amtriska's Profile
Mark Bittman's customizable soups
New York Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/magazine/06eat-t.html
Has anyone else tried these vegetable soups? The creamy ones looked great, but I found that I had to add/substitute a lot to make them taste rich and savory. I substituted sour cream or Salvadoran cream (better!) for Greek yogurt. Adding cheese (smoked Gouda was great) gave it a heartier flavor, too. It also definitely needed a few cubes of bouillon for flavor, and adding extra garlic didn't hurt. It was best with crushed tomatoes or spinach. There's really nothing a hand blender can't do.
Maybe I'm just too into cheesy-tasting soups, and Bittman probably didn't want to kill his readers with calories. I have to say, the food photography in the article is some of the best I've ever seen...
A nice beer in Bay Ridge?
My partner and I just got a new apartment in Bay Ridge, and I was wondering if there were any good bars/brewpubs/whatever within walking distance of 83rd and 4th -- basically, any place that serves a good selection of beers. Anyone familiar with the area?
Help!! eggs and only a microwave/toaster oven?
You can actually boil eggs in the microwave if you know what to do. Yes, there are a ton of YouTube videos with exploding eggs, but there's a way to get it right.
1. Cover the eggs in aluminum foil. (Yep, the OTHER thing you're not supposed to put in water -- aluminum foil! However, read on...)
2. Submerse the foil-covered eggs in a mug of water. Probably best to do only one or two at once. The water prevents the foil from arcing, and the foil assures that only the boiling water is cooking the eggs, not the microwaves.
3. Make sure the water doesn't evaporate or splash out. Watch it carefully. Cooking times vary from microwave to microwave, and also depend on how soft you like them.
I've done this plenty of times (dorm, sigh) and the eggs always turned out fine. (And now to steal some salt from the dorm kitchen...)
Meatloaf-Free-Form Or Loaf Pan?
Individual loaflets in muffin pan? Yes! My mom makes them and they're damned good. More "edge pieces" that everyone wants, plus the moistness of a loaf pan without the sogginess. Plus the ketchup-to-meat ratio is great since they're wider at the top than at the bottom. (You can tell I've put a lot of thought into this.)
Eggland's Best nutrition
I'm sure you've all seen the Eggland's Best commercials advertising better nutrition -- is it real? How is this possible? How can their eggs be better than any other eggs?
You can make a $40 cake look like a $5 cake!
Witness the horror: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/11/watch-cake-being-wrecked.html
If they think that looks like a $500 cake (let alone tastes like one!) I've got a cheap-icing-laden bridge to sell them.
Non-foodies' reactions to foodie behavior
I completely agree with you about celebrity chef shows -- Iron Chef is really more like a cross between porn and Fear Factor for me -- some beautiful food plus a little "oh, that's gross" thrown in for good measure. (The various ass-tasting turkey/crab/avocado/bacon desserts are a good laugh. Some things just shouldn't make it into a sorbet.)
Actually, what strikes me as particularly obnoxious are the cooking reality shows, particularly since shows like Hell's Kitchen and Chopped tend to recruit the biggest whiners and prima donnas for entertainment value. To me, that takes away from the enjoyment of the cooking and eating. A lot of the time they barely even show the food or discuss its preparation in favor of showing some reality show nut trying to salvage pasta from the trash. (Ew. That was when I stopped watching Hell's Kitchen.)
That said, I do appreciate the good, solid cooking shows that give laypeople a chance to make things we might never find in a cookbook or learn from relatives. This stuff was a gateway to cooking when my brothers and I were little -- I will never forget hearing my adorable little brother refer to his "mise en place." (Everybody now: awwwww.) There's something about television that really lets cooking come alive.
Non-foodies' reactions to foodie behavior
I was watching Iron Chef the other day with my fiancee. I tend to get a little carried away with these things. ("Ooh! Hearts! Use the hearts! Fry the hearts!" "You vile animal, you put turkey in a goddamned sorbet!") She thought it was hilarious. I was a little surprised because I'm used to watching these shows with my family, a bunch of committed foodies. If my mom had been there, she'd been yelling at the screen about butter and chicken stock right along with me. But my fiancee finds my food-centrism kinda hilarious. She tells me that watching me cook is like watching someone have sex on her kitchen counters. She also laughs whenever I mention the word "butter." It's become our little joke. (She's a great cook and loves food, but it's not her religion as it is mine. It doesn't help that her relatives spray their bagels with Pam. Shudder.)
What have your experiences been with non-foodies' reactions to your, well, foodism? What's your favorite "non-foodies-just-don't-get-it" story?
(I forgot to mention that she also thinks it's hilarious that I belong to a site called "Chowhound.")
favorite Pumpkin beer
Ohohohoho sweet potato fries. Yes yes yes yes yes.That might just be the pairing of the year. Ahem. Sorry, I get carried away when it comes to sweet potato fries. The spicier pumpkin beers do tend to go well with snack food and sugary stuff, which makes them great for parties.
favorite Pumpkin beer
I agree -- pumpkin is definitely one of the less cloying beer flavors out there. For some reason, it seems to go better with the flavor of beer than most fruits -- rich and spicy rather than sweet and obnoxious. I like the Post Road stuff myself.
I'm drinking Long Trail Blackberry Wheat ale right now. It's pretty okay. The blackberry flavor is almost what you'd get in a Blow Pop, but for some reason it's excellent when you're thirsty.
Good Cocoa Powder??
I love Droste, too. Say the word "Droste" to my mom and she'll talk for days about its virtues...we always had some in our cabinet when I was little. Much better than Hershey's, I agree. I use it for cheesecakes, hot cocoa, hot fudge, everything.
You don't like that?!
I'm with both PattiCakes and Piccola. Regarding Piccola's point, I get frustrated when someone refuses to try something just once -- how can you assume you won't like something before you know what it tastes like?
On the other hand (PattiCakes' point), if it's the third or fourth time someone's tried something and they really don't like it, it's rude to keep trying. I may not be picky with my food, but it's no personal insult to me if other people are.
Weirdest alcohol you've ever had/cocktail you've ever made?
I'll start: I took a Russian cooking class at my college a couple of years ago, and we made our own infused vodkas. (None of this was paid for with departmental money -- a lot of us were underage!) The weirdest of these was garlic-infused vodka. No one would drink it but me -- I loved it!
How about you? What's the weirdest alcohol you've ever had, or weirdest drink you've ever mixed?
Best beer in the Berkshires?
I go to college in the Berkshires, and I'm trying to branch out from buying Magic Hat all the time. Any recommendations for good local beers in the Berkshires? I love dark beers and have a weakness for seasonal flavors like pumpkin and peach.
Mint M&Ms -- do they still make those?
Beautiful. Thanks. So now I have confirmation that they're still out there!
I just saw a coupon on the Rite Aid web site that has a coupon for seasonal M&Ms, and the accompanying picture is the mint M&Ms bag. It could be an old photo, but I'll cross my fingers and hope the Rite Aid down the street has them! Now it's up to me to decide whether it's worth walking half a mile for 2 for $5 M&Ms...
Things I ate/drank in college that I will never eat again
I'm in college, and a lot of this stuff is "guilty pleasure" stuff that I try occasionally but can't stomach more than a few times a year. Hot dogs, McDonald's...yeah, pretty pukey.
However, Keystone is one of the things I'll be thankful never to drink again. I love a good beer, and the beers in the Berkshires are often truly amazing. However, I sometimes (guiltily) drink Keystone during the Beirut (beer pong to you non-New Englanders) competitions I keep getting myself sucked into. It tastes like watered-down water. The best thing about it is that it reminds me that I have Magic Hat and Berkshire Brewing Company beers at home in the fridge!
What did your Mom always have on hand, that you NEVER do?
My mom was steeped in bastardized French cooking from her Louisiana-born mother, so we didn't have most of the American mom staples (margarine, pancake mix, instant rice, pretty much any shortcut) in favor of using fresh cream, eggs, butter, etc.
However, she does tend to freeze EVERYTHING and insist that it's as good as fresh! Fresh-ground coffee goes straight to the freezer, ugh. Whenever I make bacon at her house, she tells me to fry the whole package and then freeze what I don't eat. Fish and meat go in the freezer for weeks if not longer. I am sure that at the very bottom of our freezer are foods that are YEARS old...!
Goat cheese haters?
Goat cheese is something that takes time to appreciate. If it's the sourness and acidity you don't like, that probably won't go away. But if it's the gamy taste you don't like, that might improve if you keep trying different kinds. When I was a kid, I hated it. I accidentally tasted a free sample of it in Costco and wanted to spit it out. It was like sniffing a goat! Years later, I tasted goat cheese again at a party and loved it. Now it's one of my favorite things.
Mint M&Ms -- do they still make those?
I used to be a huge fan but forgot about them for a while when I went to college. I've been getting a craving for them lately, and I know that they were always sold around the holidays and that they were red, green, and white. (I heard about crispy mint M&Ms a while back, but that's not what I'm looking for.) There's no info about mint M&Ms on the company web site -- do they still exist? If so, where to get them?
