April is Grilled Cheese Month

The grilled cheese sandwich is one of the most amazing inventions that mankind was ever gifted with—and not because you can worship it as a “Grilled Cheesus” a la Finn from Glee. The sheer deliciousness can be achieved with dozens of different cheeses and breads, with different toppings or insertions or spices.

I know people who put peanut butter, bananas, or even tomatoes inside their grilled cheese sandwiches and they consider it manna from heaven. Me, I like it plain, with some buttery Texas toast and regular old American—or maybe some Colby jack—cheese.

Be sure to whip up some delicious grilled cheese recipes this month—especially if you’re a cheese lover. Here are some ideas for creating something super yummy.

  • Add some laughing cow creamy cheese to your sandwich—or substitute it for your cheese. I love the blue cheese myself, but there are several other flavors that are pretty amazing, too.
  • Spread on some cream cheese, sour cream, or other flavored spreads. Dash on some garlic, popcorn topping (ranch is pretty awesome!), or whatever spices that you like best. Hummus is really good on grilled cheese, too.
  • Add some marinara, salsa, or plain old pizza sauce to make some pizza dippers—or dunk your grilled cheese in some sauce or soup.
  • Pile on your favorite vegetables, from lettuce to tomatoes, sweet peppers to cucumbers, or whatever you love best.
  • Cut your grilled cheese sandwiches in to squares, then layer them with other veggies on kebabs.

American Chinese Food: As American as apple pie

    

      

Chinese food in the United States is about as Chinese as, well, apple pie. Through years of cultural fake-outs, white people taking over Chinese cuisine and hungry American families wanting to serve soy sauce next to their frozen dinners, Chinese food didn’t even resemble what it once was.  The cuisine in America went from a Chinese beggar’s meal to food barely resembling its Chinese counterparts for cheap in even the smallest of American towns.

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, limited job opportunities for Chinese immigrants forced many of these people into ghettos in their cities, later dubbed Chinatowns.  Immigrants lived in substandard dwelling, cramped rooms and dirty quarters.  As distaste for Asian immigrants grew, ironically so did white American’s fascination with their culture and daily habits.  Chinese immigrants in Chinatowns capitalized on this, decorating exotic “Oriental” palaces and opening up cheap eateries for white Americans to sample their exciting cuisine.

Chinese restaurateurs offered few of the dishes they themselves—often of a wealthier class of people in China—would eat. Instead, in nearly every restaurant, they served popular chop suey. Chop suey was invented in the late 1800’s, but thrived in Chinatowns. Chop suey may have been the only way Chinese immigrants could punish American bigots, though, by serving them the food only a Chinese beggar would eat. In China, chop suey is the food of a beggar. He compiles his meal by collecting the leftovers, like meat and vegetables, from reputable Chinese restaurants and houses.

By the 1920s and ‘30s, Chinese culture began to spread outside of Chinatowns. This move away from Chinatowns also signaled the spread of Chinese restaurants outside of the often isolated Chinatown locations of the teens and twenties. As familiarity with Chinese food grew within white communities, white Americans expected Chinese people to be familiar with these inauthentic dishes as well, and to claim a culinary heritage that wasn’t their own.

By the late 1940s and the early 1950s, the inauthentification of Chinese food was complete-- most Americans didn’t know chop suey and the like wasn’t authentic Chinese food. In addition, white American restaurateurs began opening Chinese restaurants of their own or incorporating Chinese dishes into their otherwise American menus: a plate of hot chop suey might follow a roast beef sandwich or a Cobb salad on a white-run restaurant’s menu. American-run Chinese restaurants often exploited old Chinese stereotypes to encourage patrons to eat at their shops, such as claiming that Chinese-run kitchens were not clean.

Another increase in white control of Chinese food was the creation of Chinese cooking products for the home cook, including modern-day staples like soy sauce. These too helped ease the white cook’s fears about unknowable—and dirty--Chinese kitchens.

By today, you can imagine that most of the Chinese restaurants hocking sesame chicken and Mongolian beef are nothing like the real thing—whatever or wherever that is.  Next time you decide on chow mein or General Tso’s chicken, don’t expect it to be anything like what they’re eating across the ocean.

Happy Grilled Cheese Month!

Last week I visited a nearby restaurant with a friend, and I was pleased to note that they were overtly celebrating Grilled Cheese Month with a special grilled cheese sandwich: honey, cream cheese, and gruyere cheese on sourdough bread. I ordered it just because it was special, and I was intrigued, but I have to confess I didn't really care for it.

(Then again, I'm not a huge fan of the sweet/salty thing. I don't hate it - I'm just not a big fan.)

However, it got me thinking about the near infinite possibility with grilled cheese sandwiches. As many grilled cheeses as I have made in my life, and I have never tried cream cheese! In fact, I hardly ever mix cheeses, unless I'm running low on something. As a rule, I prefer the single-cheese sandwich. But don't let that stop you!

There is a technique to creating the perfect grilled cheese. Pre-heat your skillet to medium heat, and butter the outsides of the bread slices. Lay the bread down, butter side out, with the cheese inside. Cook it for about three minutes on each side, flipping only once. (Due to the peculiarities of my stove and my lack of interest in properly pre-heating, I cook mine for three minutes on the first side and 2.5 minutes on the second.)

Now here is the most important part: flip it onto your plate upside down, so that the hottest part of the sandwich faces up. If you slip it onto your plate with the most recently cooked side facing down, it steams against the plate and makes your sandwich soggy. DEATH TO SOGGY GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES.

Whole wheat bread is better for you, but it doesn't grill as well. Try a loaf of that crazy new "whole wheat white" bread. It has all the nutritional benefits of whole wheat, and it grills up nicely.

Thick cut sourdough and other artisan breads are delicious, but they don't grill well, either. Sometimes I will give the cheese a head start by microwaving these sandwiches for 30 seconds to melt the cheese, before I drop it onto the skillet.

I like to tuck extras into my sandwiches. Only one at a time, lest the sandwich's structural integrity and meltiness be compromised! My favorite additions are: a slice of deli meat, a thin tomato slice, thin slices of red onion, or a pickle slice.

Sauces are an under-appreciated facet of grilled cheese sandwich enjoyment. A bowl of tomato soup is the traditional accompaniment, although I must confess that I detest the stuff. Ketchup is the second most common condiment, and it is delicious.

But why stop there? I also use barbecue sauce (I am in love with Jack Daniels Classic Barbecue Sauce and I want to have its babies), steak sauce (A1 and the like), horseradish, mustard, sriracha (just a thin stripe, which I lay down over the cheese before cooking).

This thing with the sweet honey got me thinking. I love apple slices with cheddar cheese - might some thin apple slices be a good addition to grilled cheese sandwiches? I haven't tried it yet, but it's on my list. We still have a few more weeks of Grilled Cheese Month left, after all!

Photo credit: Flickr/jumbledpile

Poisonous Food

Surprisingly, you don't have to look far to find examples of poisonous food in cultures around the world!

Fugu (pufferfish) is probably the best known example of a food which is poisonous.

Several organs of the pufferfish contain a potent neurotoxin (tetrodotoxin) which shut down the action of your muscles, causing the sufferer to become paralyzed and eventually causing death by asphyxiation. There is no antidote for tetrodotoxin, and it takes only a tiny amount to cause death. (Tetrodotoxin is 10 times more poisonous than cyanide.)

A deft chef, after several years of training, apprenticeship, and official certification, can slice the flesh of the pufferfish for diners, while leaving behind the toxic organs, and without allowing the toxin to leach from the organs into the flesh IN THEORY. In practice, official records show between 20 and 44 cases of fugu poisoning happen in Japan every year.

Every part of the Pokeweed plant is poisonous, but that doesn't keep people from cooking it up every spring, particularly in the American South, where it is considered both a delicacy and a medicinal food.

The tender young leaves of the Pokeweed plant can be prepared as a boiled salad called "poke salad." This preparation includes boiling the leaves in several changes of fresh water, in order to leach out the poison. Several surveys have found that toxin still remains in the boiled leaves, although (in theory) it's too minimal to cause damage to those who nosh upon it.

Pokeweed poison causes vomiting, convulsions, and death. An adult can consume fewer than ten Pokeweed berries before toxicity sets in, although this is not recommended. Pokeweed berries are a folk remedy for ailments from arthritis to boils.

Spinach, kale, and Swiss chard all contain "significant" levels of oxalic acid.

I learned about oxalic acid the day I came home and found my cat lying limp in the middle of the living room floor, wheezing and drooling uncontrollably - and my Peace Lily (spathiphyllum) having been knocked off its high shelf and eaten. I phoned Poison Control and they advised me that the oxalic acid in the Peace Lily was poisonous, but that it could be counteracted with a few tablespoons of milk.

I spooned milk into my poor cat's mouth and massaged it down his throat. He made a full recovery within a few hours - and I threw the plant away.

In smaller doses, oxalic acid can eat the calcium out of your system, and cause kidney stones. It is more concentrated in older leaves, which is one reason why baby spinach is so much more tender (and less bitter) than the full-grown leaves.

Cooking can help break down the oxalic acid, and these greens have a lot of benefits to offer which outweigh any potential risk from oxalic acid. Nevertheless, you probably shouldn't eat too much of it raw. This is a big concern for raw foodists and raw smoothie fans, although for most of us, it's probably not that big an issue!

But don't feed it to your cat.

Photo credit: Flickr/tokyofoodcast

Art Makes Science (And Everything!) Better

The Science Blogs website has an awesome article about the connection between art and science, and how scientists who make art become better scientists.

This kind of lateral thinking, the celebration of creativity in any realm, is sadly lacking today. What does it do? What is it good for? Why should I bother? How is this useful? Why should we spend money on it? And the next thing you know, schools' art class budgets are being slashed across the board.

A lot of people don't think of themselves as creative. Their disdain for artistic pursuits springs, most often, from a sort of bitter sour grapes. But we are all creative. It's coded into us, along with the ability to speak and walk and the desire for more. As children, we let our creativity roam free. We don't draw distinctions between what is and isn't art. Look at the classic childhood science fair project, the baking soda volcano. Crafting the display takes as much art as science; there is no fixed boundary, the way there is in adulthood.

Somewhere along the way, we lose that freedom. We start tamping down our creative urges. We become too critical - of ourselves, and of others.

But the truth is, making art will set you free, in the way that no other pursuit can.

"I don't have time for that kind of thing!"
"What a waste of time!"
"That person obviously has way too much free time."

Let me drop a number on you. It is a number which has been much on my mind lately:

491 billion

That is the number of hours that Americans collectively spend watching television EVERY YEAR. It's staggering, is it not? Imagine what we could do as a nation if we harnessed just a fraction of that time, and spent it actually creating something. Doing something. Doing ANYTHING.

The average American spends four hours a night watching television. There's no need to give it up entirely. Why throw the baby out with the bath water? Mad Men, Venture Bros, Destination Truth, Fringe - these shows aren't going to watch themselves!

But what about nibbling into that four hours? Spend just one of those hours doing something else instead, and you'll have seven hours a week - 28 hours a month - 336 hours a year. That's a lot of time! You can get pretty good at something, if you did it for an hour a night, every night.

As for what to make, I'll tell you a secret: it doesn't really matter. In debating whether knitting was art or craft, my friend C - a scientist by training, and an accountant by trade - said something that has stuck with me for decades. "The difference between art and craft is in the intent of the person making it."

It doesn't matter if you're sketching, or painting, or scrapbooking, or knitting, or molding Fimo clay. What matters is that you're expressing yourself, communicating with an audience, reaching out to the world, or just trying to create something beautiful.

Why not start tonight by sitting down at a table with a few sheets of paper and a ballpoint pen. And see where it takes you!

Photo credit: Flickr/mdwombat

Dutch Babies for Breakfast (or Dinner!)

It may sound downright Swift-ian, but the Dutch Baby (and its variant, the Apple Baby) is a popular Seattle brunch item - and easy to make yourself!

The Dutch Baby is like a popover made from crepe batter. You pour some batter into a super-heated pan, and it puffs up while it cooks, making a sort of informal soufflé.

Dutch Babies are beloved among Seattle brunchers, but also a little bit dreaded. A Dutch Baby cannot be prepared ahead of time, and it takes at least 20 minutes to prepare. At a busy restaurant, ordering a Dutch Baby can delay brunch by 45 minutes or more. Nothing makes you feel like groaning in dismay like having someone in your party order a Dutch Baby when you are A) really hungry, and/or B) hoping to get out of that restaurant in a somewhat timely fashion.

If only for this reason - for the consideration of other diners - maybe it's best that you make your own Dutch Baby at home, instead. After combining a lot of recipes, practicing a lot, and taking some suggestions from more chef-like friends, I have concocted the foolproof Dutch Baby recipe.

The first thing you need is a large, smooth, somewhat deep pan. I use a 9" deep dish pie plate. In a pinch, I will use an 8x8 Pyrex brownie pan, or one of my white Corningware casserole dishes. A round pan is better, because it puffs up more nicely - the puffing doesn't get caught in the corners. And a smooth texture, like you get with a glass or glazed ceramic pan, lets the pastry puff without getting snagged.

(Many recipes specify a 9x13 pan. I don't know about you, but my 9x13 pans are anything but "smooth" at this point.)

Pre-heating the pan is critical. I'mma say that again: pre-heating the pan is critical. Stick the pan in your oven while you bring it up to 425 degrees.

While your pan is pre-heating, whisk together:
    3 eggs
    3/4 c flour
    3/4 c milk
    Pinch salt

Mix it together until the batter is smooth.

When your oven hits 425, pull out the pan and set it on the stove top. Drop in 2 T butter (or margarine, if you must). Push it around with a wooden spoon until it melts and skids and coats the entire pan with sizzling melted butter.

Now pour in your batter. Work quickly, to minimize the amount of time the pan spends out of the oven (and cooling).

Stick that pan back in the oven. Put it on the middle rack, and remove the upper rack if you have one. You want at least 6" of clearance over your oven rack, so that your baby doesn't stick to the roof of your oven. Bake it for a full 25 minutes. No peeking! If you open the oven door, your baby will collapse.

When the time is up, pull it out of the oven and dish it up quickly. It will begin to fall almost immediately, so have everything in place so that you can drop it on a plate and get it right to the table!

Traditionally the Dutch Baby is served with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of powdered sugar. SO DELICIOUS!

Photo credit: Flickr/cinderellasg

April is National Pecan Month

April is National Pecan Month, one of my mother’s favorite holidays! Where I grew up in Chaffee, Missouri, we had a pecan tree growing in our backyard. I don’t remember much of those years as I was so young, but I do remember how much my mother loved that tree. I tried to plant my own once in the front yard, but my father ran over it with the lawn mower and broke my heart! I do remember him re-planting it, carefully surrounding it with stones to avoid its destruction in the future. Since then, we’ve driven by, and that tree is a monster these days.

Pecans are not only delicious nuts; they’re also good for you in small amounts (as with any other nut), full of protein and plenty of other nutrients. They also contain antioxidants, which can help your body ward off cancer-causing radicals that take up residence within humans. So stock up on pecans this month and eat them as a snack or use them to top your favorite cereals, oatmeal, or any baked goods that you whip up. Here are some other ideas for National Pecan Month.

  • Plant a pecan tree. Be sure to put a border around it to protect it from unfortunate accidents like my father did for me!
  • Toss out all of your old candy bowls—or donate them to the hospital, a children’s center, or even your local firemen—and fill them all with pecans instead. Be sure to top them with lids so they don’t dry out! While some people like the taste of dried pecans, they can be a little stale, too.
  • Introduce your children to pecans. If they already like them, why not try a bunch of other nuts, too? While my husband loves peanuts, for example, my daughter and I love pistachios (as well as sunflower seeds). Buy a bunch of tiny bags of nuts, fill a muffin tin with them, and have a nut picnic. (Of course, that’s a lot of calories, so if you want, divide them up and try a new one each day instead.)
  • Find a place where you can buy fresh pecans. Buying them from the store is fine, but by paying a local grower you can help support a farmer as well as get a taste of some delicious fresh nuts. Get a nutcracker for these babies, though, because they’re almost impossible to break open without one. (Of course, you could always experiment with rocks like the monkeys do!)

Culinary Adventure: Eat at Your Local Triple D

Last fall we were planning a trip to Memphis to meet with a good friend and her fiancée, now husband. Unfortunately we didn’t make it out to meet her, but we did set up some fun plans for when we are able to do so. One of our plans was to hit a couple of the restaurants that were featured on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” television program on Food Network. Every time we see the show, as annoyed as we are by Guy (who eventually grew on us), we always wish that it was us visiting the restaurants instead!

It turns out that there are several restaurants near us, as well. In fact, one of my friend’s husband works at one of the venues now (he didn’t when the show aired, unfortunately) and we always hear about how wonderful the food there is. We are making plans to eat there soon. But what’s even more fun is that we’re scheduling a trip around Kansas City, which is about a six hour drive from us. Kansas City has several featured Triple D restaurants to try, as well as the famous Worlds of Fun park, which our daughter is sure to enjoy.

Which Triple D restaurants are in your area? Search for them and plan a trip for some amazing food finds you won’t forget!

Tutorial: Make Seed Starter Pots From Newspaper

Here at Earth Talk, many of us strive to live greener, more eco-friendly lives. We subscribe to green living blogs, we take action on environmental issues, we recycle. Now and then, however, we run across such a cool idea that we have to stop and not only use it, but share it with the world.

I ran across such an idea today while meandering through my Google Reader. A favorite blog, The Best of Mother Earth, has an amazing how-to guide on how to make seed starter pots from newspaper. Who says you have to go out and buy an expensive kit to start seeds (as I have done in the past), often from plastic materials that will take many years to decompose?

The guide does call for staples, which are far less intrusive to the earth than a big plastic pot. Click here to find out how to use a simple sheet of newspaper into a wonderful seed starter container, ready to fill with your favorite starter soil and biodegradable enough to use in your own garden.

You will, of course, still want to place the it in a container and cover it until it sprouts. Once it does, however, be sure to remove your cover, as mold can develop (as it did on my own herbs one year!).

Six Degrees of Tasty Bacon

There's a lot you can do with a rasher
  1. BLT: The Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwich is a classic summer treat from my childhood. Back then, we made them with fresh, locally grown tomatoes, from ours or a neighbor's garden, fresh lettuce (not iceberg), real mayonaise, and freshly toasted bread. My mom was a fan of Pepperidge Farm (or "fahm") white bread, freshly toasted. Lately, I've been enjoying them with freshly toasted whole wheat bread, and I'm told by a trusted authority that the very best BLT is made with fresh toasted sourdough. I notice that a Google search for perfect BLT results in a lot of hits, mostly on white bread. I'm intrigued by the addition of avocado, but really, isn't that just going to dilute the crunchy, chewy bacony goodness?

  2. Bloody Marys made with Bakon Vodka: You know, I was a little appalled when I first heard about Seattle area Black Rock Spirits Bakon Vodka. But not long after, as part of my dedicated personal research in the Bloody Mary, the local liquor store manager told me that he's been hearing rave reviews from customers using Bakon Vodka to make a Bloody Mary Bakon Mary.

  3. Maple Bacon Doughnuts: This delicacy was my first introduction to the less traditional bacon indulgences. I first heard about it at, and saw them being devoured, at Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, Oregon. Other Pacific Northwest doughnut shops picked up on the bacon frenzy, variants appeared all over. I gotta say, the Maple Bacon doughnut, especially in bar form, is a really good thing, best when accompanied by local small-batch roasted freshly brewed coffee, once, maybe twice a year, if you've been really, really good about moderation and exercise.

  4. Bacon Cinnamon Rolls: And since we're talking about Northwest Bacon indulgences, here's one from the Rainy Day Gal Jenny, writing from the Emerald City of Seattle: Bacon Cinnamon Rolls. These are tasty, completely unhealthy, and easy to make with Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls in a can, and good bacon. Think of them as a new Winter holiday indulgence, one that will need practice and dedication in order to achieve perfection by the solstice.

  5. Bacon crème brûlée: This appears to have first made a notable appearance thanks to the good offices of the Torched Food Truck in Phoenix, Arizona. But Bacon crème brûlée has worked its way to the North West, and is appearing on menus and dinner tables to rave reviews.

  6. Bacon and Eggs: I know, it's even more traditional than the BLT. But some things really can't be improved on, and one of those things is a plate of freshly cooked, locally produced farm-fresh eggs with two or six rashers of prime quality bacon.

Pages