Serious Eats: cptmoll's Profile

From Sweets

Win the Valentine's Day Collection from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

Cherry, definitely.

cptmoll at 10:32PM on 02/06/12

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Heirloom Tomato'

My favorite way is simple but classics: tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, salt, and Basalmic on a fresh made mini-baguette.

cptmoll at 12:11PM on 08/18/10

From Serious Eats

Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 123: Why Does Making a Salad Seem So Hard Sometimes?

Oh, and yes! adding fruit (strawberries, grapes, etc) does really make a salad more appealing too.

cptmoll at 3:43PM on 06/11/10

From Serious Eats

Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 123: Why Does Making a Salad Seem So Hard Sometimes?

Wow this may be the best comments section I've ever read on the internet, period. So many great ideas.

This has already been said, but the best way I've found to make "salads" more appealing is to:
1. Make them hot (by quick sauteeing), and add things like spices, herbs, and a grain and/or bean. I'm big on quiona, but I also love popping canned navy beans into a salad. This makes me feel fuller.
OR
2. Keep a bunch of non-perishable add-ins around the house: dried fruit (I like cranberries or cherries), nuts of all sorts, artichoke hearts, hard cheese, capers, anchovies, whatever. Then making your salad is more fun--kind of like those coldstone-type ice cream joints where you make your own combos.

cptmoll at 3:42PM on 06/11/10

From Serious Eats

The Crisper Whisperer: 10 Secrets for Making the Most of Your CSA

Thanks for this post! I took the dive into my first CSA this year. I am splitting a half share with a friend. Hopefully, since we're splitting it, we won't have TOO much abundance, but it's good to be prepared!

cptmoll at 12:51PM on 05/13/10

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Vegetarian Option'

I love to eat vegetarian a few nights a week. My favorite veggie recipe is curried quinoa with carrots, chickpeas, and dried cranberries.

cptmoll at 11:33PM on 05/03/10

From Serious Eats

Poll: Are You Joining a CSA This Year?

I'm a also a single person, but i went in with a coworker this year to do one of Simply Wisconsin's half shares. (One box every other week.) Simply WI seems great because it's like a co op of lots of different farms. I'm excited about trying this out! We also got a share of a dozen eggs every other week. yum.

cptmoll at 3:26PM on 04/21/10

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Art of Eating In'

Saving money and knowing EXACTLY what's in my food!

cptmoll at 1:35PM on 02/24/10

From Sweets

Technique of the Week: How to Cream Butter and Sugar

Hmm, I never realized that this wasn't one of those things that people knew how to do. I guess if you spent a lot of time in the kitchen as a kid, you just always saw how it looked. People always say that my regular Tollhouse cookies aren't the same as theirs when they use the same recipe. I never knew how to explain it. I will point them here.

cptmoll at 1:52PM on 02/02/10

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion'

Definitely the Tollhouse chocolate chip recipe.

cptmoll at 1:38PM on 12/10/09

From Serious Eats

'Are You a Menu Whisperer?': Take 2

I think I have this skill, but only at restuarants in America. I recently discovered that it wasn't so useful abroad...

Anyhow, people have asked me before, and mostly, I don't have any great answers, but I do have only one rule: if there's a dish named after the place, get it. Even if it's chicken. It will be awesome.

cptmoll at 1:28PM on 09/17/09

From Chicago

Great Lake Is Great Shakes: The Windy City Finally Has Great Pizza to Call Its Own

Is it a crime that I've lived down the street from this place for a year and haven't tried it yet? Need to get to that. Maybe I will wait for the cooler weather to try a sauce-based pizza.

I think that most Chicagoans are simply reacting to Ed's comments because we tend to hear that sort of thing all the time from east coasters. Personally, I never ever mention that I'm going to/am eating/will eat pizza to whole huge swaths of people (friends, coworkers, all sorts) because an east coast native will INEVITABLY, every single time he/she hears the word "pizza," say "ew, Chicago pizza sux. New York pizza is so much better." And after hearing that every single time Chicagoans mention the word "pizza," they tend to get defensive. And I do agree that sometimes it just seems antagonistic so many people feel the need to constantly disparage an entire city's type of a single food.

cptmoll at 2:47PM on 09/03/09

From Chicago

Meeting Barack Obama's Nemesis: The Dixie Kitchen/Calypso Café Johnnycake

I was also going to add that the Evanston Dixie Kitchen is still open and serving complimentary johnnycakes....good lunch specials.

cptmoll at 5:12PM on 08/17/09

From Serious Eats

My Week Without Corn

WOW! Great going. I did this once after I read the Omnivore's dilemna a couple of years ago, and as you did, I found that I was magically eating freasher, healthier, and better! I've kept a lot of those principles in my eating today, with the exception that I can eat whole corn now. Actual, whole kernel/on the cob/chopped up corn. Or on-prupose as KarynMC said--as long as the point is to eat corn, then I eat it. And it is way better now.

cptmoll at 12:21PM on 07/24/09

From Serious Eats