miscellaneous
Rib-eye steak: Butter is better
Posted by chris on Mar 26th, 2009 2 comments
- All-natural rib-eye. Sauteed with lightly crushed garlic & whole rosemary sprigs. Basted with butter.
- Organic baby carrots. Roasted. Caramelized with butter and maple syrup.
- Organic potatoes. Minced garlic, rosemary, olive oil & butter.
After eating a lot of vegetarian dishes the past few weeks, I thought I’d reintroduce some steak into my life.
It’s the first time I ever “finished” off a steak with butter in the pan. It definitely brings out some extra flavor from the meat. I suggest you give it a try, if you feel like you’re not getting enough fat in your diet. Just throw some butter into the pan during the last 2 minutes of cooking. Then continuously spoon the melted butter on top of the steak to baste it.
miscellaneous
When no one’s looking, I cut myself
Posted by chris on Mar 25th, 2009 6 comments
While making lunch, I handled kitchen shears, a 10-inch serrated knife, a 7-inch chef’s knife and a serrated steak knife. That’s a lot of razor-sharp stainless steel to deal with. Plenty of opportunities to cut myself and draw blood. And I did.
So who was the culprit?
None of the above. I cut my hand with my goddamn fingernail while washing the cutting board. Thanks, I’ll take the award for Lamest Kitchen Injury now.
Previously on Cut & Taste: Extra burnin olive oil
miscellaneous
Oil’s good for you!
Posted by Ana on Mar 4th, 2009 add a comment
I know most (normal) people use oils to cook. And I do, I do. But I also use one of my oils to moisturize my skin. haha! I know, it’s weird right? When I go buy olive oil at the store, I buy the biggest bottle of it because I go through it like crazy! I use it as a face moisturizer, body lotion (sometimes) and hand lotion. It even comes in handy as an eye makeup remover. Ever since we moved to New Mexico, my skin feels like that of a lizard! No joke. It gets dry, scaly and itchy! And sometimes it actually cracks and stings. Horrible, I tell ya. So not only do my cooking oils come in handy in the food department but also in the “beauty” department. If you ever have a bad case of dry, itchy, and cracked hands, you know where to go. Into your kitchen. Grab you some olive oil and slap it on. I guarantee, you’ll have softer skin in an instant. smile
miscellaneous
Curbing the appetite.
Posted by Ana on Mar 1st, 2009 6 comments
I drink tea. How fufu is that? I usually drink it when I’m online late at night and get hungry. Or I drink it in the mornings when I still feel full from what I ate the night before. I only like to drink specific type of teas though. None of those “diet teas” or teas that “speed up your metabolism”. Bunch of crock IMO. I like peppermint, chamomile, or wild berry tea. Just for flavor. How about you? Are you a tea kind of person? Any kind of tea you can recommend? What do you do to help curb your appetite?
miscellaneous
I hate milk.
Posted by Ana on Feb 27th, 2009 11 comments
...but I love cereal. Doesn’t make sense, does it? I guess I should say that I hate milk alone. But I like it in my cereal. I don’t drink what’s leftover. I always pour it down the sink. I know! Shame on me! There are starving children in the world… =( When I see people down a whole glass of milk it makes me gag. LOL I’m sure my bones will pay the price for it when I become an ol’ woman though. What about you? Do you like or hate milk?
miscellaneous
I heart coffee
Posted by chris on Feb 14th, 2009 add a comment
I gave up caffeine for about a year, but now I rarely go a day without a cup of coffee. The best way to describe the extent of my addiction: 3 workers at my regular coffee stop know me & my usual order. And they all work different shifts.
Previously on Cut & Taste
The difference between caffeine & cocaine: Caffiend
miscellaneous, recipe
Serious Salmon & Quick Asparagus
Posted by chris on Feb 12th, 2009 add a comment
My dinner tonight: salmon poached with lemon & lime slices, pinot grigio and minced shallots. The white wine made me feel like a grown up, but I’m not totally sold on the idea of poached salmon, yet. It tasted great, but I don’t think there was a lot of difference between poaching & other cooking methods. I’ll give it another shot sometime.
The sauce (pictured below) was created by reducing the liquid I used to poach the salmon. With some added juice from an orange, brown sugar and honey.
Asparagus. Quicker.
Ready?
- Turn on your broiler
- While you wait for it to heat up, toss asparagus with olive oil, minced garlic, salt & pepper — you must get your hands dirty, don’t try to fight it
- Get baking sheet. Add aluminum foil. Add asparagus.
- Place the asparagus 4 inches away from broiler’s heating element
- Cook for 8 minutes, rearranging asparagus half-way through
Much better than all the boiling/steaming nonsense (which I’ve tried plenty of times). I’ve cooked asparagus several different ways, but this is the method I’m going with from now on. It’s faster, easier and tastes better. [resists urge to add something vulgar]
miscellaneous
Best Jewish Deli
Posted by annie on Feb 8th, 2009 1 comment
The honor of Best Jewish Deli in my humble opinion goes to Manny’s Cafe and Deli, a cafeteria located in Chicago. They receive quite a bit of attention for their latkes and pastrami sandwiches, and even Barack Obama has been there!
The last time I was there, I had short rib beef stew and a side of mac and cheese. The mac and cheese was merely decent, but the beef was Proustian.
miscellaneous
Happy Chinese New Year
Posted by annie on Jan 30th, 2009 6 comments
A friend of mine said that she loves Chinese New Year because it isn’t about “getting wasted, kissing people, or making resolutions that you’ll never keep,” and I’m inclined to agree. Because when those things are out of the picture, you get to focus on the really great stuff: family and food!
Actually, even on any other day of the year, Chinese people are crazy about food. Whenever I visit my relatives in Shanghai, I notice that they go grocery shopping (at the open air market, always) at least three times each week. Freshness and variety are priorities on a daily basis.
And then when this holiday rolls around, meals become extraordinary! I’ve always wanted to visit China during this season, because I hear people’s lives just revolve around food for fifteen days (the length of the holiday).
On this past Chinese New Year’s Eve, I had dinner with my parents and some family friends. Here is about half of what we ate:
It would take hours to describe all of these dishes because many of them were very intricately prepared. For example, in the bottom picture, one item inside the stew required the cook to stuff a ground pork mixture into fried tofu balls by hand without breaking the shape of the tofu or cutting a hole too large, lest the ground pork falls out during simmering. And let me add that the pork mixture itself had to be prepared with many ingredients through a series of steps…
miscellaneous
Healthy eating postponed.
Posted by Ana on Jan 11th, 2009 6 comments
So as Chris mentioned, I agreed to lose weight to take his money! LOL I was all for it. I was pumped! I even convinced my hubby to do it with me! But then guess what? We go to the store with our grocery list and dayummm! Talk about expensive! We realize that (thanks to this horrible recession) we can’t afford to eat healthy or try to lose weight by changing our diet. Sad, but true. So even though I haven’t changed too much of my diet I am trying to eat less. I am also trying not to eat after 5pm. So far so good. I have slipped a few times. (Ok… more than a few times!) But I’m making an effort! I know there’s no right time to start but hopefully next pay check we can afford to. I know it sounds like a lame excuse but oh well. I’m trying…
On another note, well I kinda cheated today. A lot. I had the same thing Chris had for breakfast the day before yesterday. Only, my pancakes looked more like this. grin
I heart pancakes!
miscellaneous
No blueberry pancakes for you
Posted by chris on Jan 9th, 2009 add a comment
Stay away. Only I may eat these pancakes. Because I was sick when I cooked them.
Quick tip
It’s a good idea to drop blueberries onto the batter once it’s on your pan/griddle, rather than mix them in with all your other ingredients. Otherwise, you end up with grey-ish blue streaks through your pancakes and everyone will hate you.
miscellaneous
Sick. In bed.
Posted by chris on Dec 30th, 2008 3 comments
I caught myself a powerful cold yesterday. So now I’m running a fever and I’m starving, but don’t feel well enough to cook or leave the house in search of food. Getting restless here! If the illness doesn’t destroy me, starvation surely will.
I’ve been awake for 7 hours and the only nourishment I’ve had is two glasses of orange juice — and now there’s no more! Someone wants me to go crazy… Maybe it’s you.
miscellaneous
Tamales: A Mexican Holiday Food Tradition
Posted by Ana on Dec 15th, 2008 4 comments
In Mexican Culture it’s tradition to make Tamales around this time of year. It usually means you have to make over a hundred of them because you can almost have guaranteed, everyone and their momma’s will be over your house eating tamales. This is the first year I made some. Ok, wait. I’m not going to take all the credit. I mean, buying the maza (corn dough), meat and spreading them on the corn husks count, right? haha. But honestly, my Grandma cooked the meat and we bought premade Maza a few days before we actually made them. However, it was a lot of work! It paid off though. They came out delicious and I’ve had them twice today. Reheated tamales are the best!
Is there a certain food you make around this time of year or for any certain holiday?
miscellaneous
Coffee and other fluids
Posted by chris on Dec 10th, 2008 1 comment
I’m sitting in Orchard Valley Coffee, eating a mushroom-chard quiche & drinking a hazelnut latte. The quiche ain’t bad — in the same way that any kind of bread with a bunch of cheese “ain’t bad” — but I’ve had better.
It’s 2PM and this cafe is packed. They have a huge space with tons of tables, benches & couches and almost every seat in the house is taken. Every power outlet within sitting distance is occupied. I thought I was the only one who had nothing better to do in the afternoon. What are all these people doing here at this time of day? Don’t they have jobs to work and life goals to accomplish? Damn hippies!
Ana is talking with me on AIM. She stepped away to tend to her daughter for a moment, but when she came back, she said, “That was the biggest PP diaper I’ve seen in my LIFE! The diaper was pleading, ‘No more pp please…’”
My response:
You’d think this would deter me from drinking my latte… BUT NO!
miscellaneous
In the mood for…
Posted by annie on Dec 6th, 2008 add a comment
Banana stuffed french toast with bacon and maple syrup from Public
