Food, recipes, and techniques
The economy is in the shitter right now so I feel it’s a good time to write up some stuff about things I’ve been doing for a while to keep myself fed without it costing too much.
I’ve been experimenting again…
Tonight, my Kitchenaid Classic Plus stand mixer (13 years old, according to the serial number) started to really heck up in some really obnoxious ways, to the extent that I thought I might need to buy a new mixer. But it turns out that there’s just some simple maintenance tasks that need to be performed, and that all of the issues I was having are very common!
Lately on Facebook I’ve seen a lot of ads for a knife sharpening system, particularly one being advertised as by “Wasabi knives.” I was interested in the product, but not 120ドル interested… but it turns out that all of them are just rebrands of the one by Ruixin Pro, which is a much more palatable price. I paid around 30ドル for mine, but the price has further dropped to 20,ドル although it seems to vary a lot over time.
Anyway. After a couple of ordering issues (due to my payment not going through) and then a bit of a wait for shipping direct from China, my sharpener finally arrived.
I’ve sharpened all my knives with it now, and I think it’s pretty good! There’s a few things to watch out for, though.
(via Jin Wicked )
Another ice cream experiment, inspired by an old comic of mine with interest revitalized by Brian David Gilbert’s ice cream video.
It’s Girl Scouts Cookies season again! Nationwide, the Girl Scouts outsource their cookie production to two different companies, Little Brownie Bakers (LBB) and ABC Bakers.
I live in an LBB region, and LBB is a subsidiary of Keebler; ostensibly, Girl Scouts licenses their recipes to Keebler via LBB for their actual cookie production. Two of their cookies, Thin Mints and Samoas, have supposedly-identical equivalents available from Keebler, namely Grasshoppers and Coconut Dreams, respectively.
Whenever the Girl Scouts aren’t selling cookies, or whenever joyless grownups want to enjoy their cookies without actually funding the Girl Scouts, common knowledge is that you can satisfy your cravings by buying the Keebler equivalents. But is that true?
This is what I made for my Thanksgiving entrée this year, what with having Thanksgiving all on my own. It turned out pretty good.
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the turkey, shallot, egg, sage, thyme, rosemary, bread crumbs, and kale, thoroughly mixing with your fingers if possible. If no prosciutto is being used, also add some salt. And, of course, add pepper to your preference (and maybe some garlic).
Form the turkey mixture into a loaf, and wrap it in the prosciutto (if desired).
Bake until the internal temperature reads at least 155°F, approximately 45-60 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for at least 10 minutes.
Slice and serve.
