February 2012
13 posts
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chocolate chip cookies, again
This is my third batch of chocolate chip cookies, and my first using Alton Brown’s recipe, which calls for bread flour and melted butter. Let me tell you-
These are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made.
The key, I learned, was letting the dough rest for a long time. This dough was in the fridge for 30 hours before I baked the cookies, which yielded uniformly moist...
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“Human mechanisms are made by human hands, Robin. None of them is infallible. It...”
– Batman
overnight waffles
Lately, I’ve been on a desperate quest to make as many kinds of waffle as possible. Last week, I tried savory herbed waffles (recipe forthcoming), and this past weekend, I took a page from Mark Bittman with overnight yeast waffles. Other than the required forethought—which for me, is an actual problem—this is a straightforward waffle recipe. The only thing you need extra is a little...
Hypercritical: Better Pasta →
siracusa:
I like pasta. I’d like to help people make better pasta. It pains me to think about all the poorly prepared pasta being served and eaten in America. I’m specifically talking about plain old store-bought dried pasta. Nothing fancy. You’ve probably made some yourself. I’m specifically not talking…
Plenty of great tips here, and a few that I wasn’t aware of (warm bowls, for...
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braised lentils with smoked paprika
I make this once every few weeks or so, and every time, I’m amazed by how delicious it is. Be sure to include the red wine; in the past, I’ve gone without, and it’s not nearly as good.
Recipe adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
Braised Lentils with Smoked Paprika
Serves 3 to 4
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 stalk celery,...
Anonymous asked: Hey Jamelle, How many cookies does the oatmeal-butterscotch-cookie recipe make? I asked because it looks so good, but yikes, butterscotch chips + two sticks of butter!
Anonymous asked: Do you have recommendations for cooking pancakes? i.e. type of batter, duration for each cake, et cetera.
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oatmeal butterscotch cookies
Other than the fact that they’re my favorite cookie of all time, I don’t have much to say about these. You should just…enjoy eating them. Just be careful not to eat an entire batch, because it could definitely happen.
Not saying that I’ve done it. But, you know, it’s a possibility.
Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
2 sticks butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
1/2...
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banana bread
As you probably know by now, I’m a big fan of quick breads, and as the year goes on, I cycle through various varieties. The summer is for breads with fruit and nuts (like blueberry or zucchini), the fall is for apple, carrot, and pumpkin. The winter is a little tricky, but I tend to go with banana bread, which is easy, delicious, and surprisingly customizable.
If you’re going for...
“Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and...”
– Henry David Thoreau in Walden
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January 2012
14 posts
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The Apple Boycott: People Are Spouting Nonsense... →
Wages paid to manufacturing workers in China are not determined by the productivity of those specific workers. They are not determined by US wages, by the profits that Apple makes nor even by the good intentions of the creative types that purchase Apple products. They are determined by the wages paid by other jobs in China and that is itself determined by the average level of productivity...
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chewy chocolate chip cookies
Here’s a true story—before this weekend, I had never made chocolate chip cookies. Which, when you consider the sheer amount of baking that happens in my kitchen, is a little crazy. Of course, now that I have a proper chocolate chip cookie recipe, I’m going to spend the next year trying to perfect it. For now, however, here is a guide to the first batch.
They were pretty decent, if...
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“When I eat, it is the food that’s scared.”
– Ron Swanson, “Bowling for Votes
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a thought
I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but if I have, it’s worth repeating. The New Yorker iPad app is terrible, and when I’d rather go through the trouble of saving an article to Instapaper than actually read it in the New Yorker iPad app, there’s a problem.
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SOPA and the Importance of Playing Politics
Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, isn’t hopeful for the long-term prospects of internet freedom:
But what will happen when the MPAA buys the next SOPA? We can’t protest every similar bill with the same force. Eventually, our audiences will tire of calling their senators for whatever we’re asking them to protest this time.
Eventually, we will lose.
Such ridiculous,...
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the "why" of batman
Before I even start this, I want to offer a quick apology to all my readers who thought they signed up for recipes. I’ve been on an extended business trip, and haven’t had a chance to cook. I’ll be back next week though, and will return with more pictures/things to eat, so stay tuned!
By way of Erik Kain comes this analysis of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight from Taylor Marvin, who presents...
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letter from a birmingham jail
If you do anything thing to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, you should at least read “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” which stands as both a remarkable piece of theological inquiry, and a moving call to justice and action. Here is my favorite passage:
[T]hough I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter...
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kale and walnut pesto
The method for this is pretty straightforward, and should be familiar if you’ve made pesto before. The only difference is that you need to blanch the kale beforehand, in order to reduce the bitterness. You can use the walnuts raw, but I prefer to toast them, for the additional flavor. This makes far too much for a single serving, so when you’re finished with the meal, place the...
Y files: The Gathering Storm →
Yglesias:
These escalating rounds of constitutional hardball (into which we ought to fold warrantless wiretapping and assassination of US citizens & the debt ceiling crisis) seem to me bound to result over time in either de facto parliamentary government or de facto plebiscitary dictatorship. The former result would be much better, but the latter is much more likely.
To indulge the part...
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snickerdoodles
If you’re reading this, odds are also good that you are—like me— watching the returns for the Iowa Republican caucus. Seeing as how this is likely to take awhile, you might pass a little of the time with this recipe for snickerdoodles, or sugar cookies rolled in cinnamon and sugar. If you bake with any regularity, you should have all of the necessary ingredients. If you want these to taste...
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adventures on new year's day
This morning, the ladyfriend ran the New Year’s 5k in Free Union, Virginia, a small town outside of Charlottesville. It was a beautiful day, and while I forgot to bring my real camera—and was a little too tired to take pictures in any case—I managed to snap a few shots with my iPhone and Instagram.
The ladyfriend was number 835 in the race:
I’m not sure what the final total was, but there...
December 2011
30 posts
1 tag
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Bacteria 1, F.D.A. 0 →
Earlier this month, the Maine-based grocery chain Hannaford issued a ground beef recall after at least 14 people were infected with an antibiotic-resistant strain of salmonella. Chances are this is the first you’ve heard of it. After all, it’s not much compared to the 76 illnesses and one death back in August that led Cargill to recall almost 36 million pounds of ground turkey products...
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applications for the kitchen
I don’t think I’ve said this before, but if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch—and cook on the regular—then there’s no excuse for you to own these two apps. They are full reproductions of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian that are optimized for iOS. Each recipe includes detailed instructions, and that apps allow you to both search the entire catalog, and...
Filed Under: Things That Make Me Want to Set... →
Why Black Men Date Outside of Their Race: A Mathematical Breakdown:
“If more black men dated outside of their race they would actually own more assets, houses, possibly stocks and be able to cover the basics like health and life insurance, (which would cut police brutality against the black man practically in half, because they would not be constantly spending their hard earn dollars on woman...
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I don’t have a recipe for this—a red velvet cake—but I wanted to show you that this is what I had for dessert today. It was delicious. A recipe will come soon though. Don’t worry.
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breakfast pizza!
If you know me in real life, then you know that I’ll be out of town for the next month as I enjoy holiday break and—beginning in January—report on the South Carolina Republican primary. To make up for the fact that I won’t see my friends for awhile, I invited a few folks over for brunch this past Sunday. Usually, for brunch, I provide fruit, waffles or pancakes, and an egg based dish. This...
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gingerbread cookies
I would say that you can’t have Christmas without gingerbread cookies, but that’s completely false! It’s only in the last few years that gingerbread cookies have had any part in my holiday celebrations, and this is the first year where I actually took it upon myself to make gingerbread of any kind. If you saw the recipe for gingerbread and chocolate chip bars, the ingredients...
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roasted chickpeas
Roasted chickpeas make for either an easy snack or a delicious garnish to a spicy soup, like curried carrot soup. Almost any spice and flavor combination works for these, so experiment to find something you like. For my part, I went with cumin and garlic powder.
Roasted chickpeas
Serves 2 as a snack, but you’ll probably eat them all
1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1...
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Like a Virgin, but Not Quite: Olive Oil's Dirty... →
It turns out that a fair amount of the olive oil you buy in stores isn’t actually real olive oil:
Since neither the FDA nor the Italian equivalent really regulate the market, unscrupulous producers have developed numerous ways to adulterate extra virgin olive oil, according to Mueller. They cut olive oil with hazelnut or sunflower oil. They take musty oil made from rotting olives,...
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good traditions, bad traditions
Krampus, the Santa “helper” who kidnaps and devours bad children, is an awesome holiday tradition:
By contrast, Zwarte Piet is the worst thing I’ve ever seen1:
Read this piece at Slate for more details on the Dutch Sambo. Also, remind me to never visit the Netherlands.
Not the worst thing, but close. ↩
Raw Cookie Dough and Other Stories →
It seems that the last E. Coli outbreak was the product of contaminated cookie dough:
I know, I know, it’s so good. But a study of a 2009 E. coli outbreak, led by CDC researchers and state health officials, has traced the contamination back to prepackaged raw cookie dough. Turns out ready-to-bake is not the same as ready-to-not-bake-and-get-right-to-the-eating. Ugh, god, what are we...
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pasta with roasted vegetables
There is nothing fancy or remarkable about this dish; it’s just a simple combination of roasted vegetables — I used swiss chard, red onions, and butternut squash — garlic, and a pasta of your choice. I’m not sure that a recipe is necessary, but here’s one if you need it.
Pasta with Roasted Vegetables and Garlic
Serves 3 to 4
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
fall...
Anonymous asked: what camera do you use? nwah im not talking about your iphone, man.
spiced pumpkin egg nog
Some advice when consuming this holiday treat:
Don’t drink too much.
Here’s why. First, it contains two cups of rum, and if you want to drink a variety of beverages at your holiday party, then it’s probably wise to lay-off of the nog. Second, it’s egg nog, and contains an insane amount of fat and cholestoral. A small glass is rich, delicious, and more than sufficient for the night. Drink too...
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chewy molasses spice cookies, redux
So, even though I spend too much of my time cooking and baking, I’m on something of a “get healthy” kick. It’s not so much the food — I eat pretty well, as far as health is concerned — as it is the physical activity. Outside of walking to and from work, I’m terrible about getting off of my ass and exercising. As of late, however, that’s changed, and I’m working to turn exercise into a regular...
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chili for all occasions
As you might have noticed in the previous post, I recently moderated a panel. It was hosted by the Center for American Progress and the topic was “the State of Young America.” Long story short, the state of young America is poor, but not hopeless!
I should say that moderating a panel is really hard work! In addition to reading the relevant materials, you have to craft an opening...