The Dreaded Turkey Burger
When I was a kid, mom did most of the cooking. Dad had a few dishes he made. He had a deft hand for seasoning tuna salad, and mom could never make it quite right, even when using the same ingredients. He was also the one who got me hooked on putting Heinz ketchup into Kraft Mac and Cheese.
After my parents got divorced, there were a few staple dinners we would eat on the weekends when we stayed over at Dad’s place. None of them were particularly good. But I had the sense that divorce was expensive, and there just wasn’t that much money for better food. Although this could have just been some kind of attempt to eat healthier options.
I remember the boneless skinless chicken breasts marinated in Italian salad dressing that were baked in the oven. There were canned chopped clams that he tossed with pasta and oil. And of course, there were the turkey burgers. Those I will never forget. For a couple of reasons.
Mind Blowing Beer Pairing Ideas
Have I mentioned my beer buying problem recently? There are some things that just suck me up into the hype machine. Limited time offers are one of them. Packaging is another. And the current state of the beer market is just a minefield of temptation for me.
Yesterday afternoon, I picked up a few cans at Trader Joe’s, including Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA, which I really really like. Then it was off to The Fountain for Tavern Time, where I had some more beer. But finding myself next to Beer Belly, I couldn’t resist popping in and just looking around their bottle shop.
I came out with Boom Sauce, Steal This Can, and Lizard King. Never heard of them? I think that’s the point. My beer is much much cooler than I am. But if I don’t buy these now, I may never get another chance. And I do love the packaging. Plus, the liquid in the can is mighty tasty. Tasty enough to justify its premium? That’s another post.
Today, I wanted to share with you some of the answers that I got to the question I put out last week about mind blowing beer pairings.
July 2009: Gathering Steam
Month three of the blog. What was going on? Well, it certainly picked up momentum. How did we do that? Well, writing a post every single day was certainly played a significant role. Holy cow. That’s a lot of posts. I can’t believe I didn’t lose my marbles.
I did take a day off from original content on July 4 and posted links to earlier stories.
One of the things I noticed in rereading these was how many posts told stories of my past. Memories from childhood, tales from my professional life in California, and other personal anecdotes. While I was still critical of the regional restaurant scene and our local food critics, there were clearly places that I did enjoy. Bella Napoli, Capital Q, and our regional form of fish fry all got highlighted this month.
How did it break down day by day? I’m glad you asked. But before we jump ahead, you may want to refresh yourself on the origins of this Throwback Thursday project, and review the key below for decoding the rainbow of colors that awaits you after the jump.
Health Hath No Fury Like a Salad Scorned
Did you happen to see the recent article by Michael Ruhlman in The Washington Post? The title jumps right off the page and is designed to shock readers from their complacency. No food is healthy. Not even kale.
The kale backlash will be long and it will be fierce. But as much as this piece may on its face seem to be an anti-kale salvo, it’s not. Largely, it’s about semantics. Much like you can’t have a healthy guitar, you can’t have a healthy salad. The leaves, once separated from the plant, are no longer a living thing that can be described as being in good health.
Some food might promote health, and those would best be described as healthful. But Mr. Ruhlman would rather you take a more precise approach and look at food based on its nutritional content. His argument is that we should be evaluating our food choices based on the nutrition they provide, rather than some likely mistaken idea of what foods are good and what foods are bad.
As he blithely points out, if anyone tried to live entirely on kale salad, that person would be very unhealthy indeed.
But there’s an important point he has left out.
Nominations for Tour de Electric Wings
Where’s the winter tour? Well, I’ve been waiting for winter to roll around. And now, after a bunch of bluster, it finally looks like winter has arrived. So let’s get cracking. There’s not much winter left in this winter, but I’m not complaining.
For anyone who is new around these parts, about once a quarter I lead a group of intrepid eaters into the wilderness to eat five versions of the same thing. Our goal is to separate hype from substance, and to discover which local foods are worthy of celebration.
These tours started with apple cider donuts in the fall of 2010. In winter we typically do something savory. We’ve tackled the mini hot dog, egg and cheese sandwich, mozzarella and melba, disco fries, and tavern pies. Then in the spring is another sweet tour, usually centered around ice cream. However, we’ve dipped into gelato and frozen yogurt in the past. Summer is another savory tour, and then then it’s back to apple cider donuts.
If you scroll down the page at the #518 Recos tab, you can see our findings from each past tour.
Anyway, before we even announce a tour officially, there is always a call for nominations. Even though I moved here eight years ago, I know that I am still an outlander, and I’m not so self-righteous to believe that there may not be amazing places in the region that have managed to elude me.
Our next outing is all about wings. And we’ll be heading into The Electric City to try them. Of course, there are far too many places that make wings to try them all, so narrowing it down to five is going to be a challenge.
This is where I could use your help.
Old Starch
Obsession. Compulsion. It’s so hard to tell the two apart sometimes.
These two forces can take many forms, and at least in my own personal experience, have always been a very good thing. I love my obsessions. My delicious, delicious obsessions. Of course, I realize that not everyone feels the same way. Mrs. Fussy would probably be delighted if I stopped holding onto containers of reserved fat to use for future cooking. And I’m sure there are plenty of people who have grown weary of my beer journey.
Luckily, today has absolutely nothing to do with beer. Nothing at all. Instead, it has to do with cooking. Because I absolutely go through cooking phases where I latch onto a dish and make it again and again and again. Except in these situations, it’s not a rut. No. No. No. Far from it.
What’s interesting is that I can track these food infatuations back to Mrs. Fussy, and her internal barometer that suggests dinner just isn’t dinner without the presence of a starch.
Rocking Breakfast – Recipe #13
By now you must all be familiar with Josh Coletto and his monthly pop up breakfasts at The Low Beat in Albany. Well, after a break in December, he’s back for Rock N Roll Brunch XX this Sunday. And I’m thrilled that he’s come back to the FLB to share another one of his recipes to help get you excited for the event.
If braving the crowds at this perpetually popular pop-up doesn’t thrill you, perhaps you will be interested to learn of the dinner that Josh will be presenting on January 30 at Nibble in Troy. The menu is unmistakably a modern winter feast, and Josh has kept it intentionally ambiguous so that those who come can be surprised and delighted. To see what I mean, check out the menu here.
Now I’ve got a bit of a spoiler. One of those dishes is a soup. Bet you can’t guess which one.
But back to breakfast. Had I been able to go back in November, I probably would have had the goat and waffles. However, I’m also a sucker for red flannel hash. That means I probably would have missed out on the Buck Rarebit. Never heard of it? Well, I’ll let Josh explain.
June 2009: Who’s To Blame
Mrs. Fussy laughed out loud when she read the first FLB TBT post. I think she said something like, “It looks like a box of crayons threw up on your blog.”
Of course, she was referring to the color coding of the posts. Because truth be told, this is less of an indexing and more of a visual glossary with a monthly summary. The goal here is to try and remember some of the things I’ve written in the past, try to see the arc the blog has taken over time, and attempt to identify the few posts that are still relevant today.
As a reader, some of this may be interesting, or none of it may be interesting. To try and make it more reader-friendly, I’m moving the monthly summary to the top of the post, right after the jump. And should you decide to scroll down past that, don’t bother yourself with anything but the posts that are in black boldface type. Those are the ones on big topics that I consider to be the tent poles of this project.
So, if the first month of the FLB was exquisitely balanced, albeit with too many posts on wine, what did the second month look like on the blog?
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