Betsy has been involved in a very intense two week trial that ends today. I’ve also been working on a pretty intense web project for my day job that is hopefully coming to a successful end this next week.
So we are taking a little relaxing day trip to Ridgway Colorado this weekend! The plan is just to hit up a hot spring or two and then grab some pizza and come home.
Nothing intense, but hopefully we can get in a little decompression after a few long weeks.
The Poll!
Speaking pizza, pick a strange one!
The Links!
Think for Yourself- This is a great little piece of writing that sums up a lot of my feelings about eating in America these days. Gluten-free, fat-free, sugar-free, carb-free, blah blah. The only thing I care about is how I feel after I eat the meal I eat. (@ Rulhman)
Pickled Spring Onions – I can’t believe it’s almost spring! These little beauties definitely caught my eye this week. I figure I could burn through a jar of these in no time at all. (@ Sippity Sup)
Grasshopper Pie – One of the better desserts I’ve seen on the interwebs this week. This pie just looks amazing. You can tell it’s nice and thick but still creamy. (@ Brown Eyed Baker)
I’ve stated on numerous occasions my loathing of boxed cake and cupcake mix. When I’m at the grocery store, I always find myself with a desire to run down the aisle and knock off all the boxes in a childish rage, but that would really just punish the employees.
My main two gripes with cake mixes are 1) they are a rip off and 2) they aren’t actually that much faster than making a normal batter. You still have to add eggs and other ingredients. You still have to mix everything together. You obviously still have to cook it.
My smaller gripe with these things is that you can’t customize the mix. They are very explicit in the amount of ingredients and the mixes have been engineered to work with those ratios of ingredients. Change them and be damned.
Not true with homemade batters. I wanted my brownies to have lots of chocolate. Butter. Beer. And more chocolate. And these guys deliver. There’s just no comparison.
Every year during March, I tell myself that I’m going to make corned beef because it’s probably my favorite way to prepare brisket (and yes this includes BBQ and smoked). For some reason I failed at this every year for the last four or five years. I either ran out of time or I couldn’t find the right ingredients.
Mostly though I was just plain lazy.
This year I was determined to make it happen. I ordered my pink salt (more on this later) online because it’s damn near impossible to find at normal stores and I made it happen. As expected, it’s not actually a hard dish to make. It just requires planning. You need to start it a full business week before you plan to eat it. That’s just the way it goes.
So let’s walk through it and I’ll show you what I did to make this beautiful stuff.
I’ve been on a big coconut kick lately thanks to the coconut rice in the loco moco dish I made last week. I been chugging coconut water after I go to the gym and squeezing coconut flavors into all kinds of stuff.
Last weekend, I was planning to make a big pot of oatmeal and I figured oatmeal and coconut probably go nicely together. Turns out I was right!
I think it’s important to use steel-cut oats for this dish, but you could use rolled oats in a pinch.
I’ve had a nagging sickness for the last week or so. My sinuses have been stuffy and gross for days, but luckily that has been the extent of the sickness for the most part. I’ve become a huge fan of the Neti pot which is an awkward little contraption, but it delivers some much needed sinus relief.
Two days ago I decided to get out and go for a jog even with this nagging sickness and lo and behold, I feel much better after doing so! Sometimes exercise can do wonders for your health even if it feels terrible while you’re doing it.
Vegetarian Ground “Meat” – A really nice walkthrough on how to prepare tofu so you can use it in place of ground meat in recipes. I’ve used this method before and it works about as good as one could hope. (@ No Recipes)
Orange Quick Bread – I like this recipe, but I really like the nerdy nuclear talk. It’s like a real life Homer Simpson story. (@ Maked It Naked)
Last Friday I asked all of you suggest junk foods that I might try to replicate at home. The overwhelming response was for me to try to make Cheetos at home.
It turns out Cheetos are made with magic.
What I did do was make pretty darn good little cheese snack things that are slightly crunchy and taste like a cheese cloud.
A panini press is a kitchen gadget that I’ve never invested in to try to ward off kitchen bloat. Most times when I’m making a hot sandwich it’s some sort of grilled cheese and I just cook it in a large skillet.
But for this sandwich, I really did need the pressing effect. The sandwich is really thick and needs to be compacted down a bit and pressed in a hot environment.
I figured out a special contraption using what I had (cast iron skillet) to get the job done, so even if you don’t have a panini press, you can make this sucker. If you DO have a panini press, you have zero excuse to not make this sandwich!
Betsy has been involved in a very intense two week trial that ends today. I’ve also been working on a pretty intense web project for my day job that is hopefully coming to a successful end this next week.
I’ve had a nagging sickness for the last week or so. My sinuses have been stuffy and gross for days, but luckily that has been the extent of the sickness for the most part. I’ve become a huge fan of the Neti pot which is an awkward little contraption, but it delivers some much needed sinus relief.
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