Blog Archives
Cheat Code: Seasoning Ramen Yourself
There’s an interesting dynamic when it comes to ramen in the United States. On the one hand there’s the packaged ramen you can buy at any grocery store for like, 25 cents and that’s been stereotyped as a poor college kid food staple. On the other hand you have ramen houses/restaurants where you can get more authentic ramen dishes, but they tend to range from a bit pricey to way too expensive. I’m not entirely sure what it means, I’m just interested by the fact that there isn’t much of an in between.
That is, of course, unless you make your own in between. This post will look at some ways you can upgrade your cheap grocery store ramen to something a bit more personalized. Ramen comes with its own flavor packets, which are tasty, but a lot of times people don’t want to use them because of the massive amounts of sodium in them. Here at PCFG if we’re using the flavor packet we usually only use about half of it, and it’s fine. But here’s some ways to give flavor to your ramen without using the flavor packet at all.
Test the Recipe: Peas with Sesame Butter
“Test the Recipe” is a recurring column on PCFG where we test vintage (anything published before 1990) recipes and see if they stand the test of time or need updating. In this post we test the recipe as exactly as possible for the most accurate outcomes. Those recipes that need updating will be featured later in a “We Can Do It Better” post.
I realized when looking through recent posts that the first two “Test the Recipe” posts were desserts. Not that there’s anything wrong with dessert, but we here at Poor Couple’s Food Guide believe in eating a balanced diet. So for this edition I turned to veggies. It was actually harder to find a good recipe to test than I thought it would be. There was a fair amount of vegetable recipes, but I had to narrow it down to ones that seemed quick, since this was going to be a side dish and not a main course, and also contain vegetables that everyone eating dinner would eat (which is easier said than done). There were a lot of recipes for vegetables I don’t like. Why so many asparagus and mushroom recipes guys? There weren’t even any I really wanted to use in the first book I looked through, but luckily I found one I felt like testing in Betty Crocker’s Working Woman’s Cookbook from 1982. I’ve always been a fan of sesame, so peas with sesame butter it was.
Food 101: How To Make Oven Fries
French fries are pretty much perfect. They’re delicious, easy to make, and it’s almost impossible to screw them up. The only real criticism you could make against them is that even though homemade fried foods aren’t inherently “bad” for you, they still are a few more calories compared to their baked counterparts. So if you’re looking for a diet-friendly alternative to french fries, there’s always oven fries!
Also, there’s potatoes. Just… raw-ass potatoes.
The Snack Report: Unique Pretzels Splits
Pretzels are such an overlooked little snack food. Snacks get a bad rep thanks to classic junk foods like Doritos and Cheetos and Fritos, which all magically rhyme, something I never quite noticed before… Weird. But alas, the poor pretzel does not deserve to be lumped into the same category, as they are actually relatively benign in the grand scheme of snackature. Pretzels are merely tiny, little breads. Cool-shaped, miniature breadsticks with some salt. There’s nothing particularly malicious in them. Sure, they’re not a nutrient-laden power food, but let’s be honest here; if you’re worried about cramming vitamins and nutrition into your snacking then you either have a shitty diet, or your diet is so good that you get enough nutrients from your other food of the day. They’re not bad for you by any stretch of the imagination. Rather, pretzels are merely a fun, little snack, and that’s it. Unfortunately because of this, many brands of storebought pretzels seem to really just be cop-outs. You see a lot of bland, generic ones that sorta just have a boring, salty starch flavor. They’re good in a pinch, or to serve en masse with dip, but if you’re a true fan of pretzels like myself, you’re gonna wanna find a REAL pretzel brand that knows what they’re doing.
Not the pretzels we need, the pretzels we DESERVE.
Pizza Lab #37: Peppermint Christmas Pizza
Happy New Year to all our faithful readers, as well as any new faces who just stumbled onto Poor Couple’s Food Guide. 2015 is almost completely gone, but luckily for you, we’ve got one last Pizza Lab to squeeze in before 2016 starts up. T’is the season to be festive, and as such we designed a true Christmastime pizza. Let’s ring in the New Year right, by eating dessert pizza!
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