Fettucine! Parmigiana! Ay!

Pasta making: Great success! And holy moly, I never want to eat pasta out of a box again. It's an entirely different meal. Using this great book by Pasquale Bruno (replete with black and white photos of hairy, Italian wrists serving up dozens of what I am sure are delicious dishes but what all look like Bechamel and sausage vomit piles), we made what was exactly two servings of pasta with 2 eggs and 1 and 1/2 cups of white flour. So make much more if you are hungry. Starting from the well, it took about 8 minutes of kneading to get it right.


Pasta rollers are magic!



The best part is that after all the labor intensiveness of making fresh pasta, it cooks in about 1 minute, in a pot, "salty like the ocean." All topped off with eggplant sauce and shit loads of paremesean:

Now I'm hungry again...

Basting Brush

Just saw this tip in a Food and Wine email today, totally want to try this out on the grill. The Rosemary would be perfect with some grilled Lamb Chops.

SIDE NOTE: If you click on the link does anyone have any clue what grilling tip #2 is all about, the page doesn't really explain much, sounds like a wild technique though.

Slap Chop!

Holly, you just opened Pandora's box....

Titan Peeler!!

Yes, my new favorite kitchen gadget did come from an info-mercial, but at least I didn't buy it from this guy:

I did break down and call the 1-800 number to enquire about the Titan peeler, but how could I not-the blade is sharp enough to peel wood and delicate enough to peel a tomato! The deal breaker came when i found out that the shipping and handling costs as much as the product itself- super lame.

One day I was doing laundry, killing time wondering around CVS when I came across an aisle that was dedicated to Info-mercial products. Low and behold they had the Titan Peeler- $15 for two peelers (one does julienne strips). No shipping and handling costs-I snatched that deal up right away. I use it all the time and it super comes in handy for peeling eggplant and butternut squash- two items I always dreaded peeling. Just walk yourself down to the CVS at Hyde Square, and pick yourself up one- you will not be disappointed!

Restoring a Cast Iron Skillet

I have a new love. It is old, dirty, and overweight.

But I love it anyways.

I think all crows have a basic opposition to Teflon.* There is just something incredibly disheartening about a chemical that magically makes food not stick to your pan. This becomes even more disturbing once you have started cooking with cast iron, because somehow, without the magic of polytetrafluoroethylene, food doesn't stick to the pan! Moreover, if there are any little crusties stuck on the bottom of your pan, a little dip in a warm bath will quickly lift the char.

Teflon is also not suitable for oven use, which severely limits what you can do with certain recipes.

Natural Magic!

So Billy came home one day with two disgusting looking skillets that I figured would become wall ornaments because they were so covered in filth. Upon hearing this Billy made this face:

. .
O

.....and proceeded to look up different methods of restoration. He tried a few, but they never lasted. He found success in removing rust, but could never get the rust to stay gone, no matter how thoroughly the water was removed. Thus far, I have used two methods of "seasoning," one of which has been profoundly more effective in not only remaining rust-free, but creating a non stick surface.

*If you didn't already, you will after reading that article.
You will need:

Steel Wool
Paper Towels or cloth rag
Vegetable oil
Bacon

Heat oven to 400.

In the hottest water you can handle scrub all the rust off of the pan. Note the difference between rust, and old cast iron. The scrubbing process will not yield the black cast iron we all know. This comes in the seasoning process.

After you are confident in your scrub, thoroughly dry. Coat the pan in Oil and place cooking side down on the middle rack of the oven. Place a cookie sheet or some aluminum foil below the pan to catch any drippings. Keep in oven until the skillet has turned a deep, dark black.

Seasoning is complete.

Bacon Version.

Complete all steps, except upon removing from the oven cook a hefty amount of bacon. Use A high fat, uncured bacon for maximum filth and grease. Once bacon is complete spread bacon grase all over the inside of the pan. Place back in the oven and cook for another 15-30 minutes with the pan underneath to catch drippings.

Now you have the ultimate non stick surface.

Pros/cons

So obviously the biggest hurdle is overcoming a fear of bacon. Bacon is disgusting. But it does the job if you can get over that.

The vegetable oil will season the pan and prepare it for safe, rust-free use, but there are two major problems. The first is that the oil creates an almost sticky surface and there is, thus far after 2-3 uses still visible evidence of the oil on the surface of the Pan. Whereas the bacon fat seems to have melded with the pan, the oil is clearly not evenly distributed across the cooking surface. You could try Crisco, but really Crisco, is just as disturbing to me as Teflon.

So now the next time you see an old rusty pan for $2 at a thrift store you won't be afraid to bring it home!

Great Uses

Searing Meat/Fish/poultry
One dish meals
Making a perfectly hearty tomato sauce
Caramelizing onions
Skillet + Grilling*
Hitting boyfriends
Pretending its 1859
Pies
Quiches
Attractive presentation

*You can actually throw the skillet right on the coals!

Snacking: homemade popcorn

Modesty aside, I admit that I make fantastic popcorn. And I think I can find a few people to back me up on this claim. It is a skill entirely attributed to genetics; my father also makes amazing popcorn. So amazing in fact that he used to use it has a sucessful bargening tool to keep me and my friends in the house in highschool.

It is delicous, fast, easy, super cheap and can feed LOTS of hungry guests, all while making you look like you are some sort of bad-ass homemaker with good campfire skills. At least that is how I feel.

Honestly, it is the easiest, fastest thing ever and requires no special equiptment. Just throw away that microwave and airpopper and bring it back to the stove!

Use a large pot with a thick bottom. This is the most important thing. It is best, if you know you will be making lots of popcorn, to just give in immediatly and designate a pot you already have to be used in the future only for making popcorn. This is just better because:

(1) the pot is going to, without fail get black, burnt stuff on it that will never come off. ever. don't even try. Particularly while you are first learning and burn a few batches.

(2) This may sound gross, but you shouldn't ever really wash your popcorn pot. The oil build up makes it work better and really helps prevent burning. Every now and then rinse it down with some hot water and soap if you must, but no need to scrub. Only oil an popcorn are ever touching it anyway.

I use a wok that never really worked so great as a wok. It works great as a popcorn pot. Pick any old pot you have, or one you have duplicate sizes of. Just make sure it has a well-fitting lid to go along with it. You can also get a dandy stovetop popcorn popper from Target or William Sanoma, but plz.

- heat vegetable oil in (or veg/olive oil mix; depending on the taste you want- I only go for olive oil when I am planning on little or no butter/parm.)

-When oil is heated, add popcorn kernels- about half a cup should feed like 4 people. Cover with lit

-As the popcorn heats in the oil, occasionally (every minute or so) lift lid a little bit. There must be science that explains why, but this little extra air helps it pop faster and prevents burning. I know know why.

- on the side, heat up some butter. Remember, this popcorn is cooked in oil, so it needs less butter than you think. Show restraint!

- When popcorn starts popping, toss the popcorn in the pot; hold that lid down tight! (or crank; if you are a dandy.)

-Remove from heat when kernel popping slows significantly.

- put in a huge bowl, and 1/2 at a time add butter, a few shakes of parmesan, and salt. Mix with butter knife

Consume by the fistful. Large quantities are important here.

I just made a batch for me, Matt and Mark; so good!