I am SOOOOO drunk.

[rikibeth]

I came home and told shadowflyer, "Zaphod Beeblebrox, this is a very large drink. Hi."

Let me rephrase that.

I came home after TEN AND A HALF HOURS and told shadowflyer, "Zaphod Beeblebrox, this is a very large drink. Hi."

Carlos, our dishwasher and sometime prep cook, was out sick today.

shadowflyer looked at the options, and informed me that the only soda we had in the house was Diet Cherry Coke.

BLECH.

He then offered to mix a Minute Maid frozen lemonade pop with rum. I thought of the "lemon meringue martini" that kay_taylor had mentioned, and said "use the vanilla vodka." See, we THOUGHT the Stoli Vanil would mix well with Vanilla Coke, but it doesn't. It does mix well with frozen pina colada concentrate, I've discovered.

It also mixes very nicely with frozen lemonade. Write this down. I'm sure it'll be useful.

I got SO much done today. And mostly we kept the boss out of the kitchen.

Tomao basil soup, four Big Ass Cans of tomatoes worth. Cook's Illustrated taught me the trick of roasting the canned peeled tomatoes in the oven to concentrate the tomato flavor, so I did that. Otherwise, it could hardly be simpler -- sweat onions and garlic with bay leaves, add the tomatoes and their liquid, simmer, add basil, purée. Yay immersion blenders.

Broccoli salad. Still no red wine vinegar (tomorrow), but a mix of cider vinegar and rice wine vinegar was adequate.

Pesto for the fresh mozzarella sandwiches, yay.

Roasted off the last of the chicken breasts. Roasted off more bacon.

New egg salad, of course.

Bar cookes -- lemon squares and macaroon bars.

Portioned just TONS of turkey. A whole roasted turkey breast.

Boss bought a whole brisket for the store today, too, with the intent of making barbecued brisket sandwiches. I said "I know how to do an amazing brisket. Do we have a net connection here?" Yes we do. Cook's Illustrated to the rescue again -- I used my site membership to call up their recipe, and the brisket is coated with their spice rub and wrapped in plastic in the fridge waiting for me to cook it off tomorrow. I may yet convince boss that the store should ante up the $25 for a year's site membership, it's so very useful to have access to their archives. I am SO not giving her my own paid-for password.

You have to understand, just about every recipe I've brought into the store that hasn't been pure improvisation has been a Cook's Illustrated one. The sour cream corn muffins that the carb-avoiding boss can't resist, The cranberry orange nut bread that used up our excess buttermilk. Okay, the spicy apple cheddar nut bread came from Family Circle -- somehow or other I got a free subscription to that and it started turning up in my mailbox, and that one was in the Christmas issue, and it sounded worth a try since we had WAY too many cases of apples left after Thanksgiving, and actually it was pretty good. But mostly I swipe my good recipes from Cook's Illustrated or the Moosewood cookbooks. Never ever fails.

Also helped Jen haul out the trash and did two huge sinkfuls of dishes.

TEN AND A HALF HOURS.

I am NOT cooking dinner tonight. I did tell shadowflyer what to make: Schezuan green beans, and heat up the frozen potstickers and red bean bao.

And I brought home a pecan pie from the store. I deserve a serious dessert.

I am SOOOO drunk.

And how are you?

Comments

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Christy's holiday gift to me for the past two years has been the subscription.

Before that, I was getting the return-unsold copies from Wild Oats because I was working there. Handy.

I have every copy that's ever come into the house in a big binder, and bought the ten-year index to help me find recipes, as well as hot pink Post-it tape flags on my favorites.

I also have the website subscription, which is useful for all the stuff from the years before 1998 or 1999 when I started acquiring copies. Slightly more cost effective than the hardbound annuals, although I covet them.

I used several Cook's recipes when I was at school, for exams, too. More reliable than my textbook, actually. Their raspberry coulis? Unbeatable.

When I worked at Wild Oats, I had access to almost ALL the major cooking magazines. I read them all, enjoyed them, and marked recipes from all of them -- but when it came down to actually MAKING the recipes? And, even more important, making them TWICE? It wasn't Gourmet or Bon Appetit or Cooking Light I turned to. it was always Cook's.

I probably would not have had the courage to go to culinary school if it wasn't for that magazine.

I very nearly applied for an internship there, despite the fact that I would have had to find someone to stay with and only see my family on weekends if they took me.

You could say I'm a fan.

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

What I like about- no, love about Cook's- is the rigor and respect they give to every single recipe, whether it is mac and cheese, or a ethnic dish that become a staple, to basic techniques that you thought you mastered. Gourmet and Bon appetite are very good, but they present a lifestyle along with the recipes, and sometimes the recipe's intergrity is not so stable. (I have had issues with the baking and the blending of sauces from Bon Appetit. They have gotten alot better in the last two years, and they have started a very good avocatcy column as well). I have had recipes turn out perfect, everytime I have used a Cook's magazine.

So glad there is a fellow fan!

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Rigor, respect, and the whole "We cooked off forty-five turkeys to make sure" thing, yes indeed.

Gourmet and Bon Appetit do push a lifestyle, and it's not mine. Cook's is realistic -- "Our goal was to make a Chicken Parmesan that could be on the table in 45 minutes so it'd be possible to cook it on a weeknight, and still have it taste the was it should." And it did, and the eight-year-old eats it. :)

Cook's is also not afraid of my Favorite Ingredient Ever: butter. I endure some teasing about this, but butter is one of the things that makes food worth eating, and I am not about to stop using it. yay butter!

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

On the love of Fat:

Butter is lovely, and so is Olive oil. Yummy. I don't use lard anymore, which is a shame, because it makes wonderful pie pastry ( so does rendered goosefat and chickenfat- called schmaltz, if you believe it!)

I do like the taste of a good butter on bread, or cooking a dish with it. Then I eat small amounts, to better preserve the waistline.I buy butter from a farmer friend from Sherwood here- she has a self sufficent farm, always thinks I am starving, so I get 2lbs of fresh cream butter at a time. Yum!

I will eat Olive oil in copious amounts on vegs and even as a substitue for bitter on toast. No, I do not get the expensive sinle estate stuff from France or Italy (although it is tasty!) I like the oil from Greece, Spain and Northern Africa- stronger, fruity and deeper colored, at 1/3-1.4 the price. I have also order Palestinian Olive oil, and it is wonderful. Wonderful.