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From Serious Eats

Ed Levine's Caloric Journey, Week 163: Granola is Delicious, But So, So Evil

Granola is so easy to make! I really like this recipe from Ellie Krieger:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/nutty-granola-recipe/index.html

It has NO oil in it, and uses maple syrup instead of sugars. It's less sweet than most granolas, but I find it delicious.

From Serious Eats

Spice Hunting: Cinnamon

Any suggestions on taste testing the different cinnamons to figure out what one likes? Penzeys offers FIVE different kinds. I bought small containers of each. But I have a hard time trying to figure out which ones are good for what, or which ones I like best. If it were just based on the wonderful aroma, it would be their Vietnamese cinnamon. (Which was the one that America's Test Kitchen chose - but warns that you should only use - is it 2/3? - of what the recipe originally calls for.)

From Serious Eats

Equipment: The 7 Most Essential Pots and Pans

Re: Calphalon non-stick - the Calphalon you buy at Wal-Mart and Target is their low end line. If that's what you have, don't compare it to the stuff they sell at places like Bed, Bath, and Beyond. As for non-stick, I've been VERY happy with my 8" Emerilware skillet. It's made by All-Clad, but in China as opposed to US like their own name items are made. If you can't afford the All-Clad pan here, the base Emerilware products are a good buy!

Kenji - perhaps you can answer some questions I have about enameled cast iron dutch ovens. (1) Straub cocottes have a dark interior - does this cause no-knead bread to bake/brown quicker? (2) The Lodge dutch oven in your article (which is $50 when ordered from Amazon, not $72+) vs the L Series - besides the obvious aestethics and $50, what are the differences? More layers of enamel? I tried posting the question on Lodge's FB page, but they told me that one is enameled and one is not...uh...

And to someone who mentioned Batali's enameled dutch ovens, they are still available from Crate and Barrel.

From Serious Eats

Video: French Bulldog Eating

Looks more like a Boston Terrier than a French Bulldog - or he's got a lot of growing to do! French Bulldogs tend to look like footstools with heads. :) This one's got skinny legs for a FB.

See more comments by cara_mia »

Recent Posts

From Talk

Is there a bigger food-Mecca city than NYC?

See more posts by cara_mia »

Recent Favorites

From Serious Eats

17 Lobster Rolls We Love in the Northeast

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Recent Polls

From Serious Eats: New York

cara_mia answered "I prefer well-prepared coffee, but won't pay more for it." to How Picky Are You About Coffee?

From Serious Eats

cara_mia answered "Aimee Schiwal's Area 51 pie" to Vote For Your Favorite Pi Day Bake-Off Pie

From Serious Eats

cara_mia answered "Chicken Pot Pie" to What's Your Favorite Kind of Savory Pie?

From Serious Eats

cara_mia answered "Trader Joe's" to What's Your Favorite Grocery Chain?

Recent Quizzes

From Serious Eats

cara_mia got 75% correct on How Much Do You Know About Regional Sandwiches?

From Serious Eats

cara_mia got 62% correct on How Much Do You Know About Irish Food?

From Serious Eats

cara_mia got 75% correct on How Much Do You Know About Cheese?

From Serious Eats

cara_mia got 0% correct on Pop Quiz: Breakfast Cereal Trivia

See more polls and quizzes by cara_mia »

Recent Comments

From Serious Eats

Ed Levine's Caloric Journey, Week 163: Granola is Delicious, But So, So Evil

Granola is so easy to make! I really like this recipe from Ellie Krieger:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/nutty-granola-recipe/index.html

It has NO oil in it, and uses maple syrup instead of sugars. It's less sweet than most granolas, but I find it delicious.

From Serious Eats

Spice Hunting: Cinnamon

Any suggestions on taste testing the different cinnamons to figure out what one likes? Penzeys offers FIVE different kinds. I bought small containers of each. But I have a hard time trying to figure out which ones are good for what, or which ones I like best. If it were just based on the wonderful aroma, it would be their Vietnamese cinnamon. (Which was the one that America's Test Kitchen chose - but warns that you should only use - is it 2/3? - of what the recipe originally calls for.)

From Serious Eats

Equipment: The 7 Most Essential Pots and Pans

Re: Calphalon non-stick - the Calphalon you buy at Wal-Mart and Target is their low end line. If that's what you have, don't compare it to the stuff they sell at places like Bed, Bath, and Beyond. As for non-stick, I've been VERY happy with my 8" Emerilware skillet. It's made by All-Clad, but in China as opposed to US like their own name items are made. If you can't afford the All-Clad pan here, the base Emerilware products are a good buy!

Kenji - perhaps you can answer some questions I have about enameled cast iron dutch ovens. (1) Straub cocottes have a dark interior - does this cause no-knead bread to bake/brown quicker? (2) The Lodge dutch oven in your article (which is $50 when ordered from Amazon, not $72+) vs the L Series - besides the obvious aestethics and $50, what are the differences? More layers of enamel? I tried posting the question on Lodge's FB page, but they told me that one is enameled and one is not...uh...

And to someone who mentioned Batali's enameled dutch ovens, they are still available from Crate and Barrel.

From Serious Eats

Video: French Bulldog Eating

Looks more like a Boston Terrier than a French Bulldog - or he's got a lot of growing to do! French Bulldogs tend to look like footstools with heads. :) This one's got skinny legs for a FB.

From Talk

Is there a bigger food-Mecca city than NYC?

As a side note: we'll ignore the fact that NYers think that a good cupcake can be found at places like Magnolia Bakery. (Sorry, Serious Eats staff, but you can make a cupcake just as good from the pound cake doctor-it-up recipe on the side of a box of Duncan Hines. Try the LCD cake from Warren Brown's Cake Love in cupcake form sometime.)

From Talk

Is there a bigger food-Mecca city than NYC?

I think "sheer diversity in terms of different genres" or "unique amalgamation of multiple cuisines " pretty much sums up why I see NYC as a food-Mecca. I mean, what kind of food CAN'T you find in NYC? Some cities have a better X kind of food (I'm sure you can get better beignets etc. in New Orleans, but you can find beignets in NYC), but what cities have as many different types?

"I do think that wherever you live can be a food mecca if you take the time to get to know the area, seek out small ethnic shops, try new restaurants and experiment." I live in Albany, we're a food-Mecca for... Yeah, we got nothing.

From Serious Eats

Gadgets: Mechanical Piping Bag from Williams Sonoma

To have an easier time piping, loosen up your icing with a little milk, and use tips with bigger holes. They are much easier to pipe through. After you've been doing it for a while, you'll get the hang of it and will be able use smaller and smaller tips as you gain skills.

From Serious Eats

Video: Sandra Lee's Hanukkah Cake

I wonder if she'll make this for Jewish guests in the Governor's mansion.

From Serious Eats

Taste Test: Wendy's New Fries

I tried them last week, and I thought they were a vast improvement over the old fries. The last version was actually an improvement over the even limper ones they used to have.

Of course, I tried them after spending 12 hours on Southwest airplanes with nothing to eat other than Ritz bits, airplane crackers, and peanuts, so my standards might have been pretty low at that moment. And it was 10:30 at night in a fairly business park (rather than residential) area, so we had to wait at the pickup window while they made the fries.

They were nice and crisp! (My biggest complaint about the old ones was the limpness.) Not as crisp as In N Out fries well done, but there are no In N Outs here in NY. And they're no Five Guys either. But when you've got a craving for Wendy's, the fries are now decent. I'm not really that into fries - I could totally skip McD's fries - but these were quite tasty! Hopefully it's not just because they got clean oil.

From Serious Eats

This Week in America's Test Kitchen: Which Premium Butters Are Worth the Premium Price Tag?

@seriousb Well, what do you want to know? First off, I suppose people are curious about how you get to participate. King Arthur Flour is one of my Facebook likes, and I saw their post in their news feed saying that CC was looking for volunteers to participate in the filming in VT, and it gave a contact email. I emailed the lady back and forth until she was able to fit me in the later slot. (They had 2 groups for the audience - one at 8 AM, which was way too early for me, since it was an hour and a half away!)

The audience groups are about 30 people. The seating area is chairs from the church across the street. If you have issues with "personal space", this is not something for you to participate in - we were packed in like sardines. The drive up there from the Albany, NY area was beautiful, since the leaves were changing and it was sunny and unseasonably warm (70's) the day of filming. This was not so great in the CC house, where there was no a/c. The house sometimes seems like it's by itself (not near other houses) when you watch the show, but it's in a small hamlet. They actually moved the house back from the road when they did the renovations, but it's still only about 10-20' from the edge.

Each group films 4 segments. This seemed odd, since they do 12 episodes, but you'll notice that not all episodes have a tasting segment - some have two equipment segments, some have long cooking segments. We were first given a tray with 3 different kinds of 4 different foods. Each food's choices were labeled 1, 2, or 3. We were given score sheets to pick which was liked best. They collected the sheets and tallied them up so that Jack could tell Chris if the studio audience was with him or not. The person we interacted with most was Jack Bishop. He's very personable, and answered all the questions we had about the show. He also talked about how the taste tests are done in the test kitchen - Jack goes with his gut instinct about which one he likes best, and there is a "Chris rule"...no one is allowed to make noises trying to influence which one others should vote for.

We were instructed to clap, and to laugh at Jack and Chris as it came naturally. An interesting thing we noticed during the filming - the people in the back kitchen who look like they're working on preparing other food are actually just pouring salt into measuring spoons and bowls and wrapping sheet pans in saran wrap - it's all for show! When they were done with all the retakes (Chris is human - he screws up just like the rest of us), having us clap for a while to get the sound recorded, etc., the producers thanked the crew for the season - we were the last segments to be filmed. The crew/staff all work in Boston/Cambridge, but come up to VT for 2 weeks a year to film. We were able to take pictures behind the counter that they do all of the cooking and taste tests on, and one of the cameramen helped people get good shots by directing them where to stand and how to adjust their cameras. (He was awesome!) Chris also came back out, with his bow tie undone, and took pictures with people.

It's not a bad drive from western MA or eastern NY, as well as anywhere in VT. But people were there from Arizona, as well as one lady who was there from Wales!

From Serious Eats

This Week in America's Test Kitchen: Which Premium Butters Are Worth the Premium Price Tag?

In September, I went to be part of the "studio audience" for Cook's Country. And contrary to all the people who write in complaining that the view out the windows on the show look too fake, they are in fact real - the house exists, and it exists in the middle of friggin nowhere VT. The episodes I participated in won't be aired until next fall. It was a lot of fun, though.

Did I agree with the rest of the studio audience? Not much. Did I agree with Chris? Sometimes. Did I agree with the test kitchen? Sometimes.

It's more interesting to read the descriptions of the items in the magazine - sometimes what you like in a product is what they didn't like. It's fun to read, but most useful when they're reviewing something like cinnamon, which I don't go through fast enough to try a bunch of different ones. (And Penzey's sells 5 different kinds of cinnamons!)

From Serious Eats

Taste Test: Store-Bought Turkey Gravy

What about the packet kind? I grew up on them (using the drippings instead of water) and can't find a gravy recipe that tastes anything like that. If I make homemade gravy for my family, there will be mutiny!

From Slice

The Pizza Lab: Bringing New York Style Pizza Sauce Home

@gore-may - Slices are part of a pedestrian culture. (In the literal sense.) They work in urban areas, particularly in downtowns, where people walk to get something for lunch, or after hitting the bars. I would imagine that slices work in the same types of places that food trucks and carts do.

Slices aren't really something you can pick up from a drive through and eat while driving. The people in NYC who eat pizza the most don't have cars, they have a subway card and 2 feet. That's why it works so well there. Unlike how Sex & The City likes to show city dwellers, the average person isn't taking cabs everywhere, and they don't wear those Manolo Blahniks to walk more than a block or two.

That first picture really makes me crave a good slice. I'm definitely hitting up the most authentic NYC-style pizza place near work this week! I just have to remember that the slices are so big that I only need one.

From Serious Eats

Gadgets: Cabinet Mount Trash Can by SimpleHuman

This type of garbage can is nothing new. I've had a "Rack Sack" for years. Unfortunately, shortly after I bought mine, Rack Sack was disappointed that they did not have any repeat business, so they re-engineered to only fit the bags that they themselves sell, not the grocery store bags. (Other people saw my garbage can and wanted one, but I found out about the re-engineering instead of finding the garbage cans.) It's a great concept - I'm glad that Simple Human has a version out.

Who cares if it's hideous. It's under your cabinet. Unlike one of the standard Rubbermaid cans that are out in the open - which are so beautiful. If you've got $100 to spend on a pretty garbage cans, there are companies that will gladly take your money.

From Talk

a Trader Joe's Disappointment

We don't have a TJ's in Albany, but I stop at them whenever I can. (I travel for work, about 2 weeks per month, and am often near one.) I stock up on sweet potato chips, olive oil, dried fruits, nuts, and natural nut butters for a fraction of the cost at home. And sunflower butter! I've never seen it anywhere else. (BTW - We have Wal-Mart, Price Chopper, and Hannaford. No Whole Foods nor even a Wegman's.)

Also, the ingredients lists on the packaged foods read like a pantry shelf, not a chemistry lab.

From Serious Eats: New York

Soft-Serve Ice Cream Stands in Upstate New York

@jennlevy - Freihoffer's is originally from Troy, NY, so, yeah, you can get them in Albany. It's owned by a national company now, though. Might be the same company that owns Entemann's.

From Serious Eats: New York

Soft-Serve Ice Cream Stands in Upstate New York

I commend you for really being upstate! (Well, to someone from the Albany area, it's upstate. Someone from Plattsburgh or Potsdam would disagree.) The big place in Albany is Guptill's Coney Express in Latham, NY. I'm not sure what brand of hard ice cream they sell, but I know they are the supplier's biggest customer in the northeast.

From Sweets

Taste Test: The Best Chocolate Chips for Chocolate Chip Cookies

Where the heck are you buying your Ghirardelli chocolate chips? Those are expensive! They're under $3 a bag here - and you can find them at Super Wally World for less, if you're willing to shop there. I don't care for milk chocolate, so my favorite chips for everything are Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet.

From A Hamburger Today

The Burger Lab: In Search of the Best American Cheese

Anything that must be unwrapped slice by slice should be labeled as cheese product. Boar's Head, Dietz & Watson, or Land 'o Lakes deli white American - especially for polenta. (D&W and LOL are made by the same company, but D&W is better IMO.)

But my favorite for grilled cheese is Cabot sliced cheddar, which comes in packages of 8 with deli paper in between each slice, for those of us lucky northeasterners.

From Serious Eats

Taste Test: Hot Dogs

Oh, the poor people who can't get Sabretts! :(

I don't think you'll ever be able to convince Sabretts lovers that there's another good hot dog out there. Even the ones, like me, who put them in New England style hot dog buns (oh, the blasphemy!). ;)

From Serious Eats: New York

A Lasagna Showdown: Sandra Lee vs. Matilda Cuomo

I was shocked when I found out that Sandra Lee was Andrew Cuomo's girlfriend. I have read the intro to Urban Italian, in which Andrew Carmellini, then a CIA student, talks about being schooled by Mario Cuomo's mother (Andrew Cuomo's grandmother) when he was cooking dinner at the governor's mansion in Albany in the 80's. If a CIA student couldn't cook an Italian dinner good enough for the Cuomos, how the heck could Sandra Lee be cooking acceptable anything? Way to go, Matilda!!!

From Sweets

Mixed Review: Black & White Cookies

The frosting is like the "half moons" of upstate NY, rather than the b&w's of NYC. So, authenticity depends on what part of NY you're from! Since I grew up in upstate, the frosting looks perfect!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_white_cookie

From Slice

Are Some Naples Pizzerias Using Wood from Coffins to Bake Pizzas?

It should be noted that Italians generally don't embalm their dead, so it's not like they're burning formaldyhyde infused wood.

From Serious Eats: New York

This Weekend in 'New York Times' Food News

Re: Andrew Cuomo and Sandra Lee
Based on Andrew Carmellini's intro to Urban Italian, I'm surprised that the Cuomo family would accept Sandra's half-assed cooking!

See more comments by cara_mia »

Recent Posts

From Talk

Is there a bigger food-Mecca city than NYC?

See more posts by cara_mia »

Recent Favorites

From Serious Eats

17 Lobster Rolls We Love in the Northeast

See more favorites by cara_mia »

Polls

From Serious Eats: New York

cara_mia answered "I prefer well-prepared coffee, but won't pay more for it." to How Picky Are You About Coffee?

From Serious Eats

cara_mia answered "Aimee Schiwal's Area 51 pie" to Vote For Your Favorite Pi Day Bake-Off Pie

From Serious Eats

cara_mia answered "Chicken Pot Pie" to What's Your Favorite Kind of Savory Pie?

From Serious Eats

cara_mia answered "Trader Joe's" to What's Your Favorite Grocery Chain?

From Slice

cara_mia answered "One slice" to How many slices in a pizza lunch?

See more polls by cara_mia »

Quizzes

From Serious Eats

cara_mia got 75% correct on How Much Do You Know About Regional Sandwiches?

From Serious Eats

cara_mia got 62% correct on How Much Do You Know About Irish Food?

From Serious Eats

cara_mia got 75% correct on How Much Do You Know About Cheese?

From Serious Eats

cara_mia got 0% correct on Pop Quiz: Breakfast Cereal Trivia

From Serious Eats

cara_mia got 33% correct on How Much Do You Know About Condiments?

From Serious Eats

cara_mia got 77% correct on How Much Do You Know About Chocolate?

See more quizzes by cara_mia »

About cara_mia

Website:

Location: Schenectady, NY

About: I'm Italian, but I don't really care for pasta too much.

Favorite foods: Chocolate

Last bite on earth: