Hungry Times Two

Dipping into a new container of Greek yogurt last night, I had a moment. Cabot-brand Greek yogurt is an affront to dairy products everywhere. Or at least to the far-superior Chobani Greek yogurt. Chobani is creamy, milky white, and has a texture so similar to sour cream that I use it for everything - topping off chili and soups, making raitas, mixing it for veggie dips, and just eating it right out of the container. Giant grocery store lured me to Cabot with its sale price, but the joke was on me. I paid dearly for a chalky, lumpy and pasty product that would work better as a caulking agent. Ugh. I think I've been down this road before on the blog, but what are the food brands you're committed to the most?

I'm renewing our segment "We've Got It Made," in which we highlight our joint ventures in the kitchen. HTT is in the house, baby. After sitting on the recipes from the awesome Mrs. Wheelbarrow class on Easter Desserts for nearly a month, I up and went to the grocery store this a.m. to ensure I had all the ingredients to make a pretty pretty pavlova . Since I won't be here for Easter, I thought it would be nice to make it anyway.

My sister Molly gave us these really cool reusable wrappers for Christmas, so I thought I'd share them here. Like most days when I've just come home from a 1.5 hour commute (20 min. walk, 1 hour commuter rail ride), I burst into the apartment ravenous for a snack. Lucky for me, we'd just been to the grocery store (we made a special trip to Trader Joe's, Pikesville, MD while on a Saturday day-trip to Baltimore), so I commenced with the cheese-and-crackers. Once I finished my snack, it was time to store the remaining block of cheddar cheese. Ziploc bag? Yeah, but it's wasteful. Tupperware? Yeah, but it leaves too much air around and let's the cheese dry out/get rubbery. Kids Konserve wrappers? YES, the perfect solution! Here's my four-step montage for preventing waste while keeping food fresh (and stylish). Thanks for the cool, reusable gifts Molly!

Our good friend Jim Garcia introduced us to Cubano's last weekend, so this post is dedicated to him and his Cuban heritage! This Cuban restaurant is on a side street in downtown Silver Spring, MD - not too far from the Metro station and Georgia Ave. bus lines, so it gets a bonus for transit-accessibility. Once you're there, make sure to try an appetizer of mariquitas , thin-sliced pieces of plantain, fried and then seasoned with a drizzling of olive oil, garlic, salt, and amazing flavor. Here's our plate of them, along with my knockout mojito. Next, we moved onto entrees. Erin had ropa vieja ("old clothes"), which is pulled beef stewed with tomatoes, onions, garlic and spices. I tried Masitas de Puerco Cuba Libre Crispy fried marinated morsels, properly dressed with gently sauteed onions (laziness = taken straight from menu!). As Jim advised, the pork chunks were fried, but surprisingly light and tasty - not typical fried-fried greasiness. Jim had ...

Just food for thought: Top keywords that bring the mad hits to our blog (and by "mad" I mean, eh. We have a few dedicated readers -- y'all are too cool): hungry times two food stereotypes mac&cheese black food stereotypes cream cheese thumbprint cookies hungry times two stainless steel hungrytimestwo.blogspot.com can't behave when hungry das ist mir wurst stereotype black food So, most make sense. The ones in bold green make me go hmmmm, just like C&C Music Factory. The overwhelming hits we get from this random post from way back in the day (2008) drives me bananas - my comments about black food and stereotypes , especially considering I usually write about setting apartments on fire and why I love Nutella . Deep stuff right there. And why fore art thou searching quite a lot for " can't behave when hungry "? I don't know if ever said that about Scott on this blog, but I know I tend to get a little irritable become an unple...

So there's a sudden realization that in a mere 10 days my mom and I head to ITALY. Woot, woot! With that comes the sad sadness that is my lack of planning - I have only one restaurant recommendation for Florence. I'm calling out on the Foodies 911 phone line! If  you or ANYONE you know with good food palates knows a damn thing about great restaurants in the following cities: please steer them to me. - Rome - Orvieto -Montecatini - Venice - Assisi - Capri -Sorrento Otherwise, I am bound to troll the Internets for suggestions -- possibly misguided and shady ones -- or my Lonely Planet Guide will be my sole direction. Calling all foodies...do that voodoo that you do. Thanks!

Yes, friends, it's Friday. Let us all shout a collective "Amen." I'm sad I didn't post at all during the week, but I'm hoping to work on that a bit soon.One thing that's interesting - I nearly set our wee apartment on fire this week. I blame it on this recipe for Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Bourbon Reduction Sauce.