Entries categorized "Food Porn"
01/13/2012
12/01/2011
Food Truck Dinner
I didn't get to get pictures of the food trucks, themselves, because I had a lapfull of leaky dog.
What you're seeing on my plate, though, is half a toasted pork belly sandwhich with tomatoes, arugula, and serrano aioli from The Lime Truck; and several pieces of rainbow roll from Rolling Sushi Van.
I passed on the eel.
10/22/2011
Cooking With Klout!
I've had a couple of people ask me in the past week about Klout. Some people don't get the benefit of it. It's not been that long ago that I didn't get it, either. I posted a couple of times about Perks that I've gotten from Klout, but today's Klout Perk came in handy, indeed!
We'll start with the box. (And forgive the creative license I've taken with the photos in this post. I've become a bit envious of the photos a friend has been taking with her iPhone and running through filters on Instagram. I have no iPhone, and no access to Instagram, so yeah, I'm playing in Paint.NET.) I was on my way to the grocery store when I found it on my front steps. It was a bright orange box o' goodness on a not-so-brilliant day.
This is what it looked like (sort of; see previous paragraph) when I opened the Klout box and took out all of the packing paper. We'll get to what's in there, shortly; but I wanted you, dear reader, to share the excitement of actually opening the box.
This is a rather large set of Top Chef rubber-tipped, stainless steel tongs. They're lockable, too, 'though honestly, I have no idea how that works. These will come in handy, today, retrieving chicken -- so tender it falls off the fork -- from my crock pot.
This is what I assume is supposed to be the Perk's pièce de résistance. This is How to Cook Like a Top Chef. It's a nice, colorful, aesthetically-pleasing hardback book, suitable for whacking someone over the head with, but also packed with recipes, cooking techniques, chef bios, tattoos, and other fun stuff. This will be useful and challenging-in-a-good-way when I can actually afford to cook something that isn't either chicken leg quarters or pork neck bones.
But the most useful bit of all, today, was the coupon for a free frozen entrée from Healthy Choice. It's not pictured, because it's already been redeemed. That's gonna be a blessing, tonight, when my mom wakes up around eleven o'clock and decides that she's hungry!
And Klout, if you're reading this: Free food, and free tools for preparing food? Always, always an appreciated Perk!
10/17/2011
Rice Porridge Pan Cakes
This will be nothing new to those of you who fry foods and cook with flour on a regular basis, but this was a completely new experience for me! I needed to find a way to increase the satiation factor of the pork neck bone and rice porridge I made last night, and this is how I did it:
First I dipped some of the porridge out of the crock pot, careful to remove any bits of bone, and put it into a mixing bowl.
Next, I cracked two eggs into the mixing bowl. And I would've added two eggs no matter how much porridge I was using, 'cause I was totally frigging guessing, here, and two just sounds like a good number.
Then I dumped in some white flour, salt, and pepper. And more flour, because the first dump didn't look like enough.
I stirred it with a fork. The consistency reminded me of cookie dough (which I've also never made). I took that as a good sign!
I was going to make one big cake out of the dough, but since I couldn't find the damned egg turner, I just added spoon-sized dollops of dough to the oil that had been heating on the burner.
They turned out better than I expected!
My porridge had become (painfully hot) finger food, with increased fat content, increased protein, and -- unfortunately -- increased carbs, too. They were tasty, too. But the bonus is this: I now know how to make salmon patties, chicken fingers, and jalapeño poppers!
Things may get interesting around here, real soon!
Pig-Out Porridge
This is what we had for breakfast, this morning: rice, pork neck bones, green peas and carrots, cooked overnight in the crock pot with water, salt, garlic powder, ginger, and freshly-ground black pepper.
The best thing about this meal is that it's very cheap food. The rice, carrots, and peas are from the Gospel Mission. The pork neck bones cost me 48 cents per pound at the grocery store.
The good thing is that it tastes good, and I love the mouthfeel of clumpy, sticky, overcooked rice; which is exactly what this is.
The bad part is that I could eat the entire crock pot of this stuff, and I'd still feel like I was starving. Part of that may be due to rice's easily digestibility, but I'm sure part of it is due to what rice does to glucose and insulin levels, too.
The interesting part is what I plan to do with this food in about an hour or so...
10/15/2011
Fried Potatoes & Eggs with Salt, Garlic Powder, Turmeric, & Bavarian Seasoning
It ain't fancy. It's actually a bit messy. And served in a chair. Whatever. It's too carby, too.
But on a day when I had to boil water and vacuum the kitchen sink, repeatedly, just to do dishes, you're lucky you aren't looking at uncooked hot dogs.
P.S. Those potatoes tasted awesome!
10/06/2011
Crock Pot Chicken Soup
This was my first attempt at making it in the crock pot, but chicken soup is such an easy, versatile dish, that you'll probably see plenty of posts about it, here, and each one will be a little bit different.
Today's dish started with the basics, the things I like to put in every pot of chicken soup: chicken (obviously), salt, garlic powder, ginger, and just a bit of water. Skinless, boneless chicken breasts would've made for a cleaner soup, but I had chicken thighs (including skin and bone) on hand (har), so I went for a heartier soup. I used russet potatoes (cut up, but not peeled) where I would have normally used cauliflower, and added in canned peas; canned, sliced carrots; chopped okra; celery seed; and Bavarian style seasoning (crushed brown mustard, rosemary, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and sage).
I'm enjoying it, but it seems to leave me hungry. The broth is lovely. The Bavarian seasoning adds a nice, subtle twist to my standard chicken soup proclivities. Mom seemed divided between eating the soup and eating more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so that's a definite vote for "good, but not great".
After the past several days -- water heater breakage, clogged kitchen sink, extremely leaky kitchen faucet -- I was just thrilled to be able to cook in the crock pot, again.
And, right now, I'm hungry. Instead of writing, I'm going back for more chicken soup, and maybe tossing in some butter to up the satiety quotient.
10/02/2011
Crock Pot Adventure #8: Bavarian Pork Chops with Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash
This is only the second time I've ever attempted to cook pork chops outside of an oven. The first attempt resulted in undercooked, green meat (blame the marjoram), and since then, I've not been that keen on cooking chops, myself.
(Just FYI: You want good pork chops? You find an old-fashioned cook who isn't afraid to fry those babies up in a skillet, with just salt for seasoning, and serve up the wondrous blend of grease and caffeine known as red-eye gravy. No fancy cooking style, seasoning, side dish, or pretty plate can even come close to competing with gustatory goodness of red-eye gravy. I only wish I were skilled at making it.)
The crock pot changes that, though. As does gifted food. I probably wouldn't have chosen to buy pork chops for my family, given that cooking them isn't one of my strengths, but when my cousin had food delivered a few days ago, pork chops were part of the deal. One of the ladies at the supermarket made sure that a butternut squash was in the mix, because she's heard me rave about them. Sweet potatoes ended up in the mix, too. And, last night, I chose to combine those three things, in hopes of creating a meal that looked, smelled, and tasted like autumn.
With the help of some Penzeys Bavarian Seasoning, courtesy Leesuh from Logic, I think I accomplished that particular goal. The seasoning is surprisingly subtle, when added to meat; so, while the pic above may make it look like I over-seasoned the pork, that's not the case. Another thing that surprised me about the seasoning is that both in today's adventure, and in yesterday's burgers and fries, I've found that the seasoning is better suited to starches than to meats. It's great on potatoes, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash, but a bit weak on both beef and pork.
Meat, starches, and Bavarian spice aside, the only thing I added to the initial cooking was garlic powder. I added butter and salt, later, and I don't think anyone would be surprised were I to postulate that the dish would've been better with those two added from the beginning.
This meal was tasty, but left room for improvement. The chops were tender, but a bit dry. Their flavor could've been brought out a bit more. The butter-and-salt issue accounts for part of that.
A pre-crock pot frying pan, though?
That could've turned this dish from "good" to "glorious"!
10/01/2011
Burgers and Fries: Simple. Not Easy.
If anyone has ever cooked homemade fries for you, you need to get your gratitude on.
Regular Food Porn posts should resume tomorrow, now that I've used all of our near-to-spoiling ground beef.
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