tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5415307532347349072012-02-16T09:38:33.814-08:00Exploring the gadgets, ingredients and people that change food from something we need into something we want.Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.comBlogger171100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-72796677416528558532010-12-18T08:09:00.000-08:002010-12-18T08:55:12.038-08:00

And it's not just any dutch oven. It is the mack-daddy, enameled cast iron, Le Creuset French Oven. When it arrived, I immediately named it Simba because I wanted to take it to the top of a mountain and hold it up high so that all the creatures of the forest could genuflect upon it.There are other dutch ovens out there. I've heard that Costco's are actually very comparable and less expensive. I

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-47632514564565358782010-12-07T16:23:00.000-08:002010-12-07T17:05:11.405-08:00

I like to bake, but I don't do it very often. Cooking is something that I do nearly every day but baking is like an extra-curricular activity, something I do after I've done my chores and cleaned my room. Also, I just so happen to live in a climate where turning on my oven is ill-advised. But every year, my bake-ological clock starts ticking a few days before Thanksgiving and thus starts the

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-32962768934047955312010-08-17T20:28:00.001-07:002010-08-18T10:34:21.648-07:00

I've gotten in the habit of writing the menu for the week and posting it on the fridge. Not only is this charming habit passed down directly from my mom (like so many other wonderful and challenging traits), but it has made a lot of things easier. Grocery shopping, for example, is a lot easier when you know what you're planning to eat that week. It helps reduce the likelihood of purchasing

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-58229780023788922792010-02-14T17:27:00.000-08:002010-02-14T18:39:48.035-08:00

Even though I refuse to support an industry that jacks up the price of flowers and chocolates for a holiday that was essentially exploited by card companies, there are some things I like about Valentine's Day. It's a celebration of love and not necessarily the love you have for your partner but for all the people in your life. One of the best ways to let people know that you love them is to cook

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-16702541179736661512009-07-25T10:40:00.000-07:002009-07-25T11:33:49.883-07:00

The professor and I went to the Mercato in Little Italy today in hot pursuit of a good farmer's market in San Diego. This quest comes on the heels of visiting, and enjoying, the Pike Place Market in Seattle and the Farmer's Market in Los Angeles. What I loved so much about these places was all the fresh fruit and veggies, just begging to be taken home, and the over zealous shopkeepers eagerly

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-59337886929243245312009-01-25T17:10:00.000-08:002009-01-25T18:08:48.920-08:00

Today is Sunday, and that can mean only one thing... it's tasting day. Our beer has been laying dormant for two weeks and this morning we placed the two tasters in the fridge and let them cool for a few hours. Then finally the moment of truth. We opened, we poured, and we tasted. The beer is a little cloudy, but with good color and a good amount of head (possibly too much but the bottles we

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-68560879663914027452009-01-13T17:00:00.001-08:002009-01-13T20:12:56.852-08:00

In preparation for bottling day, Saturday's task was getting all the pieces prepared and sanitized, including the four dozen bottles which our beer will call home for the next few weeks. Everything was dry and ready in time for Sunday morning's home-coming, also known as bottling day.First, we prepared the vessel for our harvest - the beer cases. At the recommendation of my friend Brian, we

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-52478818878048414782009-01-01T18:38:00.000-08:002009-01-16T09:54:45.084-08:00

This Christmas, Santa was nice enough to bring a home brewing kit for my partner-in-crime, the Absent Minded Professor. "Brewing beer at home?" You could say, "What's the point?" It stinks, you're spending as much in ingredients as you would on a few packs of high quality brew, and there's no guarantee that it will turn out, not to mention the fact that you have to wait with the patience of a

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-51266912501953825292008-11-21T09:52:00.000-08:002008-12-02T12:23:03.111-08:00

Last night I settled in for the evening with the Sundance-flick "Waitress" starring former Mouseketeer Keri Russell and was pleasantly surprised at how great she was as a down-on-her-luck pregnant chick, married to a loser with no end in sight. Russell's character, Jenna, has been squirling away money so that she can leave her husband and finally enter the big pie contest, which judging from her

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-3667604988205337102008-11-13T20:23:00.000-08:002008-11-14T15:46:58.604-08:00

No one should own more than one food processor. But I do. As a foodie on a budget, I find that many of the kitchen gadgets I covet are usually out of my price range. That requires the all-important "first-time" buy and then the inevitable "upgrade" buy. My first primitive food processor was a Pampered Chef Food Chopper. It's great for coarse cutting and preparing small amounts of food, but once

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-67169742024716619492008-11-06T11:55:00.000-08:002008-11-06T12:08:01.178-08:00

This weekend I hosted Gourmet Friends and made the Double-Decker Pumpkin-Caramel Pie (courtesy of my buddy Rachael Ray's magazine)and the filling turned out pretty well. But the topping? Not so much. As the preparation below suggests, I melted the caramel and then added it to the whipped cream. The only problem was, the caramel was too hot so the whipped cream went back to its liquid state. Tip

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-15467537400223828822008-10-29T08:57:00.000-07:002008-10-29T09:13:13.044-07:00

If I'm going to spend an afternoon in the kitchen, I need to have decent background music to accompany my day. Usually, I'll just throw some CDs in the player and let "shuffle mode" do it's thing. But sometimes I'm in the mood for something specific. And maybe it's all in my head, but I feel like the food tastes better if I've been preparing it while listening to something especially great. One

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-73979650717536419492008-10-19T14:14:00.000-07:002008-12-02T12:44:34.723-08:00

I made these cookies last weekend for the Pizza Party with Gourmet Friends. I wasn't sure how they would turn out, but they looked awesome and tasted even better. Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies (AKA Pizza Cookies)Ingredients 1 Cup Soft Butter or Margarine1½ Cup Sugar2 Eggs 3 Tsp Vanilla3½ Cup Flour2½ Tsp Baking Powder ½ Tsp Salt Food Color“Toppings” (I used assorted sprinkles, cranberries and

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-44037118125544058322008-10-14T14:40:00.000-07:002008-10-14T14:51:22.775-07:00

About a year ago, my friend Mary started a cooking group called Gourmet Friends. I'm a proud "charter member," and it's always a really great time. We select a theme based on recommendations from the group, then everyone brings a dish to pass about the theme. We've had Spanish night, Southern Food, Appetizers, and this Sunday, a Pizza Party, just to name a few. What's great about the group is

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-50138750674669489582008-10-05T12:19:00.001-07:002008-10-05T12:38:48.799-07:00

When I graduated from college and moved away from home, my mom gave me a paper-back copy of the Joy of Cooking. I needed to have a good resource for all the things I was going to attempt to feed myself now that I was going to be 2,733 miles away from home. It has been a life-saver on more than one occasion and is now beaten up and marked up with everything from "how to hard boil eggs" (pg 220) to

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-77085202102175196992008-10-01T09:05:00.000-07:002008-10-01T09:34:00.434-07:00

Here is what was for dinner last night: Rice-a-Roni: Ok, so I know as a wannabe foodie I'm not supposed to actually like this stuff but I'm not very good at cooking rice. It doesn't help that none of my pots keep the moisture in so all the water ends up evaporating and under-cooking the rice. And I refuse to buy a rice cooker because for some reason, that feels like cheating. Rice-a-Roni is

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-541530753234734907.post-23837777639736690042008-09-25T09:04:00.000-07:002008-09-25T09:31:34.695-07:00

Whenever I watch my favorite foodie, Rachael Ray, I notice that she always whacks the garlic with a knife instead of using a garlic press. Now, I'm not very graceful in the kitchen, so using that procedure and not injuring myself can be challenging. That's why I was so excited when I received my garlic press last Christmas. Now instead of buying the minced garlic in a jar, which by the way is

Jessica Schmidt LaFavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14609765069233332723noreply@blogger.com2