Category Archives: Cooking

Here you’ll find everything about cooking that isn’t actually a recipe. Tips, techniques, gripes, whatever.

Share recipes, not COVID, during the Super Bowl

COVID wings! The CDC is recommending we celebrate Super Bowl Sunday with as many virtual activities as possible, such as sharing recipes for wings and other snacks, vs getting together in person and yelling in one another’s faces. Sounds good … Continue reading

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Thai secret sauces: Gold Mountain and Healthy Boy

Thai secret sauces probably aren’t essential to cooking authentic Thai dishes, but they’re a powerful short cut and I suspect part of most street vendors’ repertoire. Gold Mountain Seasoning Sauce is the saltiest soy sauce you have ever tasted; it … Continue reading

Posted in Cooking | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

On the floor at Fancy Food Show 2021

No, not really. In a normal year we’d be on our way to San Francisco for the Winter Fancy Food Show 2021 where we’d sample wares, talk to producers, and guess what food trends would be hot and not in … Continue reading

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

A beefy bargain from Wild Fork Foods

A whole, USDA Prime brisket for $2.98 a pound? Yes, please! That’s a price I’ve encountered only once before, during a sale at H.E.B. in Austin, and it’s not much more than I pay for Choice at Walmart. Plus it’s … Continue reading

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Anatomy of a recipe fail

When you have a recipe fail as badly as my attempt to replicate the clam pie served at Frank Pepe’s in New Haven, you might wonder how any attempt to make a dish outside your experience could ever succeed. But … Continue reading

Posted in Cooking | Tagged | 12 Comments

What happened to your sourdough starter in 2020?

As we sweep 2020 into the trash bin of history, one of the year’s less serious losses is likely to be ignored: all the sourdough starters that folks initiated as a quarantine activity, then abandoned because they weren’t successful or … Continue reading

Posted in Baking and Baked Goods, Cooking | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Maesri Thai curry sauces

Maesri Thai curry sauces come in little cans in a wide variety of flavors, and can be used to create a complex flavor profile in minutes. Each can is not much more than a buck in my Asian market so … Continue reading

Posted in Cooking | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Release the quesabirria!

We were supposed to be in San Francisco this week, but the trip was cancelled due to rising COVID numbers. One of the things on our checklist was a visit to the Mission for quesabirria tacos, specifically to El Patron … Continue reading

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Food for Thought: Rustic European Breads from Your Bread Machine

We purchased a used copy of the 1991 edition of Rustic European Breads from Your Bread Machine soon after acquiring a closeout bread machine circa 2010. The recipes were creative and the several that we executed turned out well. In … Continue reading

Posted in Baking and Baked Goods, Cooking, Food for Thought | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Review: Purple Carrot meal delivery program

A giant insulated box arrives at your door. On opening it, you find several packets of cooking ingredients. You notice a smallish yellow onion at the end of one of the packets. Your reaction? If you said “what in the … Continue reading

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments