Results tagged “Food” from ScottandMargo.net

I cooked the ham on Saturday night, and I'll have to say that it was pretty damn good. I was given a recipe for a simple mustard and brown sugar glaze, scored the skin and studded it with cloves. Pretty basic. Baked at 350 for three hours or so. Sliced thinly, served with diced baked potatoes.

I have to say, the ham was fantastic. I didn't really get much of the glaze but it did pick up some of the clove flavor. It's a country ham, so it's salty but interestingly so. There's also an undertone of herbs and other things I can't quite describe. Very tasty. I'm looking forward to smoking one.

It's from Calhoun Country Hams based in Culeper Virginia. They ship whole hams. I got some sausage too that I'm going to try next weekend.

In the mean time, we have about 8 pounds of ham to eat. Will try some different presentations for the next couple days and freeze the rest and break it out as the mood takes.

There's a photo below. Didn't come out right for some reason...the ham wasn't that red. It still looks nice though.

I've loved country hams since the first time I tasted one. While I love to cook, I've never cooked a country ham though. It seems like a lot of work to prep. A friend of Margo's mentioned that he had a source of some amazing country hams. With their reputation, I have dubbed them "magic hams."

We bought half of an uncooked ham a couple of weeks ago but haven't had time to do anything with it.

Things are calming down a bit so this morning I started soaking it in a cooler. I will change the water every day til Saturday when it comes out and starts a 4-hour cook. Saturday or Sunday, I plan on having a post with pictures and a review. If I like the results, I'll reveal the source of the ham.

I love good fudge but for some reason, I don't really get into eating it unless I'm at the beach. I have no idea if there are any places to get good fudge around the DC area (feel free to let me know) but I'll mention one of my favorite places in Delaware...

The Seaside Country Store is in Fenwick Island. It's an interesting store with a lot of antiques and hose decorations and nick-nacks and the like, but the front of the house is all about snacking. There are sauces by the front door, and cheese. The candy's by the register, as one would expect. Not far from there is the fudge counter. It's all made there in the store...you can watch if you get there at the right time. The fudge is quite good and they have something like 40 different kinds. You can order fudge from the website and get it shipped.

Technorati Tags: Food, Travel

Went to Planet X like we always do. The decor is fun and funky, the cocktails are fantastic. The food is still the highlight of the experience. The menu has an interesting mix of styles. I don't like eggplant, but I go nuts for the stacked eggplant appetizer. I've had everything on the entree menu but my main go-to's are the red Thai curry or the filet. They started taking reservations this year, and this summer if you didn't make a reservation, you're not getting in.

We discovered La La Land last year. It's on the other side of Wilmington Ave from Planet X. This is another place with a fun atmosphere with great food. The golden lump crab bisque is to die for. I had the seared rare yellowfin tuna. Fantastic stuff. There's also a starlight back bar that's cozy, has great drinks and starts to fill up when everyplace else in Rehoboth is closed.

The Cultured Pearl is our favorite place for sushi. Sometime since last summer they moved from Wilmington Ave to Rehoboth Ave where the hardware store used to be. The new space is gorgeous. Inside gets a little loud and doesn't have the intimacy of the old place, but the rooftop dining is beautiful. This is another place that you're not likely to get in during the summer without a reservation. The sushi and sashimi is top notch. They have a cream of crab soup that's also outstanding.

New to me this year was Dangerously Delicious Pies. They're tucked into the back of Bethany Town Center, and I noticed them by accident. It's a small place with record covers stuck to the walls and wonderful pies under glass. Lots of attitude here (in a good way) but there's not anything to get in the way of great pie. I walked out with a tart key lime slice and I look forward to working my way through the rest of their pies.

I was looking forward to visiting Udder Delights this summer, but it isn't where it was. I'm not sure if they moved or just closed. The website's still there. If I find anything out, I'll follow up here. Also, if anyone else out there knows anything about it, comment or track back here if you want.

Technorati Tags: Food, Travel

Below is a series of photos that I shot of a run of ribs that I smoked on 29 June 2003….a few weeks after I got the smoker.

I’ve been looking through the site for entries that I don’t have imported into the main blog here. Some of them I’ll add in with their original date. This one didn’t really have a blog entry so this gets a new entry.

If anyone out there has a source for getting those crunchy cereal marshmallows without the cereal, I'd love to hear about it.

I've been googling around and haven't found a potential source that makes me feel confident about doing businesss.

Yeah, it's odd, but it reminds me of being a kid eating all the marshmallows out of my Lucky Charms. I'm trying not to get a freeze drying machine and make my own.

Technorati Tags: Food

Looks like the FDA extended the deadline for comments on the proposed chocolate changes another month to May 25th so there's still plenty of time to comment.

Guittard set up a site called Don't Mess With Our Chocolate that takes it from the point of view of a maker of fine chocolate. There's a lot more information there on the issue.

Update: I caught a link to this site from Slashfood.

Updated Update: This is entry #200 on the current iteration of this site. Go me. I still have a backup of some of the older stuff that was lost in a previous cutover that I will get to adding this year. Nothing hugely interesting, but adding it for completeness.

Technorati Tags: Current Events, Food, Politics

Wow. Slashdot picked up the possible chocolate change.

Someone put in more effort than I did and got the FDA page for the change and a link where you can send in your comments by April 25th.

I'm not up for turning this space into a political soapbox but I'm posting the links in case someone reading this stuff loves chocolate and doesn't read Slashdot.

Technorati Tags: Current Events, Food, Politics

So the Grocery Manufacturers of America lobbying group is trying to get the FDA to change the rules for what defines "chocolate" in America. The new rules would allow manufacturers to substitute cheaper vegetable oil for cocoa butter. I would think that would kind of make chocolate not chocolate anymore, but that's just me.

Here's a Gristmill posting on the subject. I agree with its author that we're better off patronizing small producers of high quality chocolate than sitting around and sucking it up as the mass produced chocolate gets worse and worse. It amazes me how much better even mass produced European chocolate is than most if what we have here.

Try an experiment sometime. Find a European version of the Kit Kat. Around the DC Metro area, there's a chain called World market that usually has them. Taste test the European version of the Kit Kat against the American version. Big difference, huh?

Oddly enough, when I noticed this issue I just got done picking up a couple different varieties of hot chocolate from a producer called Vosges. One is an Aztec-style hot chocolate with chipotle and the other is a Paris-style chocolate chaud. I've heard that they're both fantastic. I'll post a follow-up entry once I have a chance to try them out. I think I have a Swiss Miss packet around that I could do a head-to-head with.

Technorati Tags: Food

Plain Greek yogurt with honey on it. Tonight was Tupelo honey.

I learned this one at Mourayo in DC. I had a gift certificate for diner for two from Christmas that I used in February. Dinner was fantastic. Then the dessert was a fruit plate with honey covered yogurt. Simple and beautiful. Highly recommended....both the dessert and the restaurant.

Technorati Tags: Food

Business & Technology | Starbucks launches Hear Music record label:
via Slashfood

So is this part of Starbucks' new strategy to re-find its soul?

Things like starting a label and signing Sir Paul take time so it's my guess that this is another way Starbucks us losing it instead. It kinda makes sense given that part of the "Starbucks Experience" is the music played in their shops. The Hear station has been on XM for a while...I even had it in my presets before I dropped my subscription.

I'm still waiting for a coffee-related change that shows they're serious about getting that lost soul back though,

Technorati Tags: Food, Marketing, Music

Starbucks must find lost "soul," Schultz says: Business & Technology: The Seattle Times

This is a little old now but I've been focused on more tangible (i.e. offline) activities the last couple weeks.

I'm glad to see that someone at Starbucks is aware that something's not right.

It's easy and almost trendy now in some circles to bash Starbucks these days. They're literally everywhere (there are 28 within 10 miles of here) and it's hard not to get overloaded by that.

I got my start in good coffee at Starbucks so I'll always have a soft spot for them. I eventually graduated to better coffee that's better roasted and more skillfully prepared in locally owned shops (Jamie's General Bean is a favorite). In the last couple years I have been roasting my own coffee as well.

The more I learned about what makes good coffee, the less satisfied I was with what the local Starbucks' were putting out. It didn't help that they were getting rid of the La Marzocco machines and replacing them with those automatic machines. When it takes skill to pull an espresso shot, sometimes you get crap, but sometimes you get gold.

Anyway, I'm rambling. I hope this means that Starbucks is going to start focusing on making and serving great coffee and less on making an "experience" for people who don't like coffee. I think easily available, well-roasted, skillfully prepared coffee would be a wonderful thing regardless of what name's on the door.

Technorati Tags: Coffee, Food, Marketing

I make them myself and they're quite tasty. I don't understand why everyone insists on putting macadamias in with the white chocolate. It tastes OK too but I think that the white chocolate chip stands quite well on its own in a cookie.

Some day I'm going to start Famous Scott's "keep your nuts out of my cookies" Cookies.

Technorati Tags: Food

I try not to just pass along links that can be found in the usual places but I can't help myself this time.

The DIY Guide to Roasting Your Own Coffee! [via Lifehacker]

Lots of links and some good information to help with the decision to home roast your coffee.

I started roasting coffee at home a few years now. I didn't do the ultra-low-budget approach mentioned first in the article. I picked up a Zach & Dani roaster because it has a catalytic converter (no smoke!) and I can just set it and go without messing with it. I don't have the tolerance or patience to smoke up the house with a skillet or popcorn popper and neither does Margo. I do enough of that when I do steaks indoors.

Roasting your own coffee is a lot cheaper if you can find a local roaster that is willing to sell you green beans. I used to go up to Mayorga til it really started to be a pain in the butt to get up there. Jamie's General Bean is a lot closer but I haven't actually been able to buy green beans from them. When I don't have any green I get my roasted coffee from there because I know their coffee is fresh. It's not quite as cheap to home roast if you have to get your coffee shipped from somewhere. When I order online, I go to Sweet Maria's and the shipping adds up when you're ordering 5-10lbs at a time. At least I'm able to count on sampler packs from family as an easy Christmas/bitrhday gift.

I think that the best part of home roasting my own coffee is the taste. Truly fresh coffee (1-7 days from roasting) is a lot different than what we're used to. The flavors are brighter and more complex. It's hard for me to describe. If you can find a good local roaster/cafe give them a try and you'll see. If you have a good espresso machine (I don't) you can even see the difference fresh coffee makes in your crema.

I'm not a fan of Starbucks' roasting style either...almost every variety of coffee is burnt so you taste the 'Starbucks roast' as much as the flavor of the coffee. In the DC area, it seems that a lot of the non-Starbucks cafes are using over-roasted coffee these days too. When I roast my own, I roast to city or full city which to my taste brings out more of the flavor character of the bean. I do enjoy their Breakfast Blend occasionally though.

There's also the creativity in home roasting of creating your own blends...putting together multiple varieties to make a more balanced and flavorful cup of coffee.

One thing that is a pain about home roasting is that you have to keep track of your coffee consumption if you have to have your beans shipped. Even if you have a local source, you don't want to roast a batch and brew it right away...you want to let it sit 12-24 hours. So, if you run out, you're kinda stuck. I have a go-to of Starbuck's Breakfast Blend at the local Shopper's Food Warehouse if I mis-read my bean supply and I don't think of it til after Jamie's is closed.

Technorati Tags: Food, Gadgets

I seem to be collecting allergies as I get older. This past weekend, I had lunch at the local Corner Bakery and had an allergic reaction that I've never had before (I'll spare the details). It started an hour or so after eating and lasted all day.

Margo called her allergist, and they were really concerned about the reaction. I have an appointment on Friday, but in the mean time they wanted me to get a list of everything I had for lunch that day.

I was expecting it to be difficult to get a complete ingredients list from a restaurant. I was wrong. I asked to talk to the manager and I explained my situation and what I ate. She pulled out a binder, flipped through it, pulling out a few pages, and then went in the back to make copies. She came back and handed me a copy of the pages in the binder that listed all of the ingredients in what I ate that day.

I was surprised and impressed. I wonder how many other places have lists like that.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Food, Health

JonVon turned 41 on Saturday. He and some friends had goat vindaloo for dinner. That got me thinking that I haven't had non-vegetarian Indian food for quite a while. My favorite Indian restaurant in the area is Woodlands, but they're souther Indian which means it's vegetarian.

Margo came home tonight, and asked what's for dinner. I asked what she'd like me to go get (haven't been shopping since we got back from the beach yet). She goes, "How about Indian?". I didn't need to be asked twice. Preet Palace is the closest Indian restaurant to our house. No goat vindaloo. Still very good though...I had mug tikka masala. No beer in the house (!). Should have made a lassi but didn't want to go shopping for yogurt.

Technorati Tags: Food

Well, I did it. I dropped in at Udder Delight on Saturday night after dinner and was ready to do my duty as I posted on the 6th. Unfortunately, the camera didn't make it on this trip for some reason so I don't have any pictures. Maybe next time I'll get some pictures of my ice cream in the orange glow of the Hooters next door.

I didn't see cucumber anymore which was my favorite of their odd flavors. I didn't see Memphis BBQ out either and I wasn't going to make them make a batch just for me to taste.

(They have a ColdStone style cold marble slab behind the counter that they use to mix together the ice cream and the fixins that you want, and I expect that some of the odd flavors might be made up on the fly that way)

I did luck out (?!) and there was a batch of the bacon flavor out front and center. I asked for a taster of it, braced myself and had at it. Oddly enough, it wasn't that bad. You mostly taste vanilla ice cream and a little caramel up front. There's a little bacon taste that comes up behind it, but it's definitely not the dominant flavor in the ice cream. It was actually rather tasty in an odd way.

The only problem I had with it is probably my normal weird relationship with food and texture. There were little meat chunks mixed through it, and I really had a hard time getting around the little meat chunks being where meat chunks shouldn't be and it got to be kind of a turn off. So while I enjoyed the taste, the texture kind of blew it for me and I know that's just me being weird about food.

The normal ice cream flavors at Udder Delight are fantastic, by the way. I stop by there for a couple scoops of whatever whenever I'm out here. I ordered a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough and a scoop of cake batter after I tried the bacon, and was quite happy. The flavors are quite tasty and ice cream itself is smooth and silky. They have a lot of different toppings and things to add to your ice cream Coldstone-style as I mentioned earlier. I wish I'd been able to get a picture of that. Oh well.

At least I'm not at work, near the ocean and the weather's been good. :D

Technorati Tags: Food, Review

Back on July 19th, Slashfood posted an article about a place in Vancouver called the Amato Gelato Cafe which makes a Viagra-flavored gelato. It reminded me of a place that I visit regularly when I'm up by Rehoboth, Delaware:

1. There's an ice cream shop in Rehoboth, DE called Udder Delight that has a Viagra ice cream flavor too. They have a lot of other odd flavors too like bacon, Memphos BBQ, and cucumber (which is actually quite good).

http://udderdelighticecreamhouse.com/Icecreamflavors.html

Posted at 8:48PM on Jul 19th 2006 by Scott Gentzen

Today, they posted an article about Udder Delights today. It made my day.

Bacon ice cream is an Udder Delight - Slashfood

If I had known that they were going to do an article on this, I could have helped out with some research. I'm up that way quite a bit during the year so it's not much effort for me really to try out a bunch of the weird flavors and report back. I had the cucumber and really liked it. The bacon one has bacon in it so I haven't tried it, but if I was going there as a reporter, I would have given it a shot.

Actually, I think I'll do that. I'm going to be going back up there next week sometime. Will be brining the laptop so I should be able to post before I get back. I'll try out some of the odd flavors and give a report back. Will be interesting...their regular ice cream is fantastic.

Their flavor list is here: Udder Delights Ice Cream Flavors. That isn't everything (I've had the cucumber and it's not on the list) but it's all I can point to for now. I'll check out the menu when I'm there and try some stuff out. If anyone's curious about anything else on the list on their website, let me know and I'll make sure I try that too.

Technorati Tags: Food

When I heard about CocaCola Blak on the net a while back, I thought it was a bizarre idea. Kind of one of those things that sounded like a drunk marketeer idea...."I know! Kids like coffee these days, so we'll put coffee in Coke!"

Actually, from the Wikipedia entry on Coke Blak it looks like it's Diet Coke.

I avoided trying it since it started appearing in local stores because they were all selling it only in 4-packs. I'm not going to try something new if I have to commit to buying more than one to do it. I'll buy one to give it a try. If I don't like, it's not a big deal. If I bought 4 and don't like it, I have three more sitting around. Anyway, while I was in Blacksburg, VA over the weekend I was at Kroger and they were selling Coke Blak individual bottles, so I thought I'd give it a try.

So that's the lead-up. How does it taste?

Interesting.

The coffee taste is barely coffee-like to me. The coffee taste reminds me of those Starbucks Frappuccino bottles...if you take away the milk. It resembles more what I imagine coffee candy to be than actual real coffee. Coffee for people who don't like coffee, basically. Then you mix Diet Coke into that except that it doesn't seem as fizzy as Coke...more like Mountain Dew). That's really the only way I can think of to describe it.

I don't know yet if I like it or not. If it's any indication, I'll admit that I didn't drink the whole thing. I got about a quarter of the way through the bottle and then recapped it and tossed it. I think it satisfied my curiosity for the taste of the new drink without giving me any reason to confinue. I think it's an odd combination of tastes, and I don't think I'll be trying it again any time soon.

I'm glad I didn't get the 4-Pack.

Technorati Tags: Food, Review, Coke, Blak

I love Peeps and I love crazy people. Put them together and you get stuff like this. Too bad I couldn't find any more of them.

I know it doesn't really have anyting to do with the real Easter, but I like it anyway.

Technorati Tags: Easter, Holiday, Peeps