Comic for Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Posted: 7:20 am, Thursday, May 1st

Wow, it's May already? Times flies when you're unemployed. It was one of those crappy days here in New York yesterday where the sun was shining brightly and it was all of 47 degrees outside. Of course, I'll get limited pity from anyone, since I was at least able to observe the weather from my own window instead of some twentieth-story office window.

I made some killer pork chops last night. You ever see America's Test Kitchen on PBS? 2.0's really into it, and we got their magazine for a while. Much more practical than when I was subscribing to Gourmet four years ago or so, just basic recipes on how to make good pork chops or good fancy pizza or whatever. Today, I'm hoping to truck over to Q-town and get some fish while dropping off the old monitor, and then it'll be ceviche and Lost tonight. BIG THURSDAY WHOOOOOO.

Bear with the lean blog entries, we'll be rolling deep again soon, no worries.

bullfrog

2.0 -- Thursday, May 1 2008, 08:09 am

I'm concerned he's learning all my recipes. Somebody hire this boy so I don't become obsolete.

Hands off the chili.

the America's Test Kitchen cookbook is definitely my most referenced cookbook. it's a big three-ringed binder, too, which is nifty.

I am the biggest ATK nerd ever! Cook's Illustrated website is also worth subscribing to, so is the magazine.

In a million years, I did not see this being a big conversation starter.

Cook's Illustrated is the Cook version of Consumer Reports.

Sadly, the only cookbooks I have are from Alton Brown, which is less a cookbook and more of a "cooking for not-so dummies", but with science. (They're not bad cookbooks, in my humble opinion.)

Huge fan of Everyday Food. Little magazine that has really basic stuff, but everything I've made works. Also has recipes that you can freeze-- the broccoli calzones were really good.

I also highly recommend the New American Plate. Inventive, but not too weird.

Cooks Magazine appeals to my need to know why a recipe works. Also I like the idea that my recipes are archetypal.

I subscribed to the website for a while, but the recent REDACTED financial merger caused me to lapse my subscription. We got the greatest dutch oven for only $40 bucks--an ATK recommendation. Screw La Creuset!

Shoot. Hon, that should read the 2.0/Bullfrog merger. Can you pull that off.

Done and done.

The Joy of Cooking. You cannot fuck with it. I think of a dish, that bitch is somewhere in TJOC. I don't think there's even a need to own a second cookbook. And when that's not enough, allrecipes.com.

America's Test Kitchen is good, but it has that NPR problem where the host is such an incredible nerd that I get distracted by thinking, "I can't believe this guy is on TV. What am I doing wrong that I'm not where he is?" I prefer my cooking shows with someone like Justin Wilson or Nigella Lawson: I'll clearly never be an old-guy Cajun character or a sexy British woman, so there's no self-displacement going on.

My biggest problem with ATK is that sometimes you have to think "seriously, do I need to do that step where I brine for 36 minutes exactly or only cut the carrots into lengthwise slivers?" but that's where judgement comes into play...if I don't buy it's worth it, I just skip & live (eat) with the consequences.

I have a 1972 Joy of Cooking reprint and like it better than the newer version. Yes, there are some dated things, and the fat/salt stuff can be an issue, but that I can fix. The tone is also just wonderful--very dated and quaint in an urbanite way. At one point it actually talks about the New Yorker.

I recently started getting Real Simple and tried a few of their recipes - for those of us with limited time during the week - thumbs up on the few I tried.

That's kind of the rub of the unemployed. I have time to be making all sorts of crazy Batali-ish shit, but should I really be dropping the cash on the ingredients? The answer, so far, has been no.

We are having ceviche tonight, though.

Oh shit, I think it's my friend Licia's birthday today. Hey, if you're reading, brand-new mom, happy birthday.

Homemade pasta is cheap (flour, eggs, a little olive oil) and is a fun thing to tackle. although, you do need a pasta roller to do it. so that kills the cheap idea for you, bullfrog. sorry. How about homemade bread? that's cheap and no special equipment required.

Find a cheap seafood dealer (not sketchy! just affordable) and buy some mussels. Mussels in white wine and garlic sauce takes about 25 minutes (18 of which is cleaning the mussels) and is damned awesome. At Eastern Market in DC you can get a five-pound bag for $5, which is about 35 mussels. Get a baguette and go to town.

The only time my Chinatown fishmonger has even done me wrong was on a bag of mussels that was completely fucked by the time I got home, actually. I should give it another go sometime next week... Ceviche tonight, home cookin' the next few nights.