I don’t have much time, as I really need to get ready for work and go eat the muffins that just came out of the oven and put the chicken broth that I cooked last night into some sort of container so it can be saved… BUT Nathan sent me this link, and I *have* to share it. Now.
This is my new favorite food blog: http://www.waffleizer.com/
For the longest time, I only used recipes found on foodnetwork.com. The way Quentin said it once, this way, I know they’re good. AllRecipes is always a nice resource, but I find myself acting more the skeptic on that sight. ”3 tablespoons of salt? I don’t think so…” Lately, I’ve been bonding with the rest of the food blog community. I found a listing of some of the most popular, and I’ve used this to link to others that I’ve found helpful. But this doesn’t help you much when you’re looking for a specific recipe, which I was (I’ll explain why in a moment). Somebody (though for the life of me, I can’t remember who – sorry) had a link to this on their blog. Since I discovered it, it’s become a go to resource when I want to find specific recipes by people a lot like me.
… so why was I looking for a recipe? I got an email from my brother awhile back, which read as follows: “If you were planning to get me a birthday gift, but didn’t want to spend a lot of money, these sound really good.” His birthday is this Saturday, so this past weekend, I started looking at the recipe more seriously, figuring out what ingredients I needed to get. Not to criticize his tastes on his birthday, but 2 cups of almond meal/flour (which I found to be the same thing when talking to a friend of mine who often cooks gluten free) made me sick to my stomach. I’ve actually been avoiding almonds all week (even Valerie’s chocolate covered ones) because the thought of that much almond really bothers me. The rest of the recipe didn’t sound much better. He talks of putting them in the freezer so they don’t get too brittle, an interesting idea to be sure. I’m rarely snobby about my cooking, but I made the decision that I knew better than my brother on the subject of cooking (even if it was gluten free) and over-ruled him.
… but then it was Saturday, and I needed to do something. I found a bag of “gluten free flour mix” at Target. I decided to go with a normal banana oatmeal cookie and just replace the flour with my gluten free alternative. The results might have been amazing, but for a two mistakes. I ran out of oats, with a cup and a half still to go. It was 8 o’clock the evening before I needed to mail them, and I had already been to the store for butter. I’ll just replace it with a little more flour. This was mistake number 1. Had it been “normal” flour, it might not have mattered as much. Mistake number 2 is something I intend to grow from. I was insecure about the cookies, so I peeked in the oven on them after only about 5 minutes of baking. They had spread quite a bit and weren’t rising at all. I ended up dumping in 1/4 cup more flour and a bit more baking soda, and this was a mistake. As it turns out, that’s all the spreading they would do, and they rose quite a bit after that. The first batch was delicious, but the rest were just a little two dry. I played with baking temperature, hoping to remedy this, but it didn’t have much effect. The result was a sub-par cookie. Sorry, bro.
I love experimenting, and people might be prone to think that all experiments go well when you’re a talented cook. Perhaps they do under those circumstances, but if that be so, I clearly am not talented. Nor are many other well respected chefs. In fact, my experimentation almost always stems from my laziness (I don’t want to go to the store to buy the right ingredients or I don’t want to wash all the dishes that would demand) or a desire for self-expression (wouldn’t it be fun to put cinnamon chips* in it??). It really isn’t as honorable as some make it seem, and it has been the source of many failed meals. More often than not, my experimentation gets me into trouble when it comes to baking. I just don’t know enough or have enough patience to be a good baker without a recipe. Still, I often refuse to use one. Eat my baked goods at your own risk.
My next post will contain the cookies I was pleased to present to Chris as a birthday present, though they weren’t at all what he asked for. Be not discouraged by my failures.
*I found cinnamon chips at Kroger in the clearance bin. I’ve been throwing them into all sorts of baked goods since.
I stumbled upon this recipe when I was looking for something to take to a church potluck. It’s since become a favorite of mine (with a few modifications, of course). The most recent time I prepared this was for the culinary collaboration. Jennifer, a co-worker of mine, and I decided that we must have this for lunch the following day and quickly planned an evening get together over chicken casserole, Penelope, margaritas, and cooking. I rattled off a list of ingredients, forgetting to add anything that I consider a “staple” in my own kitchen. We agreed on adding sausage, and I added evaporated milk* to the list.
When I got to her house and actually looked up the recipe, I was suddenly worried. I had forgotten to mention cheddar cheese, sour cream, and eggs. Jennifer pulled eggs and cheese out of the fridge, noting that she always has them around (like me). Then she scrounged in the fridge for some sour cream. What she found was a bit of a surprise: an unopened container with an expiration date of 09/28/09. She looked a little ashamed after reading the date aloud, and even more so when I noted that she had moved nearly two months after that date had passed. Her husband gave it a try and declared it fine. Jennifer seemed a bit hesitant to use it, perhaps worried that I would find this unacceptable. I pushed for its inclusion.
On the whole, our job of cooking was a success. I didn’t measure a thing, the dishes were all cleaned before we even put the macaroni in the oven, and Jennifer and I had smoothly passed off duties when I couldn’t find a mixing bowl or couldn’t work her can-opener. I’ve never felt so in sync with someone in the kitchen before. It seemed only natural that such an experience would be with somebody who shares my name.
A few days later, the two of us a co-taught a workshop for middle school students. At the end of the workshop, each student completed a brief reflection on how the day had gone. One of the questions reads “who helped you today?” Imagine our delight when one of the answers echoed our feelings in the kitchen: “Jenny or Jennifer? Their names were like the same!”
*America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook claims evaporated milk doesn’t curdle in baked macaroni. I’ve never made it with regular milk, and it’s always been a success. I’m not changing now.
“So, here’s some advice I wish I woulda got when I was your age: Live every week like it’s Shark Week.” – Tracy Jordan, 30 Rock
I’ve noticed that being a 30-minutes-or-less kind of chef is not usually a matter of knowing some good recipes. It can be. … but usually 30 minute recipes take at least an hour the first time you make them. Rather, it’s a matter of knowing tricks for making all recipes simpler, easier, and most importantly, quicker. Store bought pesto, for instance, is something I always have in my fridge. Pasta is always in my pantry. I spent 5 hours cleaning last Saturday, and we still ate a delicious lunch. And it’s not because I had put something in the crock pot before the day began. A grocery run was days overdue, and were it not for pantry staples, we likely would have starved (or fed on chocolate… not such a bad alternative now that I think about it).
<sales pitch>One ingredient that makes all cooking easier, quicker, and quite a bit tastier is sausage. So today, I challenge you to live every week like it’s Sausage Week. At the very least, enjoy our very own Sausage Week while it lasts. Why is sausage so amazing? A few reasons:
Put it in your soup, pasta, or chili, and save your valuable brain cells for something else. Sometime this week, take an otherwise bland dish, and give it personality!</sales pitch>
Keep your eye out for delicious sausage based dishes this coming week. It’s going to be fun!
I’ve been browsing through classic food blogs lately in an effort to determine how I should go about this. I know that I love to cook. I know that my roommate is an awesome photograher. It only follows then that we should blog about this. But what does a food blog look like?
I stumbled across this article, which I found simultaneously informative and overwhelming. On the one hand, those dishes look amazing! I can’t get over it. People really cook like this? “For real?”
The truth of the matter is that I don’t have a single friend who cooks like that. I have friends who can make an amazing chocolate mint cookie or delicious ratatouille. But I don’t have friends who cook like that. I felt a little guilty at first. What am I doing starting a food blog when I don’t cook like that and I don’t spend time with people who cook like that? That’s when I discovered my answer.
On the average weekday, I get home from work not a moment before 5:30, and I’m hungry. When I say “hungry”, I don’t mean that I could use a few crackers while I whip up a gormet dinner. I mean hungry in the classical sense: as though I will faint from exhaustion if I’m not eating a full meal within the half hour. I’ll eat the salad after the pasta, thank you.
I’m also tired. Again, do not misunderstand me. I’m tired like I just had a hard day at work, and the thought of cooking the meal that I desperately crave seems impossible. Scratch the salad; that’s more work. Bring on the pasta!
If the time I spend cooking is longer than the time I spend eating, something is wrong. And let me tell you, I eat fast. Maybe I’m embarrassing myself, but I really don’t think I’m alone in this. I think capers, salmon mousse, and all manner of foods they don’t sell at Food Lion are all very fine in their own way, and if my roommates were to prepare them for me for dinner, I would happily eat them. But when you’re hungry, you need something quick and delicious, made with ingredients that you likely have in your pantry or fridge. And that is why I cook. What’s more, that is also why I’m starting this food blog.
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