February 8, 2010 by Jen W.
The snow will start to melt as soon as you mix in the milk and sugar. Refreeze it if you want an icy snow cream.
Congratulations to those of you in the Mid-Atlantic – we made it through the weekend snowpocalypse! There is still snow everywhere of course, but the streets in Baltimore are somewhat plowed, there are a few cleared walkways on the streets, and you have most likely shoveled your driveway, an arduous chore when you’re moving 20+ inches of snow.
But there were a few bright spots to all of this snow. The snow sculptures like the couple sitting on a bench near the Monument on Charles Street were fun to look at, and there were more people on the streets than I have seen all winter.
Now we just have to get through the snow predicted for tomorrow and Wednesday. But there is another benefit you could look forward to, a great recipe idea that would be fun to make with kids: snow cream.
Continue Reading “Snow Cream”
Posted in Baltimore, Experiments | Tagged snowpocalypse, maryland snow 2010, snow cream | Leave a Comment »
February 5, 2010 by Jen W.
Thanks to www.kennethyee.com for taking the time to create this great image!
Time for Super Bowl Sunday! Those of us in the Northeast will likely be snowed in, watching the game with our spouses or kids or roommates. But for those of you who aren’t expecting a storm, or who are hosting a Super Bowl party anyway, I’ve put together a list of recipe ideas inspired by three players from each team. (lf you’d like to make food inspired by the city, check out Saveur’s menus for Indianapolis and New Orleans.) A special shout-out to Kenny, who told me about the players so I could match their game to recipes.
Continue Reading “Super Bowl XLIV: Make Food Inspired by the Players”
Posted in Fun Food Bites, Pop Culture, Recipes | Tagged colts, saints, super bowl recipes, super bowl XLIV | Leave a Comment »
February 4, 2010 by Jen W.
(l to r): Nigella's Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake, Emeril's Spiced and Spiked Hot Chocolate, Bobby's Chocolate Compone, and Giada's Gianduja Souffles
For a long, long, long time I was single on Valentine’s Day. In fact, I was single about 90% of the year or more. So I always thought Valentine’s Day was a terrible, stupid, discriminatory holiday. Except for two things that is: conversation hearts and chocolate.
Yes, the chocolate, especially the heart boxes full of M&Ms or vanilla butter creams. This I liked about Valentine’s Day.
Even though I’m married now, I still think chocolate is the best part of the holiday. (Hmm, I hope my husband doesn’t read this and take that statement the wrong way.) What I mean is, chocolate is a benefit everyone can appreciate.
That’s why I love the Food Network’s chocolate weekend. Take a look at this list of 5 shows on Saturday and Sunday to find one that fits your chocolate personality. The list reflects my love of the sweet side of chocolate, but you can look at the Food Network’s full TV schedule for Saturday and Sunday to find the shows that highlight chocolate’s savory side.
Continue Reading “5 Food Network Chocolate Shows this Weekend”
Posted in Fun Food Bites, Pop Culture | Tagged bobby flay, chocolate, emeril lagasse, food network, giada de laurentiis, ina garten, nigella lawson | Leave a Comment »
February 1, 2010 by Jen W.
Tempura, Soba Noodles, and Hot Dashi Broth - I would serve the tempura on the side; the broth made ours soggy
My stove makes me curse and stomp and slam things around the kitchen every time I want to use the two back burners. That’s because it slants forward, pushing all of the ingredients to the front third of my frying pans.
But I wanted to make tempura last weekend. I planned to have hot dashi broth and soba noodles simmering in the front, so it was time for me to learn to work with my back burner.
At first I titled the pan, holding it slightly above the flame on one side, while the tempura fried. But my heat was too high and I kept getting hit with flying specks of oil. I also quickly got tired of standing over a hot flame.
Continue Reading “Tempura (on a Slanted Stove) with Soba Noodles and Hot Dashi Broth”
Posted in Ingredients, Recipes, Travel | Tagged dashi broth, mirin, portobello mushrooms, tempura, the asian kitchen, tofu | Leave a Comment »
January 29, 2010 by Jen W.
For their feature “U.S. and Canada’s Best Places to Eat,”Food and Wine magazine picked the best restaurants in 39 cities, from the big names like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, to smaller places like Bozeman (it’s in Montana, if you’re curious), Burlington, Des Moines, and Kansas City.
But Baltimore did not make the list.
Now I know Food and Wine couldn’t travel to every city in the U.S. (and that Baltimore could have been overshadowed by D.C. which is on the list), but I think we have some great food here.
I’m going to throw out two of my favorite restaurants – Woodberry Kitchen for their fresh food, changing menu, and friendly service, and Akbar in Mount Vernon for their bhindi masala (the best okra I’ve ever had).
Your turn – what are your favorite Baltimore restaurants?
Posted in Baltimore | Tagged akbar in mount vernon, Baltimore, food and wine magazine, restaurants, woodberry kitchen | 1 Comment »
January 28, 2010 by Jen W.
The Whole Foods Harbor East store in Baltimore (courtesy of www.600block.com)
If you read this blog regularly, you may have noticed that I talk about Whole Foods a lot. When I lived in Queens, I was within walking distance of several natural food stores, but in Baltimore, I don’t have as many options. Whole Foods is now my grocery store of choice.
When I first started shopping there in August, I was surprised to find some great prices. My top three deals are natural peanut butter, tofu, and chocolate chips, all of which cost less than $2, cheaper than other grocery stores in my area.
I also recently discovered that the Whole Foods Harbor East store also has an active calendar of events. On Monday, they had a “Shopping on a Shoestring” tour; those who attended would get $10 of 365 products plus a reusable shopping bag. I love a good deal and a good food tour, so I went.
I also learned these five ways to save money at Whole Foods:
Continue Reading “5 Ways to Save at Whole Foods”
Posted in Baltimore, Fun Food Bites | Tagged Baltimore, harbor east, whole foods | 4 Comments »
January 25, 2010 by Jen W.
Dashi stock is made with Kombu and bonito flakes.
If you watch Top Chef, you may have heard Leah or Michael explain their dishes by saying they made a little dashi, as nonchalantly as if they had made a peanut butter sandwich. Was dashi a type of fish? The name of a dish? A flavoring? I’ll admit it; I didn’t know.
So I turned to my Food Lover’s Companion, which says that dashi, the backbone of many Japanese dishes, is a stock: “Used extensively in Japanese cooking, dashi is a soup stock made with bonito flakes (katsuobushi), Kombu, and water.” It sounded easy enough so I went to my local Whole Foods, where I found both Kombu - long and coarse strips of dark green seaweed - and bonito flakes.
Continue Reading “Dashi (Japanese Stock)”
Posted in Ingredients, Recipes, Travel | Tagged bonito flakes, dashi, Japanese stock, kombu, seaweed | 2 Comments »
January 22, 2010 by Jen W.
In this week’s Food News, restaurants design menus to get us to spend more, the dangers of salt, how to roast your own coffee, and a fun slideshow of meat-eating plants:
- Restaurant Marketing: The Guardian explores how restaurants get us to spend more money simply through their menu design. (Here’s an example – high-profit items are placed next to an expensive “anchor,” like a plate of seafood, so they seem “cheap by comparison.” Very smart.)
- Dangers of Salt: As I ate my highly-processed vegetarian sausage yesterday, I read articles in NPR and the Center for Science in the Public Interest about the health risks (high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke) of eating excess salt, leaving me to feel that this is the red-flag ingredient for 2010. The Center for Science in the Public Interest even calls it “the single most dangerous ingredient in the food supply.”
- Roasting Your Own Coffee: With an $150 roaster and some unroasted coffee beans from Sweet Maria’s, you could be roasting your own coffee at home like The Washington Post’s Joe Yonan.
- Meat-Eating Plants: Smithsonian.com has a fun slide show of plants that ingest bugs and crustaceans. I’m most impressed by the Nepenthes eymae, a beautiful red and green plant from Indonesia that, when large enough, has been known to digest rats.
Posted in Food News | Tagged coffee, plants, restaurant marketing, salt, sweet maria's | 2 Comments »
January 21, 2010 by Jen W.
The title of this post is slightly misleading. I’m recommending six food movies, some fictional, some documentaries, and I haven’t seem any of them. But I want to see all of them (and many were recommended on a Chowhound forum so I’m not telling you to watch these completely blindly). Extras bonus: Netflix subscribers can watch the first three movies anytime on the Netflix Instant Queue.
Courtesy of www.liveablefutureblog.com
1) Food, Inc.: This was the food movie of last year. But because Food Inc. sounds similar to Fresh, the movie, which I saw at the Creative Alliance a few months ago, I didn’t rush to see it. If you’re in the mood to learn what’s wrong with our food system, I think I’m safe in recommending Food, Inc.
Continue Reading “6 Food Movies You Should Watch”
Posted in Fun Food Bites, Pop Culture, Travel | Tagged big night, food inc., gwyneth paltrow, king corn, mario batali, mark bittman, mondovino, spain...on the road again, stanley tucci, tampopo, tony shalhoub | Leave a Comment »
January 18, 2010 by Jen W.
Waffle, Bacon, Egg, Cheese, and Maple Syrup Sandwich (see below for the vegetarian version)
I went to New York this weekend so I fully intended to find a New York food experience to blog about for today. But even though the city is overcrowded with restaurants and food stores, I couldn’t stop thinking about making a sweet and salty breakfast sandwich, kind of like the McDonald’s McGriddle pancake sandwich or the waffle sandwich created by Elia on Top Chef Season 2.
So last night, I made two versions of the waffle breakfast sandwich, one with bacon and eggs and another with vegetarian Canadian bacon and tofu eggs. I included a hot habanero cheese and topped the whole sandwich with some maple syrup to balance the heat. Delicious!
Continue Reading “Breakfast for Dinner: Open-Faced Waffle, Bacon, Egg, Cheese, and Maple Syrup Sandwich”
Posted in Recipes | Tagged bacon, Eggs, maple syrup, tofu eggs, vegetarian bacon, waffle sandwich, waffles | 3 Comments »
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