gourmandizzy's Profile

but why? who is going to lug around and later clean a bunch of jars? what's wrong with a bowl?

This strikes me as gimmicky. The asparagus, with all of its seasonal hues and accompaniments, would look and taste just as delicious in a simple pile on the plate. Plus the thought of someone having played with my food this way for no taste-related reason absolutely turns me off.

They're also switching up some stuff on Food Network 1.0 too, so after reading about all the changes, I fail to exactly understand how the two channels will be different. For example, if they give Hungry Girl her own show, it will be basically like Sandra Lee promoting anorexia. I don't really put a lot of stock in Scripps' executive programming decisions for either network anyway.

maybe you could incorporate it into a bean dish? I'm thinking along the lines of cassoulet.

I just look at the recipe. If it's a type of thing I've never made before (e.g. I made brisket for the first time last night), I'll compare it to others, but if it's something like cookies or cake that I make often, or something more easy to imagine coming off the page and onto a plate like a salad, I can usually tell what degree of easiness or yumminess to expect.
I put a lot of stock in Cooks Illustrated but that has mixed results. Online sources are good, but I definitely take reviews with a grain of salt. Blogs/bloggers vary a LOT, even the relatively successful ones. Dave Lebovitz and Ree Drummond have by far the most consistently delicious recipes, I find, but there's another wunderkind with a penchant for overdescribing whose recipes/pretty pictures I rarely give more than a glance because I've been burned too many times.

Sorry for all my food puns, they were unintentional and I don't feel like fixing them!

I'm sorry to break it to everyone, but fried chicken came and went this year already. It's about as fresh a food trend as bacon.

I predict, maybe not in 2010, that cupcakes will have a brief "ironic" comeback, like when American Apparel reintroduced fanny packs. And perhaps 2012 or so will see an upsurge in former butchers/would-be cardiologists enrolling in medical school, while the almighty trend-o-meter starts heading the way of whole grains and statins.

My friends and I are having a mini Thanksgiving on Sunday night, so I'm pumped for that! I've already made and jarred some cranberry sauce, and I'm going to try to make a load of creative hors d'oeuvres out of bits and pieces of veggies, cheese, frozen dough etc I have in my fridge in order to clean it out for next weekend, when I'll be out of town for the holiday.

Oh this makes me want to cry. My old apartment, which I miss so much, had exactly those ugly kitchen cabinets. For three years I tried in vain to make it look cute (I wound up plastering the cabinet doors with postcards and vintage looking food ads from french magazines, which was ok but cluttered) and I now see that all along I could have just removed the doors.

Furthermore, I had a bunch of decorative Marimekko tin boxes that I had picked up in Finland hiding behind those doors, which would have been cute to actually show off.
similar to these: http://www.finnport.com/comersus/store/comersus_listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?idCategory=125

You can always just poach them in red wine instead of white.

I like to make something like bbq baked beans but with lentils instead when I decide I want baked beans but didn't think to soak some actual beans overnight. This http://www.recipezaar.com/BBQ-Lentils-148341 is a good example.

But my favorite lentils ever are the lentils with mint and cilantro from the Apicius cookbook.