Category Archives: Food 101
Food 101: How To Make A Root Beer Float
Soda’s bad for you. That’s a fact of life, and more people need to realize that. It’s one of the biggest culprits behind why America has gotten so fat, considering the average American drinks over 40 frigging gallons per year. Considering each serving is a good 150-200 calories, there’s plenty of evidence for why people shouldn’t be drinking multiple cups of it per day. Hell it reminds me of a friend of mine who even into high school, ate his cereal in Pepsi instead of using milk, since he was vegan. Hooray, no animals were mistreated, you just consumed nearly a pound of sugar! But I digress, this post isn’t meant to be a soda-bashing post. Soda should be considered a treat, like a dessert. Like ice cream. Oh boy, here comes a segue!
Vroooooooooomnope!
Food 101: How to Roast Garlic
We’ve had garlic on our mind a lot lately, due to all our prep work for the upcoming Garlic Festival. There are so many things you can do with garlic. Yet when people think of garlic, what generally springs mind is the characteristics associated with raw garlic- super strong smell, strong flavor, and sometimes even spicy. There’s a softer side to garlic however, and that arrives through roasting. When you roast garlic it gets soft, and yes, even kind of sweet. Oh yeah, and the aroma is heavenly. The best part is that roasting garlic is super easy. Follow me!
Food 101: How To Make Chicken Cutlets
Possibly one of the greatest, most useful foundation blocks of a balanced diet is the mighty chicken cutlet. Hailing from almost all corners of the world, almost every cuisine on the planet features some variation of a breaded cutlet made from chicken, pork, or veal. In America we’ve come to embrace chicken as the one true cutlet in modern times, since chicken is objectively better than other meats in every way, shape, and form. Plus, not only are they fairly easy to make and pretty good for you health-wise if fried in olive oil, but they’re also amazingly versatile and can be used to make a like eight billion different dishes. Seriously, the sky is the limit if you have a steady supply of chicken and breadcrumbs. Everyone on the planet should know how to whip together a quick batch of chicken cutlets, as if it were a rite of passage (and in some Italian households it is, haha). If you were never scolded or shamed into learning how this late in the game, then you’ll be happy to know it’s something that nearly anyone can make.
Food 101: Barbecue Basics and How To Grill
It’s the first official day of Summer, and you can bet your ass there’s gonna be ton of barbecues today! The two go hand in hand, thanks to grilling being a particularly outdoorsy activity. Sure, you can barbecue food during winter, but the comic relief will be off the charts. Beside that, there’s still just something charming about seasonal cuisines, and so leaving the grilled food to summertime just seems right in a sense. Grilled foods, afterall, are one of the healthiest ways to cook. They contain less fat due to it dripping away under the high heat, and don’t need breading or extensive manipulation, meaning they’re easy to prepare gluten-free or for people with other food allergies.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Some people don’t know how to grill. What do you do if you’ve never done it before? Hell, as far as cooking methods go, grilling is potentially one of the more… not ‘dangerous’ ones per se, but rather you do need to know the proper techniques involved in grilling or you can either injure yourself or just totally ruin the food. If you’re an out and out dad and can grill in your sleep, fantastic. This post is here for everyone who’s trying it for the first time, or just wants the knowledge for future reference.
Spices 101: What is Cumin?
Cumin is an awesome spice. Cumin is by far my favorite spice. The best way I can describe it, is that it smells like an armpit and makes everything taste like a taco.
I know that sounds kinda weird but trust me, cumin is really useful. It complements other flavors really well in spice blends and despite its funky smell, it’s never overbearing when you use it in cooking. I love throwing it into everything from curries to dry rubs to breading. It’s exotic enough to be interesting, but not something you have to pay top-dollar for.
Cumin
Origin: Mediterranean / India
Appearance: Greyish-tan powder OR long, tan seeds with lines
Scent: B.O., Peppery
Taste: Warm, earthy
Foods: Indian cuisine, Latino cuisine
Rareness: Average
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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