I don’t know whether to curse Bob “Rosebud” Butt, or thank him for giving me some of the wildest nights of my life. No, perverts, I don’t mean it that way. Ol’ Rosebud, as it were, invented the Long Island Iced … Continue reading
“What do you do to get the kids to like stuff like kale? Or radishes?” I asked. Ms. Denise immediately begins shaking her head in protest, with a huge grin on her face. “If they take the seed and plant … Continue reading
For all my resistance of the label “foodie” and the innumerable times I have reminded friends, “I like dirty little street carts just as much as I like five star restaurants!” I realized I had become something I’d so actively … Continue reading
Pardon us! We’ve interrupted your usual weekly farmers market roundup to discuss a very important issue: shopping at the farmers market… effectively. As someone who rarely shops with a grocery list (if I’m lucky, I’ll think about what I want … Continue reading
Nikki of Cupcakes For Breakfast asked me to guest post in her week long series for a bloggers’ Valentine’s Day! Hope you guys like it – and thank you so much Nikki!
A Guide For Two Cooks In The Kitchen
When Nikki originally asked me to do a Valentine’s day guest post I was excited, but at a loss as to what to write about. Then I recalled a conversation I had with a chef friend of mine.
Food is so many things, but most importantly food is all about love. And on special days, it’s quite sexy too! My chef friend asked me if I’d ever cooked with someone before and imagine his surprise when I said no, no I had not. For loving food as much as I do and cooking or baking all the time, I’d never cooked with someone!
Click through to check out my tips for cooking with a (special?) friend :)
I’m fairly well-known for talking about eating one’s feelings. Usually in a “Bertha-esque” voice I jokingly proclaim that I, or someone close to me, should eat their feelings. A pint of ice cream. A bacon cheeseburger. Whatever food it is that evokes feelings of comfort or security. Or maybe a ridiculous level of indulgence that transcends moods and lifts you from the dredges of life.
It wasn’t until last Friday afternoon, over a bacon cheeseburger in the lounge at Bourbon Steak, that I understood the alarming truth in those three words: eating your feelings.
I’ve been going through a bit of a rough time, friends. Life has thrown me some emotional curve balls. I am a fairly resilient person, not easily shaken by change. But when said change flips you on your head and changes what your every day looks or feels like – there’s no ignoring it. I’ve taken the last few weeks to not even deal with the changes in my life, but just accept them. (They say it’s the first step…)
Not to discount the positive, I’ve also had some really amazing and wonderful changes happen over the last month. Alas, even positive changes can mean leaving your comfort zone.
So, it was after a particularly “red zone” type of morning with work emails rolling in, tripping my way to work, hot coffee in hand, tourists standing on the left (DC people will get this) and, of all things, Amazon servers going down and taking out HootSuite (my new job is nothing but social media so this made for a particularly “WHAT THE F*CK!” moment) I found myself craving a bacon cheeseburger. Red meat cravings, for me, are a sure sign of emotional eating.
Well. You try to resist the bacon cheeseburger from Bourbon Steak.
Yeah.
After I had consumed the entire burger I sat back, looked at my fellow diners and said, “You know. I actually feel better. Like. I’m in a good mood now!” We all laughed about it but. Wow. Truer words hadn’t been spoken in at least a couple of weeks.
More after the jump…
You know. You can barely even call this butchering. It’s…baby butchering. Butchering light. Diet butchering. Cutting up a chicken into all its various parts and bits is easy. Too easy for this girl, who set a New Year’s Resolution to learn how to butcher.
I said I would start small…learn how to properly break down a chicken. So that’s where I started.
Whole chicken. Didn't stay like that for long.
Remember my friend Ian? He took pictures of those Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies. Yes, well, I roped him into coming to my chicken class at Hill’s Kitchen. He hovered around me as I learned to pop bones out of joints and cut through cartilage.
The drama of the first cut!
I had to explain to the class that Ian was there just to take pics of me and my probably hackish looking bird when all was said and done. Awkward.
We used a small-ish knife throughout the whole process but mostly just our hands. A lot of popping of joints and what nots – like I said. Plenty of fingering around looking for that dip…in the…joint…where the oyster…oyster? wtf is an oyster? is.
Every morning I go through my Google Reader which is home to 83 food blogs and countless other types including design blogs, local DC blogs, blogs I read for work and more. Sounds a little absurd, right? Maybe – but it’s not exactly a chore to read them all. I really enjoy all the news, recipes, tips/tricks…and most of all I love learning. I won’t be going to culinary school any time soon so this (and cooking/baking a lot) is all I’ve got!
I’m not a huge fan of consistent food news round ups, but last week was really an amazing week for food news. I found more links to share each day than I usually do. While I put them out there on Twitter, I thought I’d share them here too. So here goes:
That…was a lot of news and info in one week. I’d say normally there’s about half as much interesting stuff going on! Hope you guys find this stuff as interesting as I do…and let me know in the comments if you want to see more posts like this. I’m happy to oblige if you like them!
Enjoy! :)
Every year it goes a little something like this:
Mom: Don’t you want a roast or a ham for Christmas this year?!
Me: No. I want tacos.
Dad: Oh god.
Mom: Are you sure? Doesn’t a ham sound nice?!
Me: No. I want tacos.
Mom: How many would you eat?
Me: One or two. (Because I’m in total denial and trying to “eat healthy.”)
Mom: I’m not making tacos if that’s all you’re going to eat.
Me: Fine. I’ll have three.
Mom: Fine. I’ll make tacos.
Dad: She only makes them for you.
See, my mom makes the most amazing tacos every year for Christmas. Our family bucks tradition, setting the Christmas ham aside, and makes Mexican food. Some years it’s tacos, tamales and refried beans. Other years it’s just tacos and beans. But there are always tacos. And they’re my most favorite meal of the whole year. Yep. Of the whole year.
I took step-by-step pictures to show you (and remind me) how she does it. I have a fear of deep-frying things. Hot oil + me + tiny kitchen = panic. I’m hoping my new dutch oven will help set some fears aside because it’s such a deep vessel. (I’m ridiculous, I realize.) So here we go:
I might add some chili powder? Fresh garlic? Whatever you like really.
She’s a beast with the meat. Rar!
The rest of the steps are after the jump!
via From Me To You
Another year, more resolutions.
That’s all for 2011, folks. Considering how busy I’ve become, I’ll be lucky if I can do these…and this isn’t a bucket list. So yeah. We’ll see how we do!
frijolita 