Peeps! Just in time for right after Easter.

Happy Easter!!

Peeps: So many things you can do with them! Serious eats indeed.

Peepshi

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Peeps Krispie Treats 

In the making (accompanied by possibly my favorite caption ever):

Before: Peeps "My Peepbutt is so toasty! Peeps Sauna to the max." 
After: Peeps "gloob bloop." 

[Photographs: Grace Kang]

Completed:

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

The colors are so vibrant and pretty... I even like just how they look on the page. This looks like it'd be really fun to do with kids :))

Okara Earth Muffins and more

I made some homemade soy milk yesterday. The method isn't too difficult -- you just soak/grind/boil/strain soy beans -- but it's rather time-consuming without a soymilk machine, which I did not have. It's worth it though, if you have some time. The resulting fresh, homemade soy milk is delicious.

The mushy ground-up soybeans you strain out of the soymilk is called okara. I had a ton and I didn't want to waste it, so I looked up some okara recipes and made delicious carrot-raisin muffins from a recipe I found on an okara blog -- they are SO GOOD! They taste exactly like Lou's Earth Muffins (delicious, amazing muffins from a local bakery in Hanover, NH) and they're really healthy! (Here's the recipe.)

Then I made granola with the leftover okara.

I'm soaking soy beans now to make more soy milk tomorrow and I'm going to try making okara crab cakes and okara 'potato' salad, which I hope tastes like the tofu salad they have in Collis kitchen at Dartmouth. I love soy!!

Just chronicling my adventures in baking a bit... I've never really baked before, so this is new for me. Cooking is fun! I've begun to see the joy in cooking this year.

FishPhone

Speaking of phones, check out FishPhone.

In their words:

"FishPhone is Blue Ocean’s sustainable seafood text messaging service that instantly puts sustainable seafood information at your fingertips.

To find out about your seafood choice, text 30644 with the message FISH and the name of the fish in question. We’ll text you back with our assessment and better alternatives to fish with significant environmental concerns.

Since its debut on October 2, 2007, FishPhone has been featured nationwide in newspapers, on television (including MSNBC), and on blogs.

“Having this information in the palm of our hands while we shop or visit our local restaurants is the start of something big! We consumers have many questions, especially as the USDA and FDA seem so overworked, under-funded and ineffectual when it comes to food safety issues; using our handheld devices to connect to the most up to date info in real time makes us the 'commanders' of our food shopping experience.”  – Phil Lempert, TODAY Food Editor on MSNBC.com"

I used to intern here and I helped minimally in the creation/implementation of FishPhone. My most significant contribution was that I thought of the name, haha.

Michael Pollan

From the writer of In Defense of Food (“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”) comes Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.

An excerpt from his interview about Food Rules with the NY Times' Well Blog:

“Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.” That gets at a lot of our issues. I love French fries, and I also know if I ate French fries every day it would not be a good thing. One of our problems is that foods that are labor or money intensive have gotten very cheap and easy to procure. French fries are a great example. They are a tremendous pain to make. Wash the potatoes, fry potatoes, get rid of the oil, clean up the mess. If you made them yourself you’d have them about once a month, and that’s probably about right. The fact that labor has been removed from special occasion food has made us treat it as everyday food. One way to curb that and still enjoy those foods is to make them. Try to make your own Twinkie. I don’t even know if you can. I imagine it would be pretty difficult. How do you get the cream in there?"

Well what do you know, Fay and I (er okay, all Fay while I sat there) made and ate some cookies last night. Who knew she is just as impatient as me while baking!

Another great bit:

"Some of these rules require absolutely no explanation. “If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.” “It’s not food if it’s served through the window of your car.” “It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language.” Think Big Mac, Cheetos or Pringles. Another one I like, “The banquet is in the first bite.” Economists call this the law of diminishing marginal utility. When you realize the real pleasure in food comes in the first couple bites, and it diminishes thereafter, that’s a kind of reminder to focus on the experience, enjoy those first bites, and as you get into the 20th bite, you’re talking calories and not pleasure. I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that."

I agree. And I liked how he talked about diminishing marginal utility.

Sugar Cookies

I've started a recipe book with some of my favorite desserts to make and meals my mom cooks when I come home from school. Here's the recipe for sugar cookies I now use, and pictures of the ones we made for our holiday craft.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups APF
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (two sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

METHOD

1. Whisk together the flour & salt in a medium bowl, set aside
2. Using a mixer, cream together the butter & sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg & vanilla, mix until well blended
3. With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until thoroughly blended
4. Add food coloring if you want
5. Turn out the dough onto the work surface & divide it into 2 or 3 equal portions. Form each into a rough disk
6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
7. Roll and cut dough (1/4" thick). TIP: Place dough between two pieces of parchment cut to side of cookie sheet so you can just remove excess dough and don't have to pick up each cookie and replace it on a separate sheet (streamlined!)
8. Let dough cool in fridge
   
9. Bake until it turns slightly golden on edges, 12-16 min.
10. Cool completely before decorating.
    

We bought icing for flooding and for decoration + food color to make the different designs. Great way to spend a snowy afternoon.

Bonus pic: the cake we got from Party Favors in Brookline. Seriously the best (Georgina, you yourself sampled one of their crazy flower cupcakes. Imagine that amount of frosting times 10.)

And yes, those trees are completely icing (save for a little green stick supporting it). My mouth was, consequently, a strange blue-green for the rest of the evening (which consisted of more eating and watching old movies). The skiers were quite fun to play with, as well. Don't know if you can tell, but those skiers were seriously carving down that sloped surface (yes, the cake was sloped).

SEA

Went to SEA in the East Village for some Thai food at my dining companion's suggestion. I've passed it a bunch of times before because it's in a very central location in the LES, but never eaten there.

Verdict: The curry was properly spicy (+), the food was well seasoned (+), and dishes were surprisingly large (+) but accompanied by small portions of rice (-) ... but then again, I really like rice. Good ambiance comprised of modern decor and near-perfect restaurant lighting (+), service was average to good, average drinks list (as far as I could tell) and prices were reasonable (+). It would be fun to bring friends to eat here.

Overall = positive review. 
I'll be conservative and say 3.5/5 since this is my first review.

SEA

75 Second Ave., New York, NY 10003
nr. 4th St.  See Map | Subway Directions
212-228-5505 Send to Phone
See other locations

P.S. Photos pilfered from internet sources.

Recipes for Thanksgiving

I've been researching new recipes for my family to use for this Thanksgiving and came up with these yummy dishes from Food Network and Epicurious. What are your traditional Thanksgiving dishes?

Pumpkin Bars by Paula Deen:

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 15-ounce can pumpkin
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:

• 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

Sauteed Turnips and Parsnips with Rosemary

Gourmet | November 2001 (epicurious.com) PS: Remember when Gourmet was still alive???

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 medium turnips (3/4 lb total), peeled and cut into 1/3-inch dice
• 3 medium parsnips (3/4 lb total), peeled, cored if necessary, and cut into 1/3-inch dice
• 4 medium shallots (1/2 lb total), cut lengthwise into sixths
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

Heat oil and butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook turnips, stirring occasionally, until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Add parsnips and shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and almost tender, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste and cook , stirring, until vegetables are tender, about 3 minutes more.

Maple Pecan Pie in Wheat-Flavored Crust

Bon Appétit | October 1999 (epicurious.com)
I've decided not to do the Wheat-Flavored Crust, but doesn't the pie sound delicious?

• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups pecan halves

Looking forward to experimenting this Thanksgiving!

What Not to Wear: Rachael Ray Edition

I used to despise RR and all of her over-cheery, abbreviation-filled, colloquialism-confused cooking show on Food Network. But as I have watched more and more FoodTV (it's a problem, really), I've realized that I should not hate RR, but instead pity her for how bad her stylist is. Plus, her show is well-intentioned, so I shouldn't hate someone for just trying to be friendly, right? Anyway, here are some bad outfits and hairstyles.



A typical outfit, this top does nothing for her body. I'd imagine that these jeans also add like 20 pounds. I understand that she wants to wear tight-fitting clothing so her sleeves don't get caught in flames or whatever, but I still don't like it. PS: watch the show on TV--this image is definitely photoshopped. Those highlights are also too unnatural, distracting us from her eyes and instead focusing our gaze on the distractingly ugly bleach they slapped on there arbitrarily.

And this is just bad. Cap sleeves rarely look good on women (though for some reason they still make them) and these colors do nothing for her. Oh, and visit youtube--there are some great vintage eps.




Basically, RR is all over the place. I can't adequately convey it in a blog post, but here is a moment of complete randomness. Why they dressed her this way for the cover is beyond me--maybe they're trying to combine audiences for Mad Men with that of RR? I feel like I'm one of the only ones that overlap. Mad Men viewers would more likely tune into Barefoot Contessa, I think.



Part of why they dress her in bad v-necks, I think, is to cater to a particular audience--it's an audience that finds terms like "EVOO" and "Yum-O!" endearing, or comprehensive. These people don't necessarily watch Ina and her flamboyant friends in the Hamptons have a ball put together bouquets. So why, all of a sudden, is she dressed like a Stepford wife on the cover of her own magazine?

Like I said, RR needs some styling advice. Maybe she should call Stacy London--perhaps she'll deck her all out in the latest Searle knits.

Instant Slimmer

So I've discovered that if you ever want to feel positive about your figure, don't bother looking at Lara Stone (she's a size 6 but likely also 6'). Go to Walmart instead. A trip there yesterday evening (bought an new air conditioner -- step 1 in renovation phase! Well, more like step 0.2) made me ponder about the demographics and economic distribution of body type. It blew my mind to see the assortment of 'groceries' that carts were filled with. Everything was artificial! Made me think back on the organic farming ("ecological agriculture") class I took last summer, and how we (I) take knowledge like this (about eating healthy, eating local, eating organic) for granted sometimes.

On another note, I saw this woman absolutely rocking a maxi dress. She was tall but still curvy in a way that only genetics can explain. And I don't mean curvy as a euphemism for chubby. She was tall and thin but in an athletic way. Oh, but I also saw a [misguided] girl wearing a light pink terrycloth Juicy tube dress. It said Juicy in an unfortunate place, that's how I know for sure. Oh and just in case you missed the Juicy embroidery, she was wearing the matching pink terrycloth Juicy sunhat... with matching "JUICY" embroidered across the brim in melon green.

Oh, kidz. God love you. (It's a Mean Girls quote, roughly.)

Cookiesssssssss

Baked cookies today (altered the recipe a bit: no nutmeg, 1% milk instead of buttermilk, no nuts, craisins instead of raisins):

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/kicked-up-oatmeal-cookies-recipe/index.html



Oatmeal white chocolate craisin cookies=AMAZING!!!!! A must-bake. Thanks, Emeril.

I love blogs! and food! = food blogs!!

The photos on this food blog are so sharp I feel like I'm there with the food. Boy oh boy, I love food. Linked below are entries by Grace Kang, a fellow blogger at food blog Serious Eats. Ms. Kang also attends Dartmouth College.

http://www.seriouseats.com/user/profile/Grace%20Kang/posts


P.S. I love rainbow cookies!!! I had one today at the reception after my younger sister's graduation from middle school.


P.P.S. http://midtownlunch.com/restaurant-map/ Yesssss! Look what I found via a comment on Grace's blog! Just what I needed. Haven't taken a proper look at it yet, but upon first glace it looks dece.

Juicy Juice--WTF

I was just watching TV and saw a commerical for Juicy Juice "Brain Development"--it has some kind of supplement that helps kids' brains grow. WTF. My brain is fine and I didn't drink "brain development juice". Why do babies in this generation need to? I'm convinced that this generation that was born in like 2007 is going to be totally effed up/obese. The 80's babies are the last ones to have organic, real childhoods. We really will become the WALL-E people if we keep these trends up: