you need to sharpen at a really acute angle iirc

you’re near a big city right tza? should be pretty easy to find a professional knife sharpener

I googled “[my town] knife sharpening” and found a place called BLADE RUNNER. I was excited to go because of the name, of course! When I went in, it was a hunting/militia/crazy knife store (eg giant knives painted w/the Confederate flag). He had SO MANY anti-Hillary Clinton pictures taped to his wall and cash register. The only way he would address me is “sweet little honey,” the same way he was addressing his dog, who was hanging out in the store. He sharpened my two knives for $6 but he did not do a good job. I can’t stop wondering if he’s bad at blade sharpening, or if he’s a sexist and only sharpens blades well for men.

also the sharpening stick I think is only good for getting rid of burrs after using a sharpening block. you can buy them for $1 at the chinese supermarket but real heads will prolly tell you you need a ceramic sharpener or something.

Yeah, sharpening and honing are two different parts of knife prep — the steel stick is for honing. I sharpen my knives about once a year with a Lansky sharpening system recommended by Jaq, and hone the main ones almost daily before doing prep with a Furi Diamond Fingers thingy.

http://www.bestchefsknife.org/chef-knife-sharpening-101-honing-vs-sharpening

my knives REALLY need sharpening but i haven’t the slightest idea how to go about doing this

I need to do mine soon. Want to ship me yours?

you put it in the envelope blade first fyi

Cardboard sleeves or knife safes preferred.

I have the basic Lansky knife sharpening system ($30), which is a angle guide that clamps onto the blade and 3 whet stones that one moves holding the blade fixed. Once you find a comfortable way to hold both, it takes from 3 (touching up) to 10 minutes (new edge angle) to put a new edge on a blade. If you are the sort that enjoys polishing shoes while watching a movie (or have a partner that does), something like this will do a better job sharpening your knives/scissors than any electric sharpener I’ve used.

Lansky is what I use—I’ve got both the diamond one and the 5 stage standard one, but mostly use the standard.

tza—get your knives sharpened at the meat counter of yr grocery store. theyve done mine before. I also live a block from a kitchen supply store that does it.

i always bring a crapload of food to work but it’s a pain to bring a buncha stuff back and forth, plus i’ve been way overeating and have decided to institute some portion control, so i brought a normal sized sandwich and a small soup today and I’M HUNGRY! :(

it’s only 3:30...

I don’t know why but I put an apple in the freezer and now it’s frozen. what should I do with it?

i know but i will not Tell

making chicken tacos, psyched about eating them

frozen apple could be

* hurled at offensive strangers

* brandished as weapon in comedy convenience store holdup

* employed as a hammer in the making of an art or craft

* photographed as it decomposes into mush

* mushed into applesauce preemptively so as not to watch it decompose without dignity

just did a straight-up eye of round roast tonite with little red potatoes and shallots.

i’ve been thinking about lamb chops all day. i wish i’d bought some at TJ’s when i was there, but they’re fucking expensive and i haven’t really cooked meat in 3 yrs so i can’t even remember how to do it properly.

if someone could go to my house right now, cook me a perfect lamb chop with just some garlic and rosemary and salt, have it ready for me when i get home, i would probably pay a lot of money for that.

I made lamb chops this past summer, over a grill, they were great iirc

i roasted an 8.5 lb turkey torso (2 breasts) last friday and have been eating it every day since. today i ate turkey 3 times. there are still leftovers. i think tomorrow i want to eat some beef. maybe fish.

Bill (Tep) talked on his blog about buying 3 turkeys because it’s such a cheap protein this time of year, but that’s one of the food areas where he and I part ways. I can’t stand the thought of that much turkey.

it was insanely cheap (why i bought it). i am also making stock.

update: apple is still frozen, still in fridge. saving it to throw at something unsavory

this is in the oven http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/health/nutrition/13recipehealth.html

not sure its a recipe “for health” if u use whole milk ricotta like i am i mean i saw it so i had to get it

how did you fit whole milk ricotta into there?

I have a can of san marino tomatoes in my pantry, I just need to buy garlic cloves to use w/ it I guess

not health-related post at all, but I am making bouef bourguignon right now

my kitchen it smells amazing

lol sorry i meant this http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/health/nutrition/giant-shells-filled-with-spinach-and-ricotta-recipes-for-health.html

making this recipe with smoked bacon instead of ham:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Ham-and-Black-Eyed-Pea-Soup-with-Collard-Greens-15835

and kale instead of collards

i made a corn beans and squash chili. it was good. i’m cooking a lot lately because it’s cold.

eating the last of my sweet potato/tomato/garbanzo/chard curry — p good, tastes like it always does

chard/mushroom omelette with hot peach salsa. A bit of a strange combo.

oh now I want to make those pasta shells!

eating the last of my sweet potato/tomato/garbanzo/chard curry — p good, tastes like it always does

could you share your recipe for this, it’s up my alley.

lowv, do you have a recipe for that? sounds yum.

oops xpost

i don’t really have a recipe, but it’s a basic curry with those things —

can of diced tomatoes (with liquid)

can of garbanzos (drained and rinsed)

2 largeish sweet potatoes

tons of chard

first I sautee spices and aromatics in a little oo in my small cast iron pot,

then add the cut up sweet potatoes and stir for a few min

then i add the tomatoes and garbanzos, simmer for 10–15 min? sometimes I add a little water if it seems like it needs it

then about 5 min before it’s done i add the chard and it wilts into the rest

stir, serve

spices and aromatics:

garlic

ginger

shallot or onion, whichever

ground cumin

cumin seed

nigella seed

little bit of hot curry powder (prob not entirely necessary but it’s there)

garam masala

hot pepper flakes

salt

I think that’s it? I’m not really sure, but it’s the best i can offer atm

also i nuke the sweet potatoes a little bit (boiling would work too) to soften them up before The Flavoring begins

i am really bad at writing recipes, sorry

this is what it looks like with rice

that looks really good! thanks.

my pleasure! it’s amazing how far 2 sweet potatoes and two cans of other stuff that you probably already have on hand will stretch, really.

would eat!

I am defrosting my last bag of black beans but I don’t know what to make with ’em

hot or cold?

hot: burritos or soup?

cold: salad with quinoa, peppers, corn, other stuff you like

that photo reminds me of why i am not so good w/recipe books that don’t have photos. at least at first glance (maybe it changes when it’s a book you have to rely on). just the visual fact of garbanzos & the colours, i am half-way there.

my next i-ate-it-now-i-will-cook-it thing is gonna be trying to make good fassoli, after eating some at a yemeni place in bay ridge. i found a bunch of recipes like this which are all kinda frustratingly brief; i think it totally was a simple bean thing, cooked in tomatoes that almost entirely simmered off, & almost burnt to give the beans some texture, but it was so transcendently nicer than the cannelini-beans-in-onion-&-tomato i make to have on toast sometimes, like there was some jedi spice magic happening that i have to work out.

xp frozen beans, huh?

I soak beans a bag at a time but obviously I am not gonna eat a whole pot of beans at once!

xp LL ooh, a cold vinegary corn and beans salad sounds good—what else should I put in it?

multicolored bell peppers, cilantro, quinoa, whatever else you like! or do something like this

as for the curry photo, that’s why i take somewhat substandard photos of new things i make (and save them) — it’s like a visual menu, which really helps in the planning/shopping stage of regular cooking (a stage that i think is generally underappreciated by most people who don’t engage in it on a weekly basis) even if it’s not the world’s most beautiful food photo

Made an excellent vegan stir fry y’day that had loads of veggies in it inc some crunchy fresh choy sum, cabbage, capsicum, carrots etc, and added some firm tofu which I’d marinated in sesame oil, a little soy and a sprinkling of smoked paprika so the cubes came out all crunchy. Chucked over some udon noodles. Tres yum.

aw that looks great LL! bell peppers are out of season but maybe I’ll do an asian style marinade w/ chinkiang vinegar xp

my soup will be like 100x better tomorrow after it sits overnight i think—i used dried black-eyed peas and tried to speed soak them but it didn’t QUITE work as well as it does with other beans (it’s my first time cooking them).

i definitely want to try to make that curry!

I make a chickpea/sweet tater curry a fair bit, theyre easy and tasty. I also add some coconut cream to mine at the end.

i am really bad at writing recipes, sorry

one of my new year’s resolutions is to go back to all the recipes i either half-assedly wrote down or adapted from somewhere else — and write everything down meticulously. i want to put all my recipes into a sort of cookbook that i can give to friends and family.

like, i have a vague idea of how i made that yam curry a while back, but i want to do it over so i can write down how much coriander it needs, how much turmeric, etc.

yeah, not only that, but i have no idea how many people it will “serve” or if i measured the spices to begin with. usually i just use a spoon and put some spices in the spoon and poof, it tastes good. whether or not it is the ideal measurement, i don’t know (and really i don’t notice the difference a little bit either way)

i guess writing recipes seems like a job for a perfectionist, and i am not one of those

Yeah ppl often ask me on FB for a recipe when i post a pic of some random thing i made and I’m like “i dunno I just chuck things in”... my mum hates this, she has to follow EXACT INSTRUCTIONS or else it is a disaster. When its baking or something then sure but not otherwise.

I acknowledge that there is a process to be followed (sautee the spices and aromatics, then add the rest of the ingredients, etc) but beyond those processes, I don’t really pay much attention to measuring things.

This year we gathered together piles of loose recipes — some handwritten on index cards or scratch paper, some printed off the net — into a 3-ring binder and called it the Gastronomicon.

I have a binder! It doesn’t have a name, but I did organize it somewhat and it includes stuff I printed, wrote, and ripped out of various magazines.

I have a binder too! YAY BINDERS!

A good cheeseburger is a great comfort to me, and right now I am very comforted.

sweet potato/tomato/garbanzo/chard curry

I made something very similar to that this past weekend—except with kale instead of chard and with carrots instead of garbanzos!

(I would have liked to use garbanzos, but my wife doesn’t like them.)

i made a similar thing with blackeyed peas, yogurt, and regular potatoes once, it was really good!!

sorta like this? http://www.food-nepal.com/recipe/R002.htm

(for ppl who don’t like garbanzos but do like curries)

Hmm, that looks interesting, though she probably wouldn’t like the bamboo shoots either. She’s a bit particular about certain ingredients. I didn’t have curry powder so I kind of rolled my own with coriander, cumin, turmeric, and fennel. Probably used more fennel than is typical for curry, but it tasted good anyway.

I’m taking kale and brussels sprouts home w me and making my parents eat them.

My parents need a good setting-to about their nutrition iirc, and no one else is going to do it.

i bet they’re gonna LOVE THAT

I’m sure! I will also love that, every second of it remembering when I was forced to stay at the table with a quarter-cup of peas on my plate long after everyone else had gone off to play.

nobody in my family ever seems to want to eat as many cruciferous greens as i do (which is admittedly a lot/more than usual).

I only ever want to eat kale now idk why

i will never tire of brussle sprouts; you don’t need to gussy em up w/fat either as long as they’re cooked slow

My parents need a good setting-to about their nutrition iirc, and no one else is going to do it.

― OH GNUS (Pyth), Monday, December 12, 2011 3:17 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

i bet they’re gonna LOVE THAT

― league of women voters, Monday, December 12, 2011 3:25 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

I’m sure! I will also love that, every second of it remembering when I was forced to stay at the table with a quarter-cup of peas on my plate long after everyone else had gone off to play.

delicious irony

my grandmother apparently boiled her brussels sprouts until they were grey, so there has always a ban on them in my mom’s house. i can’t say that i blame her. i’m glad they were not ruined for me as a child because they are one of my top 5 veg now easily.

acc. to my dad, his mother boiled everything until it was grey. she was a nutritionist! she actually met my grandpa when he was recovering from getting his appendix out in the hospital.

well it would make sense if she drank the pot likker afterwards

one thing i’ve never really come around to is regular broccoli...i love broccoli rabe, chinese broccoli and cauliflower but i just have never learned to love it. i think the answer may be lots of garlic and lemon.

garlic needs to be stir-fried and/or roasted, must retain the crunchy mouthfeel. also it improves immeasurably with SALT. steaming/blanching broccoli is so sad

so bored w/broccoli. even broccolini is better, tastes a little sweeter. regular broccoli steamed is like soft wood.

thanks, l, i am going to make a modified version of that with what i have on hand tonight (potatoes and kale instead of sweet potatoes and chard).

I only ever want to eat kale now idk why

this!!!

Garlic, chilli, salt and a little butter will zing brocooli right up.

Nnnoo, I like broccoli! With sauces of some kind, though. In a sauce or in a pasta or with enough garlic, lemon, and olive oil. It does need something.

dayo is correct. Broccoli roasted with salt, pepper, oil? Optional cumin? It’s fast and perfect. I do it in a toaster oven set to broil. There’s something magical about those florets when you catch them just as they turn brown.

roasted broccoli! that is a good idea

tonight (because tonight is my book club (club of 2, myself included) for which i make dinner), i made fish curry with coconut milk and added swiss chard, cooked on low for a while which made the chard taste not bitter and entirely like fish curry. with basmati rice. so good.

i have kale and more chard in the fridge :)

california apricots > turkish apricots

Broccoli is good in a stir-fry, where the florets soak up lots of tasty sauce.

Favorite broccoli method: blanch/steam in a covered frying pan for a minute or two, drain water leaving broccoli behind, add a bit of olive oil so it doesn’t scorch, toss in onion/garlic/sambal oelek and stir-fry until onion is done, finish with kecap manis (sweet soy), toss to coat.

I made a chicken, cider and leek casserole last night but there was way too much of the liquid/veg sauce type stuff for the meat, so today I had the leftover sauce as a kind of soup with applewood bacon thrown in and damn if it isn’t the tastiest lunch I’ve had in ages!

made ginger muffins using ground flax plus water as egg sub, holy hell that stuff doesn’t not mess around

everytime I try to look at a recipe on allrecipes I get a johnsonville tortilla recipe or something. what gives?

I’m trying to think of how broccoli could be bad.

Made satsivi chicken, my favourite ever food, for a work potluck (sauce: stock, walnuts, onions, garlic, eggs, coriander/cilantro, spice mix, vinegar). Made three times too much and froze bags.

Ooh, that sounds strange and interesting! What’s in the spice mix?

QUESTION: what is the best way to make Chinese bbq pork in an oven?

like the kind you buy from chinatown?

yeah i think so — the kind that is in wonton soup?

this stuff?

that looks so good.

this cod with chard and potatoes is simmering now. smells great. i’m completely into this building the entire dish within one pot thing!

xp re satsivi: the spice mix is turmeric, coriander, paprika, chilli, cayenne, tarragon, fenugreek, cinnamon.

xpost

that looks better than the cod w/tomato onion & breadcrumbs i just made

Yes! Tell me the best way to make it.

QUESTION: what is the best way to make Chinese bbq pork in an oven?

Use some fatty pork shoulder, or belly if you can afford it. Couple, three pounds maybe.

Cut pork v. thin, 1/8th inch, across the grain.

Make a marinade of honey, rice wine vinegar, dark soy sauce, hoisin, five spice powder and split it in half. It’ll be a nice deep maroon from the soy, but if you want it a silly degree of red, add a little food dye. Marinate the pork in half of it, preferably overnight. Reserve the rest.

Heat the oven to 300, Put the pork in a single layer on a roasting rack over a foil-lined pan. Flip the pork and brush with the reserved marinade every 10–12 minutes for about an hour.

Now you’re talkin, thanks!