nliedel

I'm all for the, "Did you taste that?" drinking game. I did read that Gorillas eat bugs and grubs, but Andrew Zimmern can have my share.

Every single season, "Did you taste it?" Comes out of Tom, or Padma's mouth. Every single season bone-heads say, "Um, no." You work in a restaurant and don't taste the food you serve? Really? Not everything, of course, no bites out of my food please, but in general, you taste what you present. I taste things as I cook and I'm a mom from MI cooking for kids, for pity's sake. *I* know to taste food. I'm a dope and I know to taste food. I get that people who don't cater don't understand catering. It seems to be a horse of a very different color, but I'm still gobstopped by the none-tasting going on. That's why Nimma left. Well, that and she just was not cut out for this.

Maybe Andrew had a change of ways? Maybe the sun is going to burn out at 2:33 this afternoon? I'm sure he was taken down a rung by his general suck-ness last week and the editors got their hands on him. Valerie had to go. Blini's as Bellini's. I can take, or leave blini's, but Bellini's are a whole nother thing altogether. It's peach season somewhere. Let's celebrate! Padma is a real judge. Happened the second season.

I have a family blog and have for four years now. I'm starting a food blog in the near future, finally picked out my colors, I use Wordpress. I have my own domain (new husband) and I managed to get a good name for my blog. If you want your own domain (_________.org/com/net etc) you will have to buy it and have a host for it. If you just want to get up and running Blogger is really good and easy to use. I am very happy with my host site, but I don't know if I can name that here? Stuff you didn't ask about, but that I think is important. The most important thing, imo, is to put good content out there and keep it coming. You want people to come back. I write about two weeks of content out. Most programs will allow you to post-date it, so that it posts automatically. Have a comment policy. You will accept corrective comments, but delete abuse (I see no reason to pay for someone to tell me I'm ________ insert nasty word here. It does not happen often, but I've pulled one of my sister in law's attack comments and never felt a moment of guilt over it), and put up enough good content to actually draw people. Photos should be clear. Articles short (not fifty words, but also not five thousand) and include your screw ups as well as your successes, if you cook. Snark is fun, but you need a really thick skin to pull it off and there is a thin line between snark and abuse for the sake of it. Read some of your favorite blogs and don't follow them, per se, but learn from them. The best thing about blogging is how much I've learned about myself. If no one ever read my blog, but me, I'm happy with it. If you're doing it to please others, you'll never get them all happy and end up frustrated.

Bacon. I saw a website yesterday that showed how to make cups out of bacon. I am so there next month. Chocolate. I really am not a chocolate person, until THAT TIME. Then it has to be good milk chocolate and caramel. No chocolate and fruit.

IMO Rocco is a judge cause he does know food and he's good looking. Good looking and knowing something will take you a lot of places. Not that I know anything about that. I'm relieved to read that Padma gains weight during the season. Makes me like her more. Yep, I'm a typical Midwestern housewife, but I have no smoker! Tragedy! I don't get the smoke thing. I've tried to get the smoke thing, but I don't get it.

She seems to like it too much to do that. She's probably one of those people with skinny genes. People I resent. LOL!

Ripart seemed to be completely unflappable. Someone to have in your lifeboat when the ship goes down cause he's gonna catch the fish and decide whose gonna get sacraficed the the sharks without a lot of fanfare.

I think it was Padma's blog that said it was the hardest show to judge cause they tried the pizza hot and cold. I'm not sure how she does that and stays so thin, but then again, there were some pretty scary looking pizza's in that bunch and not many I'd order. Although the peach pizza actually sounded yummy. I know Marmite has a HUGE following. I know people love it, but I don't get it. I've tried spreading it thin, but there's no thin enough for me, where Marmite is concerned.

No mosh pit? That sounds like no fun!!! Seriously, I don't know how anyone manages to cook with that kind of audience and not cut a hand off. I don't like it when the dog watches me cook.

I am not a fan of deconstruction. Of course I'm a forty four year old housewife from the Midwest who stews a lot, so that might be it. I missed Tom in the kitchen and hope, hope, hope this is not a precursor of changes to come. I give the minismoker eight points. Two for interesting and six for, "Holy crap on toast, look what that guy brought? Oh my God, I'm out of my league" intimidation factor. Which he seems to elicit from Andrew. Snort. Oh and a souffle is not my favorite thing to make, too many kids running around, but I know how to do it. It was a rage dish when I was a teen. Most of those were, come to think of it.

It's not just you. I wanted to corner him and let him have it. Which is no fun, or so I've been told by my kids. Who would rather have no TV, than a mom lecture.

So much for that theory.

I've done a search on the net and can't find it. It occurred to me that maybe the reason Nimma did not taste the shrimp could be because it's not Halal (as in compliing with Islams dietary law). I know fish and seafood are, but scavengers are not. Would a shrimp be considered a scavenger under Islamic law? I can't find a good source and usually I'm up on these things.

All I can say is, "Thank God it's back." Couple of questions though. 1. What did they do to Bourdain? He looked like a nice tame kitten. I don't want him to be a kitten. He was pleasant and delightful, which is all fine and good, but when presented with some of those dishes??? Why have him on if you're going to edit him into a Hallmark sentiment? It's not what his draw is. 2. I've made Chicken Piccata for years. I've always seasoned it, dredged it in flour, then cooked it. There has never been an egg involved not once. I thought I'd lost my mind (which may be true anyway) and I went on the net and scoured Chicken Piccata recipes. Not one called for an egg. I knew the guy who was trying to add tomatoes cause confusing Chicken Piccata and Chicken Marsala, but Tom, Tom, Tom... just like you said Pineapple Upside Down Cake was made with a Genoise (not in my house, but maybe somewhere else. I use baking powder as a leavener in my Pineapple Upside Down Cake), Chicken Picatta is not dipped in flour, then egg. That just sounds wrong to me. I could be very wrong about this, but I don't think so. The orange might have worked, if there was enough other acidity to balance the flavor. Hmm, what about blood orange? Hmmmm. 3. Where is Bourdain's blog on this episode? I want Bourdain's take. I want unedited Tony-Snark. I need my fix man. 4. What doofus jones goes to a Chicago for a cooking show and does not research Deep Dish pizza? You need to add the cheese before the sauce. I wish they's shown that. I suspect they showed Uno's because it was the first deep dish place in Chicago. I vastly prefer Giordano's, but Uno's was number one, is a national chain and therefore can pay for the spot. My husband said the way to ensure your airtime was to park it in front of the Glad Bags. Snort. All in all, Top Chef is brilliant and I am loving the season. You can tell the bar has been raised and thank God, cause one more insipid cooking show with much boobage and an overly smiling person trying to dumb down the food and I'm going to scream.

Alton Brown once said that he did not endorse products he didn't actually use. I would assume this means he actually drinks that stuff. ← Yep, that's how I took that too. He's been pretty careful about using what he says he likes and not holding the bottle up for the camera.

Me either. I know they did some San Fran on, "A Cook's Tour" when he ate at, The French Laundry. Nothing, but that comes to mind. I could be wrong though. Often am.

My favorite recipe for Duck Sauce is in one of the Molly Katzen cookbooks. I'm thinking, "Moosewood," but it could easily be, "The Enchanted Broccoli Forrest." It's not like in restaurants, it's dark and slow simmered. I just love it. Not authentic in the least, I'm sure, but I'll take delicious.

I didn't get the scallops either, except it seemed his meez for the scallops was a tad harder to find. I'd think the pork belly would have given him fits, instead. Scallops, easy if you don't overcook them. Pork Belly? Much easier to muck up.

I'm really looking forward to this episode.

I had eighty nine at last count, but I think I've added about six since then. So put me down for ninety five.

What? Buttermilk? Why the heck didn't I think of that? What a neat idea. I have two acorn squash and they're being made into soup tonight. I think the buttermilk is a brilliant idea.

Child of the '60's here too. My mom served rainbow Jell-O with fruit in it. There must be a take on that which would be spectacular and not involve green. I adored the crepe idea. Mom really got into those. We had a crepe pan and she went to town. She also got her paws on a Chocolate Souffle recipe. Those were a major rage when I was little. I mostly remember much tip-toeing and colorful metaphors. Oh, wait! Baked Alaska! There was a whole rage over that when I was about 6. If it involved fire, or meringue, mom was wall over it. That satisfied two needs. That would have been in 1969 (ugh. Am I that old?). It was a major todo at every dinner party, or Cherries Jubilee.

Now I have to go out and buy things to make Greek food with, because of ChefCrash! I was going to make some suggestions, but he covered everything I wanted to share, and much more. The only suggestion I have is melons and other fruit and olives. Marinated with spices would be wonderful. Crack some green olives, a pound to a pound and a half. Add fresh coriander (You will probably have to use dried), mint leaves (to taste), a couple of minced garlic cloves and two Tablespoons of olive oil. You can add some hot pepper flakes here, to taste. You also can, and should if you have them, or can make them, add some preserved lemon rind cut in thin strips. Mix it up, put it all in the fridge one, or two nights before. I love this dish. Take it out of the fridge about an hour before you want to serve it, so it can come to room temp.

Mustard Greesn, Turnip Greens, Swiss Chard, anything. I cook most fairly quickly and use a touch of butter and a little vinegar to bring out the taste, since I don't eat much meat. With Swiss Chard, I use the stems steamed with olive oil and a little lemon on them. Sometimes I chopn them and drop them into vegetable stews, or soups. I just can't bear to toss em.