Cooking is intuitive and experimental until something gets set on fire: FOOD

[peacocks]

I made this Barefoot Contessa broccoli recipe last night and holy shit it was fucking awesome.  I encourage all of you to do the same the next time you're thinking about having some broccoli!  I left out the pine nuts and basil, but it was still just splendid.

My friend's bday is tonight and I am making this for her along with sweet potato pie! She's gonna flip out.

[Antero]

Parents/uncle taking me to Alinea tonight as a graduation celebration.  Ohhhhhh man.

[jm]

Whoa, tight!  That place costs mad hundos!

[YojimboMonkey]

Nice, I admit to some curiosity toward that kind of thing and that place in particular. Though I don't see myself ever dropping the bucks to check it out. Enjoy! And congrats, sorry I missed your party

[Bernard]

Oh my god, where did five pounds of broccoli just go.

[clare]

Into your stomach?

I hope you didn't discard the stalks like the recipe suggested. What a waste of delicious broccoli.

[davy]

I, for one, am not a fan of stalks.

[Ignatius]

That's cuz they don't cook at the same rate as the florets but if you cut them up thinner and or do some tricky stuff when you're maybe steaming them they are just as delicious as hell and they have the rippy delicious texture. I dunno, how about roasting the stalks clare?

[Antero]

Whoa, tight!  That place costs mad hundos!

My family celebrates hard.

Okay, that was an insane meal.  Possibly the nerdiest thing I've ever eaten.  An awesome experience, if you've got money to blow.  I need to process.

[Antero]

Also, the sommelier had the most spectacular hair.  He looked like some sort of sacred tree with sideburns.

Also, incredibly cute nerdy redhead server who I would have talked to more except, like, parents inherently fuck up yer game.

Also, truffle explosion.

[clare]

That's cuz they don't cook at the same rate as the florets but if you cut them up thinner and or do some tricky stuff when you're maybe steaming them they are just as delicious as hell and they have the rippy delicious texture. I dunno, how about roasting the stalks clare?

I'd do it for sure. I like the difference in texture that you get between the florets and the stalk, but then I don't mind it if the florets go mushy when I steam them.  You could definitely cut them thinner, but I find that peeling off the outer layer of the stalk (if there is one) kind of fixes the un-even cooking problem. I love broccoli. It's winter here now. That and steamed pumpkin are my standby right now - I sub them for about half my old serve of pasta (and I'm now at 13kilos lost).

My favourite dinner at the moment is half a cup of pasta with a truckload of steamed vegetables, pesto, chevre, shaved ham, and Tabasco.

[dumbfish]

I'm a fan of cutting the tough exterior off the stalks and enjoying the tasty cruchy spears within as one would with a carrot or daikon radish.

[Greg Nog]

That's an excellent idea.  I did not eat the stalks, but I'm sure my worms enjoyed them, and their castings will eventually be headed back into my stomach by way of tomatoes, so: circle of life.

[coldforge]

Greg, you end ALL your sentences with 'So: circle of life.'

[Bernard]

So: circle of Greg's sentences.

[dumbfish]

Made a shrimp stirfry with some fresh vegggies last night and just blew it by overcooking everything. Got distracted by basketball. Now I have two pounds of shrimpy paste. Damnit.

[Greg Nog]

Perhaps the shrimpy paste may be used as flavor for future stirfry or kimchi, so: circle of life.

[peacocks]

Made the broccoli thing with only one head of broccoli but I really liked it and the party people did too! I somehow lost my olive oil (which wasn't "good" I don't think) in the move so I had to use the blasphemous vegetable oil instead. It was still edible! I did use basil leaves but did not buy pine nuts.

One side of my stove doesn't work and you can't read the numbers on my oven dial so I kind of have to guess and keep checking on things while they cook. There is definitely not a "roast" option.

[milesofsparks]

I bought rocket pop molds today:


I am going to eat rocket pops ALL SUMMER LONG.

[Bernard]

LADY do not get me started on pops, I have a kind of ludicrous collection of pop molds from my sweaty pregnant lady days.

[mixed cats]

Holy shit rocketpops

[milesofsparks]

LADY do not get me started on pops, I have a kind of ludicrous collection of pop molds from my sweaty pregnant lady days.

I would like to see this collection. 

mc--these things cost like $8, which I could spend in one trip to the frozen food aisle at KeyFood.  I will test drive them and let you all know if they're good ones.  (I actually spent a while shopping online and IRL looking for plain ones, but they're all wacky with inbuilt straws and such, so these were actually pretty basic.)

[davy]

L & I have been talking about buying this and having ourselves a poptastic summer:



It's a pop cookbook!

[mixed cats]

Yeah we had the little "regular" shaped ones when I was a kid. When I got older I used to just pour soda in an ice cube tray with toothpicks. Rocketpops are very appealing to me because I like rockets!

[YojimboMonkey]

I brined and smoked some chicken thighs tonight, and made some red beans & rice from scratch, and though both of those were delicious (the chicken might have been a tad too salty and the beans might have been a tad too spicy), the real star of the dinner was the cauliflower. And it was so stupidly simple. I took a head of cauliflower, pulled off the leaves & cut away enough stem so it sat level, buttered the thing, shook curry powder all over it and a little salt, then double wrapped it in foil and put it on the grill just long enough to be tender but still have a little life to it. Man when I opened that foil it was the most amazing smell ever.  The kids are going gaga over it. The kids, who are pretty standard boys when it comes to this stuff and regard any vegetable with suspicion.