Monthly Archive for January, 2007

Bear Down Chicago Bears!

Published
by
chrisandcamri
on January 25, 2007
in Food
. 0 Comments
Victory!

Victory!

I’m actually a Steelers fan. Camri, on the other hand, grew up in Northwest Indiana (a suburb of Chicago), and is a big Bears fan, which pretty much means I’m a Bears fan too. We’ve watched every game this year. I even got to go to a game back in December. I cooked eggs, bacon and sausage in my cast iron skillet in the Soldier Field parking lot, even though it was fifteen degrees outside.

As fun as that was, our favorite Bears moment came this past Saturday, listening to WFMT (the classical music station, we’re practically retired). The host of the show explained, in his slow and steady way, that the Bears were going to be in the NFC championship game Sunday. Then he played the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 1986 recording of “Bear Down Chicago Bears“. We hooted and clapped our hands through the whole song. When the song was over, he sternly proclaimed, “Victory…to the Bears.” It was a really great moment. The point is, this city is so excited for football, even the classical music station guy was cheering, in his own special way.

So…food. We present to you my Mom’s very own meatball recipe, written in her own hand. You should make these for the Superbowl. They’re delicious. Make them into a sandwich, put them on spaghetti…whatever your fancy is. They’re great. Take it away Mom:

All you do is mix 1 1/2 pounds LEAN ground meat with 2 eggs, 1/4 cup parm. cheese and about 1 cup of Italian bread crumbs. They come in a paper cylinder and are usually with the baking stuff. Mix and form into balls and place on cookie sheet that has edges. Bake on 350 until brown about 1/2 hour. Put meat balls into slow cooker with sauce and cook on low for 2-3 hours.

Go Bears!

The Cane Sugar Diet

Published
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chrisandcamri
on January 12, 2007
in Drink
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Camri and I aren’t big pop drinkers. It’s actually good that we aren’t, as pop is the single worst thing on earth for your gut. It has all the calories of a beer, without the taste. High fructose corn syrup is the crack cocaine of sugars, corn syrup is refined and manipulated to produce a much sweeter syrup. HFCS is cheaper than cane sugar, but according to the smart scientists, HFCS may actually be worse for you than straight sugar.

Which brings us to me and Camri randomly deciding to buy a pop a few days ago. We saw them in a case at the store, “Boylan’s Root Beer” and “Boylan’s Orange Soda” both made with cane sugar. “Cane sugar?!” we both exclaimed, this sounded really awesomely bad for you. So we bought a bottle of each and tried them out. I don’t know if it’s the cane sugar, or the small label pop company, but both were really great. They weren’t as sweet as a conventional pop, and had a lot more “layers” to the taste.

I went looking online for reasons why the big companies weren’t using cane sugar, and found that Washington Post article above. Cost is the chief reason. Despite the potential health issues associated with HFCS, and the improved taste of a cane sugar based pop, HFCS is much cheaper. Although the cost difference is only a few pennies, when multiplied by the gigantic amount of pop Americans drink, it becomes a cost increase of billions of dollars. Plus, corn is largely an American agricultural product, if the demand for corn syrup drops, the American farmer gets stuck with a crop he can’t sell.

That said, there’s hope on the horizon, in the form of ethanol. The author of “Freakonomics” blogged about it this week. There’s a big push for ethanol to supplement gasoline in alternative fuel vehicles. Illinois’ own Barack Obama is an ethanol advocate. If ethanol takes off, it will drive the price of corn, which in turn may make it more economical for major pop companies to use cane sugar, rather than HFCS.

However, that future may be a long way off. Until a running car smells like popping corn, you can get some yummy cane sugar based soda-pop from both Boylan and from Jones. Try them out…they taste like the future!

Note: We’re not really advocating any sort of “Cane Sugar Diet”, that would be absurd. If you came here from Google, after deciding that someone out there probably made up a sugar based diet, you’re not in luck. Remember, too much of anything is probably a bad thing. Eat, drink, and be merry in moderation. You’re your own best diet. Also, you should exercise. Fatty.

How to Make Poultry Stock

Published
by
chrisandcamri
on January 4, 2007
in Food
. 0 Comments

Buying stock off of the shelves is easy, inexpensive, and a quick way to get a good soup going. Like most cooking though, it’s always better if you do it yourself. Not only for the taste, but for the honor of saying, “I made this.” Like a lot of cooking, stock is one of those things that’s sort of tapered off nowadays. It’s pretty rare to find someone that still makes their own stock. Which is odd, given how easy it really is.

So, you remembered to save your turkey bones from Christmas, right? No? Well, don’t forget next time. When you’re done with the meal, take all the bits you’d normally throw away (seriously, all the bits) and put them in a plastic bag. Throw the bag in the freezer until you’re ready to make stock. Let it thaw overnight and you’re ready to go.

This also goes for leftover vegetables, or all the cuttings from preparing vegetables. Just about anything with flavor that you’d normally throw away should go in a bag in your freezer. When it’s time for stock (when is it not time?) pull the bags out, let them thaw, and make some stock.

Our post Christmas stock.

Our post Christmas stock.

The actual stock making process we pulled from The Joy of Cooking, one of our favorite cookbooks. Although the book provides a lot of detail, there’s really not much too it. The J of C recommends blanching the meat ingredients first to release flavors. We didn’t do that, and were a-ok, so it’s really up to you.

Our process was to break up the meat and bones a bit, put them in our big stock pot to brown them up a little, then fill the stock pot with water until it covers the “stuff”. Bring it to a boil. While it’s heating up, rough chop whatever veggies you want to add. We added some celery and carrots. Don’t worry about peeling the carrots, as long as they’re clean they’re a-ok. Once it’s boiling, bring the heat down to a simmer, wait about ten minutes, then add the veggies. Maybe rough chop some herbs and throw those in too. Like nearly all our recommendations, we want you to try your own stuff. Whatever sounds good to you, give it a shot.

Let the stock simmer for around three hours uncovered, or until reduced by half. Turn off the heat and let it cool. When you can handle it without burning yourself, pour it through a strainer into another bowl. There will be a lot of junk floating in the stock. If you want to remove it, do a second pour through a strainer lined with cheesecloth. We chose to keep the junk. That’s yummy stuff floating around in there!

As the strained stock cools, fat will rise to the top. You can either skim it off now and make a soup, or let it sit, cover it, and put it in the fridge for later. If you’re going to refrigerate, don’t skim the fat now. The fat provides a layer of protection against germs. You could also separate the stock into smaller containers and freeze it. That’s what we did this year.

We made our first soup from our stock last week, it was an improvised chicken rice soup. We chopped some leftover roasted chicken, carrots, celery and parsley. Brought a pot of stock to a boil, added a cup or so of brown rice, the chicken and other ingredients, and let it all simmer for about an hour and a half. We added some pepper and salt, and ate. It turned out great. You can really tell the difference between home made stock and store bought. Maybe it’s all in our heads, like the way a fresh washed car runs better. Who knows? Who cares? Whatever the reality, home made stock tastes great and will impress your friends.