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Rainy weather lends to cooking
The food I cook is always based off of the weather or sometimes the weather I would like to be seeing. This means in winter I grill a lot more, wishing for summer and I cook brightly colored foods to bring on spring. On hot days, I often have soups, chili, and casseroles, wishing for cooler weather.
But on rainy days, oh rainy days, lend to cooking feasts! Cookbooks strewn across the kitchen, vegetables waiting attention, cookies in the oven and I’m only half way through my goals of the day. What fun I have on these days. I often, could feed an army and look for guinea pigs to take on my experimentations. Dishes are piled up, cleaned, reused- often it’s a vicious cycle, especially with a lack of a dishwasher.
These are the only days that my hands turn rough. Too much dish soap and hot water. Miles Davis melodies and rhythms in the background, breaking the silence. These days have been fleeting since entering the real world. More often I’d rather sleep than cook.
But this gray weather makes me crave these days of experimentation in the kitchen because it lends itself to a good meal and a kitchen disaster. My dad has the catch that got away, I have my kitchen disasters-trust me there are several. So maybe at lunch today, I’ll hunch over a cookbook and wish for more time in the day for kitchen experimentation.
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Fall back foods
Do you have one?
I sure do. Life goes crazy or work has an emergency and my weekly menu goes out the window. And Plan B doesn’t exist in my world until the crisis occurs. It usually consists of me looking through my fridge, only to find no leftovers and nothing that can be produced as quickly as PBJ or scrambled eggs. The two meals that have crossed my plate quite a lot lately.
These meals remind me of college. There was a lot of them, too. No, I didn’t eat Ramen. I never fell into that college stage though I had several friends that did. Although, I did have a Kraft mac and cheese phase that lasted my whole freshman year. I now detest the blue box with they yellowish-orange writing.
Often ponder… Will I ever get sick of PBJ? Or of scrambled eggs? Will I eat too much of it to become allergic?
I know I do after eating it 3 times in a week, but give me a month and I’ll be back to craving a PBJ. And scrambled eggs and toast is always my meal, when I’m filling sick because that is what my Dad always made me.
But what meal would I live off of for weeks at a time if I had to? I thought about it tonight while I was writing this and honestly I don’t know. It would have to be something that I could make into something a little different every night. It would need to be flexible and cheap. So no fillet mignon or lobster. I’ll have to sleep on it cause I still have nothing.
But I would love to hear your fall back meals to add to my very short list that way I can diversify.
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Little taste of the Austin on the Albemarle
Okay, I have to admit that I miss Texas and the cuisine. And no, not just tex-mex, though I am in desperate need of a Tacodeli breakfast taco. So when I find Austin “delicacies,” here or out in OBX, I get really excited like yesterday when I found Sweet Leaf Tea in a grocery store.
I am huge fan of the tea. I use to buy a couple to survive me through school week. When I moved, I never thought I would find it past the Mason-Dixon line. However, I found Dr. Pepper in Upstate New York, so I shouldn’t be that surprised.
Now I’m hoping for a breakfast taco.
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Wine out of a box
I was checking NYT.com, something I do often throughout the day and found an Op-Ed called, “Drink Outside the Box.” The writer Tyler Colman discusses Italy Agriculture Ministry’s announcement that some wines that receive government seal of approval may now be carried in boxes. Now for some wine afficionados this is heresy. Wine comes out of a bottle not out of a box.
But for some, boxed wine makes since economically and environmentally, especially if you are a wine collector. Added bonus boxed wine lasts longer, so if you live alone, drink occasionally, you won’t waste money by leaving that empty bottle in the fridge longer than 2 weeks. Something that I do more often than I should.
One cooking class I was at the chef told every student that he preferred boxed wine to bottled because it lasted longer and often times tasted better. For me, I buy bottles because that is how most of the wines I like come. I wouldn’t mind buying them in a box and putting them in a special carafe for company. But as Colman points out a lot of American winemakers use bottles and tries to point out how much of a carbon footprint it leaves. Plus, I haven’t found many varieties in boxes in the grocery store.
However, the next time I’m in a wine store, I’m looking for boxed wine and I’m going to give it a go.
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Fake chocolate
Albeit, I’ve been a vegan and a vegetarian, I wasn’t really strict with either of them. This was because I have a weakness for chocolate and ice cream; by no means was I going to give them up. (Of course, I love cheese too, so that caused issues, too.)
At these times in my life I still ate my vices. I still had my Amy’s ice cream (heavenly, I assure you), Dove chocolate and pasta. Obviously, I was not a strict vegan by any means. Although, I must admit, I didn’t realize these things had dairy or eggs until toward the end of my “vegan period.”
Despite, the fact I am no longer practicing veganism or vegetarianism, I still have a lot of friends that do. Reason why I recently bought carob, the vegan version of chocolate. It is caffeine-free and often dairy-free.
I tried it for the first time around the age of 10 at my first vegetarian restaurant. My friends and I quickly despised it and found that it didn’t taste like chocolate at all. It’s been more than a decade since I last had it, but I tried it again tonight. I quickly realized why I didn’t like it.
To me it doesn’t taste like chocolate at all. It’s gritty and earthy. No sweet taste to it at all, plus chocolate has that distinct taste and the carob chips didn’t match the one my palate knows so well. So obviously, I’ll be sticking to the real thing. Not to say that for vegan friends I won’t use carob. I just won’t be participating in the tasting.
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Breaking news…Julia Child was a spy!
It’s the big food news of the day. Julia Child was a spy!
But after reading “My Life in France,” Child’s memoir, I’m not surprised. This is because she tells you that she was in the OSS during the war-a widely known fact, at that. Of course she didn’t divulge or anyone else for that matter that she was a spy or anything until today. But it isn’t shocking news.
Of course, that is just me. Yum Sugar, the Boston Globe and others are widely printing it as breaking news. However, all it adds to is Child’s already awesomeness-going to Le Cordon Blue, writing “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” being in the first cooking show, having your kitchen in the Smithsonian and the list goes on.
I never had the chance to meet her and the Smithsonian was closed, when I went to visit. I vaguely remember watching her as a kid on PBS, when it still aired. I’ve read “Julie and Julia: My year of cooking dangerously” and “My Life in France.” I love them both and highly recommend them to anyone because they are wonderful stories about women trying to find themselves and experience that revelation through cooking. Both books inspire me to keep learning about food and going after what I want, a true lesson that I love reading and hearing about.
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Extending the life….
Frozen vegetables, pickles, jam, preserves, and other such preservation products have always come out of a jar or a bag in my house. Summers weren’t spent canning or pickling, but in soccer or Sea World camp, reading books for fall English, or working.
However, I’ve grown up, obviously. And now I have my own garden. Let me rephrase that, a garden that is well overgrowing with produce that little me can’t keep up with. Right now, it is taking over not only my fridge but my counter space. I could feed an army, well at least I could make a party out of them.
And lately I’ve often thought about how this isn’t abnormal for some. Heck, my great grandmother canned and pickled, so did my grandmother. And it has become a dying art. One that I’ve begun to teach myself with merely recipes and a book. Thankfully, I’m uninjured and the kitchen is still in one piece with the adventures.
And I must boast that the pickles I made…. well… they were sour and crisp and oh so delightful. What miracles you can make in a jar and 5 days in the fridge. (Yes, I did fridge pickles.) I swear that you can do them, too. I got my recipe from Homesick Texan, but there are several out there.
In addition today, I froze squash to keep through the winter. All you have to do is blanch them for a few minutes. Just make sure you have an ice bath to put them in to stop the cooking, I didn’t. I’ll find out in a couple of months if they are mush or not.
My next project is making bread, when I get around to it.
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Rare
One of the first things I learned about North Carolina is that meat had to be cooked to a well done temperature anything above 160 degrees. My mouth dropped. No more rare burgers, seared tuna in my dining adventures, which is my preference.
You could say I live on the wild side. I have eaten a raw quail’s egg, sushi by the dozen, rare burgers, seared tuna, rare steaks. I like it pink, people!
Oh sure I could get sick, but I never have. (Knock on wood.) My stomach is made of steel. And even if I did get sick, I don’t think I would stop eating my meat rare, anyways. Even if you, the reader, flooded this blog with food poisoning stories, too, it wouldn’t stop me. This is because every time I tell my dad what I had raw or rare for dinner, I get the oyster story. I’ll spare you the details.
But I believe if people want to have meat rare then let them. Put a warning on a menu talking about undercooked meat and let it be. That’s what Texas does. Oh, I’m not saying my home state is better or anything, but it just makes sense. I see it as my decision to eat the undercooked meat and in the end its my fault and not the chef’s.
I know people are going to disagree, I realize this. If you like your meat well done, then that’s your preference. But remember you chance of getting e. coli is only around 1-2%. And you have higher chances of contracting the fatal e. coli from a local salad bar, than in my rare burger. (Source: CDC) Just some things to consider.
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Starbucks new step
O.k. so I was in the gym this morning, switching the channels and happened across Stephen Colbert, which I occasionally watch for a laugh or two.
I came in, in the middle of a “segment,” where Colbert is sipping a Starbucks venti and talking about counterfeit Starbucks’ receipts. Here I am walking on the treadmill, very confused. Counterfeiting Starbucks receipts?
Of course, I capture some more information to catch that Starbucks is holding a promotion that if you buy coffee in the morning you can get a cold drink in the afternoon with your morning receipt for $2.
Now I know I have to drive out of Elizabeth City to even get Starbucks, but still the information was a little shocking. What about the people like me who don’t drink coffee until the afternoon, do we not get $2 cold drinks with our afternoon receipt?
But of course there are tiny details to the promotion that Colbert didn’t touch on or I didn’t see. The $2 cold drinks can only be applied to “grandes” after 2 p.m. So if you need your caffeine fix in a form of a “venti” or even a “tall,” you’ll pay full price. Well, doesn’t that just ruin it because I find myself often partaking in “ventis.”
I am sure there will be some people taking part in this “promotion,” however the lack of an “official” Starbucks in EC and cash, I’ll make sure to grab my coffee at home. That way I can smell the coffee all day long.
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The magic of coffee
I’ve never been much of a coffee drinker, though I spent a lot of my childhood at a coffee shop with dad and his friends. I would sit with them as they chatted, I tried to entertain myself, but often became bored. However, I knew by going I could always get a smoothie, muffin or eventually a bagel, a little treat on weekends.
Also, it was bonding time with me and my dad. A time I now cherish and whenever I go home I wake up early so I can go. My dad loves me there and I love being there, even if they talk about pilot stuff.
As a teenager, I tried a sip of coffee occasionally and I always sneered. It was bitter and always hot. I wondered how my dad could drink the stuff. However, years as a fighter and airline pilot lends to thousands of cups of coffee and a taste for it. Me, I was still young and didn’t like the bitterness.
However, I tried coffee again, last year at Whole Foods from Independence Coffee Co. out of Texas. The coffee was a dark roast, Jet Fuel, the irony. I loved it with a little bit of cream. I was now becoming a convert.
Since that time which has only been a year, I’ve drank coffee off and on. Starting with coffee from the Austin Farmer’s market every Saturday to now Muddy’s. I try not to have a cup everyday, but find myself drinking anyways. Especially now that I work nights.
Maybe I drink it because it is as close as I can get to Saturday mornings with my dad at the coffee shop. Or maybe it reminds me of Austin’s farmer’s market. All I know is that I can’t wait to receive the coffee my friend is sending me in the mail.
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Check it out…..
I made a video on today’s Market: Impossible. I had a great time and I was glad to see a lot of people out to watch and supporting the farmer’s market.
To check out the video go here: http://www.dailyadvance.com/news/mplayer/m/92247
I’ll post more about it tomorrow.
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Natural dilemma of eating
Since going to the University of Texas (yes, I am a longhorn and proud of it), I have become more self conscience of what I eat. It was a reason I went vegetarian and then vegan, well that and dorm cafeteria food. But since 2006, I’ve been a firm believer in the farmer’s market, organic produce and eating locally as much as you can.
That means eating in season. Trust me, I often fall off the bandwagon, buying strawberries on Valentine’s Day or pineapples from Costa Rica. However, trying to be flexible and seasonable cuts some grocery costs. Yes, you get sick of it because right now I am sick of the tons of blueberries and blackberries that are overflowing my fridge. But I can freeze them and keep them for times in winter when I’m craving a blueberry cream pie.
This mentality is what brought me to Michael Pollan’s famous book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” The book is revered by Washington Post, The New Yorker and other papers for going through our food chain and dissecting it.
When it first came out, I was hesitant to read it. Would it be like Upton Sinclair’s novel “The jungle?” Would it turn me off to meat forever? Could it convert me into joining PETA?
Yes, no and no. But the book doesn’t focus solely on meat, but also corn and grass. To me it was very enlightening to see how our food chain works and how distant we have come from knowing about our food.
The book isn’t for all, I know that. Most of my friends, probably won’t read it, though I encourage them and you, too. If nothing else, spend the afternoon in Barnes and Nobles reading Part III “The Forest.” It is a very intriguing read about the author putting on a meal with food he grew, foraged or hunted for. My personal favorite. I can’t say much about it without giving it away. But trust me its good and you won’t put it down.
Got a food book for me? Leave a comment with the title and I’ll add it to my ever growing list!
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Introduction
I feel that I must introduce my foodie-self to you. I am an expat Texan, I often say ya’ll and ain’t especially, when I’m not thinking about it. I love bar-b-cue, any kind, but I favor pork ribs and my dad’s brisket. And no, I don’t have a preference on whether it is dry or wet. Great BBQ is just too finger-licking good to care. (I’m sure I’ll get comments for the statement.) I have a sweet tooth and love dark chocolate and Zilker Mint Chip from Amy’s ice cream (a shop in Austin, TX). This means I bake and have a tendency to share except with cannolis and my famous blueberry cream pie. I have been a vegetarian, vegan, pescetarian, and almost went raw once, but decided against. The food that brought me back from the vegetable side was BBQ. I am a fan of Anthony Bourdain, Mario Batali, and Jamie Oliver. I subscribe to most food magazines and have taught myself most of my cooking skills. My food goals are to try everything at least once no matter what it is or how it smells, but I’m sure there are just somethings I’m not going to get over like the smell of fermented tofu.
Latest comments
Greetings, I have a few quick fallback foods that are actually quite good as a staple if needed or desired. The first one I know you are aware of which is know in Greece as the Small Souvlaki. Cut some beef, pork, lamb or chicken into chunks, marinate
... read the full comment by Ken | Comment on Fall back foods Read Fall back foods
Love pickles, especially the sweet ones. I remember my grandmother canning and your right it is a dying art. We should all be self sufficent.
Question from my brother. Is that a hot pepper for your lips? Does that mean you have hot lips? He made
... read the full comment by cally | Comment on Extending the life.... Read Extending the life....
“Just take the moo out” is the way I like to order my meat…..rare, bloody rare.
I agree 100% that there should be a warning on the menu and that’s it….if you want to eat it raw, it’s your prerogative.
I
... read the full comment by rick taylor | Comment on Rare Read Rare
rare meat, yuck!!!
... read the full comment by cally | Comment on Rare Read Rare