bluegargantua

Hey,

So tonight I came up with an awesome idea.

Tonight I talked to someone who said, "yeah, I wanted to make a lemon meringue pie, but I made too much lemon meringue, so I had sort of this side dish of lemon meringue pie sans pie crust.

Well, you know, making a pie crush from scratch can be a pain in the butt. It occurs to me, however, that you could do the following:

Make a pie crust, but don't put it in the pie pan, just roll it out, a bit thicker than average and bake it up. Then cut it into triangles. The pie filling gets heated up separate.

Now dip your pie-ta chips into the filling and enjoy!

Cordon Bleu, Shmordon Foo
Tom

Hey,

So tonight I had supper at Chez Henri in Cambridge (just off Mass. Ave. between the Porter and Harvard T-stops). It bills as French-Cuban, but actually it's just really good food and drink. A bit on the high side but the food is fabulous and the drinks are tasty.

We started off with the Ceviche Mixta “Yucateco”, a mix of seafood with lime, jicama and avacado. Spread some out on the banana chips and enjoy. I had the Long Island Duck on Wild Mushroom Spatzle and my companion had the Trout Meuniere -- both were delicious. For dessert, I had the flourless chocolate cake of doom which was good, but she had the Mocha Brulee which was six kinds of awesome.

So yeah, it was a great place for supper and we certainly would enjoy going back to try a few more things off the menu.

later
Tom

Good call on the cookies.

I don't want broccoli
I don't Lima beans
I don't whole wheat bread
I want a cookie as big as my head.

Cheese from a can is good
That's what I call action food
But I digress, let it be said
I want a cookie as big as my head.

A cookie as big as my head
A cookie as big as my head
I promise not to eat it in bed
I want a cookie as big as my head.

By the way, my cookie policy is
Chocolate chip only.
Raisins and oatmeal sounds like cereal
I already had breakfast don't I look healthy?

I'll trade you magic words
Please with a cherry on top
Maybe you'd like some sprinkles instead
Or a cookie as big as your head.

A cookie as big as my head
A cookie as big as my head
Don't I look a little underfed
I want a cookie as big as my head.

By the way, my cookie policy is
I'm a chocolate chip girl
Pecans and walnuts, is winter coming
Are you trying to tell my I look like a squirrel?

I want a cookie as big as my head
A cookie as big as my head
Gimme one and I'll make your bed
I want a cookie as big as my head.

I want a cookie as big as my head.
I want a cookie as big as my head.

-- "Cookie as Big as My Head" by Lunch Money

Come scoop my driveway!

Cripes. It took me 3.5 hours to clear my driveway out today.

Once more, Thorn the Unencumbered by the Lessons of the Past demanded to go outside. About 10 minutes later I saw her leaping like a dolphin through the drifts of snow (sinking down below sight on each landing). Soon she was at the door expressing the winter of her discontent -- someday she'll catch on. Ash -- who is pretty much better suited to the outdoors in every way watched impassively from the window.

After that, I ordered way too much Chinese food -- Red Ginger, a new place in Stow Shaw's Plaza. It was a little underwhelming but I was super hungry and they're a brand-new place staffed by the people who could make it in so I'm willing to give them another go. The crab rangoon was reminiscent of Peking Wok so that compels a return visit.

Now I'm in a food coma and I'm going to listen to an episode of Painting with Bob Ross and drift off to sleep.

Maybe in my world, there's a happy little mountain where all the snow goes and I live in the happy little cabin in the happy little woods...
Tom

Hey,

So I started seeing bottles of mead from Danish brewery Dansk Mjod in local liquor stores. One was called "Viking's Blood" which I mistook for the brand name. So rather than Vikings Blood, I wound up getting something called Klapojster Mjod -- a mead incorporating caraway seeds.

The bottle claims that the base recipe for all Dansk Mjod's meads are from a 1700's recipe which they add a couple of twists to. In this case, the caraway seeds.

Tonight I tried a glass.

Um...wow.

OK, first off this thing is 21% by volume so it packs quite a wallop. The other thing is that it's very deep, very honey flavored, but ends with very smoky notes. I'm not the kind of guy to say things like "ends with very smoky notes" so I really noticed a smoky flavor to it. And it was...very interesting. I expect sweet but this was kind of a one-two punch of deep sweetness followed by smoky (not bitter per se, just smoky).

All in all, I rather liked it. The bottles run $30, but it's definitely worth checking out if you like mead (and especially if you like it strong).

Once I (slowly) finish off this bottle, I'll have to pick up the Viking's Blood variant (which uses hibiscus).

later
Tom

Hi,


Did a fair amount of cooking today for Thanksgiving. Did you know that I cook? Of course you didn't. I don't cook. But today I did (for me) a hell of a lot of cooking.

I made the stand-by: Butterscotch rolls. They were meant as breakfast, but I didn't make it over to the Thanksgiving house until 1pm so...they became dessert rolls eventually. These are stupid easy to make and would only require nuts to trip everyone's food restrictions -- big lumps of gluten swimming in sugar, fat, and dairy. But o-so-good! Since I've successfully made these in the past, they were my standby.

I wanted to put up a vegan dish of some kind. I've been meaning to play around with jicama for awhile after having it at a party this summer. Jicama (the "j" has an "h" sound), is a Central/South American tuber with a very mild, sweet taste. I found a number of recipes for jicama fries where slices of raw jicama are covered in spices and served. They went over ok, but I'm not entirely happy with how they turned out. I feel like I want to do something different with the flavor.

The final dish was very experimental -- a vegetable medley involving celery root, pearl onions and mushrooms with some garlic and bacon to round it out. There was a lot of prep involved and there were a fair number of stages in getting everything cooked up. I made a double batch to make sure there was plenty for everyone, but that meant I had to do two runs to make enough. I was pretty nervous as to how this one would turn out.

It turned out awesome. My kitchen still smells pretty wonderful, and the actual dish itself worked a treat. The flavors all came together really well and it was well received. A really tasty dish and now I sort of want to toss in some parsnip as well.

Anyway, lots of good food.
Tom

Hi,

So, I seem to have a fondness for odd people showing you how to do really simple things on youtube.

My gold standard is Steve Sutton showing you how to make iced tea (I posted about this once before but the original link died so here's a copy):

Now I've found another guy who's not quite as good as Sutton, but I like his down-home style:

He's got a lot of other slightly disjointed, but enthusiastic country recipes (I'm tempted to try the peach biscuits). He's got some rambling slice-of-Arkansas-life posts...

..and one about flattening forks:

Just fascinating...
Tom

Hi,

So this weekend, I had a chance to try Miracle Fruit. This is the African berry that alters your taste receptors so that sour things taste sweet.

In this case, we didn't eat any berries, we just let some tablets melt on our tongues and then hit the sour. First thing I tried? A lime.

It was...well, sweet. But that just doesn't convey the "OH MY GOD!" sensation of just cold biting into citrus and having it taste like candy. The only comparable experience was when I tried Crystal Pepsi that one time. My eyes, brain, stomach and mouth (and nose in this case, I could smell the lime) all had this "WHY DON'T OUR EXPECTATIONS SYNC UP!?!?" moment. Lots of fun.

You know what else is fantastic when you're on miracle fruit? Tomatoes. Those little grape/cherry tomatoes in a variety of colors and...amazing flavors.

I realize only now that what would've been interesting would've been eating some dark chocolate. The stuff that's like 90% cacao and sucks the moisture out of your body with the bitter. I bet that'd be pretty awesome with some miracle fruit mixed in.

Anyway, that's the wacky thing I did this weekend...
Tom

Hey,

So I'd been getting some grief at work about how much I enjoyed The Cake Made of Pie.

Today for the holiday potluck I made those scoffing doubters into firebrand zealots.

Flawless Victory, Special Finishing Move. Have you accepted the Cake Made of Pie into your tummy today?
Tom

Hi,

When I'm denied access to the MindNet for crimes against humanity? Bacon Pie will be Exhibit A.

That I conceived of such a culinary disaster is one thing, that I got otherwise sane people to cook it for me shall surely be held up as proof of my pure evilness.

How was it? Well, although we baked it, the grease deep fried the pie crust.

It was pretty awesome. Not *quite* what I was envisioning, but it was a solid first try and I think our results can be worked up into a more complete solution in the future.

BACON PIE!
Tom