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A day at the Great Minnesota Get-Together

I want to write something about the food at the Minnesota State Fair. I can’t not write something about the food at the Fair. I grew up going to the Fair every year, this Fair famous for its food on a stick and for its long-standing focus on traditional food-related fair activities, like agriculture and livestock and food preservation and baking contests. But I hadn’t been in over a decade, and my interest in the food is so much more intense than it was before. And it was Brett’s first time, which meant we needed to eat our way through good coverage of the Fair basics – the Pronto Pups and the cheese curds and the Sweet Martha’s cookies and some stuff on sticks – as well as the new and the more sophisticated options.

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Weekend(ish) links, Sept. 3

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Prize-winning bars and cookies at The Great Minnesota Get-Together. 

We’ve been happily (but very) busy in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Madison, and now that we’re back in the Twin Cities our schedule is packed with friends and family and birthday celebrations and planning our next travels. I swear there are new posts coming soon, but in the meantime here’s a build-up of links:

An A-to-Z list of famous writers’ favorite foods.

fantastic overview of meat cuts and what to do with them.

Let’s file this wall tap in the “future home kitchen features” folder.

Food waste is undoubtably a significant global problem, and here are a few really ingenious things people are doing about it. (And here’s the fascinating follow-up article about food auctions.)

Since I read this NPR article about the President’s new “homebrew” I’ve seen another dozen or so (that’s what happens when I run behind on links), but it’s a good place to start.

You schwenker, I schwenker, let’s all schwenker together! (But in all seriousness I really want to do this.)

Gilt Taste does it again and again: making homemade tomato paste (a “concentrated flavor bomb”) and super-easy homemade-cured gravlax.

Made these simple seared pork chops in Chicago last week and will be definitely be adding them to the “super fast dinner” repertoire.

Bourbon pie. Bourbon. Pie. Nothing else to say.

Campsite rice and beans

July 2013 update – looking specifically for backpacking meal ideas? Check out this post for a few trail-appropriate recipes and meal plans. 

A few people have asked for more information about how we’re eating when we’re traveling, specifically when we’re camping. We just finished camping for seven nights in a row, and after one night in a hotel in Calgary are camping for the next four, which means quite a bit of campstove cooking and mobile kitchen setups. Cooking while camping can be a daunting task, but so far we’ve found great ways to nourish our hard-hiking, long-driving days.

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I actually like cooking outside quite a bit, and nothing tastes quite so good as a meal around a campfire. Some of the meals I list below may seem pretty ordinary or low-brow, but I can tell you that even the simplest of things tastes amazingly good after a long day of hiking or driving. Sometime soon I’m going to put together a longer, more detailed guide to camp cooking, but for now I just thought I’d share how we’ve been feeding ourselves lately, along with a super-simple, super-healthy, flavor-packed dinner that’s great for camping or at home. Read more

The snack of my dreams

To pass the time on the road, we’ve been listening to a podcast about snacks.

(You are not surprised.)

(It might sound very boring, but it’s actually quite funny and entertaining.)

In any case, I’ve been thinking a lot about snacks. And not just in the way that a podcast about … turtles, let’s say, might have one thinking about turtles. I’m thinking about snacks like it’s my job. About what kind of road trip snack we should buy at the next convenience store (Don’t even get me started on the wondrous world of potato chips that we’re experiencing up here in Canada – Sweet chili and sour cream! Spicy ketchup! Hot wings! Worcestershire sauce and shallot! What?! Yes. Also, does anyone have any guesses as to what “all dressed” flavor is? If so, please tell us.), about what time we should eat a snack, about what snack we’re going to eat next, and about how if I were at home I would be finding a way to engage in my most favorite of snacks – “fruit and cake-type thing with yogurt.”

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That’s what I said when Brett and I asked each other to dream up our most perfect snack, somewhere between Vancouver and Banff. (This is what any modern, fun-loving young couple does while driving long distances, by the way – ask each other questions like “what’s your idea of the perfect snack?” Don’t get too jealous of all the awesome fun we’re having.) Read more

Weekend(ish) links, August 3

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First Seattle dinner at Delancey.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a links post. Sorry! While we’re travelling I’ll still try to do one once a month or so (and someday maybe I’ll make the title a little more appropriate), but for now you’ll just get an extra-big one every once in a while. Here you go!

A German community garden that’s placed on otherwise unused land and moves indoors every winter (let that last part set in for a second, then go see how they do it).

How to cook with what you have lying around – love this concept for a cooking class, and can’t wait to read her book (currently stashed under our trunk for reading later this trip).

What temp to use if the recipe doesn’t say? Well, it’s complicated, but this should help. (I pretty much always use 350 for baking, 425 for roasting, 300 for braising.)

A great overview of kitchen knives and how to use them.

And how sharp they really should be.

Photos of what you can buy in various countries on a per-day poverty line budget. (NPR article about the project here.)

A beautiful photo/video project engaging folks around the world with shared meals, the “universal language.”

NASA’s already figuring out how to feed astronauts (i.e. how to feed people good food that stays good in a spaceship for 3+ years) on a planned 2030s Mars mission.

Olympic diets, and how Olympians use food for better performance.

Bhutan goes organic, for happiness (I love Bhutan like crazy, by the way – any country that values happiness in their policy-making is valued highly by me).

Should your hot dogs be a little boring these days (whose aren’t, really), these ridiculous (but delicious-sounding) topping ideas should help.

Sweet pesto is a fascinating concept (just need to find an alternative to almonds, for me).

Another great Gilt Taste guide: making the best lemonade.

And last but not least, this really, really, really important thing about how to make Chick-Fil-A at home.