Liza’s Tips to Eating #2: String Cheese

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Pulling pieces off of string cheese is truly an art form to me. Each time I eat string cheese, I’m constantly striving to pull a perfectly thin, moderately wide, full length piece of cheese because there is nothing more satisfying. We’ve all been there – you pull a piece off and it breaks halfway down, or you’re pulling and the piece ends up being half of the cheese stick – it’s frustrating! So after years and years of experimenting with different brands, different pulling techniques, and even just giving up on pulling all together and eating the cheese stick whole, I finally discovered the variable that makes all the difference: Temperature.

Now, you don’t want the cheese to be too cold (like straight out of the fridge) because it is hard not to pull gigantic pieces. You don’t want it too hot because the string cheese won’t pull at all.

So the Liza’s Tip to Eating String CheeseSIT ON IT– yes literally, put the packaged string cheese under your bottom. Sit on it for about a minute or two and I promise, it will make the cheese the perfect temperature for pulling perfect pieces everytime! And THIS is how you eat string cheese

Can You Spot the Clone?

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Despite all the concerns about making sure everything we eat is organic and local and free-range, WIRED reports the latest trend in meatpacking is most decidedly not any of those things: cloned meat.

Remember that whole bruhaha about Dolly the cloned sheep and all those other animals crazy scientists from Scotland to Korea started cloning? Well it turns out they weren’t just doing that as a basis to create a Nazi scientist-esque world of human cloning where everyone looks like Brangelina. Apparently, there’s already a lot of money in cloning animals just for the sake of meat production.

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Always Listen to the Simmer

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A few weeks back, our intrepid reporter Edouble told you about the joy and simplicity of popping your own stovetop popcorn. And I quote:

“I must insist that you stop buying microwave popcorn and that you start popping it yourself on your stovetop…This literally takes all of four or five minutes to do.”

Easy enough, right? But did you listen to Edouble? Nooooo. You kept popping your cute little bags of Orvile Redenbacher, and now this man is dead.

OK, not dead, but stricken with a nasty case of ‘pocorn lung.’

“A Colorado aficionado of microwaved popcorn, one of the most popular types, may have developed a serious lung condition from inhaling the fumes emanating from the just-popped bag…the suspected culprit is diacetyl, which adds buttery flavor to microwave brands such as Orville Redenbacher and Act II. For 10 years, the ill man ate two bags a day and savored the aroma of the steam before diving in. Until now, the government and industry watchdogs have been concerned only about cases of what is called “popcorn lung” among popcorn plant workers exposed to synthetic butter. It has been linked to damaged lungs. But no one worried about the effects on the consumer.”

So please, people, listen to what ES has to tell you. Today it’s popcorn lung, but tomorrow you could be choking on pre-made piecrust, or suffering from avocado deficiency syndrome.

Photo: AP

Getting to the Root of It

potato/beet/carrot salad

Fresh coriander? yep!
You guys are lucky I got a pic of this one before it disappeared down my hubby’s gullet!

The inspiration for this delicious, vegetable root potato salad came from all the beautiful stuff popping up in our garden right now. As with everything, it’s best with fresh ingredients, but I’m sure this one would be great with store bought too!

    Salade a trois
    (carrots, beets and fresh coriander)

I pulled about 5-6 carrots and 3 beets right out of our garden and cut them into big bite size pieces. I also grabbed 3-4 decent size red potatoes and cut them the same. I put all three in together and boiled them until just tender.

While they were cooking I went back out to the garden and grabbed a handful of mint leaves, a few sprigs of lemon balm, a couple stems of variegated lemon thyme, a fistful of chives and a few stalks of my cilantro, which has gone to seed.

Gone to seed?!?!… click post-jump.

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Froached Eggs Sweep the Nation

Froached eggs with dill and an everything bagel side

A couple of years ago I learned how to properly poach eggs; by properly I mean in a pan of boiling water, not in one of those little plastic things you stick in the microwave (a cheat if I ever could spot one!) The keys are the swirl and the vinegar in the water, which repels the albumin protein of the egg white (I think, ask Alton Brown!), and thus keeps it together. I’ve since come up with a few recipes I really love with poached eggs, and my own way to cheat. FROACHED EGGS! It’s more of a time saver than a cheat, really.

Learn how after the jump.

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Margs Battle: Coup de Grace

Margarita!!

Okay, so I didn’t really want my first post to be about Margaritas, but I feel I should share this recipe, and at the speed this blog is pumping out posts I better get it out there soon. I have to give credit to my Dad for this one, who has recently become the Margarita master, and he has to give credit to Vilis (click for the original recipe).

Mal on Vilis’ World’s Greatest Margarita

Makes one big ole blender full!
1 1/2 c decent tequila
1/2 c Grand Marnier
1/3 bottle of beer* (I think Corona is a great choice)
1 can frozen lemonade concentrate (I prefer limeade!)
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lime
water/ice to fill blender
simple syrup to taste if desired

*Vilis claims “Beer is one of the few food groups that are less acidic and so the addition of beer to this margarita will make a mellow tasting, smooth drinking formula.” Although beer (pH 4.0-4.4) is less acidic than say all the lemon and lime juice (pH 2.0-2.8) you’re going to throw in here, it’s still relatively acidic and I can’t imagine it makes much of a dent in the relative pH of the pitcher; nonetheless, something about it does seem to really smooth out these tasty drinks.

These things are suave, but fuerte! Salud!

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Editor’s Note: Join the Margarita Rumble
80 Proof’s Real Margaritas   **  The Real Deal Margarita

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