May 2009


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Don’t You Dare Lose My Bacon

egg-salad

I love bacon as much as the next pork psychotic, but as I’ve said before,  I don’t support the use of bacon in that many dishes. Some people love to throw it on everything, thinking that a dish cannot possibly be bad if it has bacon in it. But poorly used bacon pisses me off because when it’s combined with too many other ingredients, it can often get lost, and there’s nothing more disappointing than getting excited for bacon and then barely being able to taste it. I’m talking to you, bacon tuna melt. No thank you. Just give me a tuna melt with bacon on the side.

There are a precious few bacon dishes that just work. A good BLT is heaven, because the crispy stuff plays so well with the other, not overwhelming ingredients. Same goes for a cobb salad. I’m not against bacon cheeseburgers, but I feel the bacon gets lost unless you put like 8 slices on, and that kind of burger should really be a once-a-year occasion.

Needless to say, I was pretty stoked when I came up with this idea: bacon and egg salad. As far as I’m concerned it’s a perfect, simple way to incorporate bacon into a meal. Just take six hard boiled eggs, fry and break up three slices of bacon, and mix it up with a tablespoon of mayo, salt, pepper and whatever other spices you like to throw in your egg salad. Makes 2 American-sized sandwiches, and the bacon taste and crunch shines through.

PS – Of course you know we very much support putting eggs on everything. Thanks to everyone who commented with bonus egg recipes, we’ve updated our post on 100 ways to cook an egg with even more recipes. Check it out.

More Bacon: Recipes, raves and other bacon bits in Endless Bacon.

in Bacon / Eggs / Endless Bacon / Personal / Recipe / Sandwich 8 comments
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What, No Breadsticks?

dominos

Edible serving vessels tend to work better in theory than in practice.  That hollowed-out loaf of bread that holds your spinach dip is always a bit of a disappointment.  Taco Bell has those edible salad bowls which aren’t bad until you get down below the “refried bean equator,” at which point things tend to get a bit soggy.

Have you ever been working your way through a nice serving of baked pasta, al forno for our Italian friends, and thought to yourself, “This would be so much better if I could eat the cookware?”

Well, for the low, low price of six bucks, you can live out your fantasy thanks to the folks at Domino’s Pizza.  The new bread bowl pasta features one of five choices of baked pasta, including flavors such as primavera, alfredo and sausage marinara, surrounded by an edible bowl made of pizza dough.  If that sounds delicious to you, then you’re likely addicted to white flour like I am.

Fortunately, I’m running a marathon this weekend, so one of these puppies will make for the perfect carbo-loading feast.  And if you have a sneaking suspicion that it may not be the healthiest menu choice, wait until you hear the actual numbers…

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in Cheese 9 comments
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Why America Eats Shit

hayesfam

If you’re a tv junkie, you may have seen it.

It may have burned your corneas.

TLC has paired up with Ragu “sauce”, endorsing the product through the above pictured Hayes family. The Hayes star in the new series “Table For 12” (you know, the Jon and Kate replacement, now that shit hit the fan). There’s even a commercial with the busy family, with the tagline “more of the good stuff,” conveying the message that you can eat well for less if you buy Ragu sauce.

I admit, I eat jarred sauce from time to time. But not this shit. Personally, I think Ragu tastes like canned tomatoes covered in sugar packets, which is no surprise considering its third ingredient is high fructose corn syrup. It also contains “spices” and “natural flavor”….what??

Sure, I get it. Ten kids, busy mom, blah blah blah. But is Ragu really that affordable compared to homemade sauce, and is it really easier? I think opening just one of those jars is a bitch, more so if I was feeding twelve fucking people. I’d rather just throw some tomatoes and spices in a pot and let it cook. But of course, the media is endorsing the “moms (or dads) are too busy to cook” doctrine.  Again.

Bottom line: if my roommate and I could make a batch of her family’s sauce while hungover (or still drunk) in between classes in our college apartment, so can anybody. Families don’t have to be subject to this torture, not even the big ones.

Who wants to film a public service announcement?

in Rants & Raves / Trends / TV 16 comments
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Don’t Forget to Tweet

twitter

If you’re a tweeter, or even just some kind of pervert who watches other people tweet, be sure you’re following Endless Simmer and getting all our bites and tastes 24/7.

Endless Simmer on Twitter

in Personal 0 comments
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Cupcake Rampage: Hummingbird Cakes

hummingbirds
I know what you’re thinking: Hummingbird cake? WTF? That’s okay, I’d never heard of it, either.

You could call this the third leg of a twisted Triple Crown of Southern-style baking, following the Kentucky Derby day mint julep cupcakes and the beloved red velvet ones before that. To carry the analogy further, if red velvet is Man o’ War, and mint juleps are Secretariat, then hummingbird cake would be Seabiscuit.

Get it? Of course you do.

Hummingbird cake is another creation peculiar to the Deep South with an even more convoluted and obscure history. Also called “granny cake” and “cake-that-doesn’t-last,” some sources claim the original recipe hails from Australia, where it’s also popular for some reason, while others say it started in Jamaica and was bastardized into its current incarnation along the way. The oldest recorded appearance of hummingbird cake is 1978, when it appeared as a reader-submitted recipe in Southern Living magazine. However, Jamaican newspapers have mentioned something called “Doctor bird cake” as early as a decade before that. The national bird of Jamaica is the red-billed streamertail hummingbird, also called the Doctor bird because its long tail feathers and top-hat-like crest makes it look…kind of, sort of, maybe if you squint and pretend it has a tiny birdie stethoscope around its neck…like the nappily-dressed Victorian doctors of old.

What all this has to do with a cake, no one seems to know. The Jamaica story is a stretch, at best. It could just be called what it is because this cake is so sweet, thanks to sugar from three separate ingredients, even a hummingbird would be attracted to it. However it came to be, the recipe is after the jump…

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in Desserts / Endless Cupcakes / Recipe 8 comments
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Of Family, Tomotoes and Cookless Bacon

tomatopie1

Editors Note: Who doesn’t love a good family bonding story – and over food no less? ES friend LC has been chronicling her grandmother’s recipes. And when I say recipe, I mean ES-style: ingredient listings, no measurements, no guidance. Luckily, LC’s mom is a culinary professional. Below they tackle Tomato Pie.

I made a comment about my project a little while ago.  My family’s recipes are kept by my grandmother in an accordion file full of scribblings and I have set out to transcribe them. The task has defeated one aunt and one cousin who said that it cannot be done because of the illegible handwriting, intentionally and unintentionally omitted items, and the color commentary (what is a “knuckle” of butter?)

I have spare time and talked my mom, a chef, into updating the recipes and gansie into posting them here for, frankly, additional help.  We made a three course meal this weekend but I will post the recipes one by one so you all can concentrate on the details much better than we could.

We’ll start with cryptic tomato pie. Read about my grandmother and mother’s differing food philosophies, cheating, and one tasty piece o’ pie below.

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in Bacon / Cheese / Endless Bacon / Personal / Recipe 8 comments
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Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

jared

– Have you entered the ES/Food Network grilling challenge yet? What are you waiting for? Get your crazy grill tales in now and win a sweet summer grill set.

– Most ESers agree — the President should pardon spicy mustard-lovers. Westcoast: I love mustard. All types, shades, countries of origin — I love it. This Hannity thing is almost as dumb as saying that the reason your titties are all over the Internet is because it was windy and the photos were taken in between the shots you knew were happening.

But Harmony is unconvinced: Dijon or neon yellow, neither do it for me really. I like the hearty, thick brown mustards that have lots of spices.

And NeeNe knows what’s really important:  Subway gives you the option of either yellow or spicy mustard. WWJD? What would Jared do?

As long as we’re OD-ing on mustard, over at Macheesmo, Nick (of homemade ketchup fame) is now making his own homemade mustard. Now that’s patriotic.

– Finally, a huge thank you to all ya’ll who came through big-time to help out with my vegetarian cooking dilemma. After the jump, check out what I ended up making:

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in Celebs / Contests / Desserts / Veggie 5 comments
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