Happy Thanksgiving!

If you're like me, you're full just thinking about Thanksgiving right now. But then again, you probably haven't been trolling tastespotting.com all day either. So many starchy pumpkin-y things in the world!

Before we part to pursue our various Turkey Day preparations, let me share one piece of advice I learned the hard way last night. Sometimes convenience foods are bad and not worth it, i.e. Easy Mac, Lean Cuisine, frozen pizza. Sometimes convience foods are so very, very worth it. This is a short list since I like to take the long route and time is not a factor in my meal preparations whatsoever. The only thing I don't have the patience to try to figure out, as I mentioned before, is pastry, and I'll probably break down and try that out soon enough. And breadmaking as well, though I do make occasional forays there.


But as of last night, there's a new shortcut to the list. Whatever you do, do not buy a pound of whole pecans and attempt to shell them yourself out of a desire to make a truly "from scratch" praline cheesecake. You see, they make these little packets, and even bigger 2-cup bags, of shelled nuts. And you can buy them halved, or chopped, or slivered. Any which way but loose. I had ascribed to that form many Thanksgivings previous, but this time....oh, this time.... I figured I'd take the hard route. And my thumbs paid dearly. You see, despite my kindergarten memories of cracking pecans in the playground, pecans are not that easy to crack. Hence the expression. They aren't edamame, let's just say. And a nutcracker isn't something a person of my age and income bracket has just sitting around. So last night, much to my neighbor's pleasure I'm sure, I was forced to whack each and every pecan with a hammer two or three times until they cracked. I think one split well enough to get two halves out. The rest were little bits. And lots and lots of nut dust.


So, you're welcome. I did it so you don't have to. And I hope my nut cracking adventures have made your holiday season a little easier!

Apple Pie

I know, I know. You missed me! Well ,'tis the season now, so I've gotta get on the ball with my food blogging. This one I made right before Halloween, but apple pie is appropriate for at least two months after that. So here you go.

I used the good old frozen pie crusts, mostly because I didn't make time to figure out whole pie crust bit (nor did I own a pie plate at the time). Pastry is one area where I am totally fine with cutting corners. Plus, I took one of the pies down to our buddies in Brooklyn, and so the fact that the pie came in an alumnium pan they could dispose of without having to ship it back to Rochester seemed make ready-made pie crusts the obvious solution! Of course in reality, I left a bunch of stuff at their apartment that had to be shipped back anyway, but let's not worry with that.

So you take a bunch of apples, Macouns here, probably 8 or so. I still believe in leaving the skin on, but of course the core doesn't party very well, so you want to remove it and the seeds. I don't slice these too finely either. I think apple pies should be hearty fare.

Take your apple slices and mix them with brown sugar and a little flour, until coated. Use your hands for that one. Add in cinnamon, nutmeg, all those fall spices. And just a little lemon juice. Since the hard part was already done in some bakery-factory somewhere, all you have to do is dump the apple mixture into that defrosted pie crust and bake it according to the crust maker's instructions. If you want to do the old Grandma-style double crust, you should have two crusts and the directions there. So you don't need me to hold your hand through that.

Myself, I went for a little streusel topping. First I cooked the apple pie for about half the time, topless, shall we say. During that time, I melted some butter, added oatmeal and brown sugar to it, and then took the pie out and spread it on top. It needs to just get toasty colored and it's good to go. You can cover your pie crust with foil if you have a problem with the crusts burning. I forgot that but my crusts didn't burn. As with everything cooking-related, it's all about the watchful eye...

Biaggi's

Sunday was a shopping day, or at least an attempted shopping day. After a visit to both the Waterloo outlets and Eastview mall, I only walked away with a sweater. Still no closer to getting our Halloween costumes together.

Anyway, anytime we find ourselves in the Victor vicinity (what's our vector, Victor?) we home in on Bellini's. Something about all the big box stores must create a craving for semi-fancy, heavily Americanized chain Italian. Apparently this is not a desire just limited to myself. Besides Bellini's, there is Biaggi's and an Olive Garden (the grandmother of this food genre) within a 2 block radius of the Eastview mall. Perhaps this flood on the market could explain why there were dumpsters in front of Bellini's, surrounded by caution tape and various bits of disassembled metal. Apparantly Bellini's is now out of business. Or doing a serious remodel. Or something. Anyway, not open to us. (Benucci's in the Pittsford Plaza, which also fills the same purpose, is also in a remodel. Is this the start of a horrific trend?).

This left us no further recourse but to try Biaggi's Casual Italian Eatery, which appears to be the more chain-y, jacked up on Cheesecake Factory/Las Vegas/Disney architecture juice. (You know what? I'm gonna start calling that the Cheesecake Factor. Feel free to spread the phrase into your everyday parlance). Despite the imposing 15 foot ceilings, the food was pretty decent. I would have preferred a pannini, but that just wasn't in the cards (or the menu). Strangely, most of their dishes come with cream sauce. Even chicken parmesan and lasagna. But thankfully, you can ask to switch to marinara for something more traditional/non-crazy.

The soup special (mushroom barley) was very good, though 5 or 6 bucks, which is even more extortive when they ask you if you want soup or salad after you order your entree, such that it sounds as if you have a choice between the two included in the cost of your entree. I didn't fall for it but I don't appreciate when places do it either. The soft drinks were also almost 3 dollars. I can put away a lot of Diet Coke in the course of a meal, but the amount of Diet Coke necessary to make a $3 price tag justifiable equals the entire volume of Biaggi's itself. Flooded up to its faux stucco vaulted ceilings.

The Boy had the chicken parmesan (substituting marinara for cream sauce) as is his long-established Italian dining custom. Bonus points for the spring of actual, fresh basil on the top. I mixed it up with Penne Sardi. Penne in a too-thin sun dried tomato cream sauce (surprise, surprise) with chicken, onions, and mushrooms. Topped with bread crumbs. Kind of a casserole, but better. I was pleased, but not overwhelmed. The onions were cut too large and I really wanted more mushrooms. But the penne was cooked well (as was the Boy's angel hair) and there was lots of chicken. So even though our minds weren't blown, and it was a little on the pricey side, we did leave decadently full and slumberous. Just the condition you want to be in when going shopping.

Feliz Cumpleano, John!

I have been obsessed with the idea of chocolate stout cake for weeks. I can't seem to shake it out of my head -- not too chocolatey, and perfectly moist. And since today is John's birthday, I can't think of anyone who would appreciate beer in birthday cake form more.

This is a luscious photo from Annie's Eats recipe for Irish Car Bomb cupcakes. They've been on my to-do list for awhile. (And they still are, John, so don't expect to see them at your party tonight).

Chocolate stout cake with Bailey's ganache filling and frosting (probably should sneak some Jameson's in there to be perfectly legit). Talk about the right way to amp up the celebration factor!

Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

It is most definitely soup season. And though I haven't started making daily visits to Panera yet, I have started to make a superlong list of soup recipes to try. Ginger carrot, cashew chili, African peanut stew, sausage bean chowder, broccoli cheddar ale, etc., etc.

Also on my to-do list (because I love, love, love to-do lists) was to make my own pumpkin puree. Why should Libbys, Libbys, Libbys think they know everything around this time of year? You roast a pumpkin, like any kind of squash, and then you puree the insides. Done and done. Look for sugar pumpkins (smaller than a jack-o-lantern, but bigger than those little tabletop centerpieces). It should be easy to figure out the right size because it's all that will fit on most pans. When in doubt, ask for ones used for baking pies. Halve the pumpkin with a great big knife. Don't worry about the stem, it can stay. Clean out the gunk and the seeds (don't forget you can roast the seeds later). Place the two halves cut-side down on the pan. Roast on high heat (400 or more) for 20 minutes or so. Just keep an eye on it and you can see when the outside starts to look leathery and brown like a basktball. You'll also start to smell a lovely pumpkin fragrance. Fall is up in your kitchen!

So once the pumpkin's cool (or not if you're like me and enjoy charred fingertips) you can just peel off the skin, with the stem, and pop all the good parts in your food processor. Blend until baby food. Now you've got pumpkin puree to do whatever you please.

As for me, I used this recipe as the basis to make pumpkin black bean soup. Yes, I know it's Rachel Ray but so many other recipes had sherry and cream and ham hocks and a bunch of other stuff I wasn't into. My approach was sweat some onions and garlic, add Rohrbach's Oktoberfest beer, dump in some black beans (and black bean puree) and the pumpkin puree, then thin it down with chicken stock. Spice it up with cumin, cinnamon, Adobo, etc.

We did a lot of finagling with our soup to try to keep in thinner and we used green bell peppers with the onions to start, and then added serranos instead of chipotles later. Why? Because that's what the pepper lady at the Farmers Market had that we liked. We also added in some hickory smoked bacon because we were using it that night for another dish. And what could possibly be wrong with adding a little bacon? Am I right? I thought so.

Compost Cookies

Confession Time: For the past three weeks or so, the Boy and I keep buying break and bake chocolate chip cookies. I'm blaming him because if I was the culprit I would have been mixing all the ingredients together to make my own dough and eating that with the wooden spoon. Breaking and baking is a little too boring (unless your stove isn't working and you figure out that you can break and semi-saute in a pan or break and microwave). Anyway, it's a disturbingly bad habit we've found ourselves in, but it has done much to really elevate in my mind what is great about the chocolate chip cookie (coupled occasionally with Ben and Jerry's Fair Trade Vanilla ice cream).

So when I saw the compost cookie at Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC, all my cookielust got stirred up to full tilt. Sugar Plum says the cookie was dominated by butterscotch, which is a little sad. Because the thing has POTATO CHIPS in it. Genius! And pretzels, and coffee, and just awesomeness.

Since we're going to NYC for Halloween, this has just become the requisite sweet treat stop! I've just got to talk someone else into getting the Crack Pie (Brady? I know you're down for that!) and the Caramel Apple soft serve...

Chocolate Tasting at Hedonist

Those of you not scared away by the freezing temperatures should venture to South Ave on Saturday for a chocolate tasting at Hedonist.

K-ster and I were able to taste this dark chocolate truffle collection, designed by Hedonist's intern Cody Whaley, at a beer and chocolate pairing at Tap and Mallet Wednesday. So I can say with authority that the collection is amazing! My favorite is probably the cardamom but the imperial stout was so smooth you could imagine eating an entire box no problem! And typically I'm very averse to anise but that truffle had a nice spice that made me question my anti-anise stance immediately. They were all phenomenal (especially with the beers expertly paired by the Tap staff). And the ginger truffle (with Pop Rocks -- how awesome?!?) wasn't at the tasting so I definitely can't wait to visit and try that one myself.

I personally love how it's dark chocolate, which tends to be the ladies' favorite, but these truffles aren't overly sweet at all. Something for people (i.e. guys) who get sick over too many Snickers fun sizes. They're super sophisticated and I'm excited for Cody, for the Hedonist, and for Rochester to have such a talented chocolatier!

All about Macouns

Macoun apples have been a regular Farmers Market must-have for us this past month or so, since they work for both baking and snacking. The Boy's mother also had to get a few on their recent visit, but when I mentioned them to my mom at a farmer's stand in South Carolina last week, she'd never heard of them. Down there it was all about the Honey Crisps. Considering that Honey Crisp sounds like a cereal and macoun sounds like...I don't know what since no one pronounces it correctly (ma-cown).

So the explanation for this is the Macouns were created in upstate NY! Yay Cornell mad scientists! They're a hybrid of Macintosh and Jersey Black (which I've never heard of but which sound hilarious). If you'd like to learn even more about my favorite workday snack, check out this huge run-down on the Grub Street blog feature: "Farm to Restaurant."

Cutting Down on Food Waste

Because I have 4 pears that I simply forgot we owned last week, and a half of a loaf of bread that will be molding any minute, and I'm sure you do too:

Planet Green's 50 Ways to Never Waste Food Again.

Storing the edges of onions and peppers and corn cobs for vegetable broth sounds good. Not so sure about fruit leather. I definitely need to figure out the whole canning thing, but simply using the freezer more often has already saved a lot.

Best of Rochester

Time to vote for City Newspaper's Best of Rochester 2009.

Share your love for your favorite Roch restaurants, bars, venues, shows, parks, personalities, bartenders, and politicians.

Attention Beer Geeks

October of course also means Oktober. And for those of you who've been waiting patiently for beer's most celebrated month -- there are a few events you want to put on the calendar.

Today marks the start of the Sample NY Beer Festival in Canandaigua. Suspiciously held at the New York Wine and Culinary Center. So don't let German beers take all the credit -- give some love to NY State craft beers.

Tap and Mallet is also putting together a Beer Advocate evening. Beer Advocate is the most amazingly dense website of beer conoisseurship the world has ever seen. Some of the website's contributors will be there and Oktoberfest brews will be discounted! Go and speak the language of beerlove: Saturday October 17th starting at 5.

Feeling Autumnal

Ladies and Gentlemen: it is time to get down with Fall.

After much rain, high winds, and 40 degree mornings, even a stalwart Champion of Summer like myself cannot deny the reality we are all presented with: It is Fall. We must bundle up and begin to cope -- preferably with Pumpkin Spice Lattes and apple pies!

Here are a few of my favorite fall recipes floating around the blogosphere this week:

Cauliflower Soup from The Dabble.

Polenta Sandwich with Greens and Cheese from Serious Eats. (Man, I have much love for polenta, along with her sister Grits, and I can never figure out a way to use them. I can see frying them on a griddle and putting some portabellos in there too. Or the old Thanksgiving Leftover scenario).

Mushroom Risotto from What's Gaby Cooking. (speaking of mushrooms...)

Caramel Corn Doughnuts from Playing with Fire and Water. (despite not loving caramel corn or doughnuts, these look fantastic. I think it's the close proximity to my fall favorite -- caramel apples).

Time for a crunchy-leafy walk to Stever's for caramel apples. Or a trip to Hilton for the Apple Fest this weekend!

Plantains

Plantains are a new favorite at our house. You can buy 6 for $1 at the Farmers Market. The trick is to make sure the skins turn totally black -- that's when they're ripe. If you try to use them too early, thinking they're like a banana, boy do you have a chore on your hands. Those skins do NOT come off easily and the fruit itself can be rock hard. This has tripped me up several times, and I still probably don't wait long enough for them to get fully ripe (and sweet). Thus, the not-quite-ripe ones I use tend to taste more like a potato than a banana. Just a hint of sweetness.

Previously I've tried to use plantains to make mofongo -- or some approximation thereof. It's close to the mashed potato/plantain combo they serve at John's Tex Mex.

This past weekend I used plantains to make a pastelon. That's basically a lasagna with fried plantains instead of lasagna noodles. The Noshery's website is very helpful in making this, though I just sort of dumped fried plantain strips, seasoned with cumin, then Sazon seasoned ground beef, then whatever cheese we had on top of each other. And even that turned out awesome.

The next day I used the rest of our plantains in a curry. Phenomenal as well. You can not go wrong with the plantain, I'm tellin' ya.

Crazy or Crazy-Awesome?

Basil, tomato, and mozzarella ice cream?

Frozen Caprese salad. Found in Hong Kong.

Fall Dinner

Sorry for the week-long blogvacay, but I had the swine flu, believe or not (the Boy chooses not to). Anyway, before I languished away on milkshakes and daytime television last week, I was feeling very flush with fall spirit. With all the crispness in the air, we hit the farmer's market and got to work in the kitchen. I made French Onion Soup, and the Boy grilled some pork tenderloin. For dessert, tarte aux pommes (apple tart).

The French Onion Soup was from our old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Pure nostalgia. Start with 3 large sweet onions, finely chopped. Then add 1/2 stick of butter. Let the onions sweat it out about 20 to 25 minutes, until transluscent. Add in around 4 cans of beef stock. And a few squirts of Worchestershire sauce. Around 1/4 tsp. Salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer, around 30 minutes or more.

Cut slices of a baguette, toast with shredded Gruyere (or Swiss) cheese atop. Then place "croutons" on the soup once poured into bowls or crocks. Add more cheese and broil the whole thing for a few minutes until cheese is melted and browned.

Once the soup and pork were ready, we headed out to the front porch. A little pinot noir, some sliced local Macoun apple, some Vermont sharp white cheddar, some baguette slices from Little Bakery, and the sliced pork. Quite a crudite platter. Then the soup, with toasted baguette slices acting as croutons for the Gruyere cheese. Very fall and very yum.

So yum, in fact, we didn't even make it to the apple tart. But now that I'm back to solid foods, I discovered the tart, when toasted a bit, drizzled with local raw honey and sprinkled with ground cinnamon, is a fantastic breakfast too.

Tarte Aux Pommes

2 large baking apples (like Macoun) cored, then very, very thinly sliced

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry (they usually come 2 to a box)

1/4 cup of butter

1/4 cup of brown sugar

Defrost the puff pastry and prepare according to the box directions (I know, I know, you can make your own pastry too). For mine, you just unrolled the pastry, let it defrost, pierced it all over with a fork, and let it sit in the fridge for 20 minutes or so.

Then you can cut the dough into a circle the size of your pie plate if you'd like. I just left mine as a sheet on a cookie sheet since it seemed like it wanted to tear and I wanted to make a big tart anyway (overzealous apple slicing). I placed the apple sliced decoratively on the pastry, then topped with little shavings of the cold butter and sprinkled the brown sugar. You can add your own spices too. Then cooked at 375 for 15 minutes or until the edges of pastry begin to brown. Very very simple and it retains the apple flavor unlike sugary, syrupy apple pies.

Pink Bakery Boxes

This article on Serious Eats answers a question I didn't even know I had.

You know how in the movies, people always have pink boxes for birthday cakes or pastries? Yet, growing up in the South, I never once saw a pink box from a bakery. No matter how much I wished for one, because it just seemed more sophisticated, or at least frivolous. I always just assumed there were some fancy schmancy bakeries out there that I never frequented (and there are, to be sure).

Anyway, Serious Eats enlightened me that pink bakery boxes actually came from Winchell's, which is a not-so-nice-actually-sort-of-divey SoCal doughnut chain. Heh. Apparently, a bunch of transplanted Cambodians went to work there fleeing the Khmer Rouge and somehow got the boxes changed from white because white is the color of mourning. Also, in a moment of sad reality about corporations and the creation of an air of desiriability about a product: they went with pink because it was cheaper and because grease stains don't show as well. Sigh. Such is the way of all vestiges of hauteur fed to us by Hollywood.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Largely due to the fact that Bentucci's is renovating their restaurant, the Boy and I found ourselves in Pittsford Plaza on a quest for dinner. On our way to dropping $20 a piece on our glutfest at the Wegmans buffet, I was confronted with a fact that had escaped my memory: Five Guys Burgers and Fries had opened in the PP about a month ago. So we headed over to check it out.

First thought, I love a place with so few options. Really. I hate when places try to anticipate nearly every type of diner inclination and serve nachos next to pasta next to steak next to Chinese (yes, it happens). A jack-of-all-trades is a master of none. In My Perfect Dining World, places would limit themselves to ten items or less. Do them well and people will either be open to the singular experience the chef/cook is crafting or know to skip out because they're not into it. This is really the whole philosophy behind prix fixe meals.

The Boy's first thought was the boldness of having so many boxes of peanuts in their shells lying around, considering the dangers of peanut allergy reactions (how is he the one thinking like a lawyer?).

I ordered the cheeseburger with everything, plus jalapenos. My norm when confronting any new burger is to order it "all the way." The Boy got the bacon cheeseburger with grilled mushrooms and grilled onions and barbeque sauce. We got an order of the cajun fries too. (Sidenote: someone ordered right before us and left to go run an errand before picking up their food. This apparently confounded the staff, which quickly went from a friendly "Order Up" to a Gestapo-like: "You there, what's your number? Are you sure? Are we sure it's 86 instead of 88? How can this be?" I almost ate the woman's food out of fear and guilt for it not being mine.)

So this place definitely trades in nostalgia (a la Johnny Rocket's or Steak and Shake or even Sonic). Once you order, you get a number, you get your fountain drink, and you wait for your food to come packed in a bag, regardless if you're just taking over to the tables on the other end of the room. The tables were a little littered when we were there, which reminded me of eating off picnic tables. They definitely wanted to bare bones in the decor and set up. Really commited to the idea of fast food and no frills and all that. Except with a nice long list of toppings to make up for only having burgers, hot dogs (and one grilled cheese which I'm sure is American cheese in a hamburger bun).

Five Guys has quite the reputation of being the best burger around. They make sure you're aware of this fact by plastering the walls with articles and quotes from The Washingtonian and the Long Island local paper, etc.

I have to say the meat quality was excellent. The bun could have better and could have been toasted. There definitely could have been less raw onions (coarsely chopped) involved -- but then again, I really shouldn't have ordered both raw and grilled onions (probably best not to go "all the way" here). The cheese was just American cheese. Basically everything here was good in the most basic sense of what a fast food cheeseburger is. Like a particularly good Wendy's, minus the drive-through. Except the medium-cut, skin-on fries, with Cajun spices, where much much better than Wendy's (which always mysteriously need salt, despite the fact that I don't add salt to anything else ever).

Oh, also of note: the regular is a double. I guess the little burgers are human-sized. Still, I ate the whole thing. And will probably skip all meals today because of it.

All in all, it reminded me of In and Out (a place I was never rabid about unlike most other Southern Californians). Of course, In and Out also has the gimmick of a secret menu, and milkshakes. And the burger's flavor also kept reminding of something I couldn't quite put my finger on, something that was buried so far deep that it was almost subconscious -- until this morning. It really tasted a lot like Rush's in Columbia, South Carolina (which used to be my favorite restaurant of all time). Of course, Rush's burgers are even better with their milkshakes. Moral of the story: start making shakes, Five Guys.

Not even close to Steak and Shake. But then again, Steak and Shake isn't even close to Rochester.


ADDENDUM: Just minutes after I posted this, Village Voice's food blog named Five Guys #6 in the ranking of the Best Fries in New York City.

Ming's

Ming's, at 1038 S. Clinton in Southwedge, has been consistently ranked as some of the best Chinese in town. So the other day, when the weather started to turn cooler and we were both feeling worn down and fluish to make something and too sweaty from working out to eat anywhere nice (like Chen Garden), we decided to try out a new place for some old familiar comfort food.

I ordered the General Tso's, the Boy got Bourbon Chicken. We each got fried rice and we also split a large Egg Drop soup. Once we'd ordered in the teensy restaurant, I decided it was best to air ourselves out outside rather than torture the other diners unfortunate enough to share our post-workout space. After about 15 minutes, our food was ready. And unfortunately, during that 15 minutes we did watch a lot of it being prepared -- which included at least 5 minutes of The Boy's Bourbon Chicken sitting on the very side of the cooking space while Larry, one of the cooks, cleaned out a wok, splashing water and whatever cleaning product ponderously close to the Boy's food. We'll just assume with such an open kitchen, free for all to inspect, that Larry really knows what he's doing and the Boy's plate was hygenically sound. He's still alive at any rate.

My General Tso's was a little goopy, with maybe not enough sauce on some parts (to remind you of the huge amount of breading that's involved) and then of course, tons at the bottom of the container. It was a passing Chinese dish, nothing great, and unfortunately served to remind me of how unnatural some of my favorite Chinese dishes are. Of course it looks nothing like what they serve in China, and it also looks nothing like anything that came out of a farm or the natural world (except the sliced bell pepper which tasted pretty fresh). Lots of breading, fryer oil, white sugar, and red dye.

The Boy ordered Bourbon Chicken largely because he wanted to avoid the things I just mentioned -- he didn't want something fried. The bite I tasted was just like any other mall Chinese/Japanese/Cajun outpost. Nothing remarkable, but not altogether disappointing either. Same for the fried rice, passable at best. No egg that I found, scant veggies, decent amounts of pork. Not much to remember really.

The egg drop soup couldn't hold a candle to Chen's (which always has a distinct soy sauce flavor that I've never seen anywhere else). It was too gelantious -- and being as I'm not a fan of eggs, this is a very disturbing quality. Too much of a semi-solid for me, without any depth of flavor, just a pepperiness. The Boy equated it to some kind of military-hospital-refugee camp substance used to keep people alive and to avoid malnutrition.

I'm not sure about the relationship this Ming's has with New Ming's on Monroe, but for my money, New Ming's is a much much better quality restaurant. It certainly (after the remodel) attempts to be a higher level -- with wine and beer, fancier dishes, brown rice, etc. I'm all for occasionally trips into the down and dirty, especially when it means you get something really tasty, but not in this case.

Dinner with the Band

IFC has a new series debuting Nov. 24 called Dinner with the Band. They just announced their line-up yesterday. Appearing with Tailor chef/owner Sam Mason (who may be the former owner by then), will be Les Savy Fav, Kid Sister and Flosstradamus, and Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Having seen all of these bands/DJs live, I think this has the makings of a great series. Though having seen the guy from Les Savy Fav shirtless at Coachella, I am less enthusiastic about the idea of watching him cook/eat and that heightening my desire to do the same.

Crazy or Crazy Awesome

Little Corner of Mine's Special Peanut Butter and Ketchup Noodle?

I'm all for peanut butter as its own food group, and darn, if this pad thai doesn't look downright mouthwatering. I just can't quite get there mentally.

The killer is in the kitchen

If you're British, chances are you've been injured by a biscuit (aka a cookie, not one of those buttery breakfast things). Seriously, 25 million of them have the wounds to show for it (or possibly the headstone). Turns out these Custard Cremes were rated the most dangerous.

So irrelevant for most of us, but be on guard if you're traveling in the British Isles, or having tea at a Briton's house. And, for the love of God, somebody warn all those Old Toad employees!

Happy Birthday Mario Batali

My favorite chef from the olden days of Food Network (back when actual chefs did it),

and the man who was wearing those dreadful crocs way before anyone else (and also wore bright orange before that other chubby guy with the food show) turns 49 today.

Buon Compleanno, Fanta Pants!

Cake Wrecks

I'm going to a wedding this weekend, so I hope I'm not garnering any bad karma for Choley when I post my new favorite blog: Cake Wrecks.

So. Painfully. Hilariable.

Here's a funny profile of the site's creator as well.

Top Chef Thoughts

So, as is the case with most reality television, I'm a bit late getting on the bandwagon for Top Chef. But thanks to Bravo constantly airing the previous season and Top Chef: Masters, we've finally gotten hooked. Well, not hooked as in love-it-can't-miss-it (a la Mad Men or Gossip Girl), more like these-people-are-so-annoying-but-worth-the-fifteen-seconds-of-interesting-culinary-creativity-and-seeing-someone-totally-ripped-by-judges.

Since the guys at Village Voice gave the go-ahead to start bitching about the show, I figured I'd fall in line.

First, like all reality television, there is lots of moving camera work, spliced with talking head moments from the contestants. Pretty much unmodified from The Real World. The scenes are ridiculously over-edited to create any sense of drama or conflict. Cooking within tiny windows of time with restricted amounts of ingredients in unfamiliar settings isn't exciting enough -- you have to get interpersonal up in here, too.

Secondly, though this fake drama is totally a hallmark of the milleu, somehow TC totally doesn't follow up on the other, more watchable, hallmark: all the fake/real/meta drama that happens when all these people are living in a house together. They never show that much house time! I keep thinking -- (a) chefs drink a lot as a profession (and as evidenced in their "vices" quickfire challenge), (b) they are in LAS VEGAS (where anything scandalous can and will occur at every hour of every day), (c) if I did my math right, there are 5 chefs to a room. 5! So it has to at least be a whiskey filled slumber party, if not the very essence of a co-ed dorm. Yet the only shot we had this season was of Ashley and Jenn writing in journals. Boooring. Seriously, America's Next Top Model brings about 195% more drama and it's just girls under that roof. Get out of the pool and go bring home some strippers and illegal drugs! Geez. Can't someone spin a teensy bit out of control for our entertainment?

Third, yeah the on-show marketing sucks, as do the very frequent commercials that allow 15 minutes of real action stretch out for over an hour (PS - why did the show go off at like 11:12 pm last night - are there no rules in television programming? It's not like it was packed to the gills with events). But my biggest ick factor is the fact that Tom and Padma both seem to be down with shilling virtually any corporation they come across in their down time. Doing a show as a chef/judge/competitor/personality is pretty much admitting that you can't hack the kitchen hours and you want to make some bank. Fine, you're allowed. But you gotta be on the show and then the Diet Coke or Pantene commercial following? Don't be greedy, kids. (Ok, Padma gets a pass because I honestly don't know what else she could be doing with her life beyond hair modeling. Watching her ex, Salman Rushdie, hit on every 20 year old at Butter, I guess).

Fourth, Gail. I can't decide. She can be dorkily honest -- plus 1. She doesn't seem to mind being the not-unbelievably-hot-one -- plus 2. She can be kind of panties-in-a-bunch about stuff -- minus 1. And while she's not the obvious "Vanna White" component, she does tend to throw the boobs out unnecessarily, which can undermine her credibility and at the very least isn't fair when all we see of anyone else is the white chef coat -- minus 1. I guess I'm coming out slightly in favor of Gail.

Fifth, the contestants [spoiler alert]: Kevin is going to win. Called it. He's awesome and he's so cool about not trying to talk smack but clearly being super-talented and down to earth. Love him. Jess will self implode because she's committed to failing and cannot get her lady balls together enough to do anything right. There's just too many other massive fails to have her weeded out yet, but obvis she's Donzo Washington. The whole Michael/Brian sibling rivalry is vaguely interesting and I really hope that comes to a head because their relationship is two things: bizz. are. (PS - strange how they haven't seen each --even Christmas?!? -- for like 9 years but then they both got all goopy over lil Sis in the Air Force. Just falling into the patriotic trap that everyone else did?). Jen seems like a huge bia but thinks she clearly deserves the win b/c Eric Ripert hired her. For his Philadelphia restaurant, sweetie. Deflate yourself a bit. Though this episode showed she's capable of being the Big Bad Boss...duh. Ron, oh Ron. You're delightful in a William Hung kind of way. Not exactly operating on all 6 cylinders, are we? Maybe that's the editing, but he's pretty much Mush-mouth, and I have serious doubts that he's processing the strictures of the challenges (clam chowder in the Nevada desert, his vice is that he took a boat from the Dominican?)

Ashley is my second-favorite, especially since she avoided lip service re: military service (and conversely, avoided making it another "gay issue" like marriage was last week). She also avoided totally bitching out Preeti, who deserved it for dumping the asparagus in her gnocchi water. Totally justified to go all Gordon Ramsey on her for that. Robin apparently later tries to cash in the Cancer Ticket, which could be cool. Eli is slightly under the radar but appears to have his stuff. Big ups ATL this season! That Mike guy -- who is SO L.A. I can't even stand it, and is top candidate for the much-needed drug addiction storyline -- is going to be the second guy out after Ron. Boy has way too much confidence and no skillz. Hector will follow closely behind Mike, though he might be a sleeper. Ash is great, love the sass. There is nothing finer than making a disasterous melty ice cream and having some high falutin' chef eat it up as a custard with a nice texture! Ha! Ash even had the decency to smother his laughter after getting lauded. Who's left? Well, doesn't matter. They must be boring.

To finish on a political rant, however, all the people of color have been or shortly will be voted off. Three chicks are gone. Only one girl has ever one in the previous 5 seasons. Kinda still a white man's world huh? And an urbanite's world too, of course. I'm also vaguely irritated that there's no real mention of shopping local, slow food, anything like that. If you want to win you gotta go for the pork belly or foie gras, and smother it in creme fraiche and wine or something. If you can work in the molecular gastronomy stuff that will probably get a win too. So trendy and so unevironmentally conscious. Let's see something sustainable and green for a change (except for all that plastic courtesy of the Glad family of products of course).

If you missed the episode (or others in the future), look for recaps at NY Magazine and Village Voice. I promise no more recaps here.

Tony D's Pizza

Tony D's coal fired pizza has been in Corn Hill Landing for awhile now. We went there not long after seeing a review in City Newspaper. I wasn't that wild about it at the time. If memory recalls, I had the carciofi -- artichoke -- pizza. This was before they had their liquor license and maybe they were just figuring stuff out. (Also, it was raining and I almost died slidding on their slick floors in my boots).

Well, after a few raves from friends (and after running out of any other casual Italian places to try), we visited again last week. I don't know if it was just happenstance but this time the food was much much better. The pizza is crispy and the portions are huge.

We started with a meatball appetizer. The meat quality could have been better, and I wasn't wild on the sauce, but the balls were huge and satisfying. (that's what she said). The sauce tasted just like tomatoes, but it did have a certain brightness. I would have liked something thicker, but it worked.

We then each got pizzas: I had the special and the Boy had the Vognole -- clams. The Vognole had clams, garlic, parsley -- all the usual clam pie contenders. Doesn't hold a candle to Pepe's of course, but it was balanced and satisfying. I think it's my favorite on the regular menu. Maybe some of my initial hesitation about loving the restaurant stems from the fact that nothing really grabs me on the menu, despite my rather broad-ranging love of pizza toppings. I was debating to make my own (although half of the great toppings aren't available on the make your own list) when the waitress shared with us the specials.

The special pizza that night was spinach, Italian sausage, garlic and ricotta. Why, yes please! Had I not gotten that last-minute option, I might not have had such an enthusiastic reaction. Always trust in the specials, people!


It would be remiss of me not to mention that they do now have their alcohol license. They have a decent stock of bottled beers (including Peroni in keeping with the Italian theme). And their wine list is rather extensive and of average price. I had been meaning to try a Primativo and was elated to find one by the glass for $8. It ended up being a little too drab with too quick a finish, but at least I got to give it a try!

One day I will have to also give their desserts a try -- the cannoli and the HUGE chocolate mousse cake both looked fantastic!

Hubby Hubby

Aww! Yay!

Taste of Texas

Taste of Texas, in downtown Spencerport, was recently reviewed by City Newspaper's food critic, James Leach. The Boy was overwhelmed with excitement when he first heard there was a new barbeque joint for us to try -- and one that received a rave review. So the other weekend we headed over to Spencerport, which is one of those downtowns chock full of "what a cute ___" places -- ice cream shops, waterfront bars, etc.

The good press was definitely helping out TofT because there were already people waiting when we got there, a few minutes before they opened the door at 1pm on Sunday. And about a dozen more came in by the time we were done. The service was very quick -- mostly because you order and the bar and the waiter/bartender/cowboy shoots the order down a zip line to the kitchen, where the alligator clip it's clamped to charmingly hits a cowbell. Perfect!

The food comes right out (or at least when you're there right after opening), and you pick it up, along with your fountain drinks, (beer, of which they have a large selection, is handed over at the cash register), sauces, soups if you ordered it, and even free loaf bread. I really liked that, as most no-frills (aka "legit") bbq places just provide loaf bread and nothing else.

I ordered pulled pork because the review said it was phenomenal. My two sides were fried okra and baked beans. The Boy had ribs, with Aunt Carla's broccoli and cheese and Aunt Nancy's cheesy potato. His complaint were that the two were perhaps a little too cheesy, cold, and heavy -- more in line with a school cafeteria casserole. I'd point out that maybe one shouldn't get two different side dishes with the word cheese in them. However, my fried okra was a bit of a disappointment as well. I was perhaps overly optimistic that it would be traditional Southern fried okra, battered by hand in the restaurant. Unfortunately, it was more in line with some kind of chain restaurants "poppers" or "bites" -- too much batter and not enough flavor. My spirits took a major nosedive when the waitress asked me if I wanted ranch dressing to go with my okra.

Both the ribs and the pulled pork measured up pretty close to Dino and Sticky Lips (although the pulled pork looked greasy, it mysteriously actually wasn't). The barbeque sauce was really, really good. A great match of sweet and spicy for my personal palate. However, the pork had definitely been dressed in the sauce with a generous hand. As were the ribs. I am an unabashed devotee of barbeque sauce, but this was a little much even for me. I think a word of caution for future visitors would be order sides that are acidic -- like the vinegar-dressed coleslaw. Fried and cheesy didn't seem to cut the sauciness, and while the baked beans were phenomenal -- the highlight -- with real bacon mixed in, they were too close in flavor to the sauce. My poor mouth just needed something different after awhile.

Roman Holiday Gelato

Post #150 goes to my all-time favorite: gelato. Prior to seeing Inglorious Basterds Friday night at the Little, we headed over to Roman Holiday Gelato for a treat. They have about 6 gelato flavors and another 6 sorbet flavors.

Now for the uneducated, gelato is denser than ice cream and usually doesn't have eggs (the French style of ice cream contains eggs). Gelato is supposed to have less butterfat than ice cream, but also less air. Conversely, frozen custard (like Abbott's) has less air than ice cream, but a higher percentage of butterfat. Sorbet is dairy-free and usually fruit flavored. Enough with the science...

I got the coconut gelato and the Boy got profiterole (which I believe actually had a profiterole inside the scoop). The coconut tasted very fresh and had a natural coconut flavor. I give Roman Holiday some enthusiastic thumbs up. And I once had one of those punch your visit cards to a gelateria in Florence, Italy and I went through the whole thing in just a few weeks. They were making different flavors daily depending on what was fresh, so it IS tooootalllly reasonable that I walked there nearly every day. No really! Anyway, thus I know "real Italian" gelato enough to know that Roman Holiday fits the bill (and has such cute decorations from the Audrey Hepburn/Gregory Peck movie of the same name). I wonder how often they change their flavors?

Sorry for the shaded picture but sometimes I feel a little creepy taking pictures of food inside the restaurant.

Because I like Marxism with my Special Sauce

The Economist has been doing a series creating a Big Mac Index over the years. Basically it converts the burger into currency and depicts its worth on a global scale. Pretty interesting stuff, that strangely speaks more loudly than that regular old metal and paper stuff.


The newest one, from yesterday, shows how many minutes of work the average person must do in various cities to earn enough to purchase a Big Mac.

Hard to believe someone could work for two hours for the very limited reward that a Big Mac provides. Just doesn't sit right in my stomach.

See also: the Starbucks latte index and the Coca Cola map of the world.

Jambalaya

I've been trying to figure out something new to make lately. All week long we've been living off of Chinese leftovers and one trip out to Aladdin's for pasta. And since I should have a quiet weekend at home for a change, I'm looking forward to making a big trip to the Farmer's Market on Saturday and getting the kitchen clean and ready for a nice big dinner.

Luckily I encountered this jambalaya recipe. I think of jambalaya as a great fall or winter dish, but for reasons contrary to modern physiology, the Boy prefers heavy, hot meals even during the summer. He's always suggesting pot roast or alfredo sauce or anything that requires 3 hours baking time. So I'm guessing this will do the trick for him. And hopefully I'll just go lay outside while it's on the stove for an hour. Just need to pick up the tomato sauce and shrimp and I'm good to go (unless chorizo goes bad...can that happen?) Hmm, and hopefully I can get some fresh tomatoes that are actually ripe so I can make my first tomato sandwich of the season too. That can be lunch!

Ice Cream

Summertime has officially, finally come to Rochester in the past week. Mid-August seems appropriate, right? Also appropriate, a post about ice cream- everyone's favorite hot weather treat.

Since I still haven't had that Williams-Sonoma shopping spree (as I haven't won, or played, the lottery), so still no fancy ice cream maker. Instead I've been looking for easy ways to make ice cream at home instead of Abbott's or Ben and Jerry's. Something with just a few ingredients, that doesn't require cooking the eggs (French style) and a whole lot of waiting. David Lebovitz, author of The Perfect Scoop, is a great ice cream resource for anyone looking to make their own. I've been meaning to try his Easy Chocolate Ice Cream (picture here) since it doesn't require the maker.

But the "easiest" ice cream according to Dave still requires 5 ingredients (suspiciously, two are alcoholic). In the a/c free confines of our kitchen, even the simple tasks of boiling the milk and melting the chocolate prove to be too daunting.

And then today, the perfect solution appeared on The Kitchn: 1 Ingredient Ice Cream. Surprisingly, the ingredient is neither ice nor cream. Discuss. Ok, I won't make a big deal about the mystery ingredient: it's bananas. And so is the concept: B-A-N-A-N-A-S. You just freeze some ba -nah,nah,nahs until it's solid and pop it in the blender until it's creamy. More like cold baby food I guess, but it's worth a shot. The work to reward ratio here seems pretty favorable, especially if you amp it up with some peanut butter or chocolate chips or something.

And if you've found yourself to be to sweaty to even deal with having to wash the blender out (one of my least favorite activities) then maybe you should try out Icecreamists boutique ice cream. The British company is churning out (pun so intended) adventuous and somewhat shocking flavors like the Sex Pistol, which contains traces of Viagra. Eh, I think I'll try the Champagne Ice instead. Plans to come to NY are in the works, so...errr...get excited.

Hattie's

Hattie's is a classic Southern style restaurant in Saratoga Springs. It is probably the Boy's favorite place in the world, and in the top 10 for me as well. For upstate NY, they make untouchable fried chicken.

So of course it's unsurprising that Hattie's head chef Jasper caught the eye of Food Network's resident rooster: Bobby Flay. Flay has a show, Throwdown, where he attempts to use his trademark arrogance to his advantage: he claims he can make your signature dish better than you. I guess he's okay profiting from marketing himself as the cocky villain. Of course he occasionally wins (they pull in local "experts" to choose the better version) but mostly he loses. Squared off against Hattie's fried chicken, he never had a shot.

The show will air January 24th on the Food Network. But I don't have to wait that long -- we'll be at Hattie's this weekend!

Crazy or Crazy-Awesome

Nutella Mint Ravioli? From Handle the Heat.

I think I've just found the best way to use those leftover wonton wrappers!

Pork Dumplings

We are continually in search of weekend munchies now that every weekend has included a road trip and usually some form of tailgate snacking or picnic-ing. The Boy became entranced with this ground pork dumplings recipe on Use Real Butter. Ideal for snacking in the Phish lot this weekend in Saratoga!

Our amended version used 1 pound of ground pork (from the wonderfully friendly butcher at the Monroe Ave Farmers Market), 3 stalks of green onion, 1/4 cup ginger, 1/4 cup crimini mushrooms, and 1/4 cup cabbage, all minced. All this chopping was thankfully done in front of the TV as we watched more Mad Men. It feels less torturous that way. And just mix the veggies and the meat in with some sesame oil and soy sauce.

We cheated and used Amy's wonton wrappers instead of fresh dough. Now there are at least 30 wrappers left to be used some way or another. (My preference is probably to eat them raw -- they're pretty good). We also didn't try to manage the recipe's artful folding style and just folded them diagonally and sealed the ends with water and pinching.

We fried half per the recipe -- in a little bit of oil, then pouring 1/2 cup water over to steam. We baked the other half. I think we both liked the baked version better as they came out less oily. That being said, the Boy helped himself to enough of them last night that I have serious doubts that there will be enough for anybody tomorrow!

Mad Men

In yet another attempt to make my non-food interests relevant to the blog, I am posting this NY Times article on the copious cocktail consumption on Mad Men, which premieres Sunday on AMC. It is my desperate hope that we can set up the TiVo in time to catch the first episode of Season Three, as we'll be in Saratoga to see Phish. Certainly a worthwhile excuse, and there's always the next week.

For those of you that will be glued to your television to witness 1963, there's a drinking game! Just don't try to match Freddy Rumsen.

And that Mad Men themed dinner is in the works, people. Don't think I've forgotten about the cherry ham balls. Now that retro cocktails are back, will the food return too? (Especially with Julia and Julie drawing attention on old school French cooking styles). Any way we can bring back the three martini lunch?