30-day Blogging Challenge: What Do You Collect?

Shot glasses.

The end.

No, really, that's it. I mean okay, I kind of cheat a little bit. It started with places that I would visit, which then expanded to people bringing back shot glasses from places they visited. I draw the line at shot glasses bought off of websites. My friend Erik made me sound crazy when I asked him to get me a shot glass from Fiji and he said he'd buy one off of Amazon for me. Wut? I mean, why? I want the shot glass from the place that was visited - that's the whole point. Even if the store that it was bought from ordered them from Amazon :P

I've got some pretty interesting shot glasses - the furthest one is from Bulgaria. The most interesting one is from Cicily, Alaska. (If you know the show Northern Exposure, you'll get it.) Actually, I bought it in Roslyn, WA, but that's where the show was filmed. Cicily, AK doesn't even exist. My favorite by far is one that my friend Dawn bought while on a layover in Atlanta, Georgia, where Alton Brown is from. She got it engraved to say "Luv 2 Amy from your "saucy" buddy Alton Brown". And then I had Alton sign it when I met him for the first time in NYC.

I'm planning on making an LTX19 shot glass or a lowball glass that I want Linus to sign when I see him at LTX this year. It's too bad that they don't sell their own; but I will certainly be getting shot glasses of both Vancouver, BC and Whistler.

They don't mind their logos being used as long as I'm not reselling stuff.

What do you guys collect? Does it have special meaning for you? Let me know in the comments!

It was a Dark and Stormy Night

It was roughly 2am and I couldn't sleep. The year was 2009, and I had been on unemployment since March. A lot had happened that year, some bad, but mostly good. As I look back on it, I lost my job at IBS due to the recession that kicked up around October of the previous year, and sales were slumping for everyone. I was slated to get married to my now ex-husband on May 23rd, and had already invited almost all of my co-workers to that wedding (how awkward).

It was also the year that I finally started to work on my weight - as not even the anticipation of a wedding was motivating me, but a co-worker of Justin's told him about a product she was using called hCG and it was helping her lose weight. After a ton of research I finally decided to try it myself. 2009 was the year that I finally took control of my weight and my health in general. It was also the year that I got hired on to work at Franciscan Medical Group with Dr. Saffari - a job I still have to this day and am always grateful for. 

But that was all in October and December of 2009. Before that, around the same time as my honeymoon, I discovered a show that would also change my life for the better.

I had been out of work for around 3-4 months and was getting discouraged. I had no official college education (only technical college) so it was difficult to find work. Not working had my circadian rhythm all out of wack, so flipping through TV channels at 2am was not unheard of for me. I had probably scrolled through the list at least twice, seeing Good Eats pass by, when I finally decided that whatever this show was, it was better than the other random stuff on so early in the morning.

I hated cooking shows with a passion. They were so boring. The hosts were always so perfect, so calm and cool and collected; making everything look so easy. Nothing ever happened in these lame, 30 minute spots. Chop the ingredients, listen to a stupid story about how their mother used to cut onions, throw them in a pan with other stuff, talk about their first thanksgiving, cook the stuff. Take a bite. Say yummy things. The end. I wanted to stab my eyes out. (Martha Stewart and Barefoot Contessa come to mind). It probably also didn't help that I hated to cook in general.

Some shows didn't need to have celebrity guests

in order to make them watchable

My parents had tried to teach me some basic things when I was younger but I just wasn't interested. Cooking seemed like way too much work and gave such meager, useless results. To be bluntly honest (sorry mom) the food I grew up with was not "blow my mind" delicious, so what I had was all I knew, and I didn't know it could be better. Oh so much better.

Poison, poison, happiness. This is how

some oils are made :D

I wish I could remember the first episode I ever saw. I'll say it

might have been Tender is the Pork, because that episode first aired May 26th, 2009, while I was on my honeymoon and the 2am showing might have been a recent repeat. All I remember thinking was that it was entertaining. The guy hosting the show was a geek. He wore glasses, he was smart, he was quirky, and he was funny. And I was learning. I had forgotten how great it felt to learn.

I told the DVR to start recording his show, and I began to watch them almost religiously. It took me a long time before I ever made my first recipe of his, though. But, Alton Brown of Good Eats was the first person to ever convince me that cooking wasn't nearly as hard as it seemed. But how did he do it, you ask? Well, Alton and I are like of mind in the fact that we must know why. 

Why do I need to add cream of tartar to my egg whites? (If I have to run to the store for this vital ingredient, at least tell me why it's important!)
Why do I need to add acid to my brine? (fun fact, when you add an acid it becomes a marinade)
Why did John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich, invent the sandwich? (Okay, that one wasn't something I had to know, but it was an entertaining answer)

I think the first recipe I ever attempted of his was guacamole. It seemed easy enough, and turns out - it was! And definitely cheaper than buying it premade in the store. After that, the flood gates had opened. Good Eats was not only entertaining me, but I was learning and actually wanting to cook the things he was making. All because he explained how things worked. Gave me the science. Told me why. Turns out that's all I really needed.

[This is an old list where I was keeping tabs of all the Good Eats applications that I was making. I'm sure it has expanded by now!]

Good Eats ran alongside my new, thinner me (which would take years to accomplish, and I'm still working on it), and gave me the confidence I needed to try my hand at other people's recipes - healthy versions of food I already knew. And in some cases, feel bold enough to change them up how I knew science would allow, and make my own recipes. 

Crazy, right?

It all led down this path to self-reliance. To not have to buy pre-packaged, processed foods. To know how to eat healthier and to save money. And that's all Alton Brown's goal ever was: he wanted people to learn how to cook for themselves. And he definitely accomplished that with me. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I'd discovered his show when it first aired - in 1999, I would have been in 9th grade; a prime time to begin learning how to cook for myself. And then sometimes I wonder where I would be today if I hadn't been up at 2am that fateful night, bored and tired and begging to be entertained.

It's interesting to wonder about, but I'm glad I'll never know.

Edible Inevitable Tour

Everyone who reads my blog knows that I am a huge Alton Brown fan. The man knows how to make cooking entertaining, and he got me interested in the craft by explaining the why behind it. It wasn't until I discovered his show that I even realized its what I'd been searching for all this time.

So, as you can imagine, Alton has changed my life in more ways than I can even list. So, when tickets to his so-called "variety show" hit the booths for Seattle back in June of 2014 (for a Feb 21st 2015 show!) I was ready. Well, I thought I was. The VIP tickets had sold out in less than 2 minutes, so I had to settle for regular seats. Not only regular seats, but the first 20 some-odd rows were already sold out within 10 minutes. My friend and I (who I hadn't determined at the time but I knew I wanted someone to go with me so I was buying two tickets regardless) had to settle for row S on one of the sides of the theater.

As it turns out, the seats were still pretty good. And either Seattle loves Alton more than any other city on his list, or the Paramount Theater is absurdly small, because the first show had sold out so he had to add another, earlier show as well. But to our amazement (my second half now being Monica as I figured she would enjoy going. She is just slightly less obsessed over the man than I am.) No one had bought the seat next to Monica, and I had two empty seats next to me. Score-sauce!

The show itself was the funniest thing I have seen in ages. Maybe even ever. Monica thinks I'm biased. After all, I do crush on him pretty hard. But I really don't think I am. That man is fucking hilarious. He knows how to write/tell stories, and gives enough delicious detail to be able to get his audience to picture it all. Stories about him and his daughter are always a riot. One of the funniest parts was Alton teasing the sign language interpreter in the corner. He broke the 4th wall on more than one occasion trying to talk directly to her, putting off a couple hilarious jabs in the process and making her laugh.

****WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD****

He also had two demonstrations. The first one required a fire extinguisher, three ten-gallon jugs taped end to end, and chocolate ice cream-base. He made a gallon of ice cream in under 30 seconds. And shared none of it, except to his helper that did nothing but pull the trigger and let go at the appropriate time. Lucky bastard.

The other one probably cost the theater a fortune in electric costs, as he took several stadium lights and plugged them together in a steal frame around a conveyor belt. Deemed the Mega Bake, it would cook two pizzas in under 4 minutes. The helper he chose this time was female, and a fairly sassy one at that. She knew about food, but I think she was nervous as he was explaining the process of making the pizza dough. When he asked her what kind of flour that was, she said "white". But when he asked what kind of corn meal that was, she said "yellow" and at least that was mostly correct! lol One of Alton's best comedic features is his ability to think on his toes and always has a witty comeback, which always makes for an entertaining outcome. One of the best lines came from the lady though, I think her name was Michelle. Once the pizzas were done, he asked her which one she wanted to try: his or hers. "Yes." was her reply. The cheese was so stringy that Alton was pulling it off several feet at a time. He put one end in his mouth and to everyone's amusement and amazement, picked up the other half of the string of cheese and handed it to Michelle, who immediately began the Lady and the Tramp moment. Lucky! Unfortunately, he cut that off real quick lol. Oh well.

The only slight disappointment were the songs. Yes, they were clever and witty, but for all of Alton's good points, singing isn't really one of them. He can play the guitar, which is sexy as hell, but that's about it, unfortunately!

The show was still worth every penny though, and was definitely worth waiting 8 months for! (Technically, more like a year and 8 months, as he'd done a tour previously but had come no where near Washington the first time). If you're still waiting to see it, you surely won't be disappointed!

Who Says Cooking isn't Fun?

If you follow this blog at all, you know I'm a devout fan of Good Eats. If you've never seen it or don't understand, give me one episode to convince you. My favorite episode of all time is...

Cuckoo for Coq au Vin

Why?

The infomercial: Coq au Vin in a Box. He even orders it in French.

Alton's look is too cute.

To his shock and awe, Alton's wine is confiscated by customs 

but a live Rooster manages to get through.

This. Just this.

This visual aid explains the profile of the wine he needed to cook with. 

Powered by actual men.

It's hilarious because he decided not to redo this take.

During the entire episode the rooster wouldn't shut up. He almost lost it a couple of times. 

No actual roosters were harmed in the making of this episode.

I don't ever even plan on cooking Coq au Vin. But it sure as hell was funny to watch how it's made.

I'd give ya'll the episode in its entirety, but Scripps forced me to take them down off of youtube long ago. It's such a shame, because Alton's writing is pure genius. As he often says "laughing minds are more absorbent."

My first .GIF!

Yes, I say "gif" and not "jif". Don't judge.

Recipe Change Ups

If any of you have been following along in my blog, I just got done with another round of the hCG diet. All in all, I lost 23 pounds in 42 days. There were a couple of hiccups along the way with no weight loss for some unknown reason, but I pushed through it. Now I'm on the "Atkins" 3-week stabilization period, where I've failed at least twice before and regained a bunch of weight back. Once you get out of shape during these 3 weeks it's really hard to get back on track and it's easy to give up. I was determined not to let that happen to me again! So, I've looked up a number of recipes online that are low carb. The only difference between Atkins Induction and this stabilization period (besides the fact that if you gain 2+ lbs you can't have anything to eat all day until dinner and then stuff yourself full of the fattiest steak you can find. I've done this before and it works, but I hate starving myself all day) is that not only does it need to be low carb, but also low fat (and as little sugar as possible), so not every Atkins Induction recipe will work for my needs.

So, I've scoured the internet looking for some good ones, and as always, I want to thank Alton Brown for giving me not just the knowledge of how to put together a recipe, but how to COOK in general. How to know what will work and what won't, and how to make changes to get your food to taste even better.

Case in point, a Cheesy Chicken Broccoli recipe I found on genaw.com. I'm sure it's good as is, but I knew I could make it REALLY good.

It calls to cook the chicken and bacon ahead of time, add some mayonnaise, sour cream and chicken bullion and mix it all together with the broccoli, sprinkle cheese on top and bake for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Well, that's all well and good, but honestly, I hate the texture of melted cheddar cheese. It gets hard, plastic-y, and so greasy, so I had a better idea. Here is my recipe (which isn't quite as Atkins friendly unfortunately!):

Cook your chicken and bacon ahead of time and make a basic bechamel sauce instead. I used Alton Brown's recipe that he taught me for his baked Mac and Cheese. However, I ended up with WAY too much sauce, so you can cut it in half, or save it for another application! I did only 10 oz of cheese since he calls for 3/4 of it to be in the sauce and the rest to go on top. But I changed it up again - I had several different kinds of cheese, so I used  2 slices of pepper jack, 2 slices of provolone, 2 slices of Colby jack, and the remainder as shredded cheddar. It had a slightly queso-dip taste due to the pepper jack which I really liked.

[The basic bechamel requires 3 tbs of flour. Since I only used about half the sauce, that's only 1-1/2 tbs of flour, and that 1-1/2 tbs is divided into at least 4 servings, so I really don't think the carb count would be terrible. I did omit the garlic powder as she suggested to save on carbs as well.]

The only other change I made to the recipe was that instead of doing 1/4 cup mayonnaise and 1/4 cup sour cream, I saved some fat by doing 1/4 Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream. I also did what she suggested and just added the bullion cube to that mixture without any added water.

One word of warning: I wouldn't be too liberal with the salt, here. Cheese has a lot of salt, so does bacon and the bullion cube. My final product was a bit salty because I'd seasoned the chicken prior to cooking, and salted the cheese a bit. 

But the end result? Oh my goodness, it's amazing. I'm going to be making this over and over for sure!

I've done minor changes to a couple of other recipes as well, mostly by replacing some of the fat with Greek yogurt, which I can't even taste in the final product. I did it with an egg salad recipe I found on the same website, and it tastes just as good to me!