Cut Worms

Yesterday, while chopping up some cauliflower to eat with x-mas dinner, I encountered a hitchhiker like the one pictured above. I could not contain the chills and wretches. It was like a green shrimp, bigger than a quarter and still alive. It had been living in the head of cauliflower that had been picked, wrapped, shipped and displayed in the whole foods produce section. I'm sure he/she had plenty to eat on this journey like James and the Giant Peach. Living in the home that you eat your way out of.

My Omnivore's 100 List

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 here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses ???? (I might have eaten this. I don't remember all the cheese I ate in France)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (I would try it, but I fear I would light on fire)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (I considered crossing this out, the fact that people still die from this scares me a little)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (sadly, I have not eaten poutine yet)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
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
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
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

The Tomato Report

From little babies . . .




To bright green bulbs . . .


To sun-warmed salad-ready cherry tomatoes.

My Top 6 of the Moment

6. Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello: Mustached, Slavic, Schizophrenic, Sexy.


5. Will Ferrell: Can you even imagine how much fun it would be to wake up in bed with this man?



4. Jason Schwatzman of Coconut Records: This fellow needs to switch careers because Coconut Records is so unbelievably good. He would be the 'twee-ist boyfriend ever.



3. Either one of the Hot Knives: Hot vegan cooks/bloggers/beer-lovers. They've got cajones doing two things that the fellas don't typically do. Having an avid interest in the beloved domestic art of cooking (although as a Jezebel article I read the other day points out, it's totaly okay and curently hip for guys to be into cooking but not cool for them to be into any other domestic art, can anyone think of a heterosexual equivalent of Martha Stewart?), and having the balls to be manly men who don't eat meat. It ain't easy being that adorable, and I'd walk over hot coals to have an artisan crafted brew with either of these menfolks.



2. Adrian Brody: Just cause.



1. Sam Mason: New York City Chef and Host of online webcast, Dinner With the Band. Rock 'n Roll, daring flavor combinations, copious tattoos. Yum.

Dynamo Donuts

Lemon Thyme Donuts from the newly opened Dynamo Donuts in the Mission. I can't wait to try one.

Canned Sardines

I had my second sardine sandwich this week. Yum. I think I found a new canned protein friend.

I really liked canned fish when I was little, my sister reminded me the other day. I used to eat kippers straight from the can with a fork.

My first sardine sandwich was the result of a google search for sardine sandwich, and it came from this blog. It was one side sardines mixed with sauted mushrooms, onions, and garlic, and then a little olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. On the other side of the bread was melted cheese. I heated both sides in the oven.

The bread I was eating was too thick, the cheese wasn't strong enough, but the sardine mixture was delicious. I also tried to eat this sandwich with lettuce which was a big flop because the lettuce was wilting between the halves pathetically. I pulled out the lettuce and tried to eat as much sardine as possible.

My second sardine sandwich was much more of a success. I ate it on untoasted sourdough bread with lettuce and mustard. This can of sardines was packed in tomato sauce, which I've read is common for sardines that come from Mexico or if they are packed in Thailand. I still added some olive oil and lemon juice to the mix, which was a good call because the lemon seemed to balance the acid in the tomatoes to make a more mild flavor.

On the downside, these sardines were cheaper and more gritty than the previous can I purchased.

I was worried about the mercury content being high in sardines like tuna, but I read on the internet that the sardine's low status on the food chain makes it far less of a risky fish to eat. They contain less mercury because their lives are shorter, and they don't eat other fish who contain mercury like predatory fish such as tuna.

Also in terms of the food chain, sardines are incredibly sustainable. When you eat predators, you are eating a larger chunk out of the food chain, but since sardines are bottom feeders, they reproduce faster, and there are more of them to eat. Eating bottom feeders impacts bio-diversity less.

Cheap, low mercury levels, non-perishable, environmentally sustainble, high in omega-threes and delicious. Oh sardines, I think this the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Congee

Pork and preserved egg congee with green onions topped with Chinese Donut from the Ming Wun-Tun Noodle House on 32nd and Noriega.



Side Order of Chinese donut.

4th of July Eats

White wine sangria with peaches, pears and strawberries, recipe from Scott's Food Blog.



A perfectly peeled hard-boiled egg for potato salad. I was very proud of myself.



The most addictive salt n pepper pistachios ever. Thank you Cost-co.



Our strawberries were ripe, maybe a little too ripe, but still good. The downside of being in season.

Little Baby Cherry Tomatoes

Two Meals

Quesadilla with sauteed onion, olive, and corn with salsa. Nicely plated.


Breadcrumb battered chicken breast with sauteed onions and garlic alongside spinach spaghetti with feta.

Adventures in Yeast

My attempt to make french bread last night was a hideous disaster, and a marvelous learning experience, producing completely inedible bread. You could beat someone with the results this morning.

Part 1: Yeasty Beginnings

I dissolved the dry active yeast in warm water. The package said that the water should be between 110 and 115 degrees. I didn't have a thermometer, so I guessed that should be below boiling (130-140? deg F) but hotter than the hot springs I sat in a few weeks ago (102 deg), so I figured I shouldn't be able to keep my finger in it for very long.

The yeast package said you heat water, dissolve yeast, let sit, and in 5 minutes, watch the yeast get bubbly. I may have seen a few bubbles, but my pot looked like miso soup. I read in a book later that a pinch of sugar often helps this process. Not sure of how many bubbles I should see I decided to keep going.

Part 2: Doughing What You Knead

I mixed the yeast into some bread flour and salt, then slowly mixed in the rest of the bread flour. While I made something of a mess on the counter, this is in my hypotheses, the only part of the baking that I got right. I got my dough ball out of the bowl, and kneaded the bread for about 10 minutes on the counter. Using the Test Kitchen instructions of pressing down with the heels of my hands and then turning and folding the dough, I got quite a rhythm down. This was the fun part. My dough ball even looked like the picture.



Part 3: A-Rising Discontent

Then it was time to put my happy little dough ball in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise, preferably in a warm place. I put it in the oven, but I found out later you're supposed to heat the oven to 200 deg and then turn off the oven, and then place said happy little dough ball in conducive rising chamber. My dough was hanging out in a drafty garage.

Part 4: Shape n' Rise

After hanging out in the oven for an hour and a half, my dough ball was bigger but definitely not double in size. I read that you are supposed to poke it with your finger and the dough should refill the indent at a moderate pace. My dough filled in, but slowly. Hope did not seem lost. I shaped the bread into a loaf and let it sit to rise again. 40 minutes later, no change. This was evidence that the yeast definitely wasn't working. At this point, I was tired, and I knew my bread was fucked. I decided to cook it anyway.

Part 5: Heating

Yes folks, I broke the pan. How do you break a pan? I'm not sure, but it definitely happened. I didn't think my bread was that heavy, or my oven that hot, but the baking stone cracked in half after 15 minutes of cooking.



Finished Product:

While my bread resembled a loaf shape, and had some nice golden brown spots on it, the interior bread was so dense that butter slid right off when I had a sample piece. It was heavy, leaden, and completely unrisen. My yeast was oppressed, not given the right conditions to grow. Surprisingly, although the texture was all wrong, my hot sample was relatively good tasting. This morning, it wouldn't have even made good croûtons. It reminded me of when you bake flour and water to build a replica of the Alamo for a fourth grade history project.





Regardless, I was kind of proud of my bread bat.

Borscht

What a big fucking mess. I had beet juice everywhere. It spilled over the pot, sprayed out from the grater. I kept finding little red renegade pieces of beet on the kitchen floor. Both of my hands have a tinge of magenta all over the palms. No pictures of the mess, but hopefully pictures of the meal to follow.

Batting Zero

Sometimes it's really hard to stay on the horse . . .

Pasta Fagiole

My attempt at making pasta fagiole.

The successful doctoring of leftover tomato soup

I took a recipe from Epicurious.com that contained a good number of the leftover ingredients that were left in my fridge.

My ingredient list

1/2 box creamy tomato soup
1 cup chicken broth
1 can water (2 cups)
1 can stewed tomatoes (with juice, undrained)

5 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 pinch oregano
1 pinch saffron
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Approximately 1/2 cup white rice.

I sauteed the vegetables with the red pepper flakes and garlic until they were softened and started to brown. In went the tomato soup, stewed tomatoes (with juice) water, broth, and remaining spices. That simmered for 20 minutes, and then I put in the rice, and let it simmer for 20 more minutes.

What resulted was a tasty tomato, rice and veggie stew. The red pepper flakes and saffron added a nice heat. Would have been better with bread and meat, but it was definitely a successful salvage of leftovers!

Beautiful Breakfast Quiche

My sister made this beautiful quiche for breakfast. Yum.

Kitties

Today, I really wanted to get a kitty. These are the three I wanted to bring home today. Their names are Natasha, Bubba, and Kaely. Natasha is 9 years old, and I love her smushed face. Bubba was listed as an all around good natured gentlemen, and Kaely is half manx and has no tail! I love nubbie kitties.

Black Opal Raspberry Licorice

Oh my god. This is some good licorice. Soft, ultra-sweet, with a face puckering artificial strawberry taste. I'm really crazy about the size and texture of each piece, thick and chewy without being sticky.

Koolickles

I am not really a fan of dill pickles, even the fresh ones from the deli. I sort of like them on sandwiches, and I like sweet relish, but when I heard about the phenomenon of Koolickes, pickles soaked in kool-aid, I immediately wanted to try one. Apparently it's a really popular thing in the South. People sell them in liquor stores.

it's cold at work. brrr.

The cuties have fallen

Dicator Cuties

Freelines

nice lyrics i heard on the radio today

The old already know the reason
So do the sad hotels
That too much is for a short while
And is still not enough
And is only once
Protect me in evil
Everywhere protect
The grace of your heart.

Still protect
The grace of my heart
Now and for when
Still protect
The grace of my heart
Now and for when
Of you beside me

so very nice to see you again honey . . .

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

-- W. C. W.