Guilty Indulgence: Freezer Burns

Foodies come in all appetites, and Gregory Ng over at FreezerBurns proves that even frozen food has its foodies.

I must admit, as a recovering frozen food addict, its quite difficult to watch, but at the same time I cant look away.

Check him out!

In Defense Of The Double-Down

We have all seen the television spots. We have all seen the news reports. We have all seen, heard and read the mockery, disgust and overall horror. But is the new KFC Double-Down really something to fear and loathe?

Now I am not going to defend this sandwich on any nutritional or ethical boundaries. What KFC puts into their food and into their chickens is a different matter entirely, and best saved for animal rights activists than myself. However, I am doing to defend this sandwich on its execution and delivery. Let us start by first deconstructing the sandwich.

The Double-Down consists of:

• 2 chicken breast halves
• 2 slices of cheese
• 2 pieces of bacon
• Sauce

Obviously chicken, cheese and bacon is abhorrent and so far off the deep end it is something to rage about, right? Well not really. Go into any Italian or French restaurant here in America, and I guarantee you will find one of many dishes consisting of chicken breasts, cheese and maybe bacon. Why is it then that paying $15 for this stuff on a plate is ok, yet drop a few dollars on the go and suddenly its over the top? It just seems like such an overreaction.

Another point on the Double-Down is, if it had the bread, no one would care! Why is a triple-stack cheeseburger acceptable, but a chicken sandwich minus the bun is unholy? Again, an overreaction.

I say, leave the Double-Down alone. Its not unusual. Its not weird. Its not "too much". Health wise its a death trap, but an oddity it is not.

Antioxidants up the Wazoo

As I perused the candy aisle, as I am want to do from time to time, torturing myself with the cant haves in life, I stumbled upon the new-ish dark chocolate section. As some of you may have noticed, some time in the mid to late 2000's Dark Chocolate was the thing. Cadbury, Russell Stover, Godiva, and my personal favorite, Hershey's (haters be damned) all came out with new lines of 50%, 60%, 70%, etc. dark chocolate bars.

Now, I am not a fan of dark chocolate, as bitter is really the only taste I dont really care for. I much prefer the silky, creamy, smooth, unctuous mouth feel of a milk chocolate. However, the Hershey line of bars have peaked my interest for some time, and I decided to give in. I chose the "Pure Dark Chocolate with Pomegranate flavored pieces" variety. Now the term "pieces" had me puzzled, but we will get back to that.

First thing I noticed about the bar occurred an hour or so after bringing it home. I set it on the table, went to work on some things on my laptop (and yes, Spore = Work), and after about an hour a faint pleasantly fruity aroma filled my dining room. I assume the warmer room temperature of my home caused oils in the chocolate bar to release into the air. I had been saving the bar for later, but the smells was intoxicating and I quickly unwrapped it.

Taking my first bite, I was hit with that familiar enemy, bitterness, but after chewing, I hit these little pellets of pomegranate flavor. The pellets, or "pomegranate flavored pieces", are something resembling a mix between the little rice bits in a Crunch bar and tapioca balls. I thought that maybe they were dried pomegranate arils, so i simply took a small corner of a square and sucked on it, what I found was surprising.

Nestled within bar were aril shaped chewy things. Now in the ingredients, the bar does list pectin as an ingredient, and pectin, as a gelling agent, certainly could explain these odd "flavor pieces". Now the thing I find humorous in this is that the pieces are shaped like they should be dried arils. Even tho these are nestled within the bar and will most likely never be seen, they bothered to shaped them like pomegranate. Interesting choice Hershey's.

Now I guess here is where Id rate the bar. As Ive only had the pomegranate, and as Im biased against dark chocolate already, my rating is going to be based on how well I feel the pomegranate flavor was incorporated and helped tone down the bitterness of the dark chocolate. So now that we got that down, heres my rating:

3/5, or, a C, maybe a C+.

The pomegranate flavor was good, and was distinctly pomegranate, however, for a bar marketed as higher end, discovering that they replace the pomegranate with cranberry, apple, pineapple, and elderberry juices is a bit of a let down. I understand companies mix juices to keep costs down on the pricier flavors, but I think the clientele who these bars are marketed to would pay the extra few cents or a buck to buy it if they liked it. Im also a bit disappointed on how they incorporated the flavor. I wish they could have just flavored the chocolate itself or actually had real pomegranate in it, rather than the "flavored pieces". The result was a random mismatch of chocolate to pom ratio. Sometimes youd hit a real bitter spot, others youd have an overwhelming flavor of pom.

In the end, if you like dark chocolate, if you like pomegranate, I say give it a try at least. I may not buy this bar again, but I dont think it will turn me away from maybe trying the other flavors they have going on. Who knows, maybe I can find my miracle bar that switches me to the dark side.

(Unrelated note, the Cookie-a-Day project is on hiatus due to life, my camera, and other things. I have my reviews for the cookies I did manage to make in the works, but the ones later on in the list might have to wait a bit to even be made. Sorry, Im working on it, so just sit tight :])

Cookie-A-Week 2: Peanut Butter

Nothing reminds me like a trip to the big local shopping mall like a delicious peanut butter cookie. Walking to the food court, approaching that cookie stand, and ordering one of those as-big-as-your-head, flat, golden brown and delicious, warm cookies. The taste is always the same, like swallowing a spoonful of Jiff or Skippy, but without that sticky feeling. As you can probably tell, I love a good peanut butter cookie, so when I was thinking of doing this cookie a week project, I knew peanut butter had to be on the list.

Now this recipe is an extremely good one. The texture of the cookie is spot on, with a slightly crunchy exterior and a soft moist interior. And if you want, the batter is great to mix in chopped nuts or small chocolate pieces (I used chocolate chips, which ended up being fairly large). However, the key to making this recipe is, not surprisingly, the peanut butter.

For all my cookies, Ive been using the best ingredients. Real vanilla, organic and unbleached flours, free range eggs, and as fresh and local ingredients as possible. My local Whole Foods and Farmers Markets have been picked clean of baking items because of my bloodlust for quality. But, if like me, you prefer the flavor of the regular supermarket peanut butter like Jiff or Skippy, USE IT! This is not the recipe to be reaching for that organic/all-natural peanut butter with the oil at the top, unless you like the taste of the peanut butter. I used that kind of peanut butter, and while the cookies were good, they werent the flavor I was looking for. Bottom line, think of peanut butter as wine, dont cook with it if you wouldnt eat it.

PS: I know this entry is extremely late. Life has gotten in the way, and while these entries may end up being sporadic, I am still making cookies. In fact, I have 2 more recipes already stored and ready to type up for you. So sit tight ya'll :]

Cookie-A-Week 1: Snickerdoodles

(sorry for the lateness with this, but life, ya know?)

Now, I am not much of a snickerdoodle fan, but at the pleading of my boyfriend I chose to make a batch of the sugary cinnamony delights. I followed the recipe as best I could, but as I lacked a mixer of any kind, creaming butter and sugar proved to be a challenge, and the dough ended up a bit too sticky.

I am sure the recipe is not at fault, and my own cookie making virginity and lack of materials is what made me suffer. Whats that? Why yes, I did say "cookie making virginity". Before these snickerdoodles, I had never made cookies before (unless you count the pre-made dough from Pillsbury, but I dont so my virginity still stands. Consider the Pillsbury cookies my masturbation baking).

So I guess now this is the part where I rewrite the recipe and post step-by-step photos of each direction to make the cookie, but I honestly dont think you need to see that (and I forgot to take pictures so many times during the steps). So instead Im just going to give you my opinion of the cookies.

They were good, but not great. They were very tender, and almost melted in your mouth, but the flavor was predominantly that of a sugar cookie. Those wanting a bit more cinnamon twang, I suggest mixing some in with the flour before assembling the cookie. Also, the recipe says to make balls and flatten them down, but as the dough was very sticky for me, even with prepped hands, the balls stuck to my fingers and constantly shifted the parchment paper.

As I said, I dont know whether my issues with these cookies were the recipe or my own lack of experience, so I suggest you try them yourself but maybe with some revisions. 3/5 stars for me.

My dough balls arent exact "balls" per se

Flattened

Cooling. I have no rack so I have to make do =p

A Cookie-A-Week

With school winding down and the christmas season upon us, I have decided to make a batch of cookies each weekend until I start school up again in February. In total I will be making 9 delicious batches of cookies, and will record my progress here in blogs to come.

The cookies I will be making are:

Week 1: Snickerdoodles

Week 2: Peanut Butter

Week 3: Gingerbread

Week 4: Linzer Cookies

Week 5: Pumpkin Cookies

Week 6: Sugar Cookies

Week 7: Chocolate Wafers

Week 8: Oatmeal

Week 9: Chocolate Mint Brownies

So I hope you look forward to it.

Clara: Great-Grandmother or Greatest-Grandmother?

A small great-grandmother in a red blouse hunches over a stove in her rural New York home. From her kitchen she cooks up simple, healthy, and tasty meals. But this woman isnt my great-grandmother, her name is Clara and she is the star of the Youtube series Great Depression Cooking.

Clara is a 94 year old, first generation American, great-grandmother who shares with her viewers recipes her and her family made during the Great Depression. Her recipes, which include such classics as Pasta & Peas (above) and something called Cooked Bread (stale bread soaked in hot water) show that even with very little you can make something delicious, something we need to know in these tough economic times.

But I think there is an even more important reason to watch Clara and share her videos with people you know, specifically, the kind of people who think a meal is just a can of soup mixed with noodles. The kind of people who never lift a knife, and spend extra money on prepared garlic from a jar. I had to grow up with that kind of cooking, being served sodium laced gruel on a plate made from texturized soy-protein beef bouillon niblets. To those people, cooking has become a chore, and they have reverted to acting like children who are forced to clean their rooms. Instead of actually picking up their toys, they just stuff them anywhere they can find, they take a shortcut, and its sad. Make them watch Clara cook, buy them her book, make them try what she does. It says a lot about someones cooking when food from the Depression is more appealing than what they are serving.