Is Cooking Efficiently Gorse?

Friday, May 9, 2008

A short time back I did a "Food Rookie" on making stocks and broths. As it turns out a few people thought the idea of saving the tidbits of vegetables was disgusting. Truth be told, all those packaged soups you buy are made of scraps. Restaurants and dinners employ the same method too.

Just today I came across an article in the Culinary Review on being an efficient chef. One of the guidelines was saving the scraps for stock. I worked in a very nice three star restaurant when I was a younger. The first thing you learn in a kitchen is that nothing goes to waist. The food industry is a 100% return business. That means you need to make up 100% of the cost on each ingredient purchase in order to make a profit.

As you can imagine, that would mean taking simple shortcuts like making stock and broth from scraps. Saving yesterdays bread for today's garlic bread and croutons, and yes many places reuse unopened packages of condiments. If you want some more incite to the things an efficient cook saves check out my article on stocks and broths and this article on the Culinary Review.


Are You a Super Efficient Cook? - The Culinary Review
Food Rookie: Stock and Broth

Amazing Photos of Terrifying Natural Events: Chile's Volcano

Thursday, May 8, 2008

This absolutely amazing photo of Chile's Chait�n volcano causing an outbreak of lighting was featured in National Geographic's website today. Read article here

This incredible and horrifying event, has been erupting since May 2 2008, in an agricultural area of Chile. Apparently the clouds of dust and ice that form from eruptions can cause lighting. I'm both amazed and terrified at the sight of this volcano and it's effects on everything around it. If the sight of this isn't enough to command your respect, take a look at the effects of the areas around it.



This cow isn't resting in a light dusting of snow, thats volcanic ash that is spewing on to their grazing fields.

The source of the ash, the Chait�n volcano about 75 miles (120 kilometers) away, began erupting May 2. It could continue spewing ash for weeks, experts say (full story).


Chile has evacuated at least 4,000 people and many animals and crops are threatened. If you want to learn more about this event, there are links provided below.

• PHOTOS: Chile Volcano Erupts With Ash, Lava, Lightning (May 6, 2008)
• Volcano Erupts in Chile; Spews Ash 12 Miles Up (May 6, 2008)
• PHOTOS: Chile Volcano Hurts Animals, Farms
• Volcanic Lightning Sparked by "Dirty Thunderstorms," Study Finds
  

Food Rookie: Mirepoix

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Mirepoix, is a French cooking basic, it simply means the combination of carrot, onion, and celery in a dish. This food staple can be the base or topping for everything from simple soups to extravagant meals like Emeril Lagasse's Ribollita.

Today we are going to use it to add the solid foundation to simple sautes. The combination of a Mirepoix is two parts onion, one part carrot, one part celery. The steps below will tell you how to make several flavorful yet effortless meals with this combination. The fact that this recipe staple is made of three produce items I buy and store in bulk, makes it even more appealing to use.

Mirepoix Combinations:

• Saute a Mirepoix, after pan frying meat, until tender. Make sure you deglaze the pan with the vegetable combination, serve together as a dish.
• Chop it small and saute it with more vegetables, server it as a compliment to a main course.
• Add meat to a Mirepoix, with just one or two slices of bacon or sausage for a wonderfully tasty meal.
• Saute with mushrooms, when clear remove from heat and add a spoon fool of bread crumbs, insert in to meat and broil. For a wonderful and satisfying stuffed meal.
• Saute with spinach and add a salty cheese or tomato and stuff in fish to broil.
• Brown chicken in a rice pan or skillet, then add Mirepoix. Saute until tender, add garlic, bay leaf, and chicken spice. Saute a moment until garlic is tender then add dry rice, mix well. Add water (or broth) to cover and simmer until rice is tender and chicken is cooked threw. Use more water or broth as needed.

A Mirepoix is a true stepping stone for any one learning how to get around the kitchen. Below are some links to the Mirepoix.

Picture via

Links: chefspencil.com; wikipedia.org; christonium.com; classical-french-cuisine.suite101.com;

Keeping the Peace

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Yesterday I made a post about bad neighbors and their annoying habits. Today I am going to explain how I handle them. It's very difficult for me to address issues in the Spanish language, it is not my native tongue and I am still learning it. This makes communication limited, and easily brings mistakes when delicate issues arise.

I also have to consider that some things that are happening make their life miserable too. I am sure that no one was looking froward to damages in the building, and it's as much of a strain to every one els as it is to us. When it comes to the noise at night, I realize that some times a small tradition can mean so much to a family or group of friends. I will never forget how excited I was the first time I found maple syrup in Spain. Such small simple things as the familiarity of a song, or taste of a sweet can bring us right back to our homes.

I could spend all my time focusing on how much I dislike it, or I can just sit back and deal with a little annoyance. After all what is worse, a slamming door and an inspector visit or a neighbor that complains about everything? As for the singing and clapping, until midnight I won't complain, and on weekends I will just learn to deal with it. I'm sure after some time the week day sections will die down as the summer jobs start to come.

Computer Gadgets: Free Games

Monday, May 5, 2008

I love the Internet, it has a limitless supply of stress reduction, time waisting, and creative ideas. One of the tings I enjoy the most is killing a few moments on free web games. Here are two links for a few more hours of waited time and enjoyment at your desk.

The first link I have is for a game called Pig Blaster. I have to give credit to Presurfer for this one. It's an entire blog based on waiting time and distracting your self. OK back to Pig Blaster, i wont give all the details away but you should take a look, the sounds are funny and the game is.. um.. a blast. (I said it, shame on me)

Link: Pig Blaster:
http://www.panlogic.co.uk/zed/fart_game/

Second I have a link to a Free Web Arcade, I have gone there myself and never had an issue with the site. I tend to shy away from these kinds of sites in fear of spy wear and all that bad stuff. So far this site has a clean report and personally I have never had an issue.

So, if you want countless amounts of time and boredom to vanish before you know it, take a look and enjoy your self with out paying a subscription fee.

Link: Free Web Arcade
http://www.freewebarcade.com/

Neighbors from Hell

Lately we have had the displeasure of annoying neighbors. Like all neighborhoods, ours is changing. Since Spain has opened the door to immigration, Madrid has become more and more crowded.

Every new neighbor brings ideals and customs from their native lands. Some of these customs are welcome changes and wonderful additions to the neighborhood. Unfortunately, not all of those customs adapt as well to Madrid.

One of the customs our new neighbors is a love to sing and clap in large groups. This is not a problem, after all they are not drinking or doing drugs, it's just some good clean fun. That is until it's 3am on a week day and they are still at it. It's not uncommon to have them out there from sunset until sunrise the next day.

In addition to that, our upstairs neighbors have decided to be DYI experts and redo the kitchen and bathroom them selves. Good for them... after dealing with a week of non-stop banging and power tools it seems that it is all over. Well, except that little thing where they broke the radiator in their apartment in the process. What's a little water damage, the insurance company, and more angry owners between neighbors.

After all this gives us the pleasant adventure of having inspectors, neighbors, and the water company in and out of our house for who knows how long. Hopefully he hasn't shattered any pipes this time. Last time the pipes broke the whole building had to pay for it in collective billings to out monthly dues.

Just to make sure there is no boring silence at night, the downstairs neighbors have an issue where their door won't close properly unless they slam it. Not a little slam, a good slam that actually shakes our apartment.

Ah city life.. how I miss the woods!

Computer Gadgets: TypeRacer

Sunday, May 4, 2008

TypeRacer is a entertaining way to improve your typing by pitting yourself against others in a race. It is all web based, no downloads needed. Register a name and it's saved only to that computer. The page offers two modes practice and competition.

All opponents are randomly picked, the races then count down and start every few minuets. It's free, with no registration required. It's still a beta program and you can stay up to date via their blog. I hope you enjoy this cute and functional typing program.

Link to TypeRacer: http://play.typeracer.com/

More Editing

Saturday, May 3, 2008

I will be editing old posts and images this month, I just wanted to apologize in advance if this causes older posts to re-emerge in your readers or email feeds. This site is a work in process, and is still has it's training wheels. Changes and fixes will be regular the next few weeks, but they should be harmless for every one.