Foods We Ate

[Wally]

Doesn't the sound of fresh celery make your skin crawl?

Oh my, no!  I have it every morning, as part of my standard breakfast!  I like the crunching sound, and the toughness of the strings is a pleasant thing to chew on.

Honestly, I could have guessed you would feel this way.

[Andrew_TSKS]

Doesn't the sound of fresh celery make your skin crawl? It tastes just fine, although I prefer it stews and soups, but the sound, jeepers. Actually I feel this way about a lot of raw veg. I'm not sure where this little psychological titbit comes from.

In old Bruce Lee movies, the sharp sounds you hear when people hit other people were created by soundmen breaking sticks of celery in front of microphones.

[jess]

I like the sound of crunchy things.

On the topic of yummy salads, I ended up not finding squash blossoms last night, and instead made a salad with what I could get at the farmers market: arugula, radishes, cucumber and tomato, tossed in a touch of olive oil and balsamic, and topped with partly-caramelized onion and over-easy eggs (which wilted the arugula a bit). I love eggs on salads, since they end up dressing it once you break into them.

[Greg Nog]

That sounds great!

And speaking of fresh produce, I just remembered yesterday that my trip up to NH this weekend means I'll get to have my dad's tomatoes.  Slices of homegrown tomatoes with a sprinkle of salt are easily my absolute favorite thing about this hellish season we call summer.

[Ashley]

Poutine? Every day? Where do you work? A sumo gym? 

Everyone there is shaped funny.

[slow west vultures]

i was in Barnes and Noble looking for an Indian cookbook and i saw they had a Betty Crocker Indian cookbook.  that just made me laugh.   

[santaclaustral]

I am going to the best Indian restaurant in the city tonight. My first curry since... I can't even remember when my last curry was. I'm pretty excited about this.

[silentsigh89]

I made a delicious bread pudding last night! Chocolatey and glorious. I baked it in a water bath and pretended I was Alton Brown! Best ever. I always forget how bizarrely easy bread pudding is to make. It is the least appropriate summer dish imaginable because every bite weighed at least six pounds. yum yum yum.

[santaclaustral]

Oh lord, I have never thought of making *chocolate* bread pudding.

In fact, I am not sure I have ever made bread pudding at all.

Could you post the recipe, Beth?

Also... the Indian restaurant was pretty great, although I don't understand how anyone can serve poppadoms with only raita and what was very obviously an Italian tomato salsa with added chilli. Very nice, salsa, but where was the lime pickle, where was the mango chutney? Not long till I get back to London though... then there will be curry-eating to end all curry-eating.

[silentsigh89]

Sure can post it! I bought this big cookbook when I was a little thing and thought I wanted to be a chef. most recipes were too hard and so I put it away. rediscovering it now? Everything in it is really very very very easy. This might, in fact, be a fake bread pudding! It's yummy, though.

12 ounces chocolate chips (or you can use a bit less chocolate and get some nice stuff), 1 stick butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 cups light cream, 4 eggs (well beaten), 1 tablespoon vanilla, 8 slices of bread ripped up.

melt together chocolate butter and sugar until it is all smooth and nice. Add cream first after it chills out a bit and then eggs and vanilla. then mix it with the bread!!

put in a  buttered and floured (or Pam-ed if you're me) 6 cup baking dish. put that in a larger pan with hot water in it, put it in a 325 degree oven for 40-ish minutes or until it doesn't jiggle too much.

it makes a LOT and really needs some vanilla ice cream to cut through all the chocolate. I fed ten people with this last night and still had enough leftovers to send along to my boyfriend's parents. you can probably halve the recipe! Or just stretch your stomach and go crazy on some cool night.

[Anne the Man]

How much is a stick of butter percisely? Cos I'm hearing 500g, which is our size, and that seems like one helluva lot of butter.

[santaclaustral]

Thanks Beth - that sounds great. And, yeah, I'll probably quarter the recipe to just one egg!

I also am curious as to how much is a stick of butter. We have them here in 250g and 125g sizes.

[coldforge]

Our sticks are usually quarter-pounds.

[silentsigh89]

or a half cup, if that helps at all. according to the converter I just found, that's about 113ish grams.

[jess]

The bread pudding sounds delicious. I'd probably be tempted to add cinnamon or something.

Last night I decided pea tendrils are my current favorite vegetable. Bought a bag of them at the farmers market, and they're delicious raw, but even better sauteed. First browned a couple of crushed garlic cloves in some olive oil, then removed the garlic, added a little butter and then the pea tendrils, and had them in there for probably less than a minute, until they were just wilted. (Salt and pepper to taste.)

Also picked up some purslane which I'll experiment with tonight. They raved about it in a recipe on the S3 finale of Top Chef (Dale's scallop), and TC has yet to steer me wrong re: trying new ingredients.

[Greg Nog]

The bread pudding sounds delicious. I'd probably be tempted to add cinnamon or something.

This ex that I lived with for a while made a chocolate banana-bread pudding on occasion.  That was amazing, and probably the highlight of us living together.

The other day, I was with a friend, and we had a couple of peppermint patties that were around the office.  Sorta like knockoffs of York patties, both in look and taste.  But after about a minute of chewing, I was like, "Oh christ it tastes like I'm sucking on a grandma's neck."  She gave me an odd look, and said, "Uh, okay.  I don't see what you're saying."  And then maybe ten seconds passed, and she was like, "OH GOD, THERE IT IS, I TASTE IT NOW."  What a sneaky, vile aftertaste!

[elpollodiablo]

Peppermint patties are fucking disgusting

[sassymcassface]

i'm eating an amy's tofu lasagna.  for frozen pre-made hippy food, it isn't bad.  at least as far as i know, it's sneaky hot and burned my mouth.

[DanielBurns11]

i'm eating an amy's tofu lasagna.  for frozen pre-made hippy food, it isn't bad.  at least as far as i know, it's sneaky hot and burned my mouth.

I get those Amy's frozen thingys every once in a while. Haven't found one I really love yet, but there pretty good.

[sassymcassface]

i'm eating an amy's tofu lasagna.  for frozen pre-made hippy food, it isn't bad.  at least as far as i know, it's sneaky hot and burned my mouth.

I get those Amy's frozen thingys every once in a while. Haven't found one I really love yet, but there pretty good.

the mac and soy cheese is amazing.  and the tofu vegetable lasagna wasn't terrrible.  it got better with time i think.  like a banana.

[jess]

I like the mac and soy cheeze too, though like many of their fake cheeze products, it is lactose free but not vegan since it's made with milk proteins (for people who care). Also like most of Amy's stuff, it gets vastly improved with a few dashes of hot sauce. The california veggie burgers are one of my favorites, and if you eat real cheese, the country cheddar bowl is rather delicious. Mmm, lazy food.

[sassymcassface]

it seems really strange to me to make fake cheese but only make it half-fake.  i never understood that.  same with veggie shreds/slices.
and soy milks with dairy in them.  wtf.

[jess]

Well, it's good for the lactose intolerant folks (and there are lots of us, especially once you include people like me who are somewhat) who want something more like real cheese than most vegan stuff.

[slow west vultures]

i'm still a n00b to the Whole Foods shopping experience.  i've been there about three times now, and each time i still feel like i'm walking about disoriented.  but today i saw something to really make my eyes boggle.  i was in the produce section and wandered into the frozen seafood section and saw a whole bunch of octopi stuffed into a vacuum sealed package.  apparently they offer baby octopus salad as an entree option.  yeck. 

[heather marie]

i'm still a n00b to the Whole Foods shopping experience.  i've been there about three times now, and each time i still feel like i'm walking about disoriented.  but today i saw something to really make my eyes boggle.  i was in the produce section and wandered into the frozen seafood section and saw a whole bunch of octopi stuffed into a vacuum sealed package.  apparently they offer baby octopus salad as an entree option.  yeck. 

ewwwwwwwwwwww.