The problem with this whole food blog thing is that every time I cook a meal, I feel like I have to do something really original and different - or at least put a new bloggable spin on it - so that I can share the results with you guys. It’s a lot to live up to. Every time I make a plain old quesadilla or just boil up some noodles, I can’t help but think that I’m wasting valuable cooking time on something that isn’t good enough to blog. It’s kind of stressful actually. See what you people are doing to me?

I recently realized that because I’m always trying to do something new, I never even think to make everyone else’s great recipes that appear on this site, which really was the whole point of this thing in the first place. So when I had a half-empty fridge and no original ideas goin on recently, I decided I should try out one of gansie’s more delicious looking creations, Eggplant and Chickpea Lasagna.

Before Gansie says wait, wait, wait, that pansy little slice looks nothing like my beautiful hearty lasagna, I did make a few modifications, just so I would have something to write about. Details after the j.

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Happy Birthday, 80 Proof!

Although we signed on Mr. 80P to educate the blogosphere on the virtues of mixology, he soon found his niche in capturing the beautiful, the odd and the surprising in the kitchen. Thank you, 80P, for making the world wide web a more delicious place to be.

Oh, and try to remember us when you’re shooting salt-crusted branzino for the cover of Gourmet.

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OK, I’m gonna have to start this post out with a rant. It’s about Ben and Jerry’s Free Cone Day. I know, you’re not supposed to rant about free ice cream, but bear with me. When Ben and Jerry’s started Free Cone Day, it was a great idea! Then it slowly became a less great idea as more and more people found out about it, until literally everyone in America knew about it. Which is great for their promotion and all, but it kind of ruined it, because if you want free ice cream, you now have to wait online for an hour or longer. I went a few years ago with gansie and after waiting for 45 minutes or so, which was longer than my entire lunch break, I gave up and figured I could just buy ice cream the next day for way less effort.

This is what I don’t get about people and free things. People will do just about anything to get something for free. If someone said, “Hey, if you stand in this line on the street for an hour, I’ll give you 3 dollars,” you’d say “screw off, I’m not homeless.” If your boss said, “How about you stay at work an extra hour and I’ll give you 3 dollars?” you would tell them where to shove it. But you WILL stand in line for an hour for free ice cream, which is only worth about 3 dollars.

After SoGood started the whole LeBron James-Papa Johns debacle, people were waiting in line in Ohio for 3 HOURS for their 23 cent pizza! That is ridiculous. By any standard of measurement, no Papa Johns pizza is worth 3 hours of your life.

So I’ve come to realize that if something is free, it’s just not worth it. That is, of course, unless other people don’t know about it, and people seem to be unaware of Dunkin’ Donuts Free Iced Coffee Day, which is TODAY! (Thursday). Dunkin’ Donuts is one of our fav things here at ES, so this one ought to be great, unless too many pesky food bloggers go and write about it.

All day long today, at any DD in America, you can walk in and get a free 16 oz. iced coffee. Someone check it out and let me know how long the lines are.

Photo: Your Friendly Neighborhood Mac Guy

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About wine. Seriously, nothing. I do love going to wine tastings, swirling red liquid around in a large glass, sticking my nose in, and inhaling deeply.

I don’t smell sandalwood. I don’t taste notes of raspberry. Tannin, what?

But that’s okay. It still tastes great. And it’s free.

Anyway, here is an article I wrote for Express talking about the ways in which a wine lover can educate oneself. Maybe I should listen to my own directions.

Start Your Wine-ing: D.C. Vino Lessons [Express]

PS…After the jump learn about The Zinfandel Grand Tasting in DC next week. (more…)

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Endless Simmer has spent the past several months delving deep into the political world, in order to tell you which presidential candidate will ultimately be the most responsive to issues us food lovin’ folk care about. We have un-endorsed the candidates one-by-one, and you may have noticed that every single one of the candidates we un-endorsed quickly fell from contention. Remember Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Hillary Clinton? Neither do we!

Now that the primaries are nearing a conclusion, we’re ready to unveil our actual endorsement. After much agonizing, we have come to the conclusion that there is only one candidate with the ideas, convictions, and yes, cojones, that the job demands.

That man is Gene Amondson.

Gene Amondson is an artist, ordained minister, whimsical woodworker and the nominee of the Prohibition Party, which yes, still exists. Gene enjoys barbecues, fish and chips, tarts, and is even the author of an illustrated pie cookbook, which is available for sale as an e-book and comes with the amazing tagline:

“The best pies are runny pies, like kisses, the good ones are never dry.”

Hath truer words e’er been spoke?

Here, here, Mr. Amondson. Presidential hopefuls shouldn’t get away with writing quickie books about their political philosophy - they should have to tell us what they can cook! And we should note the pie recipes were handed down to Gene from his mother, and he gives her full credit (ahem, Cindy McCain).

But Gene Amondson isn’t just in the presidential race for the fame and the baked goods - he’s in it for the women. Gene is on the market for a first lady, and he’s got his list of qualifications all ready. Hey, if Dennis Kucinich can use the democratic process to find himself a hot lady, why can’t Gene Amondson?

While you might think our sometimes drunken ways would make ES anti-prohibition, Amondson makes some very convincing points, particularly when he is protesting outside Anheuser-Busch headquarters while dressed as the Grim Reaper. For example, who knew that from 1920 to 1933, when prohibition was in effect:

- Prisons and mental institutions emptied

- Cirrhosis of the liver was reduced by half

- It was the last time America balanced the budget

- In some states, illiteracy dropped from 49% to 2%

Pretty startling stuff, eh? I’d like to add a couple more reasons why it’s time to bring back prohibition:

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(In the spirit of the picnic, palsticware was used, blankets available and sandwiches wrapped)

Last week I asked ES readers and foodies from across the land to help me with my dilemma. I was to attend a potluck picnic but had no idea what to cook, nor what to suggest to my friends, as I was the orchestrator of the event. For our non-DC readers, this past weekend was a complete wash-out; it rained for days. As concern was mounting, we were thinking of creating paddy fields on the national mall. All this rain meant we had to cancel our outside activities, which included missing the Lighting to Unite event at the National Cathedral. We’re not ones to be defeated so we decided to go full steam ahead, transferring the picnic to my apartment.

My friends who cooked did an impeccable job, and we had some amazing dishes. These included:

Coconut & Almond Cupcakes thanks to my friend BJ.

My friend 3Y’s made a delicious Olive Tapenade, I don’t like olives myself, not even on pizza, but this was really something new for me which I know I’ll be trying myself.

There was a Babaganoush made with homemade tahini, thanks to Boozilla.

Summer Camp went totally crazy. She made a Tyropita (Greek cheese pie): Feta and Kasseri cheeses with nutmeg and mint; a Kreaopita (Greek meat pie): Beef with kasseri cheese, cinnamon, cumin, and allspice; also a Tzatziki (Greek yogurt dip): Greek yogurt with cucumber, garlic, and mint.

I made a Brie and Avocado baguette with a mint, garlic and oregano mayonnaise.

Finally, it pains me to write this but I do have to give a shout out to MD, he brought with him boxes and boxes of Popeye’s chicken, yes, you read that right, leave your thoughts on that one in the comments!

I pleaded and pleaded for my friend Tucker to make the potato chip cookies that gansie suggested, but to no avail. He chose to bake some absolutely amazing hazelnut chocolate cookies, the how-to on those are after the jump. They were seriously amazing.

The other superb dish I want to tell you about is the cabbage and bacon salad come coleslaw which one of the more discerning guests created. He used 1lb of bacon for this delight. Again, the recipe is after the jump.

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Note: There is a poll within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

PS - Anyone make any eggs or other great creations for Mother’s Day? Do share. My mom thinks runny eggs are the nastiest thing in the world, so we went out for Iraqi instead.

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My little sister, Sherry, just turned 21. Turning 21 is like a national fucking holiday, well at least with team gansie. My mom was so nervous about her doing something stupid that she couldn’t sleep the entire weekend. We’re that serious about our *legal* drinking. So for her birthday, I knew her friends would be supplying all the alcohol she needed, so I thought I could provide some sustenance.

As we all know, I can’t bake for shit. Well, that’s actually a lie. It’s unclear (well, until you read this post) if I can bake or not. It’s not that I can’t bake for shit, I just never never never bake.

Anyway, for the love of my sister, I decided to try my hand at the oven. Last time I sent her something - rice krispie treats - they were a total pain in the ass, but turned out well (I mean, they’re pretty foolproof.) This time I really wanted to challenge myself.

I’m not really friends with many bakers, except for DAD GANSIE and Mo Green. So I asked the two of them for some suggestions. I also emailed my high school ex-boyfriend’s mom. She’s an amazing baker, and I think the last time I made chocolate chip cookies was with her, like a decade ago. I asked her to think of something I could make that was

1. easy
2. delicious
3. would travel well.

And then Mrs. A had the brilliant idea of a GIANT COOKIE! The giant cookie cake would be

1. easy, it’s just like making regular cookies
2. clearly be tasty - its a cookie!
3. stay moister than separate cookies because there would be less surface area exposed to air

She also suggested that I buy a pizza round pan to bake the cookie on and to stop by my local pizza place (if only I still lived in Jersey…) to use one of their pizza boxes to ship the cookie. Fortunately, I’m a lazy shit and never threw out the big William Sonoma box from one of my birthday presents a month earlier, so I used that instead.

Take the jump to find out about my adventures in baking. (more…)

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I know you all spent your weekend banging your heads on the table trying to guess mystery meal. Some of you got pretty close on the outside layer. Unfortunately, no one got remotely close what is on the inside. But now your long wait is over, after the jump… (more…)

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