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by gansie

Friday Fuck Up: A Whole Lot of Fucking Up

A little bit ago I led 80P into a terrible failure of a dinner. I felt awful. It wasn’t until he sucked down almost all of the ill-tasting noodles that I realized we could at least turn this barely edible dinner into a blog post. I actually coached 80 along, offering advice on a few of the steps. In this gChat interview, however, I straddle the line between innocent interviewer and guilty girlfriend.

gansie: so, 80, tell me about that time you fucked up pasta sauce

80P: I was hoping to make an edible cream sauce for pasta

gansie: mmm…cream sauce

80P: but apparently I didn’t use enough fat

gansie: what’d you start with

80P: Well, I started with whole milk, which I thought would thicken if I simmered it for a while

gansie: whole milk – why the hell did you have whole milk in the fridge. gross.

in Cheese 7 comments

by gansie

Ask Todd, Answer Gansie: Who Is a Foodie?

What used to be a semi-regular feature, where I would pretend to know as much about dining as the Washington Post restaurant critic, has trailed off. Tom Sietsema‘s food chats became either big bitch fests (yes, children eat at restaurants, shut up about it already) or intricate critiques of not so exciting DC dining establishments, so I haven’t kept up in relating the interesting questions back to you.

The Washingtonian retains its own restaurant critic and hosts its own food chat. I don’t read Todd Kliman‘s chats, save for the snipet I get emailed to me every week. I’m usually entertained, but never was I so intrigued until I read this question.

Washington, DC: Can a vegetarian/vegan be a “foodie”?

by gansie

Burns My Bacon: It’s What’s Inside That Counts

I was a very plain and picky eater growing up. I ate two kinds of bagels: plain and cinnamon raisin. Back then, I didn’t even use cream cheese, just butter.

Eventually I branched out, jumping right into everything bagels with cream cheese, (extra cream cheese). When the whole grain wave hit I made the move toward multi-grain and whole wheat bagels, but I desperately missed the adorning seeds.

While visiting BS in Brooklyn he showed off a neighborhood bagelry, Bagel World, that sold whole grain seeded bagels. I was pumped, hoping that the trend – like all trends – would travel outward from New York.

And why the hell not. Whole wheat is not a flavor, it’s a base. Put some fucking seeds on it.

But then I saw something even better:

in Breakfast / Rants & Raves 10 comments

by gansie

In Support of Sea Turtles

A gifted memory is something I do not posses. My brother, on the other hand, will remember how to find my great aunt’s apartment building, even if the last time we traveled there Reagan was president.

I can only remember a few events from when I was 10 years old or younger, and one of them was balloon day. All of the kindergarten classes were led outside, given balloons, and told to release them at the count of ten.

I looked up. An abstract Seurat of boldly colored balloons. And then they floated into a hundred directions. Apparently killing sea turtles, because the next year we were no longer allowed to send plastic into the air, as we were only 60 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

I of course didn’t want dolphins and fish and turtles to die, but that vision of carefree balloons traveling to the clouds made me happy. But I also think the rush came because I knew it was something our class wasn’t supposed to do.

I haven’t thought of that magical balloon day in years. But when I bought a six-pack of beers with hard plastic rings surrounding the necks, I thought about a change in my environmental consciousness.

80 and I picked up two flavors from Depot Street Brewing in a grocery store in Tennessee. The beer was okay, but I we were happy to buy local and I was fully intrigued by their funky red plastic holders. I tried to figure out the gimmick; it looks like they are reusable and there is a recycling program tied to returning the holders to the brewery (150 returns gets a drinker a free T-shirt).

I’m hoping to see more of this: local breweries leading the green revolution.

in Drinks / Trends 4 comments

by gansie

All We Know: It’s Crackling

It’s Saturday and 80 and I are piling on layers of clothes to go play in the snow. (If you’re into counting: 2 pairs of pants, 3 pairs of socks, a long sleeve shirt, a t-shirt, a hoodie and a long, thick woolly sweater, plus a water-proof jacket, gloves and a dalmatian print fleece headband/ear warmer.)

Amidst the Christmas Story-style preparation, I get an email from Dad Gansie. It has an attachment. I assume it’s snow related, as South Jersey was also hit with almost two feet of snow.

I should have known better. The video featured a mysterious casserole dish that, according to my father is, “crispin'” and “cracklin.'” I have no effing idea what it is, but I do know I forgot to wish my MomMom (grandmother) a happy birthday.

Any guesses out there?

in Contests 4 comments

by gansie

Drinking Snowpocalypse

Snow! Snow! Snow!

That’s really all anyone can say around DC. And I’m sure the rest of the country is sick of hearing about our snow-blanketed city.

But I’ve been taking full advantage of our weather, particularly by ingesting it.

My friends Tim and Alice had people over to welcome the blizzard and during multiple email exchanges, Liza reply-ed all that we should make snow ice cream.

I thought she was kidding, akin to finding a (snow)man chilling on your neighbor’s yard and finally seeing (snow)angels in heaven. Then Alice provided a link. Holy crap! How do I not know about this!

Of course, we wouldn’t be satisfied with just snow ice cream for our snowpocalypse party – we had to incorporate booze.

in Drinks / Endless Cocktails / Recipe 8 comments

by gansie

The Snow Five

It’s funny in DC. People are freaking the fuck out about this snow. Granted, local weather makers claim this “snowmageddon” will be historic with accumulation reaching two feet. And in dorky DC fashion, there’s even the self-important, self-deprecating website: Snowpocalypse.

Well, to be fair, a plain clothes-ed cop whipped out his gun at a snow ball fight last time we found flakes falling from the sky.

Anyway, 80 and I were contemplating our needs for a possible (and historic for us!) second grocery store run of the week. I thought about what my cravings would be over a weekend of drinking and sledding. And that’s when I knew I could survive on 5 things.

Sure, I didn’t want to and 80 and I both ended up venturing to the store. He bought milk, bagels, beer and wine. I bought two sweet potatoes, two buttercup squashes, a pound of mixed, salted nuts and a crate of clementines. But all I really needed was…

in Eggs / Personal 16 comments