June 2010

  • Make Your Own Gyros

    By lisala on 6/30/10 2:22pm
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    Once you've made tzatziki, it's pretty much a given that you're going to start thinking about making your own gyros. For those of you thus far unfamiliar with the gyros, it's a Greek "fast food" sort of dish. The name refers to the large turning spit containing a roast; (gyros is cognate with Modern English gyrate, to turn). Slices of the moist-but-crispy meat are combined with tazatziki, Greek yogurt-dill-and-cucumber sauce, on a pita. Other ingredients, like tomato, or feta, or lettuce or even pepper, salt, and paprika, are optional. In Greece gyros are common fare at small cafes and street carts.

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  • My Grey Water Adventure

    By sarajean on 6/29/10 8:52pm
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    Last night, while my daughter had a bath, I was once again dipping into one of my favorite books, Above All, Be Kind. Though I still don’t allow her to be alone in the tub at age four, I also respect her desire to play alone in the water, so I usually bring a book or some writing to work on while she’s playing with her bath toys.

    As I was reading again about Gandhi’s lovely quote—“My life is my message”—and Weil’s sage advice on leading by example, I was thinking about how I always drain my daughter’s water out as she exits the bathtub. It’s just an unconscious, automatic response to what I’ve done my whole life. But how could I waste so much water?

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  • Shrimp Pasta Salad

    By lisala on 6/29/10 7:21pm
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    Small, local "baby" or bay shrimp are appearing up and down the Oregon and Washington coasts. I'm seeing fresh, never frozen shrimp between $3.00 and $4.00 a pound at both local fish markets and chain grocers. Quite often they're already cooked, but these will cook in a jiffy in some boiling lightly salted water; it's pretty much a matter of dip them in the water, wait three or 4 minutes, and cool them down with running cold water. You want to watch the shrimp carefully; they'll change color when they're cooked, and you want to remove them from the water immediately, and cool them down so they don't over cook and become rubbery.

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  • Vegetarian Enchiladas

    By erika on 6/29/10 5:59pm
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    I loathe canned food as a rule, but enchilada sauce is one of the few exceptions.  Embarrassing as it can be to admit, especially here on a food blog, I honestly think that whoever came up with the idea of putting enchilada sauce in a can deserves some kind of medal!  


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  • Almond Joy Pieces

    By erika on 6/29/10 5:32pm
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    It seems so obvious in hindsight: Reese's Pieces are little M&M-shaped versions of Reese's Peanut Butter cups.  A realization that was only recently made clear when Hershey trotted out Pieces versions of several other classics, including the beloved and relatively antediluvian Almond Joy candy bar.


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  • The Physics of Cold Spots: Part 1 of 2

    By erika on 6/29/10 2:07pm
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    Cold spots are one of the hallmarks of a haunting.  Any ghost hunter worth the title will carry some sort of thermometer for testing the temperature of the air.  Many people report that the ambient temperature drops when ghosts are present (or about to be present).  The standard explanation is that the spirits are drawing the energy from the air in order to manifest.  But what does that mean, and is it plausible?  


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  • Starburst FaveReds

    By erika on 6/26/10 3:58pm
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    I never thought about it until I picked up this pack of candy, but the red Starburst flavors really are my favorites.   Apparently I'm not alone in this, because Starburst's new variant is called "FaveREDs," and includes only the red flavors: watermelon, cherry, strawberry, and fruit punch.  No lemon, no orange, just the good stuff.


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  • Scratch Or Feed?

    By erika on 6/23/10 4:32pm
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    Across the country, people's baby chicks are growing into pullets.  Aww!  They were so cute as chicks, and then they went through that ugly "baby dinosaur" phase, and now they are starting to look like real chickens.  Most people start getting their first egg between now and August (depending on when chicks came out in your area).  


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  • Sour Nerds

    By erika on 6/23/10 11:45am
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    The box of Wonka Sour Nerds caught my eye at the store last night.  For one thing, it was wrapped in cellophane, which was a little unusual.  And while I have heard of Sour Nerds for a while now, I hadn't tried any.  But in the name of broadening my candy horizons, lo, to include even sour candy, I decided to buy a box.


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  • Rocky Road Candy Bar

    By erika on 6/22/10 11:10am
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    After the horror that was my Fizzl'd Fruits Skittles experiment, you can only imagine the relish with which I launched into my Rocky Road candy bar.  I could barely stand to photograph it before nomming it.  It's a miracle that picture doesn't have a big sloppy bite mark in the side, Jaws-style!


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  • Banana Haiku

    By msarko on 6/22/10 4:06am
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    sword of nutrition

    in a golden yellow sheath

    sweet and inviting

  • Skittles Fizzl'd Fruits

    By erika on 6/21/10 11:57am
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    This must be one of the most successful marketing campaigns in all of candy-dom.  Even I heard about it, and I don't have a television, for pity's sake!  I must have seen the ad on Hulu or maybe the AdultSwim.com website in between episodes of Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law or something.


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  • Tzatziki: Greek Yogurt and Dill Condiment

    By lisala on 6/21/10 10:52am
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    I'm exceedingly fond of Greek food. Truth be told, I'm fond of the entire of Greek/ Lebanese/ Turkish suite; there are, for some obvious geographic and historic reasons a fair amount of cross-over in terms of the Mediterranean cuisines. Greek immigrants have carried their traditions with them, and are found all over the Pacific Northwest, especially in Washington. There are a number of Greek festivals in Washington, including Seattle, Spokane, and Tacoma, even San Jose, California.

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  • Big Hunk

    By erika on 6/20/10 12:21pm
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    I have always hated nougat-only candy, but I was convinced to give it another try after I enjoyed a Look! Bar so much.  And it turns out that the Look! Bar is just a chocolate-coated version of another Annabelle Candy Company standard, the Big Hunk.  I thought it would only be fair to track one down.


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  • The U-No Bar

    By erika on 6/17/10 1:00pm
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    The U-No is basically the indie version of a 3 Musketeers bar.  In fact, I have always assumed that the name was a sly play on the theme - instead of three it's just one, or "uno."  Although I could just be over-thinking it, because the dash in the name indicates that it's probably meant to be pronounced "you know."  


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  • Strawberry Festivals!

    By sarajean on 6/15/10 4:59pm
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    It’s that time of year again—when everything is ripe and juicy and berrylicious. The scent of strawberries is in the air, and not just because the round red fruits are in season. There are strawberry festivals popping up all across the country—be sure to find and hit yours or you’ll be sorry you missed it!

    I don’t know how the strawberry festival near you works, but the one near us is always heavenly. Sure, it’s hot outside, but the homemade strawberry lemonade (doesn’t that just make your mouth water?) makes it all worth it. Plus, there are bushels of ripe strawberries ready for purchase—along with strawberry ice cream, strawberry pie, and of course, my favorite, strawberry shortcake. Strawberry festivals are a strawberry lover’s dream!

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  • New M&Ms: Coconut and Pretzel

    By erika on 6/15/10 12:15pm
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    I should say that I really like coconut.  Although I definitely prefer it in the form of, you know, actual coconut.  (Like Almond Joy and Mounds.)  As opposed to just coconut flavoring, which is what's inside Coconut M&Ms.  Don't get me wrong, it's a very strong and convincing coconut flavoring.  It's just a little unsettling, is what it is.


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  • Big Cheap Food: Mesh Sack of Potatoes

    By erika on 6/14/10 8:03pm
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    Have you ever actually priced out the cost of those plastic mesh sacks of potatoes?  They  usually end up all stacked together in the farthest corner of the produce department, somewhere near the onions and yams.  The sacks don't look very appealing, particularly not compared to the delicious bins of loose potatoes.  But check out those prices!


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  • Mixing It Up: Two Classics Get Wacky

    By erika on 6/14/10 2:07pm
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    This is a dual review of the Reese's Peanut Butter Lover's Peanut Butter Cup, and Skittles Crazy Cores.  In both cases, the manufacturer got a wild hare to mix things up a little.  Take what you usually get, and skew it just a touch off center.  Sometimes this works; sometimes it doesn't.


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  • Finally Thin!

    By sarajean on 6/14/10 3:02am
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    Kim Bensen knows what it’s like to be fat. At 350 pounds, she has been there with so many people who struggle with their weight, year after year. In her book, Finally Thin! How I Lost 200 Pounds and Kept Them Off—and How You Can, Too, Bensen describes so many humbling, embarrassing, and telltale moments that those of us who’ve struggled with our weight can groan or gasp or nod with and say, “Yeah, I’ve been there! That is me.” Bensen’s bravery in sharing these stories helps create a bond between her and the reader right off the bat.

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  • What To Eat, by Marion Nestle

    By ecoscott on 6/13/10 4:12pm
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    Is it a cookbook in the sense that it has recipes with amounts measured out and instructions on how to make dishes? No. But to cook you need ingredients, and to cook well you need good ingredients. The beauty of this book is that it doesn’t tell you what to make, it simply tells you what to use whenever you make whatever you make. That’s valuable. You’ve probably heard of Michael Pollan by now, the journalist who has become somewhat famous for his books about our food system, leading to a set of speaking engagements where he has become a leader in the slow food and organic movements.

    On the very top of the cover, it reads: “Absolutely Indispensable.” – Michael Pollan.

    So, there’s that.

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  • Tasty, Healthy and Easy Salmon Fillets with Lemon Relish

    By becksta on 6/10/10 11:38am
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    Salmon FilletsSalmon FilletsSalmon is of course a staple cuisine of the Pacific Northwest and there are literally hundreds of different ways to prepare it, most of them quite tasty. Recently, I decided to cook up some salmon a la ex-con Martha Stewart, who has become my new kitchen Guru at long last for her simple, healthy recipes despite her criminal history.

    The recipe called for lemon zest, roasted pine nuts, and raisins to be put into a bowl ad covered with boiling water. To make the lemon zest, either thinly slice one entire lemon or grate one lemon peel. In the photo of this particular recipe, the lemon zest was sliced into slivers. While I was preparing the combination, I substituted the raisins for cranraisins and added in the zest of an orange- both choices proved to be delightful.


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  • Subway To Tessellate!

    By erika on 6/8/10 12:14pm
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    In a huge announcement that rocked the sandwich world, Subway Sandwiches has finally decided to tessellate their cheese.  Instead of stacking the triangles horizontally so that all the bases overlap (thus loading half the sandwich with more cheese than the other half), Subway finally figured out that you can interlock equilateral triangles so that they evenly spread the cheese across the sandwich.


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  • The Deceptive Simplicity of Steak

    By msarko on 6/2/10 7:06pm
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    A proper steak is easy to cook, though by "easy" I just mean "involving relatively few steps and a short list of ingredients". It's the details that make the difference between an okay steak and a really excellent one. So, first, let's look at the simple version of the steak-cooking process.

    • Procure meat
    • Gently massage meat with olive oil, salt and pepper
    • Brown one side of the steak in a heated pan for approximately 1-2 minutes
    • Turn steak and place the pan in a 475 degree oven for no more than 2 minutes
    • Carefully retrieve the pan, then let the steak rest while covered for at least 5 minutes

    And voila! You have steak. But it's really not as easy as that.



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