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Weekend links, March 30

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Sunday dinner. (Some weekends require a bit of nutrient catchup.)

I am completely smitten with Chasing Delicious’ instructional cooking posters, particularly this new one about cooking methods. If you’ve ever wondered what the heck recipes are telling you to do when they say to “sweat” something, take a look.

I’ve almost (almost) mastered not absentmindedly sticking my fingers in my eyes after cutting up hot chiles, but I still end up with that “fingers on fire” sensation that plagues me for almost an entire day. But now I know how to avoid/cure it.

We all know food and plastic shouldn’t mix, but I didn’t realize it was quite this bad.

A short history of tacos in America. Reading this article made me want to produce a reenactment of a play I like to call “Tacos in my Belly (A Love Story).”

Mark Bittman on Wendell Berry (no other explanation needed).

Angry eggs. Better than I ever could have described how emotions affect what you do in the kitchen.

An interactive (and very well-designed) website with data on eating habits around the world. Give yourself at least 20 minutes to be distracted from whatever else you were doing.

p.s. Some of you know this already, but I’ve started contributing to the awesome online food magazine Honest Cooking. You can see all my contributions by clicking the “My Menu on Honest Cooking” button down there in the right sidebar. My content there will be very similar to what you see here, but not always the same! 

Summer cocktail: strawberry basil margarita (weekend time!)

Sometimes, you just need something sweet and fresh and boozy. Weekend time!

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Two-thirds of your normal margarita equation, together with some fresh garden ingredients. Weekend time!

I also tested this cocktail with gin and lemon juice instead of tequila and lime, and found that version far too sweet and two-dimensional. The beauty of this recipe is that the slightly-smoky flavor of the tequila really shines here among the sweetness of the berries (which also cushion tequilas vegetal agave flavors in a really nice way). I now totally see why strawberry is such a popular flavor for those slushy “margarita”-type things they serve in restaurants.

Enough margarita snobbery for the moment. It’s weekend time!

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Strawberry basil margarita

Makes 1, easily scalable

  • 3 large strawberries, stem removed and quartered (plus more for garnish, if desired)
  • 3 large basil leaves, roughly chopped (plus more for garnish, if desired)
  • 2 tsp. sugar, divided
  • 1 1/2 ounces tequila
  • 1 ounce lime juice

– Sprinkle 1 1/2 tsp. sugar over the quartered strawberries in a small bowl or cup. Let sit for at least 15 minutes so the berries release juice.  Smash with a muddler, a fork, or the bottom of a smaller bowl or glass until mainly liquid with chunks of berries.

– In the bottom of a shaker, muddle together the basil and the remaining 1/2 tsp. sugar. Grind until basil is torn into bits.

– Add mashed strawberry mixture, tequila, and lime juice to the shaker. Fill at least halfway with ice, then shake and strain into a cocktail glass.  If there’s a good amount of fruit and juice left in the shaker, spoon into the glass as desired. (The less the strawberries are mashed, the more might stay behind in the shaker.)

Chipotle chilaquiles (a tasty exercise in fridge diving)

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Fridge diving (aka “kitchen scrounging”) should not be underestimated as a handy skill, particularly for an everyday or last-minute dinner.  It can take a bit of creativity, flexibility, and technical skill to put together something delicious from what you happen to find around your kitchen, but often to very good results!  Maybe you find a head of cauliflower beginning to live out its last days in the back of your refrigerator, a stale butt of a baguette, and half a bag of pasta. (Penne with roasted cauliflower and garlicky bread crumbs, anyone?) Or maybe it’s an open can of coconut milk. A few spoonfuls of leftover salsa. Unidentifiable grains scooped out from the bulk bin at the grocery store. Read more

Weekend links, April 23

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Saturday afternoon at LACMA’s fantastic exhibit about Mexican and American female Surrealists. 

Donut muffins, and now donut cake?! Yes, please!

TheKitchn put out some really great baking posts this week, including an overview of vanilla extract vs. beans vs. paste (the last is my personal favorite, just FYI) and a guide to metal vs. glass vs. ceramic vs. silicon pans.

Also a round up of some generally awesome cooking tips (like how to super quickly peel garlic and ginger and hard-boiled eggs).

Strawberries are absolutely amazing right now, and here are some tips on how to handle them at home. (Also, I have a strawberry-heavy recipe coming later this week! It may or may not involve tequila …)

I will definitely be turning over-the-edge or super cheap wine into tasty wine jelly.

Brett and I were just talking about how we’re going to build ourselves a nice big picnic table … really glad I saw this brilliant idea before we actually do it!

Eater’s guide to the best pastry shops in LA, via Deena. (There go my weekends …)

Before the Table: New Frontier Family Farm

Yesterday I spent about 10 minutes at the bottom of a pile of the cutest, fuzziest baby goats you’ve ever seen.  Goats on my lap, goats on my shoulders, goats on my head. Nibbling at my fingers and my clothes and vying for the next scratch on the head.

It took me a shockingly long period of time to convince myself that I didn’t need to buy my own baby goats, so that I could do this every day.

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kids

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