October 2009


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The Turkey Torch Has Been Passed

So many recipes!

My mother, growing increasingly vegetarian, and increasingly averse to preparing animals of any kind, made it clear to us that last year would be the final Thanksgiving where she would make the turkey.

My brother and his girlfriend, being vegetarians themselves, could not take over the reins of the turkey-makers in the family, and so the duty now falls to my husband and me. In preparation, I have begun compiling and reading all of the turkey recipes I can get my hands on. I am amazed at the wide variety of recipes I am finding. How can it be that there are so many turkey recipes out there?

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in Fowl / Holiday / Personal 7 comments
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Dumbest. Packaged. Food. Ever.

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You know we’re not big fans of Sandra Lee-style cheating here at ES, but I gotta be honest about something: I have a weakness for those tiny little packages of onion dip mix. Sure, it’s a long way from actual cooking, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t a great way to make sour cream hella tasty in about 15 seconds. My aunt used to serve this dip with chips every Christmas Eve and me and my brother would sit there and literally devour the entire bowl in — well, about another 15 seconds.

Yeah, I’m not ashamed to admit it — I actually get a little excited about pre-made dip mixes. So I was interested when my mom recently brought me some leftover items from one of those over-the-top gift baskets her office gets for random occasions and it included a package of roasted red bell pepper and goat cheese dip mix. ‘Yum,’ I thought. Looks like instant dips are getting a gourmet upgrade. I’m in for an even fancier 15-second dip-making experience. Then I read the fine print at the bottom of the package:

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in Rants & Raves 11 comments
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10 Things I Learned From One Day as an Assistant Manager of Mt. Pleasant Farmers Market

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Sitting on my couch, drinking a stout with my friend Gee and watching the Phils losing game, I saw an email come in from the director of the Mt. Pleasant Farmers’ Market. Rebbie’s usual assistant couldn’t make it and she asked if I would be interested in helping her out on Saturday. I replied immediately with a YES.

Those of you living in The DMV will know about the relentless rain in the past few days. But as I emailed a few neighborhood friends to visit me, I wrote that never was I so excited to be out in the rainy cold for five hours on a weekend morning.

I mostly stood by a table that said “market manager” and when I was asked questions I would have to hope that the actual manager would be close by. I also took charge of the credit card machine: shoppers can swipe their debit cards and receive tokens in exchange. So besides learning how to work that gadget, I picked up a few other things from being on the other side of the market.

10 Things I Learned From One Day as an Assistant Manager of Mt. Pleasant Farmers Market

1. Access. Farmers markets, of course, provide sustainably grown produce and artisanally crafted breads and cheeses to the community. But who is that community? Markets are finding ways to accept government food assistant programs to make sure that everyone can enjoy thoughtfully grown fruits and vegetables. I learned that one kind of program only allows for purchases of fruits and vegetables and not breads, cheeses or flowers. I agree with Belmont, who worked for a vendor this market season, on this one: “never underestimate a well placed bunch of flowers to lift the spirits.”

2. Gold Lamé Tights. Many shoppers remember to bring cash so in the large gaps of time between the debit card-token exchange, Rebbie, Patrick (see #3) and I dished about market fashions. Yes, someone pulled it together to wear gold lamé tights before noon.

3. Bike Repair. Farmers markets offer more than just food. Mt.P holds a free bike clinic and showcases local musicians. In the most crappy of weather that was Saturday not many people brought by their bikes, which left more time to chat about food and the point of slouchy boots.

4. Honeycrisps. This type of apple is so trendy right now. I don’t usually favor one brand over another, but 80P started requesting this one by name. While waiting for the bathroom key (see # 5) I asked the orchardist why honeycrips were so popular. Apparently there cell structure is different than most apples and they have 4 times the amount of pectin. If I understood this correctly, pectin makes the apple crunchy. Therefore honeycrisps are hella crunchy. Don’t even think about baking with them.

5. Bathroom Key. The bathroom key is the hottest item at the market.

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in Lists / Personal / Trends 7 comments
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Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

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Desperation, if nothing else, leads to creativity. After ML shared with us her oatmeal in a coffee pot creation, we’re particularly impressed with some of your culinary inspiration:

Jessica Joens:
When I was studying abroad in Russia my roommate and I were so desperate for spaghetti with red sauce we made spaghetti directly in our electric kettle, drained it using panty hose, then tossed it with cold tinned tomatoes. It was actually pretty good.

Summer:
Ramen noodles, cooked in a tin can over an open fire. If I’d only had some malt liquor, it would have been the ultimate hobo meal.

Apparently spiking malt liquor with OJ isn’t inventive enough, as Caleb points out:

Take a solid chug past the label and make up the difference with shitty vodka, add OJ per normal, and you have what some of us here call a Socrates. Pronounced Soh-Crayts.

A doctor’s in the house! Alex let’s us know that the Bleeding Heart (and all other organs, too) Cake from our Top 10 Favorite Halloween Cakes is anatomically correct:

omg the organs cake is so oddly realistic…


in Desserts / Holiday 0 comments
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Top Chef Exit Interview: Episode 8

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Padma’s ridiculous hat wasn’t the only loser on this week’s Top Chef: Las Vegas. One chef-testant had to go, and we speak with them, after the jump.

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in TV 4 comments
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Motel Room Gourmet: Desperation in a Coffee Pot

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As you know well by now, we hardly stick to just the gourmet food items here at Endless Simmer. Sometimes you find yourself in a situation where you just don’t have much to work with.

And this my friends, is what a hungry ML feeds her boyfriend while road tripping. After 13 hours of driving, we found ourselves in a seedy motel in a sketch Missouri town with no food. Well, besides a can of Quaker oats and some tuna noodle casserole that had been sitting in the car all day….

Josh wanted to eat the tuna noodle casserole that was…well, lets just say not good anymore. I didn’t want to risk the other driver having food poisoning, so I pulled out a classic motel room trick and made some coffee pot oatmeal.

Yeah yeah, I know Alton Brown did this on his show, but  I’ve been doing cool weird shit like this since I was a freshman in college (who hasn’t?) However, instead of actually making the oatmeal IN the coffee pot (we wanted coffee in the morning, and I wasn’t cleaning that damn pot), we poured hot water and oatmeal into tupperware containers and just let it cook right there. We had stolen bananas from the previous night’s hotel, which made a perfect accompaniment  to our…gruel. Cooking? Hardly. But it fit the bill.

I know I’m not the only one. What have you prepared and eaten out of desperation?

in Breakfast 3 comments
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Never Can Say Goodbye

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I don’t care that it’s 50 degrees out and windy and rainy and my body is begging my wallet to buy a winter squash for a warming soup.

No.

I refuse.

If there are still tomatoes and eggplants and zucchinis at the farmers market, then I’m holding out for summer’s brightly colored bounty to keep me happy in the kitchen. And because of this ridiculous self-induced rule, I also over-buy, which is easy when 6 long and slender eggplants only cost $2.

What to do with that many eggplants?

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in Cheese / Recipe / Veggie 2 comments
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