It’s been way too long! I started this blog because I had a budding interest for food! Of course I still have this interest, but it has been so hard to produce a blog and still maintain a normal life. Writing a blog takes a lot of work, especially for a food blog. I cant just write my thoughts, but take pictures and try out places to eat or recipes. I still have been doing all of this, but I have not been writing.
For one, having a food blog is very dangerous! It doesnt help you lose weight at all! I love food to much and lately I have been taking a break from all of the normal, calorie packed dishes that I like to cook and eat. What I really should be doing is blogging about healthy food!
Well, thats what I’ll do! Healthy food! Here we go!
Bon Appétit
So this year there are numerous blogs that have been sharing millions of recipes and decorations for Thanksgiving. I think I can offer something just as useful. What is it that I bring to the table this year?
With the holidays coming around, its nice to know how much we are eating. Whether you plan to eat healthy on Thanksgiving and the winter holidays, or just in between the actual holidays in preparation for the Big Feast, this tool will help you determine how many calories are in a serving of your favorite holiday dishes. Watch your waistline with this Recipe Calculator. With this website you can calculate the nutritional value of any recipe by adding the ingredients and their amounts.
I wish everyone safe travels and a Happy Thanksgiving!
Sarah B.V.
If you’re like me, a broke ass college student, or just someone who likes freebies, this post is for you. I have I comprise a list of free Open Courseware, Lessons, & resources on cooking, food science, gastronomy, and culinary skills. Enjoy!
1. Food Preparation in the Home
So you want to learn to cook or at least improve your existing cooking skills? It’s important to start with the basics—safety, sanitation, measuring techniques, organization, and recipe know-how. This first lesson will get you on your way. You will gain a knowledge of fundamental concepts of kitchen management that will make your cooking experiences safer, better organized, and more enjoyable. With each new lesson, we will add to the information you master in this introductory lesson.
2. Cooking with Herbs/Spices
Lesson 1: An Herbal and Spice Primer
Lesson 2: Choosing Specific Herbs & Spices
Lesson 3: Oils, Vinegars, & Other Seasonings
Lesson 4: Rubs, Brines, Marinades & Classic Combos
Lesson 5: Vinaigrettes & Salads
Lesson 6: Breads
Lesson 7: Beverages
Lesson 8: Garnishing, Special Dishes, & Herbal Desserts
3.Breadmaking 101
Introduction
Lesson 1: The Basics
Lesson 2: Getting Started
Lesson 3: Muffins
Lesson 4: Biscuits and Scones
Lesson 5: Cornbread
Lesson 6: Coffeecake
Lesson 7: Soda Bread
Lesson 8: Beyond the Basics
4. Stella Culinary School
Podcast lectures and Video Tutorials
“Our website’s purpose is to be an ongoing educational site. Our flagship show, The Stella Culinary School Podcast, strives to replicate the same lectures you would find at a top rate culinary school, starting with the most basic concepts, with each subsequent episode building on the last. These lectures are reinforced by in-depth HD video series, such as knife skills, kitchen prep and cooking techniques. You can even reinforce your knowledge on a certain subject by taking the associated quiz, asking a question on the forum or even submitting your “home-work” that’s assigned at the end of most audio lectures.”
Itunes University – Open Courseware
Basics Of Culinary
Let Master Chef Friedenreich teach you like a pro. In this program, Chef Friedenreich coverss all the basics of knife handling for the professional chef, beginning with the types & styles of knives, the honing process and the proper way to hold the knife.
Culinary Arts Program at Florida State College
To listen to an audio podcast, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to download and subscribe to iTunes U collections.
New York University> – Fales Food Series
For the past five years the Fales Library, NYU’s Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, along with Clark Wolf of Clark Wolf Company, Inc. have planned a series of public, scholarly panels and events highlighting current topics in food. These highly popular programs, ranging from such topics as “water,” to the ethics of gourmet dining, to the “Farm Bill.” They have become important pedagogical tools and are used in classrooms to stimulate discussions about food.
Harvard University – Science and Cooking
This public lecture series discusses concepts from the physical sciences that underpin both everyday cooking and haute cuisine. Each lecture features a world-class chef who visited and presented their remarkable culinary designs: Ferran Adria presented spherification; Jose Andres discussed both the basic components of food and gelation; Joan Roca demonstrated sous vide; Enric Rovira showed his chocolate delicacies; Wylie Dufresne presented inventions with transglutaminase. The lectures then use these culinary creations as inspiration to delve into understanding how and why cooking techniques and recipes work, focusing on the physical transformations of foods and material properties.
UC Berkley – Journalism & Media: Past, Present, And future of food
#13
How Molecular Gastronomy Works – How stuff works podcast #69
or
Direct from the site
Megan Mckenzie – Food For Thought
OrB’s Food for Thought Lecture Series brings internationally recognized experts to OSU to talk about the best (and worst) ways to use biotechnology to produce food and fuel. Environmental and biotechnological issues are often complex and difficult for people to come together around; this series brings the public inside the scientific community to promote dialog and find common ground. http://oregonstate.edu/orb
Currently I am in the process of looking at schools to transfer to. I knew that I wanted to transfer since the beginning of this year, but I still dont know where I want to go, because I don’t know what I want to do. When I first started college, I was completely passionate about psychology. I chose that major and was planning on AT LEAST getting my masters, especially knowing that getting a BA would be practically worthless. Although I love psychology; neuroscience, creativity, intelligence, and positive psychology, I have had a change of heart. I don’t know what I would do with it. I don’t feel passionate about conducting research, and I feel wishy-washy about being a psychologist. It seems so unfulfilling.
This past summer I did some complete soul searching. I’m a person who has many interests that are highly concentrated at different times. I’ve always loved food, like most people, I assume. Of course, it is natural. You need food, but some love it more than others. I saw my interest spark when I was in high school. Creating complex recipes was always what I gravitated towards. I didn’t want to learn the basic stuff, I needed to learn the hard things. I accept all food challenges! I remember I made this extreme birthday cake for my ‘at the time’ boyfriend. This cake was excessive. It was actually this cake from Martha Stuart. Layers of crapes, chocolate, caramelized hazelnuts and all. It tasted great, very sweet, but the cake was sliding all over the place. I ended up sticking toothpicks through it to keep the whole thing from sliding off. My challenge from this recipe was peaking the egg whites. I didn’t know how to do it right. I had either not mixed it to the point of peaking, or had gone past it. I can’t remember now, but I know that was infuriated. Unlike any other subject, food the only thing that I’ve felt like I needed to perfect. I hate when food turn out wrong or don’t taste right, and I always have to know what I needed to do or how to fix it. What a passion huh? If you can call that passion; perhaps it is just OCD? Nah, Im just anal.
Being right brained, I love the freedom to be creative, although it does stress me out because I want to top other’s creativity. Yes, yes, we are all flawed.
Anyways, back to the story. In high school I told my parents that I thought about culinary school. “Do you really want to be a chef? You have to stand all day, it can be stressful work, and it’ just glorified for TV” they told me. They were right, I didn’t want to be a chef, I had just loved food and I liked cooking. I didn’t think of other food careers. My first and only thought was, Culinary school = Chef.
Here I am now, still freaking puzzled! Goodness! Id’ love a career in food, but I don’t know what exactly. There is no money in food writing, unless you are exceptional. Right? I know…great, there go my chances! But as of today, November 9th, 2011, I am finishing my psychology degree and am thinking of either culinary school, or getting my Masters in Gastronomy at BU. I’d love to do both, but that’s quite expensive.
I am very eager to complete a masters at BU.
Benefits: Be in Boston. Love Boston! Meet Jacque Pepin. Idol!
P.S. What are your suggestions, concerns, comments, common experiences?
You know what they say about three’s, ” Third times a charm”, well I say, its about time! I’ve made three different pumpkin/squash pies in the last month and finally a match. This is the type of pumpkin pie that I like and assume most people also prefer. With a dark amber and speckled spice appearance, this pie was creamy and custardy. It held form, and golden brown crust surrounded the pie, while the underlying crust remained solid, but chewy.
I found this recipe from a Cook’s Illustrated magazine. Apparently, they were also having trouble making a ‘perfect’ pie. They tested out the several pies, perfecting crust and the filling.
This is my adaptation to this pie. Cook’s Illustrated prefers a crunchy, firm crust, baking it first, while I have grown up and found it nostalgic to have the inside crust barley baked and soaked in filling.
Pumpkin Pie
Cooks Illustrated – Adapted by Sarah B.V.
Ingredients
Pumpkin Filling
2 cups plain pumpkin puree or squash puree
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground all spice
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 half and half
2/3 milk
4 large eggs
Pie Dough
1 1/2 cups flour
1 stick sliced, chilled butter
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2-4 tbsp cold water
1. FOR THE PIE SHELL: Butter and lightly flour the pie pan.
2. Mix the chilled sliced butter with flour, sugar, and salt either by the old fashioned way with forks, or use a mixer. Once all ingredients are crumbly, use your hand to mix the flour mixture and add one tbsp of water at a time, until the dough forms a solid ball of dough.
3. Sprinkle flour on a clean surface and on your rolling pin. Roll out the dough to fit your pie pan. Make sure to continuously to add flour to the rolling surface or rolling pin, if the dough is sticky.
4. Transfer your pie dough to the pie pan and crimp the pie crust to form a crust shaped as desired.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge until ready to bake.
6. FOR THE FILLING: Set the oven to 400 degrees.
7. Mix the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, spices, and salt.
8. Mix half and half and milk to the pumpkin mixture.
9. Process the eggs in a food processor until the whiles and yolks are combined. Add the eggs to the pumpkin mixture and mix evenly.
10. In your chilled pie crust, add the pie filling. Bake the pie until the filling is puffed, dry looking, and lightly cracked around the edges, and the center wiggles like gelatin when shaken, about 40-45 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour.
by Sarah B.V.
I like my bananas green
Oh, they are certainly fit for a queen
With their sweet and tangy flavor
They are certainly the banana I savor
And surely, its not obscene.
Now I am not monkeying around
It should be the talk of the town
With just one precious day
for a banana buffet
before the yellow turns into brown
For green bananas are rather ambitious
No one can deny that they’re nutritious
They are truly the best
Green, yellow passes the test
So long live the green delicious
About Me
Chronicles about a young bon vivant, cooking and eating her way through a self taught education in food.
