Eat Free or Die!

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Posted in Eating In, Food, For Carnivores | Tags chicken, meat, organic, recipe | No Comments »

Three Wines for Thanksgiving Dinner

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

Thanksgiving is a hard meal to plan for. Logistically, it’s a nightmare – lots of separate dishes, all having to come together at once. There’s a huge bird to roast that takes hours to prep and cook properly. A vast array of sweet and savory flavors lie in wait to sate the palate, and put us all into a postprandial coma.

All of which presents a dilemma. I want to have a good glass of wine with dinner. But the quantity of food and the flavors makes choosing an appropriate drink a bit of a challenge. With candied sweet potatoes, oyster stuffing, and turkey legs waiting to send you into carbo-overload and tryptophan nappy-time, this is not an opportunity to whip out the best vintages. That being said, Thanksgiving is a “special occasion” with friends and family gathered around the holiday table, and cheap plonk just doesn’t seem right.

So, what’s called for are decent wines that won’t get lost or be squandered competing with the bounty of the rest of the table. They also need to be assertive enough to hold their own against a fair amount of heavy eating without adding too much of their own weight. To this end, I would suggest serving three wines, scaled in quantity to serve all of your guests at least one glass of each.

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Posted in Drink, Eating In, Wine | Tags Alsace, Beaujolais, nimes, pinot noir, rose, thanksgiving, Wine | No Comments »

One Last Gasp of Summer

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Lemon Shrimp with Tomato and Basil

The weather here in the Mid-Atlantic is starting to turn cooler, but I’m just not ready to let go of the last shreds of summer. So, before I delve into the earthy and warming flavors of autumn, I’ve got to give light, fresh, and vibrant one more go. Make this on a fleeting warm October afternoon, or hold onto it to spring on friends and family (ha!) come April. Or, let’s be honest, you can use this on a winter’s day to bring a little of the lazy days of Tuscan summer into the kitchen. Just be aware that some of the ingredients are only going to be available from distant climes.

This recipe is fast, fast, fast. After about 15 minutes of prep work, it comes together as a meal in less than 10 minutes in most cases. The sauce literally takes 5 minutes to prepare, so start it when your pasta has about 5 minutes to cook.

Ingredients:

6 oz. (dry weight) long pasta – spaghetti, bucatini, linguini fini, etc.
1 dry pint grape or cherry tomatoes
8 oz frozen, pre-cooked shrimp, thawed with tails removed
1 lemon
6 large cloves garlic
4-5 basil tops, fresh
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tsp white sugar
salt
pepper

Cooking time: 6-12 minutes for pasta, depending on type, 5 minutes for sauce.

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Posted in Food, For Carnivores, Quick | Tags basil, lemon, pasta, recipe, shrimp, tomato, tuscan | No Comments »

The Blahs.

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

So, I’m in a food funk.

I had a good dinner on Sunday for our wedding anniversary, but lately I just haven’t been feeling the food love. Case in point: dinner last night – tuna salad sandwiches. Dinner Monday? Canned soup. Dinner tonight? Leftover tuna salad.

I haven’t fully changed seasonal gears yet, which is part of the problem. Summer goodies are becoming more scarce, but so far I have not really managed to get the fall goodness under my skin.

That being said, it is starting to be apple season. I need to get up to the orchards and find myself some Stayman Winesap apples. If you haven’t tried these, do so. They’re an heirloom variety – no super-sweet hybrid, this. It was developed in the mid-1800s and is a beautiful apple for cooking as well as an unusual treat to eat out of hand. It’s not a pretty fruit – dull red with a brownish bloom. The flavor, though, is intensely sweet-tart and winy. Many orchards grow them to add depth to their pressed cider.

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100 Things You Should Eat Before You Die – FoodProof.

Posted in Food, Miscellaneous | Tags apples, blah, fruit, lazy | No Comments »

100 Things You Should Eat Before You Die

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

A long list of foods you should try at least once. I’ve eaten most of these – 74 out of 100.

I’d add a few things to this – sushi or sashimi, a Premier Cru Burgundy, fruit fresh from the tree, barbeque from a dodgy-looking pit shack, and kimchi.

How many have you had? What are your suggestions?

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ABC News: Orthorexia: Obsessing Over Health Food.

Posted in Food | Tags bucket list, favorites, Food, list | No Comments »

ABC News: Orthorexia: Obsessing Over Health Food

Monday, September 8th, 2008

So, this story disturbs me. I know people who are borderline obsessive about what they eat. It’s good to be mindful about what we consume, but ask enough people and you’re sure to be told that pretty much everything out there is “bad for you” in some way.

This is the reason that I get a little testy when people start speaking in absolutes about diet. You know: carbs are always bad, sugar is evil, non-organic is poison, blah… blah…

The American diet is, on average, pretty awful from a health standpoint. However, when diet and a quest for good food transitions from a general concern about, and responsibility for, one’s health to an obsessive quest for bodily purity and “perfect eating”, I get a little skeeved out.

To clarify my position – I primarily seek out good foods, fruits, and vegetables mostly because I like to eat, and good food tastes better than processed crap. As a secondary benefit, good food is generally healthier and I can control what I’m consuming if I’m making it myself. But when you’re killing yourself at 30 from malnutrition in order to avoid cancer at 70, there’s something very wrong.

Diet is a balance, and “everything in moderation” is a mantra by which most people can live good, healthy lives that don’t involve worrying and obsessing about every last bite they eat. So, eat that fruit, but don’t overgorge on calories. Eat those potatoes and parsnips, but not too many. Have that pork chop, but eat your vegetables and leafy greens too. Cook those carrots – sure some nutrients leach into the water and some are lost, but cooking makes plant nutrients generally easier to absorb by our omnivore digestive systems.

And stop worrying.

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