elise_the_great's Profile

Wow, this is literally three miles from my home and I've never seen it before! Time to get some more culture in my life...

Can't wait to live somewhere that is actually still livable outside. In Fort Worth, you can get a headache from the heat after the sun goes down!

So my biggest tip for this: Live somewhere that isn't Texas. Ugh.

Thirding the request for the recipe in this picture. It looks AMAZING.

Adding salt to the water allows the water to boil at a higher temperature, which I find makes deliciously toothy al dente pasta without the outside getting soggy.

I only add oil when I know I'll be using a ragu, or another sauce that won't be thwarted by slippery noodles. But since a significant portion of my pasta intake involves olive oil, parmesan, and chopped parsely, I don't mind sloshing a bit in the pot every now and then.

I pretty much live on Deb's Salted Brown Butter version (smittenkitchen). Good lord. I need to go make some of those right now.

I turn the oven light on every time I turn the oven on, and don't turn it off until the oven is not only off but also cool. I do a lot of baking (cakes, muffins etc) in addition to roasted dinners, so from time to time I go to slap a casserole in the oven and discover that I only took the cupcakes out ten minutes ago and my hand is now bright red.

As long as the light's on, I have a visual cue: "this is hot because it's glowing." And because I turn out all the lights before I leave my house/go to bed, having my kitchen lit up is a dead giveaway that I might have forgotten to do something important.

I'm not even gonna lie-- I buy my spices in small baggies from Central Market's bulk section, and keep them in a shoebox under my counter. As I use them, I move them to the front, so that I can look in every month or so to see what I haven't used in a while. If I've been on an oregano binge, for instance, but I have a baggie of asafoetida moldering away in the back, it's time for some Moroccan.

If anything stays in the back for more than a month or two, it's time to throw the stuff away.

Counterintuitively, this keeps my spices fresh, organized, and under control. Someday I'll find a system that works as well without being quite so ugly...

Scuse me, barfing.

I think this post will finally convince my husband that yes, I do actually need canisters for my flour and other dry goods. Having a five-pound bag of sugar sitting open on the counter all day after he needs a teaspoon for his tea... euuuugh. No beetles for me, thanks!

Cast iron skillet, absolutely.

Before I got my skillet, I was chronically anemic, and you're right-- spinach salads do get old. The doctor suggested eating liver... ugh. Good the first time, slathered in onions, and I highly suggest it, but the third serving of liver in a two-month period is almost un-swallowable.

Then: skillet! I didn't think about the iron content it would contribute to my food until I made a ragout-like stew with canned tomatoes, and the whole thing turned black. Delicious still, but oddly colored. A little research turned up the culprit: iron leached into the food through a poor cast-iron seasoning.

So now I have a good season worked up on the skillet, but by using the occasional acidic food (lemon juice for pan-roasting chicken in; white wine gone off for deglazing) I don't get any weird color. However, my blood iron levels have been totally normal for a year now.

Do keep looking for iron supplements, though, especially multivitamins with folic acid and B vitamins as well. If you can find one that doesn't irritate your stomach, you might find yourself much more energetic. Most women of child-bearing age are at least occasionally iron-deficient, which (as I'm sure you know) makes you feel tired and brain-foggy. B vitamins will help you recover from the fatigue of iron deficiency.

(You can also get B vitamins from meat, leafy greens and other dark-colored veggies, and legumes. Bon appetit!)

Garlic sprouts are amazing in stir-fries. They are to garlic cloves as shallots are to onions: mellower, sweeter, and more fun to bite down on.