26 July 2005

Party Reminder!

After completing the book meme that was going around awhile ago, Megwoo (from I Heart Bacon) and I discovered we both share a love for collecting cookbooks from the 40’s-70’s. We started talking and decided to co-host a virtual party… If you’d like to participate, here’s the deal:

  1. Either host a real party (we’re hosting ours on August 13th) and have your guests bring dishes from the 40’s-70’s OR if you don’t want to host a party, just make a dish from the 40’s-70’s.
  2. Photograph your food.
  3. Post the photo(s) on your blog by August 15th and email the link to Megwoo or me. You should also submit it to the Does My Blog Look Tacky In This photo contest. If you’re really feeling into it, please also post the recipe and/or a picture of the cookbook you used. If you don’t have a blog but would like to participate, just email us the information and we’ll post it.
  4. If you live in the Eugene area and would like to come to my exciting 1940s-70s party, leave a message and i'll give you the details.


Here is some inspiration:
http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards/czarina.html
http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/knudsen2/1.html

Hope you can join the party!

total failure

jello = 1
eliz = 0

i overset the jello last night. by the time i got to it, there was no way i was going to pour it over anything, let alone pineapple rings and grapes. damnit. so instead, we brought the bowl of jello (much too set to transfer to a nice circular jello mold) and a container of coolwhip to dinner with us. everyone seemed happy despite the fact that we were eating just a boring old plain lime jello instead of a Pineapple with Emerald Wreath.

25 July 2005

pineapple in emerald wreath

am currently attempting first jell-o creation to take to jon's. a lovely dessert to follow sea scallops, dontcha think? anyways, the dinner is in two hours, so the jello just went into the freezer to speed partial set it before putting in the pineapple rings and grapes. i did a little research and learned that using ice cubes instead of cold water is also an effective speed set method, but i don't believe my hundred year-old freezer could ever freeze water cold enough to make it into a solid cube. hopefully it will get that jello to a consistency where i can suspend the pineapple.

results will be reported. i hope it works. i hate the idea of having to try again and again to make jello...that's a lot of jello to consume between now and august 13th.

in the meantime, check out this beauty from the kraft website. it's entirely edible. the chairs are made of chewing gum sticks. gross.

can you imagine being the person whose job is to come up with this crazy stuff? it's even more intense than the adult babyfood testers at gerber.

21 July 2005

fake meat

today i had
for breakfast: yogurt with flax seed and blueberry granola
for lunch: fake turkey on flax seed bread with organic cheese, carrot sticks and an organic apple
and i haven't had dinner yet, because i'm waiting to go to yoga first.

help! i'm becoming a hippie! if it weren't for the office coffee liberally doctored up with generic french vanilla creamer, i'd be in real trouble.

18 July 2005

Cooking Meme

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?

When I was little, my mom made fresh wholewheat bread every week. I'd always "help her" and when the dough was ready, she'd give me a small piece to make into my own loaf. Every time, I'd go hide under the kitchen table and eat half the ball of raw dough, thinking that she had no idea what i was up to. Eventually, I'd resurface with my somewhat smaller loaf shaped dough ready for baking.

Who had the most influence on your cooking?

For better or worse, eating in a co-op for three years probably had the most influence on my cooking. Negatively, in that my gut instinct is to spice dishes as if i'm cooking for 80, and positively in that it encouraged me to experiment in the kitchen. Co-op living also gave me confidence in my cooking only in that it was infinitely better than many of my peers -- but then, it's not hard to one-up pasta cooked with honey, pineapple chunks and butter beans.

Do you have an old photo as 'evidence' of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it?

nowhere nearby. certainly earliest pictures are of me pigging out, not cooking. i've always been a, um, charismatic eater.

Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?

Everytime I make chicken, i'm pretty sure i'll end up killing myself and my guests by undercooking the meat.

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest let down?

a few years ago, i realized that the only cutlery i truly need is a paring knife and a japanese chef's knife. i got a chef's knife as a graduation present this year from close family friends who almost always go out to dinner-- they were puzzled by my request, but happy to play along. also, i love my air popcorn popper more than words can ever describe. the year after college i lived with some friends in a big house in seattle and ours was not one of domestic harmony, to put it lightly. but i got the popcorn popper out of the deal and it's so awesome as to have made the entire experience worth it...almost.

my friends gave me their crockpot and i never use it. i'd like to--it's sensible AND ironic! perfect!

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else!

well, i may be the only non-australian who loves vegemite! on toast! and i do enjoy gefilte fish slathered in sweet horseradish. and chopped liver.

What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don't want to live without?

  • a reuben and a latke with a chocolate phosphate from Manny's Coffeeshop in Chicago
  • popcorn with olive oil, nutritional yeast and oregano (which may also belong in the above category, as well)
  • raw pink lady apples. preferably eaten outside on a cold day.

(and i would like to say that limiting this question to only three items is cruel and unusual. i could go on forever.)

Your favorite ice-cream

Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Therapy, which brought me back to ice cream after a many-year hiatus; peppermint ice cream from Homer's in Wilmette, Illinois; rainbow sherbet in a cake cone; peach ice cream with big chunks of peach

You will probably never eat...

anything with clotted blood, eyeballs, bugs, duck tongue, chicken feet. unless they're all ground up and disguised as a hot dog served with cheese fries.

Your own signature dish

i haven't made it in a while, but i do a good vegan wild mushroom risotto. which is fancy. or i think i can now claim my mother's pizza cookie, a pizza-sized sugar cookie covered with peanuts, marshmallows and chocolate chips.

A common ingredient you just can't bring yourself to stomach

nuts (except peanuts and cashews). cooked cherries. raisins in savory dishes. orange-flavored choclate. cooked carrots. butterscotch. hazelnut.

Which one culture's food would you most like to sample on its home turf?

Chinese. i'd eat dim sum until i burst.

14 July 2005

highlights of the past month

i've been all across the world, more or less, since june 24th and here's my much abbreviated report and still no digital camera. i've got to get on that! i now have too many suitable options. gotta just go with one and stop thinking about it!

Chicago

  • Taste of Heaven
  • Hopleaf dinner: The Hopleaf Tavern in chicago has expanded from a cozy little bar into a sprawling restaurant. a bunch of librarians, my parents and i dined on their hearty german fare, as well as many pints of bell's beer. hopleaf is the un-vegetarian restaurant, that's for sure, but it was pretty tasty. i can't remember what i got, only that the plate was piled about a foot high with chicken, potatoes and veggies. i do remember my delicious bell's oberon, the world's best beer.
  • pizza delivered from Lou Malnatis. specifically deepdish with tomatoes and mushrooms. so simple, so classic and so good. i suspect that maltnati's puts cornmeal in their crust in order to achieve the delightful crunchiness. we usually get sausage, but i've been on this anti-beef thing ever since i saw The Corporation. a sausage pizza comes with a giant slab of sausage, pounded thin and placed on top of the cheese, topped with a bit of sauce. last year when the low carb trend was at it's peak, malnati's introduced a "low carb pizza" substituting the usual crunchy crust with a slab of sausage. meaning you could get a low carb sausage pizza which was essentially a pile of melty cheese and tomatoes (plus toppings) sandwiched by sausage. intriguing.
  • fruity drinks at the Intercontinental or Hilton followed by loads of bourbon at chris and dmitra's. all consumed on an empty stomach. oops. no wonder i can't remember where i was.
  • burgers (presumably organic, free range, bgh-free) at jen's apartment

Cambridge

  • fantastic indian food at maharaja on huntington road...much better, i'm thinking, than the conference dinner we skipped out on. since good indian food doesn't exist in eugene, we had to prioritize.
  • those cute little tomato and cheese baguettes that you can get anywhere. i wish we had sandwich shops in the states...so much better than a big mac.
  • the fantastic home cooking of our hosts featuring vegetables from their backyard kitchen garden and "fool," a yogurt and fruit dish.
  • brunch at The Orchard, in Grantchester, a small town outside of cambridge. this fabulously charming tea room has tables scattered about an orchard of apple and pear trees. i sat in the orchard, reading my book and dining on a tasty cheese scone with artichokes, sundried tomatoes, feta cheese and tea. as i ate, three little british kids ran around the orchard playing tag. quite scenic the whole thing.
  • nasty greasy fish 'n chips in Ely, after a long bike ride. my hosts turned their noses in disgust when i told them what i'd eaten but, hey, it's a novelty for me, even if it's gross. kind of like clotted cream. which reminds me...
  • lunch at Royal Teas in Greenwich, on the return trip. my friend becky turned me on to this place and it's absolutely worth the trip to greenwich. i had cream tea which included crustless salmon and cream cheese finger sandwiches, a currant scone, a piece of banana bread and tea. i could barely roll myself out of there by the time i was finished.
  • more indian food in london with jeremy and carolyn. piles of indian food. sigh. i miss it so!
  • assorted pints

Eugene

  • we got our first flat of strawberries from our CSA and are currently up to our noses in berries. berries for breakfast, berries for lunch, berries for dinner. i couldn't be happier. especially since the strawberries came with a pint of blueberries.
  • green curry with rice noodles, full of delicious assorted CSA veggies

13 July 2005

Virtual 1940's-70's party!

After completing the book meme that was going around awhile ago, Megwoo (from I Heart Bacon) and I discovered we both share a love for collecting cookbooks from the 40’s-70’s. We started talking and decided to co-host a virtual party…

If you’d like to participate, here’s the deal:

1. Either host a real party (we’re hosting ours on August 13th) and have your guests bring dishes from the 40’s-70’s OR if you don’t want to host a party, just make a dish from the 40’s-70’s.

2. Photograph your food.

3. Post the photo(s) on your blog by August 15th and email the link to Megwoo. If you’re really feeling into it, please also post the recipe and/or a picture of the cookbook you used. If you don’t have a blog but would like to participate, just email us the information and we’ll post it.

4. If you live in the Eugene area and would like to come to my exciting 1940s-70s party, let me know!

Here is some inspiration:
http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards/czarina.html
http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/knudsen2/1.html

Hope you can join the party!