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Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

Category food

Food.

February 6, 2006

That’s a good part of tonight’s dinner. Here is all of it. Yes, roasted crimini mushrooms on a baguette with extra sharp cheddar, Downey’s Potato Chips (made in Waterford!), and Bell’s Wheat Love Ale.

Here are some of the mushrooms before they were roasted.

Uhh, my beer is also coming along nicely. And I don’t feel like writing much tonight.

I did take this cool split-second photo of a bubble racing through the airlock when playing around with my macro lens and the camera, though.

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Coffee / Java Stout?

February 2, 2006

[Cross posted to and …]

Hey everyone… I need a bit of an opinion if anyone is willing to give one.

A few months ago I made a rather successful vanilla stout which all of my friends rather liked. Black as one’s soul, wonderfully smooth, and just nicely carbonated.

Here is a photo of the beer with my dinner from a few nights ago.

I think I want to leverage that same recipe, but instead of adding vanilla, I’m going to add coffee. In particular, I’m thinking of adding half to one cup of strongly brewed coffee (basically espresso) in secondary. The way I’ll be brewing the coffee it’ll be strong, but not especially bitter.

The question I have is, how much coffee would you use? And how would you add it?

In my opinion, adding grounds or beans to the kettle will probably cause overextraction, leading to an especially bitter flavor from the coffee. Likewise with grounds in secondary…

But, what have you done? And what worked well for you?

Thanks!

beerfoodmoved from livejournal

Tofu Hunan Style

January 30, 2006


Click for more photos of this meal…

This picture has been taunting everyone I’ve sent it to via AIM, so I figured I’d post it here.

That’s tonight’s dinner, menu item 705, Tofu Hunan Style’ from the wonderful China Gourmet at 21 Mile and Hayes. Actually, this is one of two Chinese restaurants that I’ll eat at… The other is Gourmet Garden, who’s amazing ‘bean curd skin with mixed vegetables’ was detailed in this LJ post which appears to have both disgusted and enthralled.

Anyway, it was really tasty, and I ended up having it with a fortune cookie and a pint of my Vanilla Stout. Quite a nice dinner.

Oh, and in other food-related things, tonight I cleaned my dishwasher using this stuff my mom gave me, called Dishwasher Magic. It’s a citric acid blend in a bottle, with a wax cap which melts to let it out. Well, my dishwasher is porcelain inside, so while it didn’t have a bunch of build-up, there were still mineral deposits on the metal parts and such.

Well, after using it, the trays roll a whole lot better. I can only imagine this is how it worked when brand new, back in 1991 or so. The washing mechanisms have always worked well, now it’s just cleaner and it rolls better.

Also, check out the Footie candy bar, as seen at Meijer. With a misogynistic message akin to it’s brother bar Yorkie, this bar exclaims NO WENCHES ON THE BENCHES.

Ahh… And to round out the evening, I finally put a IBM Model M in the car. This one was made in 1995 and should work just great… I just wonder how my coworkers will take it. Now, all I need is a Model M equivalent for my G5 here at home.

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Aerobie AeroPress

January 28, 2006


Parts from the Aerobie AeroPress

Today I also finally opened and tried my new Aerobie AeroPress coffee maker. It came in a rather interesting hexagonal package (rear of package) and contains what appear to be really well made parts. The first cup I made, from a blend that I roasted sometime around NYE, came out quite well. It’s very smooth, almost like the very first pouring from a french press, but all the way through the cup. I think I’ll like this thing lots.

As stated on the site, the resulting coffee was extremely clear, and it had this amazingly soft flavor to it. The level of caffeine from it was also quite low. I think I’ll be using this to make the coffee for the Java Stout I’m hoping to make in a few weeks.

These makers cost right around US$30 and can be purchased from the places listed here. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants an interesting coffee maker, especially those who don’t already have a french press. I do, but it’s quite crappy (lots of coffee gets through to the drinkable part) so I figured this would be a good alternative. And I was right.

acquired thingsfoodmoved from livejournal

Bean Curd Skin w/ Mixed Vegetables

January 27, 2006


Bean Curd Skin with Mixed Vegetables

That right there is today’s lunch from Gourmet Garden over at Walton and Adams in Rochester Hills. Yes, I know it looks like some sort of cross between umbilical cord and intestine, but it’s really, really incredible. It is very thin sheets of tofu wrapped around bunches of veggies, then tied with knots and steamed, served covered in a nice brown sauce. The veggies inside included mushrooms and a mix of tofu, bean sprouts, and a few other things.

It’s really, really good. Here is a photo of the inside of one of these dumpling-like items.

I keep becoming more and more impressed with this resturant. Lunch prices are reasonable, the food is excellent, and it seems to be actual, real Chinese-type food. Mmm.

foodmoved from livejournal

Lazychili for Work! (chili sin carne)

December 13, 2005

Well, there’s the ingredients for the pot of lazychili (yes, modifications are quite allowed) that I made for the potluck thing at work tomorrow. I hope people like it… It’s pretty damn spicy.

One thing I learned is that the cactus should be cut up before putting it in the chili. Towards the end of the cooking I realized that it would be too stringy, so I stirred as many pieces of cactus (as possible) to the top, pulled them out with a fork, then chopped them and put them back in. Oh, and cactus has a texture somewhere between a nicely cooked green bean and perfectly cooked bamboo shoots. And it comes soaking in a thick vinegar sauce with herbs and onions and a pepper. I pulled out the pepper and onion before dumping it in the pot, though, as I didn’t want those large pieces swimming around in there.

The only ingredients used above and beyond what you see above are a bit of cocoa powder (maybe 1 tbsp), some salt, and a large pinch of black pepper. Oh, and love. (No, not that kind of love. Sicko.)

I should probably note that the bottle of beer is my Rochefort 10 Clone (photo gallery retired) which, unfortunately, never carbonated. It’s very malty and alcoholic, though, and it goes really well in food. So I guess it’ll be relegated to the duty of a nice, malty, cooking beer. Oh well…

Anyway, that’s the lazychili. And here is a photo of the lazychili in the pot, just as it was starting to boil.

UPDATE: I should probably mention that the shotglasses each contain one shot of this tequila. From the chili kit I only used the powder, along with another 2 tbsp or so of some leftover McCormick chili powder I had. Oh, and the chipoltes were chopped up pretty finely. And the obscured Bush’s can contains white kidney beans.

foodmoved from livejournalwork

Tonight’s photos…

December 9, 2005


Greasy, greasy three cheese bread from Hungry Howie’s.

Anyone want to see photos of a BTX machine? This Dell Dimension E310 (photo gallery retired) is the first BTX machine I have ever worked with, and I have to say that I rather like the layout. It allows the machine to be cooled very quietly.

Second, here are two photos of portions of tonight’s dinner:
· A bottle of Hennepin partially poured into the glass from which I drank it.
· Hungry Howie’s Three Cheese Bread with cajun seasoning on it. (Yes, it was really greasy.) The Hennepin is really nice, but the three cheese bread is (and should be) simply a food of desperation. Yes, that’s what is pictured above.

Also, when I stopped by Red Wagon Wine Shoppe yesterday at lunch I picked up a bottle of both Dogfish Head’s Pangaea and World Wide Stout, and Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier (Marzen). A photo of those three beers can be seen here: Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier (Marzen), Dogfish Head’s World Wide Stout, and Dogfish Head’s Pangaea

Finally, I also got some photos of last night’s dinner. The first part was Trader Joe’s Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4. These are kinda iffy, and I’m not sure if I’d buy them again.

The second part was Trader Jose’s (Joe’s) Wild Mushroom Quesadilla. They are $2.99 each, seem to store well in the fridge, and taste quite nice. I have to highly recommend these.

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Three Meals!

November 23, 2005


Baguette w/ Roasted Mushrooms and Cheddar

Except for a depth of field problem and an issue with wrapping the sandwiches, I think they came out pretty good.

For reference, I took a package of ‘baby bella’ mushrooms, tossed them with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and two thinly sliced cloves of garlic, then spread them in a single layer on a tray and roasted for 12 minutes at 450°F. Then the mushrooms were allowed to drain and cool.

Next I sliced a baguette part-way through, lined it with cheddar, filled with mushrooms, cut it into three pieces, and called it done.

I think I’ll be having one of these for dinner along with a light spring mix salad (w/ the dressing shown here (Brianna’s Home Style Real French Vinaigrette)) and a glass of Senorial Sangria-flavored soda.

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Mushrooms!

November 23, 2005

Well, I’ve got a tray of ‘baby bella’ mushrooms roasting now. They are sliced up and have been tossed with sliced garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. The intention is to stuff a baguette with them and sliced cheddar cheese. This will then be sliced and hopefully result in order to have three or four pre-made sandwiches in the fridge.

Yes, this is a food idea I got while in the UK.

foodmoved from livejournal