Monday, March 30, 2009
You do what?
Some of you know that I used to write for this magazine.
I left that job when I moved to the left coast but still work on cookbooks now and again. So what is it exactly that I do?
Sometimes, I write articles for food mags or contribute recipes to a cookbook.
Other times, I test recipes for cookbooks, usually ones written by restaurant chefs. The chef will get a book deal, send their recipes to an editor who pares them down to serve 4-8, and the editor will send them to me to test.
Why would the recipe have to be tested, you ask? Normally, restaurant chefs don't have any of their recipes written down, and if they do, it'll most likely be a set of vague directions with no concrete measurements or cooking times. If recipes weren't tested, they might look like this:
Marinara (serves 4? 6? 127?)
- enough tomatoes to fill a fish tub
- two cups mirepoix onions
- maybe some rosemary or marjoram, about a handful
- lots of garlic
- salt, sugar
- evoo
Cook together until it makes a sauce.
Er - what kind of tomatoes, and what's a fish tub? Seeded? Chopped? And cook it in what kind of pan? In the oven? On the stovetop? What do you serve this with?
So that's what I do.
All righty, back to the kitchen...
I left that job when I moved to the left coast but still work on cookbooks now and again. So what is it exactly that I do?
Sometimes, I write articles for food mags or contribute recipes to a cookbook.
Other times, I test recipes for cookbooks, usually ones written by restaurant chefs. The chef will get a book deal, send their recipes to an editor who pares them down to serve 4-8, and the editor will send them to me to test.
Why would the recipe have to be tested, you ask? Normally, restaurant chefs don't have any of their recipes written down, and if they do, it'll most likely be a set of vague directions with no concrete measurements or cooking times. If recipes weren't tested, they might look like this:
Marinara (serves 4? 6? 127?)
- enough tomatoes to fill a fish tub
- two cups mirepoix onions
- maybe some rosemary or marjoram, about a handful
- lots of garlic
- salt, sugar
- evoo
Cook together until it makes a sauce.
Er - what kind of tomatoes, and what's a fish tub? Seeded? Chopped? And cook it in what kind of pan? In the oven? On the stovetop? What do you serve this with?
So that's what I do.
All righty, back to the kitchen...
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Where is Roadsnacks?
Loyal readers will note the absence of Recipe Wednesdays. That is due to a temporarily busier work schedule, which is a good thing, I assure you.
What is not a good thing is that I no longer have time for my daily runs, which is going to suck, come race season. Sigh.
By May 1, life should return to normal.
Now, back to the pork chops...
What is not a good thing is that I no longer have time for my daily runs, which is going to suck, come race season. Sigh.
By May 1, life should return to normal.
Now, back to the pork chops...
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Home
Final Hanover posts coming shortly...and Recipe Wednesday is on hiatus for until the end of April, due to current work schedule.
In the meantime, has anyone read this?
I read this on the plane.
Good lord.
Amazing book, but incredibly disturbing. Not in a violent or yucky way, but in that quiet, desperate, British manner that Ishiguro does so well.
Go find this book.
Update: Gack. Just found out this is being made into a movie. I really don't think this story would translate well to film...
In the meantime, has anyone read this?
I read this on the plane.
Good lord.
Amazing book, but incredibly disturbing. Not in a violent or yucky way, but in that quiet, desperate, British manner that Ishiguro does so well.
Go find this book.
Update: Gack. Just found out this is being made into a movie. I really don't think this story would translate well to film...
Monday, March 09, 2009
Hanover is over...
...but not before we go to the King Arthur Flour Bakery.
San Diego boy enjoys the snow.
The Hanover Inn.
Pretty, quaint, and serving travelers since 1780.
Most importantly, it's next to the theater.
A sign inside the Hopkins Center.
Hm.
San Diego boy enjoys the snow.
The Hanover Inn.
Pretty, quaint, and serving travelers since 1780.
Most importantly, it's next to the theater.
A sign inside the Hopkins Center.
Hm.
Too much of a good thing.
Consumed within the last hour:
From the Dirt Cowboy Cafe: free coffee giveaway this afternoon (no idea what the occasion was), so I had a two-shot skim latte.
From Chocolate Now: free truffle samples and free hot chocolate, made with hot milk and actual pieces of melted chocolate.
From our hotel (Hanover Inn - serving visitors to Dartmouth for 225+ years!): free chocolate truffles from Chocolates of Vermont.
I am somewhat lactose intolerant.
Urp.
From the Dirt Cowboy Cafe: free coffee giveaway this afternoon (no idea what the occasion was), so I had a two-shot skim latte.
From Chocolate Now: free truffle samples and free hot chocolate, made with hot milk and actual pieces of melted chocolate.
From our hotel (Hanover Inn - serving visitors to Dartmouth for 225+ years!): free chocolate truffles from Chocolates of Vermont.
I am somewhat lactose intolerant.
Urp.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Hanover, Part II: The Return
We are, seriously, in the land of snacks. Hanover, NH is lousy with adorable restaurants and cafes that are all pretty darned amazing. And nice east coast pizza.
Murphy's, a pub with lots of dark wood, stained glass, and the world's second best BLT. (The best one was at the Hotel Playa in Mazatlan.)
Avocado! Red onion! Brown sugar bacon! Sweet potato fries! And did I mention the brown sugar bacon?
All right. So the BLT in Mazatlan didn't have candied bacon or sweet potato fries. But it was served on a perfect beach in a perfect resort hotel, so really, there's no competition.
Lou's Restaurant & Bakery. We have been here before.
I had the poached eggs on english muffins with tomato, bacon, and a chipotle cream sauce. With a side of baked beans, made from scratch, natch.
There's still some Pennsylvania left in me - I looove homemade baked beans.
Yumi & Stew each got a giant plate of corned beef hash.
This was great. I could eat this all day. And I don't really like corned beef, hash-ified or otherwise.
Yumi cleans her plate.
Stew is defeated. Which worked out well for me, because I got to eat half of his breakfast.
Turns out to have been a good thing, since I had quite the workout during the concert later that day.
Tired now. G'nite...
Murphy's, a pub with lots of dark wood, stained glass, and the world's second best BLT. (The best one was at the Hotel Playa in Mazatlan.)
Avocado! Red onion! Brown sugar bacon! Sweet potato fries! And did I mention the brown sugar bacon?
All right. So the BLT in Mazatlan didn't have candied bacon or sweet potato fries. But it was served on a perfect beach in a perfect resort hotel, so really, there's no competition.
Lou's Restaurant & Bakery. We have been here before.
I had the poached eggs on english muffins with tomato, bacon, and a chipotle cream sauce. With a side of baked beans, made from scratch, natch.
There's still some Pennsylvania left in me - I looove homemade baked beans.
Yumi & Stew each got a giant plate of corned beef hash.
This was great. I could eat this all day. And I don't really like corned beef, hash-ified or otherwise.
Yumi cleans her plate.
Stew is defeated. Which worked out well for me, because I got to eat half of his breakfast.
Turns out to have been a good thing, since I had quite the workout during the concert later that day.
Tired now. G'nite...
Friday, March 06, 2009
Roadkill Snacks
The British. Purveyors of very strange snacks.
These British crisps (chips to you) are from a candy shop in Keene.
Chili & Chocolate (gack), Crispy Duck & Hoisin (tasty), Roast Chicken (meh).
Other flavors (neither pictured nor tried - yet) were Fish & Chips, Builder's Breakfast (tomatoes, beans, & ham or some such), something Indian & onion, and Prawn Cocktail.
And, of course, CAJUN SQUIRREL. What.
That was awful.
I would rather have ketchup chips.
These British crisps (chips to you) are from a candy shop in Keene.
Chili & Chocolate (gack), Crispy Duck & Hoisin (tasty), Roast Chicken (meh).
Other flavors (neither pictured nor tried - yet) were Fish & Chips, Builder's Breakfast (tomatoes, beans, & ham or some such), something Indian & onion, and Prawn Cocktail.
And, of course, CAJUN SQUIRREL. What.
That was awful.
I would rather have ketchup chips.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Keene, NH
Keene is the home of the lovely Elm City Brewing Company. We were in Keene for 3 days and went there 3 times.
Great brews! Onion rings the size of donuts! Salmon fillets smoked in-house!
And a roasted malt beer that tasted like mugicha and would be the perfect obon beer.
We went there with our Odaiko New England friends after the concert.
Lunch at Keene Fresh Salad Company.
Huge sandwiches! Soups and breads made from scratch!
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Albany, NY
A quickie stop in Albany, on our way to the New Hamster.
Rachel (friend from college) joins us for dinner at Delmonico's Italian Steak House, which seems to specialize in Extremely Large Entrees. I just had some reasonably sized pasta, but there were things on the menu like One Pound Lasagna, a 24 oz center-cut ribeye, and the Chef's Mixed Grill, which was a pig, chicken, and cow on a plate. Ask Dyls how he liked his.
There were also at least 6 separate birthdays being celebrated (each accompanied by singing waitstaff, one of whom was holding what looked like a celebratory sparkler/road flare hybrid), which really seems like a statistical impossibility. Hm.
Anyway, the food was decent. And it was great to see Ms. NP!
Rachel (friend from college) joins us for dinner at Delmonico's Italian Steak House, which seems to specialize in Extremely Large Entrees. I just had some reasonably sized pasta, but there were things on the menu like One Pound Lasagna, a 24 oz center-cut ribeye, and the Chef's Mixed Grill, which was a pig, chicken, and cow on a plate. Ask Dyls how he liked his.
There were also at least 6 separate birthdays being celebrated (each accompanied by singing waitstaff, one of whom was holding what looked like a celebratory sparkler/road flare hybrid), which really seems like a statistical impossibility. Hm.
Anyway, the food was decent. And it was great to see Ms. NP!
Monday, March 02, 2009
No quarters necessary
Ft. Wayne, IN -
Workshop with Ft. Wayne Taiko. Afterwards, one of their members (Jackie and her husband, Eric) was kind enough to take us in for the night, in her beautiful, completely-decked-out home, which had a playroom full of 80's video games, pinball machines, punching bag, and air hockey & pool tables. And cookies, brownies, and a lovely spicy bean soup. Not to mention the outdoor koi ponds, a real playground (for their two very lucky kids), and three cute dogs. On top of that, Eric was hilarious and had us in stitches the whole time.
Workshop with Ft. Wayne Taiko. Afterwards, one of their members (Jackie and her husband, Eric) was kind enough to take us in for the night, in her beautiful, completely-decked-out home, which had a playroom full of 80's video games, pinball machines, punching bag, and air hockey & pool tables. And cookies, brownies, and a lovely spicy bean soup. Not to mention the outdoor koi ponds, a real playground (for their two very lucky kids), and three cute dogs. On top of that, Eric was hilarious and had us in stitches the whole time.
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