#holligay loves food

[docholligay]

For HLF : Any advice for cooking on a crummy electric stove top? My apartment has one, and it takes 5000 years to get hot enough, I swear it takes 20 minutes to boil water. I mostly just want to not have to spend forever cooking shit.

You know, we as a global community have figured out the best way to do things cooking-wise, broadly, and I gotta tell you it blows my mind that electric coil cooktops are still being fucking MADE. They suck so much. They take forever to heat up or cool down, there's no responsiveness whatsoever, and they stay hot even when they do not LOOK hot, making it easy for someone to get hurt or melt a bowl.

The only thing worse than an all electric range is that of the "I hate you actively and hope everything you make turns to shit" combo of a coil cooktop and a gas oven. What sort of bullshit is that about?

Anyhow, when we bought our house it had an electric coil cooktop and i told my lovely bride that if we bought the house we were either paying to run gas, or paying for induction, and we have an induction cooktop right now that I mostly love. (my issues with it are not related to it being induction, and also, I have never met a perfect cooktop. I'm me)

So this is easy, actually! Buy one of these:

This is a portable induction burner. This is an Avantco, sold through webstaurant, for 130 bucks with free shipping.

This is better than anything you can get on Amazon. This is a fucking workhorse. if you are only going to have one burner that responds and kicks ass, let it be this one. I recall that you rent, so don't offer to buy a nicer range for your fucking landlord. You can take this with you when you go! Frankly I would love to have one of these, and I have a full range, I can just always use a spot for another pot. Actually it looks like the double is available for only ten bucks more.

They say this is for light duty, but remember this is a restaurant supply store that just happens to be open to the public--they mean light RESTAURANT LEVEL duty. Your daily cooking will be fine. It only takes a pan up to about 10 inches, and I would only use a nine inch if you want true edge to edge, but I don't recall you being a stockpot cook, so it's likely not an issue for you.

This is the solution to your problem. Even I, magic and very talented and also wise as I am, cannot make an electric coil cooktop suck less.

[chrrispine]

for @starrynightdeancas's 3k celebration prompt: "that’s your child too, you know. it’s your turn to play chef in that tiny plastic kitchen"

wc: 580 I read on ao3

“How are my two little chefs?” Dean asked, leaning against the doorframe of the living room. He laughed as Cas flipped him off from behind the play kitchen set. Jack was sitting at the chair waving to Dean and thankfully facing away from Cas’s rude gesture.

“Daddy is making me food!” Jack yelled while banging his hands happily on the table.

“It turns out that I am the chef and Jack is the food critic,” Cas explained, groaning as he got up from couching at the little stove. He set a plate of plastic food in front of Jack. “Bon appetit, Mr. Jack.” Cas bowed at the toddler and then glared at Dean when he began shaking with laughter.

“Thank you, chef,” Jack said with a little head nod before he tucked his napkin into his shirt collar. Where does he learn this stuff, Dean thought, shaking his head.

Jack pretended to eat the food very carefully, pausing to ponder about the imaginary taste. Cas was standing above Jack with a hint of nervousness on his face.

“How is it, Mr. Jack?” Cas asked, raising his eyebrows in earnest.

Jack reached below his chair and picked up a clipboard and pen. “Gimme a minute and then I will give you a star rating,” he said, waving Cas off with his small hand.

Cas bowed his head again and walked across the room to Dean whose eyes were wide open in shock.

“What is all this?” Dean whispered, gesturing at Jack and the kitchen.

“Remember when we put on Ratatouille last week? We both fell asleep but turns out Jack watched the whole thing and decided that instead of being a chef, he wanted to be a food critic. Also, I’m pretty sure he watches Chopped on his own,” Cas whispered back, looking over Dean’s shoulder at Jack who was humming to himself while scribbling on the sheet of his clipboard.

“He’s brutal!” Dean laughed.

Cas shook his head and smiled. “Tell me about it. He threatened to call the health department on my last meal.”

Jack walked up to his dads and handed Cas the clipboard. There were no legible words on it but drawn at the bottom were three little stars. “You passed this time! I’m going to sit down again, and you can bring me some more food,” Jack stated as he marched back to his seat. Dean patted Cas on the back in congratulations, and pity.

Cas rolled his eyes at Dean’s gesture. “How about a new chef, Jack? I bet Dean would love to take a go at it!” Cas suggested, and to his relief Jack nodded excitedly in response.

“Cas, I don’t want to play around with fake food and get harshly judged!” Dean whispered.

“Dean, that’s your child too, you know. It’s your turn to play chef in that tiny plastic kitchen,” Cas said as he thrusted a miniature spatula at Dean.

“But-“ Dean started, but Cas cut him off with a kiss and a slap on the ass as he walked out the room. Dean sighed in defeat and made his way over to the kitchen.

“The food critic is waiting!” Jack announced, tapping the invisible watch on his wrist.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s coming kid,” Dean said as he started filling a plate with the plastic food. He was already feeling the pressure from being behind the tiny stove with the critic watching. The health inspector was definitely going to get called on him.

(tag list under the cut)

tag list: @casbelieves @fivefeetfangirl @smolrowena @chocolatecakecas @starrynightdeancas @acklesology @shelikestv @sinnabonka @dea-stiel @cvsnovak @doc-cas-holligay @jellydeans @evermorecastiel @plantdadcas @manifestingdestiel @achillestiel @multi-fandom-dark-lord @agentplant @ialwaysordericedcoffee @deanwinvhester @winterfrosted @queentrxyler @halaenoor @goldiegabrielfallenangel @winchester-novak @btab66 @maxguevra @wormstacheangel @moosetex @nguyenxtrang @edward-thorn-blog-blog @feraladoration @deductthenseduct @gardenercastiel @no2891 @i-dont-even-wanna-know @chaoticwistfulness @squintingg @casloml @poughkeepsiedeans @charlies-secret-closet

Please let me know if you want to be added or removed from the tag list

[keyofjetwolf]

Okay so I thought I’d get further than this OOPS

It could be that we’ll move through episodes a bit faster once I get a better sense of the flow of things, but this is where we pause for this one! The good news is, we have a second Emiya Family session coming later this month (currently scheduled for this time next week)!

I hope you guys had fun this evening. Please make sure to thank @cello-moon​ for sponsoring it for all of us. SHE IS HERE FOR YOUR ANIME FOOD PORN NEEDS. If you’d like to thank me as well, here are a few suggestions. (PSSST IT’S MY BIRTHDAY NEXT WEEK)

Tell me you love me! I’m needy and also not a fucking mindreader.  

Sponsor me at my Patreon! It’s that sponsorship that keeps my puppy fed and allows my job to be entertaining you. Not only does becoming my patron let the content flow here, but you can get some pretty fucking sweet bonus exclusive shit, too!  

Tip me at Ko-Fi! If you really enjoyed yourself today, this is a great way to let me know, and can help steer me toward future content. All tips for the next couple months will go toward birthday treats.  

Embrace that capitalism! Nothing says love and appreciation like material goods! I’ve set up some wishlists on Gift Hero if you’d rather not trust me to spend money, which is very fair. Updating for birthday gifting if one is so inclined!  

Send me love/hate mail! I’ve got a shiny PO Box, after all, might as well use it. (Doc and I share it, by the way, so you can send her stuff there too!) If you’ve got a thing you’d like to send my way, I’d love to receive it!    Jet Wolf (and/or Doc Holligay)    PO Box 1621    Billings, MT  59103

I need to double check and make sure September’s schedule is finalized before I release too much potentially wrong info into the wild. I’ll see about getting that all done up some time tomorrow during my Pigeon Watch. Now it is time for bed. GOODNIGHT MY LITTLE TAKOYAKI

[castiel-angel-of-thursdays]

Thank you for the tag @heaven-sin @doc-cas-holligay @samandcheesewinchesterr @destiel-in-its-natural-habitat

Rules: Answer 30 questions and tag 20 blogs you are contractually obligated to know better whoever you want to :)

1. Name/Nickname: Emma, I get Em occasionally

2. Gender: female (I guess??)

3. Star sign: Leo (I am the least leo leo to ever leo)

4. Height: 5 foot 9ish

5. Time: 7.16pm

6. Birthday: August 7th

7. Favorite bands: fun., Ghost, Queen, Tenacious D, Linkin Park, The Who.

8. Favorite solo artists: Hozier, Trixie Mattel, Carly Rae Jepsen, David Keenan, Grace Petrie.

9. Song stuck in my head: I'm currently listening to Whole Lotta Love - Hozier

10. Last movie: X-Men Apocalypse

11. Last show: Wandavision (new show), supernatural (rewatching)

12. When did I create this blog: Late 2019, but have been on tumblr since 2014 I think

13. What I post: supernatural. Mostly Cas. :)

14. Last thing googled: "xmen movies in order" because I couldn't remember which one was the last one I watched lmao

15. Other blogs: nope!

16. Do I get asks: Yes! Just got a lovely one with a song rec and an anon called wheat messages me regularly and makes my day every time

17. Why I chose my url: I love Cas and I love that his day is thursday lmao

18. Following: 580

19. Followers: 468

20. Average hours of sleep: 8 (any less and I literally can't function lmao)

21. Lucky number: 17!

22. Instruments: I can play tin whistle, recorder, ocarina (these are all basically the same lmao), ukulele, and bass. All badly though lmao

23. What am I wearing: a nightdress. Living my victorian ghost fantasy

24. Dream trip: Oh god anywhere at this stage. A supermarket??? Lockdown is no fun 😂 Okay for real though - I would love to go to Wrestlemania, San Diego Comic Con, and some drag shows. So maybe just a month in the states touring the place.

25. Favorite food: Roast Chicken dinner probably? Or chocolate.

26. Nationality: Irish

27. Favorite song: Soldier - Trixie Mattel (this was SO HARD TO PICK)

28. Last book read: I read the newest Gambit comic series, in terms of an actual book it was Funny You Should Ask by the QI Elves

29. Top three fictional universes: Middle Earth (I want to be a hobbit), supernatural (just to meet Cas), MCU (I want to be a wizard)

30. Favorite color: purple or pink

Tagging @lilac-void @trenchcoatimpala @dadstiel-trenchcoat @casthyelle @withclawsandsympathy and anyone else who wants to join!

[docholligay]

HLF: how do i check for cold (or hot, i guess) spots in my oven? is there a tool or do you just have to sacrifice some cookies to the fire?

I TAKE NO CREDIT FOR THIS. I READ THIS ARTICLE ON KING ARTHUR BAKING. THEY ARE AN EXCELLENT FUCKING RESOURCE FOR EVERYTHING AND ALSO EMPLOYEE OWNED BUY THINGS FROM THEM.

The toast test! Once I learned about this, i was so fucking mad that I didn't think about it myself--all you need to do is sacrifice a loaf of bread.

Ovens are stupid. They are giant boxes of metal that get hot. And if you have a gas oven, they are even worse--the heat doesn't even COME IN equally, ever. So normally, in an electric oven at least, the outside edges of your oven get hotter than the center. You can use this to your advantage: I cook something that needs top browning on a rack set closer to the top, pies closer to the bottom, and for pizza, when I want to make a REALLY GOOD pizza, like if I have guests and I want them to think I'm the most special girl, I set one rack on top, one of bottom, cook it on the bottom for a crisp crust and then hit it with the broiler on top for like two minutes and boom holy fuck i am a god.

ANYWAY, to answer your actual question.

You buy a loaf of shitty bread--I got a 99 cent loaf from the day-old section--preheat your oven to 350F/180C* and then you arrange it around your oven. Like so. Or, if you're like me, you used the whole loaf, but I didn't want to buy a loaf just to take a picture of something I've already done, so I stole this one from KAF (I love you guys!)

then you bake until the center pieces are gorgeous, a medium golden brown. Then you'll know, if that's what happens in the ideal placement, what is going to happen in less-ideal placements.

I re-ran the test preheating my oven with convection and then cooking on normal, it had more even heating. I don't necessarily recommend this unless you like to sometimes get nuts.

*ALSO BUY AN OVEN THERMOMETER. Your preheating sensor is more than likely lying to you. You can get cheapass ones but right now the Thermoworks smoke is 50 GODDAMN PERCENT OFF because they are on America's Test Kitchen 5 days of deals. They say it's for barbecue but the clip works the same in a smoker or an oven. And also it comes with a meat probe! So, double duty. (I make nothing from Thermoworks I wish they would send me free product for all I promote them *big eyes at Thermoworks guy)

[docholligay]

so i have never had a good stew with a flavor beyond tomato and meat, which begs the question: whats your favorite stew recipe?

Recipe is not a word I would associate with stew! I learned how to make stew at my mother's knee and it would never occur to me to measure a good goddamn thing to make one ahaha.

But! I do have tips to round out the flavor of stew, make it richer, meatier, deeply, more interesting broadly, which, it sounds like, is more of what you're asking?

I have actually never had a stew with a prominent tomato flavor. I"m going to assume you're east of the Mississippi where tomato in stew is more common, owing to a larger historical Italian population and higher availability of fresh tomatoes pre-WW2. Americans move a lot, now, so maybe not, but that's the historical "tomato stew' divide*.

ANYWAY. YOU DIDN'T ASK THAT.

Here's not, a recipe, but how I go about constructing a stew:

Grab my meat: Usually elk or deer for us, but beef is fine. DO NOT BUY A FANCY PIECE OF MEAT FOR THIS. Chuck or shoulder is best, buy whatever's cheap. Something that has to be, you know, stewed, for a long time. Cube your own meat, don't pay the premium for stew meat.

To that point, make sure before you start anything that you have a lot of time to let it stew. This is what makes the flavors mingle deliciously. If I REALLY want to blow someone's tits off I actually make it the day before and reheat it. Tastes better the next day.

I take the meat and I toss it flour and some Alpine Touch, which is a Montana ~spice blend~ but when it comes down to it is mostly, salt, Pepper, MSG, garlic and onion.

Throw a pat of butter in the bottom of the pan and let it melt. Toss in your meat. Make sure you give it a chance to brown before stirring it at all. While it's browning, cut up onions, carrots, and celery, all in pretty big chunks if you're me and are lazy. Remember, they will get very soft, so small stuff will just disintegrate. If you want to do this because you live with children who can't see veggies, be my guest I suppose.

stir the meat in the pot and let it brown some more. You're not trying to cook the meat through, jsut brown it. When it's done, bring it out, toss in another pat of butter if you need it, and throw in your vegetables with salt and pepper at the least, but also now's a good time for some garlic. Let it saute until the onions are clearish, kinda.

Now deglaze! For this I use a big thick stout beer. I think it contributes a lot of richness. You can also use broth, but it doesn't add as much. Red wine also works, but you have to be more careful with the seasoning. Stout beer is honestly the best choice. I usually make a big pot of stew so I use the whole can, but your mileage may vary. Make sure you scrape the bits from the bottom of the pan, that's flavor!

Now fill up your pot with broth or water, or water with better than bouillon. Obviously broth is better, and homemade stock is best, but like, life is imperfect and we all go into death alone so just make the goddamn stew best you can.

Add potatoes! I am the laziest motherfucker on earth, so I buy the tiny creamer potatoes and cut the bigger ones in half. Then add some mushrooms, quartered or halved. This will ALSO contribute to the meatiness of the recipe--sometimes I add dried mushroom powder also, as a cheat. A little bit of smoked paprika can also be good, but be careful with it as the smoke can quickly overpower.

For seasoning, it depends on what I've got, honestly. You can make a fresh herb bundle from stuff at your grocery store: Parsley, thyme, oregano, all good. Rosemary and sage CAN be good but require a more deft and careful hand than "Tie it in a bundle and toss it into the soup" and again, LAZY. You can also use chopped dried herbs, I often add those at the beginning of my simmer so I can adjust later. Add salt! Add pepper!

The real secret here is letting it simmer for hours, covered. Come back every hour or so and taste it. Add salt or pepper or whatever as you need.

Then at the very end, thicken with cornstarch. You'll have to add too much flour, usually, and it'll impart an off flavor. You can also use other thickeners, but they have a higher level of difficulty and I wouldn't use them unless my family was weirdly allergic to corn or something, in which case I'm sure you're familiar with alternatives.

You have stew!

*I THINK I read this in Food of A Younger Land, but I read so many food history books I might be misattributing.

[docholligay]

Hey, Doc. I was gifted an 8 inch cast iron skillet this (insert whatever holiday. I don't know. I hate this time of year too) and I was wondering if you had any advice on how to maintain it (cleaning, seasoning, etc.).

People make cast iron sound extremely hard to deal with, but I promise it very actually is not.

So, first things first, you'll have to figure out if it's preseasoned. A lot of them come preseasoned now, and while it isn't quite as good as a 50 year mirror finish or whatever, it's generally fine. This is an aspect where people absolutely let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Lodge is, for my money, the cast iron most people in the US should be buying. It's easy to get, the price is very reasonable, and everything not enamel coated (and I hate enamel coating) is made in the US. If this is what you got, I know it to be preseasoned! I own a ton of it! I think fully 80% of my pans are cast iron, and Lodge.

So let's assume it's preseasoned. If it's not, come talk to me.

Cooking with it is actually the easiest way to maintain the seasoning. So every time you cook with butter or oil or spray margarine, or whatever, you're adding to the layer of seasoning. It's great!

To preserve it, all you need to do is be lazier.

DO NOT soak it, or leave water in it. This can make your cast iron rust. If something is sticking, put a little bit of water in it, put it back on the stove, and heat it up a little bit until it releases.

Don't use really strong abrasive cleaners or steel wool or anything like that.

After you clean it, dry it and, using a paper towel, rub the inside of it with a very very very light layer of canola or vegetable oil. Let dry overnight.

That is it. it's not hard. I would wait until you have a really good layer of seasoning to long-stew anything acidic like tomatoes, but honestly that why I have the non-cast iron pan I do.

ENJOY IN GOOD HEALTH. Cast iron takes forever to get hot, but it holds heat so well and is wonderful for so many applications.

[docholligay]

8 Days Food Writing Day: on failure and ambition

Can you talk about a dish that you failed at making the first time, what went wrong and any lessons learned? Have you tried it again? And maybe any advice and thoughts about how you approach an ambitious food project?

Boy, only one? I fail all the time! Constantly! I try to post when I do so i can show people both the failure and the recovery, and that, sometimes, not matter how long you've been working in the kitchen, things don't go according to plan. It happens! It happens to the best of us.

Life is not about avoiding failure. If you avoid failure, you will never grow. The only way to know the end of your tether is to constantly reach it, and get choked back a little bit. Do not get in your own head about cooking, and that it's always supposed to be perfect, and if you come up with something that's not great it's a huge deal. In all things in life, we must have courage. Without courage, all other virtues are meaningless.

I have been lucky enough, in life, that I have had a lot of failure, sometimes failure that cost me a great deal, and so, am I relatively comfortable with the idea of it.

I go into an ambitious project with the viewpoint that everything in life is a lesson if you care to learn. So, if it doesn't go well, then I've learned something about technique or timing or even an ingredient I'm not familiar with. I have a list of very ambitious desserts I'd like to try this year, and I expect that some of them will go badly! That's okay!

I have won multiple ribbons at the state fair for my baking. Many of these recipes have had years and year go into their development, with many many failures, near-failures, and 'not quite theres'. It's so important to look at something as a step. To ascend, you have to go up. This is true of anything. And sometimes that going up looks bad, or is frustrating, and for me too--I have genuinely been so frustrated about a meal that I've cried or thrown something. It happens. It happens!

I had a 9 year gap between my best in show: cakes and winning best in show: pies. There were so many efforts that went into that, rewrites and annoyances and a few actual hilarious cream meltdowns that resulted in me rewhipping the filling into a pudding thing just crumbling the crust on top ahahah.

The only people who never get knocked down are the ones who stay seated. It's okay to get knocked down. The measure of us in how we get up. This is true of anything.

[docholligay]

Hi Doc! I've got a 2022 Merlot and despite reasonable attempts otherwise I am not a wine drinker. If you were to cook with this, what would you make?

Ooh! There's a recipe I've been wanting to try that calls for a wine to the sweeter side with medium body! Hang on!

obviously I haven't made it yet, and I'm going to use duck pancetta or duck bacon instead of the standard, but Martha rarely steers me wrong and I would love to hear if you try this!

Other than that, there's the standards: Red wine sauce for steak, coq au vin, braised lamb. All of these are great standbys that you can find in the best cookbook ever written: The Joy of Cooking.

Merlot is really approachable and easy to use: You also might want to try a sangria as a way of approaching wine with some sweetness! You can get real basic or extremely complex with that.

[docholligay]

HLF: cutting boards? We have the cheap thin plastic ones in different colors for daily use and I know we can do better but I also don't know if there's like.... Differences in the wooden ones? I have about $50 set aside for an upgrade

Honestly a plastic board won't kill you, probably. I have a couple of those stupid bendable ones for when i need to cut something in another room or whatever. Replace them when they get a number of grooves in them, that's why you have plastic, is its cheap and easy to replace. They don't come clean once they've got the grooves in them (Weirdly, wood seems to stay more bacteria free. This is not me saying this, this is the NIH)

but if you do want to replace it, some things to look for:

DO NOT BUY BAMBOO. I made a whole post about this but now I can't find it so the short of it is: it'll destroy your knives.

Maple is a great choice, and is attractive, and last a long time. I bought my cutting board...11 years ago? And it's still fine, I may start saving up for a fancy end grain board. There's actually no benefit to this other than an end grain board lasts for fucking ever, so I'm actually going to save up a couple hundred and have one made assuming I'll never need to buy another.

I bought mine from--I am being so serious here--the TJ maxx clearance section. Look for a wood like maple, hickory, cherry, teak (some people have reactions to teak but this is very uncommon), or hinoki*. I prefer a groove in mine, and trust me if you do meats or anything, you will come to prefer a groove as well. I also prefer feet, which helps your board stick to the counter, but you can add these yourself.

John Boos is slightly out of your price range, but if you're looking for a brand rec, they're quality.

*hinoki does stain easily, if this matters to you

[docholligay]

For the Holligay Loves Food: how do you swap ingredients in a recipe without losing the essence of it? Cooking, not baking, and mainly spices/sauces, since I know baking is much more strict. But more in line of "this calls for cilantro and I don't have it" - do you swap, omit, do a secret third thing? This stumps me at times and when I look up replacement suggestions I don't always have confidence of making the right choice.

This is a lot harder to answer than you might think, because it depends so much on what I'm making!

So for example if I'm missing cilantro for something like a Mexican dish, I think about what the cilantro is DOING there. It adds a freshness, a brightness, so a lot of times if you have lime it's already doing part of the work, and you can add something like parsley to give it the herbiness. Together, they can make a reasonable workaround.

Some things, like sage, have such a strong flavor that they are really hard to substitute. If what I want is that almost weediness, I'll go for rosemary, or marjoram. They don't taste the same but they have a similar vibe.

Basically, the answer to your question is: Taste things all the time! So when you make a sauce, and you have everything for it, what would happen if you tasted after every ingredient? I keep a little notebook in my kitchen so if I do something, i can write it down. Or if I notice something. In my most-used cookbooks, I have little notes scrawled in the margins. It's okay to just eat a pinch of a seasoning, and see how it works!

Exploration is an important part of getting a sense of "how food works." I already work with beeb to give her bits of seasoning and herbs and go, 'Try this,' or after we add white woine to a sauce, 'let's taste it now. What do you notice?" nine times out of ten right now she tells me, 'i don't know," but then I tell her what *I* taste as different. it's no different for anyone else learning for the first time how to approach flavor!

[docholligay]

Recommendations for must-haves in a spice cabinet for someone who is just starting out?

(I’m asking this bc once upon a time you sent me spices when I was just starting out and I have since made sure to have most of those things in my pantry at all times because you were right about all of them, so everyone should benefit from your insight here.)

I wish I could remember what I sent you! I might have changed since then ahaha. But I'm so glad they've been useful. As you know, i LOVE helping people get started out in cooking. I am a big believer in ANYONE CAN COOK.

So, if I were going to, sitting here right now, build a spice cabinet for someone starting out, here's what I would have. if I could only have ten items. This spice cabinet presumes that you are an American who cooks like the majority of Americans.

Kosher salt

Whole peppercorns--get a pepper grinder

Chinese five spice--this is a sub in for cinnamon*

Vanilla-- you need this for US baking, period

Chili powder-- the base of chili, tacos, and many other Mexican dishes popular here.

Red chili flakes-- adds a floral heat to anything

Penzey's Frozen pizza seasoning-- this is essentially a very good, salt free "Italian seasoning". It is in fact really good on frozen pizza, but it works for sauces, pot roast, braised chicken. Whenever it calls for thyme, oregano, et. al. you can just use this.

Paprika-- this adds roundness to dishes like stroganoff, mac and cheese, stew, it's my secret ingredient for many things.

Dill-- not everyone uses dill all the time, but I use dill for fucking everything. To brighten up scrambled eggs, in chicken and dumplings, in soup. Love it.

Alpine Touch-- I know, this is basically a seasoning salt, and it's a Montana thing, but trust me, it's worth it. There are many a night I have basically just tossed salmon and vegetables in oil and alpine and people were like: Oh this great!

Now, look at a handful of recipes you love, and will make, and see if you need to round it out with anything. I need cumin and sage, but otherwise I am covered for a lot of things.

Just start accumulating little by little based on how you ACTUALLY cook, not how you think you will or wish you did.

*Apparently if you go to a Chinese grocer, there are different varieties, some of which are not suited to sweet things. This is not a problem i've encountered, living where I do, but bear it in mind.

[docholligay]

So I want to gift myself a dutch oven in the next year or so, what should I be looking at? A lot of the new ones I see in stores are enamel coated (still sighing a little that I didn't get my aunt's cast iron dutch oven)

Don't buy enamel. People buy enamel for one of two reasons:

They are afraid of the seasoning on cast iron, and want something that feels more familiar

They want a Le Creuset because it is pretty and a prestige kitchen showpiece.

Here's why you don't want enamel:

it is more expensive, which in itself, as you all know I have no problem with but doesn't have the value to cover it.

it is much more temperature finicky than cast iron. You can toss cast iron into everything but lava and maybe even that and the worst thing is a reseason. Enameled cast iron can crack if heated too much, or quickly, and then it can flake off, and depending on how you feel about a crevice where bacteria can maybe grow, you may want to throw it out (full disclosure: i would not)

It doesn't brown as well as bare cast iron

You can't use metal tools, owing to the chipping problem

chipping problem again: you have to be much more careful with it.

basically enameled is only worth it if you are a person who makes large batches of something like tomato ragu or a tomato and vinegar chicken or something regularly. For those things I own a stainless steel stockpot, but if you're married to cast iron, that'd be the one time I'd get enamel.

So just buy this:

5 quart dutch oven, made in America, 60-50 bucks. Boom. You can get these at like, Scheels. My alberstons actually carries some.

Don't bother 'saving up' for a big purchase on this one. you can set aside 15 bucks a week or so and have this inside of a month. You'll thank me later. I'm now roasting chickens in this thing, and it's the completely correct choice.

[docholligay]

Doc, peeling vegetables. Why?

Well, what are you making?

I mean, you don't ALWAYS have to peel vegetables, and god knows I get out of it when I can. My mashed potatoes will always be ~rustic~ because I am too lazy to do it. But if I'm making a duchess or fondant potato, it just won't work if I leave the skin on. Same for carrots almondine.

Peeling vegetables makes things look prettier, sure, but it also makes them more tender and delicate, which you want for some applications. It also, in some cases, removes bitterness, leaving a softer and sweeter flavor.

Again, I am queen of the lazy motherfuckers, so it's not a thing I do unless I know it's going to very seriously impact the quality of the product. But sometimes, you gotta!

[docholligay]

I think the answer to this is probably 'no', but is there a decent substitute for carrots (baking excluded)? I've been working around a friend's birch pollen allergy, of which carrots are the main trigger, by just skipping them altogether or serving them separate for myself, but I do miss the texture sometimes in, say, pot roasts for example

I was going to say parsnips but it looks they have birch pollen too, so I'd give young turnips or maybe a nice dense squash a try. Daikon might even work, but that one I'd try before serving to someone not me.

OKAY FOR REAL I'MDONE I'LL GO MAKE DINNER

[docholligay]

How do you plan for the meals of the week? I find coming up and deciding what to do for dinner is the hardest part.

here's how I do it!

So, usually Saturday or Sunday--more often Sunday--I sit down in between work and chores and decide: What am I going to make this week?

I look at a couple things before I menu plan:

What's in the fridge?

What's in the freezer?

What is the weather going to be?

Am I working late any nights/is anyone going to be gone/do we have any events?

Then, i get started! I actually haven't done the menu for the week, so let's just do it here!

So this week I have chicken thighs left over from fonjew, and I'm also very busy, so it has to be something I can do quickly and easily. Beeb is very excited about the new knife set she got tonight (more on this later) and wants to help by cutting something. There's no day this week that's particularly hot or cold.

Okay then, we'll make chicken tacos. It's easy, it's quick, she can help me cut up all the things we'll need for garnishes and a side salad. I have tortillas, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes--all I need to grab is some lettuce, maybe.

wednesday night is the last night of hanukkah, and I already bought a rib roast for that. Easy peasy. I have shrimp, we'll do surf and turf. Maybe I'll make fondant potatoes, those are easy but fancy and beeb can use her peeler. Okay, so i have duck fat, butter, garloic chicken broth, seasoning. Just need to get potatoes. I have broccoli and caulifower--bake that with the leftover cheese sauce from fonjew. Dessert is ice cream made from the failed rosace l'orange.

Still have chicken thighs, will still be busy. So let's look at what else I've got in the fridge. I've got a big caesar salad kit. I'll do a marinated chicken thigh served with salad. It's boring, but this is a boring week culinarily.

friday, shabbat. i bought a bunch of chicken breasts on clearance and precooked them, we still have a ton of broccoli and carrots, so we'll make chicken and dumplings. I have onions, chicken broth, wine, flour, baking powder, milk. I think the only thing I might need is celery. I've got a caramel made, I think i'm gonna make a chocolate caramel crunch cake. I've got butter eggs, cocoa, flour, sugar. I think that'll be fine. I might need to go get more butter for frosting.

Saturday everyone is going to be on their own because i am not doing JACK SHIT.

so my shopping list is: lettuce, potatoes, celery, butter (possibly). I don't always have fonjew, so I don't always have a fucking BEVY of ingredients already at my disposal, but I do fill my freezer with clearance stuff.

So there we are! I did not this week, because I am so busy, go through the recipes I've highlighted as wanting to try, nor have a I pushed the boundaries of my skills, really--well, that caramel crunch cake is a bit of an undertaking I guess. Anyhow.

This is what I do! A lot of it is just experience, and the only way to get experience is to keep at it. Just pick a day to sit down and at least do the next three days!

I should add I got a lot of this experience and information out of necessity. I lived a fairly lean life, in some parts of it, and it made me very good at looking at the food I had and knowing I could make something of it. I'm a pretty good "chopped" style cook. And now I'm pretty alright, but old habits die hard, and I think being the sort of person who knows how to take leftovers and make food is a good thing indeed.

I find just opening a document and getting started to be the hardest part of the whole thing.