This all started a couple of years ago when I was watching the first season of “Feasting on Asphalt”. In the course of their voyage across the United States Alton Brown and his crew ate a wide and weird variety of things, including koolicles at one stop somewhere in the deep deep South. Koolicles are dill pickles that have been removed from their brine and then marinated in Kool-Aid for several weeks to give them a nice unnatural fluorescent glow and a sweet sour flavor.
An infinite number of lists exist detailing what the absolutely essential pieces of cooking equipment are. When it comes right down to it I think the only things you absolutely have to have are a frying pan, a pot, a cutting board and a knife. However, for those of us who aren’t living like minimalists there are a number of other things that feel essential.
I feel the need for at least two large pots, one smaller pot, two frying pans, a pie plate, an uncounted number of small sharp knives made by Victorinox, a large chef’s knife, a zester and at least 5 bowls in a range of sizes. Pretty much everything else in my kitchen is a nice bonus, but I could live without it*. Read the rest of this entry ?
Apparently the world wants to party like it’s the Middle Ages. If it isn’t news that the Catholic Church is bringing back indulgences (did they learn nothing from the Reformation?), it’s articles in the New York Times about people turning off their refrigerators. To be fair, the New York Times sounds as skeptical about the whole endeavor as I feel.
There’s being green, and being a locavore, and being conscious of your carbon footprint, and then there’s turning the clock back 60 years. Read the rest of this entry ?
Step 1: Stop by the grocery store on Saturday to pick up some rock salt (to try and get rid of that ½ inch of ice that’s on your driveway – the collective sympathy in Boston for London’s 4-6 inches of snow is somewhat limited), and some milk.
Step 2: Wonder why the grocery store is packed to the gills at 2pm on a Saturday.
Step 3: Realize half way home that you remember reading something about the Vice President throwing a Super Bowl party. Realize they must have been talking about this weekend (my boss refuses to believe that I’m this oblivious, but he’s wrong). Spend the rest of the drive home trying to remember who’s playing.
Step 4: Forget that the Super Bowl is this weekend. Read the rest of this entry ?
Monday Night Dinner 