food

256 posts

Ben-Gurion’s Couscous

(Originally published on Let My People Grow)

People who enjoy a really good starch need to thank David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister. During the austerity period in Israel after the War of independence, there was a shortage of rice which many of the new immigrants to Israel relied on for their diet. Ben-Gurion knew that the immigrants would need something to replace rice, and he asked the Osem food company in Israel to come up with an inexpensive, wheat-based substitute. Continue reading →

Recall Round-Up! Or: Ham Salad is Just Gross Anyway

Hey! Do you want to avoid Salmonella and all other manner of stomach mites that may make you very close personal friends with a toilet bowl until you want to die? Okay, then. Read this list of things that have recently been recalled because of their epic disgustingness, or propensity for cutting off a finger.

Yes, you, put down that vending machine ham salad sandwich and read this.

Continue reading →

Thai Chicken and Basil

The other day I scored at the grocery store. I mean scored.

I found a massive package of Thai chilies for $1.00. I stood there stunned. It’s not like chilies are expensive, but we don’t normally have Thai chilies in our grocery store. So, I threw those babies in my cart and drove home with a lead foot on the accelerator.

I was excited to make Thai chicken with basil. Continue reading →

Help Me Put Together an Authentic Southern Barbeque

Yesterday, this Canadian asked the denizens of CTalk for the elements of a proper southern U.S. barbeque. I really wasn’t thinking about an article about it, but I got so many good answers I wanted to put them together for my own later reference and then I thought, what the hell, might as well post them.

So here we have, according to Crass’s own southerners, a pick-and-choose list of potential dishes.  Continue reading →

Recipe Sunday: Artichokes Stuffed with Parmesan and Olives

I could say that the impetus for a meal of stuffed artichokes was because spring has finally sprung in Vermont. But I would be fibbing.

Sure it’s great to see grass after a ridiculously long winter, but the reason for this spring-like meal was just the fact that I was craving anything that wasn’t meat. (I go through periodical vegetarian phases.) And although I don’t make stuffed artichokes very often, I thought they would be a perfect fix for my “no chicken, no pork” craving.

When I’ve made these before, I’ve normally stuck to a stuffing of Panko breadcrumbs, parmesan and thyme. This time though, I decided to add seven green olives to the stuffing. And even though the artichokes were fantastic, I did have one complaint. I didn’t use enough of the new ingredient. I can’t stress this enough, green olives in stuffed artichokes are amazing.

Continue reading →

The Worst of American Cuisine

Do you ever watch TV and see an advertisement for some food item that conjures the worst feelings in your normally placid yum-place, but really you just want to know why? Why does this particular thing exist? Who buys it? And just who is in the food laboratory wearing their “find something weird” hat and thinking up the most excessive, noxious thing ever slapped between two pieces of bread and making the decision that, “Yup, a veritable horde of people will eat this!” All you really know is that guy should be slapped with a heaping KFC slop bowl.
Continue reading →