March 2006 Archives

Friday, again. Another week spent climbing Workload Mountain, and just when you're on the downhill slope, Weekend Project Hill looms large.

Not that it's been a bad week at all, really, quite a few new customers have found our Desert Island Foods™.com site, eager to try Survival Spice™. Referred to us to by blogfriends and by word of mouth from our great customers, it's both fun and gratifying to grow our business this way. Sincerely, thank you all for help spreading the word.

If you love Survival Spice™ or our other great products, please mention us to your co-workers, friends and family members. Although Survival Spice™ is great for indoor use, the grilling season is coming, and they'll thank you for introducing us to them! Plus, hopefully they'll feed you, too. Which is sweet.

Ah, but I digress, on the the Friday Funny. Thanks, Janella, for emailing me this, though as a guy I should have changed it around a bit to make it more accurate...

Have a great weekend, everyone. Cook something good, wouldja? And email pictures!

Update, Saturday: JBelle has inspired me in the comments- I'm going to offer $5 off on a Survival Spice™ Six-Pack until Wednesday. Just use the coupon code "bunny" in your shopping cart and click "apply", you should see the discount immediately. Thanks again, JBelle!

I have no idea where the picture of this grilling rig came from, but I'll bet Dr. Biggles and Chilebrown don't have one in their backyards. Yet. It doesn't look terribly practical, but it's really shiny, at least. No idea why I pixelated his face, maybe I'm trying out for an editing gig on Cops...

It's kind of fun to speculate where this shot came from. I mean, why in the world would they put a guy in cook's whites and checks on a rig like that grilling frickin' hot dogs? I'll bet that guy could use some Survival Spice™!

My guess is that it's from a Neiman Marcus catalog. How about you?

To me, there's nothing like comfort food, especially on an overcast, drizzly day. This is another kid-friendly meal, part of a series I've been doing along with the Parmesan Chicken Strips and the Mac and Cheese I've done so far.

I enjoy cooking for kids, because it forces me to strip recipes back to the basics. Kids can be picky eaters, to be sure, but cooks have to be aware that children are supertasters, born with far more taste buds than they'll have in adulthood, so they're very sensitive to seasoning and heat. So as much as I love to build sophisticated flavors, such as exist in Survival Spice™, I made this dish with just kosher salt and a tiny bit of black pepper.

I've spent the last year resetting my pallete, getting back to basics with my cooking, and I can't tell you how gratifying it is to bite into a beautifully tender piece of pork and having it taste like, well, pork! Try doing this occasionally when you burn out on your dishes, I think it will make you a better cook.

Mama Mia, that's some pizza:

A pizzeria is vying for a spot in Guinness World Records for the world's largest commercially available pizza. The $99, 150-slice pizza isn't a one-time deal. In fact, The Big One is already available, though Mama Lena's Pizza House has had few takers so far.

The would-be recordsetter measures about 3 feet by 4 1/2 feet and takes up nearly all the space in the shop's brick oven.

Wow, 20 pounds of dough and a gallon of sauce. That must just about fill a deck oven, I'd love to watch them get it in there.

Anybody want to split one?

(Just before I grated some grana padano cheese on top)

Here's another quick pasta dish I made over the weekend. You might recall that I wrote back in September about Lazy Man's Pasta, a technique where everything, including the pasta, was cooked in the same casserole dish. I loved the simplicity of it, but I thought I could improve the sauce and make it even simpler. This has a surprising amount of flavor due to the chicken broth, so even a hard-core carnivore like me enjoyed it.

I've had a few really good emails this week I thought I'd share. The first one is from Sue, a professional cook in the Los Angeles area who teaches cooking classes all over the country, who uses Survival Spice™ in really creative ways:

Used the SS lightly dusted on small slices of fresh pinepple...

Transformed an old James Beard recipe from late 30's or 40's when he catered. Pierce a tiny tomato with a toothpick, dip in salt (kosher or sea) and then in vodka - my updated version: add a perlini (tiny, tiny mozzarella cheese ball ) to tomato, dip in tequila and then in Survivial Spice! I use antique salt cellars or tiny sake cups.

Yesterday, in a Spring Chicken class - SS in a Fickle Marinade - curry, chile sauce, dijon, soy, and honey....a light dusting of SS.

Good stuff, Sue! Here's a great pork rind idea from Lloyd, who also gave us the idea for Parmesan Survival Corn:

On the subject of spicing up pork rinds; I think I've just about got it. I ordered this mister from Amazon, then I went down and bought a coffee grinder at the general store. So what I did is, put 4 tablespoons of the green parmesan (I tried the really good stuff but it was too wet) and 1 teaspoon of Survival Spice™ in the coffee grinder and turned it into a powder. Then I took a bag of pig skins and dumped them into a big bowl and misted them while flipping them around. I then put them back in the bag and dumped in the powder. I shook the bag up really well and commenced to sample.

It's kind of f@#$ed up though, because I don't think Atkins meant for you to eat a whole bag of pork skins in one setting. Oh well. Next time I'll grab some of the wife's really good parmesan and dry it out in the oven first.

I put up a link to the mister that Lloyd recommended. Disclosure: I would get a small commision if you bought one through the link, but it costs you nothing. Is that so bad? And why not refill it with our Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgine di Oliva?

Got an idea for using Survival Spice™? Email me!

Another weekend is just around the corner, so it's time for the Friday Funny. Hopefully this will get your weekend off to a good start, it's a cute joke sent in by Will, thanks!

If you have a joke or a cool story, please email me if you'd like to share it. Remember to take out "REMOVETHESEWORDS" from my email address, which are there to keep the spam down to a (barely) manageable level.

Have a great weekend, everyone. Cook something good and send in a picture, wouldja?

This is pretty neat, it's a quiz on some strange food customs around the world, and I like the way it's presented, too.

How did you score?

Thanks to Silvia for sending me this! If you have a good joke for the Friday Funny, email me, just remember to remove the words "REMOVETHESEWORDS" from my email address.

And I'm still looking for feedback about gift baskets. What's the difference to you between a good gift basket and a great one?

I had some left over dough and sauce in the freezer from the pizza I made a week or so ago, so this was pretty easy to get together. This time I used fresh mozzerella and Roma tomatoes, in addition to a bunch of spinach and a head of garlic.

I know I touched on this before, but using spinach and fresh tomatoes on pizza always has the potential to turn your pie into a watery lake. The trick to using these ingredients is to make absolutely sure that you get as much water out of them as possible.

After you saute your spinach and garlic, wring the spinach thoroughly, and let it rest on paper towels. Salt the tomatoes after you slice them to help them release their moisture, as well. Also make sure that your sauce is the proper consistency, if it's watery at all, it'll run all over the place and burn on the pan.

I baked this at 500º on a corn meal dusted aluminum pizza pan sitting on top of my pizza stone until it was just about done, then slid it onto the stone for last few minutes to brown the bottom.

This is a really great combination. I just made dough for 4 more pizzas, so I'll be posting variations of this until I'm so fat I can't get a pizza into the oven any more. Maybe if I can find a pizza peel with a 8 foot long handle...

We've been talking about new gift baskets at Desert Island Foods™.com, and we're about evenly split so far. Then it dawned on me that I have the greatest focus group in the world right here.

What do you expect in a gift basket? As far as the basket goes, handles or no handles? Light colored wicker or darker? Oval or round?

I'd love to hear what you all think.

Busy day around here, so I'll just pass along another time-waster I got in an email yesterday. I don't recall who sent it to me, so if was you, pat yourself on the back and give me back the 20 minutes you sucked out of my life!

Kidding. Mostly.

Click here to play the Noah's Ark Game

Here's a shot of my Guinness braised Corned Beef from St. Patty's Day as it was resting, before I removed the fat cap from the top and carved it. I like to leave the cap on while roasting, trimming it only if it's really thick in spots, but I trim it up a bit more closely if I'm going to boil it. You can see that the Colman's mustard on the top has gotten really brown, and it gives the beef a wonderful flavor as it's cooking.

I opted for the straight oven-braised technique this time for the beef and the veggies, but I found myself wishing I could have boiled the cabbage on the stove top instead of laying it in the braising juices after I took out the meat. It takes longer to cook it, and while roasting gives it some depth of flavor, I think boiling is more traditional, which is what St. Patty's Day is all about.

I took more pictures, but by the time everything was done, I found myself more focused on drinking Guinness than on focusing...

Did you make corned beef? How did it turn out? Got pics, or tips? Let's hear 'em.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone. No one sent in an Irish-themed joke in this week, so I found these online.

This one was my favorite:

Top of the mornin' to ya! Drink what you will today, personally I don't go for green beer, but another distinctly American tradition is Corned Beef and Cabbage. Not sure where the custom started because you really don't see a lot of corned beef in Ireland, so it's anybody's guess, really.

I started this post a year ago in response to an email I got on how to cook corned beef. I don't really have a recipe, but I'll try to pay attention to how much of everything I use today, so I update this next year.

Corned beef is almost always made from beef brisket, which as I've noted before, is a trick cut to work with. Check out the link for more information on why, but there are a few different ways to prepare it, plus a method that combines the two.

Update: The corned beef has been in the oven for 4 hours at this point. I started it off at 425º until it browned up a bit, then added the Guinnesses and water. Once it was boiling, I turned the heat down to 275º. I just put the potatoes, onions, and carrots into the oven in another baking dish, raised the oven to 325º, and it's smelling really good in here.

Me? Dipping into the Guinness already? Perish the thought...

BTW, our friend and Food Fight 4 pal Matt has a cool article about the myths of St. Patty's Day in his local paper. Check it out here. Thanks to Gail for the tip!!!

I'm going to put up a recipe tomorrow, which calls for corned beef (duh), onions, potatoes (I'm using new red potatoes) carrots and cabbage. Get yourself some cans of Guinness (2 or so for the recipe and more for you) and some Colman's dry mustard powder, if you want to cook along.

I've created a new category in the sidebar called "Time Saving Ideas", to specifically address efficiency issues. I've put a few of the old posts in there already, but it will be a while before I can dig through the archives and assign others, so it's pretty lean reading for now, sorry.

If you have any ideas for quick tips, email me, and if I use it I'll send you a free tin of Survival Spice™, our award winning all natural spice blend!

A lot of people don't serve green salads much because they either can't keep lettuce fresh for more than a day or two, or like the convenience but hate the taste of the bagged stuff. Here's a few tips to help you get more life out of your lettuce:

(TPCs Grilled Salmon Salad with Tibvrtini vinageratte)

This made a great, light, easy lunch yesterday, something I should do a lot more, judging by the way my clothes mock me as I try to squeeze into them. Ah, the struggles of a middle-aged man who's in the food biz...

My dress pants: Look, Porky, you've been trying to squeeze into me for 5 minutes. Get a sackcloth or a mumu, wouldja? I'm bustin' at the seams here!

Where was I? Right, lunch.

I grilled some salmon with lemon juice and Survival Spice™ and once cool, flaked it by hand. This is a great technique for using any leftover meat- steak, pork, chicken, whatever you've got on hand. I had some salmon, romaine lettuce and a carrot so that's what I used. No sweat, I can make a meal of this.

I've been into simple oil and vinegar dressings again lately, after coming full circle on lots of exotic, elaborate combinations. BTW, one of them I got via email from Shelleigh was using Survival Spice™ mixed with ranch dressing. Try it, it's amazing, but I digress. Again.

After prepping the lettuce, which I'll talk about tomorrow, I peeled a carrot using my zester, which gives a nifty edge if you're into that, mine just happened to be closer than the peeler. The way I like to do simple oil and vinegar dressings is to toss everything lightly with Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgine di Oliva, which is just amazing for salad. I prefer this to pouring on a finished dressing, because it coats the greens without them laying in a pool of oil. Really tasty oil, but enough is enough, right?

I plated them, topped them with the salmon, and drizzled it with Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Bianco, an extrordinary white wine vinegar that we also sell. (Hint, hint.) A squirt of lemon helped marry the greens to the salmon, and I seasoned generously with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. The right amount of seasoning is critical to making simple dressings work. I finished it up with some grated parm and lunch was served.

Really easy, really great, but my pants still don't fit. Crap.

(Photo: www.menton.com)

I guess this is France's answer to the Pasadena Tournament of Roses parade:

In 1929, Menton is still the main lemon producer of the continent. The owner of a hotel had the idea of organising a flower and citrus fruits exhibition in the gardens of the Hotel Riviera. It had such a huge success that the following year the festival was held in the streets: parade floats with lemon and orange trees showing off together with the charming Menton girls. The Municipality, which hoped to develop the tourist trade, tried to give the Carnival a typical local aspect: the Fête du Citron® was born in 1934. Two years later, the first citrus fruit and flower exhibition was opened in the Biovès gardens. François Ferrié was in charge of conceiving the orange and lemon look of the parade floats and the motives of the gardens. It was a success confirmed in the following years.

Lots more cool images here, but you have to wonder what they do with all that citrus once the festival's over, do you think that's what the recipes and cocktail suggestions are for?

Thanks to Sharon for sending me this!

This weekend's bulk cooking project was a few pans of Cheesy Rigatoni and Mini-Meatballs. Designed to be kid-friendly, it still had plenty of flavor for adults, too.

Pasta is a bit tough to freeze and reheat well, so if I know that I'm going to freeze it, I'll leave it even more al dente than usual, and toss the pasta lightly with oil before I add it to the pasta, to minimize sublimation in the freezer. What's sublimation? It's that nasty freezer burn, maybe I'll touch on it later this week.

Happy Friday, once again. Here's some cool uses for vodka sent in by Silvia, thanks!

There's a great fact about vodka that wasn't on Silvia's list, and that's Survival Spice™ is absolutely wonderful in Bloody Marys. Virgin or with vodka, just add to taste to the drink, and rim the glass with 2 parts Survival Spice™ to 1 part kosher salt. Give it a try this weekend!

What, you're out of Survival Spice™? Fix that by clicking here!!

Have a great weekend everyone, and cook something good, willya? Email me pics, jokes and questions, too.

Mmmmmm.... mac and cheese. Kids love it and I do too, especially with Parmesan Chicken Strips, and it's kid heaven.

This is a basic mac and cheese technique, based on a bechamel sauce, one of the mother sauces, that becomes a simplified Mornay sauce with the addition of cheese. See? You might have thought that French cooking is really complicated, but a Mornay sauce is just a cheese sauce. Okay, you can embellish a Mornay with stock or a egg liason, but still...

This stuff freezes pretty well, so I made a double batch. Here's some pics of mac and cheese in progress:

Interesting write up in the NY Times about Trader Joe's:

The stores are small, the selection is uneven and the corporate culture can be described as dorky. But because its products are often not available anywhere else; because they mysteriously appear, disappear, then reappear on the shelves; or perhaps simply because they often taste very, very good, Trader Joe's has become tremendously popular among Americans who like to be entertained and educated by what they eat, as well as nourished by it.

For those who aren't familiar with TJs, or who aren't lucky enough to have a store in their area, Trader Joe's has been around since the 70s. For the 20 or so years that I lived in LA, I was thrilled to have one in my neighborhood. They're eclectic, but man do they have the goods at a reasonable price. Their introduction of "Two Buck Chuck" a few years back created a huge buzz. They've done a fantastic job with their private label products, too.

Read the article for more on these great stores. Thanks to John for the link! If you have a cool news story to share, email me, just don't forget to take out the REMOVETHESEWORDS from the email address that are there to prevent spam.

(Photo: Parmesan Survival Corn v2)

Here's take two of the Parmesan Survival Corn I made recently. It doesn't look substantially different, but a few changes are notable. I used grated grana padano cheese intead of the green can, which was a great improvement, I used more oil this time so I didn't need to add butter to make it stick, and I added the spices to the popcorn inside the Whirley-Pop™, instead of mixing it in the bowl.

I'm pretty satisfied with the flavor, but I'm still not content with the way the cheese and Survival Spice™ mixture is sticking to the popcorn, so one more version is on the way. At the moment, I'm using 1/2 C of popcorn, 3 T of oil, 3/4 C of parm, and 1/4 C of Survival Spice™. I think I'm going to try using some Fontina cheese too, the flavor is very similar to parm, and it's meltable.

I think it's close. I sent some home with my brother the other day, and his wife emailed me:

What did you put in that popcorn? Crack? Oh my gosh! I couldn't stop eating it!!!!

Think I should add some butter back in?

(Photo: 2 of 4 sheet pans of Parmesan Chicken Strips, ready for par-cooking.)

Welcome to another working week. As you know, I'm a big fan of making an extra batch of whatever I'm making and freezing it for later whenever possible, so when I got a request for some chicken fingers, I decided to make a bunch of them. It's such a great way to make great food efficiently and it's convenient once they're done, just put them on a cookie sheet with a little oil and brown them until they're crispy and juicy.

(Photo: TPCs Garlic and Spinach Pizza)

Sometimes you just feel like making pizza. Okay, is it just me?

I've made a lot of pizzas, but I don't make it at home much because it's time-consuming to make the dough, but it's so worth it because you can make enough to freeze in individual portions. I'm not posting a recipe today, because frankly I tend to wing it when I make my dough and sauce, but here's a couple of tips, anyway.

Lots of funny pouring into the Inbox that I'm happy to pass along this week. If you have a joke to share, please email me.

Some more good ones from Kathleen, enjoy your weekend, everyone, and cook yourself something good, willya? And take pictures!!!

(Photo: Wake n' Bacon)

Who loves bacon? (counts all the raised hands...)

Me, too. If you'd like to wake up to bacon in the morning, and I can think of a few, the Wake n' Bacon is for you. Wow, 5 links in 6 words, I think that's a record for me. There's 4 bacon-loving blogs there, check 'em all out!

It's an alarm clock that you put a strip of frozen bacon into before you go to bed.

Thanks to Biggles for the link.

I was surfing the 'net Saturday morning when I happened to see this recipe. Known as a Dutch baby, the term refers to an oven baked pancake. I'm always up for something new, so off I went to give it a try.

(In progress, bubbling away nicely)

I threw this together to serve with the Dutch Baby I made Saturday morning. You might want to double it if you're feeding more than 2 people. So easy, and fruit compotes are a really great addition to syrup on pancakes and waffles.

I made this while the Dutch baby was cooking, which is why I sliced the apples thinly. Fujis are a good choice for this compote, they have a little more complexity than Delicious or Jonathan apples, and they retain their shape better, too. There are a bazillion variations, but the trick is to get the liquid to reduce to the proper consistency at the same time the fruit has softened, but still retains its shape. Always match the size of your cuts to the cooking time you're going to give it to cook!