Northside Food

Shopping the Farmers Markets

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:57:00 +0000

I have a friend, who is interested in shopping the farmer's markets this year. So we took him with us on our weekly prowl, and I thought I'd post some of my strategies here as well. There was also great article in the Chicago Tribune that I found recently, that has some great ideas too.

From blog

First, get there early. Remember in "Ratatouille" when Collette is yelling about the first pick of the day? This is how you get it. It's not like Publix where they've got another hundred cases in the back, once they run out, they run out. At the Riverside market in Roswell, I've only managed to buy fresh eggs once, because he's always out by the time I make it there. Last year, I missed out on Georgia blueberries several times because I couldn't get there fast enough. I like to walk through the market once, before buying anything, looking for the best deals and at what's in today.

From blog

Next, bring bags. Most of the vendors will have thin plastic bags. Some of them are reused bags, some are new. However, it lowers their costs if you provide your own packaging. So I bring my own cloth bags. Also, you want to bring cash. none of the vendors in Roswell or Alpharetta are set up to take debit cards. We usually bring $40 and we spend it all. And you'll make them very happy if you can bring some fives or some singles.

From blog

Don't be afraid to ask what something is, or how to prepare it. I've learned alot of new ways to prepare vegetables since e started going to the markets. I as an infrequent consumer of collards, for example, and beets never made it into my bag. I only knew to simmer collards with onion and ham. And god knows what you did with a beet. Now I know a couple different ways to prepare both of these, because I asked.

Also, you'll want to spend some time prepping your veggies when you get home. We're all used to the convenience of pre-washed and chopped bag o' salad at the grocery store. You have to make this yourself. So right now I have a colander of sorrel rinsed and draining in my sink. Later on, I'll put it in a container, or bag and store it in the fridge, ready to throw in a salad or stir fry. It also helps them fit in the fridge a bit better. I always have trouble with that. Everything will last longer than you'd think. Its fresh from the ground, instead of being hauled across the country on a truck for a week, or flown in from South America. But if you don't get it into a form you'll use, then it doesn't matter how fresh it is.

From blog

You really have to embrace vegetables if you're going to shop at the Farmers Market. They become the star of the show, rather than the accompaniment. We're eating alot of salads and veggie stir fries right now, and grilling squash and peppers outdoors.

If you want an idea of when certain things will be available, you can always ask the vendors, or you can check out this very handy interactive map by Epicurious that will give you an idea of what's available this month. It also includes links to recipes, which can be very helpful when dealing with a glut of unfamilar veggies.

From blog

The Riverside Farmers Market in Roswell will be closed next weekend for the holiday. However, the Alpharetta Farmers Market will be open for business.

Neslte is the very best...e. coli

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:59:00 +0000

Almost forgot to post about this one, since I haven't bought packaged cookie dough in ages, but Nestle is voluntarily recalling their cookie and brownie dough products after some consumers became ill from eating the products raw. It was bound to happen eventually, given how contaminated our industrial food supply is and the forbidden pleasures of eating raw cookie doigh. (Which I happily confess to have doing.) You can read the complete release from Nestle, along with the list of products affected, here.

Why can't every day be a vacation?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:45:00 +0000

In my readings today, I found this old article from the AJC on buying a second home in Serenbe. Serenbe, for those of you from out of town, is a sustainable community developed just south of Atlanta. The community is centered around an organic farm, that feeds the residents and the excess is sold off at area farmers markets. It's a model community in many ways.

So here's my question: Why is this a vacation spot?

A very good critique of the farm to table movement is that it's elitest. "Oh sure, it's easy to have an organice vegetable garden, Mrs. Obama. You have an army of gardeners to take care of it for you." That kind of thing. And sure, good fresh food and living sustainably takes a bit more thought, planning and effort than just microwaving yourself a corndog for dinner, but not so much that it should be considered an occasional effort.

There's just something about the idea of buying a second home in a sustainable community that strikes me as Just Not Getting It.

I'll never hear the end of this now...

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:12:00 +0000

I made yogurt.

From blog

It's a PERFECTLY reasonable thing to do. I swear.

See, I had almost an entire gallon of milk that, for some reason, we hadn't finished before the sell by date. And even though I know that it's still good for a few days after that, it doesn't taste as fresh to me and I don't like to drink it straight. I'll use it to cook with though. But I had almost a full gallon this time. There was no way I could cook with all of it before it really went bad, so I decided that it was time I made yogurt.

I've been dithering over making yogurt for months now. My co workers make fun of me for talking about it all the time, but not doing it. So I decided to suck it up and go for broke. The milk was already wasted, why not experiment? So I made yogurt.

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the process, since I didn't think it would really work. I'll take pictures next time, I promise.

The recipe I used comes from "A Year of Crockpotting", which is a really simple and easy recipe. Others I've read call for turning on the oven, or putting heating pads in a cooler or other silly things. I just heated the milk in the crockpot, added some store bought Stoneyfield Farms plain whole milk yogurt as a starter and let it do its thing.

Mine made a CRAZY amount of whey and it was very grainy. So I strained it using coffee filters and ended up with something similar in consistency to ricotta cheese, but very tangy. I like it. It's different, but I like it. I ended up with about three cups of whey, which I added to bread dough in place of water.

Sooo...I guess I'm a hippy now.

It's Carrot Tops, but without the 'roid rage.

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:37:00 +0000

From blog

Tonight's salad? Tomatoes, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, arugala, swiss chard and ...carrot tops.

GAH!! Not that kind! Not that kind!

I bought my carrots this week from Floyd Keisler at Moss Hill Farms, in Milton. While I was selecting my bunch, Floyd was nice enough to explain some other uses of carrots for me. Not only can you eat the root, like we all know and love, but apparently the stems and leaves are also edible. Chop the leaves up fine and add them to salads. They taste just like carrots. Apparently, the stems also have nutritional value if you decide to chew them, but they are too woody to actually eat. That sounds rather gross to me, so I'm sticking to just the roots and leaves for now.

If you're interested in buying organic produce from Moss Hill Farm, you can find them each Saturday at the Riverside Farmers Market in Roswell. Or you can email him to arrange a pick up at his farm in Milton during the week.

Mmm....we're having ramen!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:10:00 +0000

So my husband seems to come down with some kind of cross between swine flu and SARS this week. I dunno, I'm not good with dieseases. All I know, is that he's more pathetic and useless than he usually is. So when he got home from work today, and immediately took a two hour nap, I decided to make him one of his favorite foods: Ramen.

Ramen is one of the few highly processed foods that I still bring home. I figure we all need a few vices and ramen isn't that terrible in the grand scheme of things. Yes, sodium wise, it'll kill you if you eat it every day. But as an occasional thing? Not so bad. Also, most of the sodium is the mysterious foil flavor packet, so if you're really worried (and if you are, why are you eating ramen?) you can always adjust.

As terrifying as it sounds, I've actually gone to resturants and ordered ramen. Everyone always looks at me like I've gone insane when I mention this. I mean, sure, I don't think ramen is considered gourmet food even in Japan, but Asian street food is kind of awesome. There used to be a great noodle house on Buford Highway where you could get a giant bowl of freshly made ramen and a side of crispy bottomed goyza for hella cheap. I used to make my husband take me there on dates, back when we were first dating. I've always been a cheap date.

From Northside Food

Anyways, I made ramen for dinner tonight. It's very easy and it always goes over well. I added sliced, hard boiled egg to mine, along with some sauteed turnip greens. I always add veggies to mine, either from a bag in the freezer, leftovers from last night's dinner, or fresh ones I've chopped small. Fresh baby spinach leaves are great stirred into a bowl. So is asparagus, chopped small. I also like to add protein, either in the form of a chopped egg or left over roasted meat. When I was a kid, I used to add chopped up deli meat. I suppose I could still do that, but why?

Adding the additional veggies and protein makes it a bit more of a complete meal and spreads the crazy hit of sodium out a bit. It's still not the healthiest thing I could be eating, but it's sure better than frozen pizza.

You're Doing It All Wrong

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:17:00 +0000

Recently, I've fallen in love with the video section at Chow. They've got a variety of video clips demonstrating how to wash strawberries, pour champagne, cook oatmeal, etc. All professionally produced and hosted by real chefs. Some of their tips are a little too "gourmand" for my tastes (the burger video in particular is too fussy for me), but most give great suggestions and I get inspired watching them. Which I think is the point. They want us to get out and cook.

I've chosen to link you to their bit on properly saucing pasta. I love this. I grew up in house with a sister who hates tomato sauce, so we always served it on the side. I hated how I never could seem to put enough sauce on my pasta to get rid of that gummy pasta taste. I started mixing them together in the pan when I started cooking for myself, mainly to save on getting the colander dirty. (My husband is convinced I destroy kitchens on purpose when I cook.) But the resulting pasta tasted much better, so I kept doing it. I haven't tried adding the butter and olive oil. It looks delicious, but I don't know if I can afford the extra fat and calories in my diet at this point. Oh well.

Enjoy the videos.

Oh, and...

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Sat, 30 May 2009 04:04:00 +0000

The Taste of Sandy Springs is tomorrow. I'm probably going to be a bad foodie blogger and skip it. I'm going to Nashville to promote one of my Wheel of Time fandom events, so I'm pretty busy. It looks like some really good resturants will be represented, like Eclipse di Luna, Alon's, Wild Ginger. Hmm. I really want to try Alon's. I may have to make time to get there.

Anyways, details on the website. http://www.tasteofsandysprings.org/ Tickets are five dollars, plus "taste tickets". Enjoy your weekend.

"I love rooster sauce!"

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Sat, 30 May 2009 03:27:00 +0000

This is a fascinating article about the history of sriracha sauce in the United States. I had always assumed it was some traditional Vietnamese sauce and only recently available in the United States. But according to this, it's a Thai sauce, produced in the United States by an ethnic Chinese man, who immigrated here from Vietnam in the 80's.

I first encountered it abour eight or nine years ago, when I was first dating my husband and he was living in Chamblee. I'd go visit him and we'd go to the Ranch 99 Market on Buford HWY and I'd gawk at all the crazy Asian stuff and he'd mutter under his breath at the other chinese and pretend he didn't speak Mandarin. The Ranch 99 Market is a crazy place, yo. We'd pick up frozen dumplings, various sauces and serious curry powder there.

Sriracha is the only hot sauce I use at home, other than the odd jar of harissa purchased at a Persian market. I don't say this because I am some kind of hot sauce conniseur, turning up my nose at inferior bottles of fire. I'm not a huge fan of spicy food. I like to taste my meals, not sweat them out. I like sriracha because it has a tolerable level of heat and a well developed flavor of its own. I like to add a little squirt to stir fries or marinades, or fried rice when I cook at home. I'm not terribly creative with it. Apparently there are tons of recipes using sriracha that I never knew about. I'm fine with that. Like I said, not really a hot sauce person. These garlic hot wings sound pretty awesome though.

I do find it very interesting that it's become so wide spread, from something I had to make a special trip for, to something I can grab at the local Publix. That's pretty cool.

Northside Farmer's Markets Up and Running

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:53:00 +0000

The Roswell and Alpharetta Farmer's Markets have been up and running now for a couple weeks. I have pictures of both, but I can't find the USB cable that goes with my camera, so you'll have to wait to see to them.

The Alpharetta market has been open for about a month now, and has plenty of produce available. Not all the vendors I recall from last summer are there yet, but a good many are. It's not all locally produced, but it's fresh and great quality. I've also picked up some local honey and some very tasty jams.

The Roswell Market is more of a growers market, and therin lies the problem with it. The growers aren't there yet. I've managed to buy fresh strawberries two weeks in a row, and fresh herbs, but there's really nothing else available, produce wise. There are some adorable arts and crafts though, and Emily G's Jam of Love is there every weekend. If last year's pattern holds, it'll be like this until later in the season, when the real harvest season starts.

Doing more with less

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:46:00 +0000

We're trying to cut our budget right now to increase our savings. We don't have what I'd consider an extravagant lifestyle. Our only car is a paid for, beat to hell pick up truck, for example. So we've been looking for creative ways to live more frugally, without making us feel deprived of something we enjoy.

One of the blogs I've become a fan of recently, is Cheap Healthy Good, which is, as it says, about cooking that combines all three elements. A few month's ago, they had a great post about roasting one chicken and using the leftover meat for the rest of the week. I'm a fan of that approach. I've done this before with chickens and turkeys, and even hams. This week, I used a pork roast. Here's the menu for the week:

Sunday:
Dinner- Roasted pork with fingerling potatoes and a salad.

Monday:
Lunch- Left over pork, potatoes and salad
Dinner- Veggie lo mein, with chopped, leftover pork added

Tuesday:
Lunch- Left over lo mein (my husband), salad of romaine lettuce, carrots, broccoli, cucumbers and chopped roast pork (me)
Dinner- I had a banquet to attend for work, so the husband was on his own. He had more left over noodles.

Wednesday:
Lunch- Salads for both of us, witch chopped roast pork.
Dinner- Loaded baked potatoes, using roast pork as the protein.

So, not nearly as inventive or nutritional as CHG, but not a bad way to use up eight dollars worth of meat. I shall continue playing with this concept.

Ingredients Matter

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Sun, 17 May 2009 17:48:00 +0000

One of the things that's so easy to forget, is that ingredients matter. I mean, sure, it's really easy to open a box, add water, then stir and call it dinner. And if you're mindlessly wolfing down food while watching TV, or driving, I suppose that's alright. I prefer to taste my food though.

Even though I know ingredients matter, I still have meals that remind me of it rather forcefully. Last night, for dinner, we had BLTs. Very simple, very basic, nothing to get excited over, right? But made with freshly baked bread from Artisan Foods, fresh salad greens and tomatoes from the Roswell and Alpharetta Farmer's Markets, and a good quality swiss cheese from Trader Joe's, it's more than just a sandwich, it's a dinner worth blogging about.

So ingredients DO matter.

And I'm back

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:50:00 +0000

Apologies for the long delay between posts. I didn't mean to go on hiatus that long. As some of you know, I'm really, really into the late Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series. Probably more than is healthy for me. Anyways, as I'm wont to do with anything I enjoy, I went completely overboard and founded a genre literature convention for Robert Jordan fans. We had about 250 people here in Alpharetta for the event, including the new author of series, the publisher, and Jordan's wife/ editor. It was a pretty fun weekend all in all.

Anyways, you aren't here to watch me nerd out everywhere. You're here for the food. I got too busy to really cook much for awhile, and I managed to put on 15 pounds (Just in time for bathing suit season!), so I need to ease myself back into my usual diet and cooking habits.

To that end, I made cake today.

Yes, I know that seems counter intuitive. Most people do not consider cake to be an essential part of a healthy diet. But we're both dedicated snackers here, and I'd rather us eating a little sliver of something I made from scratch, from good ingredients, than something full of nasty preservatives and chemicals. So today I made Orangette's "Every Day Cake", which turned out beautifully.

I had to adapt it slightly, owing to not having any white whole wheat flour on hand, or nutmeg. So I doubled the amount of all purpose and I used a sprinkling of cinnamon instead. This recipe is definitely a keeper. Perfect for afternoon snacks, as advertised. But I think it would also be an excellent addition to Sunday brunch, topped with whipped cream and fresh berries. The yogurt makes it tangy and rich, and the edges are crispy and brown.

This is a good start.

Slice

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:11:00 +0000

A group of us went out to Slice on Friday, where I got more practice with my camera.

From blog

Seared tuna appetizer that the table shared. This was my favorite of the three we passed around. The tuna was rich and buttery and perfectly seared. I really love how it's plated too, with drizzles of ponzu dipping sauce and siracha hot sauce.

We also ordered fritters stuffed lump crab meat and risotto rice, which were very good. I loved the contrast between the crunch of the outside and the soft interior. There was a red pepper hummus as well, which I didn't like that much. It was oddly flavorless to me. I suspect I'm spoiled by the intensly garlicky hummus I get at Veranda.

From blog

A salad of greens, with Asian pears, walnuts and goat cheese. This belonged to someone else, so no first hand experience with it. However, the owner of that plate said it was delicious.

From blog

My husband ordered this one. Spinach salad with chopped hard boiled egg, panchetta, tomatoes, red onions and balsamic vinaigrette. This is a classic and almost impossible to screw up. I love the "bacon wheel" of the panchetta. Since his food is my food, I got a bite of this and immediately wished I'd ordered one too.

From blog

Gah. I hate how blurry this is. Anyways, it's the meatloaf. It's HUGE. The beef is locally raised, grass fed and so full of flavor. There's red bell pepper in this too, which I don't do in my meatloaf, but was pretty tasty.

From blog

Didn't order this one, so no report on taste. It's scallops and risotto. My eating buddy Jeff said it was delicious though. I think I'll order this next time.

From blog

This is what I ordered. Have I mentioned I'm on a diet? I didn't feel left out though, as I love French onion soup. It was very rich and smooth, one of the best I've had. And I got to order dessert guilt free. (Please, no one post in the comments about French onion soup is 98% lard or anything like that. I like my illusions.)

Speaking of dessert...

From blog

Chocolate Crunch Cake. Yum.

From blog

White Chocolate Raspberry Cake. Drool.

From blog

Coca Cola Cake. All the desserts come from Lulu's Bakery in Alpharetta, and I always consider this their signiture dessert. It seems like every place around here that carries Lulu's desserts has this one. And oddly enough, I've never tried it. I'll need to address that at some point.

From blog

Snickers Cheesecake. Yes, those are real chunks of Snicker bar on top.

From blog

And this is mine, Andes mint cheesecake. Well worth skipping the meatloaf and prime rib everyone else was swilling.

Slice also has a great wine and beer list. I had a fantastic red with my meal that I'd recomend if I could recall it's name. It was a varietal I hadn't had before, which is why I chose it. The atmosphere is great as well. The downstairs is like swanky club, with blue lights and a large bar dominating. Upstairs is a quiet dining room, full of warm colors and subdued lighting. It's quite cozy. When the weather gets nice again, I like to eat out in the gazebo next to the koi pond.

I highly recomend this place for an evening out for good food and good drinks.

Picture Dump... Again.

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:26:00 +0000

I got a new camera for Christmas and I've slowly been getting the hang of it. Here's a couple things I've been working on.

From blog

This is a lentil and kale soup I made last month. I got the recipe from Adam at The Amateur Gourmet. This was a great soup, a little spicy, a little sweet. Perfect for a cold night.

From blog

Hot cocoa with a homemade marshmellow. Cute mug, right? It was a gift from one of the girls in my homeroom this year. It's just the right size for when I need a sweet drink, but don't want to feel too gluttonous.

From blog

This is a cheese spread I made using the leftovers from my New Year's Eve cheese plate. It's called "fromage fort" and this version comes from Alton Brown. The gist of it is leftover cheese in a food processor, with white wine, garlic and parsley. I think I actually took this intending to use it in a "Grow Your Own" post, but it sat too long on my camera. It's awesome on those little whole wheat Kashi crackers you see there, or you can smear it on fresh apple slices for a slightly healthier treat.

From blog

I came home late one night from a basketball game last month and I needed a fast dinner, so I made pizza. The crust is the Olive Oil Dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The sauce was a quick amalgamation of canned tomatoes, rosemary, red wine, onions and garlic. It should have reduced a bit more. It was thinner than I like. The Italian sausage was leftover from something else. This was really, really good. I need to smoosh the crust thinner though.

From blog

Another Olive Oil Dough creation. This was a stromboli that I whipped up. It's stuffed with cheese, more italian sausage, garlic and thawed, frozen spinach. I must make this again. Soon.

From blog

This is a Chicken Tortilla Soup that ended up being so spicy I couldn't eat it. I froze the leftovers and I'm waiting for a victim to foist it off on. I added the chopped chiles too early, so they had too long to infect the broth. Even my husband thought it was too spicy. It had a great flavor under it though, just spicy.

Lunch at Shallots

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 01:18:00 +0000

I've been busy lately. But not too busy to pay for my lunch in gold doubloons.

I had to break a twenty to ride MARTA last weekend. Did you know MARTA gives your change back to you as... change? I used them to pay for lunch out with my co workers on a teacher work day.

I felt like a pirate.

Emily G's Jam of Love

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:52:00 +0000

Things have been crazy busy here lately, so I haven't had much time to sit and write a proper post.

However, I do want to take a moment and point you in the direction of this great profile the AJC did last Thursday about Emily G's Jam of Love, a local home based jam company. We picked up several jars of their jam this summer when they were at the Roswell Farmers Market. Our favorites were the Triple Berry and Watermelon jam. In fact, I think we still have some Watermelon in the fridge...Yum.

I've had a link up on my site to them for awhile, just because I think their jams are so tasty. Definitely pick up a jar if you can.

I made fudge

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:37:00 +0000

I had today off, and the heat wasn't working for the better part of the day. What could I cook to stave off the inevitable frostbite? Fudge. Not just any fudge though. Delicious fudge.

Adapted from the recipe on the back of a can of Eagle sweetened condensed milk.

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 package chocolate chips
1 cup broken dark chocolate pieces
1 tsp vanilla
dash salt
1/2 cup dried cherries and cranberries

In double boiler, combine chocolate, vanilla, salt and sweetened condensed milk. Stir over low heat until smooth. Add dried fruit. Spread in a container lined with waxed paper or parchment. Cool for several hours until firm.

I cut mine into tiny pieces. And the combination of dried cranberries and cherries with the dark chocolate means this treat packs quite an antioxidant wallop. Why, it's practically health food! Sadly, neither my husband or I will enjoy this fudge. I plan to mail it to a friend in Florida that I owe a box of Christmas cookies to.

To make up for it, I made Darling Clementine Cake for our dessert this week. Oh Clementines, is there anything you CAN'T make tasty?

Baked Potato Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:38:00 +0000

My husband and I love soup, especially on a cold winter night when the heater on is on the fritz. So tonight, we curled up with steaming bowls of loaded baked potato soup.

3 cups white potatoes. Any waxy potato like Yukon gold or red will work too. I'd steer away from russets, just because they crumble into mush when you boil them. Obviously, if these were REAL loaded baked potatoes, you should ignore that advice.
2 cups chicken broth
2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup white wine
4 strips bacon
three cloves garlic
1/2c cup cheese (I had a mix of cheddar and swiss on hand. )
1/2 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste

You should also add an onion. My last onion has gone all sprouty, so I left it out.

Fry bacon until crispy in your soup pot. Remove from pan and drain. Lightly fry your chopped, white potatoes in the grease. They won't get cooked all the way, but you'll add a little color. If you have an onion, it goes in here. Add the garlic, then add the chicken broth, milk and wine. Bring to a boil, then simmer until potatoes are tender. Melt in the cheese, then use an immersion blender to blend all the potatoes together. The last time I made a potato soup, I didn't do this and my husband got all pouty faced over it. He likes his soup slurpy. You can skip doing this if you prefer a chunkier soup or don't a have an immersion blender. Wisk in the sour cream and add the crumbled bacon. Add salt and pepper and serve. I think green onions or chives on top would be very pretty.

This dish, like so many I make these days, comes from me looking at my kitchen and thinking "What can I make with what I've got?" The potatoes needed to be eaten up before they went sprouty. I always have bacon. The sour cream and cheese were leftover from a Battlestar Frak Party chili Diane brought us on Friday. There was brief discussion of spaghetti tonight, but I don't have all the things I like to have with spaghetti. That's one of the things I like about scratch cooking. You can be endlessly creative with what you have in the pantry.

Tricking Kids Into Eating Vegetables

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:53:00 +0000

This semester, I am teaching a "Food Appreciation Class". This will either be the best thing I've ever done professionally, or it will be cited in the newspaper report about why I shot up that shopping mall.

Teaching kids to cook can be immensely rewarding and insanely frustrating all at the same time. And I'm not teaching just any kids, I'm teaching a gaggle of middle school kids with mild to moderate special needs. Lots of impulsivity issues and poor decision making skills, even for young adolescents. So the highs are much higher and the lows are much lower.

Take today for example, I'm currently teaching a unit on how to pack a sack lunch that doesn't make me want to gag when I look at it. The lunches they bring range from Hot Pockets, to Spaghetti Os to entire frozen pizzas. One of my students downs a 20 ounce bottle of Mountain Dew each morning while he munches a fast food breakfast in the car on his way to school. My #1 goal this semester is to help them shake off these poor eating habits the parents have allowed them to develop.

Our recipes were two simple sandwiches that they can make themselves at home with minimal assistance. In fact, I want them to be able to do it themselves. No fancy ingredients or weird looking tools. We did Alton Brown's Roasted Veggie Cream Cheese Spread, which is delicious, and we did a simple tuna salad sandwich mixed with roasted red peppers and baby spinach. That turned out amazingly good.

The comments from the kids as we made these amused me greatly. "I don't like tuna fish!" "Are red peppers spicy?" "Will the zucchini make it slimy?"

Afterwards, all the comments became "You gave me a copy of the recipe right?" "You must have bought some fancy tuna, because this was GOOD!" "I'm going to ask my mom if I can start eating dairy again, that smells great."

I hope they bring some of these to school with them in the coming weeks. If nothing else they ate a vegetable today.

Tuna Salad with Veggies

2 cans tuna
3/4 c mayo
1/2 c roasted red peppers (You can find these in little glass jars at the grocery store if you don't want to roast your own)
1 c baby spinach, chopped or torn into bite sized pieces
Toasted whole wheat bread or crackers

Combine all ingredients, then spread on the toasted bread. Eat.

ZOMG!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:58:00 +0000

I’ve assembled a blogroll of the best local food and dining blogs from regular folks, irregular media and a couple of public relations firms that do more than just promote their clients.

Check out John Kessler's blog roll. The Kes is linking to me. For those of you reading this outside of Atlanta, Kessler was the local fishwrapper's restaurant critic for many years, followed by a weekly column that I read religiously until it ended a few weeks ago. I have enormus respect for him as both a writer and foodie.

I suppose I better update this more than once a week now.

It's my wine in a box, yo

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 03:34:00 +0000

So we bought two Target "Wine Cubes" for New Year's Eve. That's the equal of eight bottles of wine. And wouldn't you know it, but no one did much drinking that night. I think I did the most, drinking most of the mulled wine on my own. So now I'm stuck with a considerable amount of wine. (And also beer, because my husband decided on his way home that what our party needed was a 12 pack of Budweiser, even though only one of our invited guests drinks that. And he got stuck on the way back from the airport with his wife and didn't make the party anyways. But that will be another posting.) I do cook with wine, but in moderation. My husband does not like the taste of white wine in his food, so I can't use more than a half glass or so of that at a time.

Now, I'm not a wine expert by any means. I drink what I like and what I can afford. Usually, that means I'm shopping at Trader Joe's, which has a nice selection that overs over quickly at a price that means I can enjoy a glass of wine with dinner more than occasionally.

The Chardonnay I am drinking right now, for example, is fairly good. Not great, but I don't think I've had a great Chardonnay. But it's light and refreshing and citrusy just like a good Chard should be. I would buy this wine again or serve it to family without being embarrassed. I recall the Shiraz I used for the mulled wine to be good as well, but since I adulterated it so much, I can't say fairly until I have a glass of it alone.

New Year's Eve Menu

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:02:00 +0000

My husband and I don't like crowds. We don't like cold weather and we don't like spending tons of money on things we could just as easily make at home. What we do like is spending quiet evenings at home, with good quality food and good friends. To that end, we've been throwing a New Year's Eve party for our friends for the last several years.

Our parties are always pretty casual. We put out some finger foods, some drinks, and expect everyone to entertain themselves. Our menu this year is pretty similar to what we've put out in the past. We've got some old war horses, but I also like to try new things and mix it up a little.

This year includes:

A cheese plate (gouda, cheddar, and blue cheese)
Fruit (grapes, apples, oranges, pomegranates)
Pizza Margarita (fresh roma tomatoes, on home made pizza crust, with shredded cheese and basil)
A baked ham and rolls for sandwiches
Assorted chocolates
Veggies, with hummus for dipping
Crackers, to go either with cheese or the hummus
Assorted pickles and olives
Brie baked with apricots and rosemary

Drinks will be red and white wine. (We're experimenting with Target's wine cubes this year. I've heard from reliable sources that they are comparable to the Three Buck Chuck I usually put out for parties. ) We'll also have soda, and I'll put out sweet tea and water with limes. I'm considering mulling some of that red wine in my crockpot and having hot water out for tea.

People tend to bring more food or drinks too, so this list will expand in ways I can't predict.

It's time to make the donuts...

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:21:00 +0000

Breakfast this weekend was homemade beignets, made using the brioche recipe from my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes book.

From blog

These are the ones I made yesterday. Pretty, aren't they? And yeah, they really do only take a few minutes. The dough was already in the fridge, because I made cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. Roll it out, cut it into squares, let it rest while the oil heats up. I don't deep fry things often, but when I do, I make sure to drain things properly. A cookie sheet, layered with paper towels, the topped with a wire cooling rack. It keeps the food from reabsorbing the grease from the paper towels while it cools. Then just sprinkle with powdered sugar while they are still warm and serve.

I had to finish off the dough today, so we made a very large batch. If they last until tomorrow, my husband will take them to work to share with his office. He will be the most popular actuary ever.

Taste Test

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer Liang) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 04:07:00 +0000

Jezebel Magazine last month had a scoop about a new resturant coming to Historic Roswell.

Taste Test

Those living OTP will be thrilled when Carla Dent, owner of Pastis in Roswell, opens the doors to her newest venture. Taste Restaurant and Wine Shop is located in a charming house in historic Roswell that Dent completely gutted and renovated into a wine bar and restaurant, plus retail wine shop. Taste is going to be the first of its kind in Roswell because the city’s laws make it extremely difficult to have this type of concept. Dent lucked out and found two available properties next to each other and actually has two separate leases. The two spaces are joined by a 1,000-square-foot stone patio that will seat between 75 and 90 guests. Restaurant patrons will be able to taste any of the 150 to 200 wines stocked in the retail store, even if they aren’t on the wine list, and both sides will keep memory cards detailing which wines the customers prefer. “We want people to come in and be able to taste just about anything,” Dent says. “And if you like it, you can buy it.” 1132 Canton St., Roswell, 770.817.0202.

A quick Google search confirms what I suspected, Taste is taking over the space vacated by the late, lamented Coffee Buy the Book. It was a cute little independent store that also served coffee and pastries. I never went there for the food though. Sadly, it was one of the first things to go when the economy started to sink this year. Taste should be a fun and interesting addition to the neighborhood though. Here's hoping it's a bit more affordable than Pastis though.