Endless Simmer - A Food Blog

- Our college eating suggestions brought out a great idea from Yvo:  Easy Mac also came out way, way after I was in college. I can’t say from experience, but, ahem, I hear you can make it without a microwave by, um, running the hot water in the sink as hot as it’ll go for a few minutes, then using that. I would not advise trying this.

I would DEFINITELY advise someone trying this, just so we can know if it works.

- Meanwhile, JakeSG’s tico report got everyone hungry

Pinch o Minch: That all looks amazing. I’d be a tad skeptical of dessert that looks like soap, though.

Britannia disagreed: The jello looks like a piece of bacon, even more appetizing!

- But it was 80’s latest artsy photo that laid down the challenge…

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This post is so long overdue that I’m a little embarrassed to even blog it. Way back when, I bought lavender flower as a random splurge purchase, and asked you all what the eff I could do with this stuff. You gave me a ton of good ideas, and I was all gung-ho to make lavender pork rubs and lavender chicken and lavender chocolate cream pie. For my first step, I said I would make lavender shortbread cookies, since that sounded like the easiest.

I don’t know why I thought that sounded the easiest, considering I know eff all about baking. Even gansie called me out on that one.

gansie:  WHOA!

youre going to bake?

Well, four months later I finally put down the sautee pan and got around to it. Let me tell you, even though it involves baking and sugar and flowers and other sweet things, this is not a pretty story. Follow me after the jump. It’s gonna get ugly.

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(Crabs scuttle in the sand)

Editors Note: Maybe it’s not so bad going back to school. As a teacher that is. ES friend jakeSG teaches DC youth from September to June and then takes a rock star trip in the summer. I’d KILL for a summer vaca. Regardless, jakeSG went back to Costa Rica this year (here’s his take on last year) to lead teens through the hills and farms and lakes of this gorgeous land. You can see the rest of his beautiful pics here and below jakeSG details his fresh from the farm meal.

by: jakeSG

I eat well in Costa Rica, but nothing prepared me for the cooking of Ana Cerdas Rodriguez. The thirty-five year old mother of three spends days jotting down recipes in a handwritten cookbook, some of which she learns from the occasional cooking show on one of the three channels the family gets in Guadalupe de Rivas. Most of the food I get in these homes is terrific, but they all lack the presentation that Anaisa labors to achieve.

She outdoes even the nicest Tico restaurant I’ve been to, framing her gallo pinto (beans and rice for breakfast) in a glass to achieve that perfect shape. Her maduros (slowly sauteed green bananas) are delicate and sweet, never burned.

The Fresh Meal took place on Dia de la Madre, a day in which she shouldn’t have been cooking, but she still intended to show us what it meant to use what you have around. I’ve been reading a lot about food lately (Michael Pollan and Russ Parsons) and the underlying, constant theme is: fresh food is better. Period.

The Meal

The trout was bred by Miguel in his man-made backyard pond; there are over 30 fish swimming there. The twins went about to take out 13 of the biggest fish (I succeeded in catching one puny one), although I did manage to stay dry — something that can’t be said for a cousin of theirs who got a much closer look after slipping on a wet rock.

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I count 337 blackberries. You?

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Over the weekend I performed some major procrastination (including this post.) It was my monthly I’m-grounded-I-have-4-articles-due-on-Monday weekend. So instead of writing, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. I’ll be sure to post about my big baking adventure, but my afternoon snack’s success really made me proud.

In the morning I made my weekly trip to the farmers market and picked up peaches, blackberries and yogurt (among millions of other produce). The dairy stand is where it’s at! Oh, and let me make this clear - I hate yogurt. But, and I’m not kidding, tasting so much genuine frozen yogurt prepped me for the real stuff. And, the Keswick Creamery stand offers plenty of samples (!) so I decided to try their version:

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As you probably know if you aren’t living under an extraordinarily large rock, it’s Olympics time! Around here, that means one thing: Carb-loading. No, we’re not running the Olympic marathon, we’re merely preparing to stuff our faces while watching the Dream Team play inexplicably mediocre basketball, witness 15-year-old Russian girls twist themselves into unnatural positions, and see athletes from around the globe keel over from pollution inhalation. Now that’s gonna take some serious energy. On our part. Can we say take-out? Here’e a look at our Top Ten Olympic Carb-Loading Foods:

10. Toasted Ravioli

Photo: Dyobmit

The Italians may think they have a leg up on the competition with their gigantic pasta dishes, but we Americans took their pasta and made it our own. How? By breading it and deep-frying it, of course! The St. Louis chefs who invented this tastiness get bonus points for the creatively misleading naming. No one would be crazy enough to order something called fried, breaded ravioli. But toasted ravioli? Sign us up.

Estimated Carbs: 85 grams

9. Fried Chicken and Waffles

Photo: LWY

Who says carb-loading means you gotta give up meat? This Harlem classic gives you all the protein you need, and doesn’t skimp on the sugar. A giant waffle topped with fried chicken, gobs of syrup and butter. Can I get some toast with that?

Estimated Carbs: 100 grams

8. Cinnabon

Photo: Cinnabon

What exactly is in a Cinnabon cinnamon roll, anyway? The official story is “warm dough filled with our legendary Makara cinnamon and topped with freshly made cream cheese frosting.” Now, I think we’ve all tasted cinnamon, dough and cream cheese before, and we know that Cinnabon tastes like none of these things. Every bite is so full of powerful, artificial sugar-y stuff that it’s hard to imagine how they get so much sickly-sweetness into such a small space. However they do it, they deserve an award.

Estimated Carbs: 115 g

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Here’s to an adventurous last month of summer…

Shoot the Rainbow: How to make skittles vodka. [Instructables]

Vodka-filled watermelon keg - complete with a tap. [Serious Eats]

Just a little bit fancier…the Craft Cocktail at CraftBar - Prosecco, muddled strawberries, and black pepper…mmm [The Feisty Foodie]

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Tastes like chicken.

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As you may have noticed, we’re not big on desserts here at ES. It’s not that we don’t have a sweet tooth (oh we do), it’s just that we don’t have any idea how the eff to make them. The closest most of us come to cooking a dessert is mixing blueberry vodka.

That’s where our good friend jac-jac-jackie comes in. Not only can this girl whip up something as complex as banana pudding from scratch, but she adopts the ES spirit to her desserts, throwing in crazy ingredients like peanut butter and Kashi cereal. This gooey and crunchy deliciousness was gone in 60 seconds at a recent ES dinner party. Here’s the hookup:

Peanut Butter-Banana Pudding

Ingredients:

3 large bananas chopped into rounds
1 box Nilla wafers
8 oz. no sugar added chunky peanut butter (1/2 jar)
2 cups Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal- I used the honey almond variety
4 cups milk
6 Ts. corn starch
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg + 2 yokes
1 Ts. vanilla extract
2 Ts. butter

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