Bawlmerese for Enjoy Your Meal
The following originally appeared on 8/25/08 at Exit 51
Goal Tending
I refuse to come out and say how much weight I hope to lose on South Beach. The idea of being fixated on a number is not how I want to live. Why should I turn a choice to eat healthier into a numbers game? The scale should be a tool, not a dreaded frenemy. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – Goal Tending”
The following originally appeared on 6/1/09 at Exit 51.
RealiTV
It really should come as no surprise that television takes a few liberties with reality. If you hit pause on your dvr at the end of most any game show or “reality” competition, you will see the fine print that says portions have been edited. Well duh. But that distortion of reality is a double edged sword.
One the one hand, who would sit through the unedited hours and hours of footage that it takes to produce a single episode of Survivor or The Amazing Race? Not me. But on the other hand, how can we know what happens in the moments that we don’t see? There’s the rub. We are given a highly processed view of “reality” that may be skewed in order to shape our perceptions and attitudes. There’s another word for that – propaganda. I doubt that the television producers have a sinister masterplan to take over the world via the current season of The Bachelor. But they definitely are trying to manipulate our opinions to make “better” television.
No genre of television program is immune to the edit. Not even something as supposedly straight forward as a cooking show. Think about it, how often do you see Paula Deen or Rachel Ray commit a kitchen foul? Take a few moments to ponder that? The Minimalist has an interesting piece about that topic here.
Is it that their skills are so keen that they don’t make mistakes? Are they the “Heroes” of the kitchen world? Or is it that their reputations are built upon the assumption that we suspend our disbelief that they are anything but flawless? If we don’t see any mistakes, then they never happened, right?
Interestingly enough, cooking programs excel in showing us the other side of that picture. If you stick around to watch to watch the “Who Wants To Be…” type shows, you see another kind of reality. You see the kind of reality that you can not only understand, but can relate to. Challenge after challenge, something goes wrong. Meat gets burned, dishes are undercooked, or overcooked, jars break, people cut themselves. Some mistakes you can bounce back from. Other send you home. Unfortunately, these realities are edited to make us think the contestants are not capable. When really, they are just human.
So what should we take away from this idea of RealiTV? At a minimum, we shouldn’t take it too seriously. Take it as inspiration for what you love to do. So if you love diy projects, watch the shows to get ideas. But don’t think that because Ty and his crew can build a McMansion in seven days that you are somehow deficient if it takes you a month to tile your backsplash. And if your love is cooking, watch the shows for the recipes. Just don’t assume that your plate of deep fried butter is going to look exactly like Paula’s. Remember, she’s got a producer, and editor, professional lighting and fancy food stylists. You’ve got reality and I think that tastes better any day.
The following appeared on 6/3/09 at Exit 51.
Real Simple
I love the idea of leading a simple life. I just wish I could figure out how to go about doing that. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Sure, there is an entire industry of lifestyle guides and magazines that want you to think that if you buy their products then your life can be as perfect as their glossy magazine photos. Call me a cynic, but I don’t buy into that. I don’t see how stimulating the economy by buying their stuff is going to change my life. In a recent moment of ‘what the heck was I thinking’ I grabbed one of those magazines while I was in line at the grocery store. The only thing I saved was a recipe.
The one area where I do find ways to simplify is cooking. Because until I learn the secrets to lead the simple life, cooking is the one thing that must be flexible, to fit into my schedule instead of making my schedule accommodate it. Occasionally, let’s call it rarely, I will go all out on a dish that requires constant tending and fussing. But I don’t really enjoy that. It’s no fun for me to stand at the stove counting minutes. I’d rather set it, and forget it.
So it should be no surprise that I tend to gravitate towards recipes that don’t chain me to the stove. Especially when the temperatures soar into the 90’s and our entire house turns into an oven, like it did recently. Despite the ungodly heat, I fired up the oven to 400 degrees for a real simple dinner. And then I promptly stationed myself on the sofa where I could pretend that the hot air coming from the fan was in fact a delightful spring breeze. What can I say, sometimes the simple life ain’t so simple.
What is pretty simple, though, is this recipe for Maple Roasted Chicken. Instead of cut up chicken parts, I used thighs only. And even though I removed the skin from half of them, there was still a lot of accumulated juices. Next time, I will make sure all my chicken is naked because all that juice made the sweet potatoes too mushy. But I bet when we go to eat the leftovers, the defatted juices will make a lovely jus. How simple is that?
Real Simple Maple Roasted Chicken with Sweet Potatoes
From Real Simple Magazine
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place sweet potatoes, thyme, and onion in a 9×13 baking dish. Coat with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Pat chicken pieces dry, season with salt and pepper, and place in the baking dish.
Drizzle the maple syrup over chicken and vegetables.
Roast 55 to 65 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.
The following originally appeared on 8/22/08 at Exit 51.
Amazing Race (Maryland State Fair)
Sometimes in this life you gotta think on your feet. By nature, I’m a planner. I like to know how I’m going to get from Point A to Point B in advance. When I plot out a route, I pretty much commit to it and dislike last minute change of plans. This is one reason I would not do well on The Amazing Race. You know the premise. Put people in situations where they must overcome a series of detours and road blocks to reach their final destination. The last to arrive face Philimination. In the most unlikely of settings, I ran my very own Amazing Race – Maryland State Fair Style. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – Amazing Race (Maryland State Fair)”
The following originally appeared on 6/8/09 at Exit 51.
Customer Service
Last year for Christmas, I asked Santa to bring me a tricked out Tovolo spatula. I had first seen it in Cook’s Illustrated where it was rated a Best Buy. Since I thought of CI as Consumer Reports for the kitchen, I figured that they had conveyed their Best Buy status after thorough testing and it would be a welcome addition to my utensil drawer. Although, I am still questioning their Best Buy designation in 2007 of the Chefmate dutch oven. Staining issues aside, I don’t think a Best Buy product should be showing chips out of the enamel after only two years. It’s not as though I’m using a drillbit to stir things around in there. Which gets us back to Tovolo.
It wasn’t as though I NEEDED another spatula. Yes, I have been known to utterly ruin spatulas. Like the time I was making candy and the silicone head popped clean off after the hard ball stage was reached. SFC does his fair share of destruction to kitchen tools as well. He tends to leave them propped on the side of hot pots and pans. Both of our pancake spatulas have burns and welts that any self respecting CSI team could match up to our cookware.
So I saw the Tovolo as the best of all worlds. The stainless steel handle would prevent any more utensil abuse by SFC and heat resistant to 600 degrees would ensure that no spatulas would be harmed in any future candy making foolishness.
It was love at first sight. You know how right a heavy pan feels when you pick it up? Solid and sturdy? You know you’re destined to be together forever. That was how I felt about my Tovolo. But then one day, suddenly, it all went wrong. As I was cooking, I noticed a big chunk missing from the silicone. I looked closer and there was a second smaller gash and a cut. This was definitely not good.
So what do you do? Besides fish through the food and hope that there’s no surprises lurking at the bottom of the pan that is. If you’re me, you get in touch with the manufacturer. I hate how disposable our society is even though I know I am just as guilty as the next guy of buying a replacement instead of fixing what I have. I’m trying to get better about that though. Have I ever told you that my blender is over 50 years old? It is and it still works like a charm.
Unfortunately, in this case, there was no fixing Tovolo. And so I wondered if the manufacturer would stand behind its product or just brush me off with some standard form reply. Not only did they stand behind their product and replace my sassy red spatula with a brand new one, they even gave me a happy blue one to keep it company in the drawer. How did they know blue is my favorite color?
Too often it seems like companies forget what customer service is about. Cheers to Tovolo for keeping it real.
Now, I wonder if I’ll be high enough on Santa “Nice” list this year to score a a new Le Crueset dutch oven because that Chefmate is really making me nervous.
The following originally appeared on 8/21/08 at Exit 51.
Stamina
I have decided that it’s a good thing that I was born after the Industrial Revolution. Because quite honestly, I am not a strong enough person to have lived without modern comforts and conveniences. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – Stamina”
The following originally appeared on 8/20/08 at Exit 51.
Mission Impossible
The beauty of South Beach Phase 2 is that you get to reintroduce foods that were to be avoided during Phase 1. Sounds easy enough, right? The catch is that you aren’t getting an even swap. That cereal we munched on in the days before South Beach? That’s gone. Instead of Raisin Bran, you get something that’s high fiber but low sugar. And that can take some sleuthing out. I found this out the hard way. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – Mission Impossible”
The following originally appeared on 8/19/08 at Exit 51.
Busting At The Seams
No, not those seams. I mean my Frigidaire.
This is what happens when you go on South Beach. Your refrigerator fills up with all kinds of food to the point that you can’t cram another thing in it. You just have to eat your way out. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – Busting At The Seams”
The following originally appeared on 8/12/08 at Exit 51.
BFF
Despite my love of kitchen gadgets, I don’t subscribe to the idea that you have to have expensive specialized tools to have a well equiped kitchen. For one, that would cost a fortune. And, it would require vast amounts of storage space. I have neither. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – BFF”
The following originally appeared on 8/11/08 at Exit 51.
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Mashed Potatoes
Some thoughts on our South Beach journey, now into its 10th day.
My desire to bring the camera into the kitchen is not so strong these days. I’m not yet on friendly terms with these recipes. I don’t know what to expect from them – will they misbehave? So I’m more focused on trying to figure them out. Hopefully as we stumble across ones that become favorites, I’ll be more gung-ho to capture the moments.
Also, all the prep that goes into getting ahead of the curve absolutely wrecks my kitchen. I prefer a somewhat orderly approach to cooking. Instead, my weekend cooking days have seen stacks and stacks of dishes on every available horizontal surface. By the time I get all the week’s “snacks” prepped, it’s time to start fixing an actual meal. And then all those dishes have to get cleaned up, and oh look, time to start pulling things out for dinner. It’s a weary cycle right now. My little dishwasher has gotten more use in the last ten days than ever before, sometimes running twice a day (but it is a really teeny tiny dishwasher). Continue reading “Flashback Friday – I Can’t Believe It’s Not Mashed Potatoes”
Bon Appetit Hon by Wendi Mosteiko is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Bon Appetit Hon 