May, 2011

Sauces / Smart Kitchen News — 2 Comments
11
May 11

There is a New Kid on the Block & He/She’s Hot (sort of)

Buffalo Wing Tabasco Sauce

A Worthy New Sibling for Jalapeño & Chipotle

Perhaps this is the universe’s way of showing me I’ve gone too far around the culinary bend, but I got pretty excited to learn that Buffalo Wing Sauce and Tabasco Brand Hot Sauce have  had off-spring. Honestly, I didn’t even know that they were dating. If I went in for that sort of thing, I should be a bit embarrased not to have known they were an item.

Honestly, when I saw the birth announcement, I mean introductory coupon, in the mail I did start imagining all these condiments dancing at a baby naming and having a great time.  For some reason it was a kind of fiesta, though the parents are from upstate NY and Cajun country. Go figure.

I was tempted to break out the photoshop and get to work but I know that is the evil DJINN named “procrastination” speaking to me, so I just want to congratulate the proud parents and celebrate the great news for hot sauce consumers.

How does it taste? I got skunked on my first few tries to find some at Safeway markets. But thanks to our friend Dak, who was on the same quest and got lucky on his third sally forth, I can say that I like the new variety. It doesn’t scorch and the flavor switches between the piquante traditional buffalo wing sauce (traditionally a vinegar based cayenne pepper sauce & butter) and the unvarnished pure pepper taste of Tabasco. All that variety in one bite, pleases the palate. I expect this new little one will earn a place in the refrigerator door right next to its siblings: Jalapeño & Chipotle.

Also be aware that a few $.075 coupons are floating about. We are not above saving a few pesos (that fiesta imagery again) at Smart Kitchen, economy is part of what makes us “Smart.”

P Chef

Smart Kitchen

“The Smartest Way to Learn to Cook™”

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Healthy Eating — 1 Comment
5
May 11

Calories, Let Me Count the Ways…

…we avoid recalling just how much we need to eat and how much we already have eaten.

Fruit or Pie

Pastries or Fruit? It Depends

According to the International Food Information  Council Foundation only 9% of people of people can accurately estimage how many calories they need in a day and only 9% actually keep track of their calories eaten in a day. I wonder if they are the same people? No surprise to learn that people who keep track of their calories lose twice as much weight as those who don’t.

A calories is the amount of energy required to heat one gram of water 1° C. A pound of fat has roughly 3,500 calories. You either work them off or starve them off.  Calorie requirements vary with an average small sedentary woman requiring 1,400 to 1,600 calories a day to an endurance athelete requiring 4,000 calories or more a day. It may behoove you to keep track of them and make them count by improving how and what you cook.

P Chef

Smart Kitchen

“The Smartest Way to Learn to Cook™”

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@SmartKitchen1

Interview / Julia Child / Julie/Julia Project — 1 Comment
3
May 11

Interview with Julie Powell of Julie/Julia

Thanks to Camp Soaring Eagle, where they give seriously ill children a chance to get out into nature and laugh and play, we had a chance to meet Julie Powell of the blog The Julie/Julia Project which turned into the book Julie and Julia that then was made into the movie Julie & Julia with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams playing Julie Powell. For those of you who don’t know Julie made and executed a plan to cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and the plan turned into a lot more.

a honeycrisp apple

A Honeycrisp Apple (courtesy of honeycrisp.org)

What did we learn? Julie shops weekly at the Union Square Green Market in NYC, she loves Honey Crisp Apples, her husband does most of the cooking while Julie laughs at his mishaps, she is very informed and involved in the local and sustainable food movements and she has a new book called Cleaving and is working on a post-apocolyptic comedy of manners. It also seems that the nuns from her last stop in Laredo, Texas like to have a little more fun than nuns, even Texan nuns, are known for.

Julie Powell Shares Pearls of Culinary & Social Wisdom

Working at an Online Culinary school, we are interested in cooking and how beginners take the first steps, and handle the hurdles of more advanced techniques. The video above was an attempt to learn if Julie had any cooking “epiphanies” during the Julie/Julia Project. The unstated answer, from Julie’s reply is that she became comfortable in the kitchen, and though she modestly claims to still be a home cook, we suspect she has advanced.

The other thing we wanted to know, was how the movie distorted the picture of her life at the time. In the order relayed to us, her biggest pet peeves about how the movie portrayed her are:

1. Julie does not ogle the aisle at Dean & Delucca. She is a Queens and Brooklyn girl.

2. The distilling down of her ambitions down to the dramatizable ”writing a novel.”

3. The use of only a single “F” word & we don’t mean Filet, Fry or even Fricassee. To put it delicately, Julie did not find that “representative.”

P Chef

Smart Kitchen

“The Smartest Way to Learn to Cook™”

Smart Kitchen on Facebook

@Smartkitchen1

Uncategorized — No Comments
1
May 11

2 New Banner Ads

We have two new banner ads going up on various food and culinary sites. What do you think?