More wines: St. Hallett 2004 Semillon, Stadlmann Zierfandler Classic 2006, Tawse Sketches of Niagara 2007 Riesling, Kenwood 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, and Ogier Caves des Papes Les Truffiers 2005 Vacqueyras.
After disliking scallops through most of my childhood, I found them on my birthday dinner plate a few years ago. My friend had whipped up a warm scallop salad for my big day, and it was insanely delicious. Now, of course, I love the things. They're very tasty, pretty versatile, and are ridiculously simple to prepare.
Over the last few weeks, I wanted to use up the last of the big scallops hanging out in my freezer. First, I made the above -- a warm salad to get back to the roots of my scallop love. The key is to have a creamy sauce/dressing, and vegetables that are warm and almost limp (but still holding some firmness). This one had tomatoes, peppers, green beans, basil, and feta.
Forget AA, and all of the other addiction services out there. Forget chastity belts. There's a million different techniques for battling the different manifestations of addiction and inclination, but I've seen none that work for foodie excitement.
Do you have it? I'm talking about getting overwhelmed and buy-crazy over tasty food. It's best to keep me out of a gourmet store, and I go totally nuts when faced with a swarm of cheap, nice-looking produce.
To the right, you can see the latest addition to my apartment -- a basil bouquet. Originally, it was supposed to be just enough to make some salads and some tasty pesto. Soon though, it became so much more. I ended up buying more than I needed, and then I got one more huge clump with my weekly organic delivery. Like always, I'm struggling to use it all up before it goes painfully limp.
That being said, it would be hard for me to refuse more if I walked by a nice bunch at a good price... How do you curb your excited, foodie whims?
These days, we do what we can to rely on local products, but what about bringing the farm right to your back yard? UK's Sunday Times has published an article on the wonders of mini-cows. That's right -- moo machines that don't need a big farm to thrive. The size of a cuddly German Shepherd, these cows will give you 16 pints of milk a day, chew up that pesky, ever-growing grass, and then become tender, omega3 fats-rich meat at the age of two. It's certainly a way to save costs and get an ever-present supply of milk. Those who have dipped into mini-cow delights will artificially inseminate to produce a new calf per year and get the most for their money.
Now, this sounds great, but I don't think selling people on the temperament of the mini-things is a way to get cows for milk and meals -- "Bessie is not only a 2-year animal friend, but a tasty piece of meat!" Then again, I'm tainted by a childhood experience where I befriended my family's cow before it got slaughtered for meat, and I not only lost a friend, but we couldn't eat her -- the cow had a disease that tainted the meat.
But back to the mini-cows -- is this something you'd add to your backyard?
It's pretty easy to find tasty fish fillets in your local grocery store. However, if you're interested in taking that impressive next step and picking up a whole fish that you prepare yourself, you really should check out the video above. Chef Kirt Martin takes a Steel Head Trout and fillets it step by step. It's a great demonstration on the particulars of fish prep, and should help you prepare the perfect fish, whether you're picking up a whole sucker at the store, or sitting at a fire by the river.
I now know what I need to hunt down this weekend -- lots and lots of cherry tomatoes.
Deb from Smitten Kitchen, a woman after my own heart, has just posted a sweet ode to the wonders of the tomato. Better yet, she has shared a great way to use up those small, sweet cherry suckers -- slow roast them. There's just a little bit of prep, a few hours for roasting, and then a bunch of little, roasted tomatoes to eat up. Don't they look delicious?
Just think -- small nibblets for snacking, a wonderful topping to pasta, a great addition to a sandwich, or even a nice twist on classic bruschetta on toast.
Being a foodie with a degree in English, not much is better than the mixture of food and words. Usually, that manifests in a wonderfully written essay or book, but sometimes it comes out in the actual making of food.
BoingBoing has posted about a designer named Chris Dimino who took an old Corona typewriter and made it into a waffle maker called the Corona-Matic. How cool is that? Boring circular waffles will never seem as good now. Unfortunately, there's no DIY instructions yet (not that I have the prowess to pull them off), but here's to hoping this could become a little business -- I'm not talking about fake keyboards, but those actual typewriters repurposed into wonderful machines of waffle goodness. Who's with me?
Have you ever made up a great stir-fry or fajita mix and then struggle to eat all the tasty veggies before they go bad? There are other ways to use those great, leftover veggies.
No wonder the Internet is swarming with a horde of wanna-be celebrity chefs. Forbes reports that those faces we all know and love (or loathe) are making some decent coin as faces of the cooking world.
Sure, some of them are making a heck of a lot more because they're taking over the airwaves with a million different shows (Rachel Ray), but man, it just hurts me to see Paula Deen ahead of the likes of Bourdain, Flay, and Batali.
The Top 10 Earning Celebrity Chefs:
10. Anthony Bourdain - $1.5 million 9. Bobby Flay - $1.5 million 8. Tom Colicchio - $2 million 7. Mario Batali - $3 million 6. Paula Deen - $4.5 million 5. Alain Ducasse - $5 million 4. Nobuyuki Matsuhisa - $5 million 3. Gordon Ramsay - $7.5 million 2. Wolfgang Puck - $16 million 1. Rachel Ray - $18 million
This recipe is too great to ignore, and looks like an easy and tasty re-introduction to the world of Pop Tarts. That being said, I'm not talking about your box kind. I'm talking fresh, easy-to-make pastries with jelly inside.
Pim has thrown up a recipe for her style of Pop Tarts. They not only look tasty, but have a ridiculously simple list of steps that I just might have to break out the rolling pin later. Her recipe is just pie crust, jam, and a little bit of finagling. She outlines each step with a picture guide, but really, there's not much to it at all. In a world where food prices keep rising, there's nothing like a quick, cheap, and tasty way to make kid-friendly treats right in your own home.
There is a whole slew of cooking shows on the web that showcase newbie cooks that can show off a good meal, but can't necessarily give you some great background information that a chef can. Above you can watch Dallas' Master Chef David McMillan prepare halibut and clams with chorizo and black bean sauce -- and he not only discusses the dish, but the particulars of what is going into the meal. For example, he explains the different flavors that can be coaxed out of garlic, and the differences between curly and flat-leaf parsley.
It's the debut show, so I imagine there will be lots of great cooking info to come in the future. Enjoy!
Wine glass charms are one of those oft-forgotten saviors from long, drawn-out examinations of lip prints to figure out whose wine is whose. But I'm really surprised that it hasn't really moved beyond the long-stemmed glassware -- until now.
Did you know that you can buy Grill Charms to properly mark your steak before throwing it on the grill? The stainless steel charms are serrated, so you just pop one in and grill and flip like usual. The charm can plainly mark which is spicy, mild, bloody, or, egads, well-done. There are different charms for different uses, whether you get the collection for temperature, spices, or a group of miscellaneous charms for other important markings like health/allergy issues, or just the desire for a specific piece of meat.
Considering the number of times I've forgotten what goes to who, this seems like a pretty simple, but handy, grill accessory.
Forget AA, and all of the other addiction services out there. Forget chastity belts. There's a million different techniques for battling the different manifestations of addiction and inclination, but I've seen none that work for foodie excitement.
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
