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Showing posts from May, 2008

Cooking the Books ... on Your Blog

The fact that the viewership on the blogs is far below what's needed to earn a living is fine with these writers, who say there are ample other rewards for their efforts. Cathy Irish of Maryland, who in November -- after three years, 45 pounds of butter and a pint of vanilla extract -- finished baking everything in "Maida Heatter's Cookies," says she came away from the experience with many new friends, including several with whom she has since visited in real life. The Wall Street Journal is catching up with bloggers who pick a cookbook and cook straight through . (Via Slashfood .) The most famous example of this is the Julie/Julia project where Julie Powell cooked straight through Mastering the Art of French Cooking and journaled the results on her blog. Unexpected results were a book deal and a movie. As seen above, most bloggers understand just what blogging is going to get you and so they have a good time without expecting a big pay off. Kind of a fun overview art

Lagniappe ... Chinese Style

A little lagniappe for the ears is available at Forgotten Classics featuring a taste of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles ... what makes Chinese food in America so ... American?

Everything Old is New Again: Spain and the World Table

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Spain and the World Table To comprehend the culinary explosion that has been taking place in Spain over the last twenty years it's important to understand the country's recent history. For nearly four decades following the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939, Spain was cut off from the rest of the world by Franco's ultra-conservative government, and its strong creative spirit (think Picasso, Dali, Gaudi) was nearly crushed. Regionalism was repressed, and many local foodways risked annihilation. The government went so far as to make it illegal to make artisanal cheeses! Since the death of Franco and the restoration of democracy in spain, there has been a cultural explosion that has found a voice in gastronomy as well as the other arts. Regional food traditions are being revived all over the country. In contemporary restaurants everywhere humble traditional dishes have attained cult status. There is a regional exchange going on that is very new in Spain. Today Andalusian spe

What I've Been Reading ...

... catching up ... on this list of what I've read this year. The Last Chinese Cook by Nicole Mones***** ... Maggie, a recently widowed food writer, discovers that her husband may have betrayed her and left a daughter in China. Sam, a young half-Chinese chef strives to please his three uncles by winning a prestigious cooking competition in China. They encounter each other in China and wind up becoming friends. The story is interesting and, more importantly to me, we see what food means in Chinese life and history ... and what it can mean in each person's life. One of my favorite books read this year. 12 Kitchens by Jake Tilson***** -- artist Jake Tilson tells a biographical tale of his life as seen in the 12 kitchens he has cooked in and eaten from. I had not heard of Tilson before on any level and found that he writes engagingly of food and its connection with his life ... which can by extension be related to ours as well if we stop and think about the kitchens of our own liv

Weekend Joke

Via Coffee Klatch . A newly-married wife, trying to impress her husband, woke up early to make him breakfast. She made bacon and eggs, toast, and juice, and brought him breakfast in bed. He was very appreciative and enjoyed it, and said, “This is really good, but it’s not like Mom used to make.” The next day, she arose earlier, made an omelet with his favorite ingredients, cut the crusts off the toast and served it with marmalade, and squeezed some fresh orange juice, and brought it to him in bed. He was surprised and ate every bit, but said, “This is great, but it’s not like Mom used to make.” Frustrated, the young bride got up even earlier the next day, cooked eggs benedict, baked scones, and made sure to strain all the pulp out of the freshly-squeezed orange juice. “Wow! This is terrific, but it’s not like Mom used to make.” Now she was angry. The next day she burned the toast, left the scrambled eggs runny, and left seeds in the orange juice, thinking, “This will fix him!” He got t

Now Serving Hot LInks ...

Tiramisu Italian-Style Scott at Coffee Klatch couldn't find a tirimisu recipe that duplicated what he'd eaten in Italy so he tinkered around until he had a reliable recipe ... which he is now sharing . Press in the Pan Pie Crust Ward Bistro has a photo-by-photo, step-by-step tutorial for a Cook's Illustrated easy pie crust that looks very good. €25.5 a day: Rome My Roman Adventure takes us through the day with her for three meals, plus a snack and dessert. So it can be done ... we have the proof! The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food I just finished reading this, which is the author's tracing of Chinese food history in America. She does an excellent job of not glossing over the sad history of Chinese immigrants' bad treatment while not trying to make us take on the guilt for it as modern Americans. Refreshing! Also a lot of great food stories. Just in case you don't believe me, Tiger and Strawberries has a much more indepth re

Fragmentation of Rods by Cascading Cracks ...

OR ... why doesn't spaghetti break in half? You know, I never wondered about that ... until I saw the question. I knew instantly what they were talking about, having experienced spaghetti "fly-by" quite often. I was pretty surprised that it took physicists from the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris to answer this question though. You can get the scoop at Mental Floss Blog .

Let the Joyful News Be Spread ...

... the foie gras ban has been repealed in Chicago. As the mayor pointed out: He pointed out that foie gras never really went away. It remained legal to buy it at gourmet shops, and restaurants found ways around the ban. "They can't sell it to you [but] they can put it on your salad and increase your salad by $20," Daley said. "They can put in on a piece of toast and charge you $10 for a piece of toast. "Does that make sense? This is what government should be doing? Telling you what you should put on toast or on a salad? I mean, think about that." Read it all here . Via Slashfood .

So Eric Gave Me a Good Ad Buy Tip ... and I Gave Him a Couple of Free Sample Tips

May 15 : McDonald's will give away 2 million Southern Style chicken biscuits and 6 million Southern Style chicken sandwiches. May 15: Dunkin' Donuts will hold its second-annual Iced Coffee Day and expects to give away 4 million cups of coffee. Advertising Age via Slashfood We're not quite even but he's actually going to MacDonald's to see what their chicken sandwich is like.  Me? I'm not going for a sample but I'd grab a chicken biscuit. It sounds interesting and I'm a longtime fan of their sausage and biscuit combo. Reports due back to this spot...

Fire up the grill. It's time for ... pizza?

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Grilled Pizzas and Piadinas We arrived at our apartment after midnight. I fired up our little Smokey Joe grill and rolled out the dough. Once the coals were ready, I tossed the dough onto the grate. The fire came up immediately and singed the hair off my arm. After I finished my little dance, found out that the fire was too hot and I used too much oil, a volatile combination. But Karla was going to have her grilled pizza. When I tried again, I tossed the dough onto the grill and watched a network of bubbles rise on the surface. We tapped our first grilled pizza and set it under the broiler to crisp. We knew we had found our ticket, even before we tasted it. Many of us are used to the idea of grilling pizza to emulate the effects that restaurants achieve with wood-burning ovens. However, how many of us have really ever tried it? It sounds like a good idea but when we're getting right down to it, the idea of tackling grilling pizza is kind of intimidating. That's why it's a

Now Serving Hot Links ...

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The New York Times food section has a story about those who get creative with food carving. A fun piece with a nice slide show of sample carvings. How to Render Lard Homesick Texan not only uses "the L word" but tells us how to do it ourselves. Mmmm, lard ... Basic Cooking Advice Both of the girls will be in their own apartments next fall. I will be giving each of them a notebook with best loved "home cooking" but they will also need a basic cookbook and such things. When fellow food lover Siggy sent me a link to Start Cooking blog the timing seemed perfect. This is a wonderful resource for those exploring the world of cooking for the first time, with videos, printable "recipe cards" and more. Check it out. Hunger in Burma Problem is, they already were hungry. I remember years ago meeting a young man named Etan employed at a restaurant in the tourist town of Kyaiktiyo. He worked seven days a week to earn $7 a month. He slept in the restaurant dining ro

Old Versus New: Middle Eastern Food

I have been reading Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon by Claudia Roden. It is fine as it goes with introductory pages for each country, sumptuous photography and exotic recipes. However, I was left cold as somehow I didn't feel Ms. Roden's personality shining through. If one wants a cookery manual, this is doubtless a fine one. However, I have come to demand more. (Yes, I know ... picky, picky, picky). Truth to tell, I am not so much interested in making Middle Eastern food as I am in reading about it. So that's a personal flaw as we can all see. However, what that book did was make me go pick up my long-time favorite old edition of A Book of Middle Eastern Food. I am reposting my review of it as compared to Ms. Roden's updated version which I believe that some visitors may not have seen as I wrote it some time ago. Bon appetit! A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden The collection began fi

A "Pick Your Own" Resource

I am going to have fun investigating the Pick Your Own website from the Texas Department of Agriculture. There is nothing like picking your own blueberries for some reason. The Dallas Morning News had a little story on it (and some other links are in there for different resources) and I haven't thought about picking berries in years.

How to Remove Most of the Seeds When Cutting Up a Watermelon

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Here's the first step ... for all the others go to DIY ... this is brilliant!