Mini Food Rant

So here I am, taking a short break from work and browsing through Pinterest when I see a picture of lasagna. This is all fine and good (and even mouth watering) until I read the comment posted under it: "Best Lasagna. As good as any restaurant. Worth the time and effort!"

...

I'm good with the first and last statements in that comment. It's the middle one that kinda disturbs me. I'd like to preface this mini rant with the fact that I'm Italian. I learned to cook at home. There was good food there.

1) I believe that food at restaurants (of the normal kind - none of the 4 star ones of course), should be AS GOOD AS AT HOME. Not the other way around. Seriously - my husband pretty much won't eat pizza that isn't homemade anymore, because he considers it not good enough. I always tell people I know the best Italian place in town... it's my home.

2) If you've been to good Italian restaurants (funnily enough they're frequently owned by Greeks, if not Italians), then you know that the food is made with a care that shows in the outcome. If you've been to other Italian restaurants or restaurants that serve Italian food along with other fare, you know that much of the time your pasta comes to you mushy instead of al dente, the sauce has too much oregano in it and the sodium content is probably through the roof (which is a good reason on their part to cover it with cheese).

3) When did the standards of cooking become so low that restaurants quality is the goal? Much of what people eat out nowadays is fast food anyway.

Now I'd like to be fair - there are fabulous restaurants that are completely worth emulating, but when I think of the majority of the restaurants that I've eaten at in the past year (on a normal person's budget), I don't usually want to emulate their food.

I highly doubt the woman that posted that comment was thinking gourmet when she thought of restaurant quality lasagna. My guess is she was thinking more like Olive Garden. Their food is fine, but it's not something I run home to try to recreate. All in all, this comment makes me a little sad... I am such a food snob.

All this stuff

So, as my husband and I round out our last few days in Hong Kong for the year with school work and job work and crazy philosophy barbecues, we got an email from some American friends of ours who have been staying in HK for a semester as lecturers (ahh academics). They told us they were leaving within two days and were hoping to get rid of a few things that we might have use for. When my husband heard the words "toaster oven", the words "of our very own" popped into his mind and he was sold - we were going to sort through stuff. Just a few things, right?

So after a long walk on a bum knee (my knee, not his) and a ride on the metro, we get to their by-the-month hotel apartment to look at "a few things". A few things turned out to be six huge bags worth of stuff - and we didn't even take everything they offered us. Two large bags that we use as luggage when we travel, plus a huge mesh laundry bag full of dry food products, two huge tote bags of items and a large insulated freezer bag. We ended up with all this stuff to put in our apartment: more than 2000hkd worth of food, blankets, pillowcases, the contents of an entire medicine cabinet that they didn't want to haul back, foldable drawer space, plastic bins, water filters, kitchen utensils AND a toaster oven.

Now the question really is... what are WE going to do with all this stuff?

Your stuff in the comments. :) Happy Rabbit-rabbit day.

Not your usual post, not your usual potatoes

I know I've never really done food on this site, but hey - I love LOVE love to cook, so it was really only a matter of time. 


So... I think I might be breaking the unspoken rule of blogging about food: I have not made this recipe yet. BUT it is a recipe that I have wanted to make since the moment I read it. I was silly enough to sign up for that Gojee app on Google Chrome. It doesn't always have recipes to my taste. I might get one every week or two that looks interesting, but I saw this one and couldn't pass up looking at it.


 My husband and I eat vinegar potatoes a lot, but I have never thought of boiling them in the vinegar without water. It sounds intense. In fact, the blogger from which I got this recipe flat out says they're pretty intense. This recipe originally comes from Martha Stuart.


Salt and Vinegar Broiled Fingerling Potatoes

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, June, 2009
-serves 4-

Ingredients
1 pound fingerling potatoes, sliced lengthwise to 1/4-inch thickness*
2 cups white vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher Salt
Pepper

Method
1. In a small pot, combine the potato slices and vinegar. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until fork-tender, about 8 minutes. Let cool in liquid for 30 minutes. Then drain well and pat potatoes dry with paper towels.

2. Preheat the broiler with a rack about 6 inches below the heat source. Dump the potato slices onto a sheet pan, sprinkle very generously with olive oil, salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Arrange the potato slices in a single layer. Broil until lightly browned on top, about 7 minutes. Then flip the slices and broil until the underside is lightly browned, about 5 minutes more. Serve warm.

I'll be trying this out this week. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

October Post: Halloween Food!

So this week's October Post theme has been food and today we're looking at some Halloween treats.

Source: nicolehill.blogspot.com via Carina on Pinterest

Owl Oreo Cupcakes


I found this wonderful picture on Pinterest, but when I followed the link there was no recipe. That being said, these cute little owls seem to be fairly self explanatory:

1) Make your favorite cupcake recipe and frost your cupcakes with chocolate frosting.
2) Disassemble some oreo cookies, keeping all of the ends with the frosting still attached set aside for the eyes. (Save the non-frosted sides to make an oreo pie crust.)
3) Place your frosted oreo halves on the frosted cupcakes to make the owl eyes. Put reese's pieces or even candy dots on the white frosting for pupils.
4) Take the orange reese's pieces and stick the in the crack between the oreos for the beak.

Voila! Owl Oreo Cupcakes.


Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

Source: kathiecooks.blogspot.com via Carina on Pinterest

The Kathie Cooks blog posted the recipe for these adorable cookies that depict one of the most iconic Halloween candy treats: candy corn.

This recipe is really simple and comes down to dying your dough and layering it in a baking dish so that you can cut your cookies into neat triangles. The sugar cookie dough recipe can be the one you prefer, but I like Kathie's idea of adding some lemon juice and lemon zest into the dough for a cookie full of flavor.


For the last set of recipe's I have to send you to a blog that is swiftly becoming one of my favorites: The Pastry Affair. The author spent a part of her summer at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida and brought some of the book treats brought to life home with her. She spent sometime experimenting and came up with some great recipes for Honeyduke's Treats, Cauldron Cakes, Butterbeer, and Butterbeer Cupcakes.

Check out these sweet treats and whip up a few for yourself.

What are your favorite Halloween treats? Do you think you'll try any of these recipes?

Fall Foods

This week's October Posts are going to be all about food! I love all kinds of food, but when the days start getting colder and the fresh fruits start to thin out in the grocery aisles, we know it's that time of year again: the time when every recipe includes something canned; when slow, hot and savory describes your menu (and not just your bedroom life); when you've stopped worrying about how you look in your bathing suit and have started thinking of fattening up to hibernate for the winter. This week will include some recipes for all of us - including those who cringe at the idea of fattening up for hibernation.

Today I've got four recipes for you:

1) Mexican Chicken Lime Soup

Source: shine.yahoo.com via Carina on Pinterest

Now I know what you're thinking - "This doesn't have any of those things you mentioned above!" - but it certainly could. This hot and savory dish could easily be modified to work in a crock pot. If I were making it, this is how I'd do it: (note this recipe has not been tested - I don't have a crock pot in Hong Kong to cook it in or I would!)
1) Saute your onions and garlic.
2) Cut your chicken breasts into desired size for soup.
3) Add your broth (with maybe some extra), cilantro, onions, garlic, chicken  and chilies into the crock pot. I might also add some chunky canned tomatoes rather than extra broth at this step.
4) Let slow cook for several hours.
5) Before serving, stir in lime juice and add avocado slices to each bowl.

Suddenly an otherwise 30 minute soup has become a stew-like crock pot meal for those cool fall nights.

2) Sweet Potato Hummus 

Source: wholefamilyfare.blogspot.com via Carina on Pinterest

Sweet potatoes are a key fall food. They're also a great health food. Sweet potatoes are very low in saturated fats and cholesterol. Add to that their high dietary fiber and vitamin C content and we're looking at a pretty good, healthy food.

I love hummus, but I'm not fond of the sweetness of sweet potatoes. I do, however like red pepper hummus and this great recipe from Whole Family Fare claims to get close to that red pepper taste. I know this recipe will be on my list to make!

This recipe could bring some fall flavor to your lunch, as an appetizer for a dinner meal, or even add some elegance to an otherwise raging, cheese-dip filled football party. (Not that I'm against cheese-dips. I love cheese. More than I'm allowed to admit to my health-nut husband.)

3) Low-fat Pumpkin Bread with Pepitas

Source: skinnytaste.com via Carina on Pinterest

I know, I know... LOW FAT. But this recipe is naturally low fat. It doesn't contain any reduced fat dairy products, no reduced-anything substitutes and you can pronounce all of the ingredients. Promise.

The nice thing about this recipe is it gives you all the pumpkin flavor and moist bready goodness of a quick bread without the added fats. Skinnytaste.com gives you a healthy recipe with all of the weight watchers point information if that's something like to do.

This could be a great substitute for high sugar desserts. I imagine it would go really well served warm with a cup of hot apple cider or spiced wine.

And last, but not least...

4) Cute Wicked Witch Cupcakes

Source: marthastewart.com via Carina on Pinterest

I decided that each post must contain at least one Halloween food and these were too cute to pass up.

Not everyone is a fan of Martha Stewart, but you don't have to be to get some great ideas for making witchy cupcakes. They would be a great group activity - and kid friendly too. Assembling your own witch cupcake could bring out the artist in your friends for at a Halloween party.

Ahhh... there's nothing like getting into the season.

Tune in Wednesday for a regular post and Friday for another Fall Foods October Post.

What are your favorite fall foods?

A family recipe

Today's post is another prompt a la The Red Dress Club RemembeRED series: 

"I once told a friend that i love her posts because I read with my nose, and she has the unique ability to describe the olfactory sense perfectly.

Sounds can do the same thing. Have you ever heard a song and suddenly you were swept back to a time in your life you had pushed to the back of your memory?

For many of us a scent or a sound can bring back a rush of remembraces.

This week, your memoir prompt assignment is to think of a sound or a smell that reminds you of something from your past and write a post about that memory. Don't forget to incorporate the sound/smell of your choosing!"

So here's my response - just a quick short one today!

A Family Recipe

I stood at the unfamiliar stove, sifting through the available spices and ingredients.

All dried and they're not all here... why can't I find normal spices in Hong Kong?

Chopped onions already making my eyes water with their acrid odor, I cracked the tinned tomatoes and a sharp tinny smell assaulted my nose. Not like at home...Cool granite with a warm wooden cutting board hold the trophies of my horn of plenty. Mason jars full of bright, sweet-smelling Romas with their bite of once-fresh basil, intensified by the canning salt that touches the palette when tasted. 

My husband stands with a fragrant glass of Merlot in hand, breathing in the barrel from which it was delivered, philosophizing with my father and sneaking a tomato from the jar. I rap his hand with the back of a wooden spoon before turning back to the stove.

The sharpness of the onions fade from the air as they fold together with the spicy tang of the garlic in the searing pan. Olive oil takes on a new bouquet as the sauteing root vegetables are brightened with a dash of Riesling - the cloying sweetness steaming into my face with the alcohol that leaves me heady.

My mother and grandmother move about the kitchen, making some sweet-concoction of their own for dessert - delicate breezes of sugar and vanilla waft by as they pass.

Adding tomatoes from jars, a crackling of fresh ground pepper gives the sweet-smelling sauce a sudden savory scent that is augmented by the pungently grassy aroma of fresh cut parsley. 

Adding fresh, doughy pasta to the boiling water to my left lets off yeasty, floury bubbles as it begins to simmer. 

The longer the sauce cooks and the less we can all find something to occupy our hands, the closer we all drift to the stove, eventually becoming the people who watch the water boil and sneaking a spoon into the sauce when possible. 

I woke up from the daydream to the smell of tinny tomatoes and onions, sharp as knives in my eyes now.

And this is why it’s so hard to produce a family recipe.