Dinner was served

Thanks to this wonderful recipe that I found at 101 Cookbooks I enjoyed a lovely dinner. Matt was not converted to my new interest in cabbage, but I was very impressed with the flavor that this soup had. I left out the beans, used beef stock instead of vegetable stock, added some pork tips to the mix - because I knew Matt would probably avoid even a spoonful unless a little bit of animal was involved, and topped it off with a bit-o-cheese. Maybe I should have added bacon.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Cheap is embarrassed at you right now

I enjoyed free pancakes with my wonderful boyfriend at IHOP this morning. For lunch I treated Matt to $5 foot long sandwiches at Subway. I don't mind being a cheap date. If it's free pancake day, you can bet that I am going to suggest that instead of eating oatmeal at home we go for the free pancakes.

There is a difference between being thrifty when thinking food and being classlessly cheap. I felt terrible at breakfast when our waiter was running around like a crazy person. He looked like he was having an awful day, and I knew he probably wasn't being tipped very well if at all. When people are thinking free meal, they normally aren't thinking about that poor waiter; so I made sure I tipped him very well. I hope other people thought the same thing and were nice to that poor waiter.

Chow.com highlighted a piece today about this woman who went on youtube to talk about how she steals stuff from all-you-can-eat buffets. Warning this is pathetic.



She literally gives examples of how to snag bags of food. This girl does not look starving. She looks like she is wearing half decent clothes with obviously semi-impressive video and editing software.

I am not a fan of all-you-can-eat dinners. I don't eat enough to make the meal worth it. That does not mean that I would stoop low enough to take extra food, because I might be hungry later. Pardon the rant, but I just couldn't handle this low-class display of cheap.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Oh Baby

I have some bad news for you. Hot dogs may be a choking hazard. Cheese may also be a choking hazard. And you heard it here first, broccoli may also be a choking hazard. You should probably stop feeding your little kids these things immediately; you should probably start with the broccoli.

According to USA Today pediatricians are calling for a warning label to be put on hot dogs. They also said it might be time to change the shape and texture of the hot dog, so it is less likely to be lodged in a child's throat. Really guys, what self-respecting mom doesn't cut up the hot dog before feeding her toddler? I know my mom always did.

The best part of this whole article lies in the numbers. Ten thousand children under the age of 14 go to the hospital every year because they are choking. But the real groundbreaking stuff here is that 17% of these 10,000 choking cases are caused by hot dogs.

I was never a math person, but even I know that 17 is not a large percentage. So what caused the other 83% of choking issues? Why are hot dogs being unnecessarily attacked? Most of us know hot dogs are not terribly healthy. - Matt still tries to argue otherwise.- But really do we need to hate on hot dogs even more?

Hot dogs, like almost every other kind of food, may cause a kid to choke, especially if said kid bounces up and down with food in their mouth while screaming at the top of their lungs. So what's the life lesson here? Watch your kids! Sheesh this isn't hard stuff, people. Make meal time, meal time, not play time. And for little little kids cut up the food, so it's easier for them to swallow.


In other news, I made pork tips for dinner and they were absolutely wonderful. I fried them up a little then cooked them in bbq sauce for almost an hour. They kind of tasted like faux ribs. Hope your Monday was full of good food and not too much work!

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

On my way to the food pyramid

It is a Sunday. I left the house once to go to church. The rest of the day I spent in my room doing homework. Days like these really test my real-meal-for-dinner goal. I try really hard, but quite often I resort to eggs and toast.

I ate the last of my eggs, but yesterday I bought b-e-a-u-tiful asparagus at Whole Foods. That's half way to a great meal! I thawed a pork chop that was too small to make when Matt's over, and dinner is served.

Well ok raw asparagus and a thawed pork chop don't exactly make an edible dinner. I chopped off the ends of the asparagus, placed them on a baking sheet, drizzled them in olive oil a good friend of mine brought me from her journeys in Italy, and sprinkled them with Adobo. I stuck them in the oven at 375 F and roasted them for 20 minutes. You can see how amazing they looked when they came out of the oven. Imagine the self-control it took to actually take pictures and not just devour the asparagus.

I broiled the pork chop. Broiling is such a wonderful way to cook meat. Just broil on one side till it has some color to it, flip it over, and cook till done. Amazing! It was Matt who turned me on to broiling meat, so I'm going to give credit where credit is deserved here. It is just so easy and fast; leave it to a guy to give it a try first.

Once the meat and asparagus were cooked, I had a completely amazing meal. It's not easy cooking for one. I think the hardest part is motivation, but when a complete meal is only 30 minutes away there really are no excuses.


Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Chocolate nuf said

What is wrong with these pictures? Chocolate tortilla chips. Oh yes weirdness has reached a new level of crazy. I don't think I could eat a whole bag of these chips, that I bought at Whole Foods this morning, but I was surprised by how strangely tasty they were. The first bite was a tease, because it tasted like a regular corn chip. After a few more bites the cocoa flavors really stood out.

In case you are seriously worried about where this world is headed, don't forget the wonderfully chocolaty chicken mole. Just like a good mole these chocolate chips do lend themselves to a savory flavor. The bag challenges you to try them with salsa. I really want to try that. Maybe all day in my apt doing homework makes me feel bold about my food choices.

While I am not buying every chocolate product I can get my hands on, I am actually working on another blog. Oh yes I am a blogging fool lately. This blog is for class. It's all about Pennsylvania Dutch food and culture. Today I blogged all about dinner, fried cabbage and noodles. At least I'm eating well! Now I think it's time for some more chocolate chips.

Happy Eating!!!

Be our guest

Slashfood created a top 10 food songs. I have to admit I didn't know half of them, but #5 made me kind of happy inside. I must say I miss the days when weekends were spent wishing I was a Disney princess and not occupied with oodles of homework. Growing up is overrated. I suggest you just don't do it.

In case you haven't already become bored of me and looked up the Top 10 list, "Be Our Guest" from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" is #5. In a world where shows like Hells Kitchen and Top Chef focus on the drama and underworld of kitchen life, it is easy to forget that the food industry is a hospitality industry.

Whenever I think of hospitality, I think of Chef Lou. He was my executive chef at the Bar Harbor Inn in Maine and, well besides being a wonderful wonderful man, he liked to remind everyone in the kitchen that this was an industry where hospitality was the most important thing. He despised Anthony Bourdain - who I love - because he felt that men like him who uncovered this dirty underbelly of the food industry hurt the industry. Every guest at the hotel was his guest.

Of course that didn't stop him from leading guests on in his kitchen tours and telling everyone that I was the pastry chef or that the pastry chef did not speak English and had been working since 5 that morning - we didn't actually go in till 7. He told his white lies while winking like a little boy causing harmless mischief. In the end every guest at the Bar Harbor in was given the royal treatment, and Chef Lou appreciated anyone who went the extra mile to make someone happy.

Cooking is a social sport. Where is the fun in a wonderfully executed meal when no one is there to share it with you. Don't have any idea what I'm talking about? Invite a friend or two over this weekend and try that vegetable lasagna recipe you've been dying to try. I promise you will have a lot of fun, and you might start a lovely tradition of sharing food and gossip with close friends. Look how wonderfully happy the characters at the Beast's castle were over one lovely guest.



Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Oh the snobby Brits

Thanks to Salon.com and WBZ TV's "One Last Thing" segment I was informed that Tesco supermarkets in Britain are actually requiring a dress code. No more pajamas and you better be wearing shoes.

I want to know where these snooty people who run Tesco get off thinking that penalizing a mom who runs into the store in her pajamas to buy a pound of butter is a good idea. Because it's a TERRIBLE idea. If I want to wear my plaid pajama pants into a grocery store, then the people who work at that grocery store better smile and tell me to have a nice day as I walk out with my bags of food. Sometimes you just don't have the time to put on real clothes, or if you haven't slept in a few days and that 10 page paper is due tomorrow, you might not have the energy.

Supposedly Tesco's excuse for this dress code debacle is that women running into stores in their pajamas and slippers are embarrassing to other customers. Hello sexism, where have you been hiding?

For the record I love grocery shopping. All of that yummy food in one place! I try to wear normal clothes, but what are normal clothes? My purple striped socks with brown pants embarrassed Matt, and we went grocery shopping while I was wearing them. The day that the fashion police have to guard grocery stores is the day I will begin using Peapod. Leave it to the British to suck the fun and pajamas out of life.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily