mizchef

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry
  • 04Mar

    Celebrate National Cheese Doodle Day

    Oh, my god. March 5 is National Cheese Doodle Day! Can you believe that? Remember munching on an entire bag of cheese doodles and ending up with orange hands? Those were the days. For some of you, it was today. That’s okay, we all have our weaknesses.

    Whether you prefer Wise’s Cheez Doodles or Frito Lay’s Cheetos, or those little, round orangy balls that they sell in those gigantic plastic tubs and try to pass off as cheese doodles, this is a snack food that seems to live on and on. It’s associated with kids’ parties and backyard barbecues, and if you serve it at a party, it’s considered (pardon the pun) cheesy. Yet, we can’t help ourselves, can we? I don’t know about you, but I find it impossible to control my hand when it reaches for the bowl of the bright orange oddities. No matter how good my intentions are when I go to a party, no matter how determined I am to stick to the crudites and fruit salad, my hand just moves away from my body and makes a beeline for those cheese doodles. Damn hand! It’s all your fault I have weight issues!

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    Filed under: About Food, Food Holidays, Miscellaneous foodie stuff, Uncategorized
    Tags: cheese doodles, cheetos, cheez doodles, national cheese doodle day, snack foods
    No Comments
  • 12Feb

    Chocolate Month

    Hi, gang. Well, if you’ve been watching the Food Network this month at all, you may have picked up on a theme. Let’s see, there was Alton Brown doing multiple chocolate shows; Unwrapped discussed the history of chocolate treats; On Food Network Challenge, the challenges for this week are Chocolate Runway Challenge, Chocolate Masterpieces, Chocolate Wonders (you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen the Eiffel Towel done in chocolate latticework!), Chocolate Landmarks, and Chocolate Fantasy; and just last night, I watched two back-to-back episodes of Iron Chef, wherein the secret ingredients were chocolate and chocolate and chiles.

    By: André Karwath aka Aka

    Umm, have you guessed the theme yet? That’s right, you’ve won the prize. It’s chocolate! That’s because February is Celebration of Chocolate Month, all hinged on one day: St. Valentine’s Day, this Sunday. (Incidentally, February 14 is specifically National Creme-Filled Chocolates Day. Gee, I wonder why.)
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    Filed under: About Food, Food History, Food Holidays, Holidays, Recipes, Uncategorized
    Tags: Chocolate, National Chocolate Month, Valentine's Day
    2 Comments
  • 22Jan

    Appetizers

    Hi, kids. It’s been a really rough week for me. I’ve had to deal with a broken sink, bad news from various friends and, worst of all, a malicious virus on my computer. It’s the Malware Defense, and if any of you have had to deal with it, you know how heinous it is. My entire week was taken up wbangingheadagainstkeyboardstreetsigith combating this vicious thing and in the end, I had to wipe out my computer and reload my OS. It’s going to take me days to reload all my programs. A couple of programs I lost altogether because I no longer have the installation disks. <huge sigh> The people who created this obviously have knowledge and skill—why can’t they use their powers for good? I hope the proper karma is in store for the people who sit around and come up with this stuff. People like that are a waste of humanity.

    Anyway, on with the show.

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    Filed under: About Food, Appetizers, Cookbooks, Culinary Experiments, Food History, Food Writing, Miscellaneous foodie stuff, Recipe Tests, Uncategorized, cooking
    Tags: antipasti, antipasto, Appetizers, Cookbooks, hors d'oeuvres, malware defense, recipe testing, virus
    1 Comment
  • 15Jan

    World of Pizza

    Hi, kids. Before I get into this week’s topic, I just want to express my sympathy for all the victims of the earthquake in Haiti, and for all those here and around the world who lost loved ones. In thinking about what to write about this week, I remembered how lucky I am right now that I have the luxury of talking about food and that I don’t have to scrounge around a devastated countryside looking for food and water. When I’m feeling sorry for myself, I try to remind myself of these things. If you’d like to help with the relief effort in Haiti, visit the Red Cross.

    Okay, let’s get into it.

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    Filed under: About Food, Ethnic food, Food History, Regional foods, Uncategorized
    Tags: babycakes, bluestockings, knish, Lombardi's, lombardi's pizza, pizza, pizza history, Scott's pizza tours, tenement museum, yonah shimmel's
    2 Comments
  • 26Dec

    Answer: Hit of the Party

    Question: What is tiramisú?

    Hi, all. I hope everyone had a happy and fun holiday. And I hope that the gifts you all got were the meaningful kind, rather than the costly kind. Sometimes, those two things overlap, but far too often, people buy expensive gifts just because they’re expensive and not because they really mean something to the recipient. I know several couples who opted to make donations rather than send out Christmas cards and buy gifts. I know one family who sponsors needy families in other countries by buying important items for them. For example, last year they bought a goat through Heifer International. This year they bought a goat, a flock of chickens, and a flock of ducks. If you visit Heifer International, you can choose your gift and they send it to those who need them.

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    Filed under: About Food, Cooking Tips, Desserts, Ethnic food, Food History, Miscellaneous foodie stuff, Recipes, Uncategorized
    Tags: ladyfingers, mascarpone, raspberry tiramisu, tiramisu
    No Comments
  • 04Dec

    It’s a Coconutty World

    Hi, gang. This week, I spent a lot of time testing recipes that required coconut. The recipes are mostly Indonesian and African, and call for urapshredded coconut, chunks of coconut, and coconut milk. It’s not that I was jonesing for Southeast Asian or African food, or even coconut—it was a decision of practicality. I decided that if I was going to go to the trouble of cracking open a coconut and working to get the meat out, I’d might as well do two coconuts at once and have enough for all the recipes that require it. So that’s what I did. Now I have some in the refrigerator and put a container of it it in the freezer.

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    Filed under: About Food, Cooking Tips, Culinary Experiments, Ethnic food, Food History, Recipe Tests, Uncategorized, cooking
    Tags: coconuts, pina colada, urap, yam salad, yams, young coconuts
    No Comments
  • 28Nov

    5 Things I Learned This Thanksgiving

    Hi, there. I hope everyone had a great, safe Thanksgiving this year. This one was a little different for me because I’ve gone through many life changes this year, which have affected how and where I celebrate the holidays. I’ve been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family for the past 10 years. The number of guests has varied from 12 to 20, but the amount of food has always been the same. My philosophy is, better to have too much than not enough. After all, people will want to take leftovers home and there’s always THE DAY AFTER. 

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    Filed under: About Food, Culinary Experiments, Ethnic food, Holidays, Recipes, Seasonal Cooking, Uncategorized, cooking
    Tags: chestnut stuffing, cipolline, cranberry sauce, Thanksgiving
    5 Comments
  • 07Nov

    Jumpin’ Good Goat Dairy

    signHi, all. As promised in a previous post, this week is all about the Jumpin’ Good Goat Dairy. I’d never been to a goat dairy before and it proved to be an educational and fun experience. The goats are really cute and I never knew what sweet animals they are. One of the females came over to one of the fences where I standing and was practically begging to be scratched. I obliged and was rewarded with adorable nuzzling.nuzzle

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    Filed under: About Food, Artisanal foods, Miscellaneous foodie stuff, Regional foods, Technique, Uncategorized, education
    Tags: artisinal cheese, goat cheese, Jumpin' Good Goat Dairy
    1 Comment
  • 28Aug

    Kasha and Knishes

    Hi, gang. First thing’s first: I want to remind all my fellow writers out there that there are only a few days left to submit to Skulls and Crossbones, the female pirate anthology. Quick, polish up those stories and send them in!  Make sure to follow the guidelines and send them to pirateanthology@gmail.com.

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    Filed under: About Food, Ethnic food, New Food, Recipes, Regional foods, Uncategorized, cooking
    Tags: kasha, kasha and bows, kasha and bowties, kasha varnishkes, knish, Yonah Schimmel's knish bakery
    1 Comment
  • 22Aug

    Honey

    Hi, gang. One of the things I like to pick up when I go to rural areas is honey produced  by local farmers (beekeepers, really). We’re talking pure, raw honey that hasn’t processed. You can taste the purity of the nectar and once you’ve tried it, you’ll never want to go back to the processed stuff.

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    Filed under: About Food, Cooking Tips, Food History, Miscellaneous foodie stuff, Recipes, Uncategorized, cooking
    Tags: apitherapy, Honey, leatherwood honey
    2 Comments
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Pages

  • About
  • Book Reviews
  • Buckwheat-Raspberry Cakes and Muffins
  • Foodie Places to Check Out
    • Babycakes
  • Recipes
    • Cipolline Agrodolce
    • Frittata di Patate e Cipolla con Pepe Forte
    • Green Bean, Potato and Tomato Medley
    • Insalata Caprese
    • Spinach and Potato Pie
    • Squash Blossom Frittata
    • Zucchini-Corn Soup with Tubettini
  • Restaurant Reviews
  • Tips
    • Making Great Pasta Salad

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