I made a bunch of Christmas Cookies this weekend. Nowhere near as many as Margaret and I made when we first started dating. But more than we made last year (which I remember as being a pretty light year). And I don’t think we are done yet. We’ve done:

• Snikerdoodles
• Press Cookies
• Peanut Butter cookies with Kisses

Press Cookies always make me think of Christmas, since that is the only time of year my family ever brought out the cookie press to press the cookies. And then we would get together as a family and put jimmies and sprinkles on them to decorate them before placing in the oven. Even my father got into the decorating act. His favorite: Chocolate jimmies. If you put enough of them on, it gives the cookie a chocolate flavor as well.

I remember back in High School my friend Bruce decided to make Snickerdoodles for our German class. Whatever recipe he found, it took like 8 sticks of butter and they turned out as the heaviest cookies I’ve ever had. The recipe I follow uses shortening and the cookies usually come out quite light.

We still have a few more kinds of cookies we plan on making this year. Shortbread cookies, Sugar Cookies, maybe Gingerbread men, possibly Chocolate Chip. There is no way we are doing Oatmeal Scotchies this year. I’ve been trying for at least 3 years, and have never gotten a batch to turn out correctly. My mother has quite making them as well, for much the same reason. Oh, and we’ll probably do a batch of School Cookies for my Father-in-law when he comes for New Years. There are quite a few cookies that we won’t be making this year because they are just too hard and we don’t have the time. Things like snowballs, klotchkies (which I am sure I didn’t even come close to spelling right), nut cups, etc.

Our full list of Christmas cookies is a delightful mix of the cookies from my childhood and from my wife’s. The best part is that we both have favorites that the other brought to the relationship (I love the shortbread cookies). A few years back my mother gave me a floppy disk with all her Christmas cookie recipes on it. We have used that disk every year. And every year it gets harder and harder to find a computer with a floppy drive to read it. We have an unbelievable 8 computers in our house, and only 2 of them have floppy drives. But now the recipe list is on my laptop where it will stay until next year.

Tags: food, xmas // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)

Margaret went to the salon this weekend, so while she was getting worked on, I made a little trip to BBQ Galore to pick up some stuff. Since I had some time, I decided to do some window shipping there in addition to picking up the things that I came for.

I noticed that Steven Raichlen (who’s How To Grill is my grilling bible) now has a line of grilling products. The most interesting thing I saw from him were Wine Barrel Staves. These are the pieces of the wood barrel the wine ferments in when you make wine. As a result of sitting in the barrel so long, some of the wine flavor is embedded into the wood of the barrel. Looking at the staves, you can see the dark red color of the wine. You then use the stave as a smoking source when cooking your meat. This way you not only get the wood flavor, but also a bit of the wine flavor from the smoke.

Rather than getting that fancy, I just picked up a bag of hickory wood chips (BBQ Galore Brand). I’ve tried both their Apple Wood and Mesquite Wood chips and was very happy, so I thought I would try something a little different. The last time I made ribs (July 4th), I didn’t have any wood chips at all! The ribs still tasted good, but that smoke flavor would have really put it over the top. I won’t have this problem the next time!

I also picked up a sauce mop, so I could apply mop sauces to my meat while cooking. And since there is nothing more embarrassing than running out of propane, I got one of those magnetic propane level indicators so I could see how much propane I have left.

Tags: cooking, food // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)

Today is the first day of our Summer Fresh Vegestable Season. For the past 2 years Margaret and I have been part of a Farm Cooperative that delivers us fresh veggies every week of the summer. The basic idea is that you purchase a share at the beginning of the year. They use that money to purchase all the stuff it takes to make a farm run. When harvest time comes around in the summer, you get a bag of veggies each week.

We are currenlty with the Potomac Vegetable Farm Coop in Virginia. They are nice enough to deliver the veggies to my wife’s office, so all she has to do is bring them home (easy for me to say, I don’t have to carry a 12 pound bag of smelly veggies home on the Metro each week!). Then we wash them and store them for use during the week. We’ve been able to try out some new vegestables that we would never have been otherwise exposed to. PVF call’s themselves an “Ecoganic” farm, which is basically an organic farm without having to do all the paperwork to be certified organic. So not only do we get a lot of fresh veggies every week, they are good quality veggies as well.

Tags: farm, food // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)

It can be really sexy for a woman to eat a hamburger. In my mind, it means that she is very comfortable with herself. She isn’t “On A Diet” where she eats only salads while out with her boyfriend, and then McDonalds every night when he is not around. That kind of delusion just isn’t attractive.

But there is also too much. Take, for example, Paris Hilton and Carl’s Jr…

Tags: food, parishilton // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)

It was a beautiful Saturday this weekend. Clear and pretty warm, but still cool in the shade. It is still spring after all. But nonetheless perfect weather to fire up the grill and have an American classic. And judging by the empty spot in the refrigerated case at the Giant, I wasn’t the only one who had a hankering for fresh, juicy hamburgers this weekend.

I learned a lot of things from my Dad, including some tips on making a good burger. His biggest tip: make them thick. There is nothing like biting into a burger that barely fits into your mouth. If I wanted a thin burger, I would just go to McDonalds. Now what really helps me make a good thick burger is my Tupperware burger press that my Mother got for me. I looked at the Tupperware site, and I couldn’t find it, so they may not make them any more. But take a look here and you can see what I’m talking about. It’s basically a form that you put the meat in and a handle to press it into the form. The Tupperware set is really nice because they also come with lids so you can make your burgers up ahead of time and store them in forms until ready to use. But I prefer to make mine fresh.

With the help of Margaret, I’ve developed a special twist for my burgers. I add Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce to my meat before forming them. You can add it to taste, but I usually use like 1/4 cup per pound. I also like to toss in some freshly chopped garlic if we have it, and always toss in some freshly chopped onion.

Now you can’t just toss these onto the grill. Make sure to pre-heat your grill on high to get the grates very hot. When just about ready to put your burgers on, turn it down a shade to about medium or medium high. What the pre-heating does is get the grates really hot so they will sear the burgers and leave nice lines on them. That is usually much easier to do with steaks, but (if you are good) it can be done with burgers as well. Once on the grill, take your time cooking them. You want to make sure they are cooked all the way through, but take care not to burn them. I used to like mine nice and medium, but after all the warnings on eating not fully cooked meat, I always cook my burgers until the juice comes out clear when pressed on.

Just before taking off the grill, I like to put some cheese on mine and let it melt. It just makes the burgers so much better…

You can also optionally toast your buns. I usually don’t do this as it can be a bit more work. Just butter up the insides of the bun (that’s the work part…) and throw them on an open part of the grill for like a minute or two until they are nice and toasty. Adds that “profession burger joint” flair to your service.

Now everyone has their own way of topping their burger. This is a very personal choice and you should let people do what they want. You’re best bet is to just prepare some toppings and set them out for people to pick. Some things to have on hand would include: lettuce, tomato (thick slices), onion (thick slices), ketchup, (yellow) mustard, Mayo, salt, pepper, and pickles. All pretty standard toppings and you are sure to please any crowd with those choices. If you wanted to go more gourmet, you can get things like bacon (cooked, of course), crumbled blue cheese, barbecue sauce, guacamole, jalapenos, or even onion rings.

Now if you want a nice summer side to go with you burgers, grab some ears of corn. Husk them and remove the silks so all you have left are the ears. Following the same pre-heating instructions as for the burgers, but turn the heat way down after pre-heated. And just place the ears right on the grates. In about 10 minutes you will have the most delicious (and easy!) corn you have ever had. One word of caution: it is really easy to burn the corn, so make sure to turn it every 2 minutes or so to keep that from happening. A light, spotty char on the corn is what you are looking for. Serve it up with some butter, salt and pepper and you are ready to go!

Tags: food, recipes // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)

I made some delicious Guacamole to go with dinner tonight and wanted to share the recipe with all of you.

• 2 avocados
• 1 Tomato
• 1/2 onion
• Salt and Pepper
• Lime Juice (or lemon juice, optional)

Cut up the avocados. Remove the skin and the pit. Place them into a bowl. Now comes the fun part: Mash them up. I used a potato masher, but a fork would work just as well. I like my guacamole pretty chunky, so I only mashed them a little. Cut up the tomato and onion and place them into the bowl. Make sure the onion chunks aren’t too big, nobody wants a big piece of onion on their chip! Add a dash of pepper and a few dashes of salt. If you like, add the lime juice. If you don’t have it or don’t like it, don’t add it. It is really there more to act as a preservative then to really lend that much flavor to it. Stir it all up and serve it with a bowl of tortilla chips!

Tags: food, recipe // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)

I did something stereotypically computer geeky this week. I met up with two of my friends from college for dinner. All in all, not that unusual for anyone. What made this propagate a stereotype is the choice of venue. We went to an excellent sushi place in Northern Virginia. According to A Portrait of J. Random Hacker, this is not that unusual. It seems that for most computer hackers, sushi is a very acceptable meal choice.

To quote the above link, “Hackers prefer the exotic”. This must be why people in my office like to go out to various places like: Thai. Indian. Pho. Ethiopian. etc.

I wish I could explain why this is. What is it in the personality of computer hackers that drives them to try new and unusual foods? It has to be the same thing that pushes me to eat like a native when I’m traveling abroad. Or why I like to try regional specialties when traveling domestically. And probably also why I’m a sucker for whatever you have on special…

Tags: food, hacker // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)

Yummy looking recipe for Beer Battered Asparagus.

Tags: food, recipes // Comments (0) // Trackbacks (0)