FoodNuts!

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Our friend Jack just posted the link to this site on his Facebook, and one of the comments he received was “This is food porn.” If there could be such a thing, they’re right.

Market Day Potato and Leek soup from kissmyspatula.com

Check out this recipe, story, and photographs of “Market Day Soup“

I don’t necessarily recommend this, but I was asked to pass along the link. WARNING: Your cholesterol levels mayrise rapidly just looking at this site:

(PICTURE REMOVED TO SOOTHE THE TENDER SENSIBILITIES OF NON-CARNIVORES)

Build a Better Bacon Explosion

I realize it’s dated, but there are some fine “dos and don’ts” at this NYT article.

My favorite?

“It’s better to pay the grocer than the doctor.”

My daughter called me at the office, concerned that as her mother is feeling very poorly today with a classroom-petri-dish-induced cold, we needed to come up with something yummy for dinner to sooth her condition.

We’re going to make one of Roz’s favorites, an old formulation I believe comes from Karin Knight’s Baby Cookbook from forever ago: Lime-Dill Chicken.

Take chicken breast, slice it very thin (perhaps 1/8-1/4″). Roll in egg, and dip in italian bread crumbs to fry in a little olive oil until browned. The sauce is a combination of butter, lime juice, and dill weed (fresh if you have it).

We’re going to serve it with mashed potatoes (the lime-dill sauce is an excellent topping for the taters, as well, but then we’re huge lime fans around the Denny house) and perhaps a side of some sort of fresh green veg to be named later.

I’ll try to update this post with some pics during the production of dinner.

PS. She felt far too crappy to appreciate an actual meal, so we made her toast and oatmeal and suchlike; hopefully tomorrow night will render her able to enjoy the lime dill chicken. And yes, Becca, it’s made with actual butter, not just the leavings from the chicken pan. Michael needs to get with the program.

PSS. Sunday update: Megan and I decided to reprise the goat-cheese and sun dried tomato chicken, and potato salad a la Roslyn. The chicken turned out great; the tater salad turned out to be mashed potatoes instead, which was actually a great side for this dish.

Someone was talking in the background on the radio just now, and was talking about how government regulations to disclose the salt content in food was something that wasn’t really necessary — instead, encourage people to use sea salt, as it actually lowers blood pressure.

Lowers blood pressure? Wow, wouldn’t that be nice?

I did a VERY small amount of googling, and found a number of items — but the funnest one was an article in Slate from 2005 that posits the question “Which salt is best?”

Thought I would pass it along. What kind of salt do you prefer, and why? Feel free to add a comment below.

Jack found this great blog about lighting for food blogging that I know I certainly can put to good use as we try to illuminate and share our food adventures on FoodNuts.com. Check it out by clicking on their picture or right here!

I’ve long been a fan of bacon; the internet is awash with all sorts of bacon news, in fact.

Where are my english muffins?

But today, when I saw that they had finally created spreadable bacon, and I was tempted to order some, I figured that perhaps the time had come seek professional help.

Or, perhaps I can just restrain myself, and wait for Christmas. Hint hint…

Course, if I were a REAL man, I’d make my own — here’s a recipe … once I try it I’ll post on the results.

“Bacon jam tastes like the love child of pulled pork and pate!” said one friend. “I am now officially in pig heaven,” said another as I shared tastes from the jar of Skillet’s bacon jam that had just arrived in the mail.

This needs to be done. Seriously.

Entering one of the most competitive grocery markets in the world, Tesco’s Fresh & Easy is not having an easy time of it here in Southern California. Although they have yet to open a store in Santa Clarita, apparently they have rather misjudged the buying habits of a large swath of the Southland.

There are 70 stores now open in Southern California, which has been hurt more than other regions by the recession. Fresh & Easy also opened stores in other areas with poor economies, including Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Apparently, they have decided to finally make some concessions to the actual customers, who are not used to just purchasing what they need for the day. Typically, SoCal families like to purchase food for the week — and small package sizes don’t really fit into that style.

The company is adapting “to customer feedback” by adding cereal and pet food choices and offering larger package sizes for families, he (Tesco CEO Terry Leahy) said.

…

“Everything has gone awry, from store operations to pricing to variety and selection to their locations. You could not do much worse unless you did it on purpose,” said David J. Livingston, a Waukesha, Wis., grocery industry consultant. “They were arrogant and totally misjudged the American consumer.”

Hopefully they will continue to pump cash into the operation, and change things up to be competitive. It would be a shame to lose another choice, since consumers usually love having alternatives (and the standard chains need sharper competition).

We’ve lost the Comic Sans fault — I totally agree. If anyone reading this blog has design suggestions or issues, PLEASE let us know – we’re new at this and want to make this site attractive, easy to read, and usable for everyone.

Thanks, @DiamonDie!

Food in America is a LOT better than it was 50 years ago, asserts Jerry Weinberger:

In a 1769 letter to the naturalist John Bartram, Benjamin Franklin observed that while lots of people like accounts of old buildings and monuments, “I confess that if I could find in any Italian travels a receipt for making Parmesan cheese, it would give me more satisfaction than a transcript of any inscription from any old stone whatsoever.”

Had Old Ben written this letter 50 years ago, in 1959, it’s doubtful that many Americans would have agreed. Back then, a gourmet American dinner might have included tomato aspic (gelatin with canned tomato juice), crab casserole (canned crab with canned cream-of-mushroom soup and canned fried onions), and cherries jubilee (canned cherries heated in a chafing dish with brandy and sugar, “flambéed,” and poured over vanilla ice cream)…

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