4 posts tagged “food & wine”
What are your top five favorite cooking seasonings?
Submitted by skip.town.
Ooooh, food questions! Thanks skip.town! I can get a little more excited about these than the sports ones.
Favourite seasonings... we're not going to add black pepper and salt, are we? Those are pretty standard.
And also it depends on what kind of food. When I make hot wings, it's all about the sage, parsley, oregano, rosemary and Montreal steak spice. SO GOOD. And of course Louisiana Hot Sauce.
But if I'm going pasta, it's all about the garlic and red pepper flakes (especially good if you saute the garlic first and then throw in about half a palmful of red pepper flakes to saute a little too. Really infuses the oil/butter you use). At that point, outside of pepper and salt, I don't really need anything else. Though sometimes I'll throw in some parsley or rosemary.
With potatoes, it's all about the dill. Dill, dill, dill, dill, dill. And salt and pepper. There's something about dill potatoes that feels so homey and comforting. Unless you're mashing. Then I'm more of a roasted garlic and rosemary girl. But if you're roasting baby potatoes, making hash browns or making your own oven roasted fries, go dill. Rosemary's nice too if you want to change it up a bit but I'm just a dill girl.
That's what she said!
Sorry.
Yup, those are my biggies. I'm not a huge fan of marjoram; I think it has a funny taste to it that I just can't get over. I'm really not a black licorice flavouring person so anything that gives that flavour is pretty much out of my repetoire. I don't mind Chinese 5 spice but I don't cook with it.
Hmmm, what did I miss? Oh well, I'm sure you'll tell me.
What fruits and vegetables are in season where you live? Have you incorporated them into your recipes?
Right now? Huh. I'm not really a gardener but squash, I think. At least that's what the farm near work keeps advertising. I keep meaning to try spaghetti squash. I keep reading that if you bake it for about 20 minutes or so at 350 (or is it higher?), when you scoop out it's insides, it's all stringy like spaghetti. I was thinking it would be a healthy change for me, since I'm technically allergic to wheat (I mean, it's not like corn where my body will try to shut down... I know, lame excuse) and the dried rice pasta that I find is so weird and gummy.
So... um, I've never eaten a lot of squash. It's not really a Chinese thing, I guess. Any suggestions of where to start? I'm pretty sure I've tried a squash soup but ... I can't remember when it was. Plus I keep reading how they're so high in nutrients and fibre and all that and with my (::sigh:: numerous) food allergies, it would be best for me to actually cook my own food.
Stupid food allergies. I never used to have food allergies! Then lobster and crab turned on me. ::shakes fist:: I'll get you, damn crustaceans! Then shrimp. Sweet shrimp. What did I ever do to you?
I wish I could turn off that part of my brain that loves food. It would be so much easier if I could live on rice crackers and water.
Who's the coolest culinary celebrity?
The coolest? Really? Well, I guess I'll play along. To me, this guy:
I remember my mom used to love him. All his food look so good but damn, this guy loves his butter. But I love him and his fairly simple techniques.
And of course this guy:
As scary as he can seem on his show, if you watch his Kitchen Nightmares (a show I highly recommend), you see how much he really loves cooking and food and how, if you really want to be a better chef/cook, he's there to help you refine your technique. Plus, if you subscribe to his video podcast, the food he teaches you to make is fairly simple but also just DELICIOUS and beautiful.
I rather like her too:
She's fancy like Martha Stewart and in the beginning I found it really difficult to connect to what she was saying (and sometimes she loses me when she starts using fancy gadgets that I would have to sell a body part to own) but her food is beautiful and she seems to be passionate about what she's doing.
And of course:
And I completely understand that she's a controversial choice but I like her energy, she's passionate about food and she taught me how to make a cheese sauce from scratch and made it seem like a really easy thing (which it is. I don't know why I didn't try to make one before). I like that she really de-mystifies some of the things that scare a lot of people from trying to cook and I like that she typically uses very few actual gadgets. That's just nicer for my pocketbook!
I can't believe I almost forgot to add:
So, yes, I spend a lot of time watching the Food Network Canada.
What is the best beer on planet Earth?
Submitted by Remmy Van Hornie.
Okay, I'm not sure I should tell you this. I'm kind of worried they'll take my Canadian citizenship away but I'm not a real beer drinker. I can't tell you the last time I had a beer... Actually, I think it might have been a couple years ago and it was a shandy vs a regular beer (delicious by the way, especially for someone like me who prefers her alcohol tasting like candy).
But the beer I keep trying to find is one that tastes like coffee. I had it one time at a local beerfest (way fun, by the way) that was an espresso beer. YUM! Tastes kind of like coffee with a hint of chocolate aftertaste. I think it's a microbrew I can only find on the Island. Eh, I'm not hopping a ferry to buy some beer.
