Hitting the pause button for awhile
Posted on: July 10, 2010
Dear Internet,
I’ve been underemployed for awhile now. Recently, however, I had the fortune (I think, at least) to go from being underemployed to being overemployed. At the moment, I’m working 40 hours a week for Job A, then coming home and doing work for Job B on the weekends and evenings. Occasionally Job C will raise it’s stressful head and have work for me as well. All of this is good for the wallet, but bad for free time.
In an ideal world, I would update this blog every 2-3 days. Realistically, I update it about twice a week. Lately, however, even once a week is a struggle. I’ve got too many things going on at the moment, so I’m hitting the pause button and taking a brief sabbatical from blogging until one of my jobs goes away. I’m anticipating a few weeks for this, but it could be less or more then that. In any case, I’m gone for a bit, but will definitely be back (I’ve got a backlog of sushi pictures to guarantee it). There may or may not be a guest blog post or two to tide you over, assuming I can convince certain interested parties to do so, but we shall see.
Anyhow, here’s a delicious (and highly recommended) bag of chips for your troubles:
Be back soon!
-me
Hot Dogs Are Awesome
Posted on: July 3, 2010
Free hot dogs are even better. A few weeks back, we had the fortune to attend Arvada Trails Day, whereupon we walked around in two parks and saw various booths, got a free tote bag, shot a few animals in a hunting simulator, and saw some raptors (of the bird kind, not the dinosaur kind) (though I might argue that they’re the same thing, but that is a discussion for a non-food blog). And, there were the hot dogs. At both parks there were free hot dogs. So we dogged it up at the first park, looked at the exhibits, then headed over to the second park where we dogged it up some more. I was pretty full by this point, but who can say “no” to free?
As we were leaving Park #2, we saw a momentous pile of hot dogs still sitting there and decided to grab a few for the road as well. I saved mine for a different day, but Drew was not so strong, and for dinner had hot dog #3. The sad thing is that this came not long after we decided to cut back on the processed meats, as they’re kinda bad for you and all. But alas, that whole “free” thing.
On another note, you know what baffles me? The gendering of food preparation, specifically grilling. Everyone operating the grills and flipping the dogs and such at this event was male. It was being run by the local fire department and all (which seems to attract mostly males), but it made me think about how weird it is that at most cookout events, the grill is usually operated by males. And cookout/grilling products are generally marketed to males as well, for that matter. Is there just something manlier about cooking outside versus inside? I’d say maybe it’s that whole “fire” thing, but there are plenty of gas stoves in kitchens. Or it’s more of a mechanical process, since you have to start a fire and all, and there’s this idea then men are more mechanically minded. But as for that, you either have a gas grill where you turn a knob and the fire magically appears, or you go buy a bag of charcoal, dump on the lighter fluid, and light away. I don’t really get it.
In any case, I think grilling is awesome, that everyone should do it, and I can’t wait to actually own a yard to put a grill in. Also, hot dogs are delicious and will make my arteries explode if I keep stuffing my face with free hot dogs. And on a related note, Happy 4th of July!
A Nice Healthy Fruit Salad, Chock Full of Marshmallow and Chocolate
Posted on: June 24, 2010
First off, sorry for the two weeks of not posting, I’d intended to post while on vacation, but the Atlantic Ocean got the better of me. Anyhow, here’s to a higher posting frequency in the future!
I have always held the opinion that a fruit salad just isn’t a proper fruit salad without chocolate. I didn’t realize that this was a bizarre opinion to hold until I was an adult and had fruit salad conversations with people (since fruit salad is such an adult topic and all). See, I ate fruit salad on a very regular basis growing up, and my family’s fruit salad recipe involved both marshmallows and chocolate chips. Incidentally, it is also very tasty, and I recommend it.
These are the ingredients (using a fairly equal amount of each) I used in this particular instance of salad (listed from bottom of the bowl to top of the bowl when adding in layers):
Apple
Orange
Pineapple
Strawberries
Banana
Marshmallows
Chocolate Chips
There’s a certain order to putting in ingredients – the apple goes on the bottom as it browns quickly. Having the citrus on top of the apple will aid in holding off the browning as long as possible. I believe that’s also the reason for the marshmallows and chocolate chips on top – they form a protective layer over the fruit. The idea is to wait until right before you serve it to mix up the salad.
Ideally, I would have put blueberries in this, but I was feeling poor. Cherries would work as well, and I bet mango would be tasty, too. And most other fruits, for that matter (though durian is debatable). I use this sort of as an “I want to make something interesting and have random fruit lying around” kind of recipe.
Here’s a super tasty closeup!
This could also be an efficient way of feeding kids who dislike fruit and like chocolate. Though, that could backfire and the kid will want chocolate in everything from then on. Then again, are there actually kids out there who don’t like fruit? Seems vegetables are more the culprit of yuck amongst kids. And while I really don’t recommend adding chocolate chips to broccoli or peas & carrots, I suppose I shouldn’t knock it ’till I’ve tried it?
My unending search for good marzipan
Posted on: June 10, 2010
I have a bit of marzipan obsession. Not the weird marzipan that gets shaped into fruits, I’m talking about super awesome European marzipan that is coated in chocolate. Ok, I’m not actually sure I’ve ever tried the fruit-shaped marzipan, to be honest. I’m just intimidated by eating fruit that isn’t fruit! In any case, for most of the marzipan-obsessed period of my life, I’ve eaten these things:
Mozart chocolates, also called mozartkugel. They’re quite tasty! Marzipan plus chocolate is an excellent combination. I would get them from the Lindt chocolate store, in a shopping mall about 20 minutes away from where I lived, quite convenient. Then the store shut down. At this point I could go to the gourmet chocolate shop in Carytown, For The Love of Chocolate, and pay a bit too much for these balls, or head out to Charlottesville or DC to one of the Lindt stores there.
Then I move to Denver, where there is not a single Lindt store to be found. It’s quite tragic, really. However, I found an excellent gourmet food and kitchen store in Boulder called Peppercorn, which indeed carried Mozart chocolates, along with an intriguing array of other chocolates. So, along with the usual Mozart chocolates, I picked up one of these babies:
That is an Anthon Berg marzipan bar, now officially known to me as a really good reason to visit Denmark someday. This specific bar is marzipan soaked in cognac, covered in dark chocolate. It is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. So, I recently found myself in Boulder, and knew I had to have another one. So I stopped by Peppercorn, but none were to be found. No Mozart chocolates either, for that matter. I asked a saleslady what the deal was, and it seems that there are certain things they only carry during the Christmas season. Alas, so unless I discover an alternate source, I’ll have to wait several more months to get my fix. So, rather then wallowing in marzipanless misery, I picked up two things that seemed like they might make good substitutes.
The top bar was a Mozart bar, so I had high hopes for it. However, it ended up being like the bastard lovechild of a Mozart chocolate and a 500 Grand bar. The inside was marzipan, but the outside was coated in crispy milk chocolate. It’s bizarre, in that I felt like the crispy chocolate was somehow cheapening the marzipan experience. And I really like 500 Grand bars too, but I’d rather not find marzipan in them. Mind you, I ate the entire bar and enjoyed it, but it had an unfortunate dissonance to it.
I was clueless as to what the bottom chocolate was, except that it was sitting by the Mozart bar. Turned out to be a chocolate covered cherry. Which was good, but wasn’t hitting the spot that needed hitting, unfortunately. Alas, I might just have to try making my own marzipan chocolates one of these days!
Incidentally, I’m going out of town for about two weeks soon, which may or may not involve posts during that time!
Coctel de Camarones: Both Delicious and Shrimptastic
Posted on: June 1, 2010
Coctel de camarones is Spanish for “shrimp cocktail”, but it’s quite different than shrimp cocktail. The English-speaking version of shrimp cocktail generally involves giant shrimp which are dipped into a red cocktail sauce – delicious, but primarily an appetizer. Coctel de camarones, however, is a cold soup filled with vegetables and shrimp, sort of like a Mexican gazpacho with shrimp added. I get it in Mexican restaurants on a regular basis now, and as it’s a seafood dish, it’s often one of the more expensive things on the menu. Albeit, it’s still usually around $10, which is not too bad considering, but as I am both poor and cheap, I decided it was high time I learned how to make it myself.
I followed this recipe to make the coctel de camarones. One reason I liked this recipe is the lack of exact quantities of vegetables to add – if I want to add 3 times as much avocado as a recipe calls for (oh, and I will!), then I’m gonna do it, dang it! Anyhow, here’s the vegetables that I chopped into small pieces:
-three largish Roma tomatoes
-half an onion
-half a large cucumber
-a chunk of cilantro
-two avocados
Incidentally, I believe there is a vegetable conspiracy. There’s this current idea that, if you don’t make much money, you can’t afford to eat well. Or rather, vegetables cost too much for lower-income people to eat. I personally suspect that the cost of vegetables is artificially inflated at most grocery stores, because the grocery stores know people will pay higher prices for vegetables because they are a “health” food. And it’s not just places like Whole Foods – regular grocery stores like Kroger and Safeway seem to fall prey to this as well. Even Walmart has started to seem expensive. This is because I’ve been doing the majority of my fresh grocery shopping at Rancho Liborio, a Hispanic-targeted grocery store. I never pay more then $.50 for an avocado (unlike other grocery stores that will charge upwards of $2 apiece for them), and I never pay more then $1/lb for tomatoes (and even less then that if I just get Roma tomatoes). And the onions, sometimes they’ll be on sale for 5 lb for $1. Fabulous prices! And I think it’s because, though these vegetables are perceived as “health food” by many Americans, they’re necessary ingredients for everyday cooking for Hispanic immigrants. Well, that’s my going theory, at least.
Anyhow, back to the recipe. I boiled 1 lb of shrimp, then in hindsight de-shelled and de-veined them. Is that supposed to be done before or after they’re boiled? I can never remember. Anyhow, once the shrimp were shrimpified, I dumped those on top of the bowl of chopped vegetables, and the squirted the juice of two limes on top of the shrimp.
And next is the interesting part – the ketchup! The soup part of coctel de camarones is ketchup and water (or what I used to call “homeless person soup” back in college). Well, it apparently works quite well with shrimp and vegetables! I started with a half cup of ketchup, and squirted a little bit of Chiracha sauce on as well. Next, I poured some of the leftover shrimp water on top, and stirred everything together. Still not enough liquid, so I alternated between adding more ketchup and more water until the consistency and color matched what I’d eaten in restaurants.
This was a fabulously massive serving of coctel de camarones, and was fabulously delicious. I fed off of it for days, and even on the last day when the cucumbers were starting to get mushy, I still enjoyed every bite. I would totally make this again – it takes a little bit of time to chop up all of the ingredients, but outside of that it’s quite easy to make and worth the effort.
Casa Bonita: Adventures in Decor and Unappetizing Food
Posted on: May 29, 2010
There is a restaurant in Lakewood, a bit west of Denver, called Casa Bonita. It’s a restaurant with a theme-park atmosphere. We’d heard fabulous things about the decor and horrible things about the food. They all turned out to be true.
To get the bad things out of the way first, it’s best to start with the food. We went with a friend who used to work at Casa Bonita, and he warned us away from anything with meat, recommending the cheese enchiladas. The emphasis definitely was on the cheese:
Or rather, cheeze. It had the consistancy of powdered cheese with liquid added, which it undoubtedly was. The small amounts of real cheese in this dish were quie thoroughly disguised by the mounds of cheeze. The refried beans were similarly powderey, and we were warned away from them as well. Seems that one day each week, they make the beans, via dumping powder into the sort of vat that one has to climb into in order to clean out. This vat of beans lasts for the entire week. Fearing that we were nearing the end of that week, I edged around the beans, though I did salvage the cheese that sat on top of them. The rice was harder then I was hoping. Considering the volume of people that go through that restaurant, I would have expected the rice to be a bit fresher, but maybe it’s also made in giant weekly vats as well. Who knows?
The one good thing about the food was the dessert – the sopapillas. They were light and delicate and tasted delicious with honey. To get into Casa Bonita, you have to buy something, and once upon a time there was the option to just buy all-you-can-eat sopapillas (for around $5). Unfortunately, the is no longer the case. Quite unfortunately, really, as that was the only tasty thing I managed to eat there. Extremely unfortunately, since my meal before coupon was $12.99. It was all you can eat, but if almost everything you have the option of eating tastes bad, why would you want to eat all you can?
It seems people don’t go for the food. The main area is centered around a stage of sorts, a platform set above a body of water with a waterfall beside it. There’s a cliff diver (shown above), plus a cowboy skit. Roaming about the main room is a mariachi band, plus a person in a gorilla suit. You can eat in the main area, or a variety of offshoot areas, each with their own unique decor. This can range from super-fancy rooms with chandeliers to weird theme rooms.
Here’s some booths with a “mining” theme:
And here’s a booth in a room with a “cave” theme:
Speaking of caves, there is also a “scary” cave you can walk through. It’s more cheesey then scary, but then I’m also about 2 decades older then it’s target audience. Nearby are two arcades, though not a huge selection. Great for those who like skee-ball or Ms Pacman, at least. Or who like some of the odder games, like this one:
Finally, there’s a gift shop, which mostly consists of the sort of stuff you can find at any gift shop in Colorado, but with “Casa Bonita” slathered on.
So Casa Bonita was an interesting experience, but I doubt I’ll be going back. If they could only notch up the quality of the food to “mediocre” at least, I might reconsider.
Category: Entree, Vegetarian, restaurants
Tags: casa bonita, mediocrity, Mexican
Sushi! Featuring Seaweed, Avocado On Top, Plus Pacific Mercantile Indulgence
Posted on: May 26, 2010
I recently got goaded again into making sushi for a potluck at Drew’s work. This has caused me to become more efficient with the sushi-making itself, as most of it has to get done in the morning before he goes to work. I could always make it the night before, but there’s two problems with this. First of all, I eat sushi as I make it, and stuffing my face with sushi just before I go to bed would lead to far more interesting nightmares then I really want to have (wasabi demons, anyone?). And second, the sushi would be all dried out by the time his coworkers got to eat it the next day. Meaning that while they might openly compliment Drew on his choice in potluck bringings, on the inside they’d all be cursing the awful sushi with the hard rice that I’d burdened them with. Then again, this would mean I wouldn’t have to get up at Ridiculous O’Clock in the morning anymore to make sushi for future potlucks. Wait, why is this a bad thing, again?
A few new things I tried this time around included:
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Black Sesame Seeds
I should have gotten these long ago. Flavor-wise, they’re not that different from the regular sesame seeds I’ve been using. For visual contrast, however, they are wonderful. A lot of sushi enjoyment can come from presentation, and these black sesame seeds are another tool to make rolls as pretty as possible. -
Bacon Bits
Bacon bits! I wish I’d thought of this before. I mean, I’ve made sushi with straight-up bacon and all, but that is a lengthy process. With bacon bits, there’s no frying/baking, no hacking of the meats into teeny pieces, and there’s significantly lower chance of a sushi-induced heart attack! Also, if you buy the cheapo bacon bits like I do, you can make bacon sushi for your vegetarian friends as well, since cheap bacon bits usually have no bacon in them at all.The bacon bits worked well in rolls that also had tamago (egg omelet). It’s a nice lazy way to make a breakfast roll. They also look nice when sprinkled on the outside of a roll, and give it an extra bit of crunch.
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Seaweed
I’ve had a giant bag of seaweed (wakame, to be precise) that I mostly use for miso soup and sunomono. I decided to try stuffing rolls with it this time around. First, you soak the seaweed in a bit of water, and drain any remaining water once the seaweed is no longer dehydrated. Next, sprinkle some sesame seeds on it and stir. Then, take a giant glob of this mixture and place it inside of a roll. It works quite well! -
Leaving the crab sticking out
OK, I may have done this before, but I don’t think it was until now that I appreciated the full value of doing this. So you buy your crab sticks, and slice them into whatever thinness you want for your rolls. When you put your crab onto the flat nori, one stick is too short, and two sticks are too long. Rather then hacking the crab sticks in half, just leave the rest sticking out the ends! This remedies the fact that the end sushi pieces usually don’t look nearly as exciting as the other pieces. You can also do this with cucumber, carrot, and anything else that isn’t liable to get all squishy on you. Something I’ve seen in Japanese restaurants that I should try is shredding the crab that is sticking out, to make it look extra fancy.
I have a sushi failing that I need to work on – the rice itself. These rolls looked good and tasted good, but it was despite the rice. I can blame some of this on the early hour, but the rice ended up being way too mushy. I’m really bad at measuring rice, measuring water, and measuring the sugar/vinegar that you mix in afterwards. Also, back when I first started making sushi my rice would usually be too hard, and psychologically I might still be trying to compensate for that by making my rice too squishy instead. What I really need is a decent rice cooker, and from there I can force myself to be more disciplined about the rice making.
What got me thinking about the rice was my recent impulse buy at the Pacific Mercantile Company. If you like Asian food (especially Japanese food) and live anywhere near Denver, you need to go visit the Pacific Mercantile Company right now! They’ve got a great selection of food, plus a section of kitchenware and gifts, including some bento boxes I desperately need to spend some extra dollars on! Anyhow, the last time I was there, I noticed they carried sushi. Not a great variety, mostly futomaki and California rolls, but I have an undying need to buy sushi wherever I can, so I got a box of California rolls.
Note: I blame that blasted sun for the weirdness of the sushi in the above picture.
The rolls were pretty good for grocery store sushi – maybe a bit bland, but that’s what soy sauce is for, I suppose. I bought these a day or two after having made the sushi tray, and what really stood out to me was the rice. Good sushi rice has this special way of having individual grains that are distinct, yet stick together as a whole. The rice is soft and tender, yet not so soft that it merges with all of the grains around it into a gooey mass. The Pacific Mercantile rice had this quality, and it’s something I need to focus more on achieving in my own sushi rice.
Category: Entree, Seafood
Tags: bacon, Pacific Mercantile Company, sesame seeds, sushi, wakame
How Not To Make A Piña Colada
Posted on: May 23, 2010
Did you know that you don’t use coconut meat to make a pina colada? The recipes I’ve found online call for cream of coconut or coconut milk, with no coconut meat involved at all. However, having a coconut on hand, I decided to blatantly ignore this fact and make up my own recipe.
To crack open a coconut, you need to get the milk out first, which is most easily accessible through the three eyes at one end of the coconut. To do this, I first whacked a hole through two of the eyes with a hammer and nail, then screwed a screw through the two holes, then used the hammer to whack the screwdriver itself through the holes. A patient person I am not, and I had no interest in sitting there while the milk oozed out drip by drip. The milk poured out quite efficiently after this process was completed.
Next up was cracking open the coconut. In theory, you can just hold it in your hand a certain way and whack it along the seam. The coconut should magically fall apart into two clean halves. Apparently this is crazy talk, as my stupid coconut wouldn’t budge after about 5 minutes of this method. So I opened it the traditional way – by placing it in a bag and whacking it on some cement. Quite efficient!
On some level, unfortunately, the coconut was sensing my angst. After it was smashed open, I nearly killed my hand muscles trying to scrape all of the meat off of the shell. In theory, you should be able to slide a butter knife between the meat and shell to easily pry the meat off. And in practice, this has worked for me before with other, friendlier coconuts. Well, not this one. It went screaming all the way, the little bastard. But it’s OK, the pain made the coconut taste all the better.
Next up was the pineapple. I’m seriously considering never buying canned pineapple again, because fresh pineapple is so good. And, for that matter, far easier to hack open than coconut. You just cut off the top and the bottom, then slice off the outer skin. Cut the skinless pineapple in half, slice out the harder middle bits, and then chop up the remainder into whatever size chunks you deem appropriate.
Next came the blender adventures. Since I was already eschewing the wisdom of an actual recipe by using coconut meat, I figured there was no point in looking at a recipe for other instructions, either. So I threw in a handful of pineapple, and a smaller quantity of coconut. There wasn’t a huge amount of coconut milk from the inside of the coconut, so I poured all of it in. I also added a bit of powdered coconut milk, just in case. To ensure proper sweetness, I squirted in a glob of honey, and then I eyeballed what seemed like a respectable amount of rum and poured that in. Then, I realized there wasn’t enough liquid, so I added some more rum for good measure. I used Admiral Nelson rum – bottom-shelf, but a higher military ranking then Captain Morgan, so it’s gotta be good, right?
Well, the piña colada looked nice at least.
This was definitely the beverage for people who need their fiber. The coconut did not really blend up into liquid form. It went through a straw, but this is one of the chewiest drinks I’ve ever had. Also, too much rum. It’s like I was having some pineapple and coconut with my rum. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but if you’re looking for a smooth and delicious pina colada experience, it’s definitely a bit disappointing. Next time, I’ll measure the alcohol, leave out the coconut meat, and use cream of coconut like the recipe calls for.
Hooray For Chocolate Cookies!
Posted on: May 21, 2010
This last week has been exceedingly busy, meaning I haven’t had time to sit down and write a proper post. Alas, only time for improper posts. In any case, here are some cookies to tide you over in the meantime:
Chocolate cake mix cookies, with chocolate chips and pecans added in for good measure. The most foolproof way to make soft chocolate chip cookies is to use a cake mix, just Google “cake mix cookies” and pick a recipe. The cookies will definitely taste like cake, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing!
Pillsbury Cheesecake Swirl Brownie Mix
Posted on: May 13, 2010
I love box mix brownies. I rarely make brownies from a recipe because box mix brownies are already so freaking good. So we recently got a box of Pillsbury Cheesecake Swirl brownie mix. The only thing cheesecake could possibly to do brownies is improve upon them, so this had to be a good thing, right?
I made the brownies according to instructions. OK, I added food coloring because I had a bunch sitting around that really wanted to get used up. The same went for sprinkles, for that matter. The brownies ended up looking like they had a light layer of crispy pepto-bismol on top of them:
First off, it’s weird how the visual aspect of food can really impact flavor. Eating these, I had a really hard time convincing myself that the cheesecake mixture wasn’t cherry-flavored. Also, I never should have put those sprinkles on.
See, the cheesecake swirl topping was less “cheesecake” and more “frosting that is cheese (errr, and cherry) flavored.” Admittedly, all of those sugar crystals didn’t help a bit, but even aside from those, the cheesecake topping was excessively sweet. Part of this might just be my tastes – I’ve always preferred cheesier cheesecake over sugarier cheesecake. The same goes with brownies; I just don’t like them to be too sweet. To me, the essence of a good brownie is being chocolaty, not sugary. In fact, I will happily pick off the glob of frosting that comes on some grocery store brownie bites.
There was also the cheesecake to brownie ratio here. My photo is pretty bad, so it may be difficult to tell this, but the ratio was around 1:3. The photo on the box depicts the cheesecake more as a thin glaze on top. Now, 1:3 wouldn’t be a big deal at all had the cheesecake actually tasted like proper cheesecake, but it just didn’t. I struggled deeply with this, but in the end, I’d hole out the brownie part and left the cheesecake part for Drew to eat. The brownie part was delicious as always, at least.
And the sad thing? Sitting in the fridge was a block of cream cheese that would have loved to be converted into a delightful cheesecake topping. I think I should try combining box brownies with cheesecake from a recipe one of these days, just to make sure that combination is appropriately delicious and I’m not simply deluding myself here.
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