Soft Pretzels!

So I had this horrible craving for soft pretzels last week and my coworker told me I should get them frozen from the grocery store. Great idea, but i guess my grocery store is lacking... So there I was without a pretzel and then I had a big idea: I'll make my own! I stayed home from work today because I'm sick with a monster cold but after sleeping in and taking a hot shower I felt good enough to bake.

The recipe can be found here and here is a link to the show on youtube. I followed the recipe exactly (which is kind of rare for me) and they turned out amazing! Love, love, love. :)



edit: A friend of mine made pretzels with the same recipe. If you make the pretzels please post a picture and leave a comment. :)

Food Meme

I haven't done a meme in a while, so I was inspired by a fav blog. I think this list is going to leave me a little disappointed with myself. But, hey, maybe I can set some food goals. :)

How it works:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea - Does it count if I've had nettles raw, steamed, or dried?
3. Huevos rancheros - Probably not that authentic...
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho - LOVE IT!
13. PB&J sandwich - I didn't like PB&J till I was in college.
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes. - Plum wine, but I think I've also had something made from pears...
19. Steamed pork buns. I LIVED in Chinatown, how could I not. I'm not even sure what part of the pig was in them.
20. Pistachio ice cream - Gelato, but close enough.
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries. - Not really a berry person.
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche - amazing
28. Oysters - sadly not raw off the shell on the beach w/lemon which is my moms favorite way of eating them.
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl - I like carbs a little too much...
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut - I can't believe this is the first pickle on here!
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar. - Does second hand smoke count?
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O - dixie cups exist for dentists and college kids to make jello shots.
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail - it was a little weird to pull vertebrate out of my mouth, but this was soooooo good,
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects. - They're going to have to be seasoned to high hell.
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more.
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala.
48. Eel. - Love the flavor and texture, but it's too heavy...
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut. - Guilty Pleasure.
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear.
52. Umeboshi - I WILL NOT put the whole thing in my mouth *shudder*, but I love the paste on pretty much everything.
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal - I'm not going to strike this out but I don't think I'll ever seek it out...
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV. - I don't really like bear, but I've tired a few.
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips - BLEH
61. S’mores - With homemade marshmallows.
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin. - Last I checked Kaolin is a type of clay, I've accidentally eaten clay but I don't think that's what this list is getting at...
64. Currywurst
65. Durian. - again, not seeking it out.
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette.
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini - not sure what a blini is
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu.
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef - I had Wendy's in Kobe...
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse. - on pizza
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam. - love spam musubi
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor - off someone else's plate
98. Polenta - I'd had it but Tyler bought it on a whim because it looked so weird in the tube. He wasn't that impressed.
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I feel like there should be more pickles on this list, or at least a giant kosher deli pickles that you have to fish out of a barrel. I also think homemade alcohol should be on there as well. Oh and strained Greek yogurt with honey, or frozen strained Greek yogurt soft serve. More baked goods, like cream puffs and chocolate chip cookies. The beverage selection is so specific to alcohol as well, take off the cocktails and add fresh squeezed orange juice. Paneer kind of counts at cottage cheese, but real cottage cheese should be on there. Goodness I could keep amending till the cows come home (to be eaten!)

Kinako Pancakes

I made these kinako pancakes today, but alter the recipe a little bit since I didn't have yogurt or buttermilk. I used a cup of milk, and they ended up a little dry. I've made them before following the recipe exactly, and they are much moister and fluffier, it's worth the yogurt. I do highly recommend these. Kinako is probably foreign to most people, but it's not a scary food. I'd compare the flavor to a nut butter and it smells a little sweet. Anyway, it's good and you shouldn't be scared.

Also the last pancake was a monster.

Mexican Casserole

Here's another food post, since food is the most exciting thing going on in my life right now.
Yesterday for lunch was Easy Mexican Casserole from AllRecipes.com. Sadly I have no pictures so the image to the left was taken from here as an example. This recipe was so straight forward that Tyler and I put it together in about half an hour. We left out the fresh tomatoes and used enchilada sauce to make up for the lack of tomato flavor. I also went lighter on the cheese since it's impossible to spread a thin layer of sour cream on anything, let alone ground beef and beans. The whole thing baked up nicely, but when we scooped it out of the pan it crumbled and didn't hold any shape. It wasn't pretty, but it was tasty, and even better next day. I think I'd try to go a lot lighter on the sour cream, and maybe add some fresh chili's to up the flavor and heat. The fresh tomatoes would be good too. And a larger can of olives. I don't know anything about good Mexican or Tex-Mex, but this was delicious and I think we'll make it again. If there are any suggestions for more authentic Mexican casserole I'd love to hear them too.

Feed Me?

I'm toying with the idea of staring a blog explicitly for food. In the last few months Tyler and I have been cooking fairly large complex meals twice a week. I'd like to keep a record of the recipes we try, how they turn out, and how we've changed them. My only concern is that I'm not a Foodie. I like the stuff, but I'm not picky, and some times a 50 dollar meal tastes the same as a free one. How can a non Foodie have a food blog? I have to admit it feels a bit deceptive.



OK, lets take a second to talk about pizza. New York and California style pizza are easily one of my favorite foods (not a fan of deep dish, sorry Chicago). In high school and one summer in college, I worked for a local "gourmet" pizza chain. Their questionable hiring practices and misogynistic ways aside, the food was pretty good. I learned a lot about what's good on a pizza and what everyone will like (mushroom and onion). Working around pizza constantly turned me off to it, but now that I've had some time to get over it, I'm completely on the band wagon.

Over the weekend I had some people over, and instead of ordering 90 dollars worth of pizza I made my own, not really from scratch. Trader Joe's is an amazing resource for homemade pizza. They have pre-made pizza dough, which is on par with what you would get at a pizza place, and way better anything I could make from scratch (though I've been working on it!). All the dough I've gotten has been exceptionally fresh, and has good gluten development. Their shredded cheese is of a high quality as well and they quite a variety. I'm a fan of the four cheese blend. As far as toppings go, I stay away from the produce, but they have a good selection of packaged meats (pepperoni and prochuto) and of course all kinds of canned and jarred stuff. The above pizza was made with left over dough, porchuto, pepperoni, mushrooms, and cheese. Quite tasty. Also, I think the key to amazing pizza, besides fresh ingredients, is a good pizza stone.

p.s. I need to get some batteries for my digital camera, until then it's all camera phone.

There's Nothing Wrong with Milk Chocolate

I just finished off a pretty good, considering what I paid for it, milk chocolate bar. I'm a bit of a pig, and really love chocolate in all shapes and forms, but this makes me think of all the people I know who wont go near the milky stuff. These are normal liberal people, but when I tell them I like milk chocolate they gasp in horror and start to think I'm either an idiot or missing taste buds. Being thought of as less of a person just because I have different preferences in foods is offensive, and I in turn think these people are idiots because they're so quick to judge a person based on taste in chocolate (or anything else for that matter).

I could go on about intolerance and why I think it's immature, but that's for another post. Instead I'm going to enjoy the lingering taste of smooth, not too sweet, milk chocolate. Yumm.

Life Without a Salad Spinner

I have a confession to make: Today, is the first day in my life that I have purchased lettuce in not bagged/boxed form. My excuse it pretty lame as well, I've only recently started eating salad on a regular basis. When I moved out, my pallet really made a point of shifting away from all the foods that my mom insisted I eat that I didn't like. Salad was a probably the biggest. Now, however, I'm starting to be more health conscious, and with so much processed food in the world, a pile of greens sounds pretty damn good. Salad in a bag was really easy for me and had decent results, but it's too expensive so today I said "NO MORE!" I bought a head of red leaf lettuce, radicchio, and some kind of butter lettuce. All this had to be rinsed in cold water, and then I went though half a roll of paper towels trying to get the leaves dry. Excuse two for not buying unbagged lettuce: no salad spinner. I had absolutely no idea that a salad spinner was so important to the whole salad experience; dressing doesn't stick to wet leaves, toppings get soggy, and so on. I refuse to accept this, and I refuse to spend $30 on a salad spinner, so I turned to google. I wasn't expecting much, but there it was! A no cost salad spinner. The author cites this invention to a cooking show off the food network, in which the host wraps the salad greens in a towel and spins them to extract the water. One commenter said that she did the same thing with an old pillowcase, and I happen to have a pile of those. I grabbed a clean white case, threw the radicchio in and gave the thing a whirl, and hot damn! it actually worked. There is no need for me to buy a salad spinner, and there is no need for me to buy bagged lettuce ever again! I'm quite happy about this.