Hungry Times Two

I just saw this and thought - now THIS is funny! Marmite is the UK's origin of Australia's Vegemite - a truly bitter, yet somehow pleasing substance of yeast extract that's pretty good when spread with butter on toast.

It's a solid week for home cooked meals at the Adams family wee apartment: Sunday, I baked this Lemon Loaf Cake , subbing in Greek yogurt for sour cream. I also whipped up some tuna salad in advance for quick lunches this week and made this white bean dip from Giada De Laurentiis (I don't watch her show, but her recipes are featured in the 2007 Food and Wine compilation cookbook I love.) The tip is a nice change from hummus - creamier and not as "earthy" tasting, if that makes sense. For Sunday dinner, I made these Moroccan Meatballs with Eggs , as a good friend recently gifted me with her leftover Rachel Ray magazines. Man, those babies are packed with recipes...it's almost too much for the eyes! The lamb meatballs were fantastically flavorful, but the eggs didn't set for me as they suggested, so I warmed the bowls in the oven to get them to soft-cook. It didn't really work but we ate them anyway, runny yolks and eggs whites and all, and we're b...

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?

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.

It's official: I hate my kitchen.

Typically, yes, Scott and I are the picture of marital bliss. It's just our lot in life, to be perfectly happy and always on the same page. Okay, maybe I'm stretching it a bit. We're usually pretty swell with one another, and for that I am extremely grateful. Yet sometimes, certain things can ruin our happy little Adams Family (insert the TV theme here) thing we have going. It's called bad food.

Recently two boxes of Giant-brand (generic) organic Mac & Cheese made it into our pantry somehow - methinks I know who squeezed them into a fully loaded shopping cart not too long ago. And then this week my grocery store trip went awry and I somehow figured we'd get by on random produce, rice, a cut or two of meat, and....magic? Let's just say the cupboard was pretty bare and we did the dreaded yet handy "Breakfast for Dinner" approach one night this week. Yep, grits, egg and veggie scramble, and a commendable approach at potato pancakes from one Scott Adams. So...those two boxes of mac and cheese - one Wisconsin cheddar and another white cheddar - came in pretty freakin' handy. Problem is, they fully brought the mac, yet not so much the cheese. Both boxes were dry, dry, dry. I had to poke around my bowl just to find any semblance of sauce. Here's my stance: if you're going to go the boxed mac and cheese route, do yourself a favor and forget "orga...

If your Google Reader looks anything like mine lately, all you see is post after post after post on Thanksgiving recipes - what's hot, what's not, and what's just ridiculous - yes, I'm talking about you, Thanksgiving Turkey Cake ! Sick. So, while such a delight will NOT make it to my wee little kitchen/dining room table this year, or any year for that matter (though it is a time saver , you know, when you just can't be bothered with all the courses and the dirty dishes), I do have a plan. It involves a turkey breast, not the whole freakin ' bird, as I will cook for four, not an Army. It includes a pumpkin pie - with a twist - a recipe from way down in Caldwell County, NC - a congregation member of one of my dad's first churches who had a way with pies. Also making an appearance - homemade gravy, cornbread stuffing per Scott's request, some green things like roasted veggies, green beans, and maybe a salad (can't get too healthy now, can we?), and som...

Last night while dining at the Korean place and Washingtonian "Cheap Eats" pick Lighthouse Tofu in Rockville, a discussion came up over cooking rice. (Sidebar: I had bad Korean food once in San Francisco - beef tasted "off" and the hot tea was like licking shoe leather. Not good. Long story short, Lighthouse Tofu redeemed Korean food for me - beef bulgogi is now the jam. YUM. Get some.) I can't seem to figure it out, but ever since I tossed out my non-stick cookware and switched to my All-Clad pot (the awesome one we found in the backyard of our first rental house in Nashville, but that's another story), rice at our house continues to be a rocky deal. I've tried lowering the heat on our gas range or upping it just a tad. I've played with the water to rice ratio, now working with a one and a half cup of water to one cup rice situation. I've washed the rice in a strainer, even. Sadly, sometimes the result is too sticky/gluey. Often the rice drie...

So last week I tried something new - the spaghetti squash I picked up from the apple- pickin ' farm (post on that coming soon...it's been a full weekend and I realize I didn't even do a Friday Shout Out last week...my bad, dogs, my bad. No I did NOT just type that.) I cut both squash in half, slithered out the slimy bits and seeds, and microwaved them for about 10 minutes. I shredded out the flesh, which really did look similar to pasta in texture - maybe an orange-like cellophane noodle? - and as I was doing the Mexican casserole dish I love from the Moosewood I gave the noodles some cumin, cayenne and salt and pepper sprinkling, and a little buttah . Welllllllllllllll .... those "noodles" were rather mushy, and a little too sweet for my tastebuds that evening. I perhaps overnuked them in the microwave? Or just don't know how to massage them and give them their best treatment. Any ideas are recommended, as I like the idea of a fall veggie that could replac...

A "trending topic" on the Internets right now is apparently " Spaghetti tacos ." Uhhh ...no thanks. The only weird "food stuffed in a food" trick I might ever try would be a turducken . Put that in your Google machine.

Lately my breakfast of raw oats, sliced banana, Craisins , crushed walnuts or almonds, and other whole- foody types of things in a bowl, swimming in milk, hasn't really done it for me. It's healthy. Hearty. But kinda...uninspired. I told Scott this while we were shopping on Tuesday evening and he instantly and enthusiastically replied with " Weetabix !" Now I consider myself fairly cultured, so I'm relatively familiar with Weetabix - that funny little brick-shaped cereal. Every food culture has a funny little packaged food item. Much like the Aussies' Vegemite, the American Spam, and the Italian's Nutella , Weetabix is specialness, commerically contained. Or so I thought. We bought a box, I opened it on Wednesday morning, removed a couple "biscuits" from one of the plastic sleeves, and put them in a bowl with my usual banana and nuts. I sloshed some milk in there and made myself a cup of coffee. In the time that I poured the coffee and added m...

I have some BAD groceries in my house. Know the culprit who bought them? I'll give you one clue - he's the dude with the penchant for pinching pennies! Sometimes I myself will shop in a thrifty/frugal/cheap-ass mood, and wind up reaching for the generic brands, examining the cost per unit prices, and even scouring that back table where they put the expired cat food, dented soup cans, old condiments and whatnot. BUT I never buy food that I know is probably crappy just to save a couple nickels and dimes. I cherish my dear sweet mate and love that my husband grocery shops, but some of the things he comes home with are troubling. Allow me to give several examples. 1) The generic brand "Fruit On The Bottom" individual yogurts. This kills me. First off, buy the big cartons of yogurt and spoon them into containers if you want to save money - the individual ones are more expensive and wasteful. Also, that "fruit" on the bottom is less fresh and more funky. It's ...

It's amazing what you can find on these crazy Interwebs. Exhibit A: Yep, Little Debbie tries and tries to wear me down with her promise of cheap, sweet thrills but somehow I've managed to stay away from a box of Oatmeal Cream Pies in my own home for over a week now.* Scott's responsible for this devil woman's merchandise taking up space in my pantry. He has a bit of a sweet tooth for foods that aren't really, well, food. Looking at the box of OCPs, here's the ingredients: Corn Syrup, Enriched Bleached Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1] Riboflavin [Vitamin B2] (Folic Acid)Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil with TBHQ to Preserve Flavor, Dextrose, Water, Oats, Sugar, Molasses, Raisins, contains 2% or less of each of the Following: Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Ammonium Bicarbonate) Whey [Milk] Emulsifiers (Soy Lecithin, Mono and Diglycerides, Sorbitan Monostearate, Polysorbate 60)Salt, Cor...

Previous discussions on what you eat when no one else is around resulted in some pretty amazing confessions by myself and fellow readers: bowlfuls of popcorn, toasted roast beef sandwiches, cracker meals of Triscuits, cottage cheese and pepperoni. It just goes to show that a "meal" isn't always a tidy entree with two sides. My solo meal last night was no exception. Lately I have been eeking by with weekend grocery shops of $75 or less - a paltry sum compared to our ( hush hush retailer ) Trader Joe's shops circa Fall 2008/Winter 2009. While Scott and I aren't going hungry, we're not exactly brimming with meal possibilities up in our wee kitchen. Scott was in Baltimore on a bike ride - an evening ride through some pretty special "transitional neighborhoods" that had me a little edgy with concern, but never mind that. SO. After rejecting the leftover pasta I thawed from the freezer and canceling out the notion of a veggie burger sandwich (it was the b...

Just because I want to know this has happened to someone else before... Ever made a disastrous food run? Around 1pm today, I started craving something sweet and icy. Frozen yogurt came to mind, but there's not a place nearby. Ice cream? Too heavy. The Safeway store up the street seemed to be safe bet to find something in their freezer section, so I headed out, making a stop at the restroom beforehand. I exited my office building, hanging a left out of the door, when I felt...a soft breeze. Puzzled, I looked down to see my dress hiked up on the left side and TUCKED in my underwear. Cursing, I quickly whipped the offending dress back into its proper place and, head cast down, moseyed on to my destination. I'm pretty confident both people manning the front counter at work saw my backside sans coverage, as did some smokers who hang out near the front doors. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah . What did I buy once I commenced the Walk of Shame? A $2.50 carton of Safeway brand fat free Lemon Sorbet,...

Scott and I decided to set aside any ambitions of getting our tiny new apartment organized yesterday and instead went out exploring D.C. for Valentine's Day. We parked our car at the College Park Metro Station near our apartment and hit the Green Line for Chinatown/Gallery Place. We were ravenous at about 2 pm, so we hit one of the first places we saw - Chinatown Garden. One visit made me wish we'd consulted the DC Ethnic Food site before hitting the town. The complimentary pot of hot tea was nice, and their steamed pork dumplings were tasty as a meal starter. I thought ordering from the "authentic" back page of their menu would be a smart option. However, our server led me astray when she recommended the salty pepper soft shell crabs after informing me my choice of shrimp and scallops was not available. "It's from Maryland. Very good," she said. I beg to differ. The crab were incredibly briny and so fried that I couldn't taste crab at all - just a ...

I agree with this guy . Lentils ARE pure f**king evil. So much for my unfortunate lentil and winter squash tagine , taken from The Produce Bible . Thursday night's dinner became more like Thursday night's disaster. Well, maybe not a total fiasco, but it's rare that I walk away from a plate of food. Me and the Clean Plate Club go waaaaay the hell back, so if I don't finish, you know something is amiss. I like spices like turmeric, cumin and cinnamon. I like butternut squash. But lentils? I don't think they and I are meant to co-mingle. I think it's a texture thing. Lentils, I'm sorry, it's not going to work. We're just not compatible.

Exhibit A: the Twizzlers Pull-n-Peel cherry liquorice candy I scarfed. Even after I abandoned the unopened package in our work break room, hoping someone would snag it so I wouldn't be temped to consume an unsightly amount of Red 40. Cause the only ways red food coloring is acceptable are 1) Easter egg dyeing and 2) Red Velvet Cake. Twizzlers are produced in Hershey, Pa ., where my mom and her two sisters visited during their annual fall "sister trip" this year. Many Hershey products were purchased for this holiday season, including the Hershey Hershettes (their version of M&Ms) and other ungodly food products. Sorry, Mom, but if the words "diet" and "my ass" are going to be affiliated, I can't have those Hershey delights. Yes, I know I loved the Twizzlers in eighth grade, circa 1993, but can we put that behind us now? The point of all this is: why is this the season when, no matter how hard I try, I wind up stuffing my face full of things I do...

Erin and I took a trip to Kentucky this weekend (2.5 hours or so from Nashville) to tour whisky distilleries the way they're meant to be toured .. with tastings! I say this, as Tennessee's two big ones, Dickel and Jack Daniels, are in DRY counties, so good luck getting a tasting there. Cheers to you, Maker's Mark and Heaven Hill Distilleries (makers of Evan Williams and Elijah Craig). The spellcheck on this just flagged "whisky" above, asking that it be spelled "whiskey." I did a quick look-up on history and culture, with Irish and American whiskeys being spelled that way and Scottish, Canadian, etc. being spelled whisky . Bourbon, we learned, must have the following attributes: -at least 51% corn (most are 70% or so) -made in America -no more than 160 proof / 80% alcohol by volume (ABV) -finished in charred white oak barrels In fall 2008, we visited Isle of Arran Distellers , where we learned that Scotch is ironically finished in used, oak barrels, oft...