Blog Archives
Cheat Codes: Homemade Hot Chocolate & Hot Cocoa
As everyone in northeastern America is aware now, it’s preeetty freaking Winter outside. There’s several feet of snow on the ground in a lot of places around here and it’s gonna be a while before those disgusting grey-colored snow mountains in parking lots disappear. And yet we still have another month left of this shit, unfortunately. But hey, don’t let that get you down. Make some hot chocolate! It’s good for you!*
*NOT sarcasm, surprisingly.
Happy New Year! And Food Resolutions
We’re hours away from a new year. A fresh start. It’s a time when many people make New Year’s resolutions. Of course most people end up abandoning their resolutions after a few weeks or a month or two. But right now people are still looking at ways to make this year better than the last. Since one of our goals is encouraging people to expand their home cooking skills, we’ve come up with some food and cooking resolutions that may be helpful (if you’re in the market for New Year’s resolutions).
Food 101: Pumpkin Roasting
In an ideal world, we would have had this post up before Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie making time. But alas, time got away from us, and that did not happen. But, perhaps it’s even better timing now, as people transition from fall decorations to Christmas/winter ones. As we covered in pumpkin seed post, pumpkins are cool because they’re both festive seasonal decorations, and food. So instead of just throwing those pumpkins you bought for decoration out, roast them! You can roast them in slices and eat like you would other winter squash, or you can roast them for pumpkin puree. This is probably the most versatile option, since there are many things you can use pumpkin puree for. You can use any size pumpkin you have on hand, but these guidelines are written for sugar pumpkins, which are the smaller ones. If you’re using big pumpkins, like the kind for jack o’lanterns, roasting times may vary.
This is a sugar pumpkin
Both roasting processes begin with cutting your pumpkin in half and scooping out the guts. And also preheating your oven to 375 degrees (Fahrenheit).
The beginning
Food 101: Basic Biscuits Recipe
Biscuits are a great food. They can enhance your dinner, you can eat them on their own, or you can use them to make sandwiches. If you’re having a meal that has gravy, biscuits are pretty much a must in order to sop up every bit of rich, meaty goodness. One could argue that you could use dinner rolls for this as well, which is true. But the downside to dinner rolls is that they’re made using yeast, which means they need time to rise, and aren’t as easy to make. Biscuits on the other hand, are very easy to make. They use chemical leavening to rise (baking powder/soda) so there’s no downtime like there is for yeast breads. While there’s nothing wrong with using the biscuits from a can (which I admit I frequently do myself), biscuits from scratch don’t even really take that much more time, so it’s worth giving them a shot when you have a little extra time. Everyone will be super impressed with how yummy they are, and that you made them from scratch.
What you’ll need. Milk not pictured because well, I’m forgetful, and I also just realized the sugar is hidden.
The Snack Report: Kit-Kat Vanilla Ice Cream Flavor
One of the more interesting but benign trends Japan has gotten into over the past decade or so has been the rise of fancy flavored Kit-Kat bars. Obviously, in America we simply know them as plain wafer cookies coated in boring milk chocolate and pretty much nobody likes them, since after you’ve eaten one there’s not a whole lot compelling you to ever eat them again. However as weeaboos, otaku, and even people just casually aware of Japanese culture have found out, Nestle actually expanded the Kit-Kat brand into bold, delicious new territories in Japan. There’s more than just the one or two types you see in the west here; Kit-Kats come in dozens of different varieties in Japan, ranging from delicious to interesting to downright insane. Stawberry? Got it. Sweet potato? It’s sweet. Spicy wasabi? You bet your ass they got wasabi. Virtually everything is a Kit-Kat flavor in Japan. Long have I wanted to get my hands on some of these magical flavors, and ironically we ended up finding them not in the multiple Asian grocers we frequent around here, but instead in a gawdy candy store we visited on our trip to Baltimore.
*cue angels*
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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