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msecondo

AHT Giveaway: Case of Pat LaFrieda Burgers

All you can grill on my balcony.

AHT Giveaway: Case of Pat LaFrieda Burgers

Wet bun, over cooked patty

Pork Blood Popsicles?

Soylent Green

Premium White Rum

I tell friends when they go abroad that they have to pick up for my birthday real Cuban Havana Club 3 Años at the Duty-free shop in whatever country they are visiting. Hey, it worked once. I still have (some of) the bottle in my liquor cabinet.

Subliminal advertising...or what?

Dude, you sound like you're about to tell some whipperspapper to get off your lawn . The "Schweddy Balls" SNL skit is from 1998. In 2011, Ben and Jerry even introduced an ice cream flavor called "Schweddy Balls." Innuendo about food in ball shape being "naughty" is so last century.

www.hulu.com/watch/4156

AHT Giveaway: Case of Pat LaFrieda Burgers

I've had too many "best" burgers to describe just one.

Homemade Pop Tarts

Michael Simon made strawberry as well as nutella pop tarts on The Chew. He used pie dough.

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/Toaster-Tarts-Michael-Symon

Fried Fish ideas

Baja style fish tacos. Dip the fish in a seasoned flour, corn starch, beer batter, shallow fry them in a skillet. Two corn tortillas, shredded cabbage, blend sour cream, scallions, cilantro, roasted jalapeno, lime juice, salt and pepper. Add your choice of hot sauce. Awesomeness. I'm having two tonight.

It's time to open up a pizzeria!

There are couple of small regional chain pizzerias already called "Mangino's"

This Week at Serious Eats World Headquarters

I prefer last week's "Serious Doggies" to the week's "Serious Furries."

Cook the Book: 'The New Persian Kitchen'

Za'atar, tahini, harissa, preserved lemons, rose water, pomegranate molasses, sumac, aleppo pepper, all have a permanent place in my pantry.

Skillet Suppers: Pesto Pasta with Shrimp and Pine Nuts

Awesome response. Kenji. Thanks for taking the time.:)

Skillet Pesto Pasta with Shrimp and Pine Nuts

This recipe just brings up so many questions.

Why break the linguini in half?
Do I really want to toast pine nuts over high heat? Won’t some burn and while other remain barely toasted? Why not medium high?
Why am I using only one 12 in skillet for three different processes? Is that the only pot I own? If I am trying to not wash too many dishes why did I dirty two bowls?
If I use more that one pan won't this recipe take less time?
Why am I cooking pasta in a skillet? Will I have a cup of pasta water left over? Why am I putting olive oil on the cooked pasta?
Why cook the pasta before you make the sauce, since it takes 8 minutes to boil the pasta and 7 minutes to make the sauce?
Will it really take four minutes to cook the shrimp? Won’t the shrimp overcook?
Do I add parmesan to the pesto or leave it out?
Why buy pesto, if you have basil and pine nuts on hand?
How can you not have enough time to make homemade pesto? Can’t you make it like two minutes in food processor?
I put salt in the pasta water, salt in the pesto, salt and pepper on the tomatoes, salt and pepper on the shrimp, why do I have to add salt and pepper at the end?
When I add the pesto to the pan, is it still over medium high heat?

Skillet Suppers: Pesto Pasta with Shrimp and Pine Nuts

This recipe just brings up so many questions.

Why break the linguini in half?
Do I really want to toast pine nuts over high heat? Won’t some burn and while other remain barely toasted? Why not medium high?
Why am I using only one 12 in skillet for three different processes? Is that the only pot I own? If I am trying to not wash too many dishes why did I dirty two bowls?
If I use more that one pan won't this recipe take less time?
Why am I cooking pasta in a skillet? Will I have a cup of pasta water left over? Why am I putting olive oil on the cooked pasta?
Why cook the pasta before you make the sauce, since it takes 8 minutes to boil the pasta and 7 minutes to make the sauce?
Will it really take four minutes to cook the shrimp? Won’t the shrimp overcook?
Do I add parmesan to the pesto or leave it out?
Why buy pesto, if you have basil and pine nuts on hand?
How can you not have enough time to make homemade pesto? Can’t you make it like two minutes in food processor?
I put salt in the pasta water, salt in the pesto, salt and pepper on the tomatoes, salt and pepper on the shrimp, why do I have to add salt and pepper at the end?
When I add the pesto to the pan, is it still over medium high heat?

Bake the Book: Old School Comfort Food: The Way I Learned To Cook

Pasta with tomato sauce

growing veggies without a garden

Join a community garden. Generally, you are allotted a small space where you can grow some vegetables. If you get to know your neighbors, you can swap veggies if you grow more than you can use of some item.

growing veggies without a garden

In the distant past, I've grown ... ahem ... "vegetables" in an apartment. But the simple fact is unless you have a glass ceiling, there is not enough light in an apartment to successfully grow vegetables and certainly not fruit. Successful indoor grown operations require lots and lots of time-regulated high color temperature artificial light.

growing veggies without a garden

In the distant past, I've grown ... ahem ... "vegetables" in an apartment. But the simple fact is unless you have a glass ceiling, there is not have enough light in an apartment to successfully grow vegetables and certainly not fruit. Successful indoor grown operations require lots and lots of time-regulated high color temperature artificial light.

Would you do it?

Ok, the place I was thinking of isn't a gas station and it was on triple D (of which I've seen a whole three episodes). It is basically a truck stop in Baker CA, The Mad Greek cafe.

Would you do it?

There was a Food Network program that featured an apparently iconic Greek owned gas station with a similar menu. I don't think the program was triple D. I think the gas station/restaurant was located in either CA or NV. So why not try it. What do you have to lose? Besides your lunch.

You could always look it up on yelp.

Blueberries and apple in a pie

I love both pies and my mother made them frequently at the same time when they were in season. I vote you make two pies. Or how about one half apple and one half blueberries.

Fresh Morels in NYC?

Mario was cooking with a big pile of fresh morels on The Chew today. He said they were the first of the season. So I second Kenji.

Over the river and through the woods... How'd you get here?

No, I do not. I scrolled through my comments back to 01/07. But nothing jogs my memory. And I know I was a lurker log before that. I thought it was of Gina Depalma's recipes but her old column began in 2008. I might have been one of Ed's columns.

Cook the Book: 'Vegetable Literacy' by Deborah Madison

Greens sauteed in garlic and olive oil

Smoked Pork Butt- Urgent Question

I should add the internal temp for pulled pork is not the guideline. Fork tender is. And that can only be achieved by "low and slow' cooking. So by all means turn your oven down and and let it go all night.

Dried Porcini Powder! What can't you put it into?

I buy dried Italian Porcinis in large $35.00 bags and I can't use them often enough. So I grind a few ounces at a time in my spice grinder and seriously I have not found one thing that a judicious amount of powder doesn't make more delicious.
Breakfast cereal with milk: Check.
Orange ice cream, or any ice cream: Check.
Any egg, pasta, pan sauce, stir-fry: Check.
Baked dessert: Check.
Bloody Mary, Irish coffee, Fernet Branca, hot chocolate, wine spritzer: Check.
Cerviche: Check.
Any soup: Check.
Chile, any stew: fugetaboutit
I challenge you Serious Eaters to name one dish that Porcini powder wouldn't be tasty in.

Take Jonathan Gold's egg quiz aka Kenji gets around

In today's quiz in the LA Times, Jonathan Gold references Kenji's post on SE about getting a real egg from McDonald's. After Kenji's book comes out, it will just be matter of time before we will be seeing him on Top Chef and countless Food Network programs. He will be the new Francis Lam. NTTAWWT

Here is the link to the quiz.

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/dailydish/la-jonathan-gold-quiz-easter-dto,0,3598012.story

What is the most expensive/least used tool in your kitchen?

What is the most expensive tool in your kitchen that you have only used once (or maybe never!). I live in an apartment, so I don't have unlimited space. I don't own a full-sized food processor or a microwave oven. I do own a Kitchen-aid stand mixer and more knives than I need including the "X50" cleaver used by Mario Batali on Iron Chef. (It is really a SG175 Sanelli 112628 Premana Professional 11 Inch Heavy Knife--"Now, that's a knife" as Crocodile Dundee once said.) But while expensive, I have used these items more than once.
But I have only used my Matfer Mandoline 2000 Pro once, which makes it dollar per use the most expensive tool in my kitchen. Now what is your (relatively speaking) white elephant?

How long can you keep reusing pasta water?

I know that you can make multiple batches of pasta in the same water and because of the starch the pasta and sauces it gets added to become better and better. But can I save it from day to day? Can I let a pot of water cool down refrigerate or freeze it and use it again. How long can I save it and reuse it. Or is one night of use the limit?

TV chef's. How have they inspired you?

I'm old. I'm really old. I'm pre-food blogging, Top Chef old. I'm pre-Iron chef, Emeril old. I go way back. I'm pre-Food Network, basic cable old. I'm PBS old. I watched first-run Julia. (Well, my mother did. I was 4.) I watched Julia, Graham Kerr, Jeff Smith, Martin Yan-on purpose-for entertainment as an child, adolescent and young adult. They without a doubt inspired me to appreciate food and learn how to cook. Because of them I started reading cookbooks and checked issues Gourmet out of the town library. (Okay, as an aside, I will admit the additional motivation that being a young guy in the early '80's who knew how to cook went a long way with the ladies.) I'm a first generation TV cooking show baby. My Italian father and grandmother planted the cooking seed, but it was nurtured by TV chefs. I'm still addicted to them. My DVR has stored the last 3 years of Lidia's Italy and every day I come home and watch a night's worth of cooking programming. So do you owe some of your love for cooking to TV chefs? Who have you been and are still inspired by?

Has your pantry salt changed?

Mine has. Like most Americans, my first salt was the one with the girl with the umbrella. After reading enough cook books and watching enough cooking shows, I switched kosher salt. I began to realize that different salts taste different and can help to define what makes the food you cook taste delicious and specific to you. I started to experiment with sea salts that were easy to find: standard supermarket sea salt, usually from France or Spain, Hawaiian pink salt, Maldon sea salt. From there, I moved to online salts like Fleur de Sel and grey salt. While, I still keep some grey salt and Fleur de Sel for specific recipes, my current pantry salt is Sicilian sea salt from Trapani. I get 1000g for $2.80 at a local Italian grocery and buy 3 boxes at a time. I use it for everything from pasta water to seasoning steaks to a finishing salt. I find it reflects my Italian-American heritage and taste in cooking. So what is your salt story?

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