Posted by Meg
Tonight in Simpsons rerun heaven: The Food Chain, where Lisa decides to become a vegetarian. Here’s the film strip that the Indpendent Thought Alarm causes Principal Skinner to show for Lisa’s class:
Love it! Eat your meat, kids.
Posted by Meg
From the Beeb: “One of Austria’s most famous cakes, the Sachertorte, is marking its 175th birthday this year. “
Posted by Meg
I keep (very poorly) a five year diary. I bought in London, it’s been with me all over the world since then. I don’t update it as often as I should, but every now and then it’s fun to see what I was up to years ago. Today, is potentially the most important DC dining day in the last five years: Today, in 2003, was the first time I ever ate a Famous Avocado sandwich at Cafe Recess on the Hill. This masterpiece amongst sandwiches consists of sprouts, spinach, carrots, peppers, mushrooms, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados and swiss cheese, all in a pita pocket. It’s the salad you pick up. It’s always good, it never disappoints, and today is our anniversary. Here’s to you, Famous Avocado. Here’s to you.
Posted by Meg
Arriving on the 29th: one Weber Smokey Joe mini grill. I am so incredibly excited! I love mini things that are the exact replica of their larger counterparts: mini Grey Poupon, airplane booze bottles, wee Brie. Adorable, all of them. But, what will I grill first? Here are some of the options:
–stuffed bell peppers (preferably red)
–chicken breasts with a spicy paste
–salmon, salmon, salmon
–a pair of cornish hens
I don’t know enough about poultry. I’m more of a fish girl than a fowl girl at heart, but th idea of poultry intrigues me. It’s on my list of things to do. More to come after the 29th!
Posted by Meg
For girls who love food, we eat pretty boring lunches on workdays. I’m all about the yogurt, fruit and sandwich. Sarah’s the occaisional delicious leftover, tuna, yogurt. It’s good, we like it, but lunch isn’t generally our finest production. Myself, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out which deli cheese responds best to being unrefridgerated for 4-6 hours.
Swiss (especially baby swiss) tends to wimp out under heat. It doesn’t taste bad, but the texture is limp, kind of soft plastic-y.
Muenster has a little more fortitude than swiss, but still gets too soft, too fast.
A thickly sliced provolone stands up to heat nicely. I think it might have something to do with the rind, it has something to hold its form.
Asiago is mighty because it not only keeps form, it holds onto flavor. The cheese is totally separate from the meat and really doesn’t do any of the weird mixing that a more melted cheese does.
But, the best is a really sharp cheddar, particularly a harsh, bright orange one. Love it!
On that note, I leave you with Cheddarvision. The West Country Farmers in England got together over a pint last year and decided to broadcast the aging of a massive block of cheddar, 24/7 for one year. Way better than watching the grass grow. Catch the first three months, time elapsed, here:
…or check out their website, http://cheddarvision.tv
Posted by Sarah
Beets are great. I’m talking about the vegi here not the cartoon band (not that I don’t love the band or anything else related to Doug for that matter). They’re good for you and tasty and easy to prepare. Plus they’re awfully pretty. For some reason I can’t explain I haven’t cooked beets at home for several years but last night I was feeling inspired and, having bought the last bunch that the Giant offered, I roasted myself some beets. It’s remarkably easy; all you do is wash some beats, drizzle them with oil and wrap them in a layer or two of aluminum foil. Pop ‘em in a 425° oven for 45 minutes to an hour or until tender, remove and let cool. When they’re cool, just peel the beets (this is an easy but messy task and should be done over the sink) and either slice them or cut them into wedges. Now what does one do with such goodness? I’m glad so you asked! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Meg
Sarah and I are in the midst of a shared experience right now, and let us tell you, it’s not a good one. This morning’s coffee run has been taking a slow turn for the worse since about 10am, but we think it’s reached the pinnacle of badness now.
We might be foodies, but we’re not food snobs. We’ll eat and drink much anything you put in front of us. Case in point: our morning coffee doesn’t come from Starbucks, Cosi, wherever, it usually comes from the cafe at our place of employ. It’s early, we’re lazy, we’re grouchy, and the coffee is cheap. Whatever. Ordinarily the coffee is fine. We’ve had better, but we’ve definitely had worse too. The point is, it’s easy to get to, and always available.
I suppose we should have been wary this morning when the coffee was neither easy to get to nor available. There was an unexpected crowd in the cafe, and as a result, a new pot needed to be brewed. What happened? Well, we’re not quite certain, but it seems that the machine was simply turned on again to re-steep the existing grounds into a pot with the last lingering memories of the coffee of 7am. Unknowingly, we filled our mugs, did our surprisingly well choreographed sharing of the milk and singular coffee stirrer dance, and moved along.
The first sips were harsh. There was uncontrollable face squenching, sputtering, and dry coughing, maybe even a heave. By the time we reached the elevators from the cafe, it was clear that we were victims of bad coffee. But what to do? There wasn’t any other coffee to be had. We decided to suck it up (literally) and carry on.
It’s now noon, and we’re sharing symptoms of percolation poisoning. Headache across the eyebrows, fullness behind the ears, just under the lobes, slightly blurred vision thanks to squinting to avoid the eyebrow headache. It’s like the hangover you get when you’re on your second or third glass of really harsh, really cheap, really bad red wine–the only hangover either of us have ever had while we were still drinking.
Lesson learned: none, really. Mornings are still and will always be early, lazy and grouchy. It’s harsh, but it’s a price we’re willing to pay. In the meantime, however: ow.
Posted by Meg
Food gone wrong, food misused, food afoul can kill you. That’s true of a lot of things (botched circus tricks, shouting “movie!” in a firehouse, poor planned and/or badly executed practical jokes, etc.), but it’s especially true of what you ingest. Two stories in the news have caught my eye to the end of food danger in the last couple of weeks: the couple in Atlanta sentenced to life in prison for starving their baby with a vegan diet, and the bevy of Chinese products that have bee coming ashore tainted and deadly (toothpaste today, pet food the other week).
For me, both issues boil to down to choice and personal responsibility. In the case of the vegan parents, and any parents really, it was their responsibility to make sure that their baby nutritionally under cover. It’s no mystery that vegan and vegetarian practitioners have to pay close attention to what they’re eating in order to get all the right vitamins and minerals needed to stay healthy, and responsible vegans understand this about their choice of diet. It follows that responsible vegan parents would understand that they need to make extra sure that all the good stuff’s there in their childrens’ diets as well. Unlike Nina Planck, I do not think that a vegan diet is inherantly cruel for children. I just think that you’ve got to back up your choice responsibly. Plenty of happy, healthy, well adjusted vegan kids in the world. Besides, food and parenting takes a lot of faces in the news. Remember Connor McCreaddie in the UK? He was just about carted off to social services because he was obese, and his mother was accused for his condition. Unlike a baby, however, Connor was 14, and arguably needed to take some responsibility of his own… but that’s a point aside. End of story: people make their own choices, and have the responsibility to back them up, vegan parents or otherwise.
However, I find this tainted Chinese stuff coming ashore to be a much greater problem because often (like in the case of pet food, toothpaste) we’re not even made aware of where products are coming from in order to make informed choices, hold up our end of the choice/responsibility thing. That strikes me as something that should be more closely monitored. The Post article up there talked about a ton of stuff that’s been rejected from China this year. That’s worth a public outcry.
Posted by Meg
Walking to the metro this morning, I found a little note scribbled on some hard cardboard.
I ordinarily at least stop and look (because I love FOUND magazine, and they’ve gotten me in the habit of looking at everything), sometimes pick up, but this time I had to look, pick up and keep because it was somebody’s list of food.
The first item illuded me for a while… Snackie? Surachie? The second was clearly chicken no mayo, and the last a creative spelling of Caesar salad.
But, it’s been decided that the list asks for 1 sundae, 1 chicken no mayo, and 1 Caesar salad… a McDonald’s list! Can that all be accomplished on the Dollar Menu? Here’s hoping.
Posted by Meg
Tomorrow is my birthday, hurrah! On Friday night, Boyfriend took me to Mrs. K’s Toll House in Silver Spring. He went there with his family for Christmas, and has been on about how amazing it is ever since. That is to say, this meal easily had a 6 month build up, and still delivered. I can count on one hand the number of meals I have had that were as good as Friday’s dinner. In short: best foodie birthday present ever.
To start, I had a gaspoucho with terribly delicate lump crab meat, chilled. There were dinner rolls, both sour dough and fluffier white (the melt in your mouth kind) and molded butter. For the main course, I had quail with duck stuffing, two baby carrots with the stems on and outrageously tender asparagus stalks. For dessert, we split cheesecake with honest to goodness strawberry sauce, naturally sweet, no that gross processed high fructose corn syrup stuff. There were really good cappuccinos. And we split a bottle of 2004 pinot noir from Bogle Winery in California. In short, probably one of the top 3 meals I’ve ever eaten. Best birthday present ever!