Endless Simmer - A Food Blog

The calm before the storm. New Years is almost here and this time people are coming to DC. In just a few short hours, several friends from college will storm into town, and the partying will begin. So with about 4 hours worth of cleaning to do, Gansie and I decided we needed some food fuel. I whipped up some scrambled eggs with sauteed red onion, garlic, and roasted red and yellow peppers. We toped that off with some amazing bagels from York, PA and a fresh cut apple.

But mainly, this post is an excuse to post some more photos with my new camera.

As for the recipe, I sauteed the onion and garlic first in some olive oil, adding the jarred roasted peppers when the garlic and onion is almost finished. Remove the veggies and scramble the eggs in the same pan. When the eggs are about a minute short of done, add back in the cooked veggies and mix. Easy as pie.

Oh, and here is another picture, EXTREME CLOSE-UP:

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Especially artsy photos taken with my brand spanking new Nikon D40 Digital SLR camera. ES has just gone to another level.

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Many apologies to all my Beyonces and Lucy Lius who are sick of reading about this obsessively over-chronicled burger stand, but as an NYC-based food blogger, I am contractually obliged to write about Shake Shack at least once per calendar year. Seeing as how it is December 28th, here goes. The following is an on-the-record gchat with our celebro-food-photog Brian:

Brian: hey, want to meet for cheese fries before the show?

BS: it’s open all year now?

Brian: YEAH!

BS: nice…yeah i’m in…who i am kidding that i will get anything else done today

Brian: haha
we’re dating
dinner and a show

BS: cheapest date ever!

Brian: lets blog it!

BS: oh absolutely

Brian: haha

BS: shakeshake in december is def newsworthy

Brian: bring your camera

BS: done

Brian: awesome

BS: i have a question…am I allowed to get a milkshake or is that too crazy?

***

Reason Number 123,549 why I would rather eat in New York than anywhere else. You can order a black-and-white milkshake at an outdoor cafe on a 30-degree day and no one so much as bats an eye.

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He can always see you…

Despite certain commenters protestations that he is so over already, and others’ pleas that he needs to get off the book tours and back into the kitchen, there was virtually no contest: Anthony Bourdain is the 1st Annual Endless Simmer Eater of the Year.

With 450 of you voting, Mr. Bourdain more than doubled his nearest competitor, Joey Chestnut.

Padma Lakshmi came in a respectable third, cementing her often contentious status as a bona fide eater. Al Gore, meanwhile, had to settle for his frequent position as always the nominee, never the top dog.

Thanks for voting - and don’t forget to send us news on your favorite eaters throughout 2008. In the meantime, we’ll keep you updated on the many exploits of the talented Mr. Bourdain.

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Photo: KQED

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My brother, sister and I kicked our parents out of the house to throw a small Eagles party. Sure, the Birds didn’t have anything to play for, well, except to break our collective hearts by actually winning a fucking game. Regardless, friends came over to watch, eat and drink. And drink. We were taking shots of Hypnotiq by the time the 4 o’clock games were starting. And I was passed out by 6pm. This is all to say - I don’t really have any pics of the food. Oops.

I made a chipotle, beef and three bean chilli - served with cornbread muffins (from a box, but hey, I never claimed to bake); chickpea, artichoke and roasted red pepper dip - served with pita chips; spinach and cheese stuffed mushrooms; SAG’s homemade spicy pickles; SAG also made a chiptole dip; and we put out some extra sharp cheddar and Emmental cheese with crackers.

BUT, there were some leftovers of the spinach-cheese mixture, so I turned that into an ad hoc spinach and artichoke dip. Recipe for the mushrooms and the dip post jump.

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Being a Half-Jew , Half-Catholic (just like Robert DeNiro and Christopher Columbus!), I’ve always taken a rather cavalier attitude towards both Christmas and the High Holidays. Of course, the high point of both revolves around food, whether it’s pink ham or challah bread.

My fellow half-Jew friend Bethany and I recently attended the Beloit College Alumni Matzo Ball Eating Contest at Ben’s Deli in NY. We were both shocked be the yellow-yellow color of their balls - much more colorful than my aunt’s bullion instructions could possibly account for. When pressed, the chef admitted they added yellow food coloring for the extra effect. Why, I don’t know - I personally don’t like my Hanukkah feast to look like urine, but to each his own I guess.

Anyway, it gave us the great idea pictured above and below. Since Hanukkah is already over, we made our matzo balls Christmas-y, with red and green food coloring. I have to admit, Beth was the chef, I was mostly just creative director, and we followed my aunt’s recipe, which worked superbly. Full disclosure: we bypassed the chicken fat, and everything seemed to still work OK. Obviously, ES officially endorses the chicken fat version.

I also made some tasty latkes, following the recipe from the Notorious K.O.D.

Below, the super-colorful balls, cut open, for full effect.

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So I have to admit, I’ve been less of a crazy chef since moving back home to New York. When not surrounded by 10 like-minded culinarians living on the same block, I’m a lot less likely to come up with insanity like hot dog sushi. If I’m just cooking for myself, I often end up preparing a non-blog-worthy sandwich, salad or stir-fry. Which kind of sucks, because, you know, I have a food blog.

But this week, I finally got around to watching the Top Chef Holiday Special on DVR. In addition to such scenes as Padma playing Dirty Santa (not nearly as exciting as it sounds), it got me right back into the mood to be running around my kitchen, hastily throwing random ingredients together in attempts to semi-invent something semi-fancy. Remembering I had some awesome leftovers like duck bacon in the freezer, I put together this quickfire dinner.

If I was Rachel Ray, I’d call it a gourmet 30-minute meal. But then I would have to tell you dumbass things like its OK to substitute baloney for prosciutto, so let’s just call it a tortellini explosion.

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- Decorating the tree with candy canes? Bo-ring…you’ll be the coolest kid at Christmas with these bacon Christmas tree ornaments. [BU]

- Eating stale candy canes? Come on, now. Did you know you can make bacon cookies? Never fear, the bacon cookbook is here. [SE]

- Talk about a nice wake n’ bake - you’ll never hit the snooze button again once you have your very own Bacon-Cooking Alarm Clock! [MAKE]

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While every other person riding DC public transportation is reading Express, I use that time to catch up on old WaPo Food sections. As I’m browsing through an October edition, I learn about hottie chef Barton Seaver’s latest award. At his new place Hook, (which is absolutely fucking a-mazing, and if I wasn’t sloppy from two dirty martinis and half a bottle of wine, I would have been able to provide a formal review) Seaver only serves sustainable seafood. Clearly all the green orgs LOVE him, as demonstrated by The Blue Ocean Institutes’s honoring of Seaver. At the gala, Blue Ocean also introduced their new text messaging program.

Get this. Anyone about to buy or eat a fish, but wants to first make sure it’s from sustainable sources can just text to 30644, type “FISH,” then the name of the species and the service will text back with its eco-friendliness and, if needed, possible substitutions. And you thought text messaging was only for being too lazy to call someone.

Photo: Costume Dogs 

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