late spring articles
Eating cheesecake and sampling cocktails, yeah, I know, I make it look easy. But the painstaking hours of research paid off because both these articles look good enough to eat. And drink.
A Sergio Goes photo takes full page in the Hana Hou piece and the four (count em, 4!) pages in HI Luxury include a shot of my girl Chia making a sour face while muddling limes. haha.
April/May 2008
Hana Hou
- “Otto von Cheesecake.” Photo by Sergio Goes.
HI Luxury
- “Mixing it up! Get a lesson behind the bar at E&O Trading Company.” Photos by Ryan Ohara.
my toxic omelet — best ever
According to this urban legend/recipe, if you can boil water, you can make an omelet. All you need is a couple eggs, the chopped-up ingredients you want in your omelet, and a quart size Ziploc baggie (same size they want to see your toiletries in when you fly).
The recipe has apparently been circulating on the interweb for some time:
Crack 2 eggs (large or extra-large) into the quart size Ziploc bag (not more than 2) and shake to combine them. Put in a variety of ingredients such as: cheeses, ham, onion, green pepper, tomato, hash browns, salsa, etc.
Make sure to get the air out of the bag and zip it up. Place the bag(s) into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes. You can usually cook 6-8 omelets in a large pot.
Open the bags and the omelet will roll out easily.
Because I’ve never successfully made an omelet–it turns into scrambled eggs every.single.time–I knew I had to try this. “But is it safe?” was my nagging, second thought. After googling around, I’m pretty sure the short answer is no, not really. That’s why you don’t do it every day. Just like you don’t microwave your leftovers in Tupperware and don’t drink from plastic water bottles every day…. right?
So anyway, I didn’t take pictures of the process, but I tried this with olives, tomatoes and mushrooms inside and came out with the fluffiest, most cohesive omelet I have ever made! tah-dah!
Only one minor mishap: the bottom of the baggie split open at the end of the cooking time, and the eggs got a little soggy. Maybe cuz I used generic Ziplocs? Some sites recommend the freezer baggies, but I don’t buy those in that size so, whatever. My toxic omelet had a deformed lump on the side because I cooked it with part of the baggie under the lid of the pot in an effort to keep it from touching the bottom. Next time I guess I’ll just put a metal strainer down.
Oh and that purple poo on the side? Potatoes. When I bought em I thought they just had purple skin but they were purple all the way through. Not sweet tho. Fried em up with some onions and rosemary, yes yes.
Filed under food | Comments (3)s’alright shrimp fried rice
There are about 282,000 ways to make fried rice and there doesn’t seem to be much consensus on the steps or the ingredients. The more I look around, the more I am convinced that an “anything goes” approach to the dish is just fine.
So last night, pressed for time again and my stomach rumbling, I threw together some shrimp fried rice using what I had on hand. It came out okay, but it was bland. I solved that problem with some hot sauce, but I would rather have the shrimp be more savory.
Next time I’ll do a quick marinade of the shrimp in some kind of garlic/ginger/shoyu sauce and include red pepper or hot sauce while cooking. I’d love to hear how other people make it… holla at me in the comments if you have suggestions?
I did use Jasmine brown rice instead of traditional white rice (no, please, keep reading!). And I really messed up because I added the egg to the same pan as the rice (doh!), which coated the rice and looked bleh. Next time I’ll scramble it on its own, set aside, and mix it in at the end. Finally, I didn’t have any green onion, and it was seriously missed.
Filed under food | Comments (3)it’s a wrap
Global food prices have risen dramatically, adding a new level of danger to the crisis of world hunger…. In the United States there has been a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months.
This according to Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, as part of an interview where she introduces the author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System,” Raj Patel.
Patel outlines a perfect storm of conditions that are causing food shortages and riots globally, including:
- bad harvests, possibly related to climate change
- biofuels and ethanol driving up the price of commodities like sugar, corn, wheat
- increasing demand for meat leading to an increasing demand for grain to feed livestock, not people, and driving up the price of grain
- rising price of oil
Other stories in the news talk about how jobs are leaving and inflation is hitting everyone. Those stories scare me, even tho it hasn’t gotten to riot levels in the United States.
I see my grocery bill creeping higher and higher for the same amount of groceries. But I’m also becoming more savvy about wholesome, cheap meals and I feel like blogging about that :~j
I think of myself as a vegetarian with omnivore tendencies–I’d eat anything if I HAD to, most likely, or if it would be especially rude not to, or if I’m just curious about the dish. But I prefer not to for the most part. Officially I’m an ovo-lacto-pescatarian, meaning I will happily consume eggs, dairy and seafood in addition to starches, veggies, fruits and grains. I prefer simple foods.
Filed under food, stuffs | Comments (2)the pop secret is out–microwave popcorn is super easy to make
Popcorn is an amazing food. Kernels of whole grain goodness that pop to unique, tasty shapes. Like snowflakes with substance. It tastes so great all salty and crunchy and chewy and in the case of my recent addiction, coated in white cheddar powder. We were eating it bag by organic bag-full when the “popcorn lung” scare hit mainstream media.
Even tho the scare concerns the ConAgra-fake-buttered type of microwave popcorn and not the heath-food-store-bought version we’d been consuming like popcorn-crazed maniacs, the story did make popcorn suddenly seem a little less wonderful.
Enter the environmentally aware, DIY-ers at lighterfootstep.com, who recently urged readers to Dump Dangerous Diacetyl by Making Your Own Microwave Popcorn. Diacetyl is the fake butter flavor that causes life-threatening respiratory and other problems.
This is all you have to do to make your own microwave popcorn.
You’ll need a brown paper lunch sack about 1/4 cup of loose, organic popcorn kernels. Measure the kernels into your bag. Add one teaspoon of olive oil and popcorn salt to taste. Fold the top of the bag and shake gently to mix.
Press most of the air out of the bag. Secure with two staples (they won’t spark in most ovens) or tape loosely, leaving room for steam to vent. Place flat on a microwave-safe plate and heat on a high setting until the pops have slowed down to about three seconds apart. it will take less than four minutes.
Within hours of reading this recipe, I had to try it, and the results were fantastic (see photo). The recipe is extra simple, but can be refined with different proportions, flavors and methods.
Filed under food, stuffs | Comments (2)
