Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

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-Everybody has their own spend vs. skimp tips. Amy:

Zucchini – Grate in a food processor and freeze in recipe-sized increments. Great way to use up zucchini.

Guess what? You can save the cash on extra virgin olive oil. The brand Aldi’s carries is excellent: very green, fresh, and olivey. As good as super-expensive brands I’ve had. And it’s like $3.99 a bottle.

Nee Nee:

Bacon – splurge. My market carries some applewood smoked stuff that is fabulous. The strips remain substantial after frying to a crisp, unlike cheap bacon which has ’smoke flavoring’ and are only slightly thicker than paper.

Cous cous – always cheaper in the bulk aisle than the Near East box. As a matter of fact, most whole grains are cheaper in bulk.

Don’t forget to add your own tips!

– Speaking of suggestions, Summer offers a sweet brittle idea:

Ginger brittle?

and that got gansie’s gears going:

almond brittle might be fun broken up in a yogurt with peaches

cashew brittle?
potato chip brittle?
corn brittle?

The first reader who can cook us up a successful batch of potato chip brittle will be automatically inducted into the ES Hall of Fame.

– Finally, OMGYeahYouKnowMe brings state fair food back where it belongs — the political realm:

Whatever MPR’s Curtis Gilbert found out about his cholesterol level, this fair food reminds me of why a public health care option is an absolute necessity – the American cultural archetypes encourage such unhealthful food choices. That being said, I’d rather gnaw on any of this fair food to having some other guy’s finger tip to chew on

(Photo: Captain Cinema)

The Top 10 College Football Tailgating Foods

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With college football season finally upon us, perfect Saturdays are here again. We can return to making grand efforts to relocate couches and televisions outside, justifying midday beers with collegiate loyalties, and of course, the very best part of football…pre-game tailgating!  Without further ado, the Top Ten Tailgating Dishes any food or football fan can’t live without.

10. Wings

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There’s just no substitute for a perfectly cooked, crispy wing drenched in hot sauce and dunked in ranch dressing. Sure, you can go for chicken fingers if you don’t like bones, but where’s the fun in that?

9. Vodka Soaked Fruit

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I’d like to think our great, great, great, great ancestors figured this one out, but let’s be honest; this is pure drunk college ingenuity.

8. Dip

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Salsa, guac, 7-layers, mango, hummus, etc, etc, etc. Those chips aren’t going to dip themselves people.

7. Fried Chicken

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Hey, at least it’s not fried in transfats anymore. I mean I’d still eat it if it was.. but that’s gotta count for something, right?

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Reason #237 Why You Should Shop at the Farmers Market

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When I was a girl I thought farming was the dorkiest thing ever. Who would want to be in the middle of nowhere (hello?!?! malls?!?!) with animals and vegetables and have to be up early to do weird manual labor stuff? I really wasn’t sure what went on there, but I knew I loved my nails painted and my mornings free.

Clearly there’s been a sea change. While I haven’t quite exchanged my 42-inch TV for a hay stack, I’ve rethought my opinion of farms and farming and farmers. If only for the knowledge of where food comes from and how it grows.

Maybe I’m a suburban girl, but I had absolutely no idea how garlic grows. (I also never knew Brussels sprouts grew on a stalk). I know about garlic scapes, but I never really put together the life cycle. And then I saw garlic on this long, rod-type thing. Tons and tons of garlic bulbs attached to 2-foot rock-hard sticks. They’re actually quite dangerous, as my market companion kept having to excuse me for bumping into people with my garlic rod.

You know what I’m gonna say next: you don’t see this at your local grocery store, folks. So please. Head to the market over this long weekend. Find something new to cook. Learn something about your produce. Stop judging those dorky 4H kids.

Cheflebrity Smörgåsbord: (Thy)Roid Rage

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Isn’t it funny when a word or topic that you rarely hear comes up two or three times in a short period of time?

As you probably know, there’s a discussion going on in the comments of the recent Spend vs. Skimp post about the virtues of sea and kosher salt and the need to make sure we actually get some of that healthful iodine that you find in table salt.

Despite the fact that the phrase “tincture of iodine” is one of my all-time faves, the topic is not one that you regularly hear at cocktail parties.  So you can imagine my surprise when I heard on the news that the health department of Pennsylvania is calling on residents that live near the state’s nuclear power plants to pick up new iodine tablets since the old ones have expired.

Iodine twice in one week…what are the chances?

Frankly, if there’s a meltdown, I’d be more more concerned with the giant rabbits.  But never let it be said that Endless Simmer doesn’t provide a public service:  If you hear the sirens go off, start chugging your Morton’s!

On to the smörg…which is always a low-sodium product.

– ABC brings us the most brilliant child in the world:  “Bacon is good for me!”

– The Food Network Mafia brings home a bunch of daytime Emmys, including the statue for “Outstanding Achievement in Making Sandra Lee Seem Lifelike.”

After the jump…How Food Network spent its summer, Jamie gets his groove on and TLC breaks new ground (no, not really).

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Top Chef Exit Interview: Episode 3

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Another week, another Top Chef-testant bites the dust. Our chat with the exiled cook is safely embedded after the jump…

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Iowa Doesn’t Have Squat on Minnesota

A week or so ago, BS shared with us the best the  Iowa State Fair has to offer.  Well, as many of the comments on BS’s post suggested, when you’re talking state fairs and you’re talking food, the Minnesota State Fair is really where it’s at.

Now I really am not one to toot Minnesota’s horn without cause.

I’m an East Coast gal (not born but bred), and I have a sufficiently obnoxious amount of regional and state pride.  I attended undergrad in Saint Paul, Minnesota and I was routinely disappointed with a lot of its food: cheese, bagels, pizza, Chinese. I was lactose tolerant then and had to school those MNers about the travesty that is Wisconsin cheddar; the closest thing to a sharp Vermont Cabot was Canadian Black Diamond cheddar.

However, Minnesota has the State Fair food superiority on lock down.

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Exhibit 1

Check out the video above by Minnesota Public Radio’s Curtis Gilbert. The dude only eats MN fair food and then visits a doctor to measure the presumptively deleterious effects on his health.

At the fair Gilbert gorged himself on scotch eggs on a stick, big fat bacon on a stick, deep fried gator, deep fried twinkies and pork chops among other foodstuffs (I hope he didn’t forget the fried cheese curds!)

Surprisingly Gilbert finds that binging on the fair food, for one day, actually brings his bad cholesterol level down…Could it be that MN State Fair food is actually good for us? Well the deep fried twinkies most certainly are.

More proof after the jump…

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Pine Nut Brittle

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I never, ever thought I would be one to make candy. Never even considered it. Too much measuring, timing, and realizing how much sugar is actually in the stuff. Not for me. I’ll stick to wrapping things in bacon and mixing drinks. But then on one beautiful summer day, there it was, circled by gansie in a recent issue of Gourmet she sent my way:

Pine nut brittle.

Genius. I figured I had pretty much thought of every way to use a pine nut, but i had never turned it into a brittle. And why not? I love peanut brittle but had never considered making it at home, much less replacing the peanut with a more exciting nut. And it’s super-easy. No candy thermometer or any of that junk needed — just a pot, sugar, water, and plenty of the p-nuts.

Check out gourmet’s recipe for the deets, but in the meantime here’s a photo play-by-play:

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