Food 101: How to Make Soup Yourself

I don’t know about you, but it’s been ridiculously and unnecessarily cold where I live this winter.  When it’s so cold out, all I can think about is ways to keep warm.  One nice, tasty way to keep warm is by eating soup.  I fully admit to eating soup from a can on numerous occasions.  But I also really enjoy making my own soup.  Soup is one of those dishes that can seem kind of intimidating, but is actually pretty simple (At least to start.  Once you feel more confident in your cooking abilities you can advance to fancy soups too).  I’m going to show you the basic formula for soup making using the black bean soup I made for dinner the other night as an example.

A snowman, or me after being outside too long?

A snowman, or me after being outside too long?

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Easy Recipe: Homemade Battered French Fries

There’s a lot of reasons to like french fries. They’re cheap, they’re easy to make, they’re simple, and more importantly they’re delicious. A good french fry is a philosophical quandary of the culinary arts in that it can operate as both a side to any meal on the planet, but can also be it’s own meal. Sure, when some people bring up french fries, they think of the inconsistent pieces of yellow cardboard served by the likes of McDonalds and Burger King which can range from limp and greasy to starchy and dried out. Yet there is a whole world of fries out there to be had, and all one must do is dine at a few restaurants to notice. Certain types go for the golden and juicy variety, some are crusty with a bit of a zing, and some are just down-homey and simple. Everyone’s got their own way of making them, and most are delicious. Plain and simple, french fries are bangin’, as they say.

See how bangin' they are?

See how bangin’ they are?

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Cheat Codes: Homemade Fry Batter (For french fries, mac ‘n’ cheese bites, onion rings, and others!)

It seems to be a fact of life that everybody loves fried foods. Obviously, they’re not the healthiest choice of dining out there, but in fairness fried food at home isn’t the same beast as fried fast foods. Making your own treats at home in heated oil is generally okay since you’re using fresh vegetable or canola oil, it hasn’t been lying around all day, and is free of impurities. You can drain your foods more easily, making them less greasy and retaining less fat. In short, if you enjoy fried, salty snacks then you’re much better off making your own since your body will thank you for it later. Also not to mention, it just tastes better than the stale, greasy rubbish you’re more than likely to receive from dumpster stores like McDonalds which tend to include hilarious numbers of ingredients and ends up laced with artificial colors, flavors and borderline poison like phosphates. Seriously, their fries can last unscathed for literally years. Open a new tab, Google “McDonalds Fries are indestructible” (preferably with an empty stomach) and enjoy the show, lads.

French Fry Skull by Christopher Chiappa

They probably enjoyed the free publicity, symbolism aside. (French Fry Skull by Christopher Chiappa)

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The Snack Report: Brownie Brittle

After a month of eating Christmas cookies, I’m sure everyone is tired of them by now.  No?  Yeah, I’m not really either…but it’s still nice to have some variety in your sweet snacks, right?  So what should you turn to for cookie respite?  How about some Sheila G’s Brownie Brittle?  The snack up for review today falls into the, “why didn’t I ever think of that?” category.  Brownie Brittle is so simple, but so tasty.  It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like – super flat, crisp brownie broken up into pieces like brittle.  It also has chocolate chips in it.

BrownieBrittleCC

Apologies in advance – all the pictures are yoinked from the web, I forgot to take pictures myself before finishing them.

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Christmas Cookie Roundup: Make Your Own Yoshi’s Cookies!

T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house, we’re all baking cookies, something something mouse. That was ham-fisted, yes, but I’m pressed for time to attend the annual Italian ritual of attempting to cook enough fish on one given night to cause mass extinction of several species. I hate fish, you see, as does Meg. So naturally we’re making a pizza tonight. Now if I may be ham-fistedly make a random segue…

Anyone remember that video game Yoshi’s Cookie? It was a puzzle game for older game consoles like Super Nintendo and the original Game Boy. It featured you playing as the Super Mario character, Yoshi (a green dinosaur that loves to eat), controlling a field of cookies in which you must line up different versions of the cookies in order for them to be cleared away.

yoshiecookie2

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