In the last week or so I’ve seen two really awesome projects related to food in America that have caught my eye. I wanted to share them with you all in case you are interested! I haven’t actually seen or read either of these in full, but I’m very excited to do so as soon as possible!
The first is a lengthy article on The New York Times called The Extraordinary Science of Junk Food. It’s an excerpt of sorts from Michael Moss’s recently released book Salt, Sugar, Fat. If you have some time, it’s a great read and I’m looking forward to getting the book.
The second is a documentary that’s being released across the nation starting this weekend called A Place at the Table. I’ve seen interviews with the directors on The Daily Show and also heard them on NPR. It’s an amazing study on hunger in America, a subject that isn’t discussed much because we always hear about over-eating in America. To be honest, as someone who writes about food and always has an abundance of it, it’ll be a hard watch for me, but I think it’s important.
The Poll
Instead of a straight-up poll this week, in honor of Michael Moss’s book, shout out your favorite junk food in the comments and I’ll pick one and try to make it at home!
The Links
IACP Cookbook Awards - Every year the IACP chooses some of the best cookbooks that came out in the last year. Think of it like the Oscars for food dorks. Anyway, here is the list if anyone is interested. Someday maybe I’ll be on that list! (@ IACP)
How to Temper Chocolate – This is a step that’s important to learn if you ever want to get into chocolate making. Frankly, it’s one that I’m iffy at, but this walkthrough is awesome. (@ Cupcake Project)
Homemade Ding Dongs- Talk about showing the food industry what’s up. I’m not a huge sweet tooth but these look pretty spot on to me! (@ Food Beast)
Most cheeses are pretty hard to make at home. A good friend of mine is a very solid cook and experimenter and one year I remember him trying to make cheddar cheese in his kitchen. The results where somewhere between rotten dairy and deadly fungus. There are a lot of variables that go into cheese making and some of them are super-hard to control in most home kitchens.
But not every cheese is hard to make at home. In fact, on the other end of the spectrum, there are a few cheeses that are insanely easy to make at home. When homemade cheese won the poll last week, I knew I would be doing one of these softer fresh cheeses.
This post is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill. They make a huge range of quality products including the gluten-free almond meal I used for these blondies. Check them out on Facebook and follow them on Twitter for lots of fun recipe ideas.
My favorite kinds of gluten-free items are the ones that aren’t forced to be gluten-free. I think it’s pretty hard to make gluten-free bread at home that is anywhere as delicious as real bread. Of course, if you have a gluten intolerance you have very little say in the matter.
But there are a bunch of baking recipes where gluten is sort of a by-product of using flour in the recipe when in reality the gluten isn’t important to the recipe. Any kind of baked dessert bar is a great example. In fact, I substituted 100% of the flour in a normal blondie recipe with almond meal for this recipe and they were actually better than the original.
I really do feel like 30 is the new 20 for my generation. To be honest, I feel like I’m in better physical shape than I was for most of my twenties and I’m really excited to see what the next decade holds!
To celebrate, I made myself some really good cupcakes. They have two kinds of beets in them, but you would never know it unless I told you… which I just did.
When we took the plunge to move from DC to Colorado a few years ago, we originally wanted to be in the Denver area, but Betsy’s job brought us a bit further west to Grand Junction. We’ve really loved living here for a few years. The weather is awesome. We met some great people and got a fun dog out of it!
But, we decided we still wanted to be in a bit more of an urban/city environment so we’re making the move! We have a few months still, but Betsy starts her job there June 1st so we will be there by then for sure.
To be honest, I haven’t spent a ton of time in Denver but I’ve liked what I have seen so far. I’m excited to explore the mile high city.
In honor of the move, I took a classic Denver omelet and turned it into a breakfast burrito.
My general writing strategy is to get everything down in a massive flurry, let it chill for a week or two, then go back and edit what I wrote and try to turn it into something readable.
This week I’ve been deep in editing for my first deadline on my new book. Luckily, I also have had a bunch of very helpful people testing the recipes over the last few months so the editing is going really well.
This weekend I’m wrapping it up, putting in a few last changes, and shipping it off! This is only 50% of the book and then I have about four months to polish up the rest of it and get it out the door.
The Poll
The Links
The Key to Flaky Biscuits – Especially in winter, I love a good biscuit with maybe some honey drizzled over it. The flakier the better right? (@ Ruhlman)
Creative Clementines – If you buy a lot of clementines, you might find that you have stacks of those little boxes sitting around. Here’s a really cool idea for what to do with them all! (@ The Bitten Word)
How to Make Pork Belly – Pork belly is tricky to make correctly because it’s just so fatty. This looks amazing though and is a pretty straightforward way to prepare it. (@ Tablespoon)
There is a very fine line between some soups and some dips. Sometimes I like to walk that line and sometimes I like to dance back and forth across it, creating dishes that you’ll want to dip bread in or chips in or eat with a freakin’ spoon. When broccoli and cheese something won the poll last week, this soup/dip mash-up is what I wanted to make.
The only reason this deal isn’t a soup is that it’s just too thick. You couldn’t eat a bowl of it by yourself or at least you shouldn’t eat a bowl of it by yourself. So we’ll call it a dip and proceed.
In the last week or so I’ve seen two really awesome projects related to food in America that have caught my eye. I wanted to share them with you all in case you are interested! I haven’t actually seen or read either of these in full, but I’m very excited to do so as soon as possible!
My general writing strategy is to get everything down in a massive flurry, let it chill for a week or two, then go back and edit what I wrote and try to turn it into something readable.
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