domestic

A question

When a recipe says "Vinegar (Any kind)" which one do you usually reach for? I've had a couple marinade recipes over the past few weeks that call for vinegar like that and I've been going with red wine vinegar because I'm afraid balsamic will be too strong. I'd like to have another good option though. Suggestions?

A Word of Advice

Cumin should be one of those spices whose top contains small holes for sprinkling and not one large opening for pouring. Cumin is not one of those spices whose top contains small holes.

Amazingly enough these observation did not ruin the steak tacos I made last night for dinner. I thought it was going to after I dumped a bleeding ton of cumin into the marinade. I furiously scooped to dig some of the excess out but cumin blends with oil really, really quickly. In any case the grilled steak ended up tasting really good, making the tacos fantastic. I was super pleased. The marinade was quite simple and came from a grilling cookbook put out by the people who make Weber Grills I think, that B bought last week. The marinade was basically lime juice, canola oil, cumin (but you already knew that didn't you?) garlic (not nearly as much as was on the pork the other day thank goodness), ketchup, brown sugar, pepper, coarse salt, and that's about it. I cut the meat into strips before dumping it into the marinade since it was going to be sliced for tacos anyway and let it marinate for about an hour before throwing it on the grill. 10 minutes on the grill and excellent steak tacos were had.

Balsalmic Pork Loin

Well the Mostly Martha meal didn't happen last night because I didn't like any of Martha's recipes for pork and I really wanted pork last night. So I ended up making balsalmic pork from a reciped I found from another source. The recipe was good (and my execution was good) but the pork didn't turn out wonderfully. It was good, it just wasn't fantastic. I blame the recipe for that. The recipe called for simply drizzleing the vinegar and oil over the meat and rubbing it in a little bit instead of marinating it. Then you cut slits into the meat for crushed garlic, fresh thyme, coarse salt and pepper. The end result is that the finished pork only has barely a hint of vinegar flavor but an abundance of dry spice flavors (particularly the garlic). So next time I make this I'm going to marinate the meat for about 15 minutes to give the vinegar a chance to stand up to the dry spices. Hopefully this will make for a better combination of the wet and dry flavors and create a much better dish overall.

I took a few pictures before I stuck the pork in the oven last night because I thought it looked like it was going to be wonderful.

Diving

Since I started really dipping my toes into the cooking waters a few weeks ago I've been dealing primarily with a couple cookbooks that are designed to be simple. They are meant for novices, newbies if you will, like me. They have been wonderful to me and I plan on using them forever. However I've decided that since it's now officially the birthday jubilee I should be bold and brave and try something completely new and not a little intimidating. So I've decided I'm going to make a Mostly Martha Meal. I'm going to cook dinner with recipes from The Ultimate Martha Stewart cookbook. Heaven help me. When I decided up the exact menu I'll post it here. Look for it soon.

Cake

I made a cake today. Just a standard out of a mix cake. It's good, yummy even. But while making it I thought about making a cake completely from scratch. Cake flour, eggs, baking powder, the whole thing. I was really in to it. I was about to pull out the complete Martha Stewart cookbook (she may have been indicted but Martha still knows food) when I thought to myself "is a cake I make from scratch really going to taste that much better than a cake from a box?" I decided that the answer was no. I mean a bakery cake is one thing but a cake that I, little ole Michelle, am going to make? I think not, at least not significantly enough better to merit all the extra time and effort.

The real key to completely yummy cakes (at least by my reasoning) is the icing anyway. So now I think I need to learn to make really, really good home-made icing and more importantly to get crafty with the cake decorating. I've got a cake decorating set that I've never really used. I think I'm going to have to clean the dust off of it during my month of leisure. Since I have the new camera working again expect photos of both successes and failures (if I were you I'd expect more of the latter).

On Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I know what you've been taught.

You've been taught that you mix semi-sweet regular size chocolate chips directly into the pancake batter.

You've been taught that if you really like chocolate you can pour lots into the batter and make your pancakes almost rye brown instead of rich, golden, buttermilk brown.

You've been taught wrong. There is only one proper way to prepare chocolate chip pancakes. You can disagree if you like but you'll be wrong so feel free not to tell me your opinion on the subject if you honestly can't see the glory in my (and other pancake connoisseurs) method.

1. Proper chocolate pancakes begin with standard pancake batter. I'm not giving you the recipe because these are going to be your pancakes so use whatever recipe you like.

2. Prepare your batter and cook your pancakes without a single chocolate chip coming into contact with uncooked pancake batter.

3. While they are still very hot place three pancakes on a plate (four if you're feeling generous) but don't stack them one directly on top of the other. You need to stagger them.

4. Liberally sprinkle, and this is very important so pay attention, milk chocolate miniature chips directly onto the cakes.

5. Pour warm maple syrup (yes warm the syrup) directly on the pancakes and miniature chips and watch the chips begin to melt and blend with the syrup.

6. Consume and enjoy.

Summer Drinks

There was a recipe in Real Simple for a fruit spritzer that, while interesting, didn't appeal to me because of the particular fruits involved. I'd like to find something similarly summery that can is non-alcoholic but would also work well with a little rum or vodka. Ginger ale bases work for me better than fruit punch bases. Anyone have any suggestions?

Also does anyone have the recipe for that lime sherbert punch that is always served at wedding showers?

California Chicken Sandwich

I'm off to the grocery in a few minutes to pick up some things for dinner. I came across a recipe for a "California Chicken Sandwich" which is really nothing more than a regular grilled chicken breast sandwich except with a few additional spices and citrus mayonnaise. I'm intrigued by the citrus mayo so it's on the menu for this evening. I don't really have anything good to go with it though so I'm going to get some nice white sweet corn and either potato or macaroni salad. Belinda isn't terribly partial to macaroni salad but I am and just two days ago we had pea salad, which I'm not terribly partial to but she is, so I think macaroni salad it shall be. I would make the really nice dill potato salad that B made last week but we're having that later in the week with out "we're ready for Thanksgiving" chicken and dressing meal.

And a note on dressing. Is it a regional thing where some people say stuffing and others say dressing?

Update: Mayonnaise has a unique texture and consistency. Adding liquid to it just fucks that up. Citrus mayonnaise tastes really, really good but by the time you add 2.5 tablespoons of liquid (in the form of orange juice, lime juice and hot sauce) to a 1/2 cup of mayo that texture is shot to hell and it becomes really, really thin. That's not really a good thing. So the verdict is thumbs up to the flavor of citrus mayo but can anybody tell me how to prevent it from turning into a thin, runny mess. Thanks.

Photo crazy except not in a good way

After snapping lots of shots of Grace and the house and various other things today I connected the camera to the computer to find that alas, the software decided not to work anymore. I've uninstalled, reinstalled and completed the whole process again yet the necessary software for retrieving the photos from the camera will not recognize that the camera is connected.

This sucks in a major way.

Photo crazy

My mother's company very frequently has contests to encourage high sales and customer satisfaction. My mother is very good at her job so she frequently wins these contests and scores prizes ranging from ski trips to kick ass gas grills to digital cameras. A few months ago she won a digital camera. She already had one but the prize one was a 2 megapixel camera and supposedly took great photos. The problem came when she installed the software and literally could not figure out how to get the photos from the camera on to her computer. My mom isn't dumb nor is she a tech newbie. The software, apparently, just sucked. So last week when I was at her house my mom gave me the camera. I was terrible excited. 2 megapixels kicks ass, particularly when you compare it to my like 4 year old digital camera.

After installing the software I can absolutely say that my mom was right, this software sucks ass in a major way. Didn't these people test this shit before they sent it out into the world? It's really that bad. However I'm a wee bit more technologically advanced than my mom and I was able to retrieve the photos and I have to say that my mom's frustration with the software was definitely my stroke of luck because it does take really good photos. So I'm planning on going photo crazy in the next few days. If you look at the very bottom (for the moment, I may rearrange) of the sidebar you'll see the photo albums that I'm uploading.

Here's a sample: