How to order at Chipotle

I love Chipotle.  Here is some excellent advice about how to maximize your burrito order.  (I say carnitas and pinto beans, though, instead of steak/barbacoa and black beans.)

On a related note, I'm spending some time with some 20-somethings for a fundraising campaign.  One of these kids used to work at a Chipotle, but refused to eat there because, he complained, Chipotle's food is very very bad for your health since they put salt in everything (in the meat, in the beans, in the sauces, etc).  His complaint seemed odd to me since he was smoking as he described this.  But it seemed all the odder when, later in the day, I watched him shake salt onto a pizza.

WhatThe****ShouldIMakeForDinner

Want help thinking of something to make for dinner? Try this.

Click on the food name to get to a recipe for it. Or click on "I Don't F***ing Like That" or "I Don't F***ing Eat Meat" to change the suggestion.

LJ medical update

MRI was today. Nothing bad found. It was cool looking at the images with the doctor as she explained what they were looking for.

As for what is causing my problems, the new leader is something called Vestibular Migraine. There are many variations of this, the rarest seems to be the one I possibly have - the one without the headaches. There is an outside chance that this is all allergy related and that theory will be examined more closely if in the next couple of months my episodes do not stop.

As for treatment, it is a 2-pronged attack. First is medication that I start in small dosages and increase only if the episodes continue. The second avenue is food. While the causes of migraines are not completely understood, certain foods and food types are thought to be triggers. So I'm going through the process of eliminating certain foods, then re-introducing them one-by-one to see which (if any) seems to trigger something. I started this process back in early January and get to add something starting today. If after adding them all back and nothing happens, then the process starts over with a different type of food group (elimination, then adding one-by-one). I think there are 4 food group/types, so this could be a rather long, drawn out process.

One last note, that is a bit negative in my case - driving. While they didn't tell me to not drive, they did suggest I limit my driving, at least while I ramp up on the medication. Neighborhood and very local driving seems to be OK - anything more than that they wanted me to be cautious about. Bummer :(

My new obsession is....

Not much difference between this and fresh ground & brewed (or maybe our coffee maker needs cleaning).

Christmas recipes

I'll start with this delectable desert that I've never made. How does it sound to you? T thought the addition of the chocolate chips sounded bad.

PECAN PIE BARS

Recipe from Kathy Fowler, Spring

1 1⁄ 3 cups flour

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

3/4 cup sugar, divided use

3/4 cup light corn syrup

2 eggs

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In medium bowl, combine flour, butter and 1/4 cup sugar. Beat at low speed until crumbly. Press into bottom of 9-inch square baking pan. Bake 15-20 minutes or until brown.

In separate bowl, combine corn syrup, 1/2 cup sugar, eggs, flour and vanilla. Beat at medium speed until well-combined. Stir in pecans by hand.

Sprinkle chocolate chips over hot crust. Pour filling over chips and crust. Continue baking 30-35 minutes or until set. Cut into bars.

Chili Recipe

2 pounds ground beef
1 quart water
2 medium-size onions (finely grated)
2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce
5 whole allspice
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin seed
4 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 ounce bitter chocolate
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 large bay leaf
5 whole cloves
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

Add beef to water in a 4 quart pot. Stir until beef separates to a fine texture. Boil slowly for 30 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients, stir to blend, bringing to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered for about 3 hours.

During the last hour, pot may be covered after desired consistency is reached. Remove bay leaf before serving. Chili should be refrigerated overnight so fat can be lifted from top before reheating. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Serve over spaghetti!!!

Chili

Please share your best chili recipes.

I always cheat for chili thanks to Carroll Shelby. But I keep meaning to do better.

Happy Anniversary, Alton Brown

Ezra commemorates 10 years on air for Good Eats by embedding a clip from the first episode.

Perfect boiled eggs

Here. With science and experiments.

Potato chips

I see from This Day in History that today is the birthday of the potato chip. Thank you very much, George Crum.

I wonder why it took 150 years, give or take, for someone to make jalapeno-flavored potato chips.

Eggs

At our family reunion in Bis, I had the pleasure of enjoying some perfectly-made scrambled eggs. Thank you, M. There is really quite a difference between well made eggs and poorly made eggs. I suspect part of the key is using a low temperature, but perhaps he could comment or guest-post about technique.

In the meantime, here's Julia Child teaching us how to make an omelette.


h/t Ezra

Every single time I've ever set out to make an omelette, I've bailed at some point and decided that I'd rather just have scrambled eggs anyway, dammit.

Update: I'm a bad blogger. I completely forgot that we made "omelettes" like this (and they were edible) in Bis:

Neopolitan pizza

is all the rage everywhere now apparently. Here's a plug for the best Neopolitan pizza in Minneapolis, owned by a friend of mine. He opened it about a decade ago, so he was several years ahead of his time.

Heat transfer: meatballs and ice

I have a heat transfer question. It's a mother/daughter argument ready to happen and I need backup.

My mom is transporting 10 pounds of frozen Swedish meatballs (in 4 bags) from Minneapolis to Bismarck by car tomorrow. That's a six-hour trip. The objective is to keep them frozen. She's purchased a small cooler. The cooler is exactly the right size for the meatballs, with no space left over for ice. The question we face is whether the meatballs will fare better if she fills the single cooler with meatballs and no ice, or if she buys a second cooler and fills the two coolers half with meatballs and half with bags of ice.

I'm thinking the heat transfer coefficient of the meatballs is lower than that of ice (i.e. that meatballs thaw more slowly than ice cubes melt, given equal surface area in identical environmental temp), and further that the meatballs have less surface area that the ice cubes and therefore she'd be better off filling one cooler with frozen meatballs. I KNOW she's not going to believe that such a thing could possibly be true.

I could well be wrong about the comparative heat transfer coefficients of meatballs/ice (opinions, please), but if I'm right about that, then I'm right about the cooler conclusion, am I not?

I guess there's one other factor to consider. The meatballs, being bigger than the ice cubes leave greater air space between/amongst them than a bag of small ice cubes would, and that would result in faster heat transfer/thawing. That favors the two-cooler plan.

Crock Pot Chili Verde

IFA offers a crock pot chili verde recipe and recommends that it be served with homemade cornbread.

The Internet Food Association

I've added the Internet Food Association blog to our Links, since we've covered some food territory here. My boy Ezra Klein blogs for them. You'll find food debates (e.g. heated discussion yesterday about whether one should season boiled crab with Old Bay or not), daily food porn pictures, and coverage of Top Chef.

Today, Ezra asks what kitchen gadgets we can do without. I'm a non-gadget cook. I'm with Ezra on the give-me-one-good-knife-and-a-wooden-spoon philosophy.

Saveur--The Texas Issue

is on the stands. Web ed. of recipe listings here.

Jalapeño Corn Bread recipe here.

Ezra breaks up with Cooks Ill.

Ezra Klein has broken up with Cooks Illustrated. He suspects they've not been honest with him in telling tales of the process they go through to arrive at the perfect recipe.

I haven't broken up with Cook's yet; I'm still using them for their recipes. But I'm not in love anymore. Not since I heard one of their writers/editors on Lynne Rossetto Kasper's radio show, The Splendid Table, doing a comparison of canned chicken noodle soup. I listened intently when I was done gasping in surprise that they were giving us permission to eat CANNED soup. In their test, the only Campbell's soup they used was the cheap original, and they panned it for its crazy yellow color and lack of vegetables. It was so completely unfair to compare that soup to, say, the Progresso offering, since they're not offered at the same price. Campbell's has a Chunky chicken noodle soup that would have made a more fair comparison since it's closer in price, and its quality is considerably better.

I'd long suspected that Cooks gets paid off for its product and food comparisons to make up the revenue they're missing from not taking advertising. Several years ago, I had tried using Cook's Ill's recommended brand of canned tomatoes and wondered how it had gotten higher marks than my usual brand. I thought it was just me, that I didn't have the palate to be a foodie. But that travesty of a test for the chicken noodle soup told the full tale.

Scots Food

Mmmmm, haggis.

Image here (yes, I've had it).

Typical ingredients:

1 sheep's lung (illegal in the U.S.; may be omitted if not available)
1 sheep's stomach
1 sheep heart
1 sheep liver
1/2 lb fresh suet (kidney leaf fat is preferred)
3/4 cup oatmeal (the ground type, NOT the Quaker Oats type!)
3 onions, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup stock

More instructions here.

Note, any recipe that begins with "Wash lungs and stomach well" is something to be wary of.

Sweet Potato Soup with Chilies and Honey

I tried and loved this very easy recipe for sweet potato soup. The flavors are interesting and complex because of the mix of spicy/savory and sweet and because of the roasting of the sweet potatoes. In the dead of winter, I'm always craving creamy food and this is at least a little creamy without being full of the calories that usually come with creamy.

2 lbs fresh sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges (I cut them into slabs of relatively uniform thickness so they cook evenly)
2 TBSP olive oil
1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup golden honey
6 cups chicken stock

Options for garnishes:
1/2 cup heavy cream whipped to soft peaks
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 375 F, with rack in the middle. Put all ingredients except stock (and optional garnishes) in a medium bowl and toss very well. Tip everything onto an ungreased heavy cookie sheet or shallow roasting pan. Bake at 375 F for 40 minutes, but check them after 25 minutes. (You don’t want any blackening on the edges, but you do want them to brown well in a few spots. If you get black spots on any of your wedges, don’t use them in the soup – just eat them.)

Put the stock in a large pan over medium heat and add the roasted sweet potatoes and simmer for 20 minutes.

Blend to a smooth puree, either with an immersion blender or in small batches in a blender. Check the consistency; if too thin, return to pot and simmer further; if too thick, add water or stock.

Optional: add garnish to dished soup. I recommend a good crusty bread to go along with it.

This recipe was printed in the Fall 2008 issue of Real Food, a magazine provided free by Lunds & Byerlys (my favorite grocery stores), and I post it here with permission from the magazine's editor, Dara Grumdahl. The recipe is the creation of caterer Serena Bass.

For the love of Spam

Rachel Hutton writing for The City Pages, an alternative (and pretty good) paper here tells us all we'd ever want to know about Spam. Apparently, there's all kinds of fun to be had with Spam:

In recent years, people have related to Spam less as a foodstuff than as a celebrity. The meat has its own poetry (Spam-ku, none of which needs to be repeated here), merchandise (neckties, fishing bobbers, onesies), and musical group (the Spam-ettes, famous for performing such tunes as "Mr. Spam-man"). There are Spam festivals (Spam Jam in Waikiki, for example; Hawaii tops the nation in Spam consumption, followed by Alaska) and Spam-carving contests (pigs and hot dogs are popular subjects). Hell, a man once proposed to his girlfriend with a Spam-can ring. (They were artists. She said yes.)

I went looking for some Spam haiku and learned that there's a whole book of Spam haiku: Spam-ku: Tranquil Reflections on Luncheon Loaf Example:

How many degrees
Can one tilt an ungreased pan
Before a loaf slips?

If you want more, and I'm sure you do, you can go here to read 19,000 Spam-kus. If you feel so inspired, you may add your own Spam-ku to the archive. There are also limericks and sonnets and other poetic forms directed to glorifying Spam.