Twinkie, Deconstructed

The author of this book traces the origins of all 39 ingredients in a Twinkie. Frightening! MSNBC has a brief interview with the author.

Valentine's Day

G made me a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries and orange slices, the sweetness of which was compounded by the fact he had to ride his bike in the freezing cold to Whole Foods, which is not exactly near his house, to get strawberries. As if that didn't woo me enough, he then brings forth from the fridge...

...this plate of almonds, marshmallows, coconut flakes, strawberries and homemade oatmeal coconut cookies all drizzled in dark chocolate. I really had to reach into my willpower reserves to not tip the plate back and just let everything slide into my mouth. And on top of it all: some lovely jewelry, an awesome cookbook, and a beautiful card. Definitely the best Valentine's Day ever!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Yum! Recipe for Pumpkin Cupcakes from Love at First Bite bakery in Berkeley, CA.

In case you were wondering, Providence has a ready supply of NY Weiners.

Sign in the window of a barbeque joint in downtown Providence.

Chocolate Chips

America's Test Kitchen taste-tests chocolate chips. The winner? Guittard semi-sweet dark chocolate chips.

Sandra Lee: "Pure Evil."

Anthony Bourdain slams Food Network personality Sandra Lee in this guest blog post at Ruhlman.com:

This frightening Hell Spawn of Kathie Lee and Betty Crocker seems on a mission to kill her fans, one meal at a time. She Must Be Stopped. Her death-dealing can-opening ways will cut a swath of destruction through the world if not contained.

Go Anthony!!

(link from Kottke.)

Hot and Cold Lunch

Green salad with carrots, and whole-wheat spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce. I used Pacific Foods crushed tomatoes, which come in a little carton, not a can, which kind of weirded me out and I avoided buying them for that very reason for a long time, but finally decided to try them. They're good! The impetus for the sauce was I had some green peas about to get freezer burned so I wanted to use them, so in they went, plus garlic, onion and spices. I find that whenever I have a foodstuff laying around that I want to get rid of, it can usually get tossed into a tomato sauce. And I am always up for eating pasta!

Homemade Protein Bars

R sent me the link to this recipe for protein bars from Food Network. Sounds yummy! Anything with peanut butter is right by me. Thanks R!

The Day's Haul

Here's what's been getting me through the work day lately, L to R:

Soy bologna and soy cheese sandwich on whole wheat with green leaf lettuce and mustard, green salad with carrots, Kashi "TLC" honey-sesame crackers, Stonyfield farm yogurt, and almonds and raisins to put in the yogurt.





I've been buying the Stonyfield blackberry/French vanilla multipacks, which are the perfect serving size (4oz), and fat free, but 90 calories! That seems like a lot for 4oz.

We'll see how long this salad kick lasts. But I will say, a little bit of lettuce carrots does fill me up and prevents me snacking on whatever office goodies are laying around.

Roasted Vegetables

I was at a restaurant in Seattle the other day, looking for veggie options on the menu, as usual, and finding little variety. I noticed that for the steak and chicken entrees, they were served with roasted vegetables. But the vegetables weren't available on the menu otherwise. Noticing the plates of my fellow diners, they looked so good! I ended up getting the squash soup and salad, but the point is, I've been craving roasted vegetables ever since and it irks me that restaurants don't make them available for those of us who will really appreciate them! So I broke out my new heavy duty roasting pan, and have been enjoying them regularly since. Great with brown rice.

Recipe:

Variety of winter vegetables, peeled and chopped into bite-sized chunks (I used yellow squash, carrots, eggplant, and bok choy here, but potatoes, onions, and things like parsnips, are really good)

Oil & vinegar.

Mix the vegetables with oil and/or vinegar.

Bake at 425 for about 45 minutes. Salt & pepper to taste.

Champagne Friday!

Another fantastic Champagne Friday was held at the apartment yesterday.

Here's my starter salad, who's purpose was to keep me from eating too much cheese and bread. I think it worked! I'm trying to keep some red leaf lettuce and shredded carrots on hand at all times now - keeps me from munching on less healthier stuff (well, ideally...)

Rosemary bread from Citarella with Unio olive oil. So delicious! This is a very olive-y olive oil. I hate olives, but I loved this stuff. And who did I see walking out of Citarella as I'm walking in? Uma Thurman! We totally made eye contact but I looked away really quickly as I hate to gawk when I see a celebrity, especially if they are just out getting groceries by themselves and trying to be a normal person like the rest of us schleps. Anyway...

And the piece de resistance: le fromage and le Champagne (or, in this case, sparkling wine, but who's telling?)Also, some smoked whitefish hiding behind that hunk of cheese. I picked up some "cave-aged" gruyere at Citarella, and the rest I don't remember their names - I will have to write them down next time. Could I be turning into a cheese snob? No way! I still love me some sliced American cheese from the deli any old day!

We ended the evening with chocolate cake shots: one part citron vodka, one part Frangelico, and just sugar the rim of your shot glass. You will be shocked at how chocolate cake-y this tastes. We made two shots and passed them around, so everyone got a few sips. Delish!

Made coffee this morning with this nifty little plastic contraption belonging to S. It basically makes a tiny drip coffee pot right over your mug. Brilliant! So easy, and besides a quick rinse of the thing, nothing to clean up. Love it. The resulting brew was not as strong as that from my French press, however, and I prefer strong coffee. I loved not having any sediment floating around my mug, though, as happens with the press. So, I think I will continue to press, but I will certainly use this thing again too!

No More Land Animals

This article about "unlaid" eggs in the NY Times turns my stomach. Really, truly sounds disgusting. It's interesting how the chef who called them "embryonic" eggs on his menu had to change it to "immature" eggs since people were "balking." So, as soon as the true nature and origin of the food is obscured THEN it's ok to eat. Out of sight out of mind. Probably why you never see the word "slaughtered" on any menus.

This is a really good example of why I've stopped eating meat again. Unlike the customers of "immature" eggs, I can't just put the origin of my food out of my mind with a simple vocabulary sleight-of-hand. I know it's dead animal flesh, I could never really get over that fact. I've been eating meat for about six or seven months now, and it's been primarily an exercise in guilt and torment. Each time I ate a piece of chicken or a turkey sandwich, I felt terrible. Yeah, it tasted ok, but it made me feel bad. I became vegetarian at age 15 for ethical reasons, and now, in my 30s, my vegetarianism is a combination of ethical, environmental and health reasons. No doubt about it, eating meat made me gain weight.
I have decided to continue eating fish, however. So, perhaps that does not make me a true vegetarian, along with the fact that I use leather shoes, belts, and bags. Call it what you want, I am no longer eating land animals!

Work Day Breakfast

Packet of oatmeal with cinnamon and 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed (I keep the cinnamon and flaxseed at work), and two hard-boiled eggs with the yolks scooped out with a dash of salt and pepper. I think I'm going to start keeping my own salt and pepper at work too - I don't like those little paper packets from the cafeteria. The serving size is too much and I never use it all, or sometimes it all dumps out at once by accident and I end up with a over-salted/over-peppered eggs, which is NOT how I want to start my day!

Edamame Succotash with Shrimp

Recipe from Eating Well. I didn't have any cider vinegar, and it didn't seem to make a difference. I like the colors of this dish. It was very quick and easy to make, and I was able to half (halve?) the recipe so I didn't have ten gallons sitting around like usual, going bad or getting thrown out because I get sick of it. A nice break from the pasta and rice-based dishes I always make. Recommended.

Chocosphere

The website is kinda crappy, but Chocosphere is definitely your one-stop shopping destination for chocolate. The "Great Gift Ideas" page has lots of cute stuff, like these Michel Cluizel "Les Tasses," which are little dark chocolate "coffee cups" filled with coffee ganache.

Super Bowl Snacking

"The Super Bowl is one of the biggest snacking days of the year," according to a Frito-Lay representative in this BusinessWeek article on Super Bowl snacking.

Carmelized Onion and Goat Cheese Pizettes

Fridays are now "Champagne Fridays" at the apartment, and these pizettes were the perfect
accompaniement to our bubbly. They were delicious, and so easy to make (well, my roommate did all the work, but it sounds easy!). The recipe is from "Everyday Italian" on Food Network. We didn't have a rolling pin to roll out the dough, so S improvised with a champagne bottle wrapped in plastic wrap, which seemed to work just fine. The pizzettes were not as thin as Giadia's, but whatever. They were still delicious and will definitely be prepared again! They are perfect for parties too, as you can prepare them in advance and then pop them in the oven for 10 minutes and serve them hot.

Burrito Overload

I ate one of these for dinner 9 nights in a row. I won't go into detail, but, uh, I didn't feel so good after the ninth one.