Friday, April 18, 2008

Chow Now, Brown Cow


Food:
This week I made rice pudding from a Cook's Illustrated recipe. Easy and delish, but adding the cinnamon whilst cooking gave it a funky, khaki color. Next up is roasted chickpeas, which the folks at ChowHound are gaga over. Oh, and today, more banana bread. Sadly, the bacon experiments are on the backburner, figuratively, as I attempt to get caught up on both sleep and sleep.

I might have to read Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
 by Dan Koeppel. Two people have recommended it to me, including a dear friend whose bibliadvice (add to the Velma Dictionary – ed.) is never off the mark. Apparently the author was on Fresh Air and discussed the shelf life of organic bananas. They seem to go from green and hard to mushy and brown in a span of about 30 minutes. (I exaggerate, but just a bit.) At my house, this means a never-ending supply of banana bread. And for the record, my standard recipe is Mark Bittman’s without the coconut (weird) and baked 25° cooler.

Music with a Food Title:
Well, I’m excited about the new Weezer coming out. The full CD doesn’t hit until June, but the first single, Pork and Beans, comes out next week. Weezer took a turn for the smarmy and overproduced, and it sounds like they’re headed back for the funny, crunchy power I loved in their early stuff.

True Food Story:
When I was a kid, there was an unwritten list of things we didn’t eat – no NestlĂ© products, no Wonder bread (they supported Nixon), actually no white bread at all, but chief among the verboten foodstuffs were grapes. Solidarity with Chavez, etc. While attending a wedding when I was about 6, I disappeared at the reception. Once my parents noticed I was gone, a search commenced and I was found – up to my elbows in a giant bowl of fruit salad, my eyes wild, juice running down my chin and my cheeks packed tight with the forbidden fruit.

Happy weekend Dear Reader! Tonight I am doing facepainting at a school carnival…wish me luck! Love, Velma

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