.
Finding this beer is almost as hard as waiting the 50 weeks during the year when it isn’t available. It is only available in the New England area, though a liquor store here and there might snag a few bottles. The brewery’s website doesn’t help, neither does their Twitter feed.
Your only choice is to just call up liquor stores in the area and ask around. Some will be kind enough to put you on a list and call you back if they get it in stock. If they don’t do lists, just keep calling back until you get the restraining order in the mail.
Luckily for you, I’ve taken the liberty of crazy calling every liquor store in the tri-state area and I have it on good authority that the beer is on its way, but that it might not actually get released till after Christmas. Puts a bit of a kink in any plans you have on gifting this, but your friends will forgive you if the present arrives a few days later. If not, well then they aren’t your friends, and you can just keep all the beer for yourself. May the Force be with you.
I’ve always loved the odd and off the wall approach to kitchen tools that Fred has. The Mix Sticks and Pastasaurus have been staples in my kitchen for years, so it came as no surprise that I fell in love with the Ninjabread Men cookie cutters. Read the rest of this entry »
As part of our ongoing series COOKING FOR ONE, we look at the challenges, advantages, and unique circumstances that people face when cooking by themselves.
If you didn’t know already, people are strange. There are enough public examples to convince anyone of our collective weirdness, but it’s behind closed doors that we really start to go off the rails. Think of your neighbor or best friend. What do you think they do when no one is looking? Kind of frightening to imagine isn’t it? Well, that is partially the topic of a great book called What We Eat When We Eat Alone, by Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin. Read the rest of this entry »
With a new season of Top Chef well underway it is easy to lose yourself in a roster of new cheftestants. With so many former winners and finalists opening restaurants, we decided to check in on one of the most memorable contestants the show has ever seen, Chef Mike Isabella. Isabella is remembered not just for his big smile and personality, but because he had one of the best runs in show history when he emerged as a dark horse during the All-Stars season and narrowly lost to favorite Richard Blaze in the finals.
CnC: What was the most difficult challenge during your time on Top Chef? Recently, we talked to Isabella about his new restaurant venture, the hardest part about being on Top Chef and his guilty pleasure foods.
Chef Isabella: The challenge at Target on the Top Chef All-Stars season because we had to run around and buy equipment and then assemble it before we even start cooking.
CnC: Where did the decision to call the restaurant Graffiato, which means scratchy or ragged in Italian, come from?
Chef Isabella: Graffiato means scratched or etched and it came from Roman soldiers using their swords to carve into stone. It was an original form of art, and expression. Graffiato is my expression of childhood flavors.
CnC: Do you have a favorite dish or something on the menu you would call Graffiato’s signature?
Chef Isabella: Hand cut spaghetti with olive oil poached cherry tomatoes and basil
CnC: What are your guilty pleasure foods? What sort of dishes do you like to make for yourself when you are alone?
Chef Isabella: I eat a lot of pasta and my favorite junk food is Reese’s peanut butter cups.
CnC: Is there anything that you love to eat, but don’t know how to make or refuse to make and prefer to get elsewhere?
Chef Isabella: Graffiato is located in Chinatown so I go to New Big Wong for Salt & Pepper Shrimp.
Back when Top Chef 8 began, we wrote that Isabella didn’t have “it” and would merely be one of the chefs that would hang around for a while before being dispatched in favor of the more accomplished and better chefs. That sentiment was probably written more than once about Isabella, and boy were we all very wrong. You won’t catch us underestimating Chef Isabella or his restaurant Graffiato anytime soon, and neither should anyone else.
(photo from Graffiatodc.com)
Currently, I cook for only three people: me, myself and I. This is not by choice, but by circumstance. A single guy living with roommates who all keep very disparate schedules means many solitary nights at the stove and eating dinner while churning through my Netflix queue. I know I am not alone in this predicament, even people in a relationship will have to fend for themselves from time to time. Many people who I talk to seem to have a real stigma or problem with the idea of “cooking for one”. I often hear that it is difficult, they can’t decide what to make, their motivation disappears, they don’t know how to shop, etc.
To try and calm some of these anxieties, I’m starting a little series on “Cooking for One”. In this first installment, we’ll look at the advantages and disadvantages to cooking by yourself. What follows is by no means a complete list, but where I note disadvantages I’ve tried and give some possible solutions. I think you’ll find that cooking alone is perfectly fine and may help you become a better cook. Read the rest of this entry »
With this weekend being informally known as Halloweekend, even Wizards of the Coast is getting in on the action by giving away exclusive Innistrad themed M&Ms!
Magic M&Ms!
And the other side:
