Cheesecake!

Today, in my local Barnes and Noble (which is where I happen to work) cafe was a new item. You clever readers out there have probably already deduced that it's a form of cheesecake. Give yourselves a gold star. No, really. Anywho, its selling point is that it's Oreo cheesecake. My memory isn't what it used to be, but I'm sure this is unlike the Oreo cheesecake they sell at a certain restaurant with Factory in it's name. This product, after an in depth analysis (translation: I had a slice), seems to be nothing more than a plain old cheesecake with a few cookies cooked in and a chocolate crust. First off, I'm disappointed that the crust itself wasn't Oreo. Second, I'm just overall disappointed. Most Oreo based deserts are... memorable, instead of a cheesecake with Oreo in it. It could have been much more than it was. Get it if you must give it a try, but you're not missing out on anything breathtaking if you don't. I'm sure the Cheesecake Factory version is superior.

Oh, right. I write in this.

I really don't feel like it right now. It's late. Video work tomorrow. So I'll sum up.

First off, I have terrible luck with eggs. Dunno why. Just do. If I'm cooking them in a pan and not scrambling them, they end up scrambled. Last Sunday (at least I think it was Sunday) was different though. Once again, at Sam's, we picked up 3 dozen eggs. Better use while we have them, right? No hesitation. So a big 4 egg omelet was on the menu for breakfast. Research (Good Eats episode French Flop) told me that the best tool for the job was a rubber spatula, which Wife was against. She insisted on that big flat plastic one so often used for flipping burgers and chopping ground beef.

I gotta say, for the first time in God knows how long, my omelet looked like it was supposed to. It tasted like it was supposed to as well. Four eggs, one tbsp of milk per, some adobo (but that's another entry), sauteed onions and some nice chopped spam. Yum.

This brings me to my second peice. Spam. Almost everybody I know either has never had it or hates it. Meanwhile, I could inhale the stuff. It's meat, so shut up. Maybe it's scraps or less than desirable cuts, but it's still meat! It still fries and grills and makes a mean sandwich or as a chunky player in salsa con queso. It's good cold or hot. Heck, it's good in chili.

I love spam. Shut up.

Chili and me

Wow, I almost forgot to write in this tonight. Thankfully, wife reminded/insisted.

First, a history. Chili and me go back to my first apartment, with my first roommate. Hormell, if that's actually the brand name, was one of the staples in the pantry. It was quick to nuke, it was hearty and one bowl was more than enough to tide one of us over. It was also great for corn chips and dipping. In fact, that and ramen noodles were all I ate most of the time. Sad, isn't it?

I notice this happens with a lot of favorite foods of mine, but eventually, I wanted to make it myself. Most online recipes seemed similar enough, so aside from a big mess of ground beef, I just threw together what was lying around in the kitchen. Eventually, we began to stock up on most things with chili in the name: beans and powder. My love of...

Capsaicin

kept hot foods: sauces, mustards and powders on hand. Though, sadly, as I cook for both me and my wife, cayenne and tobasco needed to be toned down and tomato content needed to go up. But, more or less, aside from ground beef and a can of beans, my chili recipes are never ever the same every time. Every pot has some crazy new ingredient that I throw in on impulse. Tonight was Worchestershire and BBQ sauce. Also new tonight were chopped up hunks of beef: the leftovers of my pot roast mound. They left a lot of liquid in the pot once they were done cooking, which made my chopped onion very happy. For the first time, I didn't need butter or oil.

Selling Out

For starters, I would like to say that the pot roast reheated nicely. The ability to retain quality after making friends with both the fridge and the nuker is the true measure of a food.

Anyhow, as I didn't truly feel like cooking tonight, I got some of these.




















Eight dollars, more or less at Sam's Club. We've been eying them for a while and that one day, we finally buckled down. Five packs, a dozen to a pack. They're stuck in this substance called "EZ Ice". Maybe it's ice. I dunno. They cook in a skillet for 12 minutes, then scrape 'em off, then eat 'em with a tangy dipping sauce they provide.















The filling is supposed to be chicken and veggie. I'm not sure if it actually tastes like that. Still good, though. For the price and the prep time, I'd say they're worth it. They're certainly not a main dish though. Try it and you'll go through the whole box.

As a final thought, mainly to see whatelse I can cram in here, Lay's Stax. They're thicker than Pringles. Depending on your tastes, this may be a good thing. I use the Salt and Vinegar as an example, since the flavor is awfully strong. In the Stax version, you get less of the S&V and more of the potato. I think it's a step up. But that's just me. G'night.

What's for dinner?

We went to Sam's Club the other day. Among the other things we bought in bulk was this big slab of beef, a cut I didn't remember the name of. The wife believes it's bottom round roast. Originally, I had planned to chop it into hunks for chili, along with some pork we bought along side it. Due to it's size though, I figured more could be done. Pot Roast was the first thing that came to mind and wife said she's never had it.

A challenge!

First, off came the big round top. Second, off came this big ugly sheet of fat at the bottom. My slicing wasn't as good as I'd hoped. Somewhere in the middle got a little thin. Eih. Next came a hefty rubdown of kosher salt and cumin. The pan I used (which I guess to be about 16 inches) was good and hot for the searing the meat got, two minutes on one side, three on another. The crap stuck to the bottom, once the meat was out of the pan and onto a plate to rest, met with a whole chopped onion, maybe two tablespoons of veggie oil and five cloves of garlic.

I always use whatever's available to smash garlic. Today was the bottom of a jar. Usually, it's another pan.

I stirred and cooked and scraped on medium heat until things got shiny and brown. Tossed the garlic. Next came that jar. It was half full of Rinaldi's Hearty Mushroom, Pepper and Onion pasta sauce. Yum. Third of a cup of salsa, a small handful of jalepenos, shots of Warchestershire and A1 were next. More stirring and scraping until things were combined and delicious, then out came the peppers before they blew my wife's head off.

In a basket made of lots of aluminum foil, in went half the sauce, the meat and the rest of the sauce. I didn't have the time for a real slow cook, so for about two hours it went in, at 350 degrees.

Wife assisted in getting out all the liquid that collected in the bottom of the foils, which made a wonderful gravy. The meat itself was a little weak, but I think it's because of the faster cooktime. The resulting gravy more than made up for it, though. As I think about it, Adobo could have went in. Lord knows I put it in everything else.

Let's get it started in here

I notice that, since I was wee and hovering behind my dear Gramma Betty in the kitchen, that I liked making the things I put in my mouth. Maybe it was because her daughter, my mother, was a God awful cook. Short order, my aunt would say. Everything, and I mean everything, needed piles of salt or ketchup or mustard or, in my later years, hot sauce. I also noticed that, being the psychotic that she is, despite all the times she would ask for help in the kitchen, she'd never accept it. The best I could do was wash dishes afterward.

To stay on topic, I shall skip the awkward moments of my life and simply say that I moved out. No more "home cooked meals", not that I was missing much. It was a step in the right direction. The second step came from, and don't laugh, the Food Network. Specifically, the show Good Eats. Alton Brown speaks to me in a language I can understand: science. Being the hellish nerd that I am, the hows and whys make more sense to me than the whats that most cookbooks will offer. So, as a warning, you may see some recipes that closely resemble what you see on that show. Bear with me. Lastly, I'm married now. My wife, or DW as she'd put it on HER blog, has the lap band. This means, to me at least, that to help her, I need to ever so carefully control her "input" so as not to break any of her sensitive insides.

To sum up, now I NEED to cook.

Some of it's traditional and some of it's some psychotic combination that my friends still don't let me forget about (salsa con queso and spam). Some of it is a healthy alternative and some of it took a trip through the deep fryer my sister got me for my birthday. Some of it's a good idea. Some of it... uhm...

Well, anyway, welcome to Flavor Country.