To Thine Own Self, Be Food

Go Pro or Go Home...Probiotics, that is! Pro + Bio + Ic = For + Life + Things There's no better time than a Sunday evening to culture some life-giving organisms into tomorrow's breakfast.  Greek-style yogurt, my good friends! I awoke early this morning and the first thing on my mind?  Coffffffffeeeeeeeeee.   Okay, well, the second?  Brisket!   I spent six months working for the foodservice corporation called Sodexo, and I will say that one of the key things I learned was how to do a brisket in the oven.  Brisket is the cut of meat from the front breast/lower chest of the cow.  And because cows use that portion of their bodies a lot, it's a quite lean and tough piece of meat.  Therefore, not to be treated with high heat and quick-cooking methods.  Texas people like to smoke it, New Englanders like to boil it. The author here at 'Be Food' opts for oven-roasting it.  Because she does not own a smoker.  Yet. After...

Here in Iowa, if I decide I want to marry another woman, I can do that. It's legal here.  (Worth noting: the point is moot as I am already in a marriage state, according to the state of Iowa).  If I decide to engage in polygamy here in this state, that's illegal. However, I think the law assumes that if a person wants to engage in polygamy, it's because they want to marry another person . For most, this is a logical assumption. However, how would the law interpret polygamy if the person wanted to marry an inanimate object...say, for example, her grill? Because she loves it SO much. My birthday was last month, and just last week I was able to pick out and purchase my new grill.  It's a Char-Broil hybrid and not only can I do gas, but there's a removable tray for charcoal!  Whoohoo! After a mid-week maiden voyage of burgers, it was time to really put my new appliance through her paces. This pic I shall call Girl-Grill Selfie.  There's not much of my new ...

And I know you are legion.  People who eat, love, and think about breakfast foods.  No matter the time of day, pancakes or scrambled eggs always sound good. Where are all my brothers- and sisters-in-arms? Here in the small town I live in, there are roughly four places to have breakfast.  One is a pastry/bakery, one is a kitchen within a grocery store, and two are restaurants.  The latter three all serve about the same thing: biscuits and gravy, pancakes, scrambled egg platters, etc.  Nothing too unusual...which concerns me, because eggs are a great creative vehicle.  Anyway... I have spent a fair amount of time putting together a breakfast menu that I'd hope to implement some day.  There is no empirical data behind the menu development, so I really have no idea if some of these items would even go over that well.  I based the menu on things *I* would like to make and eat.  And I guess that's as good as a strategy as any, yes? Let me k...

Spaceballs . Ahhh. One of America's classics. And here, the exact dish Dark Helmet was referring to: Mwahahahahaha! Let's discuss yogurt for a moment, whom I feel is a victim of bad marketing and nefarious health claim ploys.  As delicious as Banana Cream Pie yogurt sounds, and no matter no healthy it seems like it should be (because it's yogurt), it's a rotten, rotten product.  Full of sugar and artificial flavors.  Even the fruit yogurts? Not as good as it's packaged to tell you.  And it's too bad, because most people hear the word 'yogurt' and think healthy and beneficial...but most varieties out there on the shelves are anything but. Go with the plain (or vanilla-flavored if you must) Greek-style yogurt, add your own fresh fruit, and a drizzle of honey.  You'll feel a whole lot better. I've just recently found out how EASY making your own yogurt is.  This recipe was the jumping off point.  Once I got my milk to the appropriate tem...

Spatchcock is far and away my favorite culinary term.  Basically, it's when you split a whole bird open right before you cook it.  Very much like butterflying a piece of meat, but a whole lot cooler to say. Spatchcock.  It sounds so dirty.  But it's not! Using a pair of sharp and clean kitchen shears, I cut down the chicken's backbone and opened it up.  Now, I've reduced cooking time because there's more surface area to get heat to.  Perfect for grilling when you want to avoid cutting into a totally charred chicken only to see raw poultry.  Bad news all around. The picture here was taken after I'd spatchcocked it...and sort of "put it" back together again for the photo.  But, you get the point, no doubt. This was the recipe: Food Network's Aarti Sequiera's Orange-Cardamom Roast Chicken .  Excitement was the emotion of the hour, as I like roast chicken a lot and I have an excess amount of the spice cardamom in my pantry (for reasons ...

Checking my stats page every now and then is always an illuminating thing.  In the last week, I've had hits from not only the US, but from places like China, Indonesia, Belarus, and even freaking Sri Lanka!  Hell yes! In all likelihood, these hits are purely accidental and are the result of a janky Google search for something NOT even remotely related to anything here at Be Food.  However, it matters not. I noticed that two important countries were missing from the Stats-Hits page: Ethiopia and Mexico.  And I hope that changes right now. A couple of days ago, some friends of ours suggested a new restaurant in a town about a half-hour from here.  Safari Ethopian-Eritrean restaurant .  Okay, I'll admit, I know nothing about Ethiopian cuisine...but I couldn't wait. Our friends had gone once before and were really only able to tell us that it was a.) good and b.) bereft of silverware.  Truly, the ultimate international finger food.  This wa...

Yeah, I know.  A flurry of excitement for one week, and then I decide to take one day off. To quote my fourteen-year-old...whatever. Here's the thing about the foodservice industry... your weekends are my busiest days.  Your holidays are my longest days.  And it's totally cool, I don't mean to bitch...because that's how it is, and that's what I signed up for. Anyway. Mother's Day is tomorrow, and it's no shocker that I'm working.  Our restaurant is serving a brunch, and since I'm the primary brunch cook, it stands to reason that I should be there.  But, I'm done by three, and then I've got the rest of the evening with my kids. I have no idea what they've got up their sleeve. My husband thinks I should not cook on Mother's Day...but honestly, I can't think of anything I'd rather do more.  Especially since I saw a particularly inspiring episode of Bobby Flay's Barbeque Addiction whilst at the dentist recently.  So......

Things happen in threes, right??  Well, I'm sosososo glad to report three good things.  Or..maybe two good things and one sort-of-we'll-see-what-happens thing. 1.  After pestering my boss for three-plus weeks about reducing my amount of hours, the ultimatum I gave her this morning finally worked.  Next week, I've only been scheduled for 28 hours.  I actually have a WHOLE DAY off.  My head is spinning.  This is fabulous news. 2. My oldest son turned 16 about two weeks ago, and just yesterday, got his driver's license.  Then, I bought my dad's 1998 Dodge Dakota pickup/rustbucket from him and bequeathed it to my son...with explicit instructions that he doesn't kill anybody or himself.  My life as a taxi is about to get easier. 3. Our Amazon Echo came in the mail today...after like four months of anticipation and a special invitation from Amazon to be able to buy it.  We're not usually Keep Up With The Joneses-type people...but well, t...

I'm not as good of a sleeper as I used to be...and I suspect that has something to do with my pesky subconscious. I only remember this dream because I wrote it down, and it's not a nightmare, per se.  At least, *I* don't consider it as such. It's the night before my Grand Opening of my dream café, and Dwight Schrute (from the TV show "The Office") is helping me make chicken noodle soup.  Since then, with the increasing dissatisfaction with my job, my dreams have become more nightmarish and more frequent. Usually, they consist of a sequence in which I'm making a customer's order, but there's just one or two little things preventing me from completing it...and usually, it's because I can't reach the plate or I can't quite get to the cooler where, say, we keep the bread.  Stuff like that.  Last night's dreams consisted of me trying to fill orders, all the while realizing that the restaurant isn't EVEN OPEN during the hours I...

Today's Kitchen Shenanigans, that is. Tonight's a restaurant work night, so roughly 45 minutes today was spent preparing dinner for the minions.  I thought it might be nice and lend a little flavor to the dish if I were to play music off my playlist whilst I worked.  So, I put the thing on Shuffle and away I went... Clocks - Coldplay Wonderwall - Oasis Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 3 - Pink Floyd Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye Carnival - Natalie Merchant Cry to Me - Solomon Burke Willow - Joan Armatrading Fayth - Tori Amos Someone could probably have quite a field day analyzing the symbolism of all those songs.  Or maybe not.  At any rate, I enjoyed Kitchen Shenanigans today.

80s hair band Warrant, who found stardom with their smash hit "Cherry Pie" (bet you thought I'd break my five-day streak, eh?). It will all become clear momentarily. Monday mornings are a good time for me to grocery shop, as the stores aren't so packed and if there's something I need to prepare for my family's dinner that night, I've got most of the morning to prepare it.  Win-win. Today, a bag of Bing cherries caught my eye.  I'm not sure why.  If I work with cherries at all, I go with the frozen ones.  Fresh cherries have pits...and they are rather time-consuming to remove.  But, I dunno, the planets were in perfect alignment, my zodiac sign was in the rising aspect...who knows?!  I was probably having delusions of grandeur (May the Fourth Be With You reference).  At any rate, I bought a damn bag. Yes, it took me most of an hour to pit the suckers.  But, then... Sometimes it's worth it.  The Cherry Crisp recipe is modifie...

6:30 is too early for a Sunday, ne c'est pas?  Alas, that is the time I arose this morning, and while my body wanted to fall back asleep, my mind was already off and running.  So, up I got. Something tells me I'm going to regret this later...like when I'm trying to watch the new Avengers movie tonight. Last Sunday was my last day off, and that was only at my request.  There are no more days off in the foreseeable future, between the part-time bar job and the near-40 hour demands of the restaurant.  It's a hard-knock life, I reckon, but that's how it goes when you're in search of The Dream.  So we savor the tranquil moments while we can.  Like yesterday, for example.  By some stroke of excellent luck, it was just me and the youngest son in the house for a few hours.  I took him out for lunch, and then I made him do yardwork with me.  I showed him how to mow the yard, and he discovered it's not terribly fun nor easy.  Ah, yes. Tranq...

Spring has sprung.  Young men's thoughts turn to those of fancy. The rest of us?  Turn to thoughts of gardening.  Of turning earth.  Of nurturing verdure.  Yeah yeah yeah.  I think a little about that, but my spring garden thoughts run the plant-harvest-eat-preserve gamut. I'd mentioned awhile back, I think, that in addition to a few things in our own, shade-laden garden, we were doing a joint garden with my parents.  So far, it looks like this... From right: garlic (planted last November), green onions from sets, onions from seeds (the puny-looking half-row) and radishes (the instant gratification vegetable), and a row of cabbage and cauliflower, and from seeds (and therefore, not seen as of yet), green beans and kohlrabi. This morning, we added tomato, pepper, zucchini, and eggplant plants as well as planted cucumber and sweet corn seeds. Thus, the garden at my parents' is now all in.  Time to maintain and reap the benefits some se...

Well.   I'm making a major decision today.  Without trying to sound all Vaguebookish, but not get into excruciating detail, I'm leaving a job (or notifying the boss, really, of imminent departure) that has little by little made me very unhappy. And while I'm unburdened that I've finally resolved to do it, I definitely feel guilty.  I usually do whenever I quit something of this magnitude...I always second-guess myself and wonder if I should toughed it out or taken a different tack of coping. And while there's probably always a chance to pick up more hours at my other job, I really have no other work in place.  I've said it here before, but there's a possibility of some opportunities down the road, but nothing terribly immediate. However, maybe with a free-up in my work schedule here in a few weeks, I'll have more time to devote to developing those opportunities more. Naturally, I'm dreading today's conversation.  Especially since I do not...