Does good-quality, cheapish olive oil exist? We tried nine grocery store-bought olive oils—nothing over $20 per liter, with most bottles hugging the $10 price point. They ranged from buttery and mellow to peppery and cough-inspiring. Check out the results.
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"While many folks wouldn't touch a gas station hot dog with a ten-foot pole, it inspires a cult-like following for others." Past Weeks' Dogs Slaw DogPuka DogThe Philly ComboTijuana DogsTexas WeinersFlo's Hot Dogs Over the last few weeks we've highlighted some fascinating regional hot dogs. But for most of us, eating a hot dog does not mean traveling halfway across the country to a roadside stand in a half-abandoned coal mining town. This week's dog is a style that many will be familiar with, possibly more so than we'd like to admit. While the object of much ridicule—the term "gas station hot dog" being a common euphemism for anything on the bottom of the culinary barrel—the 24-Hour Dog can be...
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"What real chefs can do with red-sauce Italian." One could be forgiven for expecting very little from Basta Pasta. It sits on a traffic-heavy Cambridge street lined with bodegas and split-level homes. No waiters—just a walk-up counter whose chalkboard menu reads like the Olive Garden’s. There’s a refrigerator stocked with Pepsi and Gatorade; a flat-screen TV hangs overhead. The name’s a little corny. And the owners aren’t even Italian. But with one bite of homemade fusilli, none of this could matter less. MIT grad students, the Cambridge fire department, and Central Square denizens have been holding out on the rest of us—Basta Pasta is no ordinary red-sauce takeout. Order well, and the dishes handed over the counter will be phenomenal....
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The Simple Dollar Money management blog The Simple Dollar shows you how easy it is to make bulk breakfast burritos filled with beans, eggs, and salsa that are cheap and fairly healthy. In about an hour you can make 32 burritos for $0.72 each. Freeze them until needed, at which point you can easily microwave them back to life. [via Lifehacker]...
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Because plastic trays and buffet lines do have a curious romantic quality, take your sugarbuns to Ikea. Updated: At select U.S. stores from 5:30 to 8 p.m., couples can feed each other "Salmon Wellington, divine rice pilaf and some Sweetie-Baby carrots with Cha-Cha-chive sauce" plus a free bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling cider for $19.90. At Canadian outlets after 3 p.m., the deal includes "steak, mushrooms, mashed potatoes, and sautéed onions topped with a brandy peppercorn sauce," finished off with a piece of cake for $19.98....
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Quinoa, an inexpensive and versatile pantry item. Sometimes we need to rely on what's in the pantry when produce isn't looking too swell or when the market on the corner has shut down for the evening. SFGate continues their Kitchen Essentials series with 10 versatile pantry items, including mirin, dark chocolate, fish sauce, quinoa, salted capers, chipotle peppers in adobo, garbanzo beans, high-quality honey, whole-grain mustard, and fancy tuna in olive oil. The thrifty shopper in me would love to add red lentils and Israeli couscous; both can adapt to many recipes, yet are never boring. While most of you might not have every item on the list, there are plenty of substitutions, and none of the ingredients are...
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