and yes, I am so excited I must speak in all caps.
I have gotten some flack in the past (a la drew's comment on grinding one own's flour, which I was kind of huffy about until I realized he was totally right, if I had a nifty grinder thing i would totally want to make my own) for my stubborn insistence that everything is better, cheaper and healthier when you cook it yourself. But it's true! (okay, there are some exceptions -- mostly to the "better." artisan cheeses, callebaut chocolate, wine... home cooks can't compete. just about anything else, though...) The tastiness, I think, is pretty self-explanatory (and requires practice!). The healthiness obviously depends on what you use, but since you can't control the ingredients of processed or restaurant food, I'd say homemade wins. But is it really cheaper?
Slate says yes! Mostly. Except for cream cheese and granola, the latter of which is TOTALLY worth it.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
MY OBSESSIVE CIY-NESS IS VINDICATED
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Easter eggs
Sooo, don't know if you noticed, but today was Easter. And what is Easter without dyed eggs? And what is the fun in dying eggs the NORMAL way?
Last night William and I dyed Easter eggs a la Chinese tea eggs. You can read all about it here, where I got the idea.
So first you boil the eggs -- APPARENTLY there is some sort of debate on the intarwebs about whether you are actually supposed to boil hardboiled eggs or not. Some folks say you should bring the water to a boil and then turn it off. Some people say you just need to turn it down to a very low simmer, others just say to keep it at a full boil. What do I know -- I'm clueless! I had to look up how long you're supposed to boil them for! (It seems like more than 10 minutes but less than 20 is about as consistent of an answer as I got... again, I don't have a clue, we did ours for about 15 and there were no disasters) About the only consistent advice is to use oldish eggs (which we did not) and to immediately put the cooked eggs into cold water (which we did!)
While the eggs are cooling, mix up some colored water. I followed the instructions for making egg dye, from the back of the food coloring, except without any vinegar and with cold water. So I guess I didn't follow those instructions at all... yeah, pretty much just mix food coloring with cold water until it's nice and bright, about 20 drops per cup/cup-and-a-half. (Also: while these are based on Chinese tea eggs, I don't recommend using tea -- maybe because the process has been altered, I dunno, but it didn't work nearly as well with tea).
Then crack the eggs like you're about to peel them, but DON'T peel them -- just leave the shell on, all cracked in pretty patterns. Or not-pretty patterns. Whatever. Then drop the eggs into your mugs or cups full of colored water, and leave them in the fridge overnight.
The next morning, peel the eggs, and voila! The hard-boiled egg itself -- not just the shell -- will be covered in a pretty, tie-dyed/spider-web pattern of color. They make pretty ballin' deviled eggs.
I will put pictures up... someday. For now, just take my word for it. Coolest easter eggs evah.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
A cook without a kitchen
I don't cook very much at college. And when I say very much... I mean at all.
Why? It's really pretty straightforward. I'm pretty darn busy, for one, but that's certainly not the primary obstacle. The nearest usable kitchen is 600 feet and several flights of stairs away. In the Davidson universe, this is a considerable distance... my cooking equipment is heavy, after all. My fridge is tiny and my storage space nearly non-existent, so I lack basic pantry supplies, and therefore any cooking venture requires preplanning and shopping: spontaneous chefery is out of the question. And preplanning is, well, not my forte.
In short, cooking is a rare and happy event for me here at D-son. So consider my complete disappointment and despair when I discover that the cooking contest I planned to enter is on a weekend that I have a regatta! Just consider! It is -- it is considerable. I was trying to decide between deep-fried thai-themed tofu and vegetarian pancit (I was limited to tofu or chicken for the main protein source, and "international" for the theme) but no can do. I love crew, I do, but it's a big time and money commitment that I've begun to think might not belong in my future... and now it's keeping me from cooking? Man, this is just not okay. Straw: breaking camel-a's back.
Anyway, maybe I will soon do a post of what passes for cooking in my life here at college. It includes:
- putting peanut butter on pretzels
- making trail mix from salad bar supplies
- and, um... that's about it...
Seriously. Tragic. I found a recipe for microwave chocolate cake-like substance, but it requires eggs, which, of course, I never have handy. And you can make potato chips in the microwave... but only if you have a mandoline, which, alas, I don't. I could do SO many things with a toaster oven, or a panini press, or a hot plate! -- but we aren't even allowed normal toasters. It's awful.
I tend to compensate for this by going on baking and cooking binges when I go home on breaks; over spring break I made pretzels, cake, pie, doughnuts and various vegetably dishes, all within the span of a few days. But breaks are few and far apart, and my last bout of cooking has definitely worn off. Rainy, cold days like this one, all I can think about is what I wish I was baking... damnedly distracting. And then I think about the one cooking-filled (and competitive!) day I was so looking forward to, which has now fallen out of my future, and I sigh a mournful sigh. A mournful, mournful sigh.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
green-filled mushrooms...
So, I'm all for colorful food, but...
portobello mushrooms stuffed with green mashed potatoes?
(from http://www.pinkbites.com/)
I don't know. I'll be honest, it looks kind of terrifyingly green. But it sounds tasty, so maybe someday I'll work up the nerve.
Incidentally, I ran across the above image at the great, and wonderfully reincarnated, Tastespotting. Tastespotting is a foodporn addict's dream... or worst nightmare, depending on how much you have to get done. Basically, people all across the internet post pictures from and links to blog posts about food anywhere. Such pretty pictures! Such pretty food!
Friday, November 21, 2008
random recipe
Here's a very fun random recipe generator, and a few of the recipes it gave me:
- 4 sausages
- 110ml lemonade
- grill the lemonade
- flambe the lemonade
- throw the lemonade away
- fry the sausages until browned
- serve chilled
- 1 red onions
- 3 lettuces
- 2 lamb chops
- 110ml whipped cream
- 1 cucumbers
- toast the red onions
- rinse the cucumbers
- add the cucumbers to the saucepan
- fry the lamb chops until browned
- defrost the whipped cream
- spoon the lamb chops onto a warmed plate
- put the lettuces in the saucepan
- throw it all away
- 1 pinches of salt
- 2 slices of bread
- pre-heat the oven to 220 C
- put the pinches of salt in the saucepan
- put the slices of bread in the saucepan
- bake for 40 minutes and serve hot
Sounds delicious!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Chocolate adventure!
Scharffen Berger, which I absolutely adore even though it is owned by Hershey, is having a supercool Chocolate Adventure Recipe Contest. (Seriously. Scharffen Berger. Have you had one of their nibby bars? Because if not, you definitely should. It will change your life... albeit probably in a fairly small way.)
So, yes. I want to enter. But first I need to come up with something fabulously creative, which I definitely haven't done yet. My first two ideas were desserts... coconut milk, chocolate and chili cheesecake, and sticky rice with mango, black sesame seeds and bitter chocolate sauce. But I don't feel like either of those are really adventurous enough... I'll have to come with something really wacky.
Anybody want to taste test?