Those Wonderous Weiners!

While shopping at Sprouts a few weeks ago with my engineer, I was passing through the deli area when Benji spotted Sabrett's hot dogs in the cold case. He and another native New Yorker went on and on, telling me about the pushcarts, and how good the dogs were. So after several weeks of thinking about it, we decided to give them a try. I bought the hog dogs and the Sabrett's saurkraut yesterday, and we decided to give them a head-on taste test with Hebrew National, our currrent nitrite-laden favorite.

 I fixed one dog of each brand exactly the same, and tried the dogs naked first, to get the true flavor, then with the bun and condiments. The HN were good, not too salty. The Sabrett's have natural casing, and the 'snap' of biting into the dog was fab, reminding me more of a sausage than a weiner. Also not too salty, the Sabrett's had a glorious flavor, smooth and tasty. The Sabrett's kraut was good, altho being a fan of sweet and sour German kraut, I did find the seasoning odd, and even after rinsing the kraut it was still very salty.

 I have to say that yes, my NYC friends were correct, the Sabrett's hot dogs were, indeed, the best I've ever tasted, edging out the Hebrew Nationals by a hair. The Sabrett's had more flavor, and the casing snap sealed the deal. The kraut, however, I would pass on, not my cup of tea. If you can't get Sabrett's where you live, you can order them online. I give Sabrett's two thumbs up, a very good dog indeed!

Hello after a hiatus, and Manny's Uptown Kitchen

It's been way, way too long since I posted a food blog! I have a new career as a recording studio owner, and for a little while even had my own chef, but that's gone by the wayside, and I'm back to cooking myself, and actually enjoying it again. Once I get something yummy prepared, I will post it with pics.

 On another note, I have a new fav place; Manny's Uptown Kitchen. While it is a chain, the food was really, really good. The menu is a combo of baby haute cuisine and old Jewish deli favs like chopped liver, knishes and latkes. I highly reccommend the loaded potato cakes. Our first time a friend and I ordered them for an appetizer. The server brought a long rectangular plate with three perfectly brown potato cakes swimming in a sea of delish cheese sauce, sprinkled with chopped green onions, crisp bacon bits, and a dollop of sour cream on each one. Let me just say the next time, I'm getting that as my entree! The cakes were crisp and tasty on their own, and the cheese sauce was most excellent. Had I been at home, I would have licked the plate, it was so good!

 The beef and blue pasta bowl, however, not so good. I was expecting a blue cheese sauce similar to the potato cakes, and what I got was a watery drippy au jus with an overpowering bitter blue cheese taste. The beef was a slab of rare strip steak indifferently slapped on top, and I was not offered a steak knife, so had to cut it with my butter knife. The pasta itself was fresh and would have been good I think, if I could have tasted it through the horrible bitterness.

 The prices were about what you would expect, similar to Chili's or any other chain. Other things I tasted were good, so stay away from the beef and blue, and you'll probably be ok.

The Day of the Dead Turkey Feast!

It was a good Dead Turkey Day here on the old homestead. A nice fat bird with fresh herbs and onions from the garden all crammed inside, since I don't put stuffing in the bird any more, way less cooking time.

Dressing is a must, and always a star attraction. This year featured potato bread with dried cranberries, apples and pecans, the herbs and oinons again coming from the garden, as well as a kick ass dish of purple pod green beans that were devoured before they even got to dinner.

Home made cranberry sauce and rutabagas rounded out the menu, along with chocolate cake and pumpkin pie (of course!) All in all, a very good meal! Time to start making plans for the Yule feast!

Is this the Roaring Twenties for the overweight?

 While reading MSN.com this morning, I check out the Bing recipe search (Hate Bing, bwt.) on the front page. The first recipe is Bacon Baklava. On Msn, right there on the front page for everyone to see. Is this a total letting go of healthy eating, or are we so jaded we're willing to try anything?

 After decades of being told bacon was the Devil, now all of a sudden everyone seems to have embraced it like a long lost cousin. It is turning up in strange places where I don't really think it should be. Now, don't get me wrong, I have some food concotions that I adore, that make other people look at me like they are not quite sure if I should be walking around with everyone else. As I love bacon, I'm willing to try pretty much any of this new frontier, no matter how bizarre.

 The new bacon phenomena has spawned such tasty tidbits as Chicken Fried Bacon, candied bacon, chocolate covered bacon (Most likely working on the ideal that chocolate makes anything better!) and my personal favorite. I'm almost tempted to order a jar......

Restaurant Review - China House

 Chinese sounded good last night, so we decided to order take out. After a bit of debate, as it was raining and we didn't want to leave the house if possible, we decided to order from China House, 9505 Burnet Road.

 Calling in the order was fun, the person who answered the phone had a very heavy accent which made it hard to understand her. I had to ask her to repeat herself after almost every sentence. Worse was that she didn't understand me all that well either, and I had to repeat everything as well. It took her 6 or 7 trys to get the street name down. She didn't give me a total before she hung up either.

 So then we wait, hoping that they got the right address. After about 25 minutes, the food came. With tip, the total was $28. When we unpacked the bag, we saw first off that the free wings (with orders over $20) were missing. OK, maybe they no longer do that due to the economy. Opening our entree containers, we were surprised at the amount of food. The containers were completely filled with the entree, the rice being in a seperate container. We had an order of pan fried dumplings, sesame beef and sweet and sour pork. The food all looked good, so we dug in. The dumplings were good, the sauce sweet and tangy. The entrees, however, not so much The sesame beef had so much egg in the coating (It shouldn't have had any) that it tasted like an omelet, and not even a particularly beefy one. The beef itself was slightly gelatinous in texture, not the crispness I had been expecting. The only other taste I could detect was bland. It was like chewing bland fat and fried eggs. The sweet and sour pork did not fair much better, the pork was a bit tough, the coating was meh and bland. The sauce didn't have any sweet/sour flavor at all, and we would have done better to dump it and use some LaChoy. The fried rice was more of the same, except that it tasted like the cook (I refuse to call this person a chef!) dumped Liquid Smoke in it. I found one rubbery little piece of egg, and nothing else.

 All in all, a total waste of $28. I wouldn't feed this kind of slop to my dog, if he would even eat it. Unless you have some medical issue that keeps you from tasting, stay away from China House. Go to McDonald's, you'll get a better tasting meal.

So after buying several containers of store bought yogurt, only to pitch them because I just couldn't get the milk/starter/yogurt timing right. They didn't go to total waste, as I did put them in the various composters around the place. Still..... there had to be a better way!

I got online, and looked up a dry yogurt starter. Plenty out there, but I didn't want to pay shipping, which would have made the whole home-made yogurt thing a bit pricey. So off I go to Wheatsville Co-op, the local hippy/yuppie grocery. Sure enough, they had a dry starter, so i bogought a box.

This is the yogurt from said second attempt at using it. Second attempt, you ask? Well, I had the bright idea to try an old crock pot as a fermenter, so I wouldn't have a pan of jars of busily souring milk sitting on top of the stove. Not such a good idea. The heat was waaaay too much, and it killed the starter. However, since I realized it fairly quick, I was able to reheat the milk mix and re-inoculate it with some fresh starter. And it worked like a charm, the next day we had 4 pints of beautiful firm yogurt. I don't use powdered milk, agar agar, or any other thickener, you don't need them. Milk and starter, whether it comes from dry starter, or a tub of store bought yogurt, will make a wonderful yogurt with absolutely NO added anything, until you put it in. Lovely!

Home made yogurt recipe

This can't get much easier. I won't post the 'how to', you can find that all over the Web. You need a gentle constant heat source (I use the pilot light on my stovetop), some canning jars, some milk, and some starter. That's it.

Milk, or a combination of milk, cream, or milk alternative, I have used both soy and almond with good results

Starter. Can be as simple as a cup of cheap yogurt from the store, just make sure it is live, with the active culture.

Take a canning jar, and pour your milk or mix (I have used a mix of 3 parts milk to 1 part soy/almond milk with good results, although the yogurt will come out a bit softer. ) into the jar, times however many jars you are using, and pour into a pot. Heat over medium heat until it just starts thinking about boiling (scalding). Let cool until not burning hot, but very warm. you should be able to hold a finger in the mix for 5 seconds before it gets too warm. Add your starter, stir or whisk (works better) until starter is completely blended with the hot milk. Pour into washed and still hot canning jars, put the lids on and place on your heat source. In 12 hours, fresh home made additive free yogurt! Simple!

Wow...just wow!

This food porn is not for the faint-hearted.

Makes me want to pimp something! I'll have to think about it.......