Yesterday we went up to Dan and Deb’s for an open house celebrating their new house (it’s rent-to-own). It was a nice time – lot of the neighbors came, which was nice for them. It was kind of a crowd and kind of loud, which was not so nice for me. There was a lot of food – probably shouldn’t have hit the carob-covered pretzels quite so hard. After we’d been there a few hours, Mitch took off to kidnap Gloria away from some law project she was working on, and we and David’s parents met them at the Weber…
-
-
Funnies Stuff Bucky Katt is at it again: he proposes to make dinner for Rob and Satchel. He says he shall require a plump rat, a sprig of catnip, and a throw rug. Cotton. I think I know what the throw rug is for. Food Stuff We didn’t order a pizza tonight, we marinated some salmon in a ponzu-like concoction that consisted of soysauce, orange juice, rice vinegar, sesame oil, honey, toasted sesame seeds, ground multi-colored pepper, and garlic. This time, there was a little wasabi in there. Last time, I grated some orange zest in there. Either way, it…
-
Alton Brown on the passing of Julia Child: She gave birth to the modern American cook, to TV cooks, and one might argue, American food in general. She was and always will be our Queen Mother and our den mother, a perfect blend of fun, passion, style and knowledge all wrapped up in a willing self-depreciation that made us all feel a little better about dropping that chicken on the floor. Oh, God, don’t remind me of the chicken on the floor incident. Oops. Heh.
-
Oy. We have made it home. I feel good and we had a great weekend, but it’s good to be back in our own house, and shortly, we’ll be back in our own bed. I didn’t sleep well at all for the whole trip. There was a bit more to the story last night after I went to bed – after a couple of hours, I started to feel very yukky. And then, after a few minutes of intense regret for eating so damn much bagna calda (basically, whole roast cloves of garlic, by the forkfuls), I eventually felt better.…
-
Who’da thunk garlic ice cream with caramel mole sauce would be so damn good? I mean, I knew the bagna calda (roast garlic in a skillet) would be good; eventually we stopped bothering with dinner rolls and just ate the whole roast cloves by the forkful. I figured the crab cooked in special garlic sauce would be good (Dungeness, too) and when it came on a giant griddle set on a rack over two big empty “boneyard” bowls (for the discarded shells). But there were a couple of surprises – there was a pasta dish that was kind of an…
-
We were out the other night at one the local “Japanese steakhouse” restaurants. The kind where they grill the ingredients in front of you and make little choo-choo noises with smoking volcanoes made out of stacked onion slices. The party seated next to me included several women and one kid who I’d estimate was all of 16 – a very young 16 – and he was drinking a large beer with a sake cup plopped down inside it. As was his mother, or date, or whatever her relationship was to him. The waitress never blinked an eye or asked for…
-
A catering college in the northern Algerian city of Tizi Ouzou has cooked the world’s largest couscous. The traditional north African dish was made from 2,600 kilos (5,732 lb) of dry semolina, meat from 100 sheep and 1.5 tonnes of vegetables. We love, love LOVE couscous around here. We don’t make it from scratch or anything, it’s very easily made using the Near East brand – takes 5 minutes once the small amount of water comes to a boil. And it can be jazzed up very easily – here’s a recipe for Apricot Ginger Couscous that we’ll try soon. However,…
-
Seen at Alton Brown: Rants & Raves! – Alton’s going on a sensible diet – and he’ll post a picture of himself wearing nothing on but a bathing suit on July 30th, whether his diet helps him make his weight goal or not. He’s been working out with a trainer all year, lifting weights, but to lose fat he’s going to eat right and cut high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated fats out completely. Check back and see how he’s doing at the end of July.
-
We’re staying in Moab one more night. There’s so much to do here and we decided it was worth it. Not only is the scenery devastatingly gorgeous, there’s pretty good food to be had – I think there must be a lot of foodies that relocated here for the recreation and stayed to start restaurantes. Last night we ate at the Center Cafe which turned out to be a little oasis of good food, wine, and ambiance off of the main touristic drag. Tonight we tried the ultimate test of a town’s cuisine; we went to the local Chinese restaurant.…
-
Apparently, we “super-size” it Amerkins were too enthusiastic about bellying up to the bar for another bucket of lobster: Yahoo! News – Red Lobster to Trim All-You-Can-Eat Deals. David and Steve will be somewhat disappointed about this – we did our bit to cut into the Crimson Crustacean’s profit margin on a number of memorable occasions.