Posts from the ‘Weekend links’ Category

Weekend Links, April 7

Currant cream scones, before forming

For the first time since starting these Weekend Links posts, I find myself faced with just one link to share. Not much happening on the internet this week? More likely that I’m being a bit misanthropic. I promise that next week I’ll have better things to share.

But this one could potentially keep you occupied for a while – one writer’s collection of the best food documentaries.  Some are a bit dated at this point, but still worth watching. I have some catching up to do!

This week’s meal plan:

• Dinner party – chicken and spare rib paella, honeyed chorizo with pear and bleu cheese/Iberico cheese, spinach/cheese buñuelos
• Clam chowder with bacon
• Pupusas we brought back from LA, plus curtido and El Pato salsa
• Braised pork shank with rice and cabbage
• Banh xeo (Vietnamese rice crepes) with ground pork, mung beans, bean sprouts, and nuoc cham
• Four and Twenty Blackbirds’ black bottom oatmeal pie, via The New Midwestern Table
• Lunches: Ham, homemade ricotta, and roasted red pepper sandwiches on Madison Sourdough poppy millet bread, leftovers
• Breakfasts: French toast, overnight oats

Weekend Links, March 31

Blossoms, Pomona Organic Farm

Sorry for the relative radio silence these past two weeks. A wonderful week in SoCal full of sun and friends and incredible meals lead to a very hectic week after, and we’re still playing a bit of catch-up. But I’m scrambling to get back in the game. Here are some links to get your week off to a good start:

Butter is not the problem.

Why do we equate vanilla with plain?

Gin, Aperol, cucumber – I’m in.

What’s up with the weird-fitting label on Angostura bitters? This and more in a behind-the-scenes factory tour. (Also – has anyone out there tried their rum?)

A super-handy Whiskey Glossary (for all those times you need to know the difference between Canadian and Irish whiskeys on a moment’s notice).

The search for a good coffee grinder. (Just don’t ask me what we use because I’m too embarrassed to tell you.)

Edible maps of the world.

Inside Rick Bayless’ Mexican Culinary Research Library.

This week’s meal plan:

• Chinese dumplings with pork and Napa cabbage (using leftover filling from a few weeks back)
• Coconut dal and curried pea fritatta
• Oven-roasted pork chops, braised red cabbage, spätzle
• Maple-laquered pork belly, wild rice, and salad
• Lunches: kale salad with wild rice, scallions, cilantro, edamame, carrots, and sesame seeds, with a rice vinegar-sesame oil vinaigrette
• Breakfasts: overnight oats, bran muffins and yogurt

Weekend Links, March 10

Spring inside.

At the end of this week we’re headed to Southern California for the first time in almost a year (!), so there may not be Weekend Links the next two weeks … I’ll be far too busy eating my way across the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

We brewed a batch of hard cider this winter but it turned out a little dry for my tastes … hoping this cider shandy recipe might be a good way to revive it.

It took me a bit of time to appreciate bitter cocktail ingredients like Campari and Aperol. Not there yet? This guide to appreciating bitter cocktails will help. (And once you’re there – or while you’re on the way – here are three of my favorites: negroni, Frühling’s 19,  sparkling wine with bitter orange.)

We recently added an AeroPress to our arsenal of coffee/espresso devices, and I’m loving it. If you too have AeroPress fever, here’s an interesting overview on the guy behind it (also the guy behind the Aerobie frisbee, strangely enough).

Which cocktails do you find overrated? (I have to say, I definitely agree with the Moscow Mule sentiment …)

Meal plan:

• Quiche with leeks, bacon, swiss chard, and Emmentaler and whole wheat crust (my basic pie crust recipe using whole wheat pastry flour instead – requires at least 8 hours of resting before rolling out)
• Massaman curry with tofu, potatoes, and carrots
• Grilled cheese and cream of tomato soup
• Pasta with thawed frozen pesto, plus red peppers, mushrooms, and any other random vegetables we have floating around the kitchen (there’s always some)
• Breakfasts: Brett’s bran muffins, slow-cooker oats with fruit and spices (a variation of this)
• Lunches: Leftovers and more kale/lentil salad, this time with toasted coconut and currants
• Desserts: Mohnkuchen (poppyseed torte – hopefully recipe posted sometime this week)

Weekend Links, March 3

Double-crust pear galette, last week

A good overview of the proposed tweaks to nutrition labeling. A good start, though there’s still a lot of work left to be done.

I will never order a small pizza ever again.

Perfect timing – you can make some homemade ricotta and then use it in this sandwich, which has been haunting my food daydreams this week.

Also perfect timing, after I spent some time in my class last week telling my students why I don’t use pepper as a default in the same way I do salt, three articles exploring that very thought (1, 2, 3). “Why, too, do so many recipes invite us to season ‘with salt and freshly ground black pepper’ upon completion? Why isn’t it salt and cumin, or salt and coriander, with every dish in the Western canon? What’s so special about pepper anyway? Perhaps it’s time to rethink the spice.”

I haven’t quite jumped on the drinking vinegar/shrub bandwagon, but I will definitely try this new brand coming out of Madison and this shrub-inspired cocktail with grapefruit juice and apple cider vinegar looks really, really good.

Why do we accept the “pseudoscience” of health foods?

I wish I knew more about the nature of the restaurants on Yelp’s recently-released “Top 100 Places to Eat” list, which compiles the 100 restaurants across the country with top reviews. Looks like quite a range, and I wish I knew more about the patterns among them – good service? good food? good ambiance?

I should do a post like this one sometime soon. What are the things I always buy? I’ve been meaning to do a “Stocking the Pantry” post for a while, in the same vein.

A couple of great tips for inventing new cocktail recipes.

Speaking of which, we often start with our favorite cocktail recipes and make adjustments. Here’s an overview of some interesting Manhattan variations (granted, some are a little fancy for a home bar).

This week’s meal plan:

• Wild rice gratin with kale, caramelized onions, and mushrooms, topped with poached eggs
• Baked macaroni and cheese with peas, roasted onions, and bread crumbs
• Eggs poached in thawed lentil-sweet potato stew, plus thawed Tartine-style bread with spent grains
• Breakfasts: more overnight steelcut oats in jars, yet again (I’m thinking maybe toasted coconut and nutmeg this week?)
• Lunches: A second round of adapting this salad, which was absolutely wonderful last week alongside bread with butter or crackers with cheese
• Desserts: Either whole wheat trail mix cookies or my favorite oatmeal-maple cookies. Or both.
• Drinks: I’m really excited to try out that grapefruit-vinegar cocktail I linked to above, and I’d like to play with a cardamom old-fashioned after having something like that at a friend’s house on Saturday

Weekend Links, Feb. 24

Bottling Nut Brown Ale

First, I’m very excited to share the news that Bowen Appétit was awarded silver in Best Local Food Blog in the Best of Madison survey! There are so many great winners in all the categories, and I’m honored to be among them. I love my new food community here in Madison and am excited to keep connecting and growing my efforts. Thanks to everyone who voted!

Second – as a follow-up from last week’s links, I made the super-easy Water Lily cocktail on Friday night, to rave reviews. Even if you don’t have violet liqueur, the gin-lemon-orange combination was wonderful, and I’m wondering why I don’t see it more often.

When I realized years ago how different slow-scrambled eggs are, it was a revelation. (No exaggeration there – eggs have since become my absolute favorite food, in a variety of preparations.)

God, salt is amazing. I love talking to people about salt.

A new week, a new piece about olive oil. Here, an expert tries all the olive oils at Trader Joe’s and tells you his recommendations. (His site has similar pieces about other stores, too.)

What do armies eat around the world?

Some Italian prisoners are receiving training in winemaking, and their product now sells for $95/bottle in the US. Huh.

Really enjoying these beautiful still-lifes of musicians’ required backstage food. (I can’t stop thinking about in what combination/order/routine Axl Rose consumes the Wonder Bread and Dom Perignon. It’s bad.) The photographer has a variety of awesome food-related projects, like photos of prisoners’ last meals and another series of images of high-calorie foods on fire. (Burning calories. Heh heh.)

Living through a Wisconsin winter is putting me on a bit of a health kick, for the first time ever. (Literally, the first time ever.) We’ll see if I actually implement things, and if I do this salad will be an awesome place to start.

Meal plan this week (just a few dinners since I’m teaching tonight and we’re headed to Chicago for the weekend):

• Pasta with roasted sweet potatoes, chorizo, roasted red onions, cilantro, and chipotle cream sauce (inspired by an excellent pizza I had from Ian’s Pizza a few weeks ago)
• Roasted cauliflower with salsa verde (variation on this), plus goat cheese toasts and salad
• Pork and napa cabbage Chinese steamed dumplings
• More homemade bread with spent grains (last week’s was amazing, so we’re trying a new recipe)
• Breakfasts: Homemade bread with butter and honey, more steel cut oats in jars (last week I posted the wrong link – I do the type where you boil for 3 minutes before putting in the jar, not the no-cook variety)
• Lunches: Turkey sandwiches and a variation of that green salad I linked to above (I’m not a huge fan of raw kale, so we’ll see how that goes …)
• Desserts: leftover crêpes from recipe testing this weekend, Girl Scout cookies