favorite food recipes: Cream Cheese and Chopped Dried Beef Ball

This is something that I usually go out and buy from the store, and usually only for holidays or big family dinners. It tastes really good and is great as an appetizer or party food.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese
• 3 ounces cream cheese
• 1/4 cup black olives
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• onion salt
• 1 pinch garlic salt
• 1 pinch celery salt
• 1 (4 ounce) jar dried beef, chopped

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the Cheddar cheese, cream cheese, olives, Worcestershire sauce, onion salt, garlic salt and celery salt. Mix until smooth. Shape into ball, wrap in foil, and refrigerate until needed.
2. About 30 minutes before serving, remove foil from cheese ball and reshape if necessary. Roll chopped beef to completely coat. Chill several hours or overnight.

Food and Celebration

Food and celebration are two concepts that pretty much go hand in hand. I have been to very few celebrations that didn’t have some sort of food items or drinks available for consumption. We pretty much spend half of our time and money on food when organizing an event.  There are whole divisions of enterprise focused solely on catering food for events and celebrations. Whether it be a wedding,work  function, birthday party, or holiday; having some sort of food at your event has become the social norm.

Party Rule#1: Don’t piss off the servers.

There are also specific types of food for certain types of events.  You have a cake at your birthday or wedding. Champagne for toasts and celebration. Cookies in various holiday shapes and eggnog for Christmas. Mardi Gras  has a number of traditional recipes, my favorite one being “King Cake” . If you don’t know what king cake is , it’s basically a cake covered it colorful sugar that is baked with a trinket (usually a plastic baby) inside. The person who find the trinket usually get a set of privileged and obligations till the next  Mardi Gras.

Just don’t swallow the baby.

Even if you are not planning a celebration, you are probably going out to celebrate at some restaurant, or ordering in some food that you normal wouldn’t.  We all have our favorite restaurant that reserved for special occasions. There is a bit of an ongoing joke in film about people going to “TGIF” like restaurant to celebrate promotions or business deals. The joke is just pointing out how people go to this place to celebrate that may seem ordinary to everyone else.

My family likes to go  out to a place called Iron skillet when ever we do a large group celebration because of the large portions and quiet atmosphere. For smaller ones, with just me, my sister,  and my mother, we usually go to Texas Roadhouse because we all like the food there.

Like I have said tons of times, food is an important part of our society. It is a big part of what we do to mark events in our life. We all have specific things we do to celebrate that will differ widely between people.

Mellow Yellow Zero…….why

As I type this, sitting on the floor next to me, is a bottle of Coke’s new diet drink, Mellow Yellow Zero. I was very surprised when I noticed this product sitting in the drink cooler of Urban Market.  I alway thought of Mellow Yellow just being a drink for people who like regular soda. I never thought there would be a demand for a zero calorie version.

Despite my preconceptions, I went ahead and bought a bottle.  Upon first inspection,  it looks very similar to the original. The color of the liquid  is only a little darker . If it wasn’t for the black label, I could easily mistake this for regular Mellow Yellow.  The visual comparison is where the similarities end.

The test is awful.  You first get hit with something that tastes like  a watered down citric drink mixed that’s been left open for so long, there is barely any carbonation. Two seconds late, you get hit with this horrid aftertaste that reaches all the way up to the bridge of your nose and makes you slightly nauseous. It seems like they just went through they same process they use to make coke zero, without getting people the taste test it before it went into production. It just this awful sensation that lingers for way too long.

Basically, Mellow Yellow Zero tastes bad. Don’t buy it.

food and awareness

Most Americans aren’t that aware of what is in the food they eat. Sure,  we pretend to care,. We fuss over whether it’s all white meat, all natural, organic, vegetarian, vegan, sodium free, cholesterol  free,etc (Insert current healthy food fad here). That’s about as far as it goes. We never consider where that food is coming from and what happened to it on its way from the source to your plate.

I once went, as part of a high school trip, to a  small Buddhist temple in Indiana. There, they showed us a video (and then promptly served us fried rice and imitation pork) about this processing plant that would hood chicken’s legs to this cover belt that would send them along and then chop their heads off by slapping their necks against a large metal blade. I’ll spare you the full, visual details and just say it was fairly messed up.

This didn’t necessarily stop me from eating chicken, but it did make me stop and think about where the chicken in my nuggets came from. It’s just a pause, but  I am more aware about my food now than before I watched that video.

(The whole advertising scheme for chick-fil-a is pretty messed up, too.  It is essentially a cow that is trying to plead for its life by sending the chicken to slaughter in its place. If that isn’t representative of modern business, I don’t know what is.)

My point is that we generally don’t consider what is going in our bodies. Being the consumerist culture we are, we are more concerned with speed and price than we are with quality. I’m not saying we should only buy local foods and free range chicken. I just think we should be a little more knowledgeable about where things come from and how they got here. Just a pause is all you need to be a little more aware than you were yesterday.

Spring Break Meals: Seafood topped Salmon

Whenever I come home for more than a few days, I like to vook dinner for my family. It’s my way of thakning them for letting me stay and sponge off them. Since I will be home for an entire week during Spiong Break, I’ve decided to cook  something different each night I cook. Here is the first one:

Seafood topped Salmon Patties

Ingrediants:

salad shrimp
imitation crab
imitation lobster
breadcrumbs
mayonnaise
Gordon’s Frozen Salmon Planks
1/2 stick of butter
baking pan
small pot
mixing bowl

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Cook salmon in the microwave for about 5minutes, or until completely thawed. While the salmon is cooking,  cut the crab and lobster into pieces and put it into a blender with the salad shrimp. Blend until he mixture forms a thick paste. Then, place the paste into a bowl and combine with couple tablespoons of mayo and chive. Mix well.

By now the salmon planks should be finished cooking. Place the planks in a baking pan. Melt a 1/2 stick of butter and pour it over teh salmon planks to add flavor and help the seafood paste stick . Now, spread a thick layer of seafood paste over each plank.  Take a handful of breadcrumbs and sprinkle it finely over that.

Place the baking pan in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs are just starting to brown. Switch the oven to broil to finish browning the breadcrumbs. Let cool for 2-3minutes and serve.

favorite food recipes: Cheesy Ham and Hash Brown Casserole

Here is simple, but delicious one.

 

Ingredients

• 1 (32 ounce) package frozen hash brown potatoes
• 8 ounces cooked, diced ham
• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of potato soup
• 1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
• 2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, mix hash browns, ham, cream of potato soup, sour cream, and Cheddar cheese. Spread evenly into prepared dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
3. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until bubbly and lightly brown. Serve immediately.

 

food and transgression

Currently craving: bacon

I had a hard time figuring out what to write about when cam to food and transgression.

The definition of a transgression is a violation of law, command, social norm, or the committing of a sin. For me, being an American with no particular religious affiliation or conservative disposition ( or historical knowledge, for that matter), I have never considered food being involved in an act that could be considered a breach in law, whether social, religious, or otherwise. The only thing I would consider being food transgression would be the various dietary laws of the Jewish religion.

Immediately upon writing that, however, my thoughts immediately went to the Boston Tea Party and people going off their diet. Uncultured diners in a sophisticated restaurant who don’t know the difference between a dinner fork and a salad fork and eat with their elbows on a table. People at fairs eating grasshoppers and fried ants, as people watching can’t imagine eating one themselves. Models eating chocolate (or anything, for that matter). A husband going on a burger run behind his wife’s back because he’s “watching his cholesterol”. Food fights and hunger strikes. Egging houses on Halloween. Vegans and Vegetarians. PETA outside of a butcher shop. All things involved food as some sort of breach of law.

Food is symbol, and could as much be a symbol of lover or affection as an act of anarchy and sin. I guess, since food is such an important part of culture, that is would inevitably end up factoring into the rules we set to govern ourselves. Nothing is simple and everything means something so we naturally feel the need to regulate (and sometimes just to control) something that has wide variety of meaning for everyone. It’s and strange and ridiculous, but since when has humanity ever made any sense.

favorite food recipes: pumpkin bread

I actually didn’t know about this food until my sophomore year of college. My roomate at the time used to buy it from the the mini-mart in a nearby dorm, and let me try some one day. I was pretty much hooked after that. I love how soft the bread is and the subtly of the spice. It really is delicious. So delicious that I am , in fact, currently eating some while I am writting this.

Here is the the recipe:

Ingredients

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs, lightly bean
• 16 ounces canned unsweetened pumpkin
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 2/3 cup water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter and flour 2 9 by 5 loaf pans.
3. Stir together sugar and oil.
4. Stir in eggs and pumpkin.
5. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl.
6. Blend dry ingredients and water into wet mixture, alternating.
7. Divide batter between two loaf pans.
8. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.
9. Let stand 10 minutes.
10. Remove from pans and cool.

food and sickness

Current Craving: Meatloaf

Food is a comfort. When we are sick, we are in need of comfort. Naturally, we turn to food. Half of the home remedies and old wives tales consists of healing sickness through the eating of various things. One of the major ones in America is that ,if you have a cold, you eat chicken noodle soup.

This is my go to cure when I’m not feeling well. Whether it’s a cold, chest congestion, or just feeling like crap, I heat myself up a bowl of chicken noodle soup (preferably Progresso®), breath in the steam from the both, and instantly start feeling better.

There are also some foods we like to eat when we are sick.  I’m sure everyone reading this is thinking of a list of things they made for someone when they are not felling well, or had made for them.  Ice-cream soothes sore throats (and emotional pain).

Bread and crackers can help if your stomach is upset or maybe you drank a little too much.

The list goes on and on….

A few years back, I got my tonsils removed. My throat and mouth hurt very badly and there were very few foods I could eat. The only i found that could ease the pain in my throat and I could eat easily were ice pops and, strangely enough, white castle burgers. Every night, my parents would go to the white castle nearby and pick me up a sack of burgers and a box of Pop-ice from the supermarket, if we were out.

The reason I liked eating white castle while I was recover was that there were small, soft ,and needs very little chewing to eat. There were no hard pieces that could scratch my throat on the way down. The bread also helped sooth the upset stomach I was having.  Add that to the coldness of the icepop, and I was pretty much full and numb. Much  better than eating soup 24/7.

favorite food recipes: Inside-Out Salmon Sushi Rolls

I’ve been eating a lot of sushi lately. I Usually get it at the Purdue Memorial Union during my lunch break. I’m not sure what I like about, but I do. I’m kinda picky about it what I like though. I only like certain types of sushi. This is one of my favorites.

 

Ingredients List:

2 cups cooked sushi rice
4 nori seaweed sheets
1 pound fresh raw salmon, cut into ½-inch strips
½ cup fish roe
1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
Wasabi paste, to taste
Soy sauce, for serving
Pickled ginger, for serving

Directions:

1. Lay the nori sheets out on a sheet of plastic wrap. Spread the sushi rice evenly over the ½ of the surface of the sheets of seaweed, pressing down to adhere well. Flip the nori over so that the rice faces the plastic wrap.

2. At the end of nori where there is no rice, place the salmon, roe, and avocado, being careful not to overfill the roll. Roll the sushi up from the non-rice end of the nori and continue rolling tightly, using the plastic wrap to help shape the sushi as you roll.

3. Remove the plastic wrap from the roll. Slice each roll into 8 pieces and garnish with sesame seeds. Serve with wasabi, soy sauce, and ginger.